“Undoubtedly.”
Only a few more terse comments were made. Those were the obligatory ones about the expected weather, the possible conditions of the roads; it did not truly matter. That Darcy had come was the statement, the words were irrelevant.
“Fitzwilliam,” Darcy reached into his breast pocket and removed a sealed letter, “here are a few names of family in France. A vouchsafement should you need it.”
Fitzwilliam smiled ever so briefly and tucked the paper, warm yet from Darcy’s waistcoat, beneath his own. He knew regardless of the political situation, family would rise above anything else. He mounted Scimitar.
“And Fitzwilliam,” Darcy took the reins from the groom to hand to him, “do cover your ballocks.”
Smiling more openly at his cousin’s improbable vulgarity, Fitzwilliam said, “I thank you for the sentiment, Darcy. I shall indeed look out for them.”
With that, he removed his hat with a flourish and a bow. Thereupon, man and mount wheeled about and cantered away. Darcy watched as he rode off, his figure and horse gradually being swallowed by the early morning fog.
*
By the time Darcy returned to Pemberley, the morning sun had disintegrated the fog into the merest of haze. His sleepless night and the exercise of his seldom-used sentimentality had rendered him quite fatigued. It was a relief to step down and hand off Blackjack’s reins. As he dropped to the ground his knees almost buckled so great was the weight of the morning. Shoulders sagging, he started for the house and he could not will them back in place.
Just as he entered the stone arch leading to the courtyard, John Christie stepped out in front of him.
So abruptly did he appear, Darcy stopped in his tracks. He eyed him a little warily, so precipitous was the encounter and so truculent was the expression the young man bore. Mr. Darcy was never confronted, partly because of his position and partly because of his size. That his own shirtsleeved servant accosted him in such a hostile manner did not improve his ill-humour.
His lethargy lost in ire, he automatically reclaimed his stature and exercised a posture particular only to him. This bearing was one which allowed him to look down upon anyone in his eye, regardless of their height, with an exceedingly keen gaze (a vexatious position, indeed, and no one once escaping from thence wanted to return). He impatiently slapped his crop against the top of his boot.
“Yes?” he said, and nothing more.
His master’s displeasure was obvious. If John recoiled at the sight, it was only inwardly.
“Aye must speak to yer, Mr. Darcy. Aye must speak to yer now.”
Placing his hand upon his hip, Darcy tapped his crop a few more times whilst he considered whether to grant the lad some time. Then, with a curt nod, he agreed.
Another groom stood holding the reins to Blackjack and John’s eyes flicked nervously to the audience then back to Mr. Darcy.
With even more brazenness, he insisted, “Private.”
Having already abused his patience, at this additional demand Darcy gave a slight shake of his head in incredulity at the impertinence. However, he begrudged himself of his gloves, handed them and his crop to the groom, and walked with John toward an arbour a few yards away. It was not with a countenance of civility that he looked upon the young man as he awaited to hear why this servant son of Wickham was plaguing him.
John uneasily shifted from one foot to another for a few moments before speaking.
“Me ma worked at Pemberley before Aye was born, did yer know that, sir?”
Darcy heaved a sigh of disgust at the horizon. Here was the reason for such effrontery. No doubt, Wickham’s visit had stirred talk. The boy wanted money. Another of Wickham’s debts to discharge. It was a moment Darcy had thought might come, thus such a demand had been considered. However, just how many pounds should he lay upon Wickham’s child, he had not yet decided.
“Yes. I know that,” he finally answered.
It would be best to await the demand. See how much the boy thought himself worth and thus be relieved of the unpleasant duty of determining a monetary value to put upon a human life.
“As well yer might,” John said bitterly, “though many such men as yerself might find it hard to recall what servants they lay with. Was me ma among many? Aye would guess most likely.”
Not only was this scoundrel demanding surreptitious pourboire, he had the brass cheek to heap additional insult. Clearly, he knew the amplitude of his impertinence. Yet, when Darcy’s face coloured, it was of such a peculiar hue that the boy retreated a step.
The irate flush of Darcy’s face was tempered with the humiliation of recognition, for he knew what John said was true by intent if not actuality. Had his father not chastised him, his youthful libido might have led him to bound from atop one servant girl to the next. Truth or no, however, he was not so generous to hear it from his own groom.
Though both knew John’s days at Pemberley were ended, John did not cease with that one accusation. He strove on.
“Me ma’s life was ’arsh, Mr. Darcy, ’arsher than Aye think a man like yer could imagine. Me own ’as been nothing to what she…” his voice cracked, he swallowed, then continued, “and it is because of yer.”
By the time John launched into the tale of his mother’s woe, Darcy’s forbearance had long past peaked. Thus, he was quite astonished to hear John lay the blame for his mother’s dissolute life at his feet. Perplexed, he was curious enough to know how he came to this rather daft conclusion to continue to listen, albeit with considerable scepticism.
“When she died, Aye came thinkin’ there was something for me ’ere. Me ma tol’ me she got with child with me ’ere and Aye heard she lay with yer,” John said.
Darcy’s stern countenance began to fail him. He blinked once, then again.
“Yer’re thinkin’ I’m wantin’ somethin’ from yer. Not true, though Aye guess yer owe it. Aye wanted to see what a man my father was. Aye heard ’im a great man, but that was wrong. ’e’s a man who gives no quarter to kindness, a man who spends ’is life havin’ ’is way with gerls and throwin’ ’em out when ’e gets ’em wi’ child. Aye see no greatness, Aye see a rich man who knows nothin’ but richness and cares fer nothin’ else.”
By the end of his oration, Darcy understood that the boy believed that he had ruined his mother. He did not understand, however, the plurality of the condemnation. Before he could disabuse him of the notion he had fathered him, John -interrupted, yet at full moil.
“The only cause Aye have to look to yer is that two ladies find yer a finer man than me. Mrs. Darcy and Miss Darcy is fine ladies. That they find some reason to give yer regard gives me the only doubt Aye ’ave of yer being nothing more than a bastard’s father.”
Upon hurling this last vilification, John pulled a vicious-looking dagger from his belt. He exacted this manoeuvre with an effortlessness that decried the infrequency of its occurrence, thus giving his quarry pause. Yet it was so ridiculously large a snickersnee and of such obvious mediaeval origins, Darcy was almost moved to laugh at the incongruity of it being in the possession of his groom.
However old, the glint of the blade told it quite lethal. That understanding chased any semblance of humour from the situation. In the speck of time it took for him to see John held it by its tip and intended to fling it, Darcy made a decision. He folded his arms and made no move to run or feint.
Laudable as was his valour, had his wife witnessed it, she might have preferred discretion. Mr. Darcy, however, would rather have been murdered by his own servant than been known to have fled from him. This blade, though, imbedded itself where it was intended, in the dirt betwixt Darcy’s steadfast feet.
“That is what Aye intended to give me father, Mr. Darcy. The same yer gave my ma. The same yer gave me. It would just come to yer faster’s all. Yea, Aye know it would find me gibbeted in chains at the Kympton crossroads, but at least there’d be…” he searched for the word, “revenge…yea, revenge. But your ladies will not mourn because o
f me. I’m done wi’ yer. ’ang me for the attempt, Aye don’t care no more.”
Dejectedly, he turned and walked away. Darcy looked down at the ancient knife resting betwixt his boots. Pulling it from the ground, he turned it over in his hand, noticing the elk horn peeking beneath the unravelling leather of the grip. It was an indefensibly crude weapon, yet certainly deadly. He let the dirk hang loosely at his side and watched as John’s back straightened in defiance of his dampened outrage.
Darcy knew happenstance was the only thing that stood betwixt what John believed and that which was true. Though he was not his father, he could have been. He mounted Abigail not out of love or even infatuation, but from the sheer innocence of lust. There was no affection (if anything, it could have been more truthfully identified as gratitude).
The incorrigible indocility of his adolescent libido notwithstanding, Darcy did not want John to believe him his father when it was not true. Loath as he was to mention the name, he thought he should tell the boy who did father him. Let him curse Wickham. Let John curse Wickham as well and let that cad share the damnation. Any young man deserved the truth, even one bent upon patricide. Although it was a temptation to sic John on Wickham, he did not. Nevertheless, he called out for him to stop.
John did stop, almost mid-step. He put his foot firmly down and turned, almost in a military about-face. His attention, too, was military. So military was it, he might well have been facing a firing squad. Nonetheless, his countenance betrayed not fear, but considerable contempt.
“Did he fancy I would shoot him?” Darcy wondered silently before it occurred to him that John just might have had that foreboding, so insistent had been the gossip since his infamous slaughter at the inn. Yet dangling the knife, Darcy walked toward him, thereupon stopped at a distance, not wanting to present menace.
“Young man, I fathered you not. Had I, I should not deny it.”
Hatred did not abandon John’s face entirely, but it was tempered by belief. Still, it was a half-minute before he spoke.
“If not yer, who?”
It was here that Darcy’s decision to leave Wickham’s name unrevealed wavered in the face of such a direct question. He very nearly defended himself by relating Abigail was with child when he lay with her. Prudently, he reconsidered. He could not bring himself to speak of having intimate relations with one’s mother. A gentleman should never speak of such indecorous matters. Particularly to a son. Highly improper. The courage Darcy had shown when threatened with the knife did not reassert itself in the murky waters of his own guilt. Wickham was not pardoned, just postponed. Thus, Darcy dodged the entire issue with a statement of evasive rationalisation that was worthy of a seat in Parliament.
“Only your mother had answer to that question for certain.”
John closed his eyes in frustrated anger. Turning, he stomped away and said to no one, yet to everyone.
“Damn yer,” he said. “Damn yer all.”
*
With leaden feet, Darcy trudged up the postern steps. When he had deserted their bed before dawn, he had thought Elizabeth asleep. She was sitting midmost in the bed when he returned, her knees tucked under her gown. The drawn look about her eyes told him she had slept no better than he.
“You went to Fitzwilliam?”
It was not actually a question.
Pulling off his jacket and tossing it down, he did not answer her nonquestion.
Instead, he said rather stiffly, “Your groom (Darcy had been unable to bring himself to call John by his name) has, as well he might, accused me of his paternity. I told him I was not his father, but I could not tell him it was Wickham.”
Quite astonished, for John had never given a hint that he thought Darcy his father, she bid, “How did John come by this misinformation?”
Darcy shook his head that he did not know.
“Has he thought this all along?”
“Perhaps. But that it has only come up now leads me to believe Wickham’s visit prodded memories, instigated talk. I really have no idea.”
“And you had to tell him he was not your son? Poor John,” she fretted, then queried, “But why did he ask? Did he want something from you?”
“My life, it would seem.” Darcy said sardonically, tossing the decrepit knife upon the bed.
From Elizabeth’s vantage, the dagger looked appallingly deadly and she pulled herself to her knees with alarm. Thus, Darcy hastily assured her that he had not actually been attacked and made light of the knife.
Explaining thus, he said, “He was armed, as you see. However, had he been serious, I should not be standing before you. He thought I had fathered him and cast out his mother. What son would not want to defend his mother? Had you heard what he said of my character, you might question your esteem for your husband.”
He smiled, but it was mirthless. A verbal assault upon that which was so hotly contested in Darcy’s conscience, Elizabeth knew to be as painful a wound as any bodily one inflicted. Having begun to think of herself as the young man’s surrogate aunt, she felt sympathy for the despair such confusion must demand of one so young. Nevertheless, no hurt to her husband could be compleatly forgiven. And she held a considerable reservoir of indignation for anyone who did.
“You have more goodness, more character, more love and righteousness than any man I have ever known…”
He walked to her yet mid-sputter and lovingly put his forehead to hers. Her defence of his honour was the single effort that could actually becalm his substantial disorder. He endeavoured to smile. That attempt failed miserably, thus he kissed her on her forehead instead. It was not spoken, but they both knew if he were not John’s father, it fell only to chance.
61
Such was the day, it could be understood if it was not realised that Georgiana was not about until late afternoon. Had Elizabeth not gone in search of her to continue their interrupted conversation of the night before, it might not have been discovered even then. The disquiet of her absence notwithstanding, Elizabeth at first believed she had simply sought some solitude from the tumult of events. Respite from the turbulent spin their lives had taken was something she might have favoured to find herself.
*
Darcy’s early morning farewell to Fitzwilliam and the subsequent near assault upon his person and injury to his integrity had left him unusually cheerless. His despondency was always Elizabeth’s as well, and quite aware that she was the culprit responsible for Fitzwilliam’s departure, Wickham’s visit, thus John’s onslaught, her own conscience was troubling her relentlessly.
Fitzwilliam had obviously departed without incident, but that was hardly a concession. If the reason he quit England (if she was indeed the reason) ever came to light, there would be considerable tribulation. Elizabeth dared not let her mind envision the worst that might befall Fitzwilliam in France, for the even the best outcome might be fraught with disorder. If he were to survive the war and return home, it would be to the same untenable situation he had fled.
And John Christie. Regardless of the wrath he earned because of his unmitigated, and ultimately unfounded, ill-will toward Darcy, she felt a twinge.
“He’s probably back at the stable of the Kympton Inn, morosely petting some pony’s nose whilst awaiting the constable who will not come.”
She shook her head sadly at the thought of it. Perhaps she should send a messenger to tell him he would not be hung for his offence. This plan was not set into place for dusk and no Georgiana began to make Elizabeth seriously uneasy.
At one time Georgiana’s whereabouts would never be in question, for she had always been accompanied by Mrs. Annesley. Eventually age took its toll upon that poor woman and her remaining senses did not necessarily include her wits. Even Darcy admitted the non compos mentis lady not to be an adequate companion for his sister. Hence, to Georgiana’s delight and her brother’s consternation, Georgiana was released from the necessity of her elderly companion.
However, just what to do with the old woman was a bit
of a problem. She could have been packed off ignominiously to her daughter’s, but tradition at Pemberley demanded that any employee who served the house well should not be put out by reason of infirmity. Mrs. Annesley was an industrious lady, insisting upon being of some use. However, near-blindness and compleat deafness left few options open in the way of occupying her time.
Her visual deficiency had rendered the old woman quite frightened of the dark, hence, when she began her candlelighting fetish, it precipitated a slight reorganisation of the staff. And that is how the little train of night-travellers was instituted. The footman once charged with relighting the candles old Morton put out was newly directed to steer Mrs. Annesley in that path. Hence, when Morton, extinguisher upon his shoulder and wig slightly askew, wandered the corridors snuffing each candle, the torch-bearing Mrs. Annesley was directly upon his trail. In defence of the sensibilities of those under the roof of Pemberley unacquainted with the idiosyncrasies of the house, one footman accompanied their party to make certain they did not accident into a guest’s room.
Whilst the house basked in the laurels of this particularly happy arrangement, the interview for a suitable companion for Georgiana progressed slowly. Had that position been filled in a more timely fashion, a great deal of vexation might have been prevented. For the lack of a companion allowed Georgiana to wander about quite at will, a freedom highly treasured by her, but one that did not make her brother happy.
And upon this particular eve, it was a freedom that did not make her usually quite sympathetic sister-in-law happy, either. For, in absence of a governess or companion, there was no one to note Georgiana’s doings. Thus, Elizabeth’s search for her led to her rooms and interrogation of Anne, her lady-maid. Anne had no notion of Georgiana’s activities save those that were incompleat; she had not seen her since that morning. A quick inventory revealed a portmanteau bag missing along with several of her dresses.
That revelation set Elizabeth aghast. It appeared Georgiana had not only taken leave, but had left no note of explanation.
“Has everyone gone mad?” Elizabeth exclaimed to herself as she headed to the stairs to pass this horrifying information to Darcy.
Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife Page 58