“You cannot hide the girl forever George!” called Lady Catherine. “You must allow me to take charge of her and provide her with a proper upbringing.”
“Nonsense,” Lady Edith answered. “Georgiana will do much better with me. Have I not raised two daughters who are noted in all of London society?”
“But neither is yet married and the youngest is twenty years!”
“And Anne has never been presented! How can you find her a husband if she has not even been presented at court?”
“Ladies! Please!” the earl thundered. “Our guests have only just arrived.”
George Darcy turned to his son and whispered, “As I told you, position yourself in the room and allow the Fitzwilliam parties to approach you one at a time to make their requests known to you. Promise nothing but to weigh their requests with proper consideration.”
William nodded and walked first to a sidebar to pour a finger of whiskey and then move to speak to Anne, his favourite cousin after Richard Fitzwilliam. George sent a footman to bring him a whiskey and stood his ground beside the fireplace.
“Such bad manners...” William heard the countess whisper to her daughters as he passed by with only a short bow.
“Nephew! Nephew!” called Lady Catherine as he drew close. “I must have your aide in recovery of my horses!”
William frowned at his aunt who in turn frowned and fussed, “Whatever has you in a foul mood this evening?”
“Forgive me aunt, I wish to speak to Anne.”
Lady Catherine instantly smiled and glanced at her rival sister-in-law with a triumphant gleam in her eye. “Certainly, Fitzwilliam. Anne attend to your cousin’s speech carefully now.”
William sat on the sofa on the side of his cousin away from this aunt.
“How are you Anne? Georgie and I have not received any letters from you since summer.”
Anne de Bourgh who did love her cousin above all other men as a dear brother, smiled at his thoughtfulness to seek her out first. “My mother decided that if I stopped writing to you for a time, it might bring you to Rosings to inquire after my health.”
“In just two more years you will have your majority and Lady Catherine can move to the dower house.”
“But then I should be alone in that great big house,” Anne replied. “Have no fear cousin; I am satisfied with my life.”
**++**
“Fitzwilliam, how do you find management of an estate? Is it to your liking?” asked Lady Edith as she approached the young man standing at the sideboard again and motioned for her daughters to join her. He only took a small portion of whiskey this time, deciding that he needed to keep his head in this evening’s tense atmosphere.
“I find that I like the activity very much aunt,” William replied watching his father and uncle verbally sparring on the other side of the room. “It is gratifying to see the improvements in the land.”
“Yes, yes...” the countess replied. “It is important to improve the farms.”
She glanced significantly at her eldest daughter who grimaced but then asked, “Have you found Hertfordshire to be to your liking Fitzwilliam?”
“Yes, much better than town,” he replied honestly. “I imagine when I return to my new home next week that Georgiana and I shall remain there through next summer.”
“You will not come to town for the start of season next February?” asked his aunt, her obvious disapproval on her face.
“No madam,” he replied quickly. “I shall continue my efforts to improve my estate.”
The three ladies exchanged obvious glances and the countess sighed as both of her daughters left their cousin to return to their seats.
“Turn your attentions elsewhere aunt,” William told his aunt. “I have no desire for wife from within the family circle.”
“It is proving harder to match the girls than I thought,” Lady Edith confessed. “They are bright, well-dressed and accomplished.”
“But their dowries are lacking perhaps now with the earl’s gambling debts.”
Pursing her lips, the countess asked, “How do you know this?”
“I hear talk at my club. Lord Humphries is interested in your eldest girl but he hesitates for fear her dowry will include a mortgage or two...”
“Have you assured him they do not?”
“Madam, surely you would not counsel me to lie?”
“Something must be done!” the countess insisted. William glanced at his father who was standing with his hands clasped behind his back facing down the red-faced earl.
“My father is attempting to help my uncle now but he will have to agree to hand over at least one estate without mortgage and agree to stop gambling before rescuing the dowries of your daughters.”
**++**
Before the supper, which William increasing dreaded as each minute passed, Lady Catherine asked for a private moment with her nephew.
“Fitzwilliam, I require your assistance in recovering my carriage and four that were left behind in Hertfordshire.”
“Madam, why were you in Meryton?” he growled.
Lady Catherine scowled but noticed her nephew was not intimidated by her expressions. “Anne and I came to see your new home; to visit with you and Georgiana.”
“Why did you not write first?” William asked. “I shall not issue invitations for some time yet and do not know if unexpected guests are good for my sister’s study regime.”
“Your sister’s study regime is exactly what I....” Lady Catherine stopped when she saw the steady gaze of her brother-in-law from across the room. “Your father abdicates all responsibility for his daughter. She should come live with me!”
“Georgiana is happy with me in Hertfordshire.”
“But what kind of people are you associating with? The day I was there, it was horrible among such low creatures.”
“Low creatures, aunt?” William asked with contempt in his voice. “The same persons who rescued you from the side of the road! Who provided you with safe transport back to town despite your threats! Who cared for your driver who you struck down in the road! Who even now are attempting to save your team that floundered?”
“What’s this?” asked the Earl stepping closer.
Lady Catherine waved her brother away but in his own home, the Earl of Matlock obeyed no one except occasionally for his wife.
“What has my sister done with her horses?”
“Aunt Catherine drove her horses to exhaustion Tuesday – when her carriage broke down two miles from my home; she blamed her driver and struck the man with her cane, leaving him bleeding on the side of the road. She abandoned her horses and driver when one neighbour offered to transport her to Netherfield where she stormed through my house and threatened my household. My housekeeper rightly had Aunt Catherine and her footmen removed from my house! Another neighbour kindly provided transportation for my aunt and cousin to return to London.”
“Yes, I know all that. Cathy and Anne appeared without trunks or boxes at my door and my stable kept the team and driver overnight before sending them off home the next morning. But what of her horses?” the earl asked.
“The front team floundered and all four horses were in very poor shape – they were grass fed and not exercised before this sudden trip into Hertfordshire. A local gentleman is stabling the horses, seeing to their treatment and proper feeding.”
“Cathy! That team of bays is particularly fine! You promised me most faithfully to care for them properly when I sold them to you,” the earl fussed. “When horses flounder, they end up at the glue factory!”
“They are just horses James,” Lady Catherine fussed. “More horses are for sale every day at the market.”
“But you do not have the funds to buy more horses, let alone the oats to feed the ones you own,” William argued. “Now you will have to pay the expense for the blacksmith saving the horses and the feed to keep them elsewhere while they heal.”
“It is a trifling sum – no more than ten pounds,” Lady C
atherine replied. William wondered if his aunt had ten pounds in her accounts. She remained at Matlock house waiting until her sister-in-law would tire of her and send her back to Kent in the Matlock carriage.
“But the horses may never recover fully,” the earl said disgusted with his sister’s negligence.
“What is more important?” Lady Catherine asked. “A team of horses or the future of my niece?”
“Why are you so interested in Georgiana suddenly, sister?” the earl asked.
Lady Catherine leaned forward and whispered, “Since she is not George’s daughter, I thought it was time to move her from his negligent care.”
“What do you mean?” demanded William as he stood and looked down upon his uncle and aunt seated before him. He did not realize how much like his father he appeared when he was angry or how frightening.
“When your mother was increasing with your sister, she told us both that her husband was not the father of her expected child. The father was a friend of our family she had originally hoped to marry before your father’s proposal won our father’s approval,” Lady Catherine reported casually, glancing toward her brother and then toward her brother-in-law who stood silent and furious.
But rather than initiating a heated argument, the young man was merely disgusted with his relatives and laughed bitterly. The Earl of Matlock was unhappy to be the object of anyone’s laughter and Lady Catherine was embarrassed.
“Do you think your gossip matters to me?” he asked. “Do you think your words hurt me? Whatever your words here tonight, I know that my father cares deeply for both myself and my sister.”
He walked over to his father’s side to form a united front. “Lady Catherine, my good father has entrusted my sister to my care – I asked for the opportunity to spend time with my only sister after my years at University. Would you deny me the chance to form a lasting bond with my sister?”
“Your sister will marry and leave you someday...”
“But she will always remain my sister. Would to God I could sever other familial relationships,” William said.
George Darcy smiled at his son and turned back to his brother-in-law. “Matlock, this is my final offer to save the dowries for your daughters, hand over the estate of Gracebridge Manor and give up gambling; then I shall pay your mortgage on Matlock – I shall not hand over the money to anyone but the bank and I shall require papers that secure the dowries without your ability to tap the funds again.”
“That was not what I asked for!” the earl argued.
George smiled and replied, “But with the great insult to me and my departed wife by her own sister and brother tonight, it is my price nonetheless.”
Now he turned to his son and said, “I believe I prefer supper at my club... care to join me?”
“Certainly Father,” William replied before the two men walked away from the buzzing Fitzwilliam household.
**++**
Chapter 14
Alterations for Christmas
When his butler brought the daily pile of letters, Master Darcy was pleased to find one from his father. Generally, letters from Pemberley came from the steward with a request for information or directions for disposition of crops, livestock or lumber. Leaving his business correspondence, William opened the letter from his father first. But after reading the opening paragraph, he dropped the page to the desk.
**++**
Dear Fitzwilliam and Georgiana,
I know you were looking forward to my visit at Christmas but matters have changed and I must spend the holidays in Scotland this year. By the time you receive my letter I shall be across the border and headed for Edinburgh. We shall see each other next summer.
I am pleased with the report you sent regarding Georgiana’s progress with her first lessons on the pianoforte.
And I shall defer to the steward for any decision to plant the new potato you have found in Hertfordshire.
Happy Christmas my dear ones!
Setting the letter to one side, William said nothing to his secretary as they continued with their business for the morning. When his steward came in to discuss the farms and orders for the next few days, he told them of the alteration in the family’s plans.
“I have received a letter from my father in which he writes that he shall go to Scotland for Christmas. My sister and I shall not travel to Derbyshire this winter but remain here in Hertfordshire. Mr. Lynton, you and your wife are to take the holiday as planned with your family in Buckinghamshire.”
“Thank you, Mr. Darcy,” Lynton replied.
“Mr. Howard, I shall help with the tenants and the distribution of baskets for Christmas so you and your wife do not have to make all the visits,” William told the man.
“You are becoming a well-respected landlord Mr. Darcy,” the steward told his employer. “Perhaps at Christmas, you and Mr. Bennet can survey the farms at Lucas Lodge with Sir William and help him begin his winter ploughing and some necessary improvements on his tenant farms. There’s not a one that does not have a roof that leaks.”
**++**
“Georgie, may I interrupt for a moment?” William asked as he came into the music room. Gathered around the pianoforte were three of the Bennet sisters with Georgiana and Nanny Brice. It appeared they were preparing to practice singing with Miss Mary Bennet playing on the pianoforte.
“Certainly William,” Georgiana replied as the girls all curtseyed politely under the eye of Nanny Brice.
“I wondered if you would care to remain at Netherfield for Christmas instead of travelling to Pemberley.”
“What of Father?”
“Father has gone to Scotland for Christmas. He had business of some kind that pulled him away from Derbyshire this year.”
Nanny Brice’s face remained still but she actually sighed in relief –letters from Mrs. Reynolds confirmed that Mr. George Darcy had moved his mistress into the great house shortly after Georgiana left for Hertfordshire.
Grinning Georgiana assured her brother that remaining at Netherfield would be pleasant. “And we shall practice Christmas carols to sing when we have dinner here and at Longbourn!”
“Oh yes,” Kitty agreed. “I should so like to have a concert where we sing Christmas carols for Mamma and Papa!”
**++**
Needless to say, Mrs. Hobbes and Mr. Nichols were pleased to have a Christmas dinner to plan for the master and his sister. Mrs. Hobbes surveyed the poultry and reported she had two large ganders they could serve at Christmas and upon Mr. Darcy’s request, she also located a turkey. Mr. Nichols pretended to be scandalized to be asked to prepare a pudding with holly and fire for the Christmas dinner but secretly he planned on making one for the servants as well.
At supper with the Bennet family later in the week, William waited until after eating to ask Mrs. Bennet for her assistance with planning a dinner for the local families. “I should like to have families attend a supper at Netherfield to mark my first Christmas...” glancing at his sister, William grinned, “...our first Christmas in the neighbourhood. I want people to bring their children and we will open the ballroom for games and dancing after a fine supper.”
Mrs. Bennet beamed as her girls chattered excitedly and Mr. Bennet nodded his approval. Elizabeth seemed to enjoy the idea of dancing for once and Jane was talkative with everyone.
When the dessert was done, Mr. Bennet cleared his throat and said, “A moment of your attention please. Mr. Darcy, Miss Darcy, daughters... Mrs. Bennet and I have an announcement.”
“What is it Papa?” asked Elizabeth with concern but her father grinned at her.
“We must ask for your congratulations it seems for my wife has given me a wonderful Christmas gift already.”
“What gift Papa?” asked Lydia, afraid she had missed a present being opened, but her father only smiled indulgently and continued.
“In the spring, Mrs. Bennet will add to our family. It seems we are to have another child.”
“A baby?” asked Mary. “I do n
ot remember Kitty or Lydia as babies.”
“I barely remember,” Jane admitted. “It has always seemed that we were all here.”
“Hard as it is to believe,” Mr. Bennet said, “I remember each of you girls as babes and it seems like it was only yesterday.”
“Mrs. Bennet, my sister and I would like to offer our sincerest wishes for a happy delivery!” William said awkwardly.
Mr. Bennet grinned at his friend but Mrs. Bennet only smiled as she was kissed by each of her daughters and Georgiana in turn.
“Mrs. Bennet, may I hold the baby when it is born?” asked Georgiana.
“Of course, my dear. You will learn to care for the baby just like all of the girls.”
“It will be a real live baby doll,” Kitty insisted.
“Will it be a boy or a girl?” asked Mary.
Mr. Bennet addressed the gathering. “My dears, each of you has been a gift and precious to your Mamma and I. My only prayer is that the babe be healthy.”
**++**
As the two gentlemen separated from Mrs. Bennet and the girls for a few minutes, William noticed Elizabeth hugging Georgiana closely. His sister had a few tears on her cheeks and stepping beside the two girls he asked, “Georgie, why are you crying? Are you well?”
“I... the maids at Pemberley...” Georgiana tried to speak but only began to cry in true distress. Elizabeth led the child to her mother who pulled her onto her lap and rocked her.
“There now, Miss Georgie, whatever is the matter?” Mrs. Bennet asked gently.
William leaned close to hear the answer as Elizabeth waited nearby.
“The maids at my old home... they told me that I killed my mother when I was born. She was a beautiful woman and I killed her.”
“No, no, no!” Mrs. Bennet assured the little girl. “It was not your fault! Yes, it happens sometimes but I know it is not the baby’s doing. Babies are the best thing in the entire world! And Miss Georgie, I am certain your mother loved you and wanted you very much!”
Master of Netherfield Page 9