She smiled up at her firstborn. “I am very well, son. I have no pains to speak of. I only hope your father is doing as well in town.”
Phillip grinned. “Papa is well. I left Stephens in charge. He brings him home each evening at ten. I also told my father I would no longer back his gambling debts if he allowed matters to get out of hand.”
She looked doubtful. “How did he take that?”
Phillip was resolute. “He knows I mean business. I told him I would rather be embarrassed than poor. I gave him a set amount of money and told him that when it is gone, Stephens and Myers will escort him to Matlock. He has restrained himself for nine months now. I keep tightening the screws. Soon, he will no longer come to London. He has been given an ultimatum: He is to stop gambling altogether or be confined to the country. Stephens and Myers will enforce my wishes. My new investment has restored our fortune, but this one is mine, and Papa knows it. I will have my way in this matter.” He scoffed. “I even spokewith his two confederates. I told them my father is now my pensioner and that they were not to take him to those gambling hells, or I would take the money out of their skins.” He grinned at his mother. “The threat worked. Neither he nor his friends have shown their faces again at any of those dens of vice.”
Lady Helen sighed. “Will it last, I wonder?”
Phillip snorted. “It will. He knows I am serious.”
“That makes me happy, son. I will remain at home with him and do what I can to keep him entertained.” She changed the subject. “How do you see your brother’s suit progressing? It seems to me Anne spends much of her time watching him. Yet he sounded down in his letter.”
Phillip looked curiously at her. “What letter, Mother?”
“The one he sent me from Kent,” Lady Helen replied. “He wrote that Anne would not have him and asked my advice on what he might do. He was at a loss and quite despairing.”
Phillip gave a short, incredulous laugh. “Then he must have underestimated himself. From what I see, Anne is pleased with my brother. She has eyes for no one else. I confess, Mother, Darcy invited me to Pemberley because he, too, was concerned. He does not want Richard to return to the Continent. He says my brother has risked his life long enough and asked for my assistance, hoping that together we might advance Richard’s cause. Yet it appears that all they needed was time alone, away from Lady Catherine’s tyranny and Mrs. Jenkinson’s vigilance.”
Lady Helen looked thoughtful. “Yes, that must be it. They have spent all their time together. I feared Richard would flirt with the Stanton sisters, as is his habit, but he has been remarkably constant. I believe he loves his cousin.” She ran a hand over hereyes. “Phillip, my nerves have never been at ease since he joined the military. Even this business in Kent, suppressing smugglers, left me half sick with worry. If he would now settle, marry Anne, and become a husband and father, I should count myself satisfied.”
Phillip, with uncharacteristic tenderness, set his arm around her shoulders. “Then rest easy, Mother. I believe Richard will be married very soon.”
After their walk, they took luncheon at the Crown in a private parlor. Everyone was on their best behavior. Elizabeth and Abby teased each other throughout the meal, so Abby did not notice how the Viscount gazed at her whenever he thought himself unobserved.
They reached Windermere by mid-afternoon. Elizabeth and Abby went out to walk by the lake, while the others retired to their rooms to rest before bathing and dressing for dinner. By evening, they congregated in the drawing room, awaiting the summons.
Philip adhered to the course he had adopted during the day. He noted that Abby was avoiding him, preferring the company of Georgiana or Elizabeth, and keeping Anise close. Neither sister looked his way, and he was wise enough to keep his distance. He took care to behave politely and was alert to offer assistance when needed. He was the one to hand them out of the carriage when they arrived at the leased house, and later that evening, he was ready to move a chair for Miss Abby so she could sit near her sister and friend. But he placed his most attentive gestures upon his mother, thereby avoiding giving offense to either of the Stantons. That first evening, he offered his mother his arm into the dining room and sat beside her at table.
Because Lady Helen had not yet heard Richard’s full account of the smuggling affair, Phillip addressed his brother as the soup was served. “For our mother’s sake, give us the tale, Richard.”
Richard obliged with an abridged version: the night marches, the barns and storage houses they seized, the surprise attacks, the capture of gang leaders, the contraband confiscated, and the arrest of seventy-five men. He trimmed away the worst of the danger and seasoned the rest with dry humor, so that it proved diverting rather than dreadful. Anne listened with bright attention; Lady Helen’s color rose and fell, but she smiled when he finished.
Elizabeth, who had followed closely, asked, “Is the danger over? Do you anticipate their return?”
“No,” Richard replied calmly. “I have engaged six veterans, all disabled in the war, who now serve as scouts along the boundaries. They report daily to the excise office. Should they observe suspicious movement, the officers will be notified at once. The principal landowners within twenty miles of Rosings have subscribed to their salaries and the maintenance of their mounts. We have set aside capital; the men are paid from the interest. It is an expense well worth the safety of our wives and children, our tenants, and the shopkeepers besides. To break the back of the North Kent gang required all hands, including citizens, military, and excise personnel. Unfortunately, only our little region of Kent is free. The work continues to the north.”
There was a warm murmur round the table, and Lady Helen pressed her son’s hand.
After dinner, they adjourned to the drawing room. Richard and Phillip played at billiards; Georgiana sat at the pianoforte and played one piece after another from memory. Darcy andElizabeth set up the chessmen at a small table near the window, while the Stanton sisters drew their chairs close enough to watch. Abby placed a light wager on Elizabeth, which encouraged Anne and Anise to lay modest wagers on Mr. Darcy.
Anne and Lady Helen took a sofa farther off, within sight of the chessboard but far enough to converse without being overheard.
Lady Helen began, smiling. “We are all expecting your news, my dear. Have you and Richard fixed a day?”
Anne colored. “Aunt, you are precipitous. First, Richard has not yet asked me to marry him.”
“He has not?” Lady Helen looked genuinely surprised. “I understood you had refused him.”
“I have not refused him, for he has not asked.” Anne’s eyes danced. “I may have intimated that I would refuse him. I am not eager to exchange one governing will for another, least of all a military man’s.”
“Is my son so very high-handed?”
Anne’s smile softened. “He is, yet I have come to like him so. And I have come to see that his resolve runs in my interest as well as his own.” She paused, her voice lowering. “To tell you the truth, Aunt, I mean to accept Richard when he asks. I cannot imagine living without him. I have come to depend upon this stubborn, high-handed man, but it is more than that. I love him. I love him as a woman ought to love the man she intends to marry.”
Lady Helen’s eyes shone. She drew Anne into a brief embrace. “My dear girl, how very happy you have made me. He will be a fortunate man, for I can see from your expression that you plan for his happiness as much as for your own. My Richard is thebest of the three in my household. That is why he and Darcy are so close. They share the same values.”
Chapter 87: A Proposal at Windermere
