“Why would you be worried about me?”
Head turned as she examined her brother, Georgie frowned, “You are up with the dawn to work, and long after we are abed you are still busy. We hardly ever see you anymore, and when we do your countenance is not the same. You never used to have that dark, puffed up expanse under your eyes. Or that knit to your brows.”
“I appear that haggard? I have scarcely looked in a mirror in weeks.”
“Handsome still,” Cathy hurried, eyes wide. “Only tired and, well… cheerless.”
Mulling the past weeks over in his mind, he let out a heavy breath.He had allowed the task of training his new steward to be shoved in wherever he could. Sometimes pushing other duties into hours previously spent enjoying his sisters’ company or a good book. Instead, business letters, planning crops, updating the accounts, and a dozen or two other necessary occupations filled that once precious place.
In a few days that would be no more, for Mr. Anderson had come to be as familiar with the estate and what it needed as he. Still, his sisters deserved some reparation, and he was in need of some loudly demanded rest. It would not do, after all, for him to appear tired or cheerless.
“My time of instructing Mr. Anderson on the running of the estate is nearly concluded… though he could use the opportunity to employ what he has learnt unhindered for, say, just under two weeks.”
“Does that mean you shall take that time for yourself and not work?” Georgie questioned with a broad smile.
“Oh, please do,” Cathy added. “Think of all the fun things we might do. Riding, playing music in the evening–we must make certain you find time for rest too of course. Oh, it will be such fun!”
“Yes, aside from a few hours in the morning, I promise to take that time to enjoy the company and to rest. It shall be useful for both Mr. Anderson and myself. Besides which,” he smiled, “I received a letter from our cousin. He is to arrive this Monday and visit us for ten days. It would not be polite to be a distracted host, now would it?”
With a giggle, both sisters spoke of their excitement with unrestrained glee, even as, after a quarter of an hour, he hurried them both off to bed with promises of picnics, horseback rides, and all manner of pleasant activities; his own sleep soon following as his eyes refused to view his accounts properly.
∞∞∞
The following day, seated in the drawing room with his sisters for a short time in an attempt to ease their worries, Darcy smiled fondly at them, the surprise he had designed that morning certain to delight.Four families would, by end of day, receive invitations to dine at Pemberley, and, though his sisters were not yet out, the informality of the evening would allow both the opportunity to enjoy amusements beyond their own sphere. Their cousin too, would appreciate it, for as much as he reveled in the quiet, he enjoyed parties more.
Perhaps he should tell his sisters now? Each of the families he had invited were presently in the area; there would be little chance of more than one family being unable to attend.
Yes. They would enjoy the news. And he, the telling.
Leaning toward his sisters who sat busily across from him with their books, he opened his mouth to tell his tale, only to close it as the butler came in with a London newspaper and a deep frown.
“What is it, Mr. Timmons?”
“Sir, forgive my presumption, I know you sit with your newspaper of an evening, but I believe there is something you ought to see.”
Nodding, he held out his hand, the weight of the newspaper strange as he studied his butler.
Paper rustling as he opened it, his heart pounded as he scanned the headlines.
Declaration of war.
A new conflict with America has begun as the American Government declared war against Great Britain.
Gulping his eyes traveled down the dark letters, pausing now and again as a passage pierced him.
Mr. Madison, in bringing charges against us to Congress, brought any and all he might, exaggerating and inflaming each in his words. Indeed, charges of offenses no longer made were included amongst his reasoning, and few might be considered sufficient for such a declaration to be made…
The grounds for war, according to the American Government, are largely as follows:
The system of blockade, particularly Mr. Fox’s order of 1806.
The affair of the Chesapeake.
The right of search exercised by us.
The Orders in Council.
The Indian war; and
