“Our family must now demonstrate our complete trust in you, Torrens. I am certain you will not disappoint me,” continued Lady Catherine. “My nephew, Colonel Fitzwilliam, is in the vicinity, on a special assignment in service to the Crown, and requires our assistance and utmost discretion.”
“I would consider it a privilege to assist Colonel Fitzwilliam in his duty, your ladyship,” Mr Torrens assured her.
“You will allow him access to this house whenever he requires it. You will help him enter and exit without detection. Whatever he requires of you, you will do. If he sends you a message through Miss Darcy, you will follow it implicitly and without question. What he and the Crown require most from you is your utmost secrecy. You will not report his movements, nor his requests, to me, nor to anyone else,” Lady Catherine directed.
“I understand, your ladyship. I am proud to do my duty to the de Bourgh family, and to my country. I shall wait for Colonel Fitzwilliam to approach me, and follow his instructions implicitly.” Mr Torrens bowed again and left the room.
“Tell Fitzwilliam that I am gratified that he trusted me with his confidence, Georgiana, and that he shall not regret it; whatever he requires, I will provide,” Lady Catherine instructed her niece as they bid one another good night.
“Thank you, Aunt; I will,” Georgiana promised as she withdrew to her own room.
1 Chocolate drops were a popular sweet in the Regency, and were similar to the chocolate nonpareils that are sold in stores now.
2 Prawlong is an earlier term for pralines, a caramel covered confection containing almonds, and sometimes hazelnuts or pistachios. Early settlers in New Orleans adapted the recipe for pecans.
CHAPTER 34
The Baltic Sea - 1722
The batteredmerchant ship was tossed on the waves in the dark waters off of the Prussian coast. The storm had struck without warning, sneaking up on the merchant vessel in the night. There were few passengers, mostly crewmen who ran about shouting, throwing each other lines, and attempting to control the ship in the violent waters.
One of the passengers, a man dressed all in black, emerged from the lower decks and made his way to the middle of the deck. The captain shouted at the passenger to return to his quarters, but the man lowered himself to the floor and sat cross legged in the middle of the deck. He placed his hands flat upon the deck on each side of him, and stared up into the sky, not moving, not speaking.
Slowly, the ship ceased its violent rocking. The captain and crew looked about them, amazed at the savagery of the storm raging about them, the roughness of the waters, yet the waters immediately around the ship were calm, and the vessel itselfbobbed tranquilly. The rain still fell, and the lightning and thunder crashed about them, but the ship remained unharmed.
The crew stood and watched for nearly four hours in the pouring rain, as the man in black sat calmly with his palms against the deck. When the storm finally moved on, the man in black rose, and without saying a word, returned below decks. The men could not agree whether they had the honour of travelling with a sorcerer or a saint, but they docked with the tide, and breathed a collective sigh of relief when their strange passenger disembarked.
CHAPTER 35
The following afternoon, Georgiana met Richard at the back of the garden and informed him of their aunt’s reply, and about the maid. Georgiana did not know what Richard wished Torrens to know, so she arranged for the man to follow her to the garden a quarter hour after she went. Richard did not inform Torrens of the matter, telling Georgiana that she was to stay away from the maid for now, and that he would be present that day to listen to the maid’s meeting with the strange man. Georgiana gave him a packet of prawlongs, her cousin’s favourite confection, and left him alone with the butler. Richard instructed her that he would reach out to her as little as possible, in case those following her brother began following her too, but that he would watch her and his aunt often to ensure their safety, and that he would find a way to remove the treacherous maid unobtrusively from the house. So far, the ladies were only being stalked in the drawing rooms by their admirers, who called every day. Darcy actually hadtwomilitia officers in plain attire following him. Richard did not yet feel comfortable in approaching their colonel to determine why.
Georgiana then accompanied Lydia to visit Miss Fletcher, who was feeling better after another elixir had beenadministered, and had recovered enough to proceed with their appointment. Georgiana and Lydia were looking forward to the call. Georgiana was adept at the harp, but Miss Fletcher was a prodigy when she felt well enough to play, and the two of them had already learned a great deal from the young lady, and enjoyed their visits tremendously.
Later in the afternoon, Richard waited in a secluded spot in the garden. Eventually, he observed the man he had seen with Wickham in Meryton, Huggins, enter the garden and commence waiting for Marigold.
“You idiot girl! How dare your brother waste our time with such foolishness? These are not letters from Downing Street! These are Lord Matlocks private letters!” whispered the man angrily.
“Sir! My brother cannot read well! He did the best he could, but he does not know one letter from another! It was all he could do just to copy them! He says he has not slept in weeks, labouring over them!” protested Marigold. “I can read, and our mum can read, she writes his letters for ‘im but he never did well in school!”
“You mean your brothertoldyour mother about this!” Huggins demanded angrily.
“You wanted the information, you threatened me that you would harm my mother if I did not get it, I had no other way to contact my brother to watch the house!” Marigold cried.
“Damned ignorant, idiot peasants!” swore Huggins. The maid fled back to the house, and the man quickly vanished from the garden.
A great weight lifted from Richard’s chest. He knew his father would not have left packets from Whitehall out where they could be found. Those would not even be in his study. Richard knew all too well that Marigold’s brother Harry could not only read and write, and might be the lowest footman, but hehad distinguished himself at the estate school. Richard himself had visited the school on behalf of the family, and bestowed a Johnson’s Dictionary upon him when he had taken a first in exams seven years before. Once he began working at the house, he had quickly been taken under the butler’s wing. Only his young age of eighteen prevented him from being given a more senior position, but the butler expected the young man to make first footman by his majority, and under-butler by five and twenty.
Harry Tupper was intelligent enough to even have possibly made up the letters entirely, they may not even be stolen from Lord Matlock’s study at all. In his few years working at the big house, the young man had already shed his northern accent, and now nearly spoke like the butler he hoped to be one day. If he pretended to write poorly, he could have made up any number of unimportant missives. What was important was that the servants of Matlock and the House of de Bourgh might be placed in a difficult situation, but they werenottraitors. Everyone in the family would have been devastated if it had been true. Richard must find a way to assist the two before too much time passed, and the man Huggins made even more demands of them.
Three days later,Harry Tupper found himself in Lord Matlock’s bedroom. He had no idea why he had been summoned, and the butler, Mr Ludlow, was concerned beyond anything, and was not happy to vacate the room at his lordship’s dismissal.
“Check the door,” Matlock said to his secretary, Miles Percival, a moment after the butler had gone. He regarded theyoung man as Percival obeyed, ensuring that the butler, nor anyone else had lingered by the entrance to the room.
“I have just a few moments ago received an express from my second son, an express so confidential, that it came with two riders, and under the condition that it be handed to no one other than myself,” said Matlock to the boy. This was not an uncommon practice, and Lord Matlock kept messengers on staff waiting for his and his family's missives at different points along the road to Derbyshire. It was necessary, given the nature of his position in the government, that often certain messages must be protected at all costs. Sending two riders, and mixing the riders who rode together up often, ensured that none would open the documents. “Do you know what it says?”
“No sir,” said Harry Tupper in confusion, but beginning to feel nervous. What if their trick had been discovered, but was misunderstood?
“No, nor do I,” said Matlock, passing him the sealed missive. “It is addressed to you.”
