Chapter 1
March, 1812
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a fortune obtained through trade will be eager to rid herself of that stench and forever fix her place among theton. Miss Caroline Bingley, of Lancashire, whose father had been a successful manufacturer of cotton textiles and had left her a respectable fortune of twenty-thousand pounds, was just such a lady.
From her debut in society at the age of eighteen, her primary object was to marry a man of the gentry or the nobility, whose family name and respectability would be enough to make anyone of social standing forget her origins of low birth and accept her as their equal. If such a gentleman also happened to be rich, so much the better.
Her sister married a gentleman from Scarborough, the heir to his mother’s estate, who also retained a house on Grosvenor Square. That his father’s fortune had come from trade neither mattered nor was recalled by anybody; he was a landed gentleman, as far as they were concerned.
Caroline hoped to surpass her sister’s good fortune. Their brother Charles, the middle child of the Bingley family, was a good-natured fellow who made friends wherever he went. Through him, Caroline became acquainted with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, of Derbyshire. He was everything Caroline hoped for in a potential mate. He came from an old and respectable family with a sizable estate and familial connections to the nobility. His fortune exceeded ten-thousand per annum, and if this were not enough, he was remarkably handsome. As her brother’s closest friend, they were frequently in company together, which put Caroline perfectly in position to recommend herself to Mr. Darcy.
And she nearly succeeded. He was within her grasp. Everything spoke of his increasing attention towards her. Then, just as suddenly, a rival appeared on the scene. A minx who turned Mr. Darcy’s head with her fine eyes. Before she knew it, everything was ruined, and Caroline found herself, still unwed and without any prospective suitors, bound for a remote seaside town.
“Is it much further?” Caroline complained, her legs growing restless from the cramped conditions and the long miles. Here in the rural part of the country, the roads were unpaved, and the coach seemed to be making slow progress to Caroline.
“Not much further,” her sister answered. “Be thankful we hired this coach for the journey and sent the servants ahead in the post-chaise, or it would have been more crowded.”
Caroline bit her lip, recalling the last time they had journeyed a distance in the smaller carriage. Caroline practically had to sit in her sister’s lap to fit, especially with her brother-in-law taking up most of the room. Here, at least, she had enough room to keep several inches between herself and Louisa.
She was sick and tired of the countryside. They spent the last month in Hertfordshire, preparing for Charles’ wedding to a local lady there. The same lady whose sister had snatched Mr. Darcy right out from under Caroline’s thumb.
Elizabeth Bennet.I hope she knows the value of what she has caught!
“I wish we were not going to Scarborough at all. I wish we had gone down to Hurst Place after Charles’ wedding,” Caroline remarked.
“So do I,” Louisa answered, her own lips tightening into a frown. “But it cannot be helped.” She glanced at Mr. Hurst across the carriage from them. He was dozing, his second favorite pastime next to eating, his snores thankfully muffled by the sounds of the carriage. “I promise you, we shall only stay at Fairclough a month or so until Mrs. Hurst’s health improves, and then we shall go down for the height of the Season. I am no less determined to find you a suitable husband.”
Caroline let out a heavy sigh and propped her chin on her hand.
“Don’t slouch. And don’t sulk either,” Louisa scolded. “If you had not lost favor with Mr. Darcy, you might now be the mistress of Pemberley.”
“It was not my fault,” Caroline argued. “I did all I could to secure him until that impudent little tart came on the scene. I thought he would be safe from her once we quit Netherfield Park. But then she and her sister had the nerve to follow us to Town!”
“They did become engaged rather suddenly after her arrival in London. I wonder whether Miss Elizabeth had some reason for making Mr. Darcy marry her,” Louisa sniggered.
Caroline bit her lip. She shrugged. “Whatever his reason for marrying that hussy, we shall have to contend with having her as a sister-in-law, now that Jane and Charles are wed.”
“Yes, Jane. I know you always thought she was as mercenary as her sister, but I never saw it. She’s as dear a creature as any, and as Charles is so much in love with her, it was inevitable that he would ask her to marry him. He was so despondent when we left Hertfordshire!”
“I suppose I can accept Jane as a sister,” Caroline agreed, “but I shall never accept that Elizabeth Bennet deserves to be Mrs. Darcy!”
Thescenery suddenly changed when the ocean came into view. Caroline looked out the window and gasped. Beyond the edge of the bluffs, the water shimmered like a long band of blue diamonds.
“It is beautiful, isn't it?” Louisa nodded.
“It has been a long time since I visited the ocean,” Caroline said. “Do you remember our trips to the seaside when we were children, Louisa?”
Louisa sniffed. “I remember you, splashing about in the ocean without a care. You were most unladylike, you know?”
“Mother often scolded me for it,” Caroline answered. “My hair would become so untidy, after all she did to arrange it properly.” A smile formed on her lips.
“Thank Heaven, you have settled down into a proper lady.”
The coach made its way down the coastline, and soon, Scarborough came into view. The town was a mixture of fine old buildings dating back to the Tudor era and more modern ones erected in the latter part of the previous century. A golden, sandy beach stretched out in front of the shops and warehouses, leading up to the harbor, where a series of shipyards jutted out from the shore. At one end of the pier, a white lighthouse perched like a sentinel. On the top of the hill which overlooked the town, a Norman castle stood. The town bustled with shopkeepers, sailors, merchants, and fishermen, not to mention carpenters, shipwrights, and members of thebeau mondewho had come to take in the healing waters at Spaw House.
“I had imagined our destination to be quite the dull country place, but this town provides much in the way of diversion,” Caroline remarked, satisfied that her stay in the region might not prove as unpleasant as she had thought. “Is it much much further to Fairclough?”
“Oh, Fairclough is notinScarborough, per se,” Louisa said. “I thought I mentioned it to you. It is situated several miles up the coast from here.”
