You will be guarded at all times.
When you have contact with them at Rosings Park, both Anne’s and your husband’s friends will be treated with respect by you.
You will treat all staff and servants with kindness and striking of anyone, like you have in the past, will not be tolerated.
You are to have no contact with the tenants.
You will refrain from trying to advise Mr. Jamison regarding his sermons or any other parish business and you will not impose on his wife at the Hunsford parsonage, or anywhere else for that matter, to give her your sage advice.
Contravene any single one of the above points, and you will findyourself on your way to Ireland to live in a cottage.
It took Lady Catherine some time to tamp down her fury at what she had just read. She would still be gaoled. She was seriously displeased. Then she reminded herself that Anne was not long for this world and when she was gone, her husband would have to leave everything to her.
He was much older than she was, so there was the possibility he would pass away in not too many years. If he did not leave all to her in his will, she still had the will, the one she had written and was being held by the man she had paid while she still had funds. She would simply date it a few days before his death, submit it, and then all would be hers anyway.
The first step was getting back to Rosings Park so she would act in the way that would be expected of her. She would prevail in the end.
“It is unfair you should deprive me of my maid,” she objected.
“You may remain here and retain her,” Sir Lewis replied evenly. “It is your choice. If you are to come back to one ofmyestates, then I will have every servant who has interactions with you be ones I know are loyal to me and cannot be manipulated by you.”
Lady Catherine knew it would be futile to push the point any further.
At least she understood why there was an inkpot with a quill in it on the table. Without a word, she removed the quill and signed her name below the insulting list of terms for her return to Kent.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On arriving at Rosings Park a few days after her husband departed Bath, escorted by the men who had guarded her up to now, she relaxed somewhat as soon as she saw the mansion before her.
Lady Catherine could tell by the lack of respect she garnered that the staff and servants were aware of her husband’s strictures. Once the estate was hers, she would sack every single one of them without a character.
Although the chambers she was placed in were much larger than the one in Bath, they were still far smaller than the suite that should have rightfully been hers. Her new lady’s maid, Masterton, who she was sure would spy on her for her husband, was waiting for her in the bedchamber. Just as her husband had written, the guard dogs followed her wherever she went, and some were stationed outside of her suite when she was within.
Once she had washed and changed, Lady Catherine made her way down to the drawing room where she was surprised that besides her husband and daughter, her brother and sister-in-law were present. Then, sitting near Anne, she noticed four girls of varying ages, all pretty, and one of the blondes, dressed in mourning garb, who looked suspiciously like her late sister.
“Catherine,” Matlock inclined his head, as did his wife without saying anything.
“Mother, allow me…to introduce those…you do not know, or in one…case, mayhap you do…not remember,” Anne began to say.
