Chapter 17
On her seventeenth birthday on the fifth day of March of 1807, Elizabeth felt like she had been given the greatest gift she had ever experienced in her short life.
It had begun in January when she, who had never done so since they had first begun, missed her courses. Even though it was not confirmed she was in fact with child yet, she had reported the fact of her missed indisposition to her husband. Thankfully the disgusting man believed it was dangerous to the child growing within her—if that in fact was occurring—for him to join with her, so he had ceased importuning her.
It was the first time Elizabeth had seen her husband seem genuinely happy as he pontificated on his certainty he would be gifted a son and heir.
A few weeks before missing her monthly indisposition, Elizabeth had noticed a tenderness in her breasts and then about three weeks after, the sickness in the morning had begun.
Thanks to one of Aunt Maddie’s enclosed letters with the ones from Jane, Elizabeth had been warned of the signs to look for when she was with child. Her aunt had responded to a letter Elizabeth had sent telling of her missing her courses.
Hence, when she was ill for the first time, it had not been as worrying as it otherwise would have been. Aunt Maddie had warned her the illness, if she was afflicted—not all womensuffered in the mornings when with child—could be mild or all the way to severe like she had experienced with her current time being with child.
Her aunt’s advice was that if Elizabeth experienced morning illness to request dry toast and ginger tea. After the first time, Elizabeth had asked her maid to let Cook know the toast and tea would be required in the mornings.
Praise be, based on her aunt’s information, Elizabeth had a mild case of the sickness.
In February, she had missed her second set of courses and after informinghimof that fact, he had demanded the local physician be summoned.
The kindly man had examined Elizabeth with both Mrs. Greaves and her maid present. When she described her symptoms to the doctor, he had opined she had all of the early signs of being with child and had pronounced her to be in that state.
It was the best news so far in her forced marriage to the old, abominable man. As he had ceased to importune her from the first month’s courses she missed, it was a dream come true for Elizabeth. She would put up with much worse morning illness than that which she was suffering from if it meant he did not come to her at night. She would be free of his attentions until many months after she gave birth, if ever again dependant on the sex of the babe.
This led to her birthday gift, one he had unintentionally provided. He did not know, and Elizabeth did not share, it was the anniversary of her birth. Elizabeth sat in her bedchamber while her maid, with some others assisting her, packed the trunks for the departure in the morning on the morrow. She could not but smile when she recalled the conversation in his study that afternoon.
Not long after the doctor’s examination Elizabeth had been summoned to her husband’s study.
On entering his inner sanctum Elizabeth fought to school her features. She had been informed about the specially constructed chair to hold his girth, but she had never been in this room to see it before.
The Duke had mistaken the look on his wife’s face as happiness for finally doing her duty to him and not that she was silently making sport of him. That was not something he could imagine as he was sure he commanded far too much deference for any to make him the subject of a jest, and certainly not to his face.
“Even though you should have been with child months earlier, I am well pleased about your finally doing your duty to me,” the Duke had condescended. “I need to make for London to take care of business and other obligations and I am told Town is not a good place for a woman in your delicate condition.”
‘Yes,’ Elizabeth thought, ‘there are no women able to deliver their children in London. Does he think me a simpleton, he wants to run back to his mistress.’
“Does that mean I will remain here, Your Grace?” Elizabeth enquired. She was thinking about how to get him to agree to send her to the estate in Derbyshire as Aunt Maddie had advised her when her husband interrupted her thoughts.
“No, you are to be sent to one of my estates where you will be able to increase in peace without any distractions,” he informed Elizabeth.
“Do you perhaps have an estate in Derbyshire?” Elizabeth enquired, seemingly innocuously. It seemed he was doing half her work for her.
“I do, what of it?” The Duke had been thinking of sending her to Ringdale in Wiltshire.
“I am a person who suffers greatly from the heat of the summer, and I am afraid it will be worse than normal as I increase. I am worried the heat will be dangerous for our child, so I suggest you send me to Derbyshire which is a cooler county from what I have read.” Of course, Elizabeth had read no such thing, but she knew she needed to play on his need for an heir.
“There is Castlemere in Derbyshire,” Hertfordshire stated thoughtfully. What cared he what estate she went to and with that particular estate being far from London, it was not a bad thing. “I have decided to send you to Derbyshire.WICKHAM!” he yelled.
“Your Graces,” Wickham bowed to the Duke and Duchess.
“My wife is to be sent to Castlemere to increase. Have my secretary write to the steward, butler, and housekeeper to expect her three days hence.” The Duke waved Wickham away to carry out his orders. “You will depart first thing in the morning. You may have your maid, your guards, and any other servants you desire accompany you.” He went back to reading what was on the desk effectively ending the one-sided interview.
It was hard to believe how easy it had been to direct the man so he did what she wanted. While her maid supervised the packing, which of course included the painting of her family, Elizabeth went to the escritoire in her chamber. She had some letters to write.
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“Your Grace,” Wickham bowed when his master called him to enter the study.
“You will accompany me to London in the morning and I expect you to acquire me wives of some of the peers who have tried to harm me and others who have rejected me when I am ready for that. We will begin with my mistresses so I may feel like myself again, then I will instruct you who will be my first lover,” Hertfordshire told his man.
