“Are you telling me that Mrs Jenkinson, who began as Anne’s governess and was supremely loyal to her all of these years, allowed anyone to hurt my niece?” Matlock asked disbelievingly. “What you say does not explain the men, who are, by the by, now in my custody—men who attempted to stop us entering the house.”
“Reggie, we all know that Catherine would not be able to tell the truth if her life depended on it. I think there has been some foul play at hand here, and we should have the magistrate and constable summoned,” Lady Elaine asserted.
“You are correct, Elaine. If, as Catherine claims, the actions of any staff member or servant led to Anne’s death, they shall need to be prosecuted to the extent allowable by the law.” Matlock turned back to his sister, who was not looking happy. “If you sacked all the staff and servants, how is it your underlings locked them away, at your behest, mind you?”
Lady Catherine was shocked. How did her family know that the nothings had been detained? She should have known she could not trust the three men she had employed to assist her.
“I am sure there is no need to bother Lord Metcalf and Mr Haversham. Anne’s death was a tragedy; mayhap, I claimed it was because of a servant due to my grief. I am sure no one is to blame…” Before Lady Catherine could say another word, an irate Mrs Jenkinson burst into the room and slapped the shocked woman across the cheek with all of her fury-driven strength.
Richard and the second footman entered the room behind the irate woman, followed by the senior staff and some of the other servants.
“Miss Anne was like a daughter to me! I loved her as you never did, and all because of your avarice,you killed her!” Mrs Jenkinson spat out at the reeling woman who was gripping her reddening cheek.
“How did my sister kill her daughter?” Matlock asked evenly.
“Reggie, you cannot take the word of a servant over mine, a nobly born woman,” Lady Catherine insisted when she recovered the power of speech. “She is covering up her own culpability, and I also want her arrested for assaulting a peer!”
“As Elaine pointed out, you are the only one who likes to prevaricate. If there is one person who would never hurt Anne, it is Mrs Jenkinson.” Matlock inclined his head towards the lady. “Anyone who saw the way she cared for my niece could see the truth of her words that she related to Anne as a mother to a daughter. You, on the other hand, Catherine, love no one or nothing but your own desires. Hence, Mrs Jenkinson’s accusation of avarice is nothing but the truth; we all know that. I will hear what the lady has to say, and if you interfere, I will have you bound and gagged!” Matlock signalled his footmen, who took up stations either side of the hideous chair. He nodded to the companion to continue.
Richard was watching his aunt. He could see her fury building. It was then he saw her reach into her reticule and start withdrawing something. It was the handle of a weapon. He jumped forward, his sabre in hand, in the blink of an eye. “Aunt Catherine, if you want to continue breathing, I would release that and remove your hand from your reticule,” he ordered ashe brought the tip of his sabre close to her throat. “Liam, relieve AuntCatof her pistol, please.”
With the tip of the sabre inches from her throat, Lady Catherine was too fearful to admonish her traitorous nephew about using the hated form of her name. She had bigger problems now.
“It is a Queen Anne pistol,” Darcy reported as he lifted the small weapon for all to see.
“She used that to threaten us and make sure we complied as more and more of us were locked in rooms by her thugs,” Mrs Jenkinson told and the others in the room who had been locked up nodded their agreement. “For a few years, Lady Catherine had her apothecary make a tonic tohelpMiss Anne. Recently, the poor dear would get very sluggish and incoherent actually. I believe this woman began to add greater and greater amounts of laudanum to the tincture because Miss Anne wanted to contact you to ask that the addendum to her father’s will be executed. She knew she would never be able to manage Rosings Park as needed. When I tasted it, I could tell my surmise was correct, laudanum in ever-growing quantities was being added to thetonic.
“When I confronted thiswoman,” Mrs Jenkinson looked at Lady Catherine with intense dislike for what she had done, “she declared meinsaneand had me locked up, so my poor Miss Anne had no one to protect her. She must have increased the dose of laudanum beyond what Miss Anne was able to tolerate, and that cost Anne her life.
“As soon as other staff and servants began to speak of what occurred, the men you detained were employed by her, and the rest of the staff and servants who opposed what she was doing, which was everyone other than her lady’s maid, were locked away as well.”
“I refused to add more of the drug to Miss Anne’s tonic,” the housekeeper relayed. “I did see her,” she looked at Lady Catherine disdainfully, “add laudanum to the tonic. On the second occasion, Saturday morning, I spoke up, and I was locked into the same room as Mrs Jenkinson. By the evening, all of us you found today, Colonel, had been locked in together.”
“That was ‘cause Miss Anne were not breaving no more,” one of the Rosings Park footmen said.
“Yes, Catherine, we most certainly need the magistrate and constable. How could you? She was your daughter!” Matlock knew his sister believed things to be as she thought they should be, but he had never thought she would push things to this extent to get her own way.
“The estate becomes my property,” Lady Catherine ranted. “If Fitzwilliam had done his duty to me, married her, and taken her north to Pemberley, all would have been well. It is his fault Anne is dead!” She looked around the room with wild eyes. “She was not married; the estate is mine, so all of you leave now!” she screeched.
“You murdered your daughter for no good reason. Your husband wrote an addendum to his will. There arenocircumstances under which any of this would ever be yours.” Matlock paused as his wife laid her hand on his nearest arm to calm him as his fury at his sister built towards the point it would erupt.
“Noooo! It is not true; Rosings Park, the fortune, the house in London are all mine!” Lady Catherine asserted.
“Not to add more bad news, but the sycophant you sent to Hertfordshire to find a bride among his cousins is now a resident at Bedlam. He had declared that the papers ending the entail on his cousin’s estate were fraudulent and that you assured him of that fact.” Lady Elaine revealed. “You sent thatdunderheaded bootlicker to my niece’s and nephew’s estate. The Bennet daughters are granddaughters of a duke. I am sure you realise that makes them higher than the daughter of an earl, as you think that elevates you above all else. It does not! You are not now, nor have you ever been, a peeress. You,Cat, are a commoner.”
She cared not where the idiot Collins was, but he must have said something to them which had sent them to Rosings Park and the discovery of her plans before Catherine was ready to gain everything she had been due!
“You will not have me arrested and tried! You would never countenance the scandal,” Lady Catherine crowed.
“That is where you are very wrong, just like you have been about everything else, Catherine. Do not forget to whom Elaine and I are related. You will pay the price for murdering my niece,” Matlock barked. His sister shrank back in fear as the realisation that her trump card had been anything but, hit her. Matlock nodded to his two footmen, who led Lady Catherine to one of the rooms where she had had her people herded into and imprisoned.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The undertaker was summoned as well; he arrived not long after the magistrate had ordered Lady Catherine’s arrest. Mrs Jenkinson assisted Lady Elaine in preparing the mortal remains of Anne de Bourgh for burial.
Chapter 29
Mr Rupert Zane, the late Sir Lewis de Bourgh’s solicitor, arrived at Rosings Park at midday the next day, as scheduled. He was a tall man of African descent. His grandparents had been freed slaves who had, after earning a fair amount of money in the West Indies, settled in England. Zane was the second generation of his family born in England.
