“I am seriously displeased. My brother will…” Again she was cut off.
“Will agree with Darcy wholeheartedly. As the head of the Fitzwilliam family, I order you back to Rosings Park, and you will not be removing any of Darcy’s children with you. You will also desist with this nonsense about a cradle betrothal. Regardless of what you browbeat our late sister into agreeing with, unless Darcy signs a contract, you have nothing.” Matlock saw his sister was about to protest. “No, Catherine, not another word. You will depart without creating any more disturbances. Have you no shame? This is a house of mourning. Is this how you honour the sister you claim you loved? Do you think Anne would have been impressed by your acting like a harridan?”
Knowing that her brother would not relent, Lady Catherine turned on her heel and stomped to, and then up, the stairs, towards her chamber. At the same time, a much-relieved butler sent orders to ready Lady Catherine’s coach for departure.
“Bennet, please pardon that uncouth display,” Darcy stated as he extended his hand. “I thank you for coming.”
“I departed Hertfordshire on the sixth of March before your letter was forwarded to me there, and I was in London when I eventually received the notice from you. Had I received it directly, I would have arrived for the interment,” Henry stated contritely.
“My feeling was you would not be able to arrive in time. You are here now; that is all that counts,” Darcy said as he led his friend towards a sitting room to take some refreshment. “Since Anne passed, I have been in a deep melancholy, and today was the first time I felt some of the old fire.”
“Catherine will do that to anyone,” Matlock quipped.
Fitzwilliam Darcy, who had been watching the confrontation from the landing one storey up, was confused.He had turned twelve on the fifteenth of October the previous year. His late mother and Aunt Catherine had told him at every opportunity that he was not to associate with those below his class, and especially not those tainted by trade. They had also told him he was engaged to Cousin Anne. However, here were both Father and Uncle Reggie roundly refuting that claim. Why would Mother and Aunt Catherine tell him that he was bound to Cousin Anne if that were not true?
He used to enjoy spending time with Mr Bennet, especially when he spoke of his time in India, but Mother and Aunt Catherine had decried the connection. To placate them, he had kept away from Mr Bennet except when Father gave him no choice.
While he had enjoyed the time spent with Mr Bennet, he had felt like he was betraying his class. However, if that was true, why did Father seem to disagree so completely with what he had been told? Not only that, they were rejecting what he had been taught about the maintenance of the distinction of rank.
He ran up to his bedchamber. When William reached his rooms, Aunt Catherine was beating on the door. “Aunt Catherine?” he squeaked. He had never seen his aunt behave in this manner before.
“There you are. Have your trunks packed; you are coming with me. Your father and my brother are under the influence of a tradesman, and I must save you,” Lady Catherine screeched. She advanced on her nephew and was not pleased when he took off running the way he had come.
Although he was confused by the way his father treated people his mother and aunt railed against, William was not at all unclear about whether or not he could go with his aunt. He had heard his father refuse permission for her to take him.
“William, what is it?” Darcy asked when his son burst into the drawing room with a wild look in his eyes. As soonas William told what his aunt had ordered upstairs, Darcy rang for his butler and commanded that his sister-in-law be escorted from the house and off Darcy property after making sure that his daughter was safe in the nursery.
The men found the lady in question attempting to gain entry to the nursery. Regardless of her commands, invectives, profanity, and generally screaming words that would make some sailors blush, the footmen grabbed and lifted the lady and carried her to her coach.
“You will not be permitted on any Darcy land or in any of my homes. You are lucky that we do not send you to Bedlam. Only my love for my late wife causes me to stay my hand, but next time, I will not be so forgiving,” Darcy growled.
He was replaced at the carriage door by Lord Matlock. “If you ever do anything like this again, I will publicly support Darcy’s application to have you locked up in that asylum. Your behaviour is not that of a rational woman,” he stated. “I will allow that you are overwrought at Anne’s passing, and that has influenced this behaviour. I second Darcy; there will be no additional warning if you ever attempt to do something so disconnected from reality again.”
As her coach pulled away, Lady Catherine was willing to admit to herself that she may have gone too far this time.
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After a sennight condoling with his friends, Henry was on his way to his estate. He was interested to see how Mrs Wickham and her son had changed over the six years he had mostly been away from Sherwood Dale.
Chapter 6
When he reached Sherwood Dale, Henry had a heavy heart. He knew it was because he missed seeing Lizzy every day and experiencing the new wonders she discovered in the world daily. To be able to see things, to which he had become jaded, through Lizzy’s eyes was a treat Henry had never expected to have.
Lizzy was a shining light, one which warmed any who cared to see how special she was. It was why he had taken steps to make sure that no one at Longbourn would be allowed to dim her light. If Thomas did not stand by their agreement, Henry would use his enormous wealth to punish those responsible for hurting Lizzy. Not the least of them would be his selfish, indolent nephew. The question of why Thomas was so different from his late father was one which plagued Henry.
The late James Bennet and Henry had not been close. However, his brother had been very attentive to his duties, was not selfish, and was certainly never indolent. The only thing Henry could imagine was that as the only child, Thomas had been too indulged, which had spoilt him.
Until Thomas’s supremely selfish act of demanding Lizzy be returned to Longbourn for his own amusement, Henry had included a small legacy in his will—fifty thousand pounds, which was small when compared to his vast resources—as, after all, his nephew was closely related by blood. One of the things he had done when Mr Crawley made the changes he had ordered to the will was to have Thomas removed as a beneficiary. After his first meeting with Fanny, she hadnever been in the older version of his last will and testament. Henry had added bequests to dower any Bennet daughters, other than Lizzy, with thirty thousand pounds each. With the wealth Lizzy stood to inherit, the other sisters’ dowries were a pittance. Like he had done with what Lizzy would inherit—if she was his eventual heir and nothing changed—he made sure that the dowries were protected both from the Bennet parents and any potential fortune hunters. There were some special terms which would reduce the amount for each daughter individually if she refused education and behaved improperly.
The Bennet parents would never be told that any of their daughters were very well-dowered. He was sure that they would want to know how he was able to do so, and Fanny would crow about the amount to one and all.
Henry knew Lizzy had wormed her way into his heart, but he had not expected the pain of the separation to be so great.
He pushed the hurt of missing Lizzy to the side when his carriage came to a halt in the gravel-covered drive before the manor house of his estate. Wickham, the butler, and the housekeeper were all present to welcome him. Behind them the servants were arranged in two neat rows. Henry had issued orders that no one was to wait outside to welcome him in inclement weather or in the cold. As this was a clear spring day, even though he did not see the need for such a display, Henry would not say anything but to thank those waiting to welcome him.
After conveying his thanks, he indicated that the servants should be released, which the housekeeper and butler did. Before Wickham left, Henry requested his steward meet him in his study in an hour. The man had said he would be there, and then Henry had made his way up to the master suite where Rouse was already busy unpacking the trunks. After essentially not being in residence at Sherwood Dale for six years, there were numerous trunks to deal with.
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