“I must entirely disabuse you of the notion that we, that any of my sisters or myself, would marry for material gain. You have heard of ‘King Midas’? Edward Gardiner is my uncle, sir. He owns Gardiner and Associates and is well known among theTon.”
As he nodded Darcy’s stomach sank. He knew the name. Indeed, who did not know it? Few men were accepted as investors and fewer still could call Gardiner a personal friend. His Uncle Reggie was one of the lucky few. Though Darcy knew all of this, he had failed to make the connection to Elizabeth or her family.
Elizabeth finished her litany of grievances by outlining the business agreement her uncle and her father had made years ago.
Mr Bennet, it seemed, had a keen business sense not often employed by wealthy landowners. He had provided the funds for Mr Gardiner to start his business, settling for a fifty percent share, though he was given more. Mrs Bennet knew nothing of the arrangement, explaining her genuine concern and erratic behaviour, and her husband’s clear dismissal of her nerves. Darcy could understand Mr Bennet’s motives.
“Besidesowninghalf of the company as a silent partner, my father has underreported Longbourn’s income to curb my mother’s spending habits so that all the available money was sent to Uncle Edward to invest over and above the ownership in the company. He has used some of the money, but most of the substantial profits from Gardiner and Associates and the other money he invested has been reinvested each year, increasing our wealth exponentially. You have no idea just how wealthy we are; without pride I would estimate that we currently rival the royal family.
“Miss Bingley used to crow about her twenty-thousand-pound dowry as if that made her better than her family’s roots in trade. I and each of my sisters havemore than ten times her dowry, that iseach! That does not count the five percent of Gardiner and Associates that each of usowns. If you take Mr Bingley’s total wealth and add his sister’s dowries to it, I and each of my sisters have far more just in our dowries! I know this, as we investigated the Bingleys before Iapprovedthe lease to Netherfield.” It hit Darcy; Netherfield belonged toMiss Elizabethalone!
As Elizabeth detailed her family’s holdings in Hertfordshire that included much more land and another estate, Darcy realised with a jolt that the Bennet’s fortune dwarfed that of the Darcy holdings by a wide margin. Though the original small Longbourn estate itself was entailed, all other holdings were secure.
“We own a townhouse in London on Grosvenor Square, which is where I believe, after Miss Bingley mentioned it once or a hundred times, where Darcy house is? You will remember about a year ago that Lord Inverness had to sell his townhouse and estate to cover his debts of honour. His estate, Dovedale was purchased by my uncle, Edward Gardiner, as it is close to Lambton in Derbyshire, where his wife was born, and the townhouse was purchased by us. We have not taken up residence there yet, but we will be using it soon enough. Yes, the ‘tradesman’ that Miss Bingley disdains so freely is a landed gentleman! Not to mention that his immeasurable wealth makes theirs look like a drop in the ocean!”
“As much as I love them, I am not blind to the faults of my family. Jane and I took Mary under our wing more than two years ago. It is why she behaves so much better than the other two. Before Jane and I departed Longbourn, we convinced our father that the time has come for him to exert his authority. He has just hired a governess, and my younger two sisters are no longer out. When he believes that they are ready, they will go to school. As soon as I inform my father that I have made our position public, he will inform my mother about the true wealth of the family. My mother may be a flighty woman of mean understanding, but unlike the Bingley sisters or Lady Catherine, she isnotmalicious!”
“Lastly, sir, let me put paid to your assumption about our connections. When my father was at Trinity College, he made friends with members of the peerage who he used to help when they had trouble with their classes. He has maintained and strengthened the connections. Lord Jersey and his Grace, the Duke of Bedford are two of his closest friends! The Duke and Duchess honoured me with the acceptance of being my godparents.”
“I think that it fit your beliefs of our relative positions in society, feeding your feelings of superiority without ever knowing of our connections and wealth. Even were we poor, would it follow that you did not have to behave as a gentleman?”
“The only reason I am sharing any of the information about our wealth is that you did, offer for me, believing us to be poor and without connections. Your arrogant assumptions would not allow you to contemplate my refusing you. You should know that you are in good company. My sycophantic cousin, Mr Collins, offered for me and was roundly refused. And take careful note that despite the entail no one forced me to marry him. You should know, Mr Darcy, that theonlyreason I or any of my sisters will ever marry will be if we find men who can be partners in every sense of the word, whom we would love, respect, and esteem and receive the same in return.”
Chapter 2
Fitzwilliam Darcy, or William Darcy as he was called by family and close friends, stood and stared at Miss Elizabeth Bennet in a stupor of shock, disbelief, shame, and humiliation. If he had been surprised by her taking him to task after his ill-advised proposal, it was nothing to the way he had just been eviscerated. She was wrong, was she not? He was not a hypocrite, was he? His first instinct was to respond in kind, but as he let her words wash over him, he had to admit that she had correctly tied him to a promise that would require him time to allow such, he knew he could not so easily invalidate what she had said.
All of a sudden it hit him. What she had said about being wealthier than him on her own made it undeniably true. And the clearer the truth rang in his head, the greater was the shame he felt so that it soon took hold of his whole being. The Bennets could have touted their wealth, used their connections to silence the Bingley sisters, Lady Catherine, and himself, but they proved instead that they valued character far above wealth. Bingley would never forgive him. He could not see how he could forgive himself. Darcy tried to understand; how could he have been so wrong? And in searching for the answer as he stood there before her, he heard her words again. “…You claim to love me, but I, who was the object of your affection, could not discern any tender regard. In fact, I saw just the opposite. My belief was that you only looked upon me to find fault. If I could not discern your feelings as you keep them under good regulation, perhaps too well, then how is it that you feel you have the power to discern what others feel?” She had the right of it. Who was he to know what someone else felt when he hardly acknowledged his own feelings, let alone often bothered to consider anyone else’s?
“Miss Bennet, I find that I have much to consider and more to ponder on. You have shaken me to my core with all that you have revealed and declared. I was given good principles by my beloved parents, but have followed them in pride and conceit. I have fallen to thinking meanly of those deemed below our family or circle before their characters are known. If you could have known my parents you would have seen that is not what they wanted of me. You could not have pointed out your side in a more poignant way to prove I have been so wrong, and to such an extent, not the least was in thinking that I was in any way able to judge your sister’s feelings, or anyone else’s for that matter.”
“My honour dictates that when I return to town, I make a full confession to Bingley, even should this mean the end of our friendship and the possibility of Miss Bennet never accepting him.”
“I humbly apologise to you and your family and must now take my leave. You have given me a truer perspective of my character than I have ever experienced, and I have a lot to think on. The Colonel and I will be leaving as soon as I return to the house. May God bless you, Miss Bennet. Goodbye.”
Darcy bowed to Elizabeth before he turned and strode back toward Zeus. She could see that his shoulders were slumped and his head was down, not held high as she was used to seeing him.
As Mr Darcy mounted his steed, Elizabeth mused silently to herself, ‘There may be some good that comes from all of this, if he is able to really look at his behaviour and actions, then accept that there are things he too needs to change, not just that those around him have human failings. I do not know if he is able, but if he is able to, I think I would like to meet the man he would then be.’ With this and many other thoughts rolling around in her very pretty, but imminently sensible head, she turned and started her walk back to the parsonage, thanking the good Lord above that she only had a week before she was to return to Town.
She walked in a determined manner, as she had decided that she needed to send two expresses as soon as may be. One was to her father about Wickham, and the other to her sister Jane to inform her of the truth of the matter regarding one Charles Bingley. She did not want to take the chance that Jane would meet him before she knew all of the facts. And she would inform both that the truth of their wealth was no longer a secret.
Darcy rode back to Rosings Park, allowing Zeus his head. He saw his carriage at the entrance to the manor house and his cousin, Richard Fitzwilliam, waiting for him. Unfortunately, his aunt was also awaiting his return as he was informed by Rosings Park’ butler, Mr Nigel Lipton, that she wanted to see him in her favourite drawing room before he left. As annoyed as he was, his manners and upbringing would not allow him to refuse. He walked into the drawing room and found her sitting on her ‘throne,’ an overly ornate and elevated chair that assured that all would have to look up to her when they were seated.
“Sit, nephew. I wish to speak to you on a matter of great importance.” She demanded.
“I thank you, Aunt Catherine, but no. I will stand as I am about to sit for more than four hours on our return to Town.” He smiled inwardly because he knew his aunt wanted him to sit so that she could ‘intimidate’him into granting her wishes, although it never actually worked. Unfortunately, the tactic had worked on many.
Annoyed at being defied, Lady Catherine moved on to her desired topic. Conversation to Lady Catherine was time for her to talk and others to listen. “I am seriously displeased, Darcy. You are leaving and you have not yet done your duty to Anne. It was your mother’s…” she announced for all to hear though no one else was in the room.
“Enough with that tired lie of yours, Lady Catherine,” Darcy interrupted his aunt. It was high time for her crusade to end, and as he heard Miss Bennet’s words about his aunt echo in his head, he knew that he needed to stand up to her once and for all.
“How dare you speak to me in such a disrespectful way, Nephew? You should know that I will not be gainsaid!” Lady Catherine’s cheek went from the normal blush of expectation to a darker red as she grew angry.
“And you should know that Uncle Reggie has letters from both of my dear departed parents expressly refuting your claim. In fact, they say that under no other terms other than Anne being my choice without interference or manipulation from you would they countenance such a match. They both forbid me to marry your daughter for any reason other than mutual love and respect, and I am honouring their wishes, Anne’s, and mine by not doing so.” Darcy said this with a mild smile, glad that the matter was finally coming to a head. It was to his shame, and again to his Elizabeth’s credit, that he finally saw he was failing his cousin and himself by not ending the lies at their source. His smile slipped when he was forced to remind himself that she was not his Elizabeth, but his heart treacherously could not return to the formality of Miss Elizabeth.
“Regardless,” she re-joined with only a slight hesitation, thinking she could brow-beat him into submission now that he had taken a stance, as cajoling had been proven ineffective, “you will do as I say. I am your nearest relation and I demand that you accept my wishes. Think of our combined fortune when you unite Rosings Park and Pemberley.”
“You are not my closest relation. Furthermore, you have no say in my life. I am my own man, as Uncle Reggie has told you more times than I care to remember. Anne does not want to marry me, nor I her. When I marry it will be someone that I love, respect, and esteem,” he stated with the finality of a man that has finally broken through a veil of miasma. That he was parroting Elizabeth he would only realise after he was underway.
