“Peace, Brother. You know it was said in the spirit of fun, do you not?” Fitzwilliam verified.
“I will let it go this time…only this time,” Hilldale quipped.
Darcy was not surprised; his cousins had made sport of one another for as long as he could remember. “How may we assist you?” he enquired of his uncle.
“It is my sister. I cannot wait to remove her as mistress of Rosings Park and strip all of her perceived power. Anne reaches the age of five and twenty in a little more than a month, but it is time now. First, she purloined her parson’s savings, and ratherthan paying him what she is supposed to, she makes him pay her half of his monthly income—which the fool does. In her quest to hoard more and more symbols of her perceived status, she has been attempting to force the tenants to pay her their quarterly rents and not make the payments to the steward,” Matlock revealed. “I am afraid Catherine has lost contact with reality. As much as I would hate to see my sister in an asylum for the mentally unstable, there may not be an alternative.
“There is yet time to reach Rosings Park today, so I would like to depart within the hour. Andrew, I will understand if you do not desire to leave your wife yet, even for a few hours. With the aid of Richard and William, I will be well.”
“As you will more than likely be in Kent overnight, I will remain with my wife. It is just over a month, so I would prefer not to be away from her for a night so soon after our wedding. However, if I am needed, I will join you,” Hilldale stated.
“No, Andrew, we will manage without you. It would not only be Marie upset with me if I take you away now, but your mother as well,” Matlock replied.
Darcy did not mention he too would like to return to Hertfordshire as soon as possible. Even though he was not yet ready to speak of his burgeoning feelings for Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
Per Lord Matlock’s desire, the Matlock travelling coach and six were on the road for Kent in less than an hour.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
William Collins was visiting his parishioners trying to gain intelligence for his patroness, so he was not at home to see the large coach pulled by a team of six horses pass the parsonage.
He could not understand why it was that, no matter how many times he told them that Lady Catherine ordered his flockto tell him all of their nearest concerns, none of them did. Of late, to avoid his patroness’s displeasure, Collins had begun fabricating items to tell the great lady. What did he care if she scolded some of the peasants for things they had not done?
He was making his way to the mansion at Rosings Park to make his report when he saw the impressive conveyance being driven away from in front of the manor house. It had a coat of arms on the door that he did not recognise.
Like he normally did, he knocked on one of the great, thick front doors and waited for the butler to admit him.
“I am sorry, Mr Collins, but no callers are being accepted,” the butler stated and closed the doors. The click of the lock being engaged was heard and then nothing more.
“Well I never. Lady Catherine will hear of this,” Collins told the closed doors. With no other option, he made his way back to his parsonage, a half mile distant.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Reggie, what are you and two of my nephews doing at my estate? Have you convinced my recalcitrant nephew to honour his mother’s wishes and marry Anne?” Lady Catherine questioned when the three men entered the drawing room.
Anne de Bourgh, who had been sitting meekly as her mother expected, stood as soon as she saw her uncle and two of her cousins. “Mother, I will never marry Cousin William, and everyone in the family knows that what you are saying is not true. We are all well aware it is the way you intended to keep my inheritance for yourself,” she said forcefully.
“Of what do you speak? This estate is mine until I leave the mortal world,” Lady Catherine insisted.
“Now, Catty, you know that is not true. That is why I am here, in my role as executor of your late husband’s will,”Matlock stated. “No matter how many times you repeat the lies about the late Sir Lewis’s will, or our late sister’s ever agreeing to an engagement between William and Anne, it will not make them true. Did you forget that our late sister and brother-in-law both left letters in which their true wishes for William and Anna were listed?”
“He must marry Anne, I command it,” Lady Catherine insisted.
“Yet, I will not marry her.” Darcy turned to his younger cousin. “Nothing personal, Anne, I do not believe that close cousins should marry, and I feel nothing for you beyond cousinly affection.”
“As I agree with you, I am not injured by your statement,” Anne responded.
“It MUST be as I said!” Lady Catherine screamed.
“It is such a pity that rather than embrace that father accepted you as his daughter, you chose to be bitter and try to bend others to your will so that you could control everything and everyone.” Matlock shook his head. “Why do you think you constantly try to prove how wealthy and powerful you are with all the classless, gaudy items and décor in this house? It is the same reason you surround yourself with sycophants like that parson from whom you stole. And what of the money you attempted to purloin from the tenants? You never forgave Mother that you were born on the wrong side of the blanket. Do you think she chose to be raped?”
“She should have been strong like me…” Lady Catherine began to screech.
Matlock raised his hand. “Pilfering your parson’s savings was bad enough, and I know you are keeping the money you are supposed to pay him, while making him pay you. If that were not enough, you tried to take the rents which belong to the trust and in a month will be Anne’s property. That is notstrength; it is criminal.”
“I cannot be tried because I am a peer…” Lady Catherine began to claim.
“No, you are a commoner with a courtesy honorific. You are only entitled to be called Lady Catherine rather than Lady de Bourgh, as you would be as the wife of a knight,” Matlock corrected. “The amount in question is more than enough to see you hang, if you are tried.”
