Page 20 of Her Favourite Daughter

“You have one chance to escape the executioner,” Leeds stated with a hard edge to his voice. “If you can tell me where my daughter is and she still lives, you will be branded, transported, and pass the rest of your miserable life doing hard labour, but at least, you will be alive.”

“I swear if I knew what Younge did with Lady Bethany, I would tell you. We did not want to know the details, thus allowing us to be separated from the crime,” de Bourgh revealed.

“And how did that work for you?” Matlock asked derisively. “To allow your greed to override any sense of decency and assist Mrs de Bourgh, you deserve no leniency. I want to find Bethie as much as Leeds does, but I will not be sorry when you and your wife are on your way to hell.”

“I confessed my sins to a clergyman so I could gain absolution before my life is ended. Hopefully I will be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven. My wife refused to repent as she still believes she did nothing so very wrong,” de Bourgh related. “It seems we will not be in the same place for eternity.” He shook his head. “I could see her trying to order God, the Son, and the angels about if she were allowed into His Kingdom. In all seriousness, I am ready to accept the punishment for what I did. I know it is far too late, but I am sorry I ever went along with Catherine’s insanity.”

The three men turned away and walked back to the rough stone steps which would return them to the ground level where the room being used for the trial was located. Their wives were waiting for them there.

When de Bourgh walked in, he had his head held high and walked without assistance and went to stand in the dock. He never looked at the three couples, all of whom used to be his family. In contrast, Catherine de Bourgh was half carried and half dragged into the courtroom. She was still gagged. The men shackled her to her part of the dock.

The lord judge had the prosecuting barrister read the charges against the accused. He ordered the gag removed so that Mrs de Bourgh could state her guilt or innocence. As soon as the barrier was removed, Catherine de Bourgh began spewing invectives and expletives, which led his Lordship to order her gagged again and restrained even more than she already was. Once she was silenced and secured with ropes in addition to the manacles, the lord judge turned to Mr de Bourgh.

“Are you innocent or guilty of the charges as read by Mr Sinclair?” the lord judge asked.

“Guilty on all counts, your Lordship,” de Bourgh replied without hesitation. “In addition to the witnesses who will attest to hearing my wife and I admit our guilt; I am willing to testify that we did everything as read by the prosecuting barrister. I will provide any details the court requires.”

“Based on Mr de Bourgh’s statement in combination with the affidavits I have read, I am satisfied that the accused are guilty on all charges.” The lord judge nodded to a bailiff who brought him his black cap[5]. “Their being guilty of many treasonous acts, I pronounce the sentence of death on Mr Lewis John de Bourgh and Mrs Catherine Bertha de Bourgh. The condemned are to be taken to the courtyard to meet the executioner without delay. May God have mercy on their souls.”

While her husband walked out between two beefeaters without any assistance, his head up, Mrs de Bourgh was dragged out by four men, all the while struggling impotently.

Even though Lady Amelia had wanted to see the evil ones who took Bethie put to death, she changed her mind and remained inside with Ladies Elaine and Anne while the deed was done. Afterward, their husbands reported that de Bourgh went with quiet dignity, and his wife was the opposite. Some men held her while others lashed her to the block. She had squirmed in a vain attempt to escape until the moment the axe had come down and ended her.

Matlock opined that until that instant, she still thought she would escape her fate by force of will.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

February 1796

Lady Anne Darcy, the Countess of Holderness, waddled in a very un-countess-like manner on her husband’s arm as they took some exercise in Pemberley’s conservatory. The warmth kept the cold away. It was caused by the snow-covered landscape and the frigid wind blowing from the west over the white blanket which stretched as far as the eye could see, all the way to the snow-crusted Peaks.

The winter of 1795-1796 had been a particularly cold one, but Lady Holderness had never felt cold. That was because she was with child again, and like it had been when she carried William, she felt very warm all of the time.

It was the beginning of February, and based on when she missed her first set of courses and felt the quickening, Lady Anne was sure she would deliver their second child by the end of the current month or early the next. She allowed her hand to rest on her swollen belly as she walked, and her mind drifted back to the time when she thought there would be no more children after William.

She could not be more pleased that she had been wrong. Even though William would be twelve in April, and there would be too much of an age difference for him to have the kind of relationship with the child she was carrying like he enjoyed with Andrew and Richard, Lady Anne was pleased that her son would no longer be an only child.

Her mind drifted to the sadness Amelia and Francis lived with. They had put on a brave face when Anne announced that she was with child again. There was a sliver of hope because a body had never been found, and His Majesty had agreed that until a body was produced, Bethie would not be declared dead. If she were never found, then the Leeds line would die out fourteen years after Francis was called home. At five and forty he was still relatively young, so the hope was that he would continue on as duke for decades. Anne Fitzwilliam was not eligible thanks to the king’s decree removing any descendant of the de Bourgh line from eligibility.

As much as Lady Anne knew that Amelia and Francis were happy for the Darcys that there would be another child, it was obvious that it was a painful subject for them. It was not only that no trace of Bethie had been found—and not for want of searching—but since Bethie’s birth, Amelia had never missed her courses once. No child would ever replace the one who had been stolen from them, but had He blessed them with another, it would have helped lessen the pain somewhat.

The fifth of March each year was an especially difficult day for Amelia as another of Bethie’s birthdays passed without knowing where she was. In a month, Anne’s goddaughter would be five.

As they started another circuit of the conservatory, Holderness looked at his wife and did not miss a sad look. “I see a look of melancholy,” he observed. “I will wager you were thinking of the Osbornes and Bethie. I, too, know that her fifth birthday is fast approaching.”

“Robert, you know me so well. I almost feel guilty for our good fortune.”

“Anne, you know as well as I do that Amelia and Leeds would be the first ones to tell you that our joy is not at the expense of their grief over not knowing where Bethie is. However, I do understand your sentiments on the matter. Try to concentrate on the impending joy of a second child.”

“I know there are many blessings. Andrew is in his final year at Eton. It is hard to grasp, as it seems like he was a little boy a few days ago. I am pleased that Elaine and Reggie agreed that Richard could delay his entry to Eton until the next academic year so that he and William will be together.” Lady Anne cogitated for a moment. “Why do you think our son is so awkward around those he does not know? It is not like you or I are misanthropes.”

“Some children are naturally shy; William just happens to be one of them,” Holderness opined.

“You may be correct. On a lighter subject, has our niece not blossomed since being adopted by Elaine and Reggie?”

“She has and is doing very well with her studies. It was just the thing that the Fitzwilliams had Miss Jenkinson educated and that she is Anne’s governess now. Anne loves her like a second mother.” Holderness remembered something. “Did your brother tell you that a virulent strain of scarlet fever moved through the area around Rosings Park last summer? He said that the Collins family missed the illness as they were with family in Hertfordshire at the time. Matlock is well pleased Anne no longer lived there when it struck because if she were still kept the same way she was by the woman I will not mention, she would have been of a far more delicate constitution and susceptible to the illness.”

“There is no question that Anne becoming a Fitzwilliam has benefited our niece, but I know that Elaine and Matlock have never regretted having her as a daughter.”