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As Lord Matlock held the paper, his sons read over his shoulders. “This is further proof that Catherine has slipped the bounds of reason. She is a commoner, and yet, she calls herself a peer while ordering you about, when you are in fact the equivalent of an earl in rank. I do not remember seeing you among the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords.”

“Even though you said our ranks are equal, I am not one of the four and twenty diocesan bishops who may sit in the Lords. I am certainly not one of the two archbishops. As part of my duties, I oversee a number of parishes; the one at Hunsford is among them. As such, I was the one to ratify Collins’s appointment,” Lankershim explained.

“Something that my sister is railing against. As I assume that you are not here to remove Mr Collins, is the church taking action against my sister?” Matlock enquired.

“I am here to inform Lady Catherine that she is no longer the one allowed to appoint a clergyman to the Hunsford living. It is being withdrawn from Rosings Park’s advowson and placed under the direct authority of the Church,” Lankershim revealed.

“That will not be necessary,” Matlock stated. “Based on what my niece wrote to me in the letter your courier delivered, I am about to exercise my power as executor of the late Sir Lewis de Bourgh’s will. Bishop Lankershim, if you and Mr Collins would care to join us, I think it is time for us to call on my sister.”

Thanks to the message Miss de Bourgh had written to him, William Collins was aware of the crimes Lady Catherine had committed against her daughter. He did not mention that he had received a letter from Miss de Bourgh, as the last thing William wanted to do was compromise the lady, no matter how much she was set to inherit.

The two clergymen followed the Fitzwilliams out of the house. While they boarded the Matlock coach, William joined Bishop Lankershim in his conveyance. It was an easy walk for him to reach the mansion, but he decided to remain with his bishop for the short ride.

Before the Rosings Park footmen could move, the Fitzwilliam footmen had the step retracted and the door opened. The bishop’s footman had done the same for his coach.

The Rosings Park footmen looked nervous at all the unexpected arrivals. However, they knew better than to get in the way.

Matlock dropped the lion’s paw knocker and waited. The old butler’s eyes went wide when he noticed who had arrived. He was about to send one of the footmen to warn her Ladyship when he was stopped by Lord Matlock’s voice.

“We will announce ourselves. You will wait here with your footmen,” Matlock commanded.

Although he knew that Lady Catherine would be seriously displeased to be surprised in this way, the butler thought better of disobeying or attempting to gainsay the Earl of Matlock.

The five men and one lady climbed the stairs to the first floor and made their way to the drawing room, where Lady Catherine ‘held court’. She was sitting and stewing in her displeasure at the bishop for not responding positively, or at all, to her orders. She had to be rid of Mr Collins and find a compliant clergyman who would do her bidding. She looked to her side, where Anne was seated next to Mrs Jenkinson on a settee. Her daughter looked as she should a few hours after drinking her cordial. She was in a drug-induced haze. Even though Anne had berated Mr Collins on her behalf, there could be no let-up in the administering of her cordial. Her ruminations were rudely interrupted when the doors to the drawing room were thrown open without warning and the last people she wanted to see walked into the room.

As soon as Anne saw her aunt, uncle, and cousins, she sprang up from the settee, throwing off the shawls Mrs Jenkinson had piled on her shoulders. All of a sudden, the put-on stupor from the opium vanished. “Uncle Reggie, Aunt Elaine, cousins! I am so relieved to see you. My letter reached you?”

“What letter? How dare you write a letter without my permission?” Lady Catherine screeched.

“Miss de Bourgh, you are of age, are you not?” William Collins asked.

“Yes, Mr Collins, I have been, for going on four years,” Anne replied. “Although you would not know it from the way that woman treats me.”

“Then, as I understand the law, you need no one’s permission to send and receive post. I wonder why your mother did not want you to communicate freely with those outside of this estate,” William Collins said, all the while knowing exactly why it was that Miss de Bourgh was unable to send and receive missives.

“Mrs Jenkinson, you obviously failed to have my daughter drink her cordial! Do so now, or you will suffer my wrath!” Lady Catherine barked.

“Miss de Bourgh, come, I will give you more of your cordial; you seem to be agitated…” Mrs Jenkinson began to say. She closed her mouth at the thunderous looks from everyone in the room who was not Lady Catherine.

“Mrs Jenkinson, are you aware that you have been attempting to drug my niece for some years? What sort of person are you? Were you not employed to care for her? Instead you have assisted in attempting to harm Miss de Bourgh,” Matlock thundered. He looked to one of his footmen. “Take her to my niece’s suite and hold her there along with the lady’s maid. I still need to decide whether or not to have her arrested for harming the niece of an earl.”

The footman led the shocked companion out of the drawing room.

“How dare you come and interfere in my…” Lady Catherine began. She closed her mouth when she saw the look of fury on her brother’s countenance. How had Anne managed to write to Reggie? Even if she had tried to post it from Hunsford, the innkeeper was paid enough to intercept anything Anne tried to send and turn it over to her ladyship.

“No, Lady Catherine, how dare you?” Anne responded. “For some years you have attempted to keep me on laudanum under the guise of it being a ‘cordial’. You seem to have forgotten that when I was a girl, I took that vile drug after I broke my arm. If you had cared about me and had comforted me as a mother would have, you would have known that I detest the taste. Other than a drop of the so-called cordial the first time I was given the drug, that your apothecary mixed for you, not one more drop has ever passed my lips! For my safety, I had pretended to be weak and drugged so you would not attempt something more drastic. Do you know how hard it has been playing a part like that to protect myself from the woman who is supposed to be my mother?

“Everything you have done, including the lies you concocted about Cousin William, me, and that non-existent cradle betrothal, have been part of your attempts to retain control over my estate. Yes, Lady Catherine, I am aware that as soon as I reach my birthday on the thirteenth day of September, Rosings Park, de Bourgh House, and the de Bourgh fortune all become mine. We both know that my father’s will never left everything to you until your death. I thank God on high you were not able to access any of the fortune and most of the annual income; otherwise, you would have fritted it all away on this horrendous, gaudy, and classless décor of yours.”

“Reggie, how can you allow my daughter to speak to me in this fashion?” Lady Catherine blustered.

“Catherine, I am disgusted by you. You deserve that and so much more. You allowed your avarice to drive you to try to harm your own daughter! Yes, I know that you forced her to write letters of fiction to us to keep me away. I know it all! Do you see Bishop Lankershim here?” Matlock pointed to the man who inclined his head. “He did not come to get rid of Mr Collins; he is here to remove Hunsford from Rosings Park’s advowson! I told him that would not be necessary, as your time of having any authority over this estate, or any de Bourgh property, is over as of right now.”

“You cannot do that! This is my estate!” Lady Catherine shrieked.

“I am allowed to do so by your late husband’s will. As you know, this has never been your estate! As long as you treated Anne well and did not run the estate into bankruptcy, you were allowed to remain as mistress until Anne turned five and twenty,” Matlock stated. “Otherwise, if those two conditions were not met, there is an addendum to your late husband’s will which now comes into force. It evicts you from this estate and any de Bourgh property. The terms of that same addendum allow you only fifty pounds per annum for two years and nothing thereafter. Now, the only question remaining is whether you are insane and need to be in a place like Bedlam.”

“Anne is too weak; she is not five and twenty yet! You would not cast your own sister out with nothing, would you?” Lady Catherine pleaded.