Page 91 of A Life Diverted
‘ How did all of my meticulous planning go so wrong? ’ Lady Catherine asked herself.
‘ Not only did my late weak-willed sister anticipate what I would do, she denounced me without so much as a goodbye! And as I was so angry, I insulted the second in line to the throne of the realm. What will I do now? I will be without title, and it is obvious my family will not lift a finger to assist me. Could it be that I miscalculated? ’ she asked herself.
Not being one who believed in introspection, she sat and stewed in the parlour. She started to imagine scenarios of revenge, but then it dawned on her it was her desire for such which had ended with her being reduced to being a nobody.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“What will you do with her, Matlock?” the Prince asked after the drawing room door closed behind the footmen who removed the termagant from their presence.
“She needs to learn humility. I will lease a cottage in Hunsford for her and place her on a strict budget which will afford her one maid of all work and nothing else. The townsfolk will be made aware she had lost her courtesy title and that she has no authority over them. Either she will learn, or she will have a very unhappy life—unhappier than she is now.” Lord Matlock shook his head.
He hoped his sister would learn her lesson, but he had no confidence in her ability to change.
“Will you inform our niece of her mother’s presence?” Darcy asked.
“Unless Anne is deaf, I think she is well aware of who has arrived,” Bennet opined.
“It will be Anne’s choice; I will not substitute my judgment for hers,” Lord Matlock informed the group of men.
When Douglas was queried as to where Miss de Bourgh was, he informed the gentlemen she was in the music room with older Bennets.
At first, no one wanted to play and disrespect the state of mourning at Pemberley, but the master of the estate told them to play as often as they were willing; it would honour his late wife, being one of her truest joys and favourite activities.
Lord Matlock and Darcy entered the music room. Anne was practicing her scales, her back to the door while Jane and Elizabeth were sitting with her to keep her company. Anne ceased her playing as she heard the click of the door closing.
“Uncles Reggie and Robert, was my playing disturbing you?” Was the question from a concerned Anne.
“No Anne, we could hardly hear you, especially with the level of noise being made before,” Lord Matlock reassured his niece and ward.
“You mean Lady Catherine’s screeching?” Anne noted. “We heard her caterwauling quite clearly even inside this room.” Jane and Elizabeth nodded their agreement.
“She will soon no longer be Lady Catherine, just Mrs. de Bourgh…” Anne’s guardian explained all that had happened leading up to and including the Prince’s intention to recommend that the King strip Anne’s mother of her honorific.
“Goodness me, she will not be happy,” Anne smiled sweetly at the thought of how that would upset her former mother.
“Her whole identity was wrapped up in her feeling of superiority stemming from her title. She imagined herself a peer of the realm and was never happy if anyone reminded her about hers being a courtesy title only. What will happen now?”
The two uncles explained what was to be done. “Anne, before we send her on her way with an escort to make sure she behaves, would you like to see her?” Lord Matlock asked.
“No,” Anne replied flatly, then paused as she reconsidered. “Yes, actually, I will see her, Uncle Reggie. Please have her brought in here. I want her to see her failure with regard to myself.”
Not many minutes later, the door opened, and Anne’s mother was escorted into the music room. She saw two of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen on a settee and a third girl playing the pianoforte well, with her back to the door.
“Why is my time being wasted? I was told my wayward daughter was waiting to greet me as is my due as her mother,” Lady Catherine sniffed imperiously, still not reconciled to her soon-to-be lowly place in the social order.
“Do you not recognise your own daughter because she can play the pianoforte, or is it because I am as healthy as any of my age?” Anne asked after she ceased playing and turned around.
For the second time that day Catherine de Bourgh was robbed of the faculty of speech. “A-Anne, is that truly you?” the gobsmacked women managed.
“Yes, Mrs . de Bourgh. It is amazing how quickly my health improved as soon as Aunt Elaine and Uncle Reggie started treating me as I should be treated—a normal and healthy young lady. Did you think that if you kept me sickly with the poison your quack was giving me that somehow Uncle Reggie would have allowed you access to my inheritance?” Anne asked pointedly.
Jane and Elizabeth stood either side of their friend for support, each taking one of Anne’s hands.
“Y-you were too sick to learn to play!” the stupefied woman exclaimed.
“No, other than when I had a mild case of scarlet fever, I was never sick. It was the tinctures your so-called doctor prescribed for me which made me seem sick. Either you were complicit, or you are clueless. I am not sure which is worse,” Anne excoriated her mother.
“And yes, imagine that, as soon as I started receiving lessons, I learnt all sorts of things—things you claimed to know about, but about which you had boundlessly mistaken and no knowledge —and I have never looked back.
“I have good friends who like me for who I am, like Jane and Lizzy here. Your schemes for me failed, and I will never repine the day Uncle Reggie removed me from your influence,” Anne drove the dagger home.
With a nod from Anne, the three girls exited the music room without a look back for the wilting woman still rooted to the same spot. When the footmen escorted Lady Catherine back to the parlour where her brother and sister-in-law were waiting for her, she uttered not a word of protest.
While his sister was in the music room, Lord Matlock dispatched an express to Rosings Park via one of the Darcy couriers with instructions to have all of the former mistress’s belongings packed up and all jewellery to be locked in the safe.
It was her property, but a clause in his late brother’s will granted the Earl complete authority over his sister Catherine.
She would be on a very strict budget, and her brother did not intend to let her sell the jewellery to escape her punishment.
The Earl and Countess told the soon-to-be Mrs. de Bourgh to sit as they explained what her future was to hold.
Both had expected vociferous argument from her, but she sat and listened without response.
Anne’s speech had affected her deeply and taken all of the fight out of her.
When she was told she would not be allowed onto Rosings Park’s lands or in the town house in London, all she did was nod slightly.
The de Bourgh carriage she used to travel to Pemberley would convey her to her new home in Hunsford, and it would be the last time she would be allowed to use it. Until her brother decided otherwise, she would have no access to her daughter’s vehicles.
Rather than allowing her to remain at Pemberley, she began the return journey that afternoon. She would sleep at the Big Bull Inn for the night and be on her way at first light. None of the residents of Pemberley asked after her, most particularly not Anne de Bourgh.