Page 96 of A Life Diverted
Elizabeth had been disappointed in her hope she would accompany Jane to London for her presentation. She accepted the reasoning her parents and aunts gave her, that she was not yet out and the presentation was the smallest part of Jane’s coming out.
Excitement was building for the ball to be held at Holder Heights as Elizabeth and Mary would be allowed to attend the ball until supper, at which time they would retire.
They would be allowed to dance, but only with pre-approved friends and family.
Elizabeth secretly hoped William would request a set with her.
Anne and Cassie were sharing the coming out ball with Jane, who would turn nineteen a month after Cassie turned eighteen; Anne had turned nineteen a few months earlier.
The three made their curtsies on the same day.
Even though Lady Edith was sponsoring Jane as her godmother, Lady Elaine had presented her together with Anne because the aforementioned lady had presented her own daughter.
None of the ladies saw the man leering at Jane as she returned to the carriage after her presentation.
George Wickham took the position at the boarding house—which was in fact a brothel masquerading as a boarding house—on Edward Street, which, thankfully, included a room in the attic.
It was far less that he thought he deserved but was worlds better than the hovel he had inhabited in Seven Dials.
George was on an errand for the owner of the house, Mrs. Agnes Younge.
He thought about approaching the carriage to get a closer look at the blond beauty—that is until he spied one of the two huge footmen who had taken him to task in Staffordshire.
His bent nose and missing tooth convinced him to turn tail and make all haste in the opposite direction as fast as his legs would carry him.
Johns recognised the coward he and Biggs had paid a visit to in order to warn him off. He would thrash the man again if needs be. He marked the instant the man recognised him, and the fear he displayed. Before Johns could take a step towards the blackguard, he turned and ran.
Once all the ladies were seated, the coachman urged his team forward. Lady Edith would travel with the Bennets and Fitzwilliams from Netherfield to Holder Heights, where the Darcys would be waiting for them.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Mrs. Catherine de Bourgh had learned a lesson in abject humility during the last three years, relegated to a small cottage in Hunsford with one maid of all work.
Her brother had reduced her allowance to ten pounds per month, and all of her jewellery had been locked in a safe at Rosings Park.
Once or twice during the first month of her changed circumstances she had attempted to enter Rosings Park.
In both instances, she was unable to get close to the manor house before being apprehended by the guards her brother had patrolling the park.
She gave up after her second attempt, as she had been told in no uncertain terms that were a third such attempt made, she would be turned over to the local magistrate, Lord Metcalf, and be charged with trespassing.
Lady Metcalf was one of the only ladies in the neighbourhood who had received her prior to her courtesy title being stripped by the King.
The royal decree the Prince had told her would appear had been in the papers had been published a few days after she was ensconced in her new abode.
Her nightmare had become reality; that she was merely Mrs. de Bourgh was known far and wide.
She thought Lady Metcalf would offer her succour, but she had a rude awakening when she tried to visit her friend .
The butler had her wait outside, not even in the entry hall, as he went to notify his mistress she had a caller.
He returned ten minutes later and told the humiliated woman his mistress was not at home to her, and never would be again.
It did not take long for Catherine de Bourgh to learn how much the people of Hunsford, her former tenants, and those from the Westerham area disdained her.
None of them would forget the imperious lady who interfered in their affairs while offering them useless advice and subsequently haranguing them for not implementing her unsolicited and nonsensical guidance.
After railing at everyone except herself for the first six months, Catherine began to examine her actions and interactions with those around her. For the first time in her life, she admitted she was wrong. She had lost her family through no one’s fault but her own.
In her desire for power and wealth, she had alienated each and every single member of her family.
In her memory, she recalled the sneering look of disdain on her daughter’s face the last time she saw her in the music room at Pemberley.
As hard as it was to hold a mirror up to herself and her actions, she acknowledged her avaricious behaviour, especially towards Anne.
She deserved nothing less than the scorn her daughter had looked upon her with.
Catherine reviewed her behaviour as far back as when she was a little girl and started to feel abject shame.
She realised it all started when she became envious of Reggie.
He was the Matlock heir and would receive, in comparison, both in wealth and attention, so much more than her pittance of a dowry.
It was from that point she became more concerned with what she did not have in comparison to what others had.
She elevated the desire for what she did not have over all of the blessings she had actually had in her life.
She knew she needed to apologise for her many wrongs but was intelligent enough to know she could not pay mere lip service.
She needed to act, not talk. At first, when she started to help wherever she could in the little community of Hunsford, she was rejected by those who remembered the way she was.
She persevered, and slowly but surely those who lived around her started to accept that something had changed in the formerly arrogant woman. After her maid was paid and she had purchased food for the month, Catherine would donate whatever money she had left.
What she did not know was she was always under surveillance, both for her own protection and to make sure she did not cause trouble.
When the initial reports reached her brother regarding the changes in his sister, he thought it was an act to try to regain what she had lost. It soon became evident the change was real.
Lord Matlock increased her allowance to twenty pounds. He was amazed when the reports told him rather than hire another servant or spend on herself, she merely increased the amount she was able to use to help others in the area.
By the end of the second year, her allowance was at fifty pounds a month.
Her brother had conditioned the increase on her hiring a man to assist around the cottage and to buy better food for herself and her household.
Even after complying, there was still close to forty pounds per month Catherine was able to use to help others in her small community.
If a lady was sick, or heavy with child, Catherine would volunteer to help, or if needs be pay for a maid to help.
She would look after their children when needed, teaching them their letters and sums. As she approached her third year living among the people of Hunsford, Mrs. Catherine de Bourgh had gone from one of the most hated to one of the most loved people in the town.
There was no question as to her sincerity. Lord Matlock felt true pride in his sister Catherine for the first time since she was a young girl.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
When her father’s final will and testament was read, Miss Bingley was most displeased.
Her dowry was unchanged, and she had inherited nothing beyond it.
Everything had been left to her brother, the one who was happy to be in trade.
What was even worse was that their Uncle Paul was executor and had become her guardian. Another tradesman!
If she did not marry, her dowry would be released to her when she was five and twenty. How was she ever going to find a husband from the first circles living in the house of a tradesman in Scarborough?
She did not notice—or care to see—the looks directed at her from her brother, uncle, aunt, and her married sister.
Louisa had a difficult time believing they were born of the same parents.
She did not want to think ill of the dead, but she held her mother responsible for planting the social climbing desire in her younger sister.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Louisa would return to her husband soon.
She suspected she was at long last with child but did not want to get the hopes of Harold and her in-laws up until she felt the quickening.
She prayed her uncle would not ask her to take her sister; she would have to refuse him.
Her husband and his parents would not have Caroline in their houses again.
There was only so much one could bear of the youngest Bingley.
At one and twenty, Charles Bingley graduated from Cambridge. When he reached the age of five and twenty, all of his father’s fortune of more than one hundred thousand pounds would be his. After a disappointed Caroline stomped off, Paul Bingley asked his nephew to join him in his office.
“Uncle Paul, what are we to do about Caroline?” Charles asked, disgusted with his sister’s attitude. “It seems she does not care about our parents’ deaths; all she was concerned with was if she gained from the tragedy.”
“My brother knew his daughter, which is why he refused to increase her dowry. He was worried it would make her even more insufferable than she is now,” Paul Bingley told his nephew.
“Your father recognised Caroline for exactly who she is and used to tell me often that she was far too high in the instep.”