Page 30 of Aunt Felicity

A s planned, the two coaches departed Longbourn before first light on Monday morning, the eleventh day of November 1811. Three Fitzwilliams and two Darcys rode in the lead conveyance, the large and comfortable Matlock travelling coach. The second conveyance contained their personal servants.

The first rest stop was a little less than three hours after the departure. Even though Longbourn’s cook had sent a basket of comestibles with them, a hot meal was appreciated while the horses were allowed more than an hour to rest. London was bypassed and so there would be no need for a long stop at Bromley, both teams were swapped. Grooms would bring the rented teams back from Rosings Park and return with the Darcy and Fitzwilliam teams.

A little less than two hours after Bromley, they passed the Hunsford parsonage and then Rosings Park’s palings came into view. When they reached the gates the coachmen turned their teams onto the drive which led to the mansion.

At the same time as those for Kent left Longbourn, the Bennet carriage with a whinging Lydia began the journey north.

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

Catherine de Bourgh was in a constant bad mood. It had begun the day her daughter had reached the age of five and twenty at the end of August past. Her younger brother, who should not have held the title, and Robert Darcy had both threatened to enforce the terms of her late husband’s damned will.

Since her attempt to have Georgiana Darcy delivered to her had failed, try as she may, she had not come up with a way to bend the Darcy men to her will. The only positive was that no one had arrived to remove her as mistress of the estate.

Unless she found a way to marry Anne to Fitzwilliam Darcy, that particular threat would always be hanging over her head. At least Anne rested much of each day thanks to the tonic the apothecary prepared according to Catherine’s specifications. As long as her daughter was in a drugged state, she would not be able to claim her property.

Her ruminations were disturbed when the butler entered the drawing room where she was sitting on her gilded and raised chair. “I said I was not to be disturbed,” Lady de Bourgh sneered.

“You have visitors, your Ladyship,” the butler bowed. “The Earl and Countess of Matlock, the Honourable Mr Richard Fitzwilliam, Mr Robert Darcy, and Mr William Darcy.” The Butler called out as each person named entered the drawing room.

“Have you brought your nephew to finally do his duty to me and marry his cousin?” Lady de Bourgh enquired.

“Mother, William and I will never marry,” Anne de Bourgh stated as she sailed into the room after her relatives. Anne saw the way her mother’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You thought me in a drugged stupor, did you not? Jenki has never given me that poison, which explains why so many houseplants have not survived. Come mother, out of that chair, it is time for me to claim my property.”

Anne de Bourgh had been apprised that her family was to arrive that day and that it would be the day she was able to take possession of that which was hers. As soon as she had seen the coaches approaching the house, she had made her way down the stairs and greeted her aunt, uncles, and cousins before they all entered the drawing room where her mother sat on her throne .

“You are too ill to manage my estate!” Lady de Bourgh insisted.

“It is not now, nor has it ever been your anything,” Reggie stated firmly. “Not only are we here to enforce the terms of the late Sir Lewis’s will, but to remove you, and not just to the dower house. We know it all, Catherine, all of your vile schemes to try forcing our brother, Robert Darcy, to acquiesce to your madness to have William marry Anne and leave you in charge here. Before you bother denying it, we have George Wickham in custody, and he has told us all.”

“What did my mother do?” Anne enquired.

“I did nothing!” Lady de Bourg turned to her brother and spat out nastily. “You allowed some lowborn nobody to use her arts and allurements on you, and now you believe the son of a steward’s words that I have done something! What proof do you have?”

“This insane woman cooked up a scheme with George Wickham and Karen Younge to have Anna agree to elope, but they were to bring her here where your mother would have demanded I agree to engage William to you for Anna’s safe return,” Darcy informed his niece.

That they had all of the details of her plan made Catherine worry, but she told herself they had no proof, only conjectures. “Lies, all lies told by a man and woman I sacked without characters,” she claimed.

“If that is so, how is it that I have in my possession every letter you wrote with explicit instructions telling them what you wanted done and how?” Richard barked as he held up the letters. “You are very lucky you are a woman, and I cannot call you out!”

Her mouth fell open. Surely that Wickham man had destroyed her letters like she ordered. Her orders were always carried out to the letter, were they not? “Those are forged, I wrote no such letters!” Lady de Bourgh screeched.

“So someone was able to forge your handwriting perfectly, sign with your signature, and had a copy of the de Bourgh seal you use on every ridiculous letter you write?” Felicity asked. “Claiming a non-existent engagement was bad enough, but you have gone far too far this time. That you were willing to hurt your niece, your own flesh and blood to achieve your aims only shows how insane you truly are.”

“Richard, may I see the letters,” Anne requested. Her cousin handed them over.

“ As your mother, I command you to throw those vile forgeries into the fire ,” Lady de Bourgh screamed. She pushed herself out of her raised chair and made towards Anne, her hands extended, ready to grab the missives.

Richard and William stepped in front of their aunt before she was ever able to reach Anne. “Why would you be so keen to consign what you claim are forgeries into the fire?” Richard pointed out as he stood before the insane woman. “Surely if they were not written by you, you more than any other would want them preserved to prove your point.”

“The problem is these are in my mother’s hand and sealed with my father’s seal, of which there is only one, in the study,” Anne pronounced. “The study is kept locked and the only key is on her person at all times which negates the possibility of someone else using the seal.”

“And that, Catherine, is why you will be consigned to Bedlam, or if we decide to show some compassion, something of which you have none, we may send you to a private institution,” Felicity stated.

“You stole my title, and now you are attempting to rob me of my estate!” Lady de Bourgh screeched.

“Only an insane person would claim someone stole things from her which were never hers in the first place,” Felicity shook her head. She turned to her husband and brother-in-law. “I think she should be consigned to the same asylum as Miss Bingley. They will do very well together.”

“I agree with your wife, Matlock,” Darcy interjected. “She has caused this family enough heartache already; no need to add scandal to it if she is placed in Bedlam, although God knows she deserves to rot in that place.”

Lord Matlock looked to his wife who nodded, next at his son who also nodded, after that at his nephew who was of the same mind as the others, and lastly at his niece.

“I am with everyone else on this. This woman bore me, but has never been a mother to me. She needs to be prevented from bringing any more mortification to this family,” Anne stated. “If we can have her consigned to an asylum which is private, she will not be able to cause a scandal. She is not known in society as it has been well over twenty years since she was in Town, so no one will miss her. She has no friends in the neighbourhood as she has managed to alienate everyone, even Lady Metcalfe, over the years. I doubt whether anyone will ask after her or care if she is here or not.”

“In that case, that is what we will do,” Reggie agreed. “I remember that when they contacted Bingley, the director of the place in the Scottish Highlands wrote they had three or four spaces for guests . I will write to the London office right away. Where is the key to the study?”

“In her reticule,” Anne pointed to the item hanging from an armrest on her mother’s ridiculous chair.

While Richard and William restrained the insane woman, Felicity retrieved the overly ornate reticule and handed it to her husband. Reggie discovered the key, took it, and made his way to the study.

The butler was summoned and told to lock the former mistress in a windowless room. Biggs and one of his fellow footman-guards were called to take the woman and follow the butler. As soon as they touched her, Catherine de Bourgh began to scream and screech, kick, bite, and hit. In a trice the two men had her bound and gagged. After that removing her was not very difficult at all.

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

Reggie had the butler request that everyone join him in the study. “Here is the reason that my sister kept this locked and allowed no one but herself entry. All of her plans to gain control of the estate, including her plan to hurt Anna, are listed in detail. Most of what she wrote are the ravings of an insane person,” Reggie revealed. He turned to his niece. “If we had known how bad things were we would have removed you from here soon after Darcy and I became the executors of your late father’s will.”

“Seeing that my mother made sure none of you met me until after Papa’s passing when she no longer had a choice, I do not blame any of you,” Anne assured her relatives. “Thanks to Jenki…my companion Mrs Jenkinson, I was always protected. My mother could not conceive of anyone employed here gainsaying her, so she never suspected Jenki was my protector and more of a mother to me than the lady who bore me ever was. She ignored the fact that it was not her, but you who employed Jenki with the charge to protect me.”

“Were you truly ill with scarlet fever, or was that another one of my sister’s lies?” Reggie questioned.

“I was sick when I was six, but not as bad as my mother reported to you. Yes, my heart and lungs are slightly weakened, but as long as I am careful, I should live a long and complete life,” Anne reported. “Thanks to all of you, my mother will be gone from my estate and never be able to hurt anyone else.” Anne faced the two Darcy men. “I am so sorry that my mother’s delusions touched Georgiana at all. I trust she is well?”

“She is, all thanks to William smelling a rat…” Darcy related an edited version of Ramsgate. “Matlock’s investigators suspect the woman who assisted Wickham has left the country.”

“It is not just that I do not want to marry you, Cousin,” Anne addressed William, “I do not think I want to marry anyone. So it is nothing personal.”

“I did not take it as such, and besides, if she will have me, I have found the woman with whom I want to walk life’s paths.” William got a far away, dreamy look on his countenance as soon as he thought about Elizabeth. Ever since Bennet granted his permission for him to call on Elizabeth, William had been walking around with his head in the clouds.

Anne looked questioningly. “Another cousin, but no blood relative of William’s,” Felicity clarified.

“I thought I was the only other female cousin other than Bethanne,” Anne puzzled. “Are there more on the Darcy side I was not aware of?”

“No, it is through my brother’s family, and there are five female cousins there…” Felicity related an abbreviated version of her connection to the Bennets and how she and Reggie had met and saved one another. “We came from Hertfordshire when we travelled to your estate.”

“If I had not heard this for myself, I would have thought it a story from one of Anne Radcliffe’s books,” Anne shook her head. “Is insulting a woman the usual way of ingratiating oneself to a woman newly met?”

“No, but thankfully I awoke in time and begged her pardon before I knew we were related. Hence she knew I was sincere,” William said. “Knowing our Cousin Elizabeth, had she known that my apology was not of my own volition, she would have made me work far more to gain her forgiveness.”

“I look forward to meeting my other cousins,” Anne responded. “By the by, where are Bethanne and Georgiana?”

“We call them Bethie and Anna,” Felicity informed her niece. “They are being hosted at Longbourn, my brother’s estate in Hertfordshire. That is where we were before we made our way to your estate. It is also where George Wickham is being held and where his proof of your mother’s perfidy was found in his possession.”

“If I am welcome, I would like to travel into Hertfordshire with you when you return thither,” Anne expressed.

“Once we have sorted out what we need to here, I see no reason why you may not return with us,” Reggie decided. “As soon as we hear back from the asylum’s London office, Richard and I will escort Catherine to them, and afterwards we will make our way back to Longbourn. Anne, I have a question which, excuse me if it is indelicate. If you do not intend to marry, who will you leave your estate and fortune to? I ask because in the absence of a will, the land and funds would be claimed by the crown.”

“I had thought to leave it to Richard, but now he owns one estate, and will inherit another. I think I would like it to go to the first son born to one of my cousins, who has no estate of his own. Failing that, to one of my cousins’ daughters,” Anne decided.

“That is very generous of you,” Felicity stated as she squeezed her niece’s hand. “I second what Reggie said, you will be more than welcome in Hertfordshire.”

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

Over the next few days Anne worked with her uncle and cousins to learn all about her estate and the rest of her inheritance. One thing she did do was to sign de Bourgh house on Berkley Square over to Richard. When he tried to object, she told him she would withdraw the gift if he already owned his own house in London. He had no answer other than a hearty thank you.

In the middle of the week, a reply was received from the asylum’s office with the news that they had space and would accept the Earl’s sister as a guest . Drugged with laudanum, Lady de Bourgh offered no resistance when she was bundled into a carriage and transported to London where she was transferred into the custody of the men who would escort her to her new, and permanent, home.

Thankfully, due to the safeguards Sir Lewis put in place, to be enacted after his demise, try as she might, his wife had had very little influence over the tenants and the steward had made sure that all repairs were effected in a timely manner. Due to the late master’s foresight, the tenants were, by and large, perfectly content. Thanks to the steward telling them to do so, when Lady de Bourgh would come to harangue them from time to time, they listened, nodded, and then ignored everything she ordered them to do.

It was during the interactions with the tenants as well as others in the Hunsford parish that it was discovered just how much Collins was disdained by his parishioners. Knowing the man, and having witnessed his ignoring everything they had told him about his former patroness, there was no doubt that he was not meant to be a clergyman running a parish.

While in the area, Reggie had a meeting with the Bishop of Kent who, when informed of the goings on in Hunsford, removed Collins from the living forthwith. Not wanting the man to be without any way to earn a living, it was agreed that he would be offered a post as a missionary.

On Monday, a week after they arrived in Kent, the coaches, which included one de Bourgh conveyance, departed Rosings Park. Rather than going directly to Longbourn, they made for London where Richard was introduced to his town home.

De Bourgh House, which he promptly renamed Fitzwilliam House, had not been used for more than two decades so there was the barest of a skeleton staff employed. Other than needing a complete redecorating and a major spring cleaning, the house was in good condition.

Richard decided he would wait until he had a wife before he undertook a change in the décor. Whenever he thought about a wife, the face of Miss Charlotte Lucas came to mind.

He resolved that one of the first things he would do upon returning to Longbourn would be to ride to Lucas Lodge and ask Miss Lucas for a courtship.