Page 23 of Brighton Rescue (Pride and Prejudice Variation #23)
Colonel Fitzwilliam leaned back on the most comfortable chair in the drawing room of Hartford House and placed his feet on a convenient wooden stool.
A bottle of red wine sat on a small table to his right, and the windows were open, allowing the sea breeze to wash away the last overheated air from the mid afternoon sun.
Fitzwilliam poured himself a glass of wine, took a deep draught, and leaned back in his chair.
He was alone in Hartford House except for the servants, and while he could have followed after the rest of the company to Mr. Hartford’s estate this afternoon, he was thankful that he had chosen to stay behind in Brighton for one night.
The day had been an exhausting, challenging, hard one, and he would have found it difficult to maintain his cheery demeanor in company.
He closed his eyes in weariness and, to his surprise and distress, a grim image instantly leapt into his mind’s eye, that of the unmoving form of George Wickham lying on green grass, crimson blood stains spread across his white clothes.
He cursed softly and took another sip of wine, willing the vision away.
He was a colonel in the Regulars, after all, and had seen men die before, some of them friends.
He had disdained George Wickham for many years and, after the man’s foul attempt to run away with Georgiana Darcy, his disdain had turned to genuine loathing.
Nonetheless…
He had visited Pemberley several times as a child, when his uncle Darcy had still lived, when he and Darcy and Wickham had climbed trees and caught frogs and wheedled fruit tarts from the cooks in the great kitchens.
He had been friendly enough with the cheerful, charming boy who had grown into a rogue, who had finally taken a step which proved fatal.
He could not regret the death of Wickham, who had been all too ready to destroy the reputation and lives of an entire family of innocents. But he grieved the necessity, without a doubt, and prayed that the image imprinted on the back of his eyelids would fade soon into comforting darkness.
“Excuse me, sir,” a male voice said tentatively.
The colonel opened his eyes and sat up a little, regarding Lady Amelia’s butler irritably. “Yes?”
“Sir,” the man said, “I do apologize for disturbing you, but a Mr. Bingley has arrived from London and says that Mr. Darcy invited him with Lady Amelia’s blessing. Do you know the gentleman?”
Fitzwilliam surged to his feet and nodded. “I do! Please show him in!”
/
Dinner was over, as was the separation of the sexes after the meal, and Lady Amelia gazed around the drawing room at Beehaven in satisfaction.
She considered herself a practical woman in many ways, but in the deepest recesses of her heart, she was also a romantic.
Too often her young acquaintances married entirely for pragmatic considerations, and thus she rejoiced in the new engagement of Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
Elizabeth, who was vibrant, intelligent and beautiful, was beaming with delight and Darcy’s eyes kept straying to rest upon the lovely visage of the woman who had agreed to be his wife.
They would, Lady Amelia thought, be very happy together.
“I must ride to Longbourn to ask your father’s permission,” Darcy said with a fond smile at his fiancée.
“Of course,” Elizabeth agreed joyfully. “I suppose that Jane and I should return with you so that my mother can begin making wedding preparations.”
To Lady Amelia’s surprise, Jane cleared her throat rather ostentatiously, drawing the attention of the party. “Elizabeth, if you feel it incumbent on you to depart immediately, naturally I will not stand in your way, but… ”
She trailed off and Elizabeth leaned forward curiously. “But what, Jane?”
“But I asked Miss Bennet if she would be willing to engage in courtship with me,” Gabriel explained diffidently. “But Miss Bennet, if you depart immediately for Hertfordshire, I can follow you. Do not let that concern you.”
Lady Amelia, to her considerable shock and embarrassment, found herself crying.
Jane, not surprisingly, looked horrified, which prompted her hostess to rush into speech.
“Oh, Miss Bennet, I am so very happy. Not that there is anything settled between you and my son, of course, but you are a lovely young woman and oh, I do apologize. I am rarely such a weeping willow, I assure you!”
Jane smiled and reached out to grasp the older woman’s hand in her own. “I am delighted that you are pleased with my new friendship with Mr. Hartford, Lady Amelia. I too do not know where it will end, but I believe we are both relishing the opportunity to know one another better.”
“Given that,” Elizabeth piped up, having had a hurried consultation with Darcy, “it seems wise for Fitzwilliam to wait to call on Father. Longbourn is no doubt a riotous place right now and once Mother knows I am engaged to a wealthy man, it will grow noisier still. There is truly no hurry; Father departed for home with the knowledge that Fitzwilliam and I were courting. We should give you and Mr. Hartford a few days together here at least, if that is convenient for you, Lady Amelia?”
“A few days, a week, a month, a year, a decade,” the older woman declared with an extravagant gesture. “You are my dear friends now, and my house is yours.”
/
“So Miss Bennet is here in Brighton?” Bingley inquired eagerly. He had been shown to his room to refresh himself from his journey, and was now seated across from Colonel Fitzwilliam enjoying a glass of Madeira.
“Miss Bennet, along with her sister Miss Elizabeth, Darcy, Lady Amelia Hartford, and her son Gabriel, are staying in the country some fifteen miles away,” Fitzwilliam explained. “They left this morning and I intend to follow after them tomorrow, as I am interested in seeing Mr. Hartford’s estate.”
“Ah, what a pity that I missed them before their departure! I intended to come to Brighton yesterday, but my younger sister needed me to escort her to the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly. ”
“You are certainly welcome to accompany me tomorrow, Bingley, so long as you need not return to London immediately.”
“No, no, I am quite at leisure to remain and will accompany you with pleasure,” Bingley said enthusiastically. “This is a good Madeira, by the way.”
“Yes, Lady Amelia has an excellent cellar.”
“Marvelous. Now I hope you do not mind me asking – who is Lady Amelia Hartford, Colonel Fitzwilliam? Is she a friend of yours?”
“No, she is an acquaintance of Darcy’s through his mother, Lady Anne. Lady Amelia and Lady Anne were close friends when they were young women, and when Miss Elizabeth and her relations needed a place to stay here in Brighton, Lady Amelia kindly opened her home.”
“That is very generous of her, and I do look forward to making her acquaintance and to give my own thanks, as she was kind enough to allow me to stay here as well. I assume my purpose here is obvious enough, Colonel; I am pursuing Miss Bennet.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam grinned. “I guessed as much, and I wish you well. She is a delightful lady.”
“She is an angel! It is not merely her beauty, which is remarkable, but her gentle spirit as well. I am most grateful to Darcy for informing me that Miss Bennet was indeed attached to me when I left Netherfield last fall.”
The colonel knitted his brow at this and said slowly, “So you truly believed she was indifferent?”
Bingley grimaced and said, “I thought she cared for me, but my sisters and Darcy convinced me otherwise. I do regret that I had not the determination to pursue her last autumn, but Darcy seemed very certain that she did not return my regard. In addition, well, I do not know if you aware of the legal situation regarding the Longbourn estate?”
“I am. Mr. Collins, who is clergyman for my aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is the heir to Mr. Bennet.”
“Precisely. I feared that Miss Bennet would be pressured into accepting my offer when she did not care for me, and she is such a beautiful, kind woman; it would be a tragedy if she was forced to marry for pecuniary reasons alone.”
The colonel shrugged and said, “That is an unusual perspective among the gentry, Bingley. When I marry, I must consider the dowry of any prospective bride. As the second son of an earl, I have habits of expense which will not allow me to wed a penniless lady. It is the way of our world that money must be a consideration for most gentlemen and ladies. You and Darcy are fortunate that both of you can marry a lady who will not bring much money into marriage.”
Bingley looked amused. “Darcy could marry a penniless woman, I suppose, but I believe there are few heiresses as wealthy as Anne de Bourgh. I understand Darcy and Miss de Bourgh have been nominally engaged since they were in their cradles.”
Fitzwilliam laughed and shook his head. “Why do you think Darcy is here in Brighton, Bingley?”
The man frowned, looked puzzled, and then his bemusement cleared away to be replaced by understanding. “He is pursuing Miss Elizabeth?”
“Precisely. So no, I believe Darcy has no intention of offering for my cousin Anne.”
Bingley leaned back again in satisfaction. “That is entirely delightful. I wish him and Miss Elizabeth very well, and if Miss Bennet does me the honor of accepting my hand in marriage, we will be brothers!”
/
Elizabeth woke up in some confusion. The light seemed wrong, and the bed, and the room, and there were strange sounds outside the open windows of ... of ... were those cows?
Memory flooded back and she relaxed back into her pillow, her face illuminated with joy. She was engaged to Mr. Darcy of Pemberley! He had asked for her hand in marriage only yesterday as they meandered amongst the wildflowers in the field behind Beehaven.
A soft sigh from her right made her turn over to regard her sister Jane, who was curled up facing her, her face peaceful in sleep.
That was another reason for joy; Jane was now being courted by a generous and honorable man, Mr. Gabriel Hartford.
Of course, the fledgling friendship between her elder sister and Mr. Hartford might well end without an engagement.
After all, Jane’s experience with Mr. Bingley of Netherfield had shown her that admiration did not always result in an offer of marriage.
For now there was, at least, hope that her sister would find love and security with a good man.