Page 18 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
Henry agreed without delay and asked that Wickham give him recommendations with the names of two or three men who would be willing to take on the role. It was easy to see that Wickham was somewhat uncomfortable, but he had more to say. Henry had told him to speak freely.
His steward related that his son, who was nineteen, would complete his schooling in early May.
He told of how George loved working with him on the estate and would prefer to follow his father into being a steward than read the law.
Henry understood that Wickham did not want to seem like he was promoting nepotism.
The truth was Henry was aware that the younger Wickham had been doing very well, both at school and in working with his father at the estate.
As such, he had no objection if George Wickham was employed as one of the under-stewards.
Wickham had been well pleased and excited to relay the news to his son.
Henry had set two hundred and fifty pounds as the annual remuneration for under-stewards, and that was before George was to be one.
The older Wickham opined that the wages were far more than fair.
Darcy recommending Lucas Wickham to him those many years ago was something for which Henry was still very grateful.
Thinking of his friend reminded him that the last time he hosted Lizzy, Mary, and Kitty at his house in London in late January-early February of 1805, Robert Darcy had been at Darcy House with his daughter .
Anna was almost eight, Mary was twelve, and Kitty was about to turn ten.
The Darcy heir, who would have looked down on them, was in his final year at Cambridge, so he had not been present.
Just as Henry suspected, the four girls had bonded very quickly, and within two days, they were addressing one another by their familiar names.
One thing that had concerned Henry was Darcy’s pallor; it had a grey tinge to it. It was not something of which his friend spoke, so Henry did not feel it was his place to comment.
One evening the two Darcys and three Fitzwilliams—Andrew had graduated and completed his grand tour before the Corsican tyrant had launched his war of aggression in Europe—had come to Henry’s house for dinner.
Before the meal, they had all been in a drawing room with the four girls when Kitty had innocently made a comment about how good it was that Uncle Henry owned a home near to their new friend.
Both Darcy and Matlock had looked at Henry with raised eyebrows. He promised to tell all during the separation of the sexes.
Lady Elaine did not object to sitting in the drawing room with the four girls after the meal. She enjoyed speaking to them all, especially Miss Elizabeth, and when the latter and Miss Mary played a duet on the pianoforte, the Countess was never happier.
Once the men in the dining room had their libation of choice before them, three sets of eyes looked at Henry, waiting for him.
“I never said this was a lease; I just did not correct your misconception,” Henry began.
“I need your absolute words of honour that you will not repeat what I am about to relate to anyone. In your case, Matlock, I do not expect you to keep it from your wife.”
All three men vowed in turn.
“In 1765, I went to India to seek my fortune.
Not long after we became friends, you will remember I once quipped I had found it.
Henry saw Matlock and Darcy nod. “Well, that was true, except…” He told them of the discovery of gold on his land up to the purchase of the mine by the Dutch East India Company.
How he had converted the massive payment for the mine, over one and one half million pounds, to gold and jewels and shipped it all back along with his own gold from his mine in ten ships.
He related that two ships were lost and how.
“I have kept the truth of my wealth secret, and although there were rumours of a spectacular fortune in gold being deposited, the banks kept my name secret under threat of account closure and ruin. With so much, I have funded…” Henry spoke of the schools, medical men, and more that he did in the way of charitable contributions.
He also revealed his ownership of Netherfield Park and his partnership with Edward Gardiner.
“I had thought about making my nephew my heir, but he is unworthy. Instead, I have chosen Lizzy as my heir.”
“That little slip of a girl will one day be richer than all of us combined! No wonder you want to keep it secret,” Matlock said in shock.
“If that avaricious sister-in-law of mine had known, rather than try and bar you from Pemberley, she would have compromised you,” Darcy turned to Matlock. “Sorry to speak of your sister so.”
“You spoke the truth. Catherine is extremely mercenary, so I take no exception to your words,” Matlock stated.
“As far as Lizzy goes, if I pass before her majority…” Henry explained what the safeguards were which had been put in place to protect his great-niece from both her parents and fortune hunters. “Knowing Lizzy, she will try, as I have, to use as much to help others as she can.”
“It is sad you need to put such things in place to keep her parents from trying to steal her fortune,” Andrew said as he shook his head .
“You know, Matlock, I wanted to buy an estate for Richard, but I did not think you or he would appreciate my involvement in your business in that way,” Henry revealed.
“It is a worry for all of us. We are at war with France, and Richard and William graduate in May. My son is as determined as ever to take a commission in the regulars,” Matlock lamented. “We have offered him an estate we would purchase for him, but he sees it as charity and has so far refused.”
Since then, much to Henry’s pleasure, his relationship with his friends had not changed with the revelation of his enormous wealth.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Sadness struck in early August 1806. Robert Darcy passed away.
Henry was at Sherwood Dale preparing for his move to the dower house in May of 1807 when the black-edged notice had arrived.
Evidently the grey pallor Henry had noticed was caused by a failing heart.
Darcy had been aware that there was a problem, but he wanted to make sure William graduated and had been taught as much as he could learn before Darcy gave in to the illness.
Henry hied to Pemberley as soon as his carriage was made ready. He passed the gate posts, already draped with black fabric. The gatehouse keeper had his hat in hand, head bowed, and a black armband on his one arm.
Like he had with Lady Anne’s passing, Henry entered by the main double doors and not from the internal courtyard. He was received with warmth, or as much as could be expected given the circumstances. And there was no Lady Catherine attempting to assert her non-existent authority over the house.
Although Fitzwilliam Darcy, the new master of the estate, was a little aloof in his grief over he and Anna becoming orphans, he was warmer towards Henry than he had been since before his late mother began to poison him against the man she and her sister deemed a tradesman.
It was not the time to point it out to him, but William had befriended the son of a tradesman, a Charles Bingley, at Cambridge.
The man was a year behind William, and until then he and Richard had had no contact with the Bingley fellow.
However, that all changed when he and Richard had rescued Bingley from two who were attacking him for daring to attend Cambridge with the stench of trade wafting off his person.
Some months back, the final time Henry had seen Darcy in London, his friend had pointed out the irony of William making a friend of someone whose father had been in trade after the way his aunt and late mother had attempted to prejudice him.
Several days after the interment, when most of the friends had departed for their estates and homes, Henry was present when the termagant who was Lady Catherine de Bourgh forced her way into Pemberley.
Evidently she thought that her brother-in-law’s death gave her an opening.
She was sorely mistaken. When she brought up the phantom engagement, her brother and the late Robert Darcy’s solicitor refuted her assertion.
When he had known the end was not far off, Darcy had a codicil added which gave lie to Lady Catherine’s assertions about an engagement.
Next, she demanded that Anna come with her, as she had promised her sister she would care for her daughter if both parents were lost. The solicitor read the part of the codicil where Lord and Lady Matlock were appointed Miss Darcy’s guardians, and if for some reason they were not available, it would be Fitzwilliam Darcy and Richard Fitzwilliam.
The will specifically excluded her as a guardian.
As she had been when her sister passed away, Lady Catherine was shown the door and told not to return. Her behaviour confused her nephew. His beliefs about class distinction were from his mother and Lady Catherine. Was she not to be believed ?
A shock was delivered when the estate of Rivington in Surrey was left to Richard Fitzwilliam, who was a first lieutenant in the Royal Dragoons. Lord and Lady Matlock said a prayer of thanks that Richard was still being trained and had not been posted to the peninsula yet.
At first William Darcy, the new master, was not sanguine with his father’s choice regarding the guardianship of Anna. However, once he was able to think logically about it, he eventually admitted it was for the best. She needed a man and a woman to take care of her, not two single men.
Before he left, a tearful Anna asked Henry if she could write to Lizzy, Mary, and Kitty. He told her she would be more than welcome to do so.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
For the rest of 1806, Henry worked with the two Wickhams and his two other under-stewards to prepare the estate to be without him for most of the foreseeable future.
In early December of that year, Henry departed for Netherfield Park.