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“That would be something I would like to see. Archy has told me of his favourite satellite estate, Castlemere, in Derbyshire. I am sure we will spend time there, so I am hopeful we will visit Pemberley,” Elizabeth responded.

“Seeing the sun strike the Peaks is something I will dream of experiencing.”

“Castlemere is to the west of Pemberley, and the estates share a boundary,” Georgiana reported excitedly. “With the Duke’s permission, we often ride around the lake. Do you know that part of the manor house is a castle?”

“That was unknown to me. How much fun; a real castle. I had assumed the first part of the name of the estate referred to a castle which stands no more,” Elizabeth related.

She turned to Mary. “Wait until Cathy and Lydia hear about an actual castle; they will want to go see it on the morrow.” Elizabeth left Mary and Anna and walked towards her fiancé.

She passed Charlotte and Anthony, who went to speak to Mary and Anna. Elizabeth smiled warmly when she saw Archy make his excuse to his friends and come meet her before she reached him.

“Tell me of this castle,” Elizabeth insisted playfully.

“I thought you cared not for material things,” Hertfordshire bantered back.

“That was before I knew you owned a castle,” Elizabeth returned with her pert nose in the air.

The Duke had to fight not to give in to his urge to kiss the upturned nose. “ We will own a castle soon enough, Minx,” he growled. Further talk was cut off as the others began walking towards the path to return to the horses, now that the sun was above the horizon.

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

At the age of twenty, Miss Caroline Bingley was not used to brooking disappointment, yet no matter how many invitations she had her siblings issue, the Darcy heir, whom she knew was at Darcy House based on what her brother had mentioned, had refused all and had not attended a single meal with them.

She was pacing back and forth in the main drawing room in her sister and brother-in-law’s house, Hurst House, on Curzon Street, near, but to Miss Bingley’s chagrin, not in Mayfair.

She had been urging her brother, Charles, to purchase a house in that fashionable neighbourhood—preferably in Grosvenor Square—but he had told her there were few for sale, none around the green in the centre of Grosvenor Square near Darcy House, and he had claimed those houses were far too expensive for his budget.

Rather than have him come to Curzon Street, where she would be able to demonstrate her eligibility to be his wife, Charles had met with his friend at the Darcys’ house on Grosvenor Square, and because there was no lady in residence, as much as she wanted to, she could not go with him.

Other times the two men met at White’s or Boodle’s, both places where one of her sex was not permitted to enter.

How was she to induce the younger Mr Darcy to marry her if she was never in the same place as him?

She cared not that his father seemed hale and healthy because when she married the younger Darcy, it would grant her heart’s desire.

It would give her entry into the top of the first circles.

She knew that she deserved to be a member of the Ton !

Speaking of marriage, she had read the announcement in the papers relating that the Duke of Hertfordshire had selected the woman who was to be his duchess. This Elizabeth Bennet was completely unknown in Town and came from the country.

If only she could have put herself in the Duke’s company, she would be the one who would soon be a duchess.

That would have shown all of those uppity women who attended the exclusive seminary with her.

They had all disdained her because of her father being in trade!

They had treated her as if she, Caroline Maleficent Bingley, did not belong in the upper ten thousand.

If she had won the Duke’s hand, she would have relished ruining every last one of them, beginning with that homely slattern, Miss Dora Grantley, who thought she was so high because her father was a lowly baronet.

“Caro, what vexes you now?” Louisa Hurst, the eldest of the three Bingley siblings enquired. She did not miss the anger in her sister’s looks.

She had told one and all how good her experiences at the seminary had been, so she could not mention anything of her mistreatment to her sister. “First, some country mushroom compromises the Duke of Hertfordshire, and now we are never in company with Mr Darcy,” Miss Bingley whinged.

“Surely you know that His Grace has never gratified a compromise, and in fact, it is well known he would ruin the family of anyone whose daughter attempted it. And before you say it is a fiction, it is a well-known fact. Whoever the Duke is marrying was a choice, not anything as dishonourable as an entrapment.” Mrs Hurst did not add ‘like you would be willing to do’ because she knew it would cause a tantrum.

She would only criticise her younger and more forceful sister obliquely, like she did when she tied dishonour to a compromise.

“At your repeated requests, I have issued more than a few invitations to Mr Darcy. You know Harold has also done so when they met at the club, do you not? He has not accepted, and there is nought I can do to make him accept.” Harold was her husband, Harold Hurst, heir to a medium-sized estate, Winsdale, in Surrey.

Miss Bingley did not want to acknowledge the truth, but rather than refute her sister’s words, she huffed and, with her nose high in the air, left the drawing room.

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

It was no great surprise that the two youngest Bennet sisters and Anna bonded almost as soon as they met.

Lilly, who was eight, was included as well, though she was not as outgoing as her Bennet cousins.

Before the morning meal was announced, the girls were chattering away, addressing one another by their familiar names, like they had known one another for many years.

If Lady Anne had been pleased by the interactions Anna had with the two older Bennet sisters, she was ecstatic at the way her daughter took to the younger two sisters, and they to her.

She hardly recognised her daughter as the same girl that she had been before she met the Bennet sisters.

It endeared the sisters to her as she watched her Anna grow in confidence thanks to them.

She and her sister-in-law discovered how estimable Mesdames Gardiner and Phillips were.

Lady Anne remembered Mrs Gardiner’s late mother clearly, even though the church in Lambton was not under her husband’s gift.

She related to Madeline Gardiner how her mother used to patronise some of the same local charities she did as the mistress of Pemberley.

Before the ladies joined the rest in going to the breakfast parlour, they were already using familiar names.

There was no awkwardness in the interactions between the Earl, Darcy, and the two men in trade.

Matlock and Gardiner were known to one another due to the business they had together.

Had the Duke not marked them as men of good sense who were gentlemen in every way which counted, it would not have taken the brothers-in-law long to see that for themselves.

When Matlock informed Darcy that Gardiner was the man with whom he, and many of their peers invested, he was very interested in doing the same.

The reports of the returns he earned were the stuff of legends.

When Darcy had enquired before meeting him, he had been told Gardiner and Associates were not taking new investors; becoming acquainted with the owner would change that for him.

It was not the reason he wanted to explore a friendship with Gardiner and Phillips, but it was a welcome side effect.

As they walked into the breakfast parlour, the welcoming smells of breakfast fare in the air, Darcy could not but think of his haughty son and how he would have reacted to these men.

He and Anne had decided to allow William to find his own way, but he was afraid it was time to demand some changes in the way their son behaved towards those he thought were below him.

After the morning meal, Darcy approached Elizabeth Bennet. “I have been told you know how to play chess.”

“Correct. Would you like to try and play against me?” she challenged.

“Very much so.” Darcy was confident he would be victorious. They sat, and even though he won white, he lost his king within twelve minutes. After thinking about how his son needed to learn humility and then ignoring what he had been told about Miss Bennet’s abilities, he was properly humbled.

“Did I not predict the game would be over in less than fifteen minutes?” Anthony asked smugly.

Matlock had thought to challenge the young lady after Darcy schooled her.

Instead, a man he almost never beat had been the one who had been drubbed.

He withdrew from the field before issuing his challenge.

He rather played against Miss Mary. He lasted little more than a half hour before tipping his king.

By the time the Fitzwilliams and Darcys rode back to Netherfield Park, any misgivings they had about the match between Hertfordshire and Lizzy were banished. To her great pleasure, Miss Darcy would spend the rest of the day at Purvis Lodge.