Page 51

George Wickham guided the horse along the path from Hunsford to Rosings Park.

He’d rented use of the horse from the livery today for two reasons–a man with money didn’t walk everywhere he went, and because he had the horse, he would not be forced to walk from Rosings Park with the insufferable parson.

‘The man never pauses to breathe while praising Lady Catherine de Burgh, including her belches after every meal,’ Wickham mused.

‘Mrs Collins must wish she were deaf after four months of marriage. And spending the rest of her life married to that man will earn the lady a place in heaven for certain.’

Snorting when he realised that he–George Wickham–thought about someone else’s eternal reward. At that moment, George noticed his horse was passing the Hunsford parsonage along the road.

‘The parsonage at Kympton is a finer house, but I would never have been satisfied living there. There would have been problems with women for certain.’ George remembering how the innkeeper’s daughter turned him down again the previous evening.

‘Her mother was willing, but the woman doesn’t have a tooth left in her head. ’

Glancing back at the parsonage again, George remembered that Elizabeth Bennet visited with Mrs Collins for the month of April.

‘Miss Bennet’s a comely maiden, but virgins aren’t as satisfying as a girl with some experience.

Maybe Mrs Collins will entertain me…with her husband’s approval.

All I must do is throw some gold his way, and he would command her to do my bidding in the parlour. ’

Thoughts of women were pushed to the back of his mind as George prepared for the most important role he had ever played in his schemes.

He sneered, ‘Miss Bingley was easy to flatter. And once she became fascinated by ‘Lord Campbell,’ she became willing to hand over her dowry. I need to lay my hands on Lady Catherine’s money to show Miss Bingley, and she’ll sign over her fifteen thousand expecting to become Lady Campbell within the month. ’

The horse approached the front of the manor house, and George smiled–today, he would be the solicitous young businessman with the greatest respect for the noble Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her glorious lineage.

He would agree to help her enrich her daughter so that Fitzwilliam Darcy would agree to tie himself to his cousin with marriage.

Thinking about cousins, George remembered his father and old Mr George Darcy once conversed about breeding sheep.

Mr Wickham wanted to breed the ewes back to the same rams again, but Mr Darcy insisted, “No, we need new rams this year. See if Chesterfield will exchange rams with us this summer. He’s got a good bloodline in his flock, and we have used the same studs for three years–the rams would be topping ewes too closely related.

‘Father agreed and pressed not to breed the sheep closely. Yet, the nobles think that doesn’t apply to their children,’ George thought. ‘It is all about money and power when they sell their daughters to their nephews. They never think about the weak little lambs they will produce.’

~~~

At the door of the grand house, George handed his gloves and hat to the butler, who handed them to a footman to place on the nearby table where a second hat and pair of gloves lay.

‘Mr Collins arrived first,’ Wickham surmised. ‘According to his never-ending monologues, he spends the morning in her ladyship’s bower before she dresses.’

With a small smile, he wondered how easy it would be to start a rumour about Lady Cahterine seducing her pastor. The servants could testify about the man being in her dressing room and bedchamber for hours daily.

“Her ladyship has not come down as of yet,” the butler informed the visitor.

George did not have to act to create a look of surprise on his face before he asked, “Mr Collins takes lunch with Lady Catherine in her private apartment–again?”

The butler made no remark, but the lips of both men twitched. Wickham hid any recognition of their facial expressions, and the butler motioned toward a pair of chairs against the wall.

“Visitors may stand or sit as it suits their temperament,” the man informed George before he bowed and walked away. The footmen, who were supposed to remain invisible, did not bow but followed the butler from the hallway, leaving George alone.

He remained a solitary figure for many minutes before he heard movement and voices coming from the upper floors of Rosings Park. A woman’s voice lectured someone about propriety and the appropriate time for social calls. The faint voice of a timorous man replied with the word ‘business.’

It was another hour before Lady Catherine descended the staircase of her daughter’s manor house with the grace of a noblewoman taught to make an entrance into every situation.

The butler and two footmen appeared as if magically summoned, but they remained silent.

Only when Lady Catherine was at the bottom of the stairs did George bow from the waist.

Collins hurried around his patroness to bow and begin a long introduction of the man of business by stating his name and the name of his company three times. Wickham watched Lady Catherine rather than Mr Collins; her facial expressions revealed nothing of her feelings or emotions.

When Collins was forced to fall silent to draw a breath, George said, “Thank you for receiving me this afternoon, Lady Catherine and for your interest in my proposal. My good father instructed me on the deference that we must give to members of the nobility; thus, I assure you that no one will learn of our meeting.”

“Of course, no one will learn of the meeting between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and a man of business,” Collins interjected.

“Follow me,” commanded Lady Catherine, leading Wickham, and Collins into the parlour where she held court each day. Once inside the door, the woman turned to the butler who had followed and said, “No one is allowed to bother me until I call for you.”

“Yes, madam,” the butler said before he bowed his head and closed the door as he left. Slipping down the stairs, Anne de Bourgh quietly made her way into the adjoining dining room where she could hear the conversation in the parlour.

Not inviting either man to sit, Lady Catherine addressed the stranger, “Wickham, your father was steward to Mr George Darcy, my sister’s husband, was he not?”

“He was Mr George Darcy’s steward, and my father served…”

“Yes, yes,” Lady Cahterine dismissed anything the man wanted to add. “You were educated at university?”

“Yes, Lady Catherine.”

“At George Darcy’s expense?”

“Yes, Lady Catherine,” Wickham admitted.

“What did you do with that extravagant gift?”

George spoke for a moment about Mr George Darcy’s wish for him to take orders, but the man confessed, “I did not have the call to the church that I believe is necessary to be an effective man of the cloth.”

He nodded his head toward Mr Collins but then continued, “Therefore, I turned my attention to earning a living with business.”

Thinking the man spoke well for a member of the lower classes, the woman asked, “Were you apprenticed to some merchant?”

“No, ma’am. I made my own way with small investments with merchants and worked in their accounting offices with monies and cargos.”

“What has changed that you are seeking more gold? That you need investors for this tea business?”

“The New World Tea Company has been successful carrying tea and other goods to British colonies and the new American states across the Atlantic Ocean.”

“How are you successful?” she asked. “I thought only noblemen could manage these matters.”

“The number of people drinking tea increases through births and immigration from England. The merchants here hesitate to send ships across the ocean because of the continued wars with Bonaparte and predation by French privateers.”

The lady motioned for Wickham to continue, and the man added, “A merchant ship has come up for sale and I have been given the opportunity make the purchase, hire my own captain and crew to carry cargo to America.”

“And they return with money? With gold?”

“No, Lady Catherine. They return with holds filled with sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, rice, and indigo. London merchants bid against each other for these goods from the New World and put profits into my pocket to share with my shareholders.”

Mr Collins spoke up, “Mr Wickham paid handsome profits last autumn. And the other night he paid me…”

The parson froze realizing he had violated the promise to keep the payments this spring as confidential.

Lady Catherine frowned, but George remained calm and continued with his proposal, “When I learned about the ship being offered for sale and I gathered all the particulars, the first person I approached about purchasing shares in this new enterprise was your nephew, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy.”

“My nephew’s behaviour is much altered this spring,” Lady Catherine admitted. “His treatment of me–his closest relation–has been scandalous!”

Sighing Wickham stated, “I count Darcy as a trusted acquaintance, and it is distressing to hear of such behaviour.”

The parson interjected, “It is most distressing for Lady Catherine to have her nephew disregard her wishes!”

“When he heard about my new business venture, he expressed an interest,” George explained. “I offered him a new preferred stock that would be paid ahead of every other investor.”

“How much are these things…these shares?” asked Mr Collins.

“There are fifteen hundred shares at twenty pounds a share.”

“Thirty thousand pounds!” exclaimed the woman. She gathered her thoughts and asked, “Did my nephew invest in your business?”

“Initially, Darcy and I spoke about his purchase of the full amount, thirty thousand pounds, but then he hesitated to make any investment. I have another investor anxious to purchase half of the stocks once I have secured a promise for the remaining investment. When I heard Darcy was visiting Rosings, I believed he planned to speak to you about investing wealth from Miss de Bourgh’s estate in the ship. ”

Lady Catherine’s frown deepened as she revealed, “My nephew did not speak of this opportunity during his visit.”

Wickham sighed, “I do not understand. With the first trip across the Atlantic, I shall recover half of the investment. We would have enormous profits after the second year.”

“Indeed?” Lady Catherine asked.

Smiling, Wickham said, “The London merchants who buy the American goods tell me that I would have almost fifteen thousand pounds in profits each year.”

“The peoples in the Americas need our tea provided by good British ships,” Lady Catherine stated. Then she asked Wickham, “Are you sure it will be fifteen thousand a year? Each year?”

“I cannot guarantee the amount every year, Lady Catherine. Profits vary just as the amount of corn harvested from the fields varies from year to year.”

“At least you are honest about that,” she conceded.

“If the profits are fifteen thousand pounds, I shall pay the two primary investors five thousand pounds each and divide the remaining funds among the other men who own New World Tea Company shares.”

“Surely, you can see that I would make better use of these profits,” Lady Catherine argued.

George’s face reflected his confusion as he asked, “Lady Catherine, should I short payments to men such as Mr Collins?”

Waving away the question, the woman ignored the disappointment evident on her parson’s face to hear that his patroness would deny him a share of the profits.

Lady Catherine asked, “Do you have an investor for half the needed funds?”

George bowed his head as he replied, “Yes, your ladyship.”

“Then, I shall buy the available shares–fifteen thousand pounds–and gift them to my daughter upon her marriage to my nephew,” declared Lady Catherine. “With the promise of gold, Darcy will marry my daughter.”

George bowed to hide his smile and waited for the imperious woman to continue.

“But I must come to London to provide you with the funds. It will be necessary to meet with my lawyers and take the funds from my dowry because the Rosings estate is locked down by my husband’s last will and testament. Darcy never tried to break the will after my husband died.”

The noblewoman took a deep breath and announced, “I shall come to London in five days. Call on me at Matlock House on the fifteenth of May. It may take several days to make the arrangements to get the funds, but I am determined to be finished with this distasteful business as soon as possible.”

“Certainly, Lady Catherine,” the handsome man agreed.

With the end of ‘business,’ the woman waved the man away and Wickham departed Rosings Park.

The butler escorted the man to the door, returned his hat and gloves, and saw him out the door.

George was surprised when he noticed one of the footmen remained outside the house to make certain the visitor left the grounds.

Once they were alone, Lady Catherine turned to her parson and said, “Your assistance is appreciated, Mr Collins. However, your presence will not be required in London.”

Disappointed yet again by his patroness, Collins bowed and would have expressed his opinion except Lady Catherine began a diatribe against her nephew, and men in general, before she turned to the topic of sermons for Mr Collins during her forthcoming absence.

“I may be gone for a month complete with arrangements. Once I get my nephew in my presence again, the stocks in New World Tea Company will make him amenable to my demands for his marriage with Anne.”

From her hiding place in the adjoining room, Anne de Bourgh frowned and decided to take steps while her mother was absent from Rosings.

~~~