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That same afternoon, the Darcy carriage crossed London once again and Jasper pulled on the reigns to stop the horses outside Matlock House, the Fitzwilliam home in the capital.

Not waiting for a footman to open the door, Darcy emerged from the coach and paused on the street to instruct the coachman to hold the horses there at the front of the house.

Darcy assured his coachman, “I shall not remain long, and then we shall go to Mayfair for the evening.”

He approached the door and banged the brass knocker on the large door three times before a footman appeared.

The servant was confused for a moment but then held the door open to permit entry by the powerful nephew of the Earl of Matlock.

Handing over his hat and gloves, Darcy asked, “Where will I find my uncle?”

“His Grace is in his office with the countess and Lady Catherine.”

Displeased to have to address his uncle in the presence of both aunts, Darcy took a deep breath and walked along the hallway.

There was a footman outside the door who moved to open the door for the young man.

The loud voices in the office cut off immediately when the door opened and the earl called out, “I said for no one to disturb me!”

“Uncle, forgive me for intruding but I must speak with you,” Darcy said as he stepped into the room, ignoring the earl’s commands.

“Such bad manners!” muttered Lady Catherine. Lady Marie remained silent and did not address her nephew. Since the day they married, her husband had deferred to his sister’s opinion in everyday matters and the countess learned to remain out of family arguments.

In a few sentences, Darcy explained that his aunt had thrown away a fortune handing the funds to a charlatan who pretended to have a profitable business.

The earl asked, “Cathy, how much gold have you lost?”

“Darcy is mistaken!” insisted Lady Catherine. “The New World Tea Company is a real concern with tremendous profits,” the woman insisted. “They are the next East India Company.”

Reminding his sister of a fact of life, the earl said, “The East India Company has a strangle hold on trade with the east.”

Lady Catherine argued, “Wickham’s ships sail to the Americas, not the East Indies.”

“George Wickham does not have any ships,” Fitzwilliam Darcy insisted. “And this afternoon, I visited to Newgate Prison to identify two of the man’s confederates.”

“Do the constables have them in custody?” asked the earl. “They must be made to reveal where we can find Wickham and recover Cathy’s gold.”

“There will be nothing recovered,” Darcy explained. “My trip to Newgate Prison was to identify the bodies of Mrs Young and Mr Bounty. Wickham is the most likely suspect; he slit their throats and left them underneath the bed in the Sleeping Dog, a tavern where Wickham slept.”

The earl asked, “Is the man still about?”

“The prison governor thinks that Wickham sailed from London in a merchant ship last night. A flotilla of ships left for the Americas with the tide.”

The earl sat back and considered everything. Then he asked, “Nephew, what is the financial damage to Rosings?”

Darcy replied, “Aunt Catherine said the attorneys found buyers for the two properties in Gravesend. Their rents were three hundred pounds a year. There will be no pin money for Anne and her mother this year.”

“Can we blame the attorneys and force them to return the properties?” asked the earl.

“Only if you want to lose them as the handlers for your money and estate,” explained Darcy while shaking his head. “A lawsuit would be expensive and cost your family a great deal of goodwill.”

“It is your family as well!” exclaimed Earl Matlock.

“Not in regard to Rosings Park,” Darcy said. “Lady Catherine has driven me away completely with her demands that I marry Anne. When I returned to London at the end of April, I visited the attorneys in question with my estate attorney and relinquished all obligations to the Rosings Park estate.”

Surprised the earl asked, “How can you do this? The will of Sir Louis de Bourgh made you executor of his estate…”

Darcy replied immediately, “Until Anne reached the age of five and twenty, which she did last week.”

The countess met her sister-on-law’s eyes and smiled just slightly; Anne de Bourgh would not marry Fitzwilliam Darcy.

For a moment, Lady Marie wondered if her daughter stood a chance to catch the rich scion of their family.

Then she dismissed the notion because she did not believe that cousins should marry.

The four members of the extended family were silent for a moment before the door opened once again and the butler appeared with a silver salver bearing two letters.

The man begged the Earl and Countess’s forgiveness for the interruption as he offered the letters to the earl.

The man read the direction on each letter and returned one to the silver tray.

“Give that one to Lady Catherine,” the earl said as he opened the first letter and read the contents. The butler retreated to the door but remained inside the office. Only another moment passed before the earl cursed, “God’s teeth! Cathy, you are ruined!”

Lady Catherine opened her letter while the countess rose to move to stand beside her husband and read his letter. While the two women read the letters, the earl asked, “Darcy, who is Clarence Fredericks?”

Having read most of the message, Lady Catherine moaned and fainted, before she slid from the chair to lay on the floor until Darcy and the butler moved her to a sofa.

The countess sent for smelling salts and asked a footman to go to a physician known to the family and ask him to come to attend a lady in distress.

When she was revived, Lady Catherine demanded that her brother have this man arrested and transported to Australia. Darcy objected and revealed that Clarence Frederick was the owner of more acreage than Rosings Park.

“As master of Rosings Park, Frederick is the largest landowner in Kent,” Darcy explained.

The earl listened to his nephew and replied, “Sister, Mr Fredericks married your daughter while you were in London, and he is now master of Rosings Park.”

“The will of your late husband is explicit, Aunt Catherine,” Darcy added.

“Upon her marriage, Anne’s husband is master of Rosings Park and the entire estate.

You have the widow’s portion of the income with the dower house and servants to care for the house and you for the rest of your natural life. ”

“The widow’s portion? I shall starve!” exclaimed the woman. “I shall freeze in winter or die of starvation!”

During the recriminations that Lady Catherine threw in the direction of her brother, dead husband, this unknown son-in-law, and recalcitrant nephew, Fitzwilliam Darcy made a quick departure.

He left Matlock House and journeyed the few miles to his home in Mayfair for the night. The servants were surprised at the master’s sudden appearance, but Darcy gave no notice to the covered furniture or disorganized rooms. His bed would be clean and warm, and he ate his supper in his office.

Along with the letters his secretary prepared to forward to Netherfield the next day, Darcy found a letter from Mr Clarence Fredericks that announced his marriage to Miss Anne de Bourgh.

There was a postscript from Anne at the bottom of the short page in which she stated she had made the match to find her own happiness and asked for her cousin’s blessing.

After writing a letter to Mr Bennet that revealed all the details that he knew about the fraud perpetrated by George Wickham on Miss Bingley and Lady Catherine, Darcy penned a response to Mr and Mrs Clarence Fredericks with his best wishes for their happiness.

The letter to Mr Bennet, he would send express to be delivered before noon.

The second letter would be posted with the regular post the next morning.

~~~

While breaking his fast in his office the next morning, Darcy received the mail.

Included in the letters was a note from the Earl of Matlock asking that Darcy call again at Matlock House before eleven.

He wished to consult with his nephew about Lady Catherine’s situation.

Darcy had planned to depart for Netherfield as soon as his meal was finished – he had no intention of becoming embroiled in any problems created by Lady Catherine with her new son-in-law.

However, he decided to attend the meeting and make certain the Earl of Matlock would not support his sister against Mr and Mrs Fredericks.

Displeased to be summoned to the Fitzwilliam home, Darcy grew openly disgruntled when he was kept waiting at door for five minutes.

While standing there, he was a joined by Gilbert Hastings from the legal firm that managed the affairs for the Matlock and Rosings Park estates.

There were simple greetings between Darcy and Hastings while they waited.

Finally, a footman appeared with an apologetic Lady Marie standing to one side, and an angry Lady Catherine in the background.

The earl watched the parade that included his wife, sister, nephew and lawyers as they entered his office. The older man asked, “Why is everyone scowling before the conversation begins?”

Lady Marie explained to her husband that Lady Catherine prevented the footman from answering the front door. The woman complained, “Your invited guests were left standing on our doorstep for five minutes.”