Page 24 of Reputation, an Easy Thing to Lose (Reputation Verse #1)

Chapter 23

Check Mate

Pemberley, Derbys hire

18 June 1813—Early Mor ning

J ane Bennet could not claim to be an early riser, having lived her whole life with Elizabeth and Mary. In fact, Jane could only recall a handful of times in her life when she rose before her sister Elizabeth, and at least three of those times were due to Elizabeth taking ill. But, when compared to the ladies of leisure who kept “town hours” even while in the country, Jane was certainly up and about well before the fashionable hour.

This morning, Jane woke early. She must write several letters regarding her engagement to Charles Bin gley.

During their stay at Pemberley, Bingley and Jane had been enjoying the relative freedom of courting openly with the blessing of her family under the guardianship of Darcy. The morning before, Bingley had invited Jane on a lovely, private walk around the lake before break fast.

Bingley had been looking for an opportunity to tell Jane about the estate Darcy had found for him. At slightly under thirty miles to the north of Pemberley along well -m aintained roads, it would be an easy distance from her favourite sister. Holdworth Hall was a modest estate with only four tenancies, but the house was reportedly in fine shape and about the size of Netherfield. Bingley did not need the money from farming since he still made nearly three thousand pounds each year from the wool mill and cloth manufacturer in Yorkshire, and an additional two thousand pounds from interest on his investments, but he wanted to provide Jane with a lifestyle to which she was accustomed. The estate was near the hamlet of Holdworth, right on the edge of the Peak District and less than two hours from the city of Sheff ield.

Bingley and Darcy planned to meet with the estate’s owner the week following the house party and negotiate a purchase price, if the property was in as good shape as they had been told. Bingley wanted to bring Jane and her sisters with him to determine whether she would have any pleasure in living t here.

Just as they had reached the westernmost edge of the lake and turned back towards the manor house, a glorious sunrise crested the Pemberley woods and created a glittering display upon the surface of the water. Bingley had turned to comment on the beauty of the day to Jane and was rendered mute by the even greater beauty of his angel bathed in the morning sun. Her golden hair was glowing, and her pale skin shimmered with the healthy flush of their exercise. Off in the distance, a flock of birds cast fluttering shadows across the lake and solidified Bingley’s resolve. Heaven was here, right in front of him. Bingley had dropped to one knee, taken out his mother’s emerald ring that had been living in his waistcoat pocket for more than a month, and prop osed.

Now, Jane’s mother needed to know of their plan to wed at Pemberley near the end of August, and hopefully accommodations could be made for the rest of her family to join the Gardiners on their northern jou rney.

Another reason Jane rose early that morning was her fervent desire to speak privately with Elizabeth before the rest of the guests woke. The past week had been a trial for Jane. This was Elizabeth’s home, the place she was rightfully mistress, but the others treated her with such distain. Without disclosing Elizabeth’s secret, Jane had spoken to Bingley about the protection of her sisters after their marriage, and her fiancé had assured her that the Bennet family would be well cared for. Even Lydia and the baby. If they wanted to live with the Bingleys for the rest of their lives, he would support them. He would always keep his home open to the Bennet w omen.

Jane wanted to speak to Elizabeth about being able to finally call an end to her secret marriage. Even if Elizabeth was not yet ready to come clean with all of society, surely their families and close friends should be told. If the interactions between Georgiana and Bernard last night were any indication, she need not worry about her newest sister’s future happiness. From now on, Jane was going to help shoulder the worry for the three youngest Bennet sis ters.

After completing the letter to her mother, Jane asked the maid who had been attending her at Pemberley if the mistress was awake yet. It had been a small pleasure of Jane’s to be able to speak freely with the young maid, Amy. Since the Pemberley staff all knew of the Darcys’ wedding last October, Jane felt comfortable acknowledging her sister’s position while in the privacy of her own rooms. Additionally, Jane had gleaned many comforting details of her sister’s life in Derbyshire. Amy relayed that the master and mistress seemed much in love and had spent a great many happy days together over the winter and sp ring.

Amy replied that she had not seen the mistress’s maid in the kitchens yet, which would indicate that her mistress had not completed her morning toilette, but that she was sure to be awake soon. Jane asked if Amy would bring her a tray with tea, toast, and some fruit to take to her sister’s room, as she desired a private audi ence.

Several minutes later, Jane was walking down the family wing corridor with a lovely tea service and some light edibles when a blood curdling scream issued from the door behind her, at the top of the family staircase. Jane whipped around in time to see the door to the master’s suite thrown wide by an unfamiliar maid. Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam and several footmen were barrelling down the halls towards the door, and Jane could see Bingley’s red hair pop out from around the corner leading to the guest wing.

With bile rising in her stomach, Jane took a few steps towards the open door she knew led to her brother - i n -l aw ’s bedchamber. From her position in the hall, she was the first to see the sight of Caroline Bingley sitting up in Fitzwilliam Darcy’s bed, obviously unclothed and clutching the bedsheet to her breast, a most wicked smile gracing her usually stoic feat ures.

After the whole of the house, including the servants, had gone to bed the night of the chess tournament, Caroline quietly took out the small treasure she had secreted away in her dress. It was a rather tiny piece of brass for something so powerful—the spare Pemberley master key pilfered from Mrs. Reynolds’s office by her maid. It had taken her servant five whole days to find her way into the old housekeeper’s private office, and Caroline had to supply the girl with lessons in picking a lock the evening before, but Caroline finally had her true prize. This key could open any door in the whole of the house, including the bedchambers of the family wing.

Winning at chess had been child’s play to the confident, educated, moneyed, Caroline. Taking the title as the best player amongst the guests had been satisfying, but beating Elizabeth in the final match had been pure poetry. That no -c lass chit could never compete with Caroline. It was absurd! And more than a little obscene. All the ladies had been whispering behind their fans that Darcy had taken her as his mistress, and with Georgiana still in the house, no less! Did the penniless servant think that just because she had bedded him, he would deign to actually marry her? It was such a grand joke!

The irony of Caroline’s own plan to secure the position of Mistress (with a CAPITAL M, thank you very much) was totally lost on the lady.

In the dark of night, Caroline made her way across the house to the ornately carved door which led to the mistress suite. Perhaps it was a bit na?ve and somewhat romantic, but Caroline wanted to come to Darcy for the first time from the mistress’s bedchamber instead of from the hall or the sitting room. She would act as if she was already mistress of this house, instead of some conniving harlot. Her plan was to open the adjourning door, come into the room, and when he asked what she was doing in his bedchamber, she would remove her nightshift and join him in his bed. If even half of what the young ladies tittered about was true, no man would be able to resist the invitation of a bare, beautiful woman in his bed.

Alerting the rest of the house to her whereabouts would again fall to her maid. Caroline did not like giving such an important task to a servant, but she must appear as if she was innocent in the seduction and embarrassed of her actions. She could not boast about her conquest as the men are said to do in their clubs. Therefore, it was necessary to have her maid go about spreading the word.

Upon entering the mistress’s chambers, Caroline noticed that the room had been redone recently, certainly since the passing of the late Lady Anne Darcy almost seventeen years ago. For a moment, Caroline paused to consider her actions. If Darcy had gone to the expense to have the mistress’s rooms updated, then surely, he intended to take a wife soon. Since Caroline could not fathom he would choose another, she briefly thought that tonight’s deception was perhaps unnecessary. But, then Elizabeth rose to the front of her mind, and she conti nued.

Caroline’s last thought as she unlocked the door between the mistress’s and master’s bedchambers was that, while the furnishing had been done in attractive and expensive fabrics, Caroline preferred a much more ornate style, so it shall need redoing a gain.

An annoyed huff was all that escaped Caroline’s well -h oned control upon finding the master’s chamber devoid of her prey. How was she to seduce an empty bed? Well, no matter. It would have been a much better thing to secure her position by allowing Darcy to bed her immediately, but she did not actually need Darcy to be present for her plan to work. Being found in his bed would be more than adequate to ensure she was thoroughly compromised, and Darcy would have no choice but to marry her with h aste.

Caroline discarded her dressing gown and nightshift onto the floor, then crawled into the massive bed. She decided that there was no need to disturb her sleep while waiting for Darcy to come up from whatever business he was tending, so she drifted off into a deep, peaceful sleep shortly after closing her eyes.

Elizabeth woke to the startling sound of crashing dishes in the family wing corridor. She had been sound asleep much later than her usual wont, but it had been a late night for her and her hus band.

After the chess tournament, Elizabeth, Darcy, and Georgiana said goodnight to their guests and headed up the family wing stairs together. Darcy noticed that Elizabeth leaned a little heavier on his arm than usual and the dark circles under her eyes concerned him greatly. They may be maintaining the facade of employer and employee for a bit longer, but he was not going to shirk his duty as her husband. After escorting his wife and sister to their adjoined bedchambers, he went to his dressing room and quickly changed for bed. Then Darcy traversed the five doors between his room and his wife’s temporary room, careful to lock all of the doors behind him, to inquire after her he alth.

Contrary to his expectations, Elizabeth was not angry with her husband’s presence in her bedchamber. She had been having a hard time sleeping through the night recently and overly tired during the day. She conceded that the chances of being discovered were low and asked Darcy to stay with her that night, a request which he was more than happy to ob lige.

The master and mistress of Pemberley slept quite soundly wrapped in each other’s arms all n ight.

Just as the first hint of light started to fill the sky, Darcy’s valet, Connor, knocked loudly on the bedchamber where his employer slept. An urgent note had been delivered by the sixteen - y ear -o ld son of the Darcys’ nearest neighbour, Elisha Masters. A fire had broken out at one of the tenant homes during the night and Elisha’s father was in Scotland on business. The young man had never handled such a disaster on his own before and called on his nearest neighbour for help. Mr. Masters had been a very great help to Darcy when he was twenty -t wo and had the whole responsibility of Pemberley dropped on his head following his father’s death, so of course, Darcy rose immediately, calling to have his horse sad dled.

Connor knew that his master had shared his wife’s bed that night, so he did not even bother going into the master’s bedchamber that morning. Connor had retrieved work clothes from Darcy’s dressing room and entered the mistress’s temporary chamber through the servant’s entrance. Darcy was dressed and in his saddle as the sun started to rise.

Elizabeth went back to sleep for a few hours. She was sleeping deeply, but she briefly opened her eyes when she thought she heard someone yell. She closed her eyes again, when a loud crash in the hallway made her sit straight up in bed. Then the sound of voices grew steadily outside her door. Elizabeth was donning her dressing gown when her abigail, Marianne, burst into her room looking quite wild in the eyes.

“My God, Marianne, whatever is the ma tter?”

Marianne had left her mistress before Darcy had come to his wife the night before and was unaware of their sleeping arrangements the night prior. Having heard only that one of the unwed young women had been found in the master’s bed, she was at a loss as to what to tell Elizabeth. “Mistress, I must beg you not to go out into the hall. Something dreadful has happened! Please, you must wait here in your rooms until Mrs. Reynolds can find the ma ster.”

“Whatever are you talking about, Marianne? Mr. Darcy left early this morning to help young Elisha Masters deal with a fire on one of the tenant farms. It is unknown when he shall return, but I do not expect he shall appear until the last of the flames are put out and the family has been situated in a temporary home. Now, tell me immediately what has happened to have you in such a s tate.”

“Mistress,” Marianne quaked as she spoke, “please excuse my unpardonable rudeness, but do you know where Mr. Darcy slept last n ight?”

Elizabeth was now too angry to even become embarrassed at such an inquiry. “Though I cannot imagine why it should be anyone’s business but our own, Mr. Darcy spent the night in the bed, here, wit h me.”

“The whole night, m adam?”

“Yes! The whole night, Marianne! Have you ever known Mr. Darcy to leave me in the middle of the night? Now, I demand once again that you tell me what has happened, or I shall march straight out that door and find someone who WILL tel l me.”

The commotion in the hall and in the bedchamber adjoining her own had drawn Georgiana out of bed. Elizabeth’s raised voice brought Georgiana barging into her sister’s room in time to hear Marianne’s explana tion.

“Forgive me, mistress, but while I was fetching fresh towels for you this morning, I saw Connor and Jon Grayson huddled together and sayin’ something about a horrid scandal to be had. Then, in the servants’ stairs, I heard the screamin’ that surely woke the devil himself. A moment later, one of the guest maids, I believe Miss Bingley’s personal maid, came barrellin’ down the back staircase saying quite loudly that some young miss had been found in Mr. Darcy’s bed this morning. I could hardly believe my ears, but when I arrived in the main hallway, there was a crowd gathered about the master’s chamber door, and your sister, Miss Jane, dropped Lady Anne’s best china tea set after seein’ into the room. I rushed right here and that is all I know. I swear it, my lady.”

Elizabeth paled, but kept her head, which was a good thing, for she barely heard Georgiana’s gasp behind her before the younger lady started to swoon. Elizabeth was just able to make it to Georgiana before she hit her head on the hard f loor.