Page 6 of Reputation, an Easy Thing to Lose (Reputation Verse #1)

Chapter 5

Hidden Strength

Wilton Row, Belgravia, Lo ndon

22 September 1812

C harles Bingley stood silently next to the large fireplace in a very ill-suited room at the back of the Bingley townhouse. The room faced north and west, which made the morning hours very dark, and the only window looked directly onto the stables. Before Bingley became master, it was used as the still-room. It would be very difficult for anyone to understand why Bingley had turned the room into a small sitting room, unless you listened very carefully while standing by the fireplace. This room happened to be directly below Caroline’s favourite upstairs drawing room and the two fireplaces shared a flue. Bingley could hear every word said in his sister’s drawing room from his place by the mantle.

Many of their shared acquaintances would recognize the stoic and strained demeanour on Bingley’s face, as one often found upon the face of his good friend, Darcy. But only Bingley’s loyal valet, Grayson, had ever seen the outwardly congenial man with such an expression upon his vi sage.

The happy demeanour Bingley presented to the world was not a total farce. He was naturally easy going and engaging. Never admitting to possessing a firmly held opinion was also easy, as he did not have many firm opinions on the frivolous things Caroline and other members of society constantly fretted about. But the weak facade was a coping mechanism developed long ago to deal with his sister’s machinations. Caroline believed that she was the only Bingley sibling with any intelligence or ambition, but she was misinformed. In truth, Bingley was exceptionally intelligent, like his grandfather, but had enough compassion to realize the elderly man had been cruel and unc outh.

Bingley had listened to their grandfather, as often as Caroline. However, he had a different reaction to those lessons than his selfish sister. The young boy had loved his father very much and always felt angry at the way Grandfather Bingley treated him. After learning of their father’s tragic death, young Charles went into the library to hide and cry alone. Shortly after he had quieted, Caroline and Grandfather Bingley entered the room without knowing Charles was hidden behind the sofa and began to speak poorly of their departed father and son. Charles’s anger soon turned into fear as they began to discuss himself. Grandfather Bingley and Caroline agreed that they would have to keep Charles in line, now that he was the legal owner of all the Bingley family’s wealth. Grandfather Bingley still controlled the minuscule amount of cash he had amassed through his salary as a foreman in the wool mill, but all the property and profits associated with the mill and the cloth manufacturing business had technically been owned by Richard, and now were passed to Charles. His relations spoke at length how the young master must be controlled and guided to make the most advantageous decisions. At the age of only seven years, Charles vowed never to trust his Grandfather Bingley or sister Caro line.

Since Bingley was often a boisterous child, when he decided to hold his tongue, he was often overlooked. Bingley would quietly enter the library and sit undetected in the large wingback chair, while Grandfather Bingley was instructing Caroline. Many of Grandfather Bingley’s lessons were relatively neutral or could be employed without his cruelty. Indeed, servants often knew more of what was going on around the gentry than the master of the house. Loyalty and candid communication from one’s servants could produce much valuable information. Unfortunately, Caroline insisted that, as the mistress of the house, she must hire all the servants. Thankfully, she had never challenged Bingley on his choice of valet. Grayson had been recommended to Bingley during his first year in Cambridge by Darcy, and was the son of the Darcy house stable master. Caroline would never dare go against a recommendation by Darcy, even though she was unable to influence Bingley’s man. Shortly after taking on Grayson, the two men had a candid discussion about the state of Bingley’s house. Both agreed they should never trust any of the other servants with sensitive information. Grayson took on a silent demeanour, only speaking to the others in the house to request necessities for his ma ster.

In a stroke of genius, Grayson recommended that Bingley confide in Mrs. Reynolds, the elderly housekeeper at Pemberley. So, during his first trip to Pemberley, Bingley spoke with Mrs. Reynolds. He confided that his own house was populated with his sister’s informants, and Caroline’s sole goal in life was to climb the social ladder as high as she could reach. Mrs. Reynolds promised the young man that he could always contact her through Grayson with sensitive requirements and needs. After Caroline’s interest in Darcy became apparent, they hid their communication inside letters to Grayson from one of the downstairs Pemberley maids. Caroline might have opened letters from the Pemberley housekeeper, hoping to learn information about the Darcy siblings’ movements, but she would completely ignore letters from a low -r anking maid.

In fact, Caroline’s belief that only the highest of female servants could be of any real use was one of her largest mistakes. She believed that men were generally clueless to the real value of gossip and would miss those details that were truly important. Bingley found that the stable boys were as knowledgeable as the housekeeper, and often more likely to move about undetected. With more help from Darcy, Bingley was able to get several stable boys from Pemberley instilled at both the Bingley and Hurst townhouses. Only one young man was involved in the information being passed back to Bingley. As another relation of Grayson and Mrs. Reynolds, Bingley was assured of his discre tion.

This morning, Bingley had received a multitude of letters, sent express from his small but valuable network. Like Caroline, his correspondence had been interrupted by all the last -m inute changes to their travel plans. In addition to the routine information regarding his house and holdings, Bingley had received two letters of significant import ance.

The first was from Mrs. Reynolds. That Caroline had been trying to engage her in passing information for several years was not surprising to Bingley. However, Caroline’s behaviour during their latest visit was worrying. Caroline had blatantly lied to Mrs. Reynolds about her relationship with Darcy to try and force the housekeeper’s cooperation. This escalation in his sister’s behaviour gave Bingley significant p ause.

Bingley had tried to protect his friend as best he could, but he had not made any overt steps to control Caroline for fear of her retaliation. Now, he hoped he would be able to salvage the situation once whatever she concocted came to a head. Long ago, Darcy told Bingley he would never marry Caroline regardless of the situation, but pressure from the Hursts or Darcy’s uncle, the Earl of Matlock, might change Darcy’s tune if she forced the matter. With Georgiana coming out in the spring, Darcy would not want to damage his sister with a scandal of Caroline’s ma king.

The second important letter was unexpected and heart -b reaking . The steward of Netherfield had sent him updates on the harvest along with news of the Bennets. His newest servant was a competent estate manager and another recommendation from Darcy. The man was also a keen observer and had immediately seen Bingley’s interest in the angelic Jane Bennet. He rarely sent information not related to the Netherfield holdings, but each time he had, it was only one line and never failed to break Bingley’s sp irit.

The first was last February. “Miss Jane Bennet is visiting relatives in Cheapside, London for the sp ring.”

At first, he believed that her decision not to call on the Bingleys during her stay in London was further proof of Darcy’s contention that she did not care for him, and so he stayed away. Later, after much thought, he wondered if she had ignored him. It would be improper for her to call on a single man, so if she had visited, she would have called on Caroline or Louisa. His manipulative sisters would have never reported the visit to Bingley. Also, if the London servants were unaware of Jane’s importance to the master, her visit would have garnered little attention below stairs. Grayson may have never heard of the visit ei ther.

The second such note about the Bennets was received on his last day at Pemberley in August and read simply, “Miss Lydia has eloped with an officer from Brighton and Miss Jane Bennet is distra ught.”

It arrived express but was originally delivered to the Pemberley stables and then passed on to Grayson. The seal was intact when he opened the missive, and Bingley committed it to the fire the moment he understood the contents. Darcy would not say what caused Elizabeth and the Gardiners to leave for Longbourn so quickly, but Bingley was sure that they had received the same news.

Intent on keeping the intelligence from Caroline for as long as possible, Bingley had feigned indifference to the change in plans and continued on with their summer travels. With any hope, Jane’s father and uncles would be able to remedy the situation before too much scandal could be created. Bingley had also asked Mrs. Reynolds to hold any post that came to Pemberley after their departure, until Grayson sent word that they were heading for London. Unfortunately, that meant he never received the third note from his steward, dated August 20, until t oday.

“Mr. Bennet killed the officer in a duel but has passed of his own injuries, and the Bennet women have been turned out of Longbourn. Miss Jane and Miss Elizabeth go to Lo ndon.”

His beautiful Jane was orphaned and living off the charity of the Gardiners. Lydia was never married to a dead man, and the Bennet women had lost all standing in society. If only that were the end, but a final missive arrived not an hour ago by express rider, independent of the bundle from Yorks hire.

“Miss Lydia is with c hild.”

As Bingley was staring at that last sentence, Grayson knocked and motioned for Bingley to exit the room. Both men knew that if Bingley could hear every word of Caroline’s conversations, she would be able to hear him. It was strictly silence inside the ill -s uited sitting room.

Bingley followed his valet to the master’s s tudy.

“Sir, I am sorry to inform you that, though I intercepted the mail delivery and sorted your correspondence first, I was not able to delay any longer. Your sister has received a very large bundle of letters, many of which come from the housekeeper at Netherf ield.”

She knew.

Bingley sat heavily on the chair behind his desk and hung his head. It was certain. Caroline knew of the Bennet family’s fall from g race.

“Whatever will save us now?”

Bingley had replayed every second with his beloved Jane, and he knew in his heart that Darcy was wrong. Elizabeth’s words during their brief time together at Pemberley only confirmed his conviction. If Bingley was ever going to win Jane’s heart, he would have to act carefully. He had always known that Caroline wanted him to marry into the aristocracy, but he was determined to be happy. Jane made him happy. What good was standing within the ton if it came with mi sery?

Tradesmen like Edward Gardiner had a comfortable living and friendly society amongst the other professionals in the merchant class. In contrast, many of the landed gentry were finding it hard to keep their coffers full from the profits born of only crops and sheep. When the inflated grain prices dropped after Napoleon’s vanquish, they would find themselves in even worse shape. Bingley had been diversifying his holdings to continue to earn profit. Caroline never paid any attention to the business end of their wealth, as long as her allowance was substantial. Both the wool mill and cloth manufacturing business continued to make a profit every year. Bingley took all that profit and invested it in non -a gricultural industries. Coal had been doing particularly well in the last three y ears.

With all his dirty trade money, Bingley planned to buy an estate far away from London and forget the ton . Darcy had been helping him look at properties near Derby for a few years and there was one north of Belper that was perfect. Once he figured out how, Bingley would sweep Jane away from all the turmoil caused by the gossiping harpies in London and live blissfully in Derbyshire. If his instincts were good, perhaps she would not even be too far from her favourite si ster.

It was time to act.

“Grayson, have my horse saddled immediately, then come up and help me with my cravat. I intend to go directly to Darcy’s house, before the storm erupts here. I know my friend has been in London these past six weeks and I have a standing invitation to be admitted through the back of the house. If I am lucky, I shall catch him before I must return to dress for our dinner tonight. If I could send Caroline away for some reason, I would, but I do not believe she will be persuaded to give up London if she believes Darcy’s arrival is imminent. I know she means to trap him somehow. If only I could be sure that Darcy would not actually cave to any social pressure resulting from a compromising situation.” Sparing a moment for the thought of Caroline trying to trap Darcy, Bingley smirked. “Her demise at her own hand would be po etic.”