Page 37 of The Talented Daughters of Longbourn

Matlock House

That Evening

The carriage came to a gentle halt, and a moment later, the door to the carriage was opened by one of Lord Matlock’s footmen. Darcy stepped down and handed out his sister, who descended to the pavement, followed by Richard.

Darcy took a deep breath and held out his arm to his sister, who clutched it more tightly than usual. This was surprising, and he looked down with concern.

“Is anything wrong, my dear?” he asked.

Georgiana managed a tremulous smile and said, “I am a little nervous. Lady Catherine is quite formidable, is she not?”

“Do not worry, my dear cousin,” Richard said cheerfully, taking her other arm in his own. “I will make certain that the dragon does not blast you with her fiery breath.”

“Richard, behave,” Darcy said with mock severity as the threesome began climbing the great marble steps. His cousin had left this morning to call on Miss Bennet in Cheapside, and he returned in a most exalted mood, though Richard refused to discuss details of the visit.

They found Lady Matlock, Richard’s mother, waiting inside the vestibule dressed in an exquisite maroon gown. She kissed her second son on the cheek, exclaimed over Georgiana’s growth since last they had met, and greeted Darcy with her usual charm.

That was all to the good, but then Lady Matlock was not the problem.

They followed their hostess into the drawing room, where a turbaned dowager, arrayed ostentatiously in silk, stood tall and forbidding, with a young woman swathed in shawls seated by the fire and another lady hovering over.

“Well!” the woman cried out, advancing with a steely look in her eye. “It is about time you arrived. I dislike tardiness above all things, and Richard, you were in the army once. I would think you of all people would be punctual!”

“Good evening, Lady Catherine,” Richard said, reaching out to take his aunt’s hand in his own. He bent over the lady’s fingers, kissed them, and said, “I see that you are in the best of health and spirits, Madam. It is so very good to see you again! ”

Lady Catherine de Bourgh, younger sister of the Earl of Matlock, seemed somewhat taken aback at this fulsome greeting, while Lady Matlock smirked nearby.

“Well,” Lady Catherine said, recovering herself, “do come in and greet Anne, Darcy. It has been much too long since you have journeyed to Rosings. And Georgiana – I fear you are growing rather too tall, my dear niece, and your dress is far too simple for a girl of your rank. Darcy, what are you thinking, having Georgiana dress in simple woolen for a dinner party?”

“Ah, but we are among dear relations, are we not?” Richard asked, sweeping forward to pull Georgiana away from Lady Catherine and toward Anne. “Georgiana, would you not care to sit by the fire with your cousin? Anne, I do hope you are well today?”

Anne de Bourgh blinked in surprise at her cousin’s bonhomie, but she managed a slight smile. “Yes, thank you, Richard. The doctor’s treatments have done me good, and I am not coughing much anymore.”

“I am so very thankful to hear that,” Richard said, bestowing a genuine smile on his feeble cousin before turning to his cousin’s companion. “Mrs. Jenkinson, I hope I find you well?”

“Oh, yes, thank you, Colonel … that is, Mr. Fitzwilliam,” the woman replied, looking thoroughly startled at being noticed.

Her entire role in life was to ca re for Miss de Bourgh, which, since the lady was delicate, largely consisted of wrapping her in shawls and rugs, and encouraging her to eat and drink.

“That is quite wonderful to hear!” Richard exclaimed and turned his attention on his aunt. “Now, Lady Catherine, pray tell me about the current condition of Rosings! I have been trying to learn a little about estate management, you know, and I am certain you can advise me.”

This was, Darcy recognized, the perfect thing to say, since Lady Catherine loved, above anything else in all of creation, to give people advice.

She immediately launched into a series of instructions and directions concerning estate governance, some good, some idiotic, which filled the time until Lord Matlock entered the room.

A minute later, the butler arrived to announce dinner.

/

To Darcy’s relief, Lady Matlock had chosen the cozy family dining room for the evening’s meal.

This meant that the diners were not spaced far apart, and also that the guests were not seated by rank.

Darcy found himself sitting between Georgiana and Richard, with Anne across from him, who was herself seated between Lady Catherine and Mrs. Jenkinson, while the lord and lady of the house sat at the head and foot of the table.

To no one’s surprise, Lady Catherine began the conversation by saying, “Well, Darcy, what have you and Georgiana been doing these last weeks? I rather expected you to visit Rosings, as I know you wish to spend time with Anne.”

Darcy bit his lip and cast a pleading look at Richard. He was not afraid of Lady Catherine, but he did not wish to announce here, in the middle of a family dinner, his intentions, or lack thereof, regarding Anne de Bourgh.

To his considerable astonishment, it was Georgiana who saved him. “We have been in Hertfordshire these last weeks, Aunt,” she said in a soft voice. “We were staying with my brother’s friend, Mr. Bingley.”

Lady Catherine was openly displeased at these words. “Darcy, you really must be cautious about spending time with the nouveau rich. I daresay this Bingley is not a bad man, but I believe his fortune comes from trade, and thus he ought not to be your bosom friend.”

“Bingley’s grandfather was a wealthy merchant, that is true,” Richard said cheerfully, “but Bingley is, nonetheless, a very cultured man. We had a charming time at Netherfield, all of us. The country is very pleasing in the autumn, do you not agree, Aunt?”

Since his aunt rarely journeyed to town, and considered Rosings her castle, she could hardly disagree, so she changed the subject.

“And what of you, Richard?” she demanded.

“I understand you sold out your army commission some months ago. I do hope you are not going to be one of those layabouts who sits in gentlemen’s clubs doing nothing with his life?

You are not getting any younger, you know, and with your brother the father of three fine sons, you will scarcely inherit the earldom. ”

“Indeed, I am certain I will not,” Richard agreed. “As to what I intend to do with my life, well, it depends very much on whether the lady whom I admire accepts my hand in marriage.”

Lord Matlock had been stolidly eating his way through a large dinner while his sister pontificated, but this statement so startled him that he choked on a piece of meat, and he had to cough hard to recover.

“What?!” he finally demanded. “What did you say?”

“I am pursuing a lady in the hopes of making her my wife, Father,” his son said happily, casting a glance at his mother. He was not surprised to see her smiling in return; they were the most akin of the Matlocks, and she understood his humors more than he did himself.

“That is wonderful news, Son,” Lady Matlock said. “Who is the fortunate woman?”

“Oh, as to that, I fear it is still a secret,” Richard said with a comical lift of one eyebrow. “She is so marvelous a lady, you see, that I do not wish for others to know of my pursuit. She is such a treasure that I can imagine some other, wealthier gentleman trying to snatch her away from me!”

There was a pause as the elders in the party digested this statement. Naturally, Lady Catherine spoke first.

“Nonsense, Richard, nonsense!” she cried out. “You must tell us her name, and her antecedents, and the details of her fortune.”

“Why?” her nephew asked baldly and shoveled a bite of beef into his mouth.

“It should be obvious! You are far too young to be sensible in your pursuit of a wife. You need the wisdom of your elders to determine whether she is a good choice!”

“Ah, but Lady Catherine, you said only minutes ago that I am growing old, which means that I ought to move forward in life. What could be more mature than to marry and, I hope, sire children?”

His father, who had been staring in amazement at his son, said, “Come now, Richard. Surely you do not truly intend to keep the lady’s name a secret from us?”

“I do, sir,” his son said, with exquisite courtesy but with underlying steel.

Silence fell again. Darcy made a point of eating steadily, hoping that he would not be called upon to tell what he knew; not, of course, that he would betray Richard, but he would rather not be in the middle of this argument.

“I insist that you tell us the lady’s name!” Lady Catherine finally bellowed, which caused Anne, who was likewise eating steadily, to flinch slightly.

“I will not,” Richard returned sweetly and then turned to his mother, who was calmly drinking her dinner wine. “But I am certain you will all love her; if I am successful in winning her hand, that is.”

Lord Matlock stared at his son, who, apparently sensing his gaze, turned to stare back at him. There was, the Earl knew, no point in arguing with Richard; he had always been a strong-willed young man – pleasant and amiable on the outside, but determined underneath .

“I hope, at least, that she is a lady of good birth,” he said.

“Yes, of course,” Richard answered.

“My dear nephew,” Lady Catherine said, “You must…”

The rest of the meal was, to no one’s surprise, composed entirely of Lady Catherine haranguing Richard, and Richard returning dulcet but firm responses. By the time the ladies finally rose to leave the men to their port, Darcy had a mild headache.

As soon as the door closed behind Lady Matlock, Richard turned an amused look on Darcy and said, “You are welcome, Cousin.”

Darcy hastily poured a glass of port, took a long drink, lifted one hand to his aching head, and said, “I am welcome for what?”

“Oh, for distracting our mutual aunt, to be sure,” Richard said merrily. “I managed to turn the conversation from your prospective marriage to Cousin Anne and keep it from that for the entire meal.”

Darcy stared at him and then grinned. “It is true, you did,” he agreed, and toasted his cousin. “I am grateful, noble sir. ”

“What is all this, then?” the earl demanded. “Do you mean to say that you invented a woman…?”

“No, sir,” Richard interrupted. “Even I would not do such a thing for my dear cousin Darcy. No, I am genuinely in love with a most delightful lady, but in my role as bear leader to my cousin, I decided to bring up my courtship to distract Lady Catherine.”

Matlock stared at his son, then his nephew, and then back at his son. “Why do you feel the need to distract Lady Catherine?”

“I do not intend to marry Cousin Anne,” Darcy explained, his fingers drumming restlessly on the table. “I am aware that Lady Catherine will be displeased, and I did not wish to make my decision known in a public arena.”

Matlock tilted his head and glared at his nephew. “Does this mean that you, like Richard, have fallen in love with an unknown female?”

In love? It was not love, surely. Merely … admiration. Infatuation. It would doubtless pass in time. Soon, he would close his eyes at night and not see Miss Elizabeth Bennet dancing in his dreams.

“Not at all,” he said, though rather lamely. “I simply have realized that Anne and I will not suit. ”

His uncle frowned and said, “In truth, I am in agreement with you. Anne is too delicate, and as you are the only Darcy male of your generation, you need to marry a woman who can bear you children, and preferably many of them. Having said that, I hope you understand that you have a responsibility to marry well. Richard here can afford to be somewhat careless in his choice of wife given that the succession is secure, but you owe it to your name and Pemberley to marry a woman with excellent connections.”

“I disagree, sir,” Richard said. “Darcy would not be happy with a marriage of convenience any more than I would. Moreover, he is a sensible person, even if a trifle young, and he can make up his own mind.”

Darcy chuckled at this, though his thoughts were tumultuous. His uncle’s words paralleled those he had been thinking these many years, that he had an obligation to wed a lady of the haut ton. But none of the ladies he had ever met compared with Elizabeth Bennet.

The conversation between father and son gave him time to ponder, and by the time the gentlemen had risen from the table to join the ladies, his thoughts had shifted toward Richard’s point of view.

Would it not be better to marry a woman he truly admired, respected, and loved, instead of a woman whom he merely tolerated?

/

Carriage

On the Way Back to Darcy House

“Are you pursuing Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Richard?” Georgiana asked.

Her brother and cousin, each of whom had sunk into a brown study, jerked in surprise to stare at the girl, though they could barely see her in the reflected light of the lamps on the street.

“No,” Richard said, pulling himself together. “I am not.”

“Good.”

Darcy blinked and reached out to take Georgiana’s hand in his own. “Why? Do you not like Miss Elizabeth?”

Georgiana’s fingers tightened, and she said, “I like her very much. Indeed, I want you to marry her, not Richard.”

Darcy stared in astonishment at the dark lump beside him and said, “You think I should marry Miss Elizabeth? ”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you admire her,” his sister said, with some asperity. “You surely do not imagine me so dense that I do not see how you smile when Miss Elizabeth is in sight, or how you watch her in the room? I know you like her very much.”

Richard, who had been chuckling throughout this speech, now released a hearty laugh, at Darcy’s expense, of course.

“There, you see?” he said. “It is always difficult to pull the wool over the eyes of a curious and perceptive lady, Darcy.”

“I confess that I do not know whom you are pursuing, Richard,” Georgiana admitted.

Richard hesitated for a moment and then said, “I will cheerfully tell you, but if we encounter Lady Catherine, she may well pressure you to pass on what you know.”

Georgiana huffed and said, “I find Lady Catherine intimidating, but that does not mean that I cannot keep a confidence. ”

“I know,” Richard said, and the fondness in his tone was obvious. “Very well, I am interested in Miss Jane Bennet.”

“Oh, how delightful! Oh, Brother, if you marry Miss Elizabeth and Richard marries Miss Bennet – oh, how happy we would all be!”

Darcy reached out and pulled his sister a little closer. “You like the Bennets so much, then?”

“Yes,” she returned, and she snuggled closer still. “They are wonderful ladies.”