Chapter Four

DARK SHADOWS DANCED along the wall of the luxurious Mistress’ suite at Rosings. A lingering tiredness ached throughout Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s bones, but she cracked her eyes open to watch the spectacle played out by the light of a single candle on her nightstand. The small hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she sensed a presence sitting near her, out of her view. Instinctively, she tensed her shoulders as her mind attempted to work out a timeline of events that resulted in her taking to her bed.

“I can see that you are awake, Catty.” The firm, baritone voice of her brother registered and interrupted Lady Catherine’s thoughts. Stubbornly, she refused to roll over and face her brother while caught in a state of bewilderment.

“Who gave you permission to enter my bedchamber? The name! I shall send that servant packing this instant.” Lady Catherine’s tongue felt thick and refused to issue her normal bombastic tone with a clear, crisp enunciation. The sloppy delivery of her words scared the great woman, and for a moment, she wondered if she might have suffered a stroke? The pertinent details of coming to her bed entirely eluded her as did the presence of her brother at her home.

“Come, come, Catty, we have far greater dilemmas to address than your ineptitudes regarding your staff.”

The vague explanation by the Earl of Matlock intrigued Lady Catherine’s curiosity. Dilemmas? There were no dilemmas to address. Any day now her daughter would be married to Fitzwilliam and the second part of her plan … Lady Catherine’s memories flooded back regarding her daughter’s matrimonial state, and she let out a loud groan. Finally relenting, she rolled over in her bed in extreme exasperation.

“It appears you are indeed finally willing to accept reality.” Henry Fitzwilliam coughed to stifle his laugh at his sister’s expense.

“How long was I sedated for?”

“Less than a week. Sniveling Dr. Smeads saw to your person. I thought you had better sense in your hiring, on at least one occasion I thought he might have slipped you too much.”

“Where is that son of yours?” Lady Catherine slanted her eyes at the half-cloaked figure of her brother. “I shall have this wedding overturned and the license invalidated. He must be made aware of this before he becomes too comfortable in his pretender’s role.”

Henry Fitzwilliam clucked his tongue and rose from the chair by his sister’s bedside. Strolling over to the expansive windows, he thrust open the drapes to allow an uncomfortable amount of sunlight to pour into the room.

Lady Catherine shielded her eyes, but the sudden drenching in light exposed her true position, that of a frail, older woman with more years lined in wrinkles than she likely had left.

“The Archbishop? You would stand against the Archbishop of Canterbury? Let’s be reasonable, Catherine, Richard is as good as Darcy and the two love one another.” The Earl of Matlock frowned as if eating an unpalatable meal, the idea of a love match was becoming too much a trend for his liking.

“And he’ll kill her. Darcy would not have.”

“She is dying already; you said so yourself!”

Lady Catherine pursed her lips and looked down at her hands, devoid of her standard rings and bangles.

“Catherine! Are you telling me you LIED about Dr. Smeads’ diagnosis?”

She scowled. “Only because it was perfect timing. Anne has always been unwell, that much is true, but when I heard the peculiar story of my nephew’s time in Hertfordshire from my parson and then rushing to London, well I expected he had sought a special license. I never expected Georgiana lost as well!” She paused as her brother pinched the bridge of his nose “Darcy was in love with that woman from that little village, I even challenged her most thoroughly. She loves him as well and would have a child by him in no time.”

A grumble rippled through the earl’s stomach as he began to connect the pieces of their family his sister had so thoroughly destroyed. “And you would have what? Passed off Darcy’s child with this other woman, this Elizabeth Bennet, as his issue with Anne?”

“Why not? Such an action put us in this mess, why should not such an action get us out of the mess?”

“What mess?”

“The inheritance! If Anne marries and remains childless that lowlife, miscreant inherits everything! The will is on file with the lawyers. There is no changing it!” Lady Catherine cried, showing genuine alarm.

“And what am I to say?” Henry walked back to resume his sitting position, wracking his brain for a response. “What am I to say but that such a plan was insipid, poorly planned, and rife with opportunity to fail?” Henry swallowed back his anger that Catherine still rejected his son, but she was correct that Richard would stay true to Anne. He had had his dalliances, but in giving up his commission there was little doubt that Richard was very serious about his wife.

“Does Anne know?” the earl asked, breathing a sigh of relief when his sister shook her head. “Richard?” Lady Catherine made a face of disgust, and the Earl nodded. Where Darcy was likely to be reasonable about why Wickham could never inherit the estate of his natural father, Richard, as a second son, may feel very differently about denying a man his inheritance.

“What do we do now? You say I cannot invalidate their marriage, do I just wait for him to get her with child and lose her and everything at the same time?”

Henry Fitzwilliam frowned and released a breath he had not realized he was holding. With a valid will on file, the only hope was making Anne make her last will and testament and pray no one knew to contest. Without a definitive entailment upon the property, it was unlikely the court would not accept Anne Fitzwilliam’s last wishes and move the property to her husband’s ownership. But if Wickham contested, there were no guarantees what a judge might decide. And there was the issue of a child being another provision of the inheritance, at the moment, the property merely lay in trust.

Rubbing his temple, Henry knew the only solution was to hie to London for both of his problems. First, he would shake some sense into his heir and second; he would visit Octavius Longwell, Sr. If something were not done, both pillars of the Fitzwilliam family would see their fortunes fade.

“I will go to town.”

Surprised, Henry nearly yelped when Catherine grabbed his hand. “And will you do everything to protect us? Anne, too. You know the delicate nature of the estate’s status. If he learns …”

“We should never have told Darcy, in hindsight, and I will see him as well. His position might have changed on the matter to benefit his sister and his own household if you were as cruel as I imagine to that lady of his.”

“I only did so to test her mettle! She is quite capable, that one!”

The Earl of Matlock sighed, reducing his stature by a few inches as he allowed his shoulders to sag. “You always have the best intentions, Catty, but you always manage to make a monstrous mess.” Taking his leave, the younger brother did something he had not done in decades. He leaned over to kiss his eldest sister and once mother figure on the forehead in reassurance. Somehow, Henry Fitzwilliam would find a way to chart his family back on the course of greatness.