An Autumn Accord: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation (Seasons of Serendipity Book 4) (13 page)

Within the hour, Fitzwilliam Darcy rode Poseidon as a man on a mission. The sun’s position told him the day was half spent, yet with nearly everyone at the ball the night before, the hamlet of Meryton lacked the normal hustle and bustle of a small market town.

Securing his horse in front of the town home of his mother-in-law, Darcy knocked loudly on the front door. After the customary waiting period, he knocked once more. When the polite period of awaiting an answer passed again, he began pounding on the door incessantly until some lazy servant inside deigned to perform his or her duties.

Nearly exasperated, and angrier by the minute, Darcy offered no courtesy when the housekeeper, Mrs. Eldridge, finally opened the door to the great man who let himself inside. His eyes adjusted to the dimmer atmosphere as he asked for Mrs. Bennet.

“
I’m sorry, sir, but the lady of the house is indisposed.” The housekeeper appeared bewildered that he should call on the house.

Darcy stormed into the parlor and slapped his riding gloves to his thigh in exasperation. The parlor was just as his wife described, shabby and with different furnishings than the ones he had generously purchased six months past to finally settle his mother-in-law on her own.

“
Advise her Mr. Darcy is here to see her.”

“
I’m sorry, sir, my instructions are clear. I may not interrupt the missus when she has company–” Mrs. Eldridge stopped and Darcy stared at her with such dark ferocity, she froze, rooted to the spot.

Darcy calmly marched past the servant and took the stairs, with the poor housekeeper calling after him this was not his house and he must not disturb Mrs. Bennet. As a matter of fact, it WAS his house, seeing as he paid the bills for the lease and larder. His Hessians echoed on the wooden hallway as even the runner was missing. Darcy pounded on the lone closed bedroom door, hearing voices inside.

“
Mrs. Bennet!” He pounded again, hearing sounds of a scramble inside. “Mrs. Bennet!”

The door flew open and Charles Maxwell stumbled out in little more than breeches and shirt, carrying the rest of his effects.

“
Mr. Darcy, what a lovely–“

“
Get out.”

“
But, sir, I was just–“

“
Get out!” Darcy snarled, scaring the cad into tripping over his own two feet down the hallway and toward the stairs. “Never return!”

Grasping the doorframe, Fitzwilliam Darcy inhaled deeply a number of times and listened to Mrs. Eldridge showing the pathetic excuse for a man to the door. Restoring his character from his bout of temper, he gave his edict to Mrs. Bennet. “Don a dressing gown and meet me downstairs.” Then, he walked away, not thinking for a moment Mrs. Bennet would fail to obey.

Nearly ten minutes later, Mrs. Bennet walked into her own parlor to her sour son-in-law standing at the window, looking out, his hands clasped behind his back. He made no sign of acknowledging her presence.

“
You have called quite early, Mr. Darcy. After an evening such as a ball, a lady needs her rest, you see . . .”

“
How much have you overspent your finances, madame?” Darcy refused to look at his wife’s mother.

“
Overspent? Why, I have not overspent one farthing. My lifestyle is simple, though I may have loaned some funds to a few friends in need.”

Darcy turned around. “You mean one particular friend, do you not?”

Mrs. Bennet clutched the top of her lace shawl in her own defense. “Er– yes, one particular friend, perhaps.”

“
It was a mistake to leave you to your own devices after the loss of your husband, I see now. I shall have this house for sale–“

“
Now, see here Mr. Darcy, I am not some trifle to be ordered about. My Lydia shall return, you’ll see, and take care of her dear Mama.”

“
Lydia is not retuning to Hertfordshire. It is impossible.” Mr. Darcy tried to keep the edge to his voice under good regulation.

“
Not return? Do not be ridiculous! Of course my Lydia will return, you’ll see. And Jane will bring her husband back here to purchase Netherfield Park and then I will not need your generosity.” Mrs. Bennet smiled broadly, calculating she had trumped the proud and disdainful Mr. Darcy.

The sickening expression of triumph returned to Fitzwilliam’s mind the horrific interview he conducted with Mrs. Bennet and her sister Phillips last winter whilst trying to warn them about Wickham, the cause of this entire mess. The memory had value, as Fitzwilliam Darcy was a man not prone to repeating his mistakes. He retreated that day, but he would do no such thing on this day.

“
Lydia is dead. Your daughter is dead. There is no one coming back to take care of you, you misguided, puffed up goose!”

“
No!!!!!” Mrs. Bennet wailed, and the stark-nosed face of Mrs. Eldridge peeked into the parlor, then hastily vanished. Mrs. Bennet continued to wail and wretchedly pull on her shawl. “Not my dear, sweet Lydia. A mother would know! A mother would know! She’s not gone. She cannot be gone.”

The pure anguish softened Darcy’s heart and he adjusted his tactics. She had needed a shock, no doubt of that, but his words had served the proverbially slap and now he needed to convince her of his plan, for everyone’s safety and well being.

Approaching his mother-in-law carefully, he pulled a handkerchief from his coat and offered it to her. Mrs. Bennet accepted the kindness and used the fine cloth so thoroughly, Darcy pulled his hands back lest she offer to return it. Instead, she began wringing and wrestling the cloth in her hands.

“
Even Jane shall not come back? She has not written to me . . . you see.” Mrs. Bennet vaguely waved to another part of her house where Darcy assumed she kept her correspondence.

“
I would like for you to live at Pemberley with us, Mrs. Bennet.” Darcy held his breath as a small part of him wished she would spurn the invitation. He was grossly disappointed.

“
Truly? To Pemberley? But, why I never, that is, Lizzie made it quite clear to me I was unwanted and–“

“
There are conditions.” Darcy retreated to his comfortable position by the window, spying Poseidon lazily searching the ground for grass. “The first being that you will shed your nasty habit of playing favorites amongst your daughters.”

“
Favorites? You are mistaken, sir,  I love all my daughters, though my poor, poor Lydia . . .”

“
Will you stop interrupting me?” Darcy snapped his head to glare at her and worried she might begin wailing afresh when her lower lip began to quibble. “Good.” He turned his back to view the main road in and out of Meryton and spied a farmer’s wagon passing slowly.

“
My wife is likely expecting our first child.”

“
Lizzie is breeding? Oh do not worry, Mr. Darcy, though I only had daughters, you can be sure my Lizzie will do her duty and bear you a son. Yes, you can mark my words on that subject.”

The word breeding always made Darcy think of livestock, not a condition he wished to apply to his lovely wife. In fact, if he did not hurry this along, she might arrive at any moment to find why him there. There was little his man kept from her personal maid, a breach of loyalty the Master of Pemberley never considered before entering the marriage state.

“
I have no doubts about Mrs. Darcy, madame. But you have a choice to make. You may come to Pemberley and enjoy a life as a beloved and cherished widowed grandmother to my children, or forever be cut off from your family.”

“
Cut off? Why ever, whom ever, Mr. Darcy you presume a great deal if you think . . . ” Mrs. Bennet struggled to voice her ire, but not go too far as to irreparably offend the man.

“
Your exploits are well-chronicled amongst your friends and neighbors. The Gardiners shall not take you in. If you elect to continue in this scandalous manner, I shall feel no regrets in severing all ties to you and protecting your unwed daughters from your depravities.” Mr. Darcy showed no signs of weakness as he accused Mrs. Bennet of the worst behavior.

Between his wife’s reports, his own inquiries, and the gossip he heard last night, Darcy had no doubt that a lowlife cad was playing his mother-in-law for the fool and she had enough life experience to know better. The daughter Lydia he could forgive for youthful naivete, the mother, on the other hand, had orchestrated her own misery.

“
I shall have to consider, that is, you’ve given me little time to reflect on this matter.”

Darcy slid his left hand into one riding glove and his right hand into the other. With practiced control, he flexed them both again and again to assure a proper fit. “My family departs Netherfield on the morrow at ten o’clock sharp. I shall see your carriage, packed with the goods you wish to keep, or take your absence as an answer in itself. Either way, at the end of this month, this property will no longer be available for your use and you will need to find other accommodations.”

“
But, but, but . . . I” Mrs. Bennet stammered, utterly in awe regarding the information she must process.

“
Good day to you, madame.” Darcy bowed his head and collected his hat from the wisp of a housekeeper standing in the entryway, beaming at the man for the set down to her mistress. Darcy handed Mrs. Eldridge his card and whispered for her to send inquiries to his London household with the card attached if she wished to remain in his employ. Otherwise, he would be happy to write a reference.

Mounting Poseidon and finding his seat, Darcy’s shoulders hunched as a cold wind swirled through the air, assaulting him without mercy. He squinted at the road ahead and nudged Poseidon to canter with his heels. Yes, with too much delay, the roads to Pemberley would become treacherous. There was no greater goal in Fitzwilliam Darcy’s chest than to deliver his family safely home.

♠♠~♠♠~♠♠~♠♠

Instead of finding his wife upon his return to Netherfield, raised voices from the library brought a sense of urgency to Darcy’s steps and he paused outside just as the door burst open.

“
This is your fault, Charles! If you hadn’t bungled your engagement to Jane Bennet, I wouldn’t have had to accept this proposal and now we are utterly ruined!” Caroline Bingley shouted as she stormed out of the library, taking a moment to stare at Mr. Darcy before stomping off towards the stairs.

Darcy was about to follow Miss Bingley on his way to his wife, when Charles spied him and called out. “Darcy, my man, I wondered where you were off to so early this morning. Come in, come in.” Charles waved his friends in, but Darcy was uncertain, though he complied with his host’s request.

“
I called on Mrs. Bennet, inviting her to move to Pemberley.” Darcy shook his head when Bingley offered him a drink, not wishing to keep this audience long.

Charles poured himself a healthy amount and collapsed into an armchair by the fireplace. “He’s penniless.” Charles lifted his glass in a sardonic manner and toasted towards his friend.

Perplexed, Darcy took another few steps further into the library. “Am I to know who we are speaking of?”

“
Lord Bergamote, or more like Lord Brokealot. He’s a fake, an imposter. And Caroline announced their engagement two weeks ago in the Times, so there’s little choice now.”

“
But the settlement, surely when you signed the settlement papers those too would be fraudulent, and therefore the contract is now null and void.”

“
Er, I perhaps was so eager for Caroline to finally have a suitor, when he said his family monies were still in dispute, and with Caroline of majority age, the papers only reflect her settlement monies.” Charles downed his drink and stared at his empty glass. “She’s probably right, it’s my fault, entirely.”

Darcy tugged on his coat sleeve, not wishing to sit down as he was still covered in dust from the road. Clearly, his friend was burdened, and despite his wishes to leave, it would be a poor show to abandon Charles now. “Enlighten me.”

Charles looked askance at Darcy, with a curious brow raised. “Surely, you know that my courtship with your sister-in-law ended this summer. And had I not been too earnest, that is, had I not imposed on her, perhaps our family would not have seen such scorn this past Season.”

Darcy pinched the bridge of his nose as his wife’s words in London came back to him. She had said Jane protected herself twice, and he meant to ask about the second occasion, but too many distractions had been present. “What do you mean you imposed upon Miss Bennet?”

Charles Bingley’s cheeks reddened as he confessed how he allowed his passions to run away with him in Lady Matlock’s drawing room and Jane Bennet corrected his behavior with a swift right hook. “But we’re still friends, eh, Darcy?”

Fitzwilliam Darcy straightened to his full height as the indignity this man-child had wrought on his family resonated. Charles Bingley ran around with all the funds in the world, but shirking the mantle of responsibility at every turn. The term ‘friend’ tasted bitterly of hypocrisy.

“
Charles, had I known of your assault on my sister-in-law I assure you my family would not have trespassed on your generous hospitality. Unfortunately, I cannot remove us earlier than tomorrow, and I wish you well with your conundrum of Miss Bingley’s marital prospects.” Fitzwilliam Darcy curtly bowed to a shocked Bingley and quitted the room.

As Darcy climbed the stairs to the apartments he shared with his wife, his man announced a bath was ready and Darcy sunk into the tub with the same thoughts as before. The sooner he could away his family safe and sound to Pemberley, the better.