“And well he might. It is he who shall inherit Longbourn one day.”
Mama dabbed her handkerchief to her eyes. “Oh! I hate the very sound of his name. You know, girls, it is he who shall turn you out on your backsides if you do not take care to marry well ere your father dies. Come to look over his inheritance, I should think!”
“What was that? Are you going on about my imminent demise again, Mrs. Bennet? How happy for me that I am in excellent health.”
“You are deaf as a post!” Mama shot back in frustration. “Next it will be your eyesight that fails, then your heart, and then who knows what shall come of us?”
“My hearing comes and goes as it pleases, and my vision is quite as sharp as it ever was. However, I thank you for reminding me of my mortality on such a regular basis. No, Collins does not come to look over his inheritance. He comes on a different sort of errand. There is much beauty to appreciate at Longbourn apart from the house, is there not?”
Mama lowered her fan. “He comes to seek a bride? Oh!” She put her hand out, waving toward Jane. “Jane, I must have you keep yourself for Mr. Bingley. You’re quite the most beautiful of all your sisters, and I am sure you will fix him. But Lizzy, you would do very well for this fellow. We must make over your green morning gown, and we ought to have a look at your lace…”
“My dear, it was not my daughters I plan on displaying, although he would have to be blind not to notice them. No, no, he comes on behalf of his patroness, one Lady Catherine de Bourgh. My, the very sound of her name ought to be worth a few hundred pounds, am I right?”
“Papa,” I hissed under my breath, kicking him with my toe. “I hope you are not advertising more vases for sale!”
Papa raised his glass to me and chuckled. “It seems I do not have to advertise anything. They are coming out of the woodwork now. Word of my modest little collection has spread far and wide, has it not? But not to worry, Lizzy. I know how fond you are of my vases, and it pains me to part with any of them. The butcher and the draper do like to have their accounts settled each month, and so occasionally, I permit myself to be persuaded. But you may rest easy, for Collins is not coming for one of my vases.”
Jane and I shared a confused glance. “Papa, I do not understand. If he is not seeking a bride, not coming to look over the property, and not interested in one of your vases, why does he come?“
Papa’s grin grew wider still. “He comes to look at my statue. It seems that Lady Catherine is a great admirer of sculpture. Moreover, she fancies herself able to compete with someone of vastly greater resources even than herself. I daresay it matters little to me, so long as her purse is as deep as she claims.”
Mama clasped her hands. “My dear, it is everything splendid! Why, I never cared for that ugly thing myself, but ‘tis sure to fetch thirty or forty pounds, and what couldn’t I do with that?”
Papa pushed up from the table. “My imagination fails me, Mrs. Bennet.”
Darcy
Therereallywaslittleelse for it. I would return to London and attack the problem from another angle. Because if I went to Longbourn again, unprotected, I would not give two straws for my aching head. Or my continued bachelorhood. I needed a better plan.
I departed the next morning by daybreak, and after changing horses a few times, I was in my townhouse by early afternoon. My first action was to dispatch a letter to Lord Matlock informing him I had returned. My second was to pull down the peerage books from my shelves. Something had been nibbling at my thoughts since my first research into Mr. Bennet’s heritage, and I had no better idea than to chase down that figment.
I was deep in my investigation, several hours having passed, when Giles opened the door to my study. “Lord Matlock to see you, sir.”
I rose from my chair. “Show him in, please.”
My uncle entered, still wearing his hat and cape, such was his apparent haste to see me. “Darcy! I am glad to hear you have returned so quickly. Did you find the statue?”
“No. I suffered a rather unproductive journey to Hertfordshire. I came back to gather better intelligence. What have you?”
“A crisis, that is what I may have.”
“A crisis?” I chuckled and moved to pour the earl a glass from my decanter. “Surely, it is not a matter of life and death.”
“It may well be for someone. Matters have altered somewhat, and His Highness does not like to be kept out of the loop.”
My hand dropped from the decanter. “His Highness? I do not understand. What could he have to do with this matter? We are not even certain there is anything to find, and the Prince Regent is already involved?”
“Bennet wrote to him and claimed to have precisely what I thought he did. He told the prince he had an ancient sculpture of Cupid and Psyche from the Parthenon. And His Highness is interested, but so is someone else.”
I swirled the contents of my glass and gazed out the window. “So Bennet really does have a statue from Athens. I wondered. But who is this other party you speak of?”
“My sister! Lady Catherine is trying to cut the crown out of the Parthenon collection. Somehow, she got word of the same information as I. Richard, God bless him, alerted me she is even now trying to broker a deal with Bennet.”
“A deal!” I swallowed some of my drink. “I do not like this. It is moving too fast. Can we even be certain that the piece is genuine? Something does not feel right.”
“He offered it to the crown, so it must be. Unless you think it was stolen, and he means to sell it quickly?”
I looked back at my uncle, my mind still buzzing in thought. “No, nothing like that. But I was just looking at something here. Do you ever remember hearing about Robert Trenton, Viscount Elroy III?”
