A horrified Windon shook his head emphatically and stood aside.
Fitzwilliam nodded his approval to the man and walked to the door leading to his cousin’s chambers. He knocked once, and the door was opened tentatively by Mrs Jenkinson, his cousin’s companion. At least that was how she had begun her employment, but over the years she had become more of a nurse than a companion.
“Lady Catherine forbade…” Mrs Jenkinson began to say. She closed her mouth; she could recognise the determination in Colonel Fitzwilliam’s look. She knew that the mistress’s orders were wrong, so she stood aside and allowed Miss Anne’s cousin to enter the suite.
On entering his cousin’s rooms, the last thing on his mind was the impropriety of a single man entering the bedchamber of a woman who was not his wife. The room was onlylit by the roaring fire in the grate which produced an oppressive heat. All the curtains were drawn against the light. Fitzwilliam’s need to see what was going on in the chamber caused him to open the curtains on both sets of windows.
What he saw shocked him. Anne had never been robust since her bout with scarlet fever as a child, but she had not been the emaciated creature he saw in the bed, one who, if he was right, could barely lift her head. “Has my aunt been starving her daughter?” he demanded.
“No, Colonel, she has not,” Mrs Jenkinson replied. “Over the last few months, it has been harder for Miss Anne to eat. All I have been able to convince her to take is broth which I give her with an invalid feeder. The last time Miss de Bourgh left her suite was a few days ago. It was the night that the parsonage party had been present, and Lady Catherine demanded Miss Anne attend to make an even number at the table. Miss Anne was not well enough and left very early, before the meal.
“The next morning, I informed Lady Catherine that Miss Anne is not long for this world. She refused to come see her daughter as that would make it all too real. A little later that morning, she issued orders that no one is to see Miss Anne and posted footmen in the hall leading to this door. Until you came today, none other than myself and Miss Anne’s maid has entered this chamber.”
“My aunt has always been one who thinks that if she ignores a problem, it will go away.” Richard turned towards the bed as he heard a weak sound. He moved to stand as close to his cousin’s head as possible.
“Richard, you came,” Anne croaked out.
“Yes, I did. William is here as well,” Fitzwilliam stated gently. “Annie, I need a promise from you. I need you to take as much sustenance as you are able. I will send an express to Father and Mother in London. If Andrew is in Town, he willcome as well. My parents will bring their physician with them, and unlike the ones your mother likes to employ, he is no quack.”
“I will try and drink as much as possible,” Anne promised. The effort to speak was great. Her eyes closed and Anne slept once again.
“Mrs Jenkinson, tell Cook to begin to mash vegetables, meat, and poultry into the soup. That will give Anne the liquids she needs as well as some nourishing food,” Fitzwilliam commanded.
On leaving Anne’s bedchamber, Fitzwilliam went to his own. There, he wrote a note to his father explaining what he had found and how his aunt was trying to hide the truth. Knowing how his aunt did not allow any post to leave or enter the house without her permission and perusal, Fitzwilliam made for the stables and took one of the horses and rode into Hunsford. At the Grey Goose Inn, he found an express rider and paid the man to make all haste to Matlock House in London.
With that done, he took a leisurely ride back to Rosings Park. Now he needed to discover where William was.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy was pacing back and forth in the sitting room between his and Richard’s chambers. There was no longer a question, he wanted to make Miss Elizabeth his wife. The conundrum he had was how to separate her from her family. Miss Bennet was acceptable, but the problem there was that would put her back in Bingley’s company.
If that were to occur, he would have to admit to Bingley that his motives in separating him from Miss Bennet were not as pure as the driven snow, and Darcy hated to admit his mistakes. Given that Miss Elizabeth questioned him about Bingley,Netherfield Park, and her sister’s presence in London, he knew that if he kept his distance from Bingley she would want to know why. She was too intelligent not to notice that things between them had changed. Why did this have to be so damned complicated?
Before Darcy could consider any further option for what he should do, the door from the hallway opened and Richard marched into the sitting room.
“Where have you been, William?” Fitzwilliam demanded. “I have had to investigate without you.”
“I took a walk.” Darcy was telling the truth, just not the whole truth. He liked to ride in the morning but his stallion, Zeus, was back in London. Even though she could not ride, his aunt kept a stable full of good horses which except for when he and Richard were at the estate, were exercised by grooms. She felt it enhanced her status to have good stables well stocked with expensive horseflesh. “Wait, what investigation?”
“Did you not see the way Aunt Cat would not look at me when I asked after Anne at dinner? I suspected something was not right, so this morning while the old bat was sequestered in her chambers, I went to see Anne…” Fitzwilliam told his cousin what he had seen, and then, done. “I expect Mother and Father will arrive on Monday.”
“Aunt Catherine wants to hide the knowledge of Anne’s true situation because of the de Bourgh entail, does she not?” Darcy queried.
“That was my assumption,” Fitzwilliam agreed.
“My late father once told me he had a letter from our late Uncle Lewis in which he identified a branch of his family that no one mentioned as his aunt had not married into a family of note,” Darcy remembered. “I believe that she was disowned at the time, but that cannot change her having de Bourgh blood, if any of her descendants still live. I hope that your father has acopy of the same letter because I do not know where my father kept it. I have checked the safes at both Pemberley and Darcy House, and it was not there.”
“I suppose we will need to wait until my parents, and hopefully Andy arrives on Monday or Tuesday.” Fitzwilliam cogitated. “You know how Andy is yet to find a lady he is attracted to because, like you, he is tired of all the insipid ladies in theTon, do you not?”
“Yes, I am only too aware of that particular issue. Why do you mention it?”
“I believe that Miss Bennet would be the kind of lady to whom Andy will be attracted. She is beautiful, yes, but it is her intelligence and wit which will capture his affection.” Fitzwilliam did not miss the look of indignation on William’s countenance as he spoke of Andy possibly wanting to make Miss Elizabeth Bennet his viscountess. It was confirmation that William was in love, but the lady obviously did not return his feelings.
Seeing that Fitzwilliam saw William as another brother, he decided he would need to go ahead and plan how to improve Miss Bennet’s opinion of William so that they may have a chance at a shared future.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On Saturday morning, Jane fulfilled a promise to three of her four young cousins. The twins and Peter had elicited a vow from Jane that she would take them to Hyde Park. Eddy would join them, but as a Harrow man, he would hold himself apart from his siblings’ high-jinks.
