“Yes, of course, your ladyship.”
“Lady Rebecca will do.” She stalked forward and handed the girl the letter. “I like you, Emily. It takes some nerve to negotiate with me, and an ally dearly purchased is an ally long retained; it is good that you cannot be bought cheaply. Yes, I like you very well. I shall be setting up a household in Scotland next month – if your family should like some new environs, I would retain your services and find a place for your sister.”
“Oh, thank you,” Emily cried, fanning herself with the letter in her hand and looking as if she would fall to her knees. “It is true, what I told you, and my mother is half Scottish, so I know she would love it!”
“I am generous, so long as I am not crossed. I think I shall enjoy having a clever and resourceful creature like you in my service – I daresay your sister will be just as keen for interestingextra work.” Lady Rebecca winked, then began sampling from her breakfast tray.
“Yes, Lady Rebecca.” Emily took in the sight of Rebecca’s wet hair and damp night rail. “Shall I take this down before I dress you?”
“Yes, and do keep an eye out for any letters sent back to me.”
The maid hastened back to the entrance she had come through, a small door that blended into the paneling of the wall. She stopped as she opened it, and looked back over her shoulder. “I will much like working for you, your ladyship, and my sister, too. You’re a sly one, and I respect it. And if you recall, this passage leads two flights down to the servants’ passage – where you snuck Miss Elizabeth out a few days ago. That passage isn’t well lit, and there’s nobody about from three o’clock until six. A dozen paces, and then a left turn to the nearest servants’ door. I thought… if you were wondering….”
Rebecca laughed heartily. “Very good, Emily. You will go far in life with such… informative service.”
Left alone once more, she had little to do but enjoy her breakfast and fume over all the spiteful things she wished she had said to her aunt. She had no respect for what Lady Catherine wished for Elizabeth. She had been uncommonly lucky that Jane and Richard felt enough affection for one another to accede to her wishes for a match between them.
But Lady Catherine was mad if she truly believed she could bend Elizabeth to such a match. Rebecca knew herself – she would be perfectly content in a life with the marquess, but she did not share her cousin’s desire for romance and marital intimacy. And yet, Lady Catherine would have preferred to see her daughter in just such an arrangement, rather than allow herto marry Mr. Darcy and experience a deep and abiding love and respect.
“I am not at all sorry for what I have done,” she said to herself, finishing her breakfast just as Emily returned to dress her.
“Perhaps you might select a modest gown, something that conveys a look of penitence? Her ladyship has summoned the rest of the family, and she is on quite a tear.”
“Think again,” Lady Rebecca quipped. “Lady Catherine is probably going to kill me, and I should like to meet my end in style. You will learn my preferences in time.”
After she was dressed in her favorite, most ostentatious frock, Rebecca had only to wait. After a couple of hours, she saw the caravan of barouches coming up the front drive, and she knew it was only a matter of time before another of her relations came to take a bite out of her; she wondered who it would be.
She did not expect it to be Jane. Half an hour after her the family returned, a key again turned in the lock, and Jane stormed into Rebecca’s bedchamber. Richard stalked behind her with a severe look for his sister; she supposed he had come to bolster the confidence of his gentle bride.
“Rebecca, what have you done? I know you like a bit of mischief, but you have gone too far!”
“She loves him, Jane! Why should I have stopped her?”
“Because she might be ruined! Her reputation could damage this whole family!”
“Only if you are determined that it should. It might just as easily be all hushed up; a family such as ours can hide a lot worse.”
“Hushed up! Forgive me if I wish better for my sister thanhushed up, Rebecca.”
“Better?” Rebecca gestured wildly, and Richard took a protective step closer. “Whatbetter? What does that even mean? She received no other offers of marriage from any of the titled disappointments to manhood that your mother would have had her choose – beyond being unforgivably underwhelming, they all miraculously had the good sense to see that she did not like them. She loves Mr. Darcy, and she believes that he will make her happy. It is hardly as if she has run off with a stable boy! He is a gentleman of property, at least.”
“If Mamma did not approve of him, she must have some reason.”
“I have told you her reasons, Jane! Richard, he is your friend – will you not defend him now?”
Richard sighed, his posture wilting before the ladies. “I wish to, and yet…. I fear I may have let this go too far. I like a prank as much as you, Rebecca, but there is something you must know, which may alter your opinion.”
Rebecca felt a strange presentiment course through her, and she regarded her brother with sudden gravity. “Sit. Tell me.”
He did as he was bid, and Jane took a seat at his side, on the divan that ran along the foot of Rebecca’s bed. She perched on the chair beside the window, anxious for the impending revelation. And then Richard proceeded to explain to the ladies that his friend was not Will Darcy at all, but a man named William Worthing.
Jane began to weep for her sister’s ill usage, and Rebecca was ready to help Lady Catherine arm herself with pistol and saber as she set off to retrieve Elizabeth. Richard held up his hands. “I will say on his behalf that he did not misrepresent himself to Elizabeth in any other way. His words and actions were sincere – I believe that he loves her very much. He does intend to tell her the truth, to explain what I have told youabout his wishing to occasionally escape the pressure of his responsibilities.”
Rebecca threw up her hands in frustration. “I see! So, he is a liar and a fraud, but only because he is tragically burdened by an estate he was not born to, and enough of a fortune to comfortably debauch himself whenever he chooses! Good God, Lady Catherine was right – she is going to be insufferable after this.”
“We must tell her at once,” Jane said.
Richard agreed and gestured to Rebecca. “And you are wanted by the Council of Angry Mothers, anyhow.”
