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“Now that is out of the way let us move to ’09. Let me explain my connect to Lady Maria.”

Elizabeth recounted the day on Piccadilly.

“You saved one of the daughters of the Duke of Richwood?”

“I did.”

Darcy immediately saw the issue; the social status gap between the two parties.

“But Lady Maria decided to start and then continue a correspondence?”

“She did. That was at the start of 1810. She flat out told me that the family was in my debt but the usual manner of repayment, entrance into society, was unavailable. Six months later the debt was repaid.”

She paused and looked at Darcy.

“I do not want to lie, but this is awkward for me as it feels like bragging. The idea of legally importing what became known as ‘blood brandy’ was mine.”

Darcy stared at her with a mixture of shock and deep admiration.

“All the details, the shipping, dealing with the Spanish, dealing with the Excise, all of that was my uncle’s doing. I suggested the idea and asked Lady Maria to request a meeting between my uncle and her brother-in-law.”

“Bathurst?”

She nodded.

“That is what I have done for my uncle over the past four years. I read newspapers, magazines and journals but he has trained me to look at everything, connect the dots, make suggestions. He alone was the man who listened to me, however foolish my ideas. But between one in five and one in six have merit.”

Fitzwilliam Darcy was not an insecure man. He looked at his fiancé with wonder and in that moment realised he was going to have a fascinating life. And he could substitute fascinating for every other synonym in his thesaurus.

“I know that you do not wish to boast but can you give me any other examples?”

“You know that the tournament was my idea, directly as a result of meeting and talking with the Colonel. I will talk about the impact of that presently. My uncle has recently been sourcing grain from places other than the United States. He had bundles of American newspapers shipped over and even being several months old, it is clear that the Americans are unhappy at the behaviour of the Royal Navy and its treatment of American ships and crewman. It could come to war and we need alternate supplies for the both the Army and our Spanish allies.”

Darcy knew that it was the talk of the clubs of London, opinion split as to whether this policy was necessary or foolish.

“And the last one I can immediately think of is his purchase of two ships specifically fitted out to transport animals. It was many months after the retreat at A Coruna that I learned the Army had slaughtered all their horses so that they did not fall into the hands of the French. This struck me as such a waste, not just in the treatment of loyal beasts, but also in the resultant necessity to re-equip whole regiments of cavalry. As well as all the supply trains. Sir Edward was doing sufficiently well that he acquired an interest in two ships and appropriately fitted them out. One is used for horses and the other for cattle. There were others supplying the same service but there did not appear to be sufficient.”

“I am marrying a very insightful woman. We will have to strike the right balance when you are the Mistress of Pemberley but I wish for you to continue this endeavour.”

Little did either know but both were thinking of their first kiss being in public in the middle of Hyde Park. Propriety won, but only just.

“I know I have bombarded you with lots of information but in many ways, these are the easy parts of my tale. When Sir Edward married for the second time, I knew that my time at Gracechurch Street was over. His eldest son had finished school and could now perform the role in the business that had until then been mine. It is unfortunate that he is of standard opinion that women have no place in business. And my Aunt Agatha needed to be able to make their home her own. There could not be two mistresses.

“As a result, I returned to Longbourn for the first time in four years. By random chance, we travelled into Hertfordshire on the same day, I saw the back of your head as you left the inn where we both stopped for lunch. There is no need to recount the Assembly. I know now that you were concerned about your sister.”

Darcy still flushed at the memory. It was his lowest point as a gentleman.

“What I need to explain is how Longbourn was unchanged but I was a very different person from the young woman that had left four years earlier. I have talked of my father but not yet of my mother. You heard her annual statement at the start of my narrative. The worry about being thrown into the hedgerows is a constant, near daily, concern. There are two sides to this. I can understand her worry about something that seems unfair; when my father passes away, she and any remaining unmarried daughters can be thrown out by the new owner. You met him, Lady Catherine’s parson Mr. Collins.

“But the other side of this concern is not so flattering to her. She has not made, and continues not to make, any effort to save money.”

Elizabeth stopped for a moment but then rushed on.

“You have seen her, to this day she spends more than half the week being driven round the neighbourhood and there is no restraint on her spending. When I returned home after four years of working long hours every day it was such a jarring shock. I did not regret any of that time, I was getting such an education. It started with me as a 16 year old young woman and my uncle having just lost his wife and his legs above the knee. We spent four years working hard, raising the three children still at home and expanding the business. I do not remember the exact chapter and verse but there is a quote in Proverbs about a negligent hand and a diligent hand.”

“He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich, chapter 10, verse four.”

“That is the one, thank you. You are right it is slack not negligent. I was faced with this behaviour. It was one thing to see it in the ledgers, lower income yet the same expenditures, but it was a shock to have it staring you in the face. Then Mr. Collins arrived and suddenly four years of sacrifice was not enough. The day after the ball at Longbourn he proposed, in the most insulting manner possible.”