Mr Darcy's Legacy, page 12
Darcy was relieved that the Duke ended the meeting, as he could not bear more of it for the moment, nor see any person in the world. He was disconnected even from Elizabeth. She was there, in his heart, but he could not reach her. During the first moments, there was the shock, but now, on the street, he felt exhausted, spent, astounded, furious. He refused to take the carriage that was waiting for him. He needed time to sort things before facing Elizabeth and Georgiana. But with every step on the street, his feelings began to flow at an uncontrollable speed. He was astounded at first, but then he became sad and angry and bitter and then again his feelings were tumbling, remembering his mother was dead and she could not defend herself. He needed to quarrel with her, to argue for hours trying to find an explanation for her decisions, to accuse her of betraying his father, the only father that he had known. He needed to stand up for his dead father and try to regain his dignity.
Then he was angry again at Anne who decided to destroy his life and the Duke’s and, in the end, everybody else’s. She had thought only of her feelings and Darcy saw her gesture like a kind of revenge, but those who contributed to her unhappiness were no longer present to be confronted or to suffer from her revelations. There were only Darcy and the Duke and their families who would be affected. But only two streets away he felt sorry for his mother who carried that burden all her life. He wondered then if his father knew the truth, maybe he accepted taking her into marriage knowing the circumstances. Darcy tried to remember anything about his parents’ wedding day, but he had no memories of it. His parents never talked about it or about their feelings. He would, eventually, find their marriage contract, but he was not sure he wanted to dig deeper into that story. But most of all amid all that turmoil he thought of his father, a dear and highly respected figure in his life, a man who raised him to be the man he was. If he had known Darcy was not his son that truth did not prevent him from being an attentive and wise father.
Moreover, that proved his beautiful and strong character. Darcy was proud to be his son, because, after all, a father is the one who raises and educates the child. He was also happy that despite the horrible story of her youth, his mother had the chance to share her life with such a worthy man.
He was not willing to think further, but he had to admit his life would completely change as all the well-founded convictions a child has about his parents were shattered. But still, only one guiding line remained: whether he knew he was not his son or not, Mr Darcy, the master of Pemberley, remained the bright figure to guide him through that difficult time. As he approached home, he made an effort to accept that both his parents and the Duke were the victims of circumstances they could not control or oppose.
The only one to blame was the 5th Duke of Blandford, who played with his son’s life as with a puppet and lived to have no remorse. The 5th Duke of Blandford, his grandfather!
As, finally, he arrived near his house, he was not calmer but at least he tried to make peace with all the events. He was thinking of the Duke; he was his father; they did not need his mother’s words to understand into their souls and to see in the mirror. He remembered the Duke was shocked, but he seemed to take the news with a light heart even to enjoy it. He had embraced him as a father does, accepting him as his son the very same instant. As he climbed the few steps to his door the revelation invaded Darcy and again broke him in pieces: he was the 7th Duke of Blandford. He had to lean on the door, as he sensed his blood beating in his ears like a savage drum. He did not know what to do with that knowledge, where to put it, in his mind or in his soul. He was sorry he left the Duke, but at the same time, he also needed to be alone. Only, for him, alone was no longer to be with himself but to be together with Elizabeth.
***
He found the ladies, still at the dinner table, waiting for him. Elizabeth immediately stood up and moved to him. Darcy kissed her hand and his eyes told her he was fine and he loved her more than anything else.
He sat at the table for a moment, but he could not eat.
“My ladies,” he said, “I had a long and very emotional talk with His Grace. I am not capable of telling you more this evening; I need to rest and reflect, but I promise, in the morning you will find out the whole story. But I have wonderful news for you. On Saturday we are all invited to the Season’s Ball the Duke will give in honour of our future marriage. So, ladies, I want you to light the ballroom with your presence!”
A few minutes of excitement were shared by the ladies, with Darcy watching them.
Eventually, he kissed Lady Edwina’s hand and Georgiana lightly on her cheeks; then took Elizabeth by the hand saying:
“We wish you a good night, my ladies! I have something important to talk to Elisabeth about, and we will see you in the morning.” Then he led his blushing betrothed through the door. He knew he was misbehaving and that he should not take such liberties in the presence of his sister, but he had not enough strength to disguise their relationship anymore.
Georgiana looked after them with a reproachful gaze that Edwina understood so well. Georgiana could not yet wholly understand she was no longer a girl in her brother’s care but an adult who had to face her brother’s marriage and their new relationship. In other times it would have been she to hear his stories and now she had to wait till morning. And, yet, she still refused to understand the full meaning of their departure together. Lady Edwina took her hand:
“Do not be sad my angel, he will tell us all in the morning! Be sure I will torture him if he does not!”
Edwina wanted to joke, to dissipate the girl’s sadness and resentments that mingled to form a rather dangerous feeling.
Georgina smiled, but it was a polite smile out of education and not one from her soul.
“I am not jealous! she said. “Please, believe me!”
“I believe you, my child!” Edwina tried again to comfort and calm her.
“But I am so alone, I do not know what to do without him!”
“He is not leaving you; he is just getting married! You are his young sister and you always will be. But he will have his family with Elizabeth, just as you will have yours one day. You both belong to each other’s lives forever.” Edwina smiled, wiping her tears. Still, Georgiana did not smile.
“Please, Aunt Edwina, please stay with me in the next weeks!”
Edwina took her into her arms as they were stepping out of the dining room and she said:
“I will stay, my angel, as long as you want me to. You will have to shut me out of your door to get rid of me!” And this time Georgiana smiled with her whole heart.
Chapter 19
Darcy left the dining room hand in hand with Elizabeth, but as they climbed the stairs, he turned to her and said, “I need to sleep in my room.”
Elizabeth understood, maybe even more profoundly then he had. It was not his bed that he wanted just for a comfortable sleep, but he did not wish to sleep in his mother’s bedroom.
“I know you do, my dear,” she said, “just let me take the nightgown from my rooms.”
Elizabeth was eager and anxious to find out what happened, but she knew that, for the rest of her life, she would have to learn to be gentle and patient. Especially her husband. So she prepared her nightgown and her brushes and everything else in a slow rhythm to let him think. He sat on the bed looking at her, happy with their utter and unrestrained intimacy. It was such a perfect coincidence that Elizabeth decided to complete their union, to accept him as her husband in every sense, at the very instant he needed her the most. He was confused about what occurred and could not yet admit all the changes in his life, but that night would have been infinitely more dramatic if Elizabeth had not been in his life. From time to time, she looked at him lovingly yet worried and just her gaze was enough to re-establish a part of his universe.
“The Duke of Blandford is my father,” he said as if he expected the ceiling to fall on them. But nothing happened. Elizabeth stood near him and took his hand, caressing it as she said, “I know, my love!”
He startled and looked at her incredulous and distraught.
“Elizabeth, how? When? Why did you not tell me?”
Despite all the questions raised almost at the same time, Elizabeth did not lose her composure. She gently pushed him into the parlour where the Duke’s portrait was still open and in a rather strange way, the scene from the ballroom repeated itself as she made him stand near the painting:
“You look so much alike, my love. Yesterday you kept on strolling around the portrait and it was obvious to anybody looking at you… and him!”
“Why did you not tell me then?”
“It was a feeling,” she said, “nothing more than a hint; I could not tell you such a dramatic circumstance just on a feeling.”
“I need to know all your feelings, from now on!” he said in a demanding tone, the way he used to talk when he first met her.
“Do not behave like a spoiled lad, my love!”
Darcy did not feel her teasing. He needed to escape from that room - he could not breathe anymore in all the secrets surrounding his mother that still lived all those years since she was gone.
He took her hand and, in haste, wanting just to escape, they hurried to his apartment. Once arrived in his chamber he opened the ceiling-height doors, leading Elizabeth to the balcony. The moon was high in the sky and its light was just invading the gardens from underneath; he made a gesture towards her and took her in his arms:
“I just want to feel you and have you as the only certainty in my life. Since this afternoon, everything I have known is now shattered in pieces I do not recognise. I fear I will never be able to be me again. Or to be whole again.”
Elizabeth embraced him with all her power; she wanted him to trust her and to understand that she would be near him from that day on, all their lives.
“I am here, my love, forever! Tonight and tomorrow and no matter what may happen, I am on your side. Unconditionally!”
“I want to see you!” he said, and he distanced himself an arm's length from her, looking into her eyes. The moon and stars were the only light between them, but he could clearly see her face as he said:
“I am the next Duke of Blandford!”
And even for him, those words were strange and very little understood.
Elizabeth was finally stunned and for an instant, he smiled at her astonishment.
“What are you talking about?”
“Shush, my love,” he said, “I cannot stay away from you a minute longer.”
He undresses her in haste, his moves were so brusque and eager that she helped him smiling while he spoke words of love and lust. Elizabeth thought she could keep her composure, she wanted to see him wanting her, to observe his eyes, to follow his love gestures but when his hands were finally on her naked body, her world exploded in bliss to let him conquer her.
He loved her with eager passion, wanting to wash away the turmoil of the day, all the events he had experienced, the uncertainty and the sadness, and to lose himself in their passion. Elizabeth, with her new senses that womanhood discovered in her, knew that night was for him. The tender love they made only one night before was gone, replaced by his urge to chase away all the shadows that weighed on him. His passion was a battle and Elizabeth readily rejoiced in it, helping him to win!
Only after all his tumult was finally consumed in their love, he gently took her into his arms and told her everything he had been through that day.
Chapter 20
There remained a single question between them: what to tell Georgiana and Lady Edwina. It was complicated to decide as it was not just his secret and it was not a simple one. But that problem was solved when just seated at the breakfast table, Parker came to inform him that the Duke of Blandford was waiting in the library. It took Darcy a few seconds to understand:
“In my library? he asked in disbelief.
“Yes, sir!” the butler asked, “His Grace asked me to lead him there and announce his arrival to you.”
Darcy stood up in a hurry and rushed to the library without even a glance around. He was again confused and worried as he had been the night before when he left the Duke’s house.
As Darcy entered, he discovered the gentleman pacing the room impatiently. They both hesitated, the same dilemma on their faces, but the Duke was happy to see him and a genuine smile appeared on his face.
The Duke had not slept the entire night, thinking about this child of love who finally found his way to him. And for the first time in many years, he let all the memories come back and invade him, all the recollections come back to life. The love between him and Anne was not dead as he had thought for so many years; it existed in this young man that he already loved and cherished after only a day. All night long, he prepared himself to offer Darcy the place in his life that he rightfully deserved. He could wait no more. So great was his impatience that, as the morning had broken, he was ready to leave. Too soon to arrive at Darcy’s house, he decided on a ride throughout his dear London. He saluted the Thames as he did each time he was happy, then along the empty, foggy streets he tried to put his feelings and thoughts in order. It took him a long time to find the proper solution but the Town helped him. Regardless of how difficult it might seem, he had a moral obligation to put into practice a state of matters the page from the marriage register unveiled, and also, the document in his possession gave him a legal direction.
In front of Darcy’s door, a unique wish remained in his mind: to recognise him as his son and heir.
***
“Sit!” he said in haste. “Sit, Darcy, we have to talk.”
The Duke had been thinking till now, but in Darcy‘s library, the circumstances began to fall into place.
“The document from the church register has to be proven original. Unfortunately, the minister is dead, but I hope his daughter is still alive.”
Darcy listened in silence, looking at the Duke with the expression of a reluctant, fearful child.
“The letter we did not finish, my boy!” the Duke impatiently said. “Your mother was explaining what happened to the registered document. Anne received the paper only a year before her death. It was the minister’s daughter who brought it.”
And as Darcy was still silent. The Duke tried to temper his nervousness and continued less impatiently and more benevolently:
“It is all written in your mother’s letter, we did not finish reading it yesterday,” he repeated with a tender smile and kept talking hoping that, eventually, Darcy would recover from his strange state of oblivion.
“The poor woman came to Anne and apologetically gave her the document. She said that the document was not destroyed, as my father had wished, but it was abandoned near the church. It is possible that the man who ripped out the page was afraid to tear it apart. It was, after all, a church’s property. The minister found the page by chance in the grass, saving it from destruction. He kept it for a long time, unsure of what he should do. His mission as a clergyman was subverted by weaklings and cowards, and his honour was shattered by this act. Anyway, on his death bed, he instructed his daughter to find Anne and give her the document. If we can prove that the document is the original page, then my marriage to Hilda is annulled.”
“Sir, no!” Darcy looked like he had just woken up from a heavy sleep, struggling to stop the man in front of him. It was too much for him, too soon! He needed time
“My dear boy,” the Duke said and this time it sounded like a father addressing his son, “it is not for you to decide. You are one of my children like the other three, your half-siblings: Luis, Harriet, and Ralston…”
He stopped seeing Darcy breathing with difficulty, but he was determined to go on, so much so that he missed seeing all the effects of such an act. It was impossible for him to see that Darcy did not share his feelings and did not agree to that solution to their problem. The Duke was almost drunk with happiness. Anne gave him his first child and it did not matter that he found out only thirty years later. His son was a definite proof of his long-lost love and he yearned to re-establish the order that they had lost in that churchyard. He had neither time nor understanding to find out what was happening with Darcy; he just wanted to mend all the mistakes from the past. But in front of Darcy’s troubled face, he made an effort to temper his joy.
“I had all night to make plans. I will try not to rush you, as I understand it is difficult to accept and maybe you need time. Only now that I know the truth, I think we have already lost too much time. Almost 30 years.”
Darcy was torn between such contradictory feelings that he found no proper words to reply.
The Duke tried to regain his calm in front of his son’s obvious distress making the conversation difficult to carry.
“Do you want me to tell you what happened after that afternoon in St. Albans?”
Darcy was nodding but only to gain time, not that he was inquisitive. The Duke offered a storm of information and actions that could not be stopped and Darcy felt carried off into the air by those heavy winds to a destination he did not know. He was the son of Mr Darcy, the master of Pemberley. These words were like a verse in a prayer meant to protect the one who repeated them, over and over.
***
“I stayed in Hanover for five years, the most horrible years of my life. All I did for days and weeks and months was hunting. I left the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg with no game…” The Duke smiled, trying to obtain a smile from Darcy, but as nothing happened, he continued to speak. “I was taken to Hanover like a prisoner, heavy guard around me, men in my father’s service. My father informed me in a letter that Anne was married and from then on, nothing mattered for me anymore.”
“Do you know when they got married?”
“I received the letter from my father a few days after I arrived at Hilda’s castle, maybe a month or so after our marriage.”
Darcy was stunned by the short period they needed to marry his mother. He did not know for sure who ‘they’, were; certainly, the old Duke and Anne’s father but also someone from his father’s family, maybe his paternal grandfather. He could not imagine that his father was involved, but he could easily see the late Duke and his two grandfathers deciding on such a dramatic matter as if it were something reasonable or straightforward. But not his father; his father liked Pemberley and the life in the country, he was not at all fond of London or the Ton. But maybe he loved Anne and it was an excellent opportunity to marry her. He referred to his mother, Anne, with a kind of estrangement. He passionately wanted not to soil the images he had of his parents and he loathed that the Duke seemed the one who started all this madness. But in the end, it was not the Duke, he had to admit; it was his mother who wanted the truth to come to light. Did she wish for her son to become Duke of Blandford, did she have that aspiration for him, or did she simply want the Duke to know he had a son? That would remain a question forever unanswered.
Then he was angry again at Anne who decided to destroy his life and the Duke’s and, in the end, everybody else’s. She had thought only of her feelings and Darcy saw her gesture like a kind of revenge, but those who contributed to her unhappiness were no longer present to be confronted or to suffer from her revelations. There were only Darcy and the Duke and their families who would be affected. But only two streets away he felt sorry for his mother who carried that burden all her life. He wondered then if his father knew the truth, maybe he accepted taking her into marriage knowing the circumstances. Darcy tried to remember anything about his parents’ wedding day, but he had no memories of it. His parents never talked about it or about their feelings. He would, eventually, find their marriage contract, but he was not sure he wanted to dig deeper into that story. But most of all amid all that turmoil he thought of his father, a dear and highly respected figure in his life, a man who raised him to be the man he was. If he had known Darcy was not his son that truth did not prevent him from being an attentive and wise father.
Moreover, that proved his beautiful and strong character. Darcy was proud to be his son, because, after all, a father is the one who raises and educates the child. He was also happy that despite the horrible story of her youth, his mother had the chance to share her life with such a worthy man.
He was not willing to think further, but he had to admit his life would completely change as all the well-founded convictions a child has about his parents were shattered. But still, only one guiding line remained: whether he knew he was not his son or not, Mr Darcy, the master of Pemberley, remained the bright figure to guide him through that difficult time. As he approached home, he made an effort to accept that both his parents and the Duke were the victims of circumstances they could not control or oppose.
The only one to blame was the 5th Duke of Blandford, who played with his son’s life as with a puppet and lived to have no remorse. The 5th Duke of Blandford, his grandfather!
As, finally, he arrived near his house, he was not calmer but at least he tried to make peace with all the events. He was thinking of the Duke; he was his father; they did not need his mother’s words to understand into their souls and to see in the mirror. He remembered the Duke was shocked, but he seemed to take the news with a light heart even to enjoy it. He had embraced him as a father does, accepting him as his son the very same instant. As he climbed the few steps to his door the revelation invaded Darcy and again broke him in pieces: he was the 7th Duke of Blandford. He had to lean on the door, as he sensed his blood beating in his ears like a savage drum. He did not know what to do with that knowledge, where to put it, in his mind or in his soul. He was sorry he left the Duke, but at the same time, he also needed to be alone. Only, for him, alone was no longer to be with himself but to be together with Elizabeth.
***
He found the ladies, still at the dinner table, waiting for him. Elizabeth immediately stood up and moved to him. Darcy kissed her hand and his eyes told her he was fine and he loved her more than anything else.
He sat at the table for a moment, but he could not eat.
“My ladies,” he said, “I had a long and very emotional talk with His Grace. I am not capable of telling you more this evening; I need to rest and reflect, but I promise, in the morning you will find out the whole story. But I have wonderful news for you. On Saturday we are all invited to the Season’s Ball the Duke will give in honour of our future marriage. So, ladies, I want you to light the ballroom with your presence!”
A few minutes of excitement were shared by the ladies, with Darcy watching them.
Eventually, he kissed Lady Edwina’s hand and Georgiana lightly on her cheeks; then took Elizabeth by the hand saying:
“We wish you a good night, my ladies! I have something important to talk to Elisabeth about, and we will see you in the morning.” Then he led his blushing betrothed through the door. He knew he was misbehaving and that he should not take such liberties in the presence of his sister, but he had not enough strength to disguise their relationship anymore.
Georgiana looked after them with a reproachful gaze that Edwina understood so well. Georgiana could not yet wholly understand she was no longer a girl in her brother’s care but an adult who had to face her brother’s marriage and their new relationship. In other times it would have been she to hear his stories and now she had to wait till morning. And, yet, she still refused to understand the full meaning of their departure together. Lady Edwina took her hand:
“Do not be sad my angel, he will tell us all in the morning! Be sure I will torture him if he does not!”
Edwina wanted to joke, to dissipate the girl’s sadness and resentments that mingled to form a rather dangerous feeling.
Georgina smiled, but it was a polite smile out of education and not one from her soul.
“I am not jealous! she said. “Please, believe me!”
“I believe you, my child!” Edwina tried again to comfort and calm her.
“But I am so alone, I do not know what to do without him!”
“He is not leaving you; he is just getting married! You are his young sister and you always will be. But he will have his family with Elizabeth, just as you will have yours one day. You both belong to each other’s lives forever.” Edwina smiled, wiping her tears. Still, Georgiana did not smile.
“Please, Aunt Edwina, please stay with me in the next weeks!”
Edwina took her into her arms as they were stepping out of the dining room and she said:
“I will stay, my angel, as long as you want me to. You will have to shut me out of your door to get rid of me!” And this time Georgiana smiled with her whole heart.
Chapter 19
Darcy left the dining room hand in hand with Elizabeth, but as they climbed the stairs, he turned to her and said, “I need to sleep in my room.”
Elizabeth understood, maybe even more profoundly then he had. It was not his bed that he wanted just for a comfortable sleep, but he did not wish to sleep in his mother’s bedroom.
“I know you do, my dear,” she said, “just let me take the nightgown from my rooms.”
Elizabeth was eager and anxious to find out what happened, but she knew that, for the rest of her life, she would have to learn to be gentle and patient. Especially her husband. So she prepared her nightgown and her brushes and everything else in a slow rhythm to let him think. He sat on the bed looking at her, happy with their utter and unrestrained intimacy. It was such a perfect coincidence that Elizabeth decided to complete their union, to accept him as her husband in every sense, at the very instant he needed her the most. He was confused about what occurred and could not yet admit all the changes in his life, but that night would have been infinitely more dramatic if Elizabeth had not been in his life. From time to time, she looked at him lovingly yet worried and just her gaze was enough to re-establish a part of his universe.
“The Duke of Blandford is my father,” he said as if he expected the ceiling to fall on them. But nothing happened. Elizabeth stood near him and took his hand, caressing it as she said, “I know, my love!”
He startled and looked at her incredulous and distraught.
“Elizabeth, how? When? Why did you not tell me?”
Despite all the questions raised almost at the same time, Elizabeth did not lose her composure. She gently pushed him into the parlour where the Duke’s portrait was still open and in a rather strange way, the scene from the ballroom repeated itself as she made him stand near the painting:
“You look so much alike, my love. Yesterday you kept on strolling around the portrait and it was obvious to anybody looking at you… and him!”
“Why did you not tell me then?”
“It was a feeling,” she said, “nothing more than a hint; I could not tell you such a dramatic circumstance just on a feeling.”
“I need to know all your feelings, from now on!” he said in a demanding tone, the way he used to talk when he first met her.
“Do not behave like a spoiled lad, my love!”
Darcy did not feel her teasing. He needed to escape from that room - he could not breathe anymore in all the secrets surrounding his mother that still lived all those years since she was gone.
He took her hand and, in haste, wanting just to escape, they hurried to his apartment. Once arrived in his chamber he opened the ceiling-height doors, leading Elizabeth to the balcony. The moon was high in the sky and its light was just invading the gardens from underneath; he made a gesture towards her and took her in his arms:
“I just want to feel you and have you as the only certainty in my life. Since this afternoon, everything I have known is now shattered in pieces I do not recognise. I fear I will never be able to be me again. Or to be whole again.”
Elizabeth embraced him with all her power; she wanted him to trust her and to understand that she would be near him from that day on, all their lives.
“I am here, my love, forever! Tonight and tomorrow and no matter what may happen, I am on your side. Unconditionally!”
“I want to see you!” he said, and he distanced himself an arm's length from her, looking into her eyes. The moon and stars were the only light between them, but he could clearly see her face as he said:
“I am the next Duke of Blandford!”
And even for him, those words were strange and very little understood.
Elizabeth was finally stunned and for an instant, he smiled at her astonishment.
“What are you talking about?”
“Shush, my love,” he said, “I cannot stay away from you a minute longer.”
He undresses her in haste, his moves were so brusque and eager that she helped him smiling while he spoke words of love and lust. Elizabeth thought she could keep her composure, she wanted to see him wanting her, to observe his eyes, to follow his love gestures but when his hands were finally on her naked body, her world exploded in bliss to let him conquer her.
He loved her with eager passion, wanting to wash away the turmoil of the day, all the events he had experienced, the uncertainty and the sadness, and to lose himself in their passion. Elizabeth, with her new senses that womanhood discovered in her, knew that night was for him. The tender love they made only one night before was gone, replaced by his urge to chase away all the shadows that weighed on him. His passion was a battle and Elizabeth readily rejoiced in it, helping him to win!
Only after all his tumult was finally consumed in their love, he gently took her into his arms and told her everything he had been through that day.
Chapter 20
There remained a single question between them: what to tell Georgiana and Lady Edwina. It was complicated to decide as it was not just his secret and it was not a simple one. But that problem was solved when just seated at the breakfast table, Parker came to inform him that the Duke of Blandford was waiting in the library. It took Darcy a few seconds to understand:
“In my library? he asked in disbelief.
“Yes, sir!” the butler asked, “His Grace asked me to lead him there and announce his arrival to you.”
Darcy stood up in a hurry and rushed to the library without even a glance around. He was again confused and worried as he had been the night before when he left the Duke’s house.
As Darcy entered, he discovered the gentleman pacing the room impatiently. They both hesitated, the same dilemma on their faces, but the Duke was happy to see him and a genuine smile appeared on his face.
The Duke had not slept the entire night, thinking about this child of love who finally found his way to him. And for the first time in many years, he let all the memories come back and invade him, all the recollections come back to life. The love between him and Anne was not dead as he had thought for so many years; it existed in this young man that he already loved and cherished after only a day. All night long, he prepared himself to offer Darcy the place in his life that he rightfully deserved. He could wait no more. So great was his impatience that, as the morning had broken, he was ready to leave. Too soon to arrive at Darcy’s house, he decided on a ride throughout his dear London. He saluted the Thames as he did each time he was happy, then along the empty, foggy streets he tried to put his feelings and thoughts in order. It took him a long time to find the proper solution but the Town helped him. Regardless of how difficult it might seem, he had a moral obligation to put into practice a state of matters the page from the marriage register unveiled, and also, the document in his possession gave him a legal direction.
In front of Darcy’s door, a unique wish remained in his mind: to recognise him as his son and heir.
***
“Sit!” he said in haste. “Sit, Darcy, we have to talk.”
The Duke had been thinking till now, but in Darcy‘s library, the circumstances began to fall into place.
“The document from the church register has to be proven original. Unfortunately, the minister is dead, but I hope his daughter is still alive.”
Darcy listened in silence, looking at the Duke with the expression of a reluctant, fearful child.
“The letter we did not finish, my boy!” the Duke impatiently said. “Your mother was explaining what happened to the registered document. Anne received the paper only a year before her death. It was the minister’s daughter who brought it.”
And as Darcy was still silent. The Duke tried to temper his nervousness and continued less impatiently and more benevolently:
“It is all written in your mother’s letter, we did not finish reading it yesterday,” he repeated with a tender smile and kept talking hoping that, eventually, Darcy would recover from his strange state of oblivion.
“The poor woman came to Anne and apologetically gave her the document. She said that the document was not destroyed, as my father had wished, but it was abandoned near the church. It is possible that the man who ripped out the page was afraid to tear it apart. It was, after all, a church’s property. The minister found the page by chance in the grass, saving it from destruction. He kept it for a long time, unsure of what he should do. His mission as a clergyman was subverted by weaklings and cowards, and his honour was shattered by this act. Anyway, on his death bed, he instructed his daughter to find Anne and give her the document. If we can prove that the document is the original page, then my marriage to Hilda is annulled.”
“Sir, no!” Darcy looked like he had just woken up from a heavy sleep, struggling to stop the man in front of him. It was too much for him, too soon! He needed time
“My dear boy,” the Duke said and this time it sounded like a father addressing his son, “it is not for you to decide. You are one of my children like the other three, your half-siblings: Luis, Harriet, and Ralston…”
He stopped seeing Darcy breathing with difficulty, but he was determined to go on, so much so that he missed seeing all the effects of such an act. It was impossible for him to see that Darcy did not share his feelings and did not agree to that solution to their problem. The Duke was almost drunk with happiness. Anne gave him his first child and it did not matter that he found out only thirty years later. His son was a definite proof of his long-lost love and he yearned to re-establish the order that they had lost in that churchyard. He had neither time nor understanding to find out what was happening with Darcy; he just wanted to mend all the mistakes from the past. But in front of Darcy’s troubled face, he made an effort to temper his joy.
“I had all night to make plans. I will try not to rush you, as I understand it is difficult to accept and maybe you need time. Only now that I know the truth, I think we have already lost too much time. Almost 30 years.”
Darcy was torn between such contradictory feelings that he found no proper words to reply.
The Duke tried to regain his calm in front of his son’s obvious distress making the conversation difficult to carry.
“Do you want me to tell you what happened after that afternoon in St. Albans?”
Darcy was nodding but only to gain time, not that he was inquisitive. The Duke offered a storm of information and actions that could not be stopped and Darcy felt carried off into the air by those heavy winds to a destination he did not know. He was the son of Mr Darcy, the master of Pemberley. These words were like a verse in a prayer meant to protect the one who repeated them, over and over.
***
“I stayed in Hanover for five years, the most horrible years of my life. All I did for days and weeks and months was hunting. I left the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg with no game…” The Duke smiled, trying to obtain a smile from Darcy, but as nothing happened, he continued to speak. “I was taken to Hanover like a prisoner, heavy guard around me, men in my father’s service. My father informed me in a letter that Anne was married and from then on, nothing mattered for me anymore.”
“Do you know when they got married?”
“I received the letter from my father a few days after I arrived at Hilda’s castle, maybe a month or so after our marriage.”
Darcy was stunned by the short period they needed to marry his mother. He did not know for sure who ‘they’, were; certainly, the old Duke and Anne’s father but also someone from his father’s family, maybe his paternal grandfather. He could not imagine that his father was involved, but he could easily see the late Duke and his two grandfathers deciding on such a dramatic matter as if it were something reasonable or straightforward. But not his father; his father liked Pemberley and the life in the country, he was not at all fond of London or the Ton. But maybe he loved Anne and it was an excellent opportunity to marry her. He referred to his mother, Anne, with a kind of estrangement. He passionately wanted not to soil the images he had of his parents and he loathed that the Duke seemed the one who started all this madness. But in the end, it was not the Duke, he had to admit; it was his mother who wanted the truth to come to light. Did she wish for her son to become Duke of Blandford, did she have that aspiration for him, or did she simply want the Duke to know he had a son? That would remain a question forever unanswered.
