Mr Darcy's Legacy, page 8
“My dear, 30 years ago a girl in our society married only if the parents agreed, and when they decided on a husband, no one could refuse. There were a few marriages for love, but they were the exception. It is hard for you to understand, but society evolved, and love is more important now, it has a certain value it did not have. I could say you are lucky.”
“Lady Catherine told us that together with Lady Anne, they decided to marry Anne de Bourgh to Darcy.” Elizabeth was speaking from her fears that could not be overcome.
Lady Edwina stared in disbelief from Elizabeth to Darcy:
“What are you talking about? Anne wanted her son to find his great love, she would never impose such a burden on him. Not her! And I hope you are sure of what I say now that you know her story.”
“No!” Lady Edwina spoke again, almost in a rage, “that intriguer lied as she has more than once in her life!”
“Do you think she had any involvement in their separation?” Georgiana asked.
Lady Edwina was somewhat sceptical, “Their separation was decided at the highest level where your grandparents or aunt had no access. Your mother married Darcy that summer. Fitz married in Hanover and stayed there for a long period. They separated them one from another in very precise movements. Darcy received huge privileges around Pemberley. Even the way Darcy was selected showed a plan because I am sure there was a kind of choice among the suitable bachelors, but Pemberley is three days from London or five in a carriage. They wanted Anne as far away as possible.”
“Unfortunately, we will not know more then you told us!” Georgiana said with a visible sorrow.
“I would not be so sure,” Lady Edwina smiled, “Anne wanted you to know more than I know.” And she pointed her delicate hand with a beautiful ruby stone to the pile of letters on the table.
“The ring,” Georgiana said, looking at the ring that was still on her finger.
“Yes! The ring, the letters, we know that in one way or another Fitz asked her to marry him, no man would give such a ring to just any girl. Everything your mother told me was in that direction, only she kept the proposal secret. I am sure now they were engaged.”
“Without the old Duke’s consent!” Darcy said remembering how benevolently even affectionately the actual Duke had looked at him. It was not the look for a distant acquaintance but for someone close. His Grace saw in Darcy his long-lost beloved!
“It seemed that even after thirty years, His Grace has tender memories and feelings for mama!” Darcy continued. “It was obvious in the way he treated me! And his protection keeps me out of the infinite gossip my misadventure would have produced.”
Georgiana was looking at the letters on the table:
“It was not an unimportant relationship between two young people, nor does it matter it lasted only two months; it seems their love survived forever. We need to read the letters to know more. Now I am convinced it is mama’s will; she wanted not an act of revenge because it was not her character but a restoration. With her well-known delicacy, she did not want to hurt our father but wanted us to know she had loved and was prevented from being with the love of her life.”
“She wanted to recover in death the right to her love!” Elizabeth whispered tearfully, and all of them agreed as a powerful tension filled the room.
“The secret unveiled,” Lady Edwina uttered, “perhaps it was a triumph for her wounded love!”
No words were found for a proper reply – nor necessary. So much – too much – had been already said for one day. They all needed to rest after such an emotional conversation. They needed to reflect and prepare for the secret Lady Anne wanted to unveil and share with them from beyond the tomb.
For Darcy, there was nothing else he wished for except Elizabeth. He desperately needed her company to soothe his tormented mind and soul.
Therefore, while all the others retired to their chambers, he stayed only moments in his, then followed Elizabeth to Lady Anne’s apartment.
***
Elizabeth’s yearning for him matched his. She wished and hoped he would come to her – just as his dark glance silently told her – to comfort and to support each other. She knew it was outrageous for him to be in her chamber, but she cared little. There was no reputation to save or honour or other principles imposed by society. Not anymore. Darcy was her man, just as FitzRoy William, The Duke of Blandford was Anne’s. In death, Anne wanted to leave a solid trace of her love, to be remembered by her children. She had been an honest and faithful wife, she had never had any contact with the Duke during her lifetime, she had played her role of mistress of Pemberley with dignity and adored her children but near death, she decided to disclose her true love and make that love their heritage.
Darcy entered without knocking and Elizabeth met him with an adoring gaze, while his arms closed around her.
With Elizabeth in his arms, Darcy whispered:
“For the first time in her life, she could decide for herself and for her love. Nobody had the power to stop her, not the king, the old Duke, her father, no one had any power in the realm of near death. But she did not impose her wish on us. It was not a demand on the death bed but an invitation I could take or leave.”
“We want to know everything that can be discovered!” Elizabeth murmured in his embrace.
“Yes, we will go to the end of all her memories…”
“I want to be with you!” Elizabeth interrupted him.
Elizabeth was not joking or teasing him. There was such determination in her voice that Darcy pulled her out of his arms in a rather violent way, just to see her face; she coloured but her eyes were bright and truthfully, no longer afraid or shy, Elizabeth wanted to be his woman.
“We will... my love,” he said, “we will be married in less than two weeks.”
“No,” Elizabeth said, “you do not understand; I do not want to wait anymore, not a single night!”
Darcy looked at her in astonishment.
“It is my decision, my love!” she said. “You are the man I love, I want you to be my first man, no matter what may happen!”
“Nothing will happen, Elizabeth, nothing! We will be married in two weeks.”
“That will be our marriage in front of people and God, for us tonight will be our wedding night!”
“But why?” he asked, “Why?”
“There is too much love around us not to transform this intense benevolent feeling into our wedding night!”
Chapter 11
They have gathered in the dining room again – only the four of them. Mr Acton did not attend the dinner. With a very correct sense of the events he excused himself, he declared his tiredness, but in truth, he wanted just to let them decide when he might return to their meals.
“I have looked over the letters,” Lady Edwina said. “Mostly they are from Fritz to your mother, I imagine Anne had read them countless times as some of them are almost torn apart. Poor thing!”
Darcy remembered his mother’s parlour and could hear that noise, the panel that slid. In another sense, it was strange how his mother did not conceal it from him, for he was only a child, and he could have been indiscreet at that young age. But it seemed his mother knew him well, as he never told anybody about the portrait. Then, as he grew up, he completely forgot about it.
“There are some papers your mother wanted FitzRoy to have, they are sealed and tied up with a ribbon. I do not know what we should do about them. It is so strange that she did not leave a single word beside the letter from the solicitor, as if she left destiny or us to decide. We are calling him the Duke, but back then he was not, his father lived for three more years, but, when he died, it was too late for them. Maybe those letters were written after their separation and never sent. In any case, we can read only the letters intended to be read by us, for the others you decide if you will give them to FitzRoy.”
They were silently waiting for Lady Edwina to continue:
“Do you want me to read the letters?”
Again nobody said anything. They wanted her to make the decision; Edwina smiled, she had around her three children waiting for her to decide.
“Elizabeth, you read, you are the least involved now, my dear!”
Edwina’s tone was one of sweet command; she wanted to see if Elizabeth was strong enough to take on such a role.
Elizabeth looked at Darcy but, to her great surprise, his face was blank, offering no expression to help her understand his position. But she remembered the discussion they already had and decided that Lady Anne indeed wanted to take revenge on her fate and let the world know her story, and a mother’s world was her children. And then she remembered how close she had been to losing her Darcy and tears appeared in her eyes as she took the first letter.
“At the time Fitz was a baronet, but he used his family’s arms.” Lady Edwina said.
Indeed the blazon was at the top of the letter and Elizabeth could see the green griffon so masterly transformed in the ring Georgiana was still wearing.
My dearest,
Elizabeth stopped and looked at Lady Edwina, asking for advice.
“Continue my dear,” she said with a smile, “it is indeed the first letter, some do not have the dates, yet Anne was scrupulous in ordering them.”
“He was calling her my dearest after their first meeting!” Georgiana whispered; however, it was not a reproach but a wonder. She was imagining that kind of love that springs instantly at the highest intensity. No incertitude or analysis just the feeling perfectly understood and accepted by both… after a ball.
My dearest,
I could not sleep for an instant; it seems I do not need to rest anymore or eat or breathe; love is enough to live.
I am under a spell; I need us to meet as soon as possible. I will find a solution.
Fitz
“I covered up for her those first days,” Edwina smiled to her memory. “My God, I almost forgot that part of the story! I had an old aunt, Countess Edwina of Rothes, I take my name from her; they were wealthy, no children, but a lot of nieces and nephews around waiting for my uncle’s testament. The count and countess were two old people living in their own world, surrounded by dogs and horses and an army of servants.”
“My mother received an invitation that week from aunt Edwina, for us the young ones, to pass a few days in the country. The dear old woman preferred the children and young people who were less aggressive when it came to the inheritance. Anne was so desperate to see Fitz that I feared she might run away and start a scandal. Despite my illness, I announced that we would go. It was not far from London, a splendid ancient stone castle with a vast forest around. My mother was so enchanted by my decision that she forgot about my illness; it was so rare that we agreed to go.”
I am outside, close to the park entrance on your street, waiting for you.
Please come to the door, just for a second so I can see you or send me a message where and how we can see each other!”
Fitz in love
“Yes, my God!” Lady Edwina was almost shouting in deep emotion. “Fitz was in a carriage, so close to my house! He had just sent the coachman with the letter, waiting outside for her answer. At first, I was terrified because I knew Fritz and the young gentlemen of his age and rank. They were at that time totally unrestrained, they kept going from party to party all night long, and not the most decent ones! Meanwhile, Anne was a rosebud, pure and innocent, and I was the only one capable of defending her. Anne wrote a short message that we were heading for my aunt’s estate and he could follow us. She was happy; I was terrified. I needed to talk to Fitz and ask him to find another victim. When we arrived in front of my aunt’s castle Anne was sleeping, overcome by tiredness; I jumped from our carriage and went like a mother lioness to his carriage, which was a little further away. I was ready to tell him that I would go to his father or the king or God, only to renounce to her and go back to London. But what I found in the carriage was not the young baronet, Duke to be, but a boy in love. It was so obvious that my suspicions broke down to the ground like a crystal glass. He was as in love with her as she was with him. I can say that even now, when I am an old lady who has seen a lot in her life, even in my memories I could hardly find a love like theirs.”
Lady Edwina was reliving the excitement of those days, making them all enjoy every word she said.
“We stayed at the Rothes’ castle for three memorable days. The atmosphere was so different and at first, I thought that it was their love that changed the air of that stone house but it was something different. My aunt and uncle liked Fitz because for once he did not want anything from them, like all of us did, so they were full of benevolence and happy not to hide in another world to escape cajolery.”
Lady Edwina had the letters in her hand, gently playing with them like a fan.
“There are five more messages they exchanged during the first day and night,” she said and gave Elizabeth one.
I can hardly wait for the morning; come, my love, we should take a walk before breakfast.
Fitz
The letters were so intimate so full of sentiments that Elizabeth had the feeling she was reading her own words or Darcy’s. They shared the same urge to be with the loved one.
“I do not remember that morning, but probably they did take a walk.”
Lady Edwina, as she was handing the letters to Elizabeth, took a quick look at each of them, deciding not to let a too daring message to be read, for she feared that at that passion rate inevitably there would appear some she did not want to be read at the dinner table. The letters would remain in their possession and it was for each of them to decide if they wanted to read all the messages, even those intimate ones.
But after that first night's messages, Edwina began searching and then she looked at them, obviously puzzled.
“What is happening, Edwina?” Darcy asked. He was impatient to hear all as he wanted dinner to finish and go to Elizabeth’s room; he tried not to think, not to be impatient or worse, not to find reasons against listening. He would have preferred to marry first, on the spot, as he had proposed to Elizabeth, because for him the marriage day was not so important as for Elizabeth and he understood her reticence but did not clearly understand her new decision, her rush to be his.
As strange as it might look he had difficulties in understanding that the messages were for his mother. It was more like a well-written novel that Edwina was narrating and his beloved Elizabeth was reading.
Edwina looked at him somehow astonished, not finding the words, but finally, she said:
“For the next two days, there are no messages!”
“Maybe mama lost them or misplaced them!” Georgiana said, not understanding the real question.
“No, no!” Edwina said. “They are in a very rigorous order, maybe they are lost or maybe…”
She stopped; her thought was impossible to share with Anne’s children.
But they were all adults, the girls undoubtedly less initiated than Darcy; however, they were young women capable of understanding that those two days Anne and Fitz had been together all the time, needing no messages. Lady Edwina was in a state of shock for a story thirty years old. Anne had been with Fitz the second day of their love. The second night! Inconceivable as it might seem, knowing Anne, she had to admit, they were lovers! Love could perform incredible changes.
How was she so naïve not to see the change in her friend during those two long days? Lady Edwina was more than shocked; she was angry with her long-dead friend. Anne had kept all her secrets, even from her. She had been the first Anne ran to, telling her she was in love but then, all that followed was veiled, obviously by a very tough decision.
“We returned from my aunt’s and I became really ill. I was delirious for many days, everybody thought I was going to die. It was not consumption but a very severe lung disease. My mother was hopeless so, your grandmother decided to stay on with Anne and try to help. My mother and your grandmother were close friends, as I have already told you. This is how I imagine Anne had such liberty to see him. My brother was also ill, the house was in an uproar and her doings were not observed as they should have been in regular times.”
I will come to collect you at 10 o’clock, I will be waiting for you near the corner, as usual.
I was afraid someone will see you coming so late… or so early! We have to be more prudent in the future, but how could I when my only thought from morning till night is to see you, to feel you, to be near you. I discovered one of my uncles has an estate near your house where I can go as a guest when you return home.
Almost all the messages were short and full of indications on how to meet.
“They lived together and no one knew!”
This was the wildest thing we did, sleeping in your bed till morning, maybe the best way of being together is to let them catch me and oblige me to marry you! Will you then be my wife? I imagine your father coming to mine with the news, all my father’s plans gone; I will not be a prince in an unknown German state but obliged to marry the Earl of Fitzwilliam’s girl.
“He knew his father wanted him to marry a German heiress from the king’s family.”
Lady Edwina was talking again with her eyes opened to the past; they listened to this fragmented story with hearts full of sadness, for unlike the two protagonists they knew the ending. It was so sad, so tragic.
“I do not understand what happened!” Darcy said. “And it is obvious we will not find much more; the letters are short and no details about the events can be found.”
“There were love declarations but not the circumstances of their love and meetings,” Georgiana said, almost sad, she would have wished to know every detail.
“Yes! And I know so little, for I was ill for two or three weeks and then too feeble to be a talking partner; maybe she told me things, but I do not remember anything. And the story developed in such haste that when I was well again, it had already ended.”
I am so happy, Anne, it is the happiest day of my life, but then again I keep saying that every morning when I wake up remembering you are mine.
