A Constant Love: A Pride & Prejudice Continuation, page 31
He finished his statement with a smile, but Elizabeth felt certain he had meant to say “son or daughter,” rather than “niece or nephew,” and it took all of her determination not to tell him of Sarah’s suspicions immediately. After so long, to raise his hopes and then have to dash them pained her just to think about it, and she dared not think about how devastating it would be for her. She had spent so long wishing for merely hope, but now that she had it, she knew it would not be enough.
Chapter 5
A few days later, Elizabeth and Georgiana were spending the morning in the music room, waiting for Jane, Charles, and her father to return from yet another estate visit, and Darcy from a ride with Richardson around some of the tenant farms, when Mrs. Reynolds came in.
“Forgive me, my lady, but there’s a letter come from London for you, under cover from Mr. Miller,” she said. “The most prodigious thick letter I’ve seen in some time. I thought you might want it immediately.”
“Yes, thank you, Mrs. Reynolds.”
Mrs. Reynolds looked every bit as curious about the letter as Elizabeth was, but she dutifully retreated from the room. Elizabeth opened the seal and read Mr. Miller’s brief note of explanation, that the letter had arrived by servant from the Earl of Anglesey’s house, and he was thus forwarding it on to Pemberley. She shared this with Georgiana, who was immediately all attention at the mention of the earl, and moved to sit right beside Elizabeth as she removed the next layer of the letter, a brief covering letter from the earl, and then the next, a piece of oiled silk, so that she finally reached the letter beneath and they both saw what they each had suspected, that it was from Captain Stanton.
Georgiana exhaled audibly, and Elizabeth felt her relief. He had written; he had written rather a lot, by the looks of the letter. Elizabeth opened it, saw that he had a neat, firm hand, and held out the letter so that they might both read at the same time:
“HMS Jupiter
“March 29, 1815
“Dear Mrs. Darcy,
“I hope whenever this letter finds you, that it finds all your family in good health, particularly Miss Darcy, whom I hope has by now made a full recovery from her injury. We are now two days out of Portsmouth, and what a great relief it is to be at sea again after several weeks spent fighting with my fellow captains for men and supplies, with far too many of us trying to make ready for sea at the same time. We were obliged to wait an extra few days for want of enough wood for casks, for the great ships of the line take precedence in their victualling. There are an even greater number of the lesser ships like ourselves than the higher-rated ships, and there will be many uses for us. Some will go out to support the troop ships, or carry troops themselves, and still others to blockade duty, or to harry the coast, which is the Jupiter’s role.
“We were thus obliged to wait for them, but the delay did at least allow me to take on my full complement of men – there are three hundred and sixty-three of us living within these wooden walls, and all of us volunteers, I am glad to say. Among them are a few familiar faces to you – some of the men who stayed with you during the riots. I am fortunate to have so many men returning from the Caroline, and a great many of my new volunteers are experienced seamen. Still, they are not all used to working together, and last night when we exercised the great guns for the first time, they were not nearly so quick as I would have liked – we will never beat the French at three broadsides in nearly eight and a half minutes. We will practise every evening that we are able – shall I tell you what goes into working the great guns?
“First, we must clear for action, which means making a clean sweep fore and aft – everything that may be removed is taken down into the hold, including the bulkheads to my cabins, and everything inside. Then you can look up and down the full length of the ship, and see nothing but the guns and their crews, waiting. In order to fire, each gun must be cleaned, filled with powder and a wad of cloth, those items rammed in, and then the shot placed inside, along with more cloth. Then the men heave the gun forward – we call this running it out – place more powder in the touch hole, and finally it is ready to be fired, by pulling a cord attached to the gunlock. In most ships we do not fire all of the guns at once – it is very rough on a ship’s timbers, although the Jupiter is young enough she could bear it if needed. So each gun fires off in succession, aiming to hit whatever target we have been able to put together with scrap wood and the like. It is uncommonly loud, and the gun kicks back with tremendous force, so the men must be careful to stay out of its way. As soon as the gun has fired, its crew must prepare it again, all the while our ship’s boys – we call them powder monkeys – running up and down the stairs from the magazine to the guns. The magazine is where we keep all of the powder – it is lined with lead and we take great care to ensure it is protected, for there is enough gunpowder inside to turn this ship to little but splinters, if it ever were to ignite.
“March 30, 1815
“Now that I reflect, perhaps the firing of guns is not the most interesting topic to write of, to a lady, so do allow me to attempt to find something else. We are making our way along the coast, now, and there are few things I enjoy more than the sight of the coast of England. Beachy Head is perhaps the most dramatic, but all along, you see the usual rolling hills of our country fall off into great cliffs of white chalk, and far below them shingle beaches, with the surf rolling in. Every once in a while, there will be a little cottage or even a village visible on the top of these cliffs, and I cannot help but wonder at the audacity of those who would build on the edge of such a drop. Perhaps some of them are the men who work the little fishing boats we pass. Most of them turn and sail away, although they are English – they fear I shall stop them, and press them into the navy. Once they see I have no such need, however, they return to their previous tack, and a few have been so brazen as to cheer us, while others have been happy enough to sell us their catch.
“We will depart such sights shortly, though, as we are to patrol the channel between Calais and Lorient. It is a fortunate assignment for what many might call an unfortunate ship – we certainly have more freedom to act than those on blockade duty, or involved in transporting the troops. We are under general orders to harass the enemy in any way we might, and I hope we come upon a French ship soon, so that we may do so in the best way possible.
“I must say that the ship has been a pleasant surprise, thus far – faster than I had expected, dry and weatherly. Out on deck, if you were to look up, you would see a cloud of canvas (I shall not bore you with the details of each sail), and over the side, a fine wave of foam along the side of the ship, for we are making an easy eight knots. I do not expect such sweet sailing to continue – not on the channel, and not with the barometer dropping – but for now it is as fine a day at sea as I could ask for.
“April 4, 1815
“The barometer never lies – it did come on to blow, a usual channel storm. The ship came through it well, with hardly a foot of water in the well even at the worst of it, for you see, even the most weatherly ship makes a bit of water as she is working. The men, too, did all I could have asked of them, and indeed, a little storm early on may help tie them together as more of a singular crew. There are so many old Carolines and friends of Carolines aboard that it has been a bit awkward for the others, and I must be very careful not to be too familiar with those I have sailed with for so many years, so that the newcomers do not feel unwelcome.
“April 5, 1815
“We are back to our usual morning routine, today. The men have been piped up from below decks, carrying their hammocks so that they may be placed in the hammock netting along the sides of the ship – there they give the crew extra protection against splinters, if we should go into battle. They are scrubbing the decks with their holystones, for we have a great care for cleanliness in the navy, and soon enough they will be flogged dry, and I then may properly make an appearance on deck.
“For now it is breakfast, which I share with one of my midshipmen, Mr. Ashton, a boy of thirteen years of age, who eats as voraciously as a boy of that age should. He is the third son of Baron Ashton, a friend of my uncle’s, and has the makings of a promising young officer – this is his first time at sea, but his father saw him to a most extensive education in the mathematics, so that he is far ahead of the others in navigation. I try to have each of my midshipmen – I have only four, on this cruise – in for breakfast or dinner in the cabin, so that they may all remember something resembling manners, and all of my officers, save the officer of the watch, shall dine here this evening.
“We do eat better here on board than you might expect, at least at the beginning of a cruise, while we still have livestock on board, fish readily caught and purchased, and even fresh bread. Many of my officers and I have brought our own private stores, well beyond what the navy supplies, spending a bit of our prize money from our days on the Caroline. I will not deceive you, though, back on the Caroline there were times when we were out so long all of us were down to salt beef or pork, steeped and boiled, same as the men, and a few times we were precious short of water, and hoping deeply for rain.
“April 6, 1815
“You may have noted I have hardly mentioned the enemy, and the reason for this is quite simple – we have yet to see any French ships of substance. We chased a little fore-and-aft rigged smuggler yesterday – only a bit larger than the cutter we all went sailing in – but she was too nimble for a ship of this size to catch, and it was too late, by the time we got the boats lowered. I am not sure how much of the French fleet is even out – it may well be that our preventative blockade is keeping them in. I shall get a better sense of the situation when we reach Brest.
“So we stay close to the French shore and hope we might see someone to fight. The shore batteries are manned, at least, and there are few things the crew likes better than to have a go at trying to hit them, which gives us the dual purpose of practising our gunnery and at least providing some harassment to the French. I am pleased to say we destroyed one quite thoroughly yesterday.
“April 8, 1815
“This morning our lookout spotted a sail on the horizon, which turned out to be the Squirrel sloop, bound for Greenwich, and Captain Allen has been so good as to offer to carry in our mail. I shall send this to my uncle, who will see it reaches your home. I hope your family are all well, and wish you to know that while I have great joy in being back at sea, I do miss the society of my friends in London most terribly. I should love to hear how you all do, if you have time to write – my uncle knows the ways of naval mail, and has offered to send on anything sent under cover to him.
“Your most devoted servant,
“MATTHEW STANTON”
“I must admit I did not understand why he had not yet written,” Elizabeth said. “I suppose he had been writing, all along, but I did not appreciate what it would take to get a letter to us.”
“I wish he had not thought we would have no interest in some of the things he wrote of,” Georgiana said. “I would want to know of all of it.”
“I cannot say most ladies would, Georgiana, although surely this letter is meant for you, even if he could not say so. I believe your brother will want to know of its contents when he returns, and then we may turn it over to your possession.”
“Might I read it again, now?”
“Of course.”
Elizabeth quietly slipped out of the room as Georgiana reread the letter, feeling soothed for the first time in a very long while. He had written nearly every day, except during the storm, and if Elizabeth was right and the letter was intended for her – although it could not be addressed so – it meant he had thought of her on each of those days. Perhaps more importantly, though, it meant that as of the eighth of April, all had been well with him. That was a fortnight ago, but it was better than many weeks of not knowing at all how he did.
News of the letter spread beyond Mr. Darcy, so that the entire house party longed to hear it read. Evening diversions were not so easy to come by in the countryside, particularly since none of them was very enthusiastic about cards, so a long and interesting letter was not an item that could be held back. Elizabeth read it over tea, after Georgiana had entertained them with a few songs on the pianoforte, and it was the topic of discussion for the rest of the evening until they all retired.
Elizabeth quietly slipped it into Georgiana’s hand as they made their way up the stairs, and no more was said of it until she settled into her husband’s bed.
“I believe there were more words in that letter than I have heard that man speak in the entire course of our acquaintance,” Darcy said.
“Do not be so severe on him, Darcy.”
“I was not being severe – it was merely an observation, and I certainly would not be severe on anything that gave Georgiana so much relief as this letter seems to have done. Perhaps he is better able to express himself in writing than in speech.”
“He would not be the first man of my acquaintance who was so,” said Elizabeth, with a pointed look at him.
“Oh, so now you will be severe on me.” He smiled to show her he was teasing, as well, and then surprised her by leaning over to kiss her deeply.
“What was that for?”
“That was for the return of my spirited Elizabeth,” he said. “It seems Pemberley has been good to you.”
“I suppose it has,” she said, although she knew the more significant reason for her lightness of spirit was her continued illness every morning. By now it had progressed to actual physical sickness, the evidence of which Sarah had been spiriting away and disposing of without the other maids knowing of it, Elizabeth knew not how. Once again she longed to tell Darcy, and once again she willed herself to wait until she was certain. She expected her courses soon, and if she missed them, she would take that as her confirmation, and then share with him the happiest of secrets.
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Elizabeth and Georgiana were in agreement that the letter must be replied to immediately, and they spent the next morning at Elizabeth’s writing desk, Elizabeth scribing a letter whose greater parts were all suggested by Georgiana. There was a description of their house party – the Bingleys he was a little acquainted with, but not Mr. Bennet, and of the house itself, and of spring as it emerged on Pemberley’s grounds.
“Oh, it is no use!” Georgiana exclaimed, reading over what Elizabeth had written. “You write so well, Elizabeth, but the subject matter is not nearly so exciting as what he has to write about.”
“It will be to him,” Elizabeth said. “Just as we know little of the life aboard his ship, he knows little of the life on our estate. And I suspect that he will be interested in knowing about anything that involves you. Remember that he thought we would be bored by his account, and yet you longed for more detail.”
“Perhaps you are right,” said Georgiana, doubtfully.
“I might, though, suggest that we tell him of your pianoforte practise – that, certainly, is a topic that he would be very interested in. Pray tell, what are you working on right now? Let us write of that next.”
The letter, eventually, was written, and although it did not match Captain Stanton’s in length, they both felt it was at least a creditable response. Elizabeth wrapped it in the same piece of oiled silk, and wrote a cover note to the earl, thanking him for forwarding on the letter, inquiring after his health, and informing him briefly of how the family did.
Georgiana left to go begin her practise, but Elizabeth was not alone for long, as Jane joined her in the sitting room.
“You are back early,” Elizabeth said.
“This last place was not at all to our liking,” Jane said. “We are left with Clareborne Manor, which has the most delightful grounds, but requires a great deal of repair on the house, and Kellmore Abbey – I love the house there, but the estate has been mismanaged for so long it would take many years to bring it back in line.”
“If neither of them feels right, Jane, you should continue to stay here as long as you wish, and continue your search.”
“Lizzy, I fear if we do not purchase something soon, we never will. We have seen all the available estates within fifty miles of here.”
“I would love to see you settled closer, but you could always expand your search.”
“That is what Charles said. Before that, though, I wonder if you and Fitzwilliam might come with us to view Clareborne Manor and Kellmore Abbey. We would so value your advice.”
“My advice on such matters is hardly worth the breath I use to speak it, but I am sure Darcy will be happy to lend his.”
“Do not say such things, Lizzy. You manage one of the largest houses in all the county.”
“I manage a house with a housekeeper who has been on the staff since my husband was a child, and has been well-run for many generations. It is hardly the effort you make it out to be.”
“Oh!” Jane exclaimed. “The baby – she has just started kicking these last few days, and she caught me quite good there.”
“She?”
Jane blushed. “I have always assumed the baby was a girl. After all, our mother had five girls.”
“Do you think such things run in families?”
“They seem to, at least in my acquaintance.”
Elizabeth could not help but think of Captain Stanton, and how overcrowded his family seemed to be with sons, when her own parents would have been beyond happiness to have just one, and thought there might be something to Jane’s theory.
“I suppose you might be right,” Elizabeth said. “There seem to be some families who are filled with one sex or the other, and Charles does have two sisters.”
“At least I am fortunate – Charles does not care what the sex is, so long as the baby is healthy, and since we are yet to even purchase the estate, we do not have to worry about an entail.”
Elizabeth felt a cold chill run through her at the word entail. She had not considered that she might have inherited a tendency to bear girls, and she still had no notion of Pemberley’s status, so far as entail went.
