An Autumn Accord: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation (Seasons of Serendipity Book 4) (11 page)

An hour later, the Darcy carriage returned to Netherfield Park, with the younger girls returning to silence as soon as they left Meryton. Angry, guilt-ridden, and frustrated, Elizabeth stayed in the carriage as the last to be handed out by her diligent husband who greeted them upon arrival.

“
Your materials and lesson plans are in the library. Mrs. Annesley arrived while you were out to help oversee your studies.” Darcy addressed his younger sisters with a firm tone.

“
Mrs. Annesley? But we agreed I no longer need a companion now that you are married!” Georgiana pouted as her companion, Mrs. Annesley, had been let go over the summer.

“
It was a trial and I find I am more comfortable with her providing companionship to both you and Catherine until you both debut. I have made the arrangements, she will travel with us to Pemberley.” Darcy nodded to his sisters and felt relieved when Kitty linked her arm with Georgiana’s to pull her away. He could not make out what they were saying, but their hushed tones and bent heads made him realize they had thought to avoid the punishment he laid down in London. Shaking his head, he extended his hand and a smile to his wife to help her down from the carriage, but the paleness of her complexion made him frown.

“
I need a walk, Fitzwilliam.” Elizabeth sighed, as she took her husband’s arm.

“
An excellent suggestion, my dear. I could use a bit of exercise myself. I’ve spent all afternoon with Mrs. Annesley going over very detailed lesson plans with her from your notes.”

As they began to walk the familiar path to the sculptured gardens of Netherfield Park, Elizabeth tried to feel angry that once more her husband had taken on her wifely duties without so much as a discussion with her, but she found herself too weary to take another burden. Both comfortable with silence, Elizabeth leaned her head slightly against her husband’s arm in an attempt to communicate she was not angry, but as a small gesture that the two of them needed to talk. Unfortunately, too many emotions and thoughts were racing through Elizabeth’s mind that she could not see a clear path to solving her many problems.

“
How did the visit with your mother go? I am sure she is eager about the invitation to the ball, Bingley sent riders out just before you arrived.”

“
Oh, Fitzwilliam, it was wretched. I had to lie and lie about Lydia, and not once did she worry when I said Lydia was ill. All she cares about is Jane marrying Mr. Hamilton and becoming the daughter-in-law of a duke!” The emotional dam in Elizabeth’s heart broke and her fears and turmoil spilled out. The more she ranted about the shabby conditions, that there was no food in the house, Darcy led her to a small, stone bench on the far side of the garden.

Darcy listened. When his wife was spent, he carefully wiped the tears from her face and pulled her into an embrace. Stifled into her husband’s chest, Elizabeth freely wailed into the thick fabric of his overcoat. “My family is broken, scattered to the winds.”

The cold wind of winter’s warning pricked the small hairs on the back of Fitzwilliam Darcy’s neck. As he held his sobbing wife, he stared at the wane of nature’s glory around him. Even he was not sure of what could be done to repair the Bennet family, but he was certain part of the answer lie in reuniting the sisters and the mother, no matter how unpalatable the solution seemed to his senses.

♠♠♠

Chapter 9

Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam’s room at his family’s London town home could best be described as spartan. Preferring his cousin’s home for many years over his parents’, there was little for the Colonel to pack in preparation for his assignment in Newcastle. His man Pratt dutifully removed himself from his employer’s suite when his mother, the Countess, entered.

“
You summoned me?” Lady Matlock gestured her fingers wildly at her son with an incredulous expression upon her face. “I came only out of amusement that you should be so brash as to summon me in my own home.”

Richard hastened to usher his mother inside and swiftly closed the door behind her. “My room holds fewer spies.”

At such a foreboding beginning, Lady Matlock took a seat in the lone chair in the room. She remained unplucked as her son kept a keen pace in double-quick military march, back and forth across his room.

“
Out with it. You’ve taken the trouble to summon me, don’t let your fortitude fail you now.”

“
Mother, we were in the wrong.”

Lady Matlock gasped audibly in shock, but her son was not convinced. His mother only put on the airs of a delicate society woman when it suited her needs. He pressed on. “Think of all the times the Darcy helped us with our own vices and dalliances. Remember father’s run-in with a few gambling debts?”

“
But that was ages ago, and it wasn’t so much Fitzwilliam as it was his father who helped your father.”

“
Not so. Darcy’s father took a rather sick pleasure in seeing peers of the realm hung by their own petard, as he called it. It was your nephew who invoked the memory of his mother that wrote the cheque.”

Perspiration formed  upon Lady Matlock’s brow and her complexion began to pale. Richard had seen that he pushed his point far enough for her to listen.

“
I harbor no desire to distress you, I am only asking that as the superior in the situation that you find it in your heart to forgive Darcy and Elizabeth without requiring an apology.”

Lady Matlock raised an eyebrow at her son’s compliment to her status as a justification for asking her to forgo the exact status he remarked upon. “But you were not there! She, she raised her voice to me!”

“
Jane’s gown was torn. Ripped! I may have beat Torrington senseless, but Robert and I warned you and father on numerous occasions he is not a man to be trusted. Whatever was he doing at that house party?”

Lady Matlock fingered the heavy pendant she wore around her neck, both a sign and courtesy of her rank. “Your father insisted. Some deal or other, you know I do not insinuate myself in your father’s business.” Lady Matlock lied with the practice of decades of deceit. There was very little Reginald Fitzwilliam did without his wife’s knowledge, though it was not a part of her life she acknowledged openly, not even to her sons.

“
Mrs. Darcy and the Bennet girls are without their father. You should know the precarious position this places them in, and we failed to protect them. But we do not need  to continue failing them.” The Colonel, pleased with his pretty speech, watched his mother’s face change from one of anger to one of peace. She agreed with him! He puffed out his chest a bit, ready to continue his request, when she began her say.

“
Are we are including your escapade with Miss Mary in all of this?” She arched an eyebrow at her son, clearly catching him slightly off guard.

“
Er – –  yes, I suppose we ought. I failed her.”

“
Good. Then you agree with me and your father that you must make amends with her and stop this foolishness about your ability to provide for her without need of her dowry.”

“
Wait, what?” The Colonel furrowed his brows as his mother rose to clasp his shoulders.

“
You work on your part, son, and I promise, for my part, as soon as the Darcys return, I shall call on them and make my own atonement.” Lady Matlock gave her son a prim smile of superiority, and quitted his room.

The poor Colonel was left standing by his hearth wondering exactly what had happened. One moment he was convincing his mother to repair the breach with the Darcys and the next, had he agreed to renew his attentions to Miss Mary? Shaking his head forcibly, Richard Fitzwilliam decided there was only one action to take and that was to leave for Newcastle immediately.

“
Pratt!”

♠♠~♠♠~♠♠~♠♠

The babe’s cries rent the air as Jane Bennet, nearly failing on her feet, rocked and rocked her feverish nephew in vain to comfort the child.

“
Miss, miss, tis happens when they cut their first teeth. It can’t be helped.” The nursemaid tried to reassure the lady of the house and guardian of the boy, to no avail.

“
Call for more cool cloths. He is too hot! Too hot I say!” Jane demanded tersely, through clenched teeth. Robin’s wails assailed her ears and she wanted nothing more than to break down and cry with the poor lad.

Graham Hamilton opened the nursery door and stormed in, a man on a mission. Without a word, he took the child from Miss Bennet’s arms before Jane could muster the strength to fight back. For the last day, she had not left the nursery as little Robert Bennet endured his first fever.

“
No, no, I can manage.” She said weakly, the room spinning around her. Biting her tongue hard with her teeth, the pain made her more alert. “Mr. Hamilton, I have the situation under control!”

“
Didn’t your mistress give you an order?” He barked at the poor nursemaid who trembled at the great man’s confidence. She bowed her head and rushed out of the door, but he called after her. “Send me three footmen as well!”

Graham Hamilton held the boy to his chest with one arm, and grasped Jane’s elbow to bring her to the rocking chair by the window. She tried to twist away, but he held on. With a plop, Jane was neatly manhandled into taking a seat, and as the chair naturally rocked back and then forward again, Hamilton gently placed the confused and crying babe back into her arms.

“
Mr. Hamilton –“

He held a finger to her lips, a touch that burned Jane’s tender skin, a feeling she had never felt before. Three burly footmen arrived into the nursery and Hamilton turned to address them.

“
I want this furniture moved to the green suite adjoining Miss Bennet’s. Take a care to not incur any damage.”

As Jane’s lips stopped tingling, she realized that Graham was not wearing his gloves, but had his bare hands with their scars exposed. She hushed Robin and jostled him as she rocked, another effort to calm the baby.

Once the footmen had begun to lift and carry away the furniture, Mr. Hamilton turned his attention to Jane.

“
You are running yourself ragged. Feel inside the child’s mouth, do you feel the eruption of a tooth?”

Jane furrowed her brow and slipped a finger into Robin’s mouth, who ceased his crying for a moment until he realized the finger was not a nipple. She ran her finger over his gums and realized Mr. Hamilton was correct, there was no tooth. In shock, she gazed at him in confusion for an explanation.

“
When was the last time you saw the maid nursing him?” Agitated, he ran his hands through his hair and turned away from Jane, so she would not see his anger.

“
I-I, that is, she always tells me she just fed him when I come in. I do not know!” Jane’s desperation increased as she glanced down at her nephew. “What can be done?”

“
First, I will dismiss that girl who forgot what service feeds her.”

“
But her son! She needs this position.”

“
Not our concern.” Graham Hamilton turned around as he addressed Jane. “We shall move the boy to the suite between ours. We can feed him with a pap boat until he has teeth. Goat’s milk will fatten him up nicely.”

The footmen arrived to take the last of the furniture, including the very chair Jane sat upon. Hamilton offered to take the baby so she might rise, and Jane hesitated for only a moment before handing him over. But once she stood, he did not give the baby back.

“
But what about your sleep? Robert still wakes many times in the night, and I cannot ask you to endure that burden, Mr. Hamilton, not as a guest in this house.” Jane once more put her arms out to take the child, only to be refused again.

Graham Hamilton stared down at the baby and began making faces to the boy. He bounced the little one effortlessly and reflected on his own niece he had lost this summer. He had yet to tell Miss Bennet his own family’s tale, though he did not fear she would think less of him, not when her heart was so pure as to take on the care of a bastard child.

“
You are exhausted. No offense, madame, but I’ve seen you on better days.”

Jane swiped at her hair that had fallen in front of her face from a pin and tucked it behind her ear. She inspected her day old frock that showed creases and fatigue, reeking with the pungent odor of baby and her own sweat. Acutely embarrassed, her cheeks burned that Mr. Hamilton would remark so on her person.

“
But you are still a lovely lady . . .” Graham Hamilton cleared his throat. “Jane.”

The use of her Christian name hung in the air as they locked eyes and finally came to an understanding that living under the same roof, under these circumstances, was beyond the strictures of polite society.

After a deep breath, Jane decided she was not completely apt to giving up control. “And what do you propose, Graham Hamilton? You move my nursery, you insult my dress, and you kidnapped my nephew. I seem to have little choice in hearing your demands, sir.”

Poor little Robert fussed and fussed and the wails made Jane flinch and Graham Hamilton laugh with the deep bellow of a burly Scotsman. The odd vibrations of a masculine chest hushed Robin once more, and his handler began a walk towards the nursery door. Jane followed.

“
I took the liberty of asking your maid to draw you a bath. Mrs. Buchanan shall send the girl packing and she will aid me in feeding this starving young man.”