Searching for Pemberley (34 page)

“I've just now got them back from the bookbinder with their beautiful new leather covers. Mr. Selden did a marvelous job, not just on the covers, but on the actual pages themselves. We'll have to wear gloves when we read them, but now we can turn the pages without the risk of them falling apart.” Putting her arms around my shoulders, she said, “I'll confess I am using these diaries to entice you to stay in England a while longer because I love you.” And she gave me a squeeze. “But there is another reason.”

When I had been in Crofton, Beth told me that the expenses for refurbishing and repairing Montclair had run much higher than the Catons had expected, and they were looking for a way for Montclair to help pay for itself.

“They have decided to convert the house into a specialty hotel and market it as the ancestral home of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. Ellen Caton has asked me to write a history of the Lacey family as it relates to the characters portrayed in
Pride and Prejudice
, and I will need your help because I never learnt how to type.”

I actually started to smile. At the time the Crowells had wrapped up the love story of Elizabeth Garrison and William Lacey, Beth had said that “I knew it all.” But there was so much I didn't know. What was Elizabeth and Will's courtship like? Where did they go on their honeymoon? What was it like to be the mistress of Montclair? What Beth and Jack had shared with me was only the tip of the iceberg.

When I looked at Beth, she was holding out a pair of white cotton gloves, so I could open the diaries. Putting them on, I
flipped to a page near to the end of the first diary. Apparently, the entry was made shortly before Jane was to marry Charles Bingham.

13 September—When Mama came into our room this evening, she was biting her thumb. This is something she does only when she has something unpleasant to say. Jane and I thought we were to hear some bad news, but we were not prepared for what she actually said. 'Lizzy, you may stay and listen. You're of an age so that you can hear this. Jane, you were brought up on a farm, so you've seen things I never saw, having grown up in town.' Jane tried to stop her, but to no avail. 'On your wedding night, it might hurt for a bit, but only the first few times. When they're young, it goes quickly, but you can help it along if you move about a bit. Keep a basin of water and a handcloth near to the bed.' Then she kissed us good night and left. Jane looked at me, and we burst out laughing, and we were still laughing long after we had blown out the candle.

What a wonderful passage! It reminded me of how much pleasure I had gotten from reading
Pride and Prejudice
. I decided to take Beth up on her offer to help organize the Lacey papers. It probably was for the best, and there were so many reasons to stay in England. But was one of them Michael Crowell? I really didn't know, but I had to admit I was curious to find out.

SHORTLY AFTER ROB SAILED, Lady Patricia Alcott asked if I would like to board with her, rent free. While Britain was at war, the Alcott townhouse had been filled with men who worked with Lord Alcott in the War Office at Whitehall. However, once the war ended, the house had gradually emptied, and now the last boarder, a Canadian liaison officer, was also leaving. Because of London's housing shortage, Lord Alcott was pressing his wife to find replacements.

I had grown very fond of the Mr. and Mrs. Dawkins and their two boys, but just thinking of another cold winter swaddled in layers of clothes in my attic bedroom finally tipped me in the Alcotts' direction. With rental properties so scarce, I was sure Mrs. Dawkins could easily rent my room.

“When your fellow left for America, I said to Mr. Dawkins, if you wanted to move on, I wouldn't stop you. Now you're telling me you can move into a nice room in Holland Park without paying any rent at all. Well, that puts a few quid into your pocket, now doesn't it?” And since she would probably raise the rent with
the next tenant, it would put a few, much needed, quid in her pocket as well.

When I asked how much notice she would want, she said, “none.” “I'll have someone in there the day after you've gone.” It seemed all I needed to do was to pack my bags.

The differences between my room in the Alcott townhouse and my bedroom sitter with its plain beige walls and simple metal-framed bed were night and day. There was a double bed with a dark pink canopy and matching drapes and walls covered with the drawings of Beatrix Potter. I was now sharing a room with Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, and Timmy Tiptoes.

Looking out the window of my fourth-story window, I wondered how Maggie Joyce of Minooka had ended up living in Holland Park. In the past two years, I had needed to adjust to many different situations, but nothing had prepared me for boarding in a house where a butler answered the door and a cook saw to all of the meals—at least for the Alcotts.

“My husband works long hours,” Lady Alcott informed me on my first day, “and frequently takes his meals at his club. My son, Geoff, is currently working in Brussels but could come home at any time. Violet, whom you met at the ball, rents a flat in the mews on the far side of the park and often drops in. The twins, Lily and Iris, live in Surrey. Lily is expecting, so I have been visiting her more frequently. Mrs. Gooding is the cook and pretty much comes and goes because she often has no one to cook for. However, Andrews, the butler, is almost always here, except on his days off.” My impression was that I would largely have the house to myself, except when people showed up.

Lady Alcott introduced me to Andrews in the morning room when he brought in the afternoon tea. He was dour, undemonstrative, and not particularly happy to see me.

“If you will be dining in, miss, I would ask that you inform me, so I may tell Cook. If you wish, you may have your meals brought to you on a tray.” He nodded, I nodded, and he left.

“Don't worry about Andrews,” Lady Alcott said. “It will take him a while to get used to you. The same thing with Mrs. Gooding. However, in short order, you will feel comfortable going below stairs to use the kitchen.” Trying to explain her butler's coolness, she continued, “The war has put everyone off his game. No one's sure what his role is, including me. I don't know if things will ever get back to the way they were before the war.

“I hope you will be in tomorrow evening because I have asked Lord Alcott to come home early, so we can have dinner together. I know you were introduced at the ball at Montclair, but I don't think you had time to talk. I don't want your first encounter to be in the upstairs hallway.” Pouring out the tea, she let out a little chuckle. “Surely, you remember him. He was the only one wearing an eye patch.”

Even without the eye patch, Lord Randolph Alcott was an intimidating figure: six-foot-three, two hundred pounds, and a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He had been a captain in the Coldstream Guards in 1914 when his battalion came close to being annihilated at the First Battle of Ypres. Three years later, at Passchendaele, a shell fragment had cost him his eye, requiring years of extensive reconstruction by
plastic surgeons. In 1922, Lord Alcott, who had been born and raised in India, joined the Indian Civil Service. When Beth and Jack went out to India, the Alcotts were their main link to home.

Beth had filled me in about Rand. “His mother was the daughter of a British Army officer posted to India, and she is as tough as nails. When Mr. Alcott died of dengue fever when Rand was ten, his mother turned him over to a colonel in the British Army. Col. Stirling, who supervised his training, became Rachel's second husband, and he put his stepson through the paces. When Rand went to Sandhurst, he was as hardened as any veteran.”

“Is Lord Alcott's mother still in India?”

“No. She lives across the park from her son, with four servants whom she brought with her from India. Once Gandhi's non-violence movement gained traction in the '30s, Rachel said he should be tossed into prison and the key thrown away. When they didn't take her advice, she packed up and left, saying India was 'done.' She's extremely intelligent, but she is also headstrong, abrasive, opinionated, and very often rude.”

“Does Lady Alcott get along with her?”

“No one gets along with her. She's just like Jane Austen's Lady Catherine de Bourgh. But she is very wealthy, and there is always the threat of being cut out of her will if she doesn't like you. But I'm sure you will have an opportunity to meet her. There is very little that goes on in this house that she doesn't ferret out, including your holiday to Brighton with Violet. Speaking of Brighton, I'm glad you are going. It's the perfect place to clear your mind, and it will give you an opportunity to visit the place where George Waggoner seduced Lucy Garrison and very nearly cost Lizzy her Mr. Lacey.

From the time I arrived in England, I had wanted to visit Brighton and its famous Royal Pavilion, and now it was finally happening. My traveling companion was Violet Alcott Barton. I had met Violet at the Montclair ball, and after returning to London, she had stopped in at Mrs. Dawkins's house to invite me to lunch. Shortly after I moved into her parents' house, Violet popped in to welcome me to the neighborhood.

“This was my bedroom, but don't blame me for the wallpaper,” Violet said in a rapid-fire staccato. “My grandmother was very Victorian. It was she who picked it out, and I could never bring myself to take it down. Grandma was also a huge fan of Beatrix Potter. Actually met the lady, which accounts for the bunny and animal prints.”

It was Violet's suggestion to go to Brighton because she knew that I was still reeling from my breakup with Rob. When she saw me put a copy of Austen's
Persuasion
in my suitcase, she took it out. “The last thing you need to be reading is the story of a woman who pined for her lover for eight years. Besides, I'm hoping we won't have any time to read.”

On the train ride to Brighton, Violet shared some of what she knew about the history of the Lacey family. She had written her senior thesis on Francine Lacey, Will and Lizzy's older daughter, and as part of her research, she had accumulated a lot of information on the family.

“Remember,
Pride and Prejudice
is a novel. Jane Austen was influenced by Will and Elizabeth Lacey's story, but it is in no way a history. Let me give you an example. One thing that was emphasized in the novel was that the Bennet sisters had
'no connections.' That wasn't the case at all. Lizzy's maternal grandfather wasn't some backwater country solicitor, but a man who had retired from a successful London practice. And then there was Lizzy's Aunt Susan, her father's older sister. She had married a baronet and took an interest in Jane. Unfortunately, Aunt Susan did not like Lizzy because she considered her to be 'whimsical,' whatever that means. And then there were Aunt and Uncle Sims, the Gardiners in the book. Mr. Sims was a successful coffee broker and was knighted. Through his connections, Jane and Lizzy would have had ample opportunity to meet some of London's bachelors. But even if they had never married, they would have been able to live in some degree of comfort because of an annuity provided by their Grandfather Sims. They would not have been out on the street selling flowers.”

Leaving the grit of London behind, we traveled through the south of England's beautiful rural shires. The green, rolling landscape went on for mile after mile before disappearing into the horizon. But the scenery was familiar to Violet, and so she ignored the lush pastureland, country lanes, and well-sited farmhouses framed by the train windows.

“Thomas Garrison, Lizzy's father, inherited the estate from his uncle, Edward Bennet, which is where the town and the estate got its name. He had been in London, studying for the bar at Lincoln's Inn, when he learned that he had inherited a farm. He moved to Bennets End and never did practice law. Within the year, he married eighteen-year-old Francine Sims, Lizzy's mother.

“When you read Franny's journals,” Violet continued, “you'll see she was no fan of
Pride and Prejudice
, mostly because of Austen's portrayal of her grandmother, whom she was very fond
of. Other than her concern for her daughters marrying well, Francine Garrison had little resemblance to the novel's empty-headed Mrs. Bennet, and the Laceys and Binghams were frequent visitors to Bennets End.