A Wife for Mr Darcy

“Answer the question, and I promise I will tell all.”

“Agreed,” and Richard began. “I could not remember hearing anything about a hullabaloo, so I stopped at Mama’s on the way here. She had the whole story on the tip of her tongue. Our grandfather, Robert, who was not an earl at this time, married Charlotte Denby, who gave birth to Aunt Catherine, but died a few years later. Following his first wife’s death, Robert went to London in search of a second wife, which is where he was introduced to eighteen-year-old Marie Devereaux. When her parents got wind that a romance was brewing, they sent Marie to live with relations in Rouen, but Robert followed her there, and they married in secret. But it did not stay a secret for long because she got pregnant with my father.

“Apparently, when the marriage was revealed, there was no hullabaloo. It was closer to an explosion. Marie was cut off from the family entirely—no money, no visits. Unlike the Darcys, the Devereauxes had remained Catholic and were appalled that their daughter had married someone who was neither Norman nor Catholic. They actually had their sights set on her marrying the Earl of Arundel, the heir to the Duke of Norfolk, the highest peer in the realm, and a Catholic to boot.

“The Fitzwilliams sent emissaries to negotiate a peace. Over the decades, remaining Catholic had done nothing for the Devereaux finances, and their Norman laurels were all that was left to them. So the earl offered them a gift of five thousand pounds; it was refused. But when he increased it to eight thousands pounds, all was forgiven. According to my mother, Marie and Robert married for love and stayed in love. Neither had any regrets.”

“So Marie was prepared to risk everything to be with someone from an Anglo-Irish family that lacked the ancient ties to the monarchy that set these Norman families apart.”

“It was risky for our grandfather as well,” Richard answered. “Although Marie joined the Church of England after her parents had died, at the time of her marriage, she was a Roman Catholic. Two generations earlier, George I, the first of the Hanoverians, had ascended the throne in order to keep it from the Catholic Stuarts. It was a touchy time, and so I say bravo to both of them. But why did you need this information?”

Darcy went and poured a glass of wine for both of them and shared with his cousin the burden he had been carrying around for so many weeks.

“I have fallen in love. Head over heels. Walking on air. Can’t think of anything else type of love.”

“I gather we are not speaking of Miss Montford?”

“No. The lady is the sister of Miss Jane Bennet who will marry Charles Bingley in December. She is the daughter of a gentleman farmer.”

“Ah, I see. The purpose of your letter was to find out if you would be betraying your Devereaux ancestors by marrying someone who is so far beneath your station in life.”

“Those are not the words I would have used, but, yes, that is the question. There are damn few of us left. Only a handful of families are more than half Norman, but I am also the grandson of an earl. How would such a marriage affect Georgiana’s prospects?”

“You want my advice? Well, here is what I have to say: ‘bol-locks.’ Bollocks to the whole bloody nonsense. My commanding officer is the youngest son of a duke, and he could not find his own arse with a map. But because of who his father is, I must take orders from him even though he might possibly get my men killed. And look at my brother, Antony, Lord Fitzwilliam, who has not been in his wife’s bed in a decade despite the lack of an heir. Both are pedigreed. The only problem is, they can’t stand each other.

“Will, you know better than I do that the world is changing. We have rich merchants with chests full of coin, and dukes and earls with little money, and because of this, great changes are happening right under our noses. Sons and grandsons of earls are marrying the daughters of merchants, and that is the way of the future. You are uncomfortable with a possible alliance with a family not of your rank because you are in the vanguard. But be brave. Your children, no matter who the mother, will have to face even greater changes.”

“Before I met Charles Bingley,” Darcy said, “I had reservations about what you just described or what Sir John Montford calls ‘the upward migration of the servile class which threatens England as much as the French.’ However, that is not my main concern. What about Miss Montford?”

“I gather you feel committed to her because you spent so much time in her company during the season, and because of that, there are expectations?”

Richard walked over to the window and looked out into the street. He had no good news for his cousin, as he had heard Sir John Montford speaking of Darcy at White’s, the conservative Tory men’s club, of which he was a member. As an officer in the King’s army, it would not do to tweak the nose of his monarch, as Darcy did every time he dined at Brook’s, the liberal Whig’s men’s club.

“What did Sir John say?” Darcy asked.

“‘Darcy. Damn good sort,’” Richard said, lowering his voice in imitation of Sir John. “‘Terrible politics, but a capital fellow. He will make someone a fine husband,’ and then he winked at his company.”

“Oh, God,” Darcy groaned. “Well, there you have it. Unless something totally unforeseen takes place, you will shortly be wishing me joy,” and he handed his cousin an empty glass.

After a somber dinner at Brook’s, the two returned to the townhouse. For fear of being overheard, nothing had been said at the club, but over a glass of port, Richard asked his cousin the one question that had remained unanswered. Was Miss Elizabeth in love with him?

“I don’t know,” and after puzzling over it in his mind, he repeated that he did not know if she felt as he did. “You know how it is during the season. You start a flirtation, and it begins a progression. If all goes well, it will end up at the altar. I never had that with Elizabeth. Oh, there was a flirtation, but without the prospect of marriage looming in the background, it was very different. We actually had real conversations because of the lack of tension.

“Elizabeth is intelligent, charming, and perceptive. It is a pleasure to be in her company and not to be subjected to the mundane conversation that is the diet of the London salons. Richard, I cannot live on puffed-up pastries. I need meat on my plate,” and looking at his cousin, he concluded, “Elizabeth challenges me. She is my equal in all things but rank.”

“Will, I can see you are troubled, but from all you have said, I do not think you have injured Miss Elizabeth. She sounds as if she is a sensible woman who recognizes that her position is inferior to yours, making marriage unlikely.”

“I hope you are right, Richard, because it would be a dark day for me if I believed she thought I had been trifling with her affections.”

But after his cousin had retired, Darcy went over everything that had happened between Elizabeth and him. He wondered if, in his need to be near Elizabeth, he had hurt her, and if that were the case, he would hurt her no more.

Chapter 18

While Lizzy was packing for her holiday to Derbyshire, Jane was sitting on the bed reading a letter from Lydia.

“Well, it seems that there is no limit to the number of dances and concerts she attends, and she goes to the shops every day and plays cards two or three times a week. She is still a flirt and boasts of it. Last week, she wrote of an Ensign Gray, and this week, she is singing the praises of Lieutenant Tenyson.”

“At least she is moving up in rank. If Lydia manages to attract the attention of a captain, Mama will have Uncle Philips drawing up a marriage contract for her.”

Jane knew her sister was in jest. Both sisters had strongly objected to her being allowed to go to Brighton with Mrs. Forster, who was only nineteen herself, but both had been overruled by their father.

“As long as it is not Lieutenant Wickham,” Lizzy added. “While I was at Mrs. Proctor’s card party, he sought me out once again for the purpose of maligning Mr. Darcy. This time his story involved the sister, Miss Darcy. He claimed to have provided endless hours of entertainment for her. I gave him no encouragement, and when I said that I thought it unfair to talk about someone who was not there to defend himself, he walked away.”