The remaining days before Anne de Bourgh’s departure for Rosings was a torment for Elizabeth Bennet. Try as she might, she could not imagine Anne would make amends with her mother. The added presence of the Bennet family and the strained relationship with her father left Elizabeth frustrated.
There was not a day that passed when Kitty and Lydia did not vex her about a dinner with two particular gentlemen to be followed by an evening of entertainment in the parlor.
One afternoon at tea, Mrs. Bennet fussed at Elizabeth until she relented knowing she would have no peace until an agreement was made.
“Lizzy, would you deny your sisters a chance at happiness as you revel in your own?” Mrs. Bennet asked, flitting her handkerchief about at the grandeur of Pemberley.
Elizabeth knew her mother was told of Mr. Darcy’s edict to Mr. Bennet regarding the still unwed Bennet sisters and she chose to bite her tongue rather than have an argument with the foolish woman. Since the night of the Netherfield Ball, when Mr. Collins had taken her away with her parent’s permission, Elizabeth had not concerned herself with forgiving either of her parents.
Having acquiesced to her mother’s wishes, Elizabeth stood and winced as Kitty and Lydia crowed with delight. She glanced to Jane and slid her eye to the parlor door whilst their mother carried on with the younger girls over dresses and adornment for the event. Jane rose quietly and followed Elizabeth into the hallway.
“Is there nothing I might offer for the favor of relieving Pemberley of the burden of our family for a week?”
Jane laughed and hugged her sister. “I shall have them follow me home this afternoon, my dear. But only because I love you so.”
Elizabeth’s face brightened and she took Jane’s hand and hurried upstairs to the nursery. “We must visit young Bingley then; I shall miss him during our week apart.”
Later that evening, after dinner and free from the Bennet family, Elizabeth sat in the parlor with Lady Anne and watched as Anne de Bourgh entered and crossed the room. She radiated happiness and the confidence of a woman in love.
Might she blink her eyes and change all that had happened at Rosings, Elizabeth thought she would not. Anne had blossomed under the love and care so abundantly given at Pemberley. And the courtship with Henry would never have come to be had the young woman remained under her mother’s thumb at Rosings. Everything considered, the situations of two young women had changed for the better.
Lady Anne motioned for her niece to sit beside her and began a story that captured the complete attention of her small audience. “Ladies, I would be wrong did I not make known the treachery of my sister before this reunion transpires.”
Elizabeth and Anne glanced to one another but dared not question Lady Anne, their fear and astonishment combining to leave them mute.
“Catty and I were never close, not in the way you are with your sister Elizabeth. I always wished it so, but she was determined to outdo me no matter the circumstance.”
Lady Anne’s eyes focused on a place beyond Elizabeth and Anne as the story poured forth. “I was to wed a young man before I knew my beloved George. He was a friend to George in their younger years before Catty inserted herself so terribly between us all.”
Her voice faltered for but a moment but the great woman of Pemberley cleared her throat and continued.
“My young man was visiting Pemberley, along with his family and several more, including our own. The men had been shooting and the ladies stayed behind to attend a grand luncheon picnic beside the lake. It was a lovely day and Pemberley was a jewel then as it is now.”
Anne leaned closer to her aunt and sent a worried look to Elizabeth. She wished to hear the truth but feared the knowledge. Her mother had never spoken of her youth nor seemed particularly fond of her sister. Lady Anne’s voice pierced her thoughts and she felt the world spin before her as the story unfolded.
“To spare you the sordid details, Catty was compromised by my young man the next morning as our father and mother caught her leaving his room in nothing more than her shift.”
Elizabeth gasped and went to sit on the other side of Lady Anne. “How could she? And what became of the young man?”
Lady Anne turned to Elizabeth, her eyes sad, the unshed tears glistening at the edge of her lashes. “I was devastated, but not surprised, by Catty’s behavior. The young man married her and they had but one child. Catty married Sir Lewis de Bourgh and I was left broken and shamed.”
Anne stood slowly and wrapped her arms about herself. She trembled as a lonely leaf on a barren tree, the tears coming without warning. “You ought to have been my mother,” she whispered as Lady Anne stood to embrace her.
Elizabeth rose and walked blindly to a window facing out onto the gardens, her mind reeling from the betrayal and pain visited upon Lady Anne at so young an age. And her sister had named her only child for her! The depth of Lady Catherine’s treachery shocked her. They could not allow Anne to leave now. Anne’s words cut through her heart like a mortal wound.
“I shall make her pay for her treachery, I swear it. She will regret calling me home.”
A day later, Elizabeth tearfully made her farewell to Anne de Bourgh. “You must write to me, dearest Anne. I want you to know all that transpires at Pemberley, no matter how small or mundane.”
Anne swallowed her own tears at leaving the comfort and peace of Pemberley. She had come to know a different life with Lady Anne and the Darcys and she fought to hide her fear at returning to Rosings. She would stand here again, she promised herself, and she would make her mother pay.
A young maid from Pemberley stepped forward to accompany her at Lady Anne’s request and the weather was agreeable. She smiled at Elizabeth and forced her tone to appear happier than she felt.
“I shall not forget our promise, Lizzy, for you know Rosings to be quite different from Pemberley. There shall be little to keep me from writing. I hope to keep the maid busy walking the grounds with me so that I may look to the sky and know it is the same above us now. I can imagine you walking here at Pemberley with Aunt or your sisters.”
Elizabeth nodded and dabbed at the corners of her eyes. She would not say more for fear she might ruin their parting. Anne would not be swayed from her mission.
Lady Anne embraced her niece as Henry Amestrey stood ready to help Anne into his carriage. He would see her safely home to Rosings and then return her to Pemberley to become his bride once her mother was well.
Anne’s sweet smile faded from view as the carriage rolled away and Lady Anne took Elizabeth’s arm to lead her back inside. “We must focus on her wedding now, my dear. She shall return to us in due time.”
Elizabeth knew Lady Anne’s words to be true and yet she could not shake the fear she held in her heart. Lady Catherine, whether ill or well, would not miss the opportunity to make Anne pay for her defection and Anne’s determination to best her mother would not be denied. A war would be waged at Rosings.
But Henry would stand beside Anne and the maid from Pemberley would be loyal to her appointed mistress. And if there came a hint of distress from her beloved friend, she would hasten to Rosings for Anne herself.
Only a day before, Caroline Bingley had left London, quite pleased to become the guest of Lady Catherine de Bourgh at Rosings in Kent.
She was unsure of why the Lady had invited her for a visit, she was said to be in poor health, but idling about in a home as impressive as Rosings Park might provide a measure of amusement and gossip to share when she returned home.
And, to have received the invitation from the lady herself lent an air of respectability and support she sorely needed since one Fitzwilliam Darcy had married that infuriating chit from Hertfordshire.