The Heart of Marriage Chapters 14-15

By the time Mr. Darcy returned to Pemberley, the greeting of guests had long ended. Instead of fetching the Earl of Derby, he went straight to his rooms to send his valet Simmons on the task of gathering supplies for Dr. Matthews. Along the way, he had to shake off the concerned inquiries of Mrs. Reynolds.
“Sir, are you alright? Where is Dr. Matthews?” she asked.
“A man was injured on Grant’s farm, a laborer. All is well. The young man was highly excitable,” Mr. Darcy said, hoping that would satisfy any others that would enquire. He couldn’t remember if Josiah Grant had revealed it was one of his Lordship’s men or not, and hoped that was information that was shared privately and not in the parlor.
Dashing up the stairs, he detoured to his wife’s suite, suddenly realizing how close he had come to death that afternoon! It was a blessing of Providence that Mr. Nagy had become the steward of Lathom House and rode with the posse recruited to avenge the fall of Dallman. He did not even wait to knock on the door and instead barged in.
Elizabeth Darcy stood in her gown for the evening with her maid hunched over the bottom, setting a hem adjustment. Mr. Darcy’s face was pale and his wife gasped in the shock at his appearance.
Higgins placed a pin in the cushion on her wrist, and rose silently to retreat to the dressing room. The alteration she was making to Mrs. Darcy’s gown was a minor one and if it wasn’t done in time for the ball, her mistress would still be as ravishing as ever.
“Fitzwilliam, you look as though you have seen a ghost,” Elizabeth said as he closed the door behind him.
“My love, I am well” he said quickly. “A man was injured on the Grant farm.”
“Is Dr. Matthews alright?” Elizabeth asked urgently, taking a step forward and reaching out for his hand.
Darcy tugged her toward him, wrapping his arms around her small waist and placing several kisses against her forehead. His heart was racing with the fear he had not felt during the standoff, but now in the presence of the love of his life who was expecting their first child, the risk to his health played foremost in his mind.
He dropped to his knees and placed two protective hands around his wife’s prominent midsection, and closed his eyes.
“Is Dr. Matthews alright?” Elizabeth asked again, and when her husband did not move, she raised her voice. “Fitzwilliam, what senseless adventure have you two had this time?” she asked, trying to keep her voice in a comical tone, but failing to keep at bay her righteous anger at her husband’s penchant for dangerous deeds.
Mr. Darcy rose from his kneeling position and held up a hand. He quickly explained that Dr. Matthews was well, but he needed to send Simmons and supplies back to the farm. Once he did that, he would answer all of her questions about Baslow Dale and why Dr. Matthews was left alone.
“If Simmons is gone, who will dress you for this evening?” she asked, following him as he made for the adjoining door between their suites.
Flashing her the roguish smile she could never resist, he reminded her that they had under-servants for a reason.
“Everyone here has a redundancy, and you are growing ours as we speak,” he said, with a laugh and pecking her cheek. He felt immensely guilty in behaving so very maudlin before her and making her worry more.
Huffing in frustration, Elizabeth called Higgins back and stepped back to the area by the sewing supplies. Her maid dutifully began her work again, and Elizabeth began her vent.
“That man! When he came in here, he looked as though he might suffer an apoplexy any moment! And then tries to laugh it all off that Dr. Matthews is stuck at the Grant Farm and nothing is amiss.!” she said, in a forceful tone and stomped her right foot.
Higgins quickly pulled back just before the foot stomp and then lifted the edge of the fine silk gown back into her fingers. “Yes ma’am, he did not seem himself when he walked in.”
“Thank you for noticing, though I’m certain if he knew, that would be another lecture to me about how the servants aren’t supposed to do this or that,” she said. Then realizing how selfish that sounded she looked down and apologized. “Forgive me, I am very grateful for the work all of you do. You and Simmons take very good care of us.”
Higgins gave a small smile and picked up another pin from the cushion to hold the last of the train adjustment in place.
“There ma’am, please give that a walk and see if it suits you better?” she asked.
Elizabeth began to pace and hopped up and down, then took a quick turn as she mimed dancing in a set downstairs. She clapped her hands, giddy that she was to finally dance with her husband at that evening’s ball.
“Splendid, splendid. I know a longer train is more in fashion,” she said, walking over to the mirror and fretting slightly at how very large her stomach was becoming. She turned to each side to see how far it protruded and smoothed the fabric panel that had been adjusted last week to accommodate her new girth measurement. “But if I am to dance with this new body of mine, the last thing I need is a tripping hazard,” she finished.
Quickly, Higgins helped her remove her gown and slip into her silk robe, tying the garment tightly just above her belly. Then the maid asked for permission to run the gown down to the team of seamstresses now employed at Pemberley since the Darcys returned home and filled the house with Elizabeth’s sisters. Each woman had their own personal maid, but the amount of laundry, new clothing and repairs to old clothing that had to be done soon outstretched the work of just a maid. They had made some use of the shops in Lambton, but the village of Pemberley was back on the rise and growing again.
“Certainly, and if I need anything, remember, I dressed myself for most of my adult life. I can manage,” Elizabeth said, reminding her maid she was still the same woman who grew up in Hertfordshire.
Higgins nodded. “Yes ma’am, but I would be remiss if I did not remind you that another maid is always awaiting your needs, by the pull chord. Mrs. Reynolds will accuse me of keeping you all to myself,” Betsy Higgins said, with a bit of cheekiness that she and Elizabeth exchanged in the rarest moments, only when they were alone. A maid-for-hire once in the Netherfield Park household, the day Elizabeth Bennet insisted that her personal maid come with her had been the start of Betsy Higgins’ adult life. She had leap-frogged a decade or more of service in a household to become the lady’s maid of one of the wealthiest women of the Ton.
Once her maid left her, Elizabeth scurried over the adjoining door between her suite and her husband’s. She reached up to knock, and then pursed her lips and decided to return to Fitzwilliam the same courtesy he afforded her. She pulled the latch down and entered into his dressing chamber that aligned with hers as the space between the two expansive rooms. She wondered if once upon a time, there was not two dressing rooms in this space, side-by-side, if one was to look at the layout from above, but another bed chamber. Shrugging, she could hear voices on the other side and suspected her husband was taking a bath in bathing rooms built next to their respective dressing rooms. As she waited on the other side of the door, she paused a moment to listen:
“When you’ve finished at Grant’s, you and Dr. Matthews hurry back. Leave two armed guards behind for the protection of the Grant family, but do not allow him or your courage to make you stay,” a voice that sounded very much like her husband’s said.
Elizabeth could not hear the response given, but she gasped at the mention of armed guards. No wonder her husband had looked like a ghost! It sounded as though she was lucky he wasn’t one!
Making a decision, Elizabeth retreated from the door. If the situation at the Grant Farm were as dire as sending armed guards, then Elizabeth had to think. Dashing back to her suite, she pulled the bell chord and asked for Mrs. Reynolds to come to her on a most urgent manner. The young maid who responded agreed and sent for the housekeeper.
Agitated, Elizabeth tried to think of what she knew about the Grants and then scolded herself for not taking the baskets to the tenants. If she had, she would remember where the Grant Farm was situated, and perhaps understand what might have happened. She certainly did not expect Fitzwilliam to give her all of the details, nor did she want to interfere with the situation she assumed he was diffusing.
Within the quarter hour, Mrs. Reynolds arrived to find her mistress doing her best to rub a hole in the elegant Persian rug on the floor with her pacing.
“Yes ma’am, you sent for me? The cold meats are served for our guests downstairs and Cook has assured me that preparations for supper are on time. The musicians have arrived and the ballroom is nearly ready.”
Elizabeth stopped her pacing and waved her hand as though she was swatting away a flying pest. “Thank you, that is wonderful to hear. What can you tell me about the tenants the Grants?” she asked, driving straight to the point of what she wanted to know.
Mrs. Reynolds glanced to the door that connected the Master and Mistress suites. “I’m not sure what you mean, ma’am.”
Elizabeth followed her housekeepers line of sight and stepped forward so that she blocked Mrs. Reynolds’ view of the door. “Please, Mrs. Reynolds, I must know what you know. My husband left in such a hurry and I overheard him say something about armed guards. What has happened?” Elizabeth said pleadingly, her eyes boring into the housekeepers as she begged for answers.
“Armed guards? It’s been ages since such measures were needed!” Mrs. Reynolds exclaimed, and Elizabeth frowned. The housekeeper pulled out a chair for her mistress and encouraged her to sit down.
To be polite, Elizabeth motioned for her housekeeper to do the same, just as she had when she first interviewed with Mrs. Reynolds before she was married.
It was customary for estates such as Pemberley to have several families who leased land from them in order to farm it and provide food and other supplies to the estate in exchange for room and board, among other things. The system had worked well for centuries now and was something both Darcys were quite proud of continuing on their property. Mrs. Reynolds began to explain how the situation with the Grant family was an anomaly.
“The Grants are one of our longest tenants on the Darcy estate,” she began quietly as though concerned about being overheard by someone other than Elizabeth. “They’ve been tenant farmers for multiple generations now. But their farm is in Baslow Dale, a disputed piece of land with his Lordship the Earl of Derby.”
Elizabeth began to understand what kind of crisis might have occurred once she heard that. “How disputed?”
Mrs. Reynold’s grimaced. “It was settled between Old Mr. Darcy and the previous Earl, but the current Earl always claimed his father had been taken advantage of and started threatening to take the matter to the King’s Court. But then Old Mr. Darcy struck another deal, and all was well, until today . . .” she said, reaching for the watch fob she kept on a chain. “Heavens me, Mrs. Darcy, but if you will excuse me, there is still much I must see done,” the housekeeper asked.
Elizabeth thanked Mrs. Reynolds and agreed for her to return to her duties. Before she left, Elizabeth told Mrs. Reynolds to have the staff aid Mr. Simmons in anything he needed with few questions asked. The housekeeper touched the side of her nose and promised a report back to her mistress. Elizabeth smiled and touched her nose just the same, finally feeling as though she had the loyalty of the woman she needed most to be a success as Fitzwilliam’s wife.
Her interview with the housekeeper over and nothing to do but rest until it was time to change or her husband came to speak with her, Elizabeth yawned and eyed her bed. She would never admit to Fitzwilliam that she was tired, but the past couple of days of preparing the house for all of the guests and then greeting them that morning had exhausted her. She had not fully taken a rest earlier because her gown needed an adjustment. But now that she had possibly an hour or two to herself, she pulled back the curtains to her bed and laid down, willing herself to remain calm. In time, she would support her husband in whatever way he needed.