Page 91 of New World Tea Company
‘The man never pauses to breathe while praising Lady Catherine de Burgh, including her belches after every meal,’Wickham mused.‘Mrs Collins must wish she were deaf after four months of marriage. And spending the rest of her life married to that man will earn the lady a place in heaven for certain.’
Snorting when he realised that he–George Wickham–thought about someone else’s eternal reward. At that moment, George noticed his horse was passing the Hunsford parsonage along the road.
‘The parsonage at Kympton is a finer house, but I would never have been satisfied living there. There would have been problems with women for certain.’George remembering how the innkeeper’s daughter turned him down again the previous evening.‘Her mother was willing, but the woman doesn’t have a tooth left in her head.’
Glancing back at the parsonage again, George remembered that Elizabeth Bennet visited with Mrs Collins for the month of April.‘Miss Bennet’s a comely maiden, but virgins aren’t as satisfying as a girl with some experience. Maybe Mrs Collins will entertain me…with her husband’s approval. All I must do isthrow some gold his way, and he would command her to do my bidding in the parlour.’
Thoughts of women were pushed to the back of his mind as George prepared for the most important role he had ever played in his schemes. He sneered,‘Miss Bingley was easy to flatter. And once she became fascinated by ‘Lord Campbell,’ she became willing to hand over her dowry. I need to lay my hands on Lady Catherine’s money to show Miss Bingley, and she’ll sign over her fifteen thousand expecting to become Lady Campbell within the month.’
The horse approached the front of the manor house, and George smiled–today, he would be the solicitous young businessman with the greatest respect for the noble Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her glorious lineage. He would agree to help her enrich her daughter so that Fitzwilliam Darcy would agree to tie himself to his cousin with marriage.
Thinking about cousins, George remembered his father and old Mr George Darcy once conversed about breeding sheep. Mr Wickham wanted to breed the ewes back to the same rams again, but Mr Darcy insisted, “No, we need new rams this year. See if Chesterfield will exchange rams with us this summer. He’s got a good bloodline in his flock, and we have used the same studs for three years–the rams would be topping ewes too closely related.
‘Father agreed and pressed not to breed the sheep closely. Yet, the nobles think that doesn’t apply to their children,’George thought.‘It is all about money and power when they sell their daughters to their nephews. They never think about the weak little lambs they will produce.’
~~~
At the door of the grand house, George handed his gloves and hat to the butler, who handed them to a footman to place on the nearby table where a second hat and pair of gloves lay.
‘Mr Collins arrived first,’Wickham surmised.‘According to his never-ending monologues, he spends the morning in her ladyship’s bower before she dresses.’
With a small smile, he wondered how easy it would be to start a rumour about Lady Cahterine seducing her pastor. The servants could testify about the man being in her dressing room and bedchamber for hours daily.
“Her ladyship has not come down as of yet,” the butler informed the visitor.
George did not have to act to create a look of surprise on his face before he asked, “Mr Collins takes lunch with Lady Catherine in her private apartment–again?”
The butler made no remark, but the lips of both men twitched. Wickham hid any recognition of their facial expressions, and the butler motioned toward a pair of chairs against the wall.
“Visitors may stand or sit as it suits their temperament,” the man informed George before he bowed and walked away. The footmen, who were supposed to remain invisible, did not bow but followed the butler from the hallway, leaving George alone.
He remained a solitary figure for many minutes before he heard movement and voices coming from the upper floors of Rosings Park. A woman’s voice lectured someone about propriety and the appropriate time for social calls. The faint voice of a timorous man replied with the word ‘business.’
It was another hour before Lady Catherine descended the staircase of her daughter’s manor house with the grace of a noblewoman taught to make an entrance into every situation. The butler and two footmen appeared as if magically summoned, but they remained silent. Only when Lady Catherine was at the bottom of the stairs did George bow from the waist.
Collins hurried around his patroness to bow and begin a long introduction of the man of business by stating his name and the name of his company three times. Wickham watched Lady Catherine rather than Mr Collins; her facial expressions revealed nothing of her feelings or emotions.
When Collins was forced to fall silent to draw a breath, George said, “Thank you for receiving me this afternoon, Lady Catherine and for your interest in my proposal. My good father instructed me on the deference that we must give to members of the nobility; thus, I assure you that no one will learn of our meeting.”
“Of course, no one will learn of the meeting between Lady Catherine de Bourgh and a man of business,” Collins interjected.
“Follow me,” commanded Lady Catherine, leading Wickham, and Collins into the parlour where she held court each day. Once inside the door, the woman turned to the butler who had followed and said, “No one is allowed to bother me until I call for you.”
“Yes, madam,” the butler said before he bowed his head and closed the door as he left. Slipping down the stairs, Anne de Bourgh quietly made her way into the adjoining dining room where she could hear the conversation in the parlour.
Not inviting either man to sit, Lady Catherine addressed the stranger, “Wickham, your father was steward to Mr George Darcy, my sister’s husband, was he not?”
“He was Mr George Darcy’s steward, and my father served…”
“Yes, yes,” Lady Cahterine dismissed anything the man wanted to add. “You were educated at university?”
“Yes, Lady Catherine.”
“At George Darcy’s expense?”
“Yes, Lady Catherine,” Wickham admitted.
“What did you do with that extravagant gift?”
