Page 46 of Till Death Us Do Part: Book 2
He leaned back in the chair and started rubbing his temples.
“Should I get you some laudanum?” Mrs Reynolds asked in concern.
“No thank you, but I do believe some willow-bark tea might not go amiss. I will save the laudanum for emergencies.”
Mrs Reynolds looked sceptical about the master’s desire to extend his pain, but she went to the doorway and made the request, then returned to her seat.
Darcy said, “I suppose I should have the rest. I assume it gets worse, or at least not better?”
Jennings said, “She seemed to be all right after the Matlocks left for some weeks, and then she had another visitor—Miss Caroline Bingley.”
“I assume that went badly.”
“You assume incorrectly. They got along famously. They talked for several hours in the parlour, then she ordered a formal dinner.”
“I thought it was rather funny,” Jennings added. “She asked for the dinner if we ‘still remembered how.’”
Darcy had to chuckle along with his staff. That sounded just like her, and he would dig deeper into that dinner, but something told him there were other, more important things.
“And?”
“They did not dress. The mistress wore, I think, the dress from the first day, and Miss Bingley wore what she arrived in. The lady left the next morning, and we have not heard from her since.”
Darcy spent several minutes trying to wrap his mind around the idea of a pleasant conversation between Mrs Darcy and Miss Bingley, but he found himself quite incapable. “That was unexpected. Did Mrs Darcy maintain her happiness after that?”
Everyone looked at each other, and Jennings finally picked up the thread.
“She did until—”
Frustrated, Darcy snapped, “Until?Until what?”
“Until Lady Catherine’s visit.”
“Lady Catherine was here. She was HERE?” Darcy gasped.
His shouts would have embarrassed him to no end at any other time, but to have his very worst relative poking her nose in his business sounded like the worst of all possible developments.
“Yes sir. Like your other aunt and uncle, Lady Catherine came to draw blood, but—”
He ground to a stop, not quite willing to say the rest, so Knight took pity on him, strongly suspecting his days might be numbered anyway.
“Perhaps your aunt came to draw blood, but in the end, your wife did.”
“What do you mean?”
Jennings picked up the thread. “I stayed outside the door, being not exactly unfamiliar with your aunt.”
Darcy chuckled grimly, more in consternation than humour.
“The conversation was indistinct, but the tone of it was not auspicious. I sent every footman and maid far away—just in time as it turned out. Your aunt’s voice started rising to a full-on screech, and Mrs Darcy’s voice escalated to match. By the time the encounter was over they were shouting at each other. Then Mrs Darcy ejected her ladyshipbodily. She dragged her by her earpubliclydown the front steps, heaved her into the coach, and told her not to come back before you did, unless she wanted to become intimately familiar with the dogs.”
“Have you any idea what was said?”
“I know exactly what was said, but I will not repeat it within fifty yards of a woman as admirable as Mrs Reynolds.”
The housekeeper reached over and slapped the butler with unexpected familiarity, but she did not correct him. “I heard them myself. You are better off not knowing.”
“How bad?”
