Page 61 of Till Death Us Do Part: Book 2
Everyone looked sceptical but said nothing, so she continued in a whisper.
“He saidsomebodywould be married from Longbourn within the month. Before Mother intervened, he was planning to exert pressure on Lizzy to marry Mr Collins,” then she looked at Darcy who seemed confused, so she clarified, “his heir. The man who introduced himself to you at the Netherfield ball. He is Lady Catherine’s vicar.”
Darcy nodded, remembering the odd little man, who had made a speech that was nonsensical even for one of Lady Catherine’s pets, and shuddered.
Kitty continued, “He said if Lizzy dug her heels in, he wouldforce one of us to marry Mr Collins.”
By that time, she had almost, but not quite, joined Jane in her tears, but she bravely carried on.
“Mr Collins is a fool and a brute. Jane is too soft-hearted to manage him. Mary was frightened of him. Lizzy firmly thought Lydia and I were too young, though if anybody could handle that idiot, it would be Lizzy or Lydia.”
Lydia just laughed. “Yes, I certainly could, but who wants to marry aclergyman?”
Everyone laughed at the way she said it, with disdain practically dripping from her voice. It gave Jane time to dry her eyes with her handkerchief and look at Darcy. “She married you to save us, even though we all suggested a sacrificial lamb was a good idea so long as it was someone else.”
Mary said, “Did she leave a note? No matter how angry she was, she would leave a note.”
“As a matter of fact, she did. She left me several messages, in a way.”
Everyone looked curious, so he described the furniture, the money left in piles, the complete lack of anything suggesting she had ever been there except a dropped handkerchief, and finally, how she extracted money from his neighbours.
“That last part is very clever,muchcleverer than anything I have ever done. I must admit to being proud of her for it, though I have not earned the privilege.”
Thinking he had already told the sisters ten times what he had planned, he said, “She also left an actual note, but I cannot decipher it.”
The ladies clamoured to see it, so Darcy pulled it out of his waistcoat pocket.
23 June 1812, Lambton
Mr Jennings & Mrs Reynolds
The time has come to meet with my husband. You need not worry, as I have all in hand, and know what I am doing. Molly and Noah are escorting me for my safety, and to maintain propriety. We are leaving on the 11:37 coach from Lambton and expect to be gone several months. I apologise that I could not notify you sooner.
It has been a great pleasure getting to know both of you, and I am indebted to the entire, excellent staff of Pemberley foroffering me the warmest welcome possible. I suggest you carry on as before until Mr Darcy returns.
Elizabeth Darcy
They all read it three or four times, which did not take long.
Darcy said, “The time seems odd. I checked and there are no coaches scheduled from Lambton at that time, and coaches are not scheduled to that precision anyway. The 10:00 might be anytime between 9:30 and 10:30, and that is if all is going well. I cannot decipher it.”
Mary said, “I can.”
Everyone looked, and she said, “I was frightened I might be fobbed off on Mr Collins after Lizzy was gone, so she spoke to me the night before the wedding. Even though I had been horrible to her, she took the time to set my mind at ease. At the time, she was such a burning ball of anger that I could not tell if she wanted me to feel guilty for the sacrifice she was making or to comfort me that I would not be called on to do the same.”
She paused and took a deep breath. “She described the ‘bargain’ she made with Father in detail.”
She stared rather carefully at Darcy. “Did you ever show her this side of yourself?”
Confused, he asked, “Which side, Miss Mary?”
“Polite, respectful, dare I say, amiable. I get that you are desperate to find your wife, but you cannot invent this demeanour from whole cloth. It must have been hidden there all along.”
Darcy hung his head and whispered, “I did not get the chance, or more correctly, I did not take the chance when it was readily available. I wrote several letters, first from my ship and then from France, once I cooled down and thought more rationally, but she never got them. Her last impression of mewas the argument we had on the way to Hatfield, in which I didnotdistinguish myself. I arrived at Pemberley a month too late.”
He looked back at the ladies. “I see you all feel shame for the way you treated your sister. I double or treble that. I did not treat my wife well. I am not surprised she left—only that she stayed so long.”
Mary continued, “She told Father she would‘give you six months to sayonekind word.’She said it could be in word or writing, but if she did not get one kind word in six months, then she would‘know how to act.’You were pronounced man and wife at exactly 11:37 on the twenty-third of December, six months to the minute before the time she put on this note. The time was not a message to you—it was to me. She knew I would know the time to the minute.”
