Page 57 of Miss Gardiner
“Damn him,” Darcy whispered.
“What I do not understand is why would he have written this…no doubt said these things to the young woman…with no intention of actually marrying her?” Richard asked.
“Charles falls in love with every pretty face,” Darcy replied.
“Has he left a string of ruined girls behind him?” queried Richard.
“No, none of them were every compromised.”
“That you are aware of,” Richard added. After a moment, the colonel asked, “What was different in Hertfordshire?”
Darcy swallowed hard and said, “I believe her parents were lax in providing proper supervision. Mrs Bennet encouraged the match; you would have thought she was a desperate mama with five daughters in London.”
“Was it their intention to create a compromise?” asked Richard.
Darcy thought about everything he remembered about the Bennet family and then shook his head, “No. Mrs Bennet hoped for the marriage, but she feared scandal worse.”
“Bingley is a cad for certain, but it remains difficult to directly attribute the death of Miss Bennet to his actions or failure to act,” Richard said. “I shall not consider him as the husband for Anne, but I can cast dispersionson his character.”
They were silent for a time and a different footman knocked and opened the door for a moment to determine if the two men were present. He pulled the door shut quickly but Darcy caught a glimpse of his aunt standing in the background. Richard began to speak but Darcy motioned for his cousin to remain silent as he approached one panel in the wall and said, “Richard, I believe Lady Catherine is forcing herself on the footmen again. Did you notice how haggard they both looked last night?”
There was an angry sputter from behind the panel and Darcy led Richard to the French doors that opened on the gardens.
“Walk with me to the rose garden.”
“The rose garden?”
“For only a moment…” Darcy insisted, and the two men walked out without hat or overcoat into the late afternoon air; the summer weather meant it was warm enough they would not miss those items that marked their rank. Darcy led Richard into the garden and spoke to him in the open, where there could be no hiding place for Lady Catherine or a servant.
“I must tell you a most guarded secret…something that no one has told me, but I have pieced together from listening and watching.”
“God’s teeth Darcy, are you playing at being a spy now?”
“No. This is most secret Richard, and you must be careful how you use this information,” Darcy said. “Elizabeth does not know that I have surmised this secret and Bingley…he could make trouble for Miss Elizabeth’s relatives if he knew this secret.”
“Go on…”
“I believe Jane Bennet died in childbirth.”
Saddened to hear this tale grow more tragic, Richard asked, “How do you know this? What is your evidence?”
“On the same day that Jane Bennet died, Elizabeth’s aunt supposedly gave birth to her fifth child, a boy.”
“The same day?”
“There was some fiction put forth that Miss Bennet died during the evening, and the boy was born the next morning before dawn.”
“Did you ask for specific answers?”
“No, but Mr Gardiner, Miss Elizabeth’s uncle, told me that the boy’s mother named him after his father, Edward Charles. Mr Gardiner’s Christian name is ‘Edward’ and ‘Charles’ is…”
“You have described unfortunate circumstance… pure circumstance,” Richard argued. “Have the Gardiners fostered the boy?”
Darcy shook his head and explained, “They are listed as his birth parents in the registers at the church where Miss Bennet is buried. In late spring, Mrs Gardiner paraded herself with bundles stuffed under her dress to give wings to the story.”
“Darcy, Mrs Gardiner may very well have been with child.”
Again, shaking his head, Darcy explained, “Her dress… the day she and Miss Elizabeth called at Mayfair to visit, Georgie noticed that Mrs Gardiner’s dress was fitted poorly. The front hem was three inches off the floor. No woman who was truly with child… no woman of means would have paid a call dressed in such a gown unless she was among friends.”
