Goodly Creatures: A Pride and Prejudice Deviation (20 page)

“Mr Darcy thinks ye are anxious to begin spending his money.”

Elizabeth smiled at Jamie and said, “Yes, he thinks me vulgarly mercenary, and I wish I could make him understand what I am about. Unfortunately, I am not certain what that is. Trying to make sense of what has happened to me, and what, given the circumstances, I can make of my life occupies much of my private thoughts. I doubt I will ever be capable of being a wife.” Lizzy looked away and paused for a few seconds before she said more to herself than to him, “My entire outlook was crafted by interaction with my father. He thinks he is smarter than others and enjoys poking fun at their follies. He was preparing me to become much like him, and then I brutally learned I knew almost nothing of the world.”

Elizabeth turned back to Jamie as she continued to justify her decision. “Second, you have assured me that Mr Darcy is a good man. Believing he will be a benevolent father is important for my wellbeing. Besides, breaking the agreement at this time would not be good for your career or your family’s financial security. Third, you deserve to wed for love, or at least contentment.”

Elizabeth spent time reflecting on the Darcys before she spoke again. “A moment ago when we were discussing Mr Darcy’s actions, I could not help thinking that part of the reason he acts oddly is that he is not completely reconciled to a marriage of convenience. He made a decision that I believe he regrets sometimes; but then he gets angry with himself because he thinks such thoughts dishonourable.”

Elizabeth’s next words were spoken with a passion Jamie was not expecting. “The truth is, not honouring one’s marriage vows is wrong. We can chastise him for entering into a marriage without the appropriate care; but he is right to fight against his feelings. Today, I think we were watching the different sides of that conflict. I believe he should not have married for convenience; and I am equally convinced neither should you… even if it is for my convenience.”

Elizabeth once again looked deeply into his eyes. “If we had met under different circumstances… and perhaps a few years from now… we might have fallen in love. Currently, you are the person I admire most in the world, and I wish you were my brother. Besides, with what has happened to me, I know I could never be a wife to you in the full sense. You deserve to have a marriage like your parents. I do not know the details, but I can tell from how your mother grieves that it must have been a very powerful love.”

Mr Darcy thought to himself as he rode home that the heat had been quite unbearable the last several weeks. The Hinton children had the right idea to go swimming as often as possible. His thoughts strayed to their companion wading in the creek. As usual, he became disgusted with himself at the thought. His annoyance soon spread to her. Such impropriety to bare her feet in the presence of Dr Wilder and Mr Hinton! More than anything, he was perplexed why she teased him and tried to make him laugh… could he call her actions flirting? What did it mean that the very next moment she acted afraid of him? She bewildered him so.

He was looking forward to being a father. They were planning to have an artist paint scenes from the Perrault book so loved by Miss Elizabeth in the nursery. Anne had told him how she had learned French by reading those stories with her father. When he learned bits of information like that about the baby’s mother, he struggled to understand what she was about. It was much easier to believe her without proper feeling.

When she was far away from Derbyshire, he prayed he would forget Miss Elizabeth and end this tiresome battle with inappropriate thoughts. Was he in danger of becoming dishonourable like his uncle and making Anne unhappy like his Aunt Cassandra? He had wed her precisely because she was miserable with her mother, and he thought their marriage had given him a noble purpose in life. If they had just given her the six thousand pounds as she demanded, Miss Elizabeth would be out of his life now.

As Darcy arrived back at Pemberley, he came to the spot where he and Wickham had swum as boys. He felt a need to refresh himself, so he stripped himself down to breeches and shirt and indulged in, as she had called it, a stolen pleasure.

16 STRANGE FRUIT

The evening after Mr Darcy’s visit, Mrs Wilder retired immediately after dinner. To Lizzy, she had seemed quiet and withdrawn most of the day. There was some mystery about their leaving Ireland, and she hoped she could persuade Jamie to tell her about it. As they sat having tea, she asked him, “Sometimes your mother seems immobilized by melancholy. Has there been some tragedy other than your father’s death in her life? She seems very like her brother, except for that hint of sadness I see sometimes. It is as though she is remembering something very painful. I think I recognize it in her, and you as well, because try as I will, I cannot shake my own dreadful memories at times.”

“It is all about why we had to leave our estate, Holly Hill. What have ye heard about the Irish?”

Lizzy looked thoughtful and said, “I have not heard much. I remember, a neighbour, Sir William Lucas said once in my hearing that the Irish were at it again… whatever that meant. I think I remember some people in one of the shops in Meryton complaining that the Irish did not know their place.”

Jamie chuckled at her words. “In order to explain why we left, I have to start at the beginning. Are ye prepared for a long story?”

Lizzy nodded and relaxed back in her chair in anticipation.

Jamie drank a sip of his tea and began. “My father’s family arrived in Ireland in1649. Since as far back as the Tudors, there had been a policy of evicting the native Irish from their land. Their property, once confiscated, was turned over to Englishmen, like my family. The hope was that these transplants would ensure that Ireland remained loyal to the crown.”

Elizabeth noticed that Jamie had begun calmly, but was becoming more passionate in the way he was telling the story. He seemed to spit out the next bit of information. “My ancestor came with Cromwell, and that revolutionary fellow was no easier on the Irish—despite his Puritanism—or maybe because of his Puritanism. He personally sacked Drogheda and Wexford, and many were killed and transported.” Jamie stared at a painting of his father over the fireplace for a few seconds as he composed himself. “He claimed only armed combatants were killed, but history disproves his contention. How else can ye explain that thousands upon thousands of orphaned children were sent to the West Indies as slaves?”

“Why did they not fight back when their land was confiscated?”

“Ay, they did quite often. Irish history is full of reprisals against the English landlords. Did ye ever read Edmund Spenser’s
The Faerie Queen?”

Lizzy wrinkled her nose at the name Edmund. She answered Jamie, “I did, but I cannot say I remember much about it. It was not a favourite of mine.”

“Spenser had to flee for his life with
The Faerie Queen
unfinished, because raiders came and burnt down the commandeered house in which he was living.”

Elizabeth laughed at the image he had created. She imagined Spenser running across fields with the manuscript under his arm… perhaps in his nightclothes… being chased by men with pikes and torches.

Jamie shared her laughter, but then became very serious. “At the time of Cromwell, the country was left destitute with whole counties depopulated. For a period of time, because of that devastation, my family was able to live peacefully on their confiscated land.”

Shaking his head at some recollection, Jamie continued. “It was a beautiful estate in County Wexford named Holly Hill. My great-great grandfather, my great grandfather, my grandfather and my father were all very fair-minded individuals. They were kind to their tenants, and they were loved in their community, much like the Darcys have been admired in Derbyshire. My family actually farmed their estate. They were not just landlords who lived off rent.”

Elizabeth had never seen him look wistful. “Jamie, it sounds wonderful. Why did you leave?”

With a shrug of his shoulders, he continued. “Me family, over the one hundred and fifty years they were in Ireland, ceased to think of themselves as English. They became Irish. Some of my ancestors were even native Irish and Catholic—though they were required to convert in order to intermarry. The division between the Church of Ireland and the Catholic Church is not as intense as it is reported… at least not to neighbours and friends.”

Jamie’s face became hardened with the knowledge he was imparting. “In order to subjugate the Catholic population—that meant the majority—what became known as the Penal Laws, were enacted. These laws were a deliberate plan to stamp out, by starvation and force, every single trace of Irishness. It made the native population a race of beggars.” He saw her quizzical look and explained. “For example, no meat could be exported except barrelled salted meat for the British Navy. No wool could be exported except to Britain. No Catholic could vote. Catholics could not teach school.”

Lizzy was now looking quite distressed at his words. “Did no one protest the laws?”

“Jonathon Swift wrote some pamphlets. I remember one I read said that most of the nation were beggars. There was an opposition that developed in the Irish parliament, and there were often sporadic local riots and even one large rising.”

Jamie took another sip of tea and his face registered a certain determination. “The people of Ireland were inspired by the revolt in the American colonies. The American Revolution had even been an aid to the Irish people, because some of those hated Penal Laws, were repealed in a spirit of enlightened thinking’’ A twinkle appeared in his eye as he finished his thought. “—and of course fear of retaliation.”

Lizzy said, “I have read Thomas Paine’s
Common Sense.
I found it very stirring… though I know that is not considered patriotic.

Jamie smiled at Lizzy and said, “I quite agree with ye, and ten years after the American Revolution, the Irish population was again eagerly embracing the concepts of democracy and republicanism exhibited by the French Revolution. Both Danton in France and Thomas Paine in America inspired Wolfe Tone, who eventually became the most important leader of the struggle in Ireland. He founded the Society of United Irishmen.”

Jamie was pleased with how intently Elizabeth was listening to his rendition of Irish history. “The purpose of this society was to unite the different religions into one political union. Later it became the intention of Tone to establish an Irish Republic through armed rebellion. The British aristocracy was alarmed, and saw the uniting of men from the Church of Ireland, Presbyterians, Catholics and other dissenters as a great threat to their power in Ireland,”

The last had been said with a cynical chuckle, but his face quickly changed to introspection. “I was in me third year at Trinity—in Dublin. In early 1798, we all knew the time was coming for the rebellion. The French had promised to come to our aid; but Napoleon had another idea—he had plans for Egypt that took precedence. Finally in May, fighting broke out without them. I was a member of a group called the ‘Hist,’ a history and debating society, and most of our members were in favour of an Irish republic. My father had written to say he was part of a force being assembled in Wexford.” Jamie paused and swallowed hard before he continued. “The fighting did not go well in Dublin, and I left to join my father.”

Elizabeth knew Jamie was fighting back tears. She took his hands just as he had taken hers earlier in the day.

Jamie’s voice became little more than a whisper. “Originally the forces in Wexford were quite successful, but the British sent in 20,000 troops, and the United Irishmen were defeated. Me Da was taken prisoner, and like thousands of others, hanged. By the time I arrived home, he was dead. The tears that had been held in check started to flow. His body was left hanging, as a deterrent to any other would-be rebels. Eventually his body would have been thrown into a croppy hole—a mass grave sprinkled with lime—with his comrades. He felt Elizabeth squeeze his hand and took a moment to dab at his eyes with his handkerchief. “For some unknown reason, I wanted to bury him at Holly Hill. A grave was prepared; and on the first cloudy night, I cut him down and brought him home in a cart. I laid him in the ground before the sun rose. My mother was very frightened for me; so we fled and came to my uncle’s with only me Ma’s jewellery and the cash Da had left for an escape.”

Oddly, Jamie got a resigned and stoic look as he related his next information. “Our estate that we got through confiscation was taken from us. Our circumstances are greatly reduced; but I was able to continue my education at Oxford. I had been studying law at Trinity; but I switched to medicine. I decided I would become a physician and try to put thoughts of Ireland behind me. I still believe it should become a republic, but for now my life is here. I have lapsed into a temporary apathy of despair, just like the Irish people.”

Lizzy waited a few moments and then asked, “is there any other reason for your mother’s sadness?’

“Yes, I think me Ma would rally if it were only me Da’s death that causes her grief. She is, after all, proud of what he was fighting for. But, her sadness is made worse because me two sisters are still in Ireland. One of them is married to the Viscount Annagh. From the time she was ten, Deirdre wanted a title, and along with her title she got one of the most despicable men in all of Ireland for a husband.” With a sneer he spoke of his brother-in-law. “He was a member of the local Yeomanry, and they were ruthless in their savagery toward the civilian population in the aftermath of the rebellion. It was he who was awarded my father’s estate. Deirdre does not reply to me mother’s letters.” He paused once again to compose himself. “My other sister, Megan, is also married to another owner of a local estate. Her husband is a supporter of the Act of Union, but at least he is not a vicious murderer. She communicates occasionally.”