Searching for Pemberley (13 page)

Since Rob would be having dinner with Jack, I decided to make a surprise visit to see Beth and baby Julia. I packed up some sandwiches and coleslaw that Mrs. Dawkins had made, but before heading over to James's flat, I reread the letter Beth had given to me at the Savoy.

3 March 1948

Dear Maggie,

As I am sure you have already guessed, I am Elizabeth Lacey of Montclair. My parents were Sarah Bolton and Edward Lacey, and I had three brothers, Trevor, Matthew, and Reed. They are all gone now, and I am the only Lacey left. First, I must apologize for the untruths I told you, and I hope that you will forgive me. I wanted you to hear the story of my family, but I was not prepared to place myself at the center of it. Jack's been after me ever since your second visit to Crofton Wood to share this information with you.

In my defence, I must say that you were not the first
person to knock on our door asking about the Lacey/Darcy connection. We British like to be close to our poets and authors. We read Wordsworth in the Lake District and the Brontës in Yorkshire. They can also be very demanding. Several asked us to justify their belief that we were related to the Darcys. After that, I cautioned Don Caton about sending just anyone down to the house even if it meant denying Jack an afternoon of talking to the curious about Montclair.

I believe Jack mentioned that my grandmother, Marianne Dickinson Lacey, loved the novel and was captivated by the Lacey connection to it. When she married my grandfather in 1861, Franny Lacey, Will and Elizabeth's older daughter, was living at Montclair, and she had all of these wonderful stories about her parents, which she shared with Grandma. When Grandma's health began to fail, she had the servants gather up everything relating to Elizabeth and Will and had them placed in chests and taken below stairs. The information we have been sharing with you came from diaries, letters, and other papers stored in those chests, and I have enclosed selected entries from Elizabeth's diaries.

Elizabeth and Will Lacey had some wrinkles to iron out in their marriage, but they did succeed and lived full and happy lives. Enjoy!

Fondly,
Beth

Now that the secret was out, I was already thinking of the many questions I would like to ask her. I felt so much of what she wished to keep private was contained in the first paragraph: “I
had three brothers… I'm the only Lacey left.” Maybe, when Rob saw Jack at the Engineer's Club, he would learn something of the brothers, but I was not going to press Beth.

WHEN BETH OPENED THE door to the one-bedroom flat, I could tell she was pleased to have company. Behind her, baby Julia was lying on a blanket on the floor surrounded by chewing toys.

“What a pleasant surprise,” Beth said. “I am all alone because children as young as Julia are not Jack's strong suit. He prefers them when they're capable of catching a ball. I'll give him his due, though; he did change one dirty nappy. After that, he decided to spend the afternoon at the library.”

“Is he looking for anything in particular?” I asked.

“He reads a lot of the old newspapers and regimental histories from the First War. I think he's trying to figure out how things could have gone so badly. Did you know Jack's brother was killed on the Somme?” I told her that I did. “But let us talk of happier times,” she quickly added.

As I sat beside Beth on the floor, she took my hand in hers and asked if I had read her letter. “Will you forgive me for not being honest with you?”

“Of course,” I said emphatically. “But now that everything is out in the open, I have to say I know more about your great, great grandmother than I do about you and your family. Would 'happier times' include telling me about growing up at Montclair?”

Beth laughed. “You should be a reporter, Maggie. You know how to pursue a story.”

Julia was sitting contentedly between my legs gumming a teething ring. She looked a lot like her mother with her tuft of black hair and olive complexion. Looking at this beautiful child, I thought about Capt. James Crowell's good fortune in staying in Angela's village in Italy long enough for them to fall in love. But was it any different than a girl from Minooka, falling in love with a man from Arizona, while living in England?

Beth began by telling me about her parents. Like many people of the British upper class, Edward “Ned” and Sarah Lacey led lives that were very independent of each other.

“Wasn't your father a broker?” I asked.

For a few seconds, Beth put her head back and looked at the ceiling before saying, “Not really. Oh, he had the title, and he'd pop into the office now and then, but he left the running of the office to the professionals. Jack thinks I don't know how little my father actually worked, and I don't want him to know that I know.

“My grandfather, Andrew Lacey, did not like to entertain, so he delegated that job to my father. It was my mother and father who hosted the lawn parties, summer teas, and excursions to the Peak District. It was Papa who was in charge of the shooting parties and who traveled to Scotland to shoot grouse and go salmon fishing. Even though he did all those things, his passion was for motor racing and football. He put together the first
organized football club from Crofton. It was made up of boys who worked at the pottery kilns or for the tradespeople and, of course, the boys who worked for us.

“My mother's passion was for horses. Our family often hosted the hunt, which was a very big event and great fun.”

“Were Jack and his brother involved in the hunt?”

“It was such a big affair, with so many guests, that everyone had a role. Before the start of the run, there would be lawn meets where the riders would gather to drink and eat and generally get in the mood for the chase. Even though Tom and Jack were not servants, their father insisted they help out, and I'd catch Jack looking at me. I really wanted to stay behind to talk to him, but such a thing 'simply wasn't done.' One of the things that
was
done on these weekends was for husbands and wives to end up in bedrooms with people other than their spouses. Matthew was two years older than I, and Trevor four years. They loved sneaking around to see what went on after my parents retired.

“When I was about thirteen,” Beth continued, “my mother took Reed and me to New York, where we lived with my mother's sister for about a year, because my father had a mistress, the widow, Mrs. Lucy Arminster.” Looking at my expression and nodding, she said, “The first time Matthew told me my father had spent the night with another woman, I cried until there were no tears left to cry. However, I would subsequently learn my father had more than one affair. The reason my mother went to America wasn't because he was seeing another woman; it was because the relationship with Mrs. Arminster had gotten serious.

“Reed was greatly troubled by the separation and was having bouts of depression. My father was an anchor for my brother. They often traveled together scouting the local football talent and
going to auto races. Fortunately, my Aunt Laura and Grandma convinced my parents to reconcile, so we returned to England.

“All of this had a profound effect on me. That's why I was so drawn to Jack. I decided I wanted a man with Jack's qualities, and unlike my father, someone who would be faithful to me. By the time I was eighteen, I had such a crush on him that I couldn't bear to be away from Montclair. I literally threw myself at him when he came home from school one summer. I didn't get the expected response. Jack and I had one of those conversations that stays with you forever. I told him that we were living in the twentieth century, and it shouldn't matter what class a person belonged to in order for them to see each other socially. What Jack said was, 'You're telling me I won't need to use the backstairs anymore. I can just walk around to the front, and when Billy answers the door, tell him I'm paying a social call on Miss Elizabeth. Whose boot do you think will be in my backside first, your mother's or my father's?'

“He was perfectly correct. I later apologized because I wanted him to know I was not some mindless flirt bent on seduction. Even with that, he kept his distance. When my mother asked Jack to serve as our chauffeur for our summer tour, he respectfully declined, and my mother's response confirmed what Jack knew all along. Her requests were actually orders, and she gave him our departure date.

“Of course, Jack thought I had cooked the whole thing up, but it truly was Reed's idea. In fact, when Grandma suggested that Jack be our driver, I said 'no,' because it would only serve to reinforce that I was Miss Elizabeth and he was the butler's son. It started off very badly, with Jack driving and not talking, and Reed and I sitting in the back seat. But little by little, I chipped
away at his reserve. When we went to Brighton, we walked along the beach, and he kissed me. After that, we had the best time, bouncing along those horrible country roads.

“Because we had had such a wonderful summer, I had great hopes that Jack and I could find a way to be together, but it didn't happen. Jack went back to Manchester, and I returned to Newnham College. In 1914, the summer before the war, Jack retreated to his earlier position that if his father and my mother learnt of a relationship between us, it would be met with a firestorm. Once again, he pushed off on me, and we saw little of each other.

“When Jack came home for Christmas in 1915 from The Tech, he was polite and friendly, but as for a personal relationship, there seemed to be an unbridgeable chasm between us. Jack had orders to report for basic training in January, and I was afraid I might not see him again. So many of the young men I knew were being killed or maimed. I didn't want anyone but Jack, but Jack didn't want me.

“I invited my old friend, Ginger Bramfield, to dinner on several occasions during the Christmas holiday with one purpose in mind, and that was to make Jack jealous. Ginger had been wounded at Ypres and had lost the use of his right arm, which was why he was available. What a horrible thing to do to that man. But I wanted Jack, and nothing was going to get in my way.

“The evening before Jack left for basic training, I asked him to meet me behind the garages. I told him that I loved him, and I started to cry and sob and generally carry on. He took me in his arms and held me for the longest time, not saying a word, and then he went back to the house. I was twenty-one years old, and my world had fallen apart.

“What I didn't know was that I had an unexpected ally— Jack's mother. One evening, while Ginger was dining with us, Mr. Crowell told everyone downstairs that if things worked out with Ginger, who was the son of a baron, that it would be a good match for me. Later that evening, Jack's mother surprised him by saying she knew he was in love with me. When Jack told her I wanted to get married, she said we should go ahead. You see, the war changed so many things. Tom and Matthew were serving in the Sherwood Foresters, and both would face the same dangers once they went to France. Even though Matthew was an officer, Mrs. Crowell felt that both were giving their all for their country, and in return, their country should treat them equally.

“When Jack came home from basic training, I was living in Sheffield because I was a Red Cross volunteer. My job was to meet the troop trains and make sure the men had something hot to drink—coffee, tea, soup, whatever they wanted—and little finger sandwiches. I was handing out cups of coffee when a man came up behind me and asked if he could have 'a cuppa.' It was Jack. I wanted to fall into his arms, but my supervisor was nearby. I was staying with the Menlo sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Menlo had rescued Jack's mother from an orphanage, and she had grown up with their five daughters. I told Jack to meet me there after my shift ended.”

Beth started to laugh. “When Jack came by that evening, he proposed, and what a proposal it was. He said, 'If you still want to get married, we can do it while I'm on leave.' And then he shrugged his shoulders as if to say it didn't matter to him one way or the other. It was not how I had imagined Jack proposing, but I decided to accept it, nonetheless. If I was looking for flowery language, I was marrying the wrong man. We got married three
days later in the registrar's office with Mrs. Crowell and her dearest friend, Evangeline Menlo, as witnesses. We spent our wedding night at a hotel across from the train station.

“It was very important that I not get pregnant. The Army provided soldiers with prophylactics by the gross to cut down on venereal disease. Jack had put what were called 'French letters' in his kitbag, and just when everything was getting really hot, he couldn't find his kit. He was walking around the room in the dark, bumping into furniture, saying, 'Oh my God! Where's my kitbag? Where's my kitbag?' It really was funny, and fortunately he found his kit. We made love so often that I thought I'd end up bowlegged.”

For once, I didn't blush. I was getting used to Beth's lack of inhibition in sharing her personal stories. At home, no one ever talked about sex. You weren't even supposed to think about it because it was a sin, and it would have to be confessed to our grouchy pastor. There might not be any police in Minooka, but there was Father Lynch. After dark, he walked the streets with a shillelagh, banging the bushes and chasing home any young people out after the curfew. Things like that kept your knees together.

“Even though I transferred to a Red Cross unit in London,” Beth continued, “it was very difficult getting the time to see Jack because he had been sent to a camp south of London for additional training. But one evening, Matthew, Tom, Jack, and I all got together for dinner. Tom and Matthew were sailing for France within the week, so we told them we had gotten married. Matthew and Tom jumped up and announced our marriage to everyone in the restaurant and asked if they would join us in a toast. Then the patrons started to come over and congratulate us as if we were old friends. It was wonderful.”

I knew almost nothing about Beth's brothers, so I asked her what they were like.

“I got along quite well with Trevor, who had a nice, even disposition. He was very handsome and had a reputation as a lady's man, although I can honestly say that some girls were absolutely shameless in the way they acted around him.