The Darcy Cousins (37 page)

her for you." At the door she hesitated and half-turned. "I hope you are not here to take her away. She will not go with you, you know."

They waited for some time for Anne to appear. Tension filled the room. Darcy stood very tall, his face severe. Robert leaned against the wall, alert but ready to be amiable. The two young ladies watched the door anxiously.

No one recognised the young lady who entered the room. It would be an exaggeration to say that she walked in with a quick step, for she entered quite slowly. But her tread was firm, and her back straight. She had cropped the hair around her face and her hair hung down in loose ringlets. Her cheeks were rounded, and at present held a sharp tinge of scarlet.

"I wrote to you in the strictest confidence," she said severely, looking from Clarissa to Georgiana as if they were errant children.

Georgiana, addressed in this fashion, recovered from her astonishment at the change in her cousin and smiled happily at her.

"Oh, Anne! It is good to see you looking so well!" Impulsively, she went to her and threw her arms around her.

Anne, who had come prepared to fight, was placed at a disadvantage by this welcome.

"Thank you," she said, patting Georgiana on the back awkwardly.

"Well then," said Darcy, who was also thrown off balance by the startling change in her appearance. "I suppose we do not need to worry that you have been ill-treated."

"Ill-treated?" said Anne with a smile. "No, not at all. I have never been happier."

There was a moment of silence in which everyone digested this new information. It was Anne who finally broke the silence.

"I am sorry that I had to leave without a word to anyone. I hope it did not cause too much of an uproar."

338

THE DARCY COUSINS

"Miss de Bourgh--Mrs Williams--You can have no idea of the uproar your disappearance caused!" said Robert, who was leaning on the wall, watching the scene with an amused air.

"Mr Collins was convinced you had thrown yourself in the lake," said Georgiana, not at all amused, "and your mother was sure you had been kidnapped for ransom."

Anne put her hands to her face. "I never thought--it never occurred to me that such interpretations would have been placed on my behaviour. I thought it would have been clear to everyone--especially you, my young cousins--that I was unhappy and needed to leave. You understood that, surely?"

"I understood you were unhappy, but I never imagined that you had the--" Clarissa was about to say the strength, but realised it would hardly be tactful.

For a moment Anne looked liked the person they had known--frail and uncertain. She gave a small bitter laugh. "Courage? You could not imagine that I had the courage to leave, could you? But that was precisely why I had to leave. Because I had become nothing--just Anne, the weak, helpless cousin, Anne whom no one thought worthy of consideration, Anne who sat in the corner and kept quiet."

Georgiana wanted to disagree. She wanted to say it was untrue.

But the truth stared her in the face, and to deny it would be a lie.

"Lady Catherine cast us out of her house and accused us of being responsible for your disappearance," said Clarissa.

Anne wrinkled her brow in puzzlement. "In what way responsible?"

"Well, we did encourage you to escape from Mrs Jenkinson,"

replied Clarissa staunchly, though why she would take Lady Catherine's part she could not imagine. "We did convince you to go on walks and to spend some time alone. Perhaps if we had 339

MONICA FAIRVIEW

not appeared on the scene, you may not have been encouraged to leave."

Anne stared at Clarissa in astonishment, and then began to laugh. "Oh, Clarissa, you cannot really believe that! Surely you cannot think the few exchanges we had were responsible for my disappearance." She shook her head at the absurdity.

"If I told you for how long I have planned this! How I have saved every penny I could without rousing the suspicions of either Mrs Jenkinson or Lady Catherine. How Mrs Saunders and I have made plans to open this school together for years, and how carefully I planned my route so I would not rouse suspicion. Clarissa, do not think me ungrateful for your attempts to help me, but really it is quite ridiculous to think you could have had anything to do with my disappearance. Your presence only provided me with the excuse I needed to cast off Mrs Jenkinson, and the distraction of so many people being around provided me with the opportunity to leave undetected. I have waited for such a distraction for months.

It was very inconvenient for me, when my mother cast off Darcy because of his marriage. All my plans had to be delayed."

"In that case," said Darcy, who had come prepared for something entirely different and still have not quite recovered his bearings, "it would be quite useless to try to convince you to return home."

"Quite. You understand me, Cousin. I have no intention of returning, not when I had to work so hard to leave. And especially now that I know how much trouble you all went through because of my escape."

"Do you really think life as a teacher has more to offer you than life in the luxury of Rosings?" said Darcy persistently.

"Yes, for at least I will be serving some useful purpose."

"The novelty will fade," said Darcy gently, "and you will have 340

THE DARCY COUSINS

burned your bridges. You will awaken one day to find yourself confined to a life of drudgery. You will come to regret abandoning the life you could have had."

"I cannot imagine such a thing. Here at least I feel strong. There I was wasting away. There I was nobody."

No one could argue with that, for it was true that at Rosings, Anne had been little more than a cipher.

"Then come with us," urged Darcy. "I will shield you from your mother, and I will ensure that you may have the chance to meet someone you may care for and marry. We will introduce you to people in London. I will make sure you are independent of your mother's control."

She shook her head.

"I will be merely replacing her control of me with that of a husband. No. Here I am completely independent, and need only be accountable to myself. I have made my decision, and I will abide with it, for better or for worse. I cannot imagine that I will ever have cause to regret it."

Her eyes sparkled with an intense light, and with her red cheeks aglow, Georgiana thought she had never looked so well nor so strong. Gone was the sickly-looking, thin spectre. Here was a woman that was now fully alive.

"You realise that by continuing on this stubborn course of action, you will be forfeiting your right to your property. The property is not entailed, and Lady Catherine will likely pass it on to someone else," said Darcy.

"When has the possession of such property benefitted me?

When has it brought me any happiness?" cried Anne. "I have known nothing but sickness and misery in Rosings. I hope never to set eyes on it again."

341

MONICA FAIRVIEW

"Very likely your mother will pass it on to Colonel Fitzwilliam."

"Perhaps, or perhaps to his younger brother, Arthur. She has always had a soft spot for him, even though he is a rascal and ran away to join the navy when he was seventeen. I wish both my cousins well. I am content where I am."

"Anne," said Darcy gently. "I know you are happy now. But think of it. The years will pass. You will spend your life serving others, teaching young ladies to make their way in society, while you remain trapped here, scarcely able to step outside the school for fear of being seen. You will live your life in drudgery, eking out a meagre existence, growing old to live in genteel poverty. Is that what you wish for yourself? Is that how you see your life? The novelty will wear off soon enough, and you will come to regret relinquishing everything you had for a humdrum existence."

If he had expected to influence Anne by his words, he quickly discovered otherwise.

She smiled. "I know all this. I have thought about it. I have planned this for so long--it has taken me years to put my plans into fruition. I have set aside enough money to buy a small house nearby, and I have enough money in bonds--under another name--to provide me with a small income on which to live, so I need not be dependent on the school. You need not worry for my security, cousin Darcy."

"I see you have indeed thought of everything," said Darcy.

At this Georgiana, who could stand it no longer, broke in.

"Come live with us, Anne. You need not go back to Lady Catherine.

You can stay with us. We will help you."

Anne smiled again. "Thank you, cousin Georgiana. You have a kind heart, and if things were different, I would have taken up your offer. But I do not need anyone's help. I am happy where I am."

342

THE DARCY COUSINS

It was clear that nothing would sway her.

"But you can't possibly be satisfied with teaching. Why, you are hardly more than a governess!" said Georgiana.

"Some people may look down on a governess, but I am not one of those people."

"Yes, but--"

"Enough, Georgiana," interrupted Darcy. "I have done what I could to persuade her, but I can see it is useless. There is no point in adding your arguments to mine."

"Why did she write to us then?" said Clarissa. "There must have been a reason."

"I wrote to you because I wanted to assure you I was safe, and because I did not mind if you knew my little secret. I trusted you."

Clarissa, with a little start of guilt, began to explain why they had been forced to reveal her whereabouts. Anne waved her explanation away, and Clarissa drifted into silence.

"I am not blaming you, Clarissa. I am sure you have good reasons. I had hoped, in the years to come, that you would visit me, and provide me with news of the family. I did not want to be cut off completely.

Now I hope all of you will do so. You are always welcome."

Darcy nodded. "We will respect your wishes not to tell Lady Catherine of this visit," said Darcy. "If at any time you change your mind, you are very welcome to come to us, and we will do what we can to support you."

Georgiana thought there were tears in Anne's eyes, but she could not be sure.

"You are very kind, Darcy," said Anne. "I will bear that in mind, for one can never tell when circumstances may change."

Darcy stepped forward and took her hand. "I hope you know what you are doing, Anne."

343

MONICA FAIRVIEW

"I believe I do," she replied.

Just then the door opened and Mrs Saunders entered. "Do you need my assistance?" she said. She scrutinized Anne's face.

"All is well, Mrs Saunders," she said, smiling. "Can we offer you all some refreshments?"

"No, thank you," said Robert, pushing away from the wall and starting to move. "We must be on our way. We left home in a rather tearing hurry. How on earth I am to explain this whole thing to Caroline without telling her the truth, I have no idea."

Georgiana gave Anne a quick embrace. "I am glad you have found what you are looking for, Cousin," she said, and then it was time to leave.

"I cannot feel easy about this," said Darcy, as they settled in the carriage. "I cannot help but feel that I should have done something before. I should have stood up against my aunt and urged her to allow her daughter to live a more normal life."

"You are not to blame," said Georgiana. "We all thought her sickly and weak, and assumed that she could not go about by herself."

"That is exactly what I blame myself for. Why did I never doubt that? Why could I not have made more of an effort to invite her to spend time with us alone in Pemberley?"

In the silence that followed, Georgiana tried hard to remember Anne as a young girl and found only the same image that she had described to Clarissa. Anne had been too old for her, and Fitzwilliam had been too young to understand things at the time.

"We are all to blame, in our own ways," said Robert. "None of us took the trouble to discover the real Anne, and now it is too 344

THE DARCY COUSINS

late. But we need not speak of it as if it is a tragedy. It is not as if we have lost her. She was just as lost to us before, when we scarcely acknowledged her existence. At least now she is happy."

"If I could persuade her to return home--"

"You cannot wish that for her, Fitz," said Georgiana, "for no matter how changed Lady Catherine may be, she will never change so much that she will cease to control Anne."

"But to think that my own cousin--" Darcy did not complete the sentence. He sat staring out of the window, sunk into gloom.

They had set out from the King's Arms without eating. By now they were all too hungry and thirsty to postpone luncheon. Accordingly, they stopped to eat at The White Swan, a small riverside inn at the border of Richmond Green.

The innkeeper bowed politely and welcomed them, but told them that, regrettably, the private parlour was already occupied.

However, if it pleased them, he would set up luncheon in a quiet corner of the taproom which was separated from the rest, and where they would not be disturbed.

The door of the private parlour opened at that moment, and a familiar voice reached them.

"What do you mean, no eel pie? I must speak to the landlord at once. Why, this is an outrage! We expressly stopped here because we were told that you are famous for your eel pie. In fact, we were told you were known as the Eel-pie Inn."

"I'm very sorry, sir," said the beleaguered servant, "it looks like there's been a misunderstanding. It's the White Cross that's known as the Eel-pie. You can see it from here--over on the island. It's very famous for its pies, Sir."

345

MONICA FAIRVIEW

Mr Moffet emerged from the room, looking decidedly peevish.

His eyes alighted on them at that moment, and the sullen look disappeared immediately. "Miss Darcy!" he exclaimed. "What an unexpected pleasure!" He bowed formally to the whole party. "We have just now arrived. You must join us for luncheon. It will be a squeeze, but I think we can endeavour to fit everybody."

Darcy did not appear overjoyed at the idea. But he could hardly refuse, when their only other option was to eat in the taproom.