The Colonel's Spinster - Audrey Harrison Page 0,59
my sight, you foolish man!” Lady Catherine responded. “But you can tell everyone that my daughter shall be returning to Rosings and taking her rightful place as the heiress to this estate. If anyone has an issue with that, I suggest they come and visit me. Now go! I cannot bear to be near you!”
Her words sent the unfortunate clergyman scuttling from the room whilst looking anxiously back at his patroness. The room fell into an uneasy silence for a few moments before Fitzwilliam broke the quiet.
“I don’t know whether to pity or admire him.”
“He is a fool.”
“He’s only repeating what is being discussed throughout the area.”
“I will make sure it stops.”
“You know full well, as a ruined woman, she would not receive a welcome here. The best course of action you can take is to minimise the damage.” Fitzwilliam managed to suppress a smile at the glare his words caused. The fact that she was not cursing him to the devil as she had done every other time he had brought up the subject so far was, hopefully, a sign of progress.
“And I suppose you think a marriage to someone wholly inappropriate would improve matters?”
“Not in the short term. Aunt, Anne is going to take a long time to recover from this. She will be absent for some time. Why not send her somewhere to recuperate when she is strong enough to travel, rather than immediately returning to Rosings?” Fitzwilliam was thinking on the spur of the moment, but a plan was forming that he thought might work.
“Where?”
“Let her remain in Manchester, and you sort out someone to be a deputy steward, for I doubt Mr. Huxley will return without Anne, and I can’t blame him.” He had seen that she was about to argue and had spoken before she could interrupt. “Then take her to the continent for some warm, fresh air. She has never been abroad. Let her travel and recuperate.”
“What happens with Huxley?”
“I think for Anne’s sake, she should be married before she leaves Manchester, and he should travel with you.”
“Preposterous!”
“Not at all. It would be easier for you to have a gentleman travelling with you. He is intelligent and capable. Anne will be happy with him by her side, and whilst you are away you can start to teach him how to be the gentleman.” Fitzwilliam felt a modicum of sympathy for what he was volunteering Huxley for, but better that than the man lose the woman he loved. “There would be no better teacher. When you return to the area, months will have passed, and other gossip will have lowered the interest in Anne’s story, as it always does. I’m not saying there will not be some mutterings when you first return, but it will be temporary.”
“You are speaking as if we shall be gone for some time.”
“I think the longer the better. In the main for Anne’s health, but also for the neighbourhood to have become bored with speculation.”
“What if she gets with child?”
“What of it?”
“She might not survive.” For the first time Lady Catherine looked vulnerable and unsure. Fitzwilliam had the suspicion that she had revealed the real reason she was so against Anne’s marrying anyone.
Standing, he walked to his aunt and knelt before her, taking her hands in his. “Aunt, none of us knows what the future will bring, but please, speak to Huxley and Anne of your concerns. There are ways of stopping children if she would be in especial danger by becoming with child.”
Lady Catherine looked uncomfortable at the tenderness she was being shown, but Fitzwilliam kept hold of her hands.
Eventually, she stood. “Send word that I consent to the marriage. I shall not travel north, but I expect that Huxley will make arrangements that, when Anne is well enough, we shall travel to the south of France for a twelve-month.”
“It’s the right thing to do. You will see.”
“I suppose now you have managed to browbeat me into submission, you will be leaving?” Lady Catherine asked.
“I have been away from my regiment for quite a while,” Fitzwilliam answered. “I hope to be travelling to Manchester soon, but I need to go to London first.”
“You are going to marry Charlotte’s girl, aren’t you?” Lady Catherine mentioned her sister by name for the first time.
“I hope so, Aunt. I truly hope so.”
“Neither you, Darcy, nor Anne have considered the purity of the family bloodlines.”
“Perhaps not, but we will all be happy with the people we have chosen as husbands and wives