Previously: the Darcys discover that Mary and her husband have fled
Wednesday, September 9, 1818
Office of Dodson & Fogg, Solicitors, Horseneedle St., London
Over the course of a month at Ramsgate Jane had found that being loved by, and making love with, a lover who loved you, and whom you loved in turn, was really quite lovely indeed and that perhaps there truly was happiness in her future. Which is why she was quite irked to find herself in yet another solicitor's office, this time at the urging her husband, once again going over the painful history of her lost son, Rick, the putative Lord Mintlaw; and to add salt to her wounds, this solicitor, Mr. Fogg, had gone back and forth over her story in much greater detail than any of the other solicitors had done. When he finally finished asking her questions, she felt that he knew more about Rick than she did.
"But I've already been told by three different solicitors that Mr. Darcy has all of the right of it and was well within his rights to remove Rick from me and there is nothing that can be done about it" Jane protested.
Mr. Fogg stood up, went to the bookcase that covered one of the walls of his office, and pulled out a big volume. He sat back down at his desk and held the book upright with the spine facing Jane so she could read the title.
'Commentaries on the Laws of England
by Sir William Blackstone
Volume 1: The Rights of Persons'
He then laid the book down and put his hand on it. "And they were right, your Ladyship, in so far as the law goes. This book" he patted it with his hand "encompasses all of English law regarding guardians and their wards and it is clear that Mr. Darcy was well within his rights in taking the boy from you under such law. But" here he pushed the book aside "sometimes we have to think outside the book. Real life is not always congruent with the law."
Mr. Fogg took a piece of paper and started to write. As he wrote he spoke: "I have the glimmer of an idea. Several contingencies must come to pass, but if they all do, and I do not want to mislead you or give you false hope, that is a very big 'if'; but if they do, you will get your boy back." He finished writing and turned the paper around so Jane could read it. "This is a retainer letter whereby you authorize me to commence court proceedings to make you guardian of the boy." Before she could object, he held up his hand. "Do not be alarmed. I have found that sometimes the threat of court action is enough to induce the respective parties to settle their differences."
He held out his pen to Jane. She took it and signed the letter.
Tuesday, September 22, 1818
The Great House, Pemberley, Derbyshire
Mr. Darcy received two letters from London.
The first was from the Chairman of the Board of Governors of St. Swithin's School. He read it and snorted. At Elizabeth's look he handed it to her.
The letter contained effusive thanks for Mr. Darcy's donation of one thousand pounds and went to say that such amount would be combined with a further donation of one thousand pounds received from Mr. Davidson to constitute the 'Darcy Apprenticeship Bursary' and the annual income from same would be used to pay the apprenticeship fees of worthy graduates of the school.
Elizabeth laughed. At Mr. Darcy's glower she said "You must admit that as revenge goes it is certainly inventive; henceforth the Darcy name will be always associated with trade." She smiled at her husband. "You had better hope the School doesn't decide to publish the names of the Darcy bursary recipients in the newspapers."
"Don't give them any ideas". Mr. Darcy opened his second letter, which was from his solicitors, read it and then handed it to Elizabeth. "Speaking of revenge…"
The letter indicated that Sir Charles Bingley had paid the sum of thirteen thousand four hundred pounds, nineteen shillings, two pence, and one halfpenny, to the solicitors on account of a debt owed to Mr. Darcy and, in accordance with the standing orders Mr. Darcy had left with them, they had paid the same into his bank account. The deposit slip was enclosed.
"What debt was this?" asked Elizabeth.
"It must be Jane's settlement of ten thousand pounds."
"Why the odd amount?"
"I would have to figure it out but I would guess that if you invested ten thousand pounds in the four or five per cents over six years that's what it would grow to."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"I don't know. It's Jane's but how can I get it back to her?"
"Do the same thing that Sir Charles did to you, send a bank draft to his solicitors."
"Do you think they would accept it?"
Elizabeth did not think they would, not without Sir Charles' or Jane's express instructions. Which they would never give. She shook her head.
"I will write my bankers and have them invest the monies. Maybe at some point we will able to pay them to her" said Mr. Darcy.
Friday, October 2, 1818
The Great House, Pemberley, Derbyshire
Charlotte's Michaelmas letter provided Elizabeth with a welcome distraction from her irritation that she and William in the next few days were required to head to town for the small season to fulfil certain long standing social obligations, obligations which had been undertaken when it appeared that Georgiana would need another season to find a husband, obligations which had been rendered moot by Georgiana's desertion.
Charlotte wrote:
'…Netherfield has been sold. It is not known to whom… Mr. Dewey knows, and I suspect Maria, but they have been remarkably closemouthed about it…the leader in the gossip sweepstakes is a supposed nabob retired from the East India Company … a veritable army of artisans, tradesmen and navvies descended on Netherfield in early September, they are living in tents … they are well regulated, much better than the militia ever were…the buildings have all been gutted … a water tower is being erected, disguised as a Norman tower, to be filled by a steam powered pump … a sewer line is being dug … the Great House and the tenant cottages are to have all the modern conveniences: water piped in, water closets, and cast iron stoves… plus the Great House will have a coal fired boiler in the cellar to provide hot water…rumour has it that the Great House will have more than one bathing room tiled in the ancient Roman style…Can you imagine there being no more footmen hauling water all day?… word has it that all the work must be done by mid November as the new owner wants to move in by the first of December…'
In her own Michaelmas letters to her sisters, Mary and Kitty, Elizabeth extended invitations to come to Pemberley for Christmas, they being the only two members of the extended Darcy – Bennet families that possibly might accept (such intimate relations no longer being maintained with the Wickham, Bennet, Philips, Collins, Davidson, Bingley, de Bourgh and Fitzwilliam families; and Mr. Gardiner having vowed after the Christmas of 1812 fiasco to never again be trapped by a Derbyshire winter away from his warehouses). She received two prompt and polite letters declining the invitations, so identical in wording that Elizabeth suspected Mary and Kitty had written them at the same time, at the same place, both citing prior plans made to spent the festive season with friends and family. Elizabeth could not help but feel a little hurt at this, were she and Darcy not 'friends and family'?
Monday, November 30, 1818
College of Arms, London
On every Monday for the last two months Jeremiah Whortles, a very junior clerk in the firm of Dodson & Fogg, had had the pleasure of escaping the dictates and strictures of his employment as he wandered from the office down to the College of Arms to see if any Letters Patent concerning the Earldom of Matlock had been deposited with the Heralds during the immediately proceeding week. But it appeared his fun was at an end, for on this Monday's trip he had discovered such Letters Patent had been deposited the past Thursday and he had reported his discovery to the office. And now he was at the College of Arms for the second time that day (and as it turned out, for the last time ever) as he stood attendance on Mr. Fogg who was reading the Letters Patent with a great deal of interest.
Mr. Fogg finished reading and directed Jeremiah to make a true copy of the Letters Patent and bring it back to the office. He then left. Jeremiah would have liked to have asked what it was all about but dared not. He tried to figure it out from the context. Stripped of all the courtly language the document named some foreigner, Ricardo Espinosa Fitzwilliam, as the next Earl of Matlock, to take effect upon the death of the current Earl, Henry Fitzwilliam. Jeremiah tried but he did not puzzle it out until months later.
Mr. Fogg did. It took two more weeks, several inquiries by his confidential agent and the expenditure of a not unsubstantial amount of Sir Charles' funds, but puzzle it out Mr. Fogg did.
Facing the extinction of the Earldom of Matlock, given the dearth of legitimate male heirs, the Earl had convinced the Prince Regent and the Prime Minister to agree to make the Earl's illegitimate grandson heir to the earldom. This had been done, at a very great personal cost in terms of both 'favours', that coinage of politics, as well as real, hard coinage of the realm, and now those two august personages owned the Earl's political soul. But even all the votes and influence the Earl could ever promise to provide, and monies actually provided, would not have been enough had not there been Colonel Fitzwilliam's letter to Mr. Darcy conclusively identifying the boy.
Mr. Fogg smiled. The cards had been dealt and he was holding all the trumps. Now was the time to show his hand.