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Chapter Fourteen: Boss questions
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Derby – Pemberley
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1st October 1824
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- What's the matter, Mrs. Reynolds, you seem to be in a rather bad mood…
- Bad mood isn't the right term, Mistress, it's more that I'm worried!
Lizzy frowned at the woman who, for almost three decades had, day in, day out, managed the Estate's staff with the efficiency of an Army Colonel.
- Why would you be worried, Mrs. Reynolds. A problem with a member of your family?
- Of course not, Mistress, they are all well and my eldest daughter in law is about to be, for the first time, a grandma, thus making me a gran-grandma which isn't an easy situation since it reminds me that next year, I'll be seventy and I really don't feel like being seventy.
Lizzy nodded and, even if each year she was the one who organized the Birthday party of Pemberley's Housekeeper, she had just never really internalized the real age of their trusted retainer.
- It's not too late, you know, if you want, we can…
- No, no, no… No upgrade for me, Mistress. I've already refused twice, and I really believe that being upgraded is a curse for one's family. I understand why one could be tempted to choose to sit at that table, but I don't want to see my grandchildren die before me. I'm very happy with my fate and thanks to your mother's advice and treatments I'm a very springy and healthy sixty-nine-year-old crone.
- And we have no intention to force you into retirement, Mrs. Reynolds. You are with us as long as you are able to put up with the Bennet Circus.
Mrs. Reynolds nodded and let out a long sigh.
She was sixty-nine and even, if for every other staff member, she still was the boss, Mr. Darcy…
She stopped herself and forced her mind to use the right denominations! She was as proud as everybody else on the Estate that the Master who had been the Kingdom's best regent ever, had been, once more elevated to a weel deserved title.
His Royal Highness the Vice-Roy, had hired two Staff Managers who were under her direct supervision and who were, each year a little more, taking over a greater part of her duties.
There was Mrs. Ramson who was a very discreet and efficient young woman whose husband was a Mechanics Teacher at the University and whose two children were around the same age as Madame d'Arcy's Jonathan. She was on her feet all day long and most of the staff loved her smiling and kind disposition. Nobody had any doubt that Mrs. Ramson would, the day Mrs. Reynolds would go in retirement, take over the job and the wholeness of her responsibilities.
And there was Mr. Chapman who had been hired to supervise the maintenance and mechanical work that had taken an ever-growing importance within the Estate. And Mr. Chapman, if a very competent and technically efficient manager, wasn't a very kind man. He was the kind of man who loved to have underlings and who loved even more reminding said underlings that they were just that. The technical staff didn't like him even if he was the best at its job. Quite a few of said technicians had chosen to quit to be hired by the Lambton Institute of Technology where the managers were always looking for more competent people. And People coming out of Pemberley's Slave master were famous for their skills…
- It's about Mr. Chapman, Mistress…
- Is he still mistreating the staff?
- Mistreating isn't the right word, Mistress. He's not the kindest man on the Estate but he is good at his job and if he is very demanding boss, he's also a very hard-working taskmaster. He's always with his men to give them a hand and to explain to them what they need to know to be as good as he wants them to be. He isn't the man I would love to see managing me but, even if I feel for his men, he is what a place like Pemberley needs. We can't take the risk to see any of the numerous new technical installations or devices stop working. And he knows every nook or corner of every passage in Pemberley…
She shook her head.
- We would have huge problems to replace him since most of those he has taught are, after only a few months, working somewhere else…
Lizzy made a face but didn't comment on Mr. Chapman. They had already thought about sending him out to supervise the modernization of the numerous d'Arcy estates all over Europe, but none of the candidates they had seen to replace him had had a quarter of his technical knowledge. And even if he was as unsympathetic as hell, his family had been loyal to the Darcys fort at least two centuries. And Loyalty was something Fitzwilliam honored whatever else a man or a woman could be.
- We know that and even if it is frustrating, we will go on and endure said Mr. Chapman ungentleness. What happened?
- It happened that I have a few of his men who regularly send me a report of what is happening in the bowels of Pemberley. It gives me the opportunity to verify if Mr. Chapman's reports aren't too glossy… And within the last report there was a comment about what Mr. Chapman thinks about what is happening in Pemberley.
There was a silence and Lizzy didn't push her Housekeeper.
She would speak out, no need to pressure her.
- He thinks that your sister, her Grace the Duchess of Aquitania has taken over the Estate… And I wonder if there is not some truth in those comments. Your sister has taken a huge place within the Estate and, when I look at it, I can only confess that I let her take that place without even frowning…
Lizzy's smile was back.
- That's normal, that's how Jane works. She comes in, smiles, listens, smiles some more and provides the best solution for the problems all those enthusiastic supporters had brought up and at the end of the day she's taken over the part of the place she likes best. And I will confess, like you did, that I did let her take over the second floor. The four other floors are still mine and yours, but the second floor with the nursery and my sisters' apartments are her kingdom. She's so much better with children than I will ever be that it would be foolish to try to replace her there.
Lizzy shrugged.
- I did have a lengthy discussion with Fitzwilliam about it and he didn't look at it with any other feeling than gratitude. You are yourself a mother and you know how those little devils can be… difficult. They are probably quite the same with Jane with the difference that she never tires and never loses her temper.
She looked at Mrs. Reynolds.
- Did Jane try to trespass anywhere else?
- Never, Mistress and she always asks my permission even when dealing with the nursery and the second floor. She probably knows that I will never refuse anything she asks but she still acts like the welcomed guest she is.
Mrs. Reynolds couldn't help but let a mischievous smile invade her face.
- One thing she never does is asking anything from Mr. Chapman. I think she doesn't like him any more than we do, Mistress. But in her case, it means that she never ever even acknowledges his presence. She knows every servant and maid by name and often knows about their families. No servant meeting her leaves without a satisfied smile on his or her lips. He, she does as if he's invisible. When she needs something, she always asks me. He never said anything but it sure must irk him.
- Unkind people aren't Jane's favorites, that's for sure. And if she does no longer even try to redeem him, she must be certain that he is a lost cause.
She looked at Mrs. Reynolds.
- Should we speak to my sister, Mrs. Reynolds?
- Not about Mr. Chapman, please, answered said Mrs. Reynolds. But there are a few technicalities that need to be solved and we could, perhaps, use those as pretexts to speak with her about false impressions…
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- I spoke about that with Kitty and Mary last month in Spalatro, acknowledged Jane. I offered Kitty to find another place to spend the summer. It's not as if we would remain without monetary means. There are quite a lot interesting and a lot more deserted places all around the Middle Sea where we could have an Estate of our own. Hell, last time I was there I fell in love with Minorca and bought an Estate in the Southern Mountains. With Airplanes so easily available to us, It wouldn't really change anything…
- But for the locals, said Lizzy, who would, probably, lose one of their main sources of income.
She shook her head.
- I never considered you an intruder, Jane. I love it to have you with me during the winter… And the kids wouldn't accept to be separated.
Jane shot her a little unsatisfied frown.
- Must I remind you that even if one could believe the contrary, it is not the Soviet of Darcy Offspring that makes the decisions in our family.
The term of Soviet of Darcy Offspring had been created by William's wife who, after having given birth to her son had soon discovered that the adults in the most famous family on Earth had very few to say when it came to make decisions concerning their numerous children.
And since, because of *Link*, it has been a good denomination it had lasted even after Elizabeth d'Arcy Romanova had left to manage Russia from Moscow.
Without her son who preferred to stay in Pemberley.
And, but, of course, only for security reasons, he had obtained the right to stay!
Lizzy couldn't help but snicker.
- I'm not the one you need to convince, dear, I know that it shouldn't be as it is, but I do think that those who like it just as it is, won't be very cooperative should we decide to change the rules.
- We are the adults shouldn't we be making the rules?
- You are theoretically right, dear, but isn't it better to look the truth in the eyes and accept the reality of a situation that is quite clearly not as easy as it seems?
Jane couldn't help but shake her head.
- This is not an appropriate situation. For multiple reasons…
- But it is what we've got, said Lizzy with a smile. And what's even more important, admit it, it is what we both want! Whatever is said I don't know where about you not being welcomed here, the truth is that I love to have you with me. And the fact that you are a wonder when it comes to take care of the next generation of Darcys, whatever the pronunciation, is only my official excuse to be addicted to your presence, love! I am satisfied with you being here with me and the longer that situation lasts the better it is.
The worried mien was finally replaced by a smile.
- You are really sure about that, Lizzy? We have at least a score of beautiful estates where I could spend part of the year. And that last one in Minorca is an architectural dream come true.
- What did Mary say when you told her about your plans?
- She scolded me to be such an idiot to let strange rumors influence me. But it is important when I hear such things it reminds me that, for a time, I couldn't do but living off you and Fitzwilliam.
- That was when you were despairing because that rogue you married played the dead martyr and you had nowhere to go. And of course, you were better off with me and Fitzwilliam! Where else would you have gone? Back to Longbourne?
- I could have, it was mine after all…
- And you really think that I would have let you out of my eyes for even a second just after you had lost the man you loved?
This time Lizzy closed the distance between her and Jane and embraced her.
- We are perhaps married women, and we no longer bear the same name but we share the same blood and, in my opinion, the same soul! There is nothing, not in this world or in the next, that is powerful enough to ever force us to part! Mi casa es su casa, Jane, and it won't ever change. So, stop being silly and do what you do best, smile and make us all happy.
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- I hear about your last crisis…
Jane looked up and smiled at her sister wife.
- Is there really no place in this world where a secret can be kept under wraps?
- With *Link* spying on everybody?
We don't spy, we just hear what you shout into the Ether. We are the victims here, not the perpetrators! Learn to be discreet with your thoughts before accusing us…
- Those pupils of yours are not respectful! Not respectful at all…
- We are bad examples, said Jane always ready to defend the little ones. And they are right we haven't learned to smother our thought output.
- Their lessons are weird…
Not weird at all… You must first understand the differences between all the different sort of thoughts before learning how to smother one sort and let the other take the overhand. It is a science we are rediscovering daily, Mom. The best would be to learn how to link and then enter the *Link*. While linked teaching and learning are so much more easier…
- Much more easier is gram…
It was done to reinforce the power of the sentence, protested *Link*. We master at least twelve different languages perfectly… And English has always been the easiest to learn. Norwegian probably excluded.
Where did you get Norwegian?
The Biornas speak a Norwegian Dialect and we looked into it and simplified it a little further by… Listening to the little group of Norwegian students you have at the LIT.
So, you speak a sort of Norwegian…
Norwegians have no problems understanding it. We've tried it out with some of the Norwegian students at the LIT. They had no problems to believe that we too were Norwegians.
Since when do you frequent the LIT?
I'm taking them there twice a week, said Jane. There are a lot of labs out there and the teachers of said labs love to show off…
And while they speak to us as if we were morons, we look into their minds to get the real interesting explanations.
As I said, you're spying…
We're not! We are just listening to the real explanation they rehearse while trying to find the words they believe dumb kids will be able to understand. They are, all in all, very disrespectful of our intelligence…
And we are all very glad that you put up with such disrespect, dears, said Jane. But they cannot know about the possibilities of *Link*. That part of your education must remain a secret. I'd like to say forever but I know that, sooner or later, there will be leakage.
No reason, there will ever be, said *Link*. We know that it must stay a secret within the family. It gives us an advantage and we know quite well that in our world each advantage is important…
Maureen couldn't help but react.
Our world?
Our world! The world of really superior mentally gifted beings. Normal people have already a lot of problems to accept the fact that we are upgraded, they would react badly should they learn that a superior mental level of cognition like *Link* is now available to the part of Mankind that has been upgraded.
A superior mental level of cognition? That feels like a Lionelade, does it not?
It is indeed Lionel who has found the term. We find it adequate. He is one of us but at the same time being unable to enter the *Link* he has remained his complete mental independence. In that matter he is perhaps unique, and he does help us a lot to remain aware of the necessity to stay, outside of *Link*, self-centered sovereign individuals. While we are in a *Link* structure we tend to find it soothing to adjust to a mental sameness. It's him who reminds us that real brilliance can only be achieved while using one brain.
Maureen who was a lot more fascinated than Jane with the *Link* level of cognition, went further.
Why is that?
*Link* is awfully bad for imagination. Inventing is for us, under that form, almost hopeless. We can rework existing things into quasi perfection, and by introducing other concepts we know into old models that preexisted said new ideas, we are able to create new hybrids. But one thing we cannot do is have new ideas that are not linked to old concepts. We've tried, it's just impossible. We always fall back into what we know works.
But old concepts you are capable to improve…
It is true for old concepts but new concepts can also be treated at the same level of efficiency. What we are unable to do, is imagine things that have never existed. But Lionel has no such restrictions. He invents a dozen concepts a day. And his designs come with the whole physical and mathematical background we need to understand how it is done. And since he shares with us on a daily basis, those new concepts become known concepts and because of that we can rework them into perfection.
So, you still need it to be explained. You must know how it works to improve it.
Of course, we do. You cannot come and say you have thought about a machine that transforms lead in gold to have us react. What you have presented is a figment of your imagination and we cannot use it to build upon. But if you have even the slightest idea about how it could be done on the atomic level we could, probably, get it improved.
So, you are complementary with Lionel, said Jane.
Not only with Lionel. We are able to complement any inventor and discoverer. We do it with the Maestro.
The Maestro?
Beethoven, came the immediate answer, who else? The others are pencil pushers without any talent.
Jane and Maureen couldn't help but smile at *Link*'s words.
The Maestro was probably the most difficult man on Earth, and he had a very high opinion of himself. The fact that everybody else, his competitors included also had a very high opinion of him hadn't helped to calm him down.
When you are really a genius and everybody else agrees with you and acknowledges your brilliance with every second word it wasn't very surprising that your own value went up to your head… And, in his cas, beyond.
He was a genius and his latest compositions had been even better than his old work of art.
You don't call them that, I hope, said Jane.
Of course not, we know how to behave when in public.
You helped him? He knows about you?
No, Louisa and Lydia do help him. They give him hints how to do it better. It's often a detail but it is a detail that counts. And he knows it immediately. They are always welcome in his study and he is always very willing to teach them everything he knows about music. The fact that he's an awful teacher is of no importance when what he teaches is extraordinary.
Maureen made her usual mental whistle to get everybody back on the subject she wanted to discuss.
As usual, we are speaking about the kids and that wasn't at all whom I wanted to speak about…
She looked at Jane.
- Why is it that you always listen to those ugly rumors? Nobody wants to oust you, and everybody is happy to have you here to herd over that rambunctious flock of yours. Without you they would all be overwhelmed and despairing.
Count on us for that…
Stop interfering…
Stop shouting your thoughts…
I wasn't…
- Yes, you are, love, please stop howling at me.
Jane let her sister take her in her arms and couldn't help but relax while in her loving embrace.
- It's just that, from time to time, I look around me and I see a house that isn't mine. Walls that belongs to somebody else, and a sun shining over lands whose retainers aren't mine.
She sighed heavily.
- Wouldn't it have been my duty to build something for my husband and my sister-vives? Wouldn't it have been my duty to have a real Estate linked to my family and with my husband's name proudly written over the porch?
- We have I don't even remember how many Estates with d'Arcy written over their porch!
- Indeed, but nobody knows them. Nobody is even able to point at one of them on a map. But everybody, and I mean everyone on the whole world who has ever looked on a TV or read a newsletter, knows where Pemberley -or for Spalatro to tell the truth- is… They all know that it is the realm of Fitzwilliam Darcy and his wife Elizabeth.
Once more she shook her head.
- And if they know me, it's because I'm the head-nanny…
Maureen couldn't help and force her sister to look her into the eyes.
- I don't know who has uttered those silly accusations about you taking over an Estate that isn't yours, but I will let slip the *Link* of war to find out who it was, and we will utterly destroy them, I give you my word.
We are already on it; you'll have a list in the morning…
- But they are right, when the journalists come to interview me, I'm either here or at Spalatro. The truth is that, I, we do not have a home, Maureen. We are continually squatting our sisters' abodes.
Maureen took on her not to shake her beloved sister back into sanity.
- We don't need a Home, love! Not a home with walls and a roof. We have each other, we have the love we share, and we have the children who like the situation how it is.
And said children want to stay together. Had you your own estate to call it home we would stay separated for most of the year. We want to be together and we want you to be with us to take care of us, Mamma Jane. We all love our mothers, but they are not you! They don't know, like you do, how to make us feel that we are real people and that you can speak with us without using the Moron Speech most people believe they have to use because with only four years of age, we can only be dumb and illiterate.
- Nobody thinks you are dumb, my babies… They are just not used to deal with really smart kids like you. You mustn't judge them on their lack of experience with children. Most people do raise only a few children in their life.
- And when they have learned how to do it, they stop making babes, said Maureen with a smile.
She winked at Jane.
- Or do whatever is possible to have different children they have no idea how to raise…
- We didn't do it on purpose, love.
- We still did it and we learn every passing day something new and sometimes scaring.
We don't scare you, we know, we feel your feelings…
Spying scoundrels!
Once more wrong, Aunt. Feelings are like thoughts, you are just unable to hide them. We don't spy, we are like the lawn when it rains, we have no choice bu to accept the falling of the rain. We become wet without doing anything to deserve it.
Maureen couldn't help but laugh at the comparison.
- Those kids of yours are too smart for me, love.
Good thing you finally accept the truth. It will ease our relations in the future.
Even Maureen's sharp tongue couldn't find the right words to counter *Link*.
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- We could take the whole tribe and spend a few days in Minorca, said Geoff. The house has been rebuilt and restored to never-attained-before luxury and the whole second floor is a huge nursery with at the end of the aisles the Master apartments. You could look at walls that belong to you for once…
Jane shook her head and sighed.
For once they were alone in their huge Emperor-sized bed since Maureen and Lexi were in Ireland to visit Maureen's parents.
- Did Maureen speak to you?
- Maureen and Lizzy and Mrs. Reynolds. They are all afraid that you are, again, facing a depression.
- I'm facing no depression; I'm just wondering if I didn't let my love for the little ones suppress my duties as madame d'Arcy. I am duchess without a real Ducal Castle.
- I could ask Napoleon and he would probably approve if we build a Ducal Castel in one of the bigger towns of the Duchy of Aquitania. I could even ask him to co-finance.
- With any chance to see him paying a part of it?
- Probably not but should I ask him to pay a part, it could be that he exonerates us from the usual building taxes. And if we build a Palace that could be a huge sum we spare.
- Or not…
- Or, knowing Napoleon, not… But you could ask Josephine to be your partner in crime, you know. I'm quite sure that she would love to supervise the construction of our Palace in Bordeaux or elsewhere.
- I'd prefer elsewhere. Bordeaux' inhabitants are arrogant and have shown little respect last time we were there.
- Last time we were there was eighteen years ago, meanwhile you've become a woman of great stature and even greater clout. They would love to have us build a Ducal Palace in their town.
- We would probably never live there…
- That's not sure, one day in the future you will stop making babies, won't you? And when that happens, we will only need another decade to be free to do whatever we want and to go wherever we want. We could spend a month or two there. Bordeaux is a great city and France's third most important Trade port. And we own around a third of the best wineries of the Region. A lot of the money we earn outside of the Company comes from there.
- We would be alone there…
- Without your sisters, you mean…
- Of course, that's what I mean.
- But once you've overcome your irrepressible urge to repopulate the planet, we could invite them. One month there and we move to another of the family's estates to spend a month there and after the month, we…
She stopped him with a pillow in the face.
- You are mocking me…
- Indeed, I am, love. You know that there are only three or four places in the world you really love to be. The first is Pemberley because of Lizzy, the second is Spalatro because of the people there who worship you, the third is Longbourn because it is the place where you have been young and happy and full of silly dreams and the fourth is…
He hesitated for a long time.
- Is there a fourth one, Love? Trebaluger Estate on Minorca, perhaps?
- It could become one, said she finally. I could see the elderly us, lounging there in the Bathhouse in the Cala, you busy fishing and I writing my memoirs or looking after my grand grand grand children playing in the sea with half the Mediterranean Dolphins playing shepherds.
- Half the dolphins of the Middle Sea would clearly be necessary to round up the few thousands of said grand grand grand children the tribe of ours will have begotten at that time.
He took her hand and kissed her.
- Will it really be better than Spalatro?
- Spalatro is becoming too crowded for me, love. Each year there are more people there. And now that there are dolphins, whales and Orcas to give people even more reasons to come to look at us, it is most of the time, overpopulated.
- The Palace's Beach is the one place there where the number of people is strictly restricted. You've seen the crowd on the adjacent beaches. I can't understand why they go on coming…
- Probably because we are there in addition to the sun, a wonderful climate and quite a lot of lovely landscapes, love. The locals are sympathetic too.
- We could stop going there and move to Minorca. Even Charles has mitigated feelings nowadays. Luckily the Palace is huge, and we have a private beach to sun and swim… But the town has more people in it in Summer than London and it is a lot less cool than in the past. And since Trebaluger can only be reached by airship, we would be in a quieter environment.
- For a time, sighed Jane. I think the people would follow.
- We've bought quite a lot of the surrounding land. And the immediate surrounding are a lot less beachy than Spalatro and the rest of the Croatian coast. There are cliffs quite everywhere until the next villages. We would be almost recluse.
- We will have to ask Charles, said finally Jane. Spalatro has been his special place for so long now, and he loves it there. I'm quite sure that the crowd doesn't bother him as much as it bothers us. He has always been a crowd loving man. When present in July he's always there in the middle of the tourists, chatting, dancing and playing boules with his pals. Summer in Spalatro is for him the perfect way to relax and enjoy his life. He's spending most of the evenings with his mates drinking and making fun! On Minorca it would be family only… I'd say he would find it boring.
He kissed her fingers once more.
- And you wouldn't like to be relaxing without the rest of the family.
- They are not always there together but they all come to spend one or two weeks at least. Even William and Alexandre do what must be done to spend the August Hollyday together there. The journalists love to seen them together with their wives strolling through the shopping centers. It reassures them that peace is also a thing of the future.
- And there's madame Letitia, said d'Arcy with a smile.
Napoleon's mother had like most older people refused to be upgraded. But like most of those recalcitrant rebels, she had been convinced by Fanny Bennet to try the special 'Frutti é Verdura' regime and had reached quite an impressive springy stroll when moving.
- And then there's her, acknowledged Jane. At least the 15th of August is the day when everybody tries to be present. And it would irk madame Letitia to have to go some other place to celebrate her favorite festive moment.
He let out a long sigh.
- And who would want to risk irking madame Letitia?
- Indeed, said Jane, indeed.
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Soon to come… A Chapter looking at Lionel's Own
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