AUTHOR'S NOTE: Several reviewers have taken me to task for calling our heroine "Lady Elizabeth, Baroness Longbourn," pointing out that this terminology is incorrect. I certainly admit that my knowledge about proper titles of British aristocracy is very limited and I may be wrong for calling her this. However, I like the sound of "Lady Elizabeth" as that will annoy several of the characters in this story. I will stick with this and rely on artistic license for doing so. Once again, forgive me for my impertinence.
The same goes for my description of what an investiture was like then. I did not find much description of them, so I used what I found.
When they returned to Gracechurch Street, they were both still stunned. Together, they managed to tell Mrs. Gardiner their news. She was astonished to learn that she and her whole family were invited to attend the ceremony at the express invitation of Prince Augustus Frederick. This was most unusual as she had heard that normally only three guests were allowed to attend investitures.
Elizabeth was shaking her head. "Oh, Papa, I am so sorry that the ceremony has to be in the morning as Mama and my sisters will not be with us."
"My dear, do not blame yourself for this. Remember that the Prince said that the Prince Regent's time was fully booked. I do not know how he managed to arrange for your ceremony to be held so quickly. We will explain our being unable to invite them to come by blaming it on how busy the Prince Regent is. In any case, you will go home a baroness, Lady Elizabeth, Baroness Longbourn! Imagine how excited your mother will be. She will finally be able to out brag Lady Lucas. Sir William is only a Knight. You will outrank him."
Mrs. Gardiner said, "I need to tell Edward to come home to hear the news. Then we will have to begin to get ready for the morning. I hope the children will behave. They met the Prince in the summer so they should not be too excited about going there."
They were all excited that evening and night. The children were not as excited as the adults as they had already met a prince and were not sure how another prince would be more important than theirs, even if he was called the Prince Regent. After all, he was not the King.
In the morning, they all dressed in their finest and packed into their carriage to return to St. James's Palace. They were all, except for Elizabeth, ushered into the fanciest room any of them had ever seen; it was certainly one of the largest rooms they had ever been in. They were seated in front of a throne that was everything that a royal throne should be. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was led to a hallway where she waited in the company of a number of well-dressed (to her, over-dressed) courtiers.
Her family saw five Yeomen of the King's Bodyguard march slowly into the ballroom, proudly wearing their Tudor-style scarlet uniform, complete with ruff, doublet, and breeches. The Yeomen were joined by four Gentlemen Ushers who prompted the guests to stand. Next to enter was the Prince Regent, who was accompanied by several senior army officers, the Lord Chamberlain, his Senior Equerry, and other officials.
The Prince Regent asked everyone to be seated. The Lord Chamberlain called Elizabeth's name and she approached the throne and curtsied, then knelt before the throne. Instead of detailing what she had done to earn the honours about to be bestowed on her, the Lord Chamberlain said only that she had provided a valuable service to the Royal Family. The King's Equerry gave the name of her father's estate and the names of her parents. The Prince Regent announced that he had conferred the title of Baroness Longbourn on her. He raised her up and chatted with her for a few moments, she curtsied to him again, and she went to rejoin her family. As she was approaching them, Mr. Gardiner thought to himself, 'If this was an informal ceremony, I wonder what a formal one would be like?'
All together, every member of her family either bowed or curtsied to her and greeted her by saying "Lady Elizabeth." She returned their tribute with a curtsy of her own, which was accompanied by her wide smile. Her father was the first to give her a big hug. He was followed by everyone else who mobbed her with congratulations.
When they were finally finished with their greetings, Prince Augustus Frederick came to them to congratulate Her Ladyship. He was greeted warmly by all of them, including the children, who remembered him well. While they were talking, a very unexpected additional guest came up to her and bowed to them all. "Your Royal Highness, Lady Elizabeth," he said.
"Darcy!" The Prince said. "I am pleased that you were able to stay for the investiture. Now you must excuse me as I am needed elsewhere." The Prince left to their bows and curtsies.
"Mr. Darcy! I had no idea you were here. What are you doing here?"
"Lady Elizabeth," he repeated his address, "I was summoned here to be asked if I would undertake a favour to the Crown by assisting you with your new estate." He noticed that her family was giving them space and time to talk, even though they were obviously very curious who he was. Only Mr. Bennet knew him. "I might also say that I was told of the great service you did for the Prince. I am very impressed by your bravery."
Lady Elizabeth interrupted him, "Mr. Darcy, your assistance will not be necessary. I could not ask you to help me. I am sorry that the Prince forced you into this."
It was obvious to Darcy that she had not forgiven him for his insult and that he still had a lot of work to do to earn her respect. "My Lady, I was not forced. I would have volunteered to help you even if they had not asked me. I feel that I still need to make up for that ungentlemanly comment that I said of you. If I would not be accused of being overly proud, I would say that I believe that my advice will be quite helpful to you as I have spent the past five years, ever since I became master of Pemberley, trying to improve my own estate. I believe that I have learned a lot in that time on how to produce good results from an estate in that area of the country. The returns from Pemberley have increased and the tenants are quite satisfied. The conditions in Leicestershire are not that different from Derbyshire. I am offering my assistance of my own free will. I humbly ask that you consider my offer."
Darcy turned to Mr. Bennet. "Mr. Bennet, I hope that you will speak to Her Ladyship to try to convince her that I should be able to help her with her estate. I will gladly assist you in any way that I can." He thought that it would not hurt to give her father the impression that his role would be only to assist him in this.
He turned back to Lady Elizabeth, "My Lady, would you do me the favour of introducing me to your guests?"
This request surprised her as she assumed that he must have known that these were her relatives who were in trade and lived in Cheapside. She did not expect him to want to know the Gardiners. Knowing that she could not refuse this request, she turned to them, "Of course. Mr. Darcy, this is my Uncle Gardiner, my Aunt Gardiner, and their children, Elaine, James, Henry, and Susan." They each gave a bow or curtsy, even the children. "This is Mr. Darcy, from Pemberley in Derbyshire."
Her aunt spoke up. "Mr. Darcy, I was raised in Lambton and knew of your estate and your parents. I never met them, but they were very well regarded in the village. Everyone was sorry to hear of their passing."
She said the right thing to get on his good side. They spent the next few minutes talking about Lambton and Pemberley. Mrs. Gardiner had seen how he looked at Elizabeth, so she decided she would be bold. "Mr. Darcy, we are returning to our house for tea. Would you care to join us?"
He decided that their manners were much better than he could have expected, so he was inclined to accept her invitation. In any case, he really did want to convince Lady Elizabeth to accept his offer as the Prince was quite insistent that he should help her. He knew that the Prince would be upset if he failed to obey his 'request,' no matter the reason for not helping her.
He first looked at Lady Elizabeth and did not see a frown, so he accepted. He thought of a way to get on her good side, so he added, "My carriage is quite large, so perhaps the children would like to ride with me. It has plenty of room." They were enthusiastic about this, so they all got ready to go to find the carriages.
Their mother was not sure about this arrangement. "Mr. Darcy, they can be quite lively. Are you sure you want to do that?"
"Yes, I am quite sure. I have had responsibility for my sister since she was ten, so about Miss Elaine's age. It will be a treat for me as I do not often have a chance to be with young children." Mrs. Gardiner gave in then and let them go in his large carriage.
By the time they arrived at Gracechurch Street, he had made friends with all four of them. The two youngest were actually sitting on his knees so they could see outside better. Their parents helped them down from the carriage.
When Lady Elizabeth and her father had joined the Gardiners in their carriage, he turned to his daughter and asked, "Lizzy— I mean Lady Elizabeth!" He said this with a smile. "Mr. Darcy seemed to be very insistent on helping you. Have you not forgiven him for his insult?" He then had to describe Darcy's insult to the Gardiners.
"I suppose that I have to after he apologized to me in your presence and has been pleasant to me ever since then. I have no idea why he is being so adamant about helping me, unless the Prince forced him to make the offer."
"Now Lizzy, I believe that you are underestimating him. Now that you are a Baroness with your own estate, you are quite a catch; you actually outrank him. From what I have seen of him, he is very eligible himself. Do not let one misstep on his part colour your whole attitude towards him. You may be passing over quite a worthwhile gentleman.
"In any case, as he said, he could be very helpful as Hinckston Abbey will likely need a lot of work. I will not be of much assistance as I have no idea what will grow well up there. The conditions in the north are much different from Hertfordshire. He could also have some very good contacts in that area that you will find useful. I suggest that we plan on making a trip there fairly soon before the weather gets too bad. This will be strictly a planning trip so we can learn all that needs to be done. I would like to ask Darcy if he will come with us to get his advice. Over the winter is the best time to prepare for the critical planting season. We have to get ready for that.
"Lizzy, I urge you to accept his offer of assistance as it could be invaluable." He looked at her closely. "So, will you agree to his offer?"
She grumbled but said 'yes.' She was still not impressed by him even though she was beginning to be less angry at him. In fact, there had been times when she almost liked him. She could now appreciate that he was quite handsome. Only her stubbornness was holding her back.
When they all arrived at their home, Mrs. Gardiner ordered tea and she sent the children up with their nurses and tutors, while the adults gathered in the drawing room. Mr. Bennet began the discussion. "Mr. Darcy, we will accept your very generous offer of assistance. I was thinking that we should make a trip there before the weather makes travel too difficult. Do you think that you would like to come with us? Our first trip would mainly be so we can find out what the situation is there for both the house and the estate itself. If we do that fairly soon, we will be able to plan for this planting season."
Darcy thought for a moment, "I had cleared everything from my schedule for this autumn so I could help Bingley settle into Netherfield. We have already begun, so if I miss a week or so, it should not matter. If we go to Leicestershire, it is about ten hours from Hertfordshire. I know that route well as Hinckley is right on the way from here to Derbyshire. The days are short now, so we will have to stop somewhere overnight. We do not want to risk driving in the dark. We can take my carriage as it is quite comfortable for longer trips. So we will need ten or eleven days if you want to be there for a full week.
"I assume that you will want to be in Meryton for a few days before we go." He thought, with a smile, but did not voice it, that Mrs. Bennet will want at least that time so she could go all around the area bragging about her daughter, the Baroness. He definitely did not want to be anywhere near Longbourn when she heard this news.
Mr. Bennet turned to his daughter, "Lizzy, do you have anything pressing for the next few weeks? Before we go, you will need to write to the steward and the housekeeper to warn them of our arrival. I assume that the house is not ready to receive visitors. We do not even know what staffing is there now."
She thought for a moment. I will do that right away. We just have to decide when we will leave. I should be able to find out about the current staffing from Lord Margison."
Darcy added, "My Lady, there is another way that I might be able to help you. At Pemberley, I always hire more household staff than necessary to provide jobs for the local people and to train them for better positions. I can safely say that I have been quite successful at this as we have placed a number of them in good positions at other estates. Assuming that Hinckston will need extra household staff, I should be able to help you. I can assure you that they will be well-trained as my housekeeper is quite particular. She has been with my family for many years.
"Similarly, if you need any tenants or farmers, I have several families with too many sons for their farms. Again, I will vouch for any that I recommend for you to employ. I would not suggest any who would not prove to be good workers."
Elizabeth had to acknowledge that this suggestion could be very helpful to her. She had not thought about needing to fill household positions or finding good farmers for any vacant tenancies. She was beginning to realize how much work would be involved to get her estate running properly. She almost agreed that Mr. Darcy's assistance would be invaluable to her. However, she wondered if she could tolerate being with him for a whole week. Recently he had treated her with respect, so it might work out all right.
She expressed another thought out loud. "Papa, if you and Mr. Darcy are busy with the tenants and home farms, I will need to do a detailed evaluation of the house and its staffing. I believe that the house is quite large, so that will be a lot of work if I am alone. I think that I will need someone that I trust to be with me to give me a second opinion; someone who knows about running a house and staff. We have no idea how competent the housekeeper or the steward is."
Mr. Bennet agreed with her. "Lizzy, that is a good idea. Who would you like to take? Jane? I assume not your mother as your tastes are so different from hers."
"Jane is a possibility, but it depends." She turned to Mr. Darcy. "Mr. Darcy, I do not want you to break any confidences, but your advice about this could be important.
"Jane has been seeing Mr. Bingley a lot. If she goes with us, that will interrupt their developing friendship. I have no idea how serious he is about her. So, should I invite Jane to go with us or would it be better to leave her at Longbourn? What would you suggest?"
She knew she put Darcy in a difficult position, but she only wanted what was best for her favourite sister.
Darcy had a half smile on his face. "My Lady, you certainly are putting me in a difficult position. I cannot recommend what you should do, but I will say that I also want only what is best for my friend. I have seen Bingley attracted to beautiful ladies several times in the past and that these infatuations did not last long. I will only say that this time Bingley seems to be different. Either he is maturing or he is realizing that it is time for him to settle down. In my opinion, Miss Bennet would make a good partner for him if that is what he decides."
After saying that, he was quiet. However, his message was clearly understood. Elizabeth would not ask Jane to come with them.
They spoke about their plans for a bit longer, then Darcy left. Before he left, Mr. Bennet said that they would be returning to Longbourn in the morning while Darcy said he expected that he would be going there the following day as he had several things that needed to be done while he was here in town.