Jest Chapter 12, a pride and prejudice fanfic

Sorry for the delay. It took me a while to do some research.

~~J~~

Comedy of Errors

Before any further discussion could take place, the door to the drawing-room opened, and the butler stepped into the room.

'Pardon me for interrupting, but Mr Darcy instructed me to find out who had access to Miss de Bourgh's breakfast this morning, and report to him as soon as I found out.'

The Earl, certain of his opinions, and wanting to put the final nail in Lady Catherine's coffin, demanded, 'well? What did you find out?'

'After the cook put together Miss de Bourgh's breakfast tray, Mrs Jenkinson collected the tray and took it to Miss de Bourgh.'

'Mrs Jenkinson? Who is she?' asked the doctor?

'She is Miss de Bourgh's companion.'

'Did she stop anywhere, or speak to anyone?'

'No, Sir. She was seen by several members of the staff, and she went straight to Miss de Bourgh's rooms.'

'Anne, were you in the room when Mrs Jenkinson brought your breakfast tray?'

'No, I was getting dressed, and when I came into my sitting room, the tray was set up on the table. I assumed one of the maids had brought it.'

A multitude of emotions chased over Lady Catherine's countenance during this conversation.

The Earl turned to his sister. 'Why did you not say anything, Catherine?'

'Would you have believed me?' she asked full of bitterness. 'After all, you were determined to think the worst of me.'

'But why would Mrs Jenkinson try to harm Anne?'

'All I can think of is an excessive sense of loyalty. She may have wanted to ensure that I remained Mistress of Rosings.'

'But to harm your daughter in the process?'

Lady Catherine drew herself up and gave her brother an icy glare. 'Perhaps, before you make any more erroneous assumptions, you should ask Mrs Jenkinson for her side of the story.'

'Very well, we shall see what the lady has to say for herself.' The Earl turned to the butler. 'Please bring Mrs Jenkinson to us.'

~~J~~

Now that her family appeared prepared to listen, rather than assume the worst, Lady Catherine had a question.

'Darcy only found the ill maid after your arrival. But you arrived here convinced that I was trying to poison Anne. Why would you even consider that I was trying to harm my own daughter?'

Because for years you insisted on drugging Anne, to keep her ill and compliant.'

'I did no such thing.'

'Yes, Mother, you did. I told you that the tonic your sycophantic pet doctor prescribed for me, was making me ill. Yet you still insisted that I should continue to take it.'

'You did no such thing.'

'Do you remember, three years ago, when I had a minor cold, the bottle of tonic was dropped, and it was two days before a replacement could be procured?'

At Lady Catherine's tentative nod, Anne continued. 'Despite having a cold, I felt better than I had felt for years. Once I took the first dose of the new bottle, I felt ill again. I told you then that the tonic was making me ill, but you claimed that I did not know what was good for me, and insisted that I should continue to take my medicine. For several days, you even stood over me, forcing me to drink the tonic.'

'But I was right. Your health seems much improved. Even though you choose to throw unwarranted accusations at me, you have never before shown such strength.'

'No, Mother, you were wrong, if you truly believed that the tonic would do me good. Once you stopped supervising that I took the medicine, I stopped taking it. Ever since then my health has improved.'

'That cannot be!'

Anne shrugged. 'Perhaps I was wrong about your motivation. But all I knew was that for years you had made me take a medicine which made me ill. When I told you that it made me ill, you refused to listen, and continued to demand that I should take it. What was I supposed to think? What could I think, but that you deliberately kept me too ill to oppose you?'

'No, Anne. I had no intention to hurt you. I wanted you well, so that you could marry Darcy and leave for Pemberley.' Lady Catherine shook her head in consternation. 'I remember you having that cold and that I made sure you took the tonic And it seemed to work. A few days later you did improve somewhat.'

'That was when I stopped taking the tonic. But once I was able to think clearly at last, without those drugs fogging my mind, I considered your insistence, and came to the conclusion that you were trying to keep me sickly. Since then I pretended to be ill, when in fact I have been regaining perfect health.'

Lady Catherine looked stricken as she whispered, 'I only wanted what was best for you.'

'It seems that your assumption that you know everything better than anyone else, caused your daughter years of suffering. Are you truly surprised that she ended up believing that you were trying to harm her?' the Earl asked in disgust. Whilst he was relieved to discover that his sister had acted in what she thought were the best interests of her daughter, he was still angry with her for her delusion of superiority.

Lady Catherine shook her head as tears trickled down her cheeks, while the other members of the party looked on in varying degrees of pity and disgust.

~~J~~

The silent tableau was interrupted by the arrival of the butler and Mrs Jenkinson, who was concerned to see Lady Catherine in tears.

'My Lady, what is wrong? What has upset you?' Mrs Jenkinson cried, as she rushed to Lady Catherine's side and grasped the lady's hands.

Lady Catherine shook her head mutely, not trusting herself to speak through her tears.

'What have those horrible people said to you to put you into such a state?'

Instead of answering the question, Lady Catherine pre-empted her brother. 'Why did you put that emetic into Anne's breakfast?'

'Because that ungrateful child was trying to take your position, after everything you have done for her. I was just trying to show her that she was in no fit state to be the Mistress of Rosings.'

Richard and Darcy realised that they were so used to Mrs Jenkinson's presence, that she had become almost invisible to them, since they had not noticed her sitting next to Anne, when they discussed Anne's inheritance the previous evening.

'Were you trying to kill her?' Lady Catherine asked carefully.

'No, of course not. I would never do anything that would hurt you. I gave her exactly the same dosage as Doctor Brown prescribed for me when I had that tainted fish.'

Doctor Humphries looked at the stout woman and compared her to the much slighter frame of Daisy, and the delicate form of Anne. 'Mrs Jenkinson, a dosage that is suitable for a woman of your size can potentially kill someone of Miss de Bourgh's much slighter frame.'

Mrs Jenkinson's head jerked towards the new voice. 'How would you know?'

'I am a doctor, and you are lucky that it was Daisy who ate the dish. She has a strong constitution and is now recovering from the poisoning.'

'I was not poisoning anyone. All I did was give a harmless emetic to make Miss de Bourgh feel ill for a bit.'

'Giving someone medicine which they do not need is considered to be poisoning, even if the outcome is not fatal, or even intended to be fatal.' Doctor Humphries was adamant.

Mrs Jenkinson was horrified that this man considered her to be a poisoner. 'But…'

'If Miss de Bourgh had eaten the dish herself, she could have reacted even worse than Daisy, who only regained consciousness an hour ago. It might even have killed her.'

Now it was Mrs Jenkinson's turn to burst into tears. She sank to her knees in front of Lady Catherine and grasped her hands tightly. 'My Lady, you must believe me. I had no intention of harming Miss de Bourgh. Only make her a little sick. No more than that…'

Lady Catherine sighed. 'All of us had good intentions. But all our good intentions made my daughter suffer. This is not to be borne.'

All the shocks of the last hour started to take their toll on Lady Catherine. She had always prided herself on her intelligence and frankness. But now she had been shown how foolish and misguided she had been, not allowing any opinion but her own to prevail.

In the process her daughter had been harmed. And worse than that, Anne had believed that this harm had been intentional on her part. It made Lady Catherine feel ashamed, that her love of power had lost her the good opinion of not only her daughter, but also the rest of her family. After all, her brother and her nephews had confronted her in the belief that she had deliberately poisoned her daughter.

In her grasp for consequence, she had lost everything. There was only one thing to do, to redeem herself in the eyes of the family.

'I am sorry, Anne. I tried to usurp your role as Mistress of Rosings. I thought that I could do better than you, since I thought you too weak to step into my shoes.' She stopped and contemplated her words. 'Although I must admit that I liked being the Mistress of a large estate and the power it gave me. I suppose that I must be honest and say that I did not wish to step down from that position of power.'

'I understand, Mother, but I am certain that you will understand that it will be some time before I can come to terms with this situation,' Anne replied sadly.

Lady Catherine nodded reluctant agreement.

'Why, Cathy?' asked the Earl, trying, and failing to understand.

'Everyone always loved Anne and despised me. It was not my fault that I was not as pretty as my sister, or that my nature was not as compliant, because I have a mind of my own.'

Lady Catherine sighed again. 'Anne got George Darcy, and father forced me to marry Sir Lewis. You have no idea how much I rejoiced when my husband died and left me in charge of the estate. For the first time in my life, I was in control of my life. I was determined to hold on to that control. I did not want to be insignificant again. Diminished by my own daughter.'

She shook her head and huffed. 'Which was why I made an altered copy of that Will. I thought Anne would accept it, especially if she married Darcy, she would be well provided for. She would have no need of Rosings Park.'

'That was why you kept insisting that I should marry Anne.' Darcy commented. 'I wondered whether that was the reason.'

'You were always a bright boy, William, but much too stubborn for my liking.'

The Earl, although by now inclined to believe that Anne's medicine simply did not agree with her, rather than a deliberate poisoning attempt by his sister, decided to be cautious. 'Doctor Humphries, can you analyse the tonic to see if there is anything amiss with it?'

'Yes, My Lord, I can. Based on what I have heard, I suspect it might be a case of Miss de Bourgh being allergic to one of the ingredients, rather than a deliberate attempt to keep her ill. But I agree, we need to be certain.'

Lady Catherine looked chagrined, but agreed. 'Under the circumstances, I cannot say that I blame you. But if you will excuse me, I would like to go to my rooms to rest. Today has been an exhausting day.' As she rose, Mrs Jenkinson also got to her feet, looking around uncomfortably, unsure what to do. Her mistress ordered, 'I think you had better come with me.'

Although Lady Catherine walked out of the room with her head held high, her step was not as firm as it used to be. She was followed by her faithful shadow.

~~J~~

A/N Who would have thought… 😊

~~J~~