Note: A new stand-alone one-shot where Mrs. Jenkinson is more than she seems, Sir Louis had a plan, and Anne only comes alive at night
Chapter 19 – When the Cat is away
"You look tired child. Mrs. Jenkinson, I have told you to take better care of my Anne! I am most seriously displeased with your inability to follow simple instructions. Now escort Anne to her chambers, administer her medicine, and see to it that she gets a proper rest!"
"Yes, Lady Catherine," Mrs. Jensinson, a scarecrow-looking woman dressed in severe black answered without emotion or inflection. Gingerly taking Anne's arm, she led the fifteen year old girl out of the sitting room and up the stairs. Some servants watched their progress with regret, pity, or calculating indifference for the ailing girl. Others nodded to the pair with odd, knowing gleams in their eyes.
As soon as they were safely alone in the wing of the estate set aside for Anne's private use, the two transformed. Anne stood straighter and the dull look left her eyes. Mrs. Jenkinson lost her severe, blank facade and a smile graced her homely face. "Well then, Miss Anne, your mother will most likely drink another glass of sherry and hie off to her own bed. Since you have been forced to sleep through half the day, you should be well rested and ready for your real work. Shall we continue on with our lessons?"
"Of course, Dear Teacher. I do wish that something would set her off again so that she would run off to London or Derbyshire so that I could practice the harp. It has been so long and I am quite certain that I am losing any progress I have made on the instrument."
The older lady smiled in commiseration, "I do sympathize, my child, but we cannot engineer another incident so soon and poor Lady Matlock had to endure your mother for a full five days the last time that she hurried to their estate to chase some family rumor. We cannot impose on her again so soon and your Uncle Darcy is not currently on speaking terms with your mother."
Anne sighed, "I suppose. Well then, what shall I focus on this night?"
"The parson has provided me with a true list of the tenant's needs, issues, and complaints. Tonight would be a fine time to consider each of those, address any questions, and then plan some resolutions. Mr. Pomfroy is standing by waiting for your decisions on the matters."
"The reverend is a good man. I shall be sad when he decides to give in to his daughter's plea to give up the living and go to live with her family. Pomfroy is an excellent steward, Mrs. Jenkinson, and a good man as well. I hope that my mother never learns of the fact that he is taking my instructions and Uncle Darcy's rather than hers. The previous steward was robbing our estate blind before we convinced Uncle Matlock to step in and remove the man."
"You will turn twenty-one in six more years. At that point we will be able to cease this farce and let you assume your legal place as the true owner of Rosings Park. Until then Lord Matlock is unwilling to remove his sister for fear it will cause a scandal. So we have to diligently work to improve your health, education, and understanding and protect everyone who is working so diligently to preserve your inheritance from the shadows. Now, shall we begin?"
Seven years later...
Anne and Mrs. Jenkinson watched with glee as Lady Catherine slammed the door of her Baruch and the carriage sped off towards the sleepy little town of Meryton, carrying her and her sycophantic parson. Once it faded out of sight, they looked at each other and smiled. "The expresses have been sent?"
"Your family solicitor, Mr. Munch, should be on the road from Canterbury within the next two hours. He already has trained servants ready to step in and take the positions of those servants fiercely loyal to your mother. Those will be reassigned to the dower house where they can continue to prove their loyalty to Mother at their own peril. There are far fewer of those than there were."
"Thanks to your patient work behind the scenes, my dear Mrs. Jenkinson."
"Thank you, Miss Anne, but most of the credit goes to your mother's constant insults and harassment of the staff. Now, Lord and Lady Matlock are in London. Their express should arrive no later than tonight. I expect that your uncle will send one of his two sons to exercise his authority."
"Oh, I hope it is Richard! I haven't seen him since the Easter visit and he spent most of that sequestered with Darcy working on estate matters or over at the parsonage flirting with Miss Bennet... Should we send an express to her, by the way?"
"I considered it, but I think that Elizabeth Bennet can handle your mother quite handily. Look how well she bearded the lion during her visit. Besides, I think that her responses to Lady Catherine's accusations might be very revealing."
"Yes... I remain convinced that my cousin Darcy is in love with her... and I suspect that she is not as indifferent to him as she tried to appear. Those two are too stubborn for their own good."
"Charlotte Collins certainly agrees or she would not have agreed to deliberately set Mr. Collins on the scent. If there is nothing to the rumors, than no harm done. If there is something, then maybe those two will band together to fight Lady Catherine. Regardless, we need as many days as possible to establish your rightful hold on Rosings before your mother returns."
"You are right, of course. We have worked too long and hard for this day. So for tonight we need to send a note to Mrs. Collins so that she can begin to rally the parishioners to our cause..."
"Already done. Charlotte sends her regards and best wishes, by the way. With her help with the villagers, us weeding out the disloyal servants, and Mr. Pomfroy's work with the tenants, there will be no way for Lady Catherine to re-impose her dominance over Rosings. I am very proud of how long and hard you have worked to prepare yourself to be the true Mistress of Rosings. While the world slept, you studied and worked to protect your tenants and your inheritance. Your father would have been proud."
"I am happy that Father sought you out and arranged for you to become my companion before his passing, Margaret. Without you, I never would have been able to step out of my mother's control."
"We both have reasons to be satisfied. Now, enough of the maudlin. Young woman, we have work to do!"
Five days later...
Lady Catherine huffed and pushed the footman's extended hand away as she stepped out of the carriage and stomped up the steps of Rosings. She was too tired and too furious to notice that her butler was not the one who held the door open. She did not even pay attention to the housekeeper, and therefore did not realize that there was a second new face. But when she stepped into her sitting room, she found that the large, dark, ornate furniture had been replaced. Her throne-like chair was gone and Anne, who should have been in bed by this time of the evening, was sitting quite comfortably and conversing with not only Colonel Fitzwilliam, but also his older brother, Viscount Ashbourne.
"What is happening here? Anne, look at the hour! Remove yourself to be at once! And why have my nephews chosen this time to visit? I am in no mood for guests and I am most seriously displeased with both Darcy and your father. Leave."
Anne, looking not the slightest bit sickly and actually appearing amazingly well, rang a bell beside her seat and then stood. Her cousins did the same, "No, Mother. First of all, this is not your estate to order any longer. I came of age last year, as you well know, and this is my estate. Now, all of your furniture has been removed to the dowager house, but if you are too tired to go there yourself tonight, then I will have Mrs. Parkhourst, my new housekeeper, establish you in the guest room for the night. Dinner was an hour ago, but should you like a tray sent to your room..."
"You will go to YOUR ROOM, Anne, this minute! I will not stand for this foolishness. You are too sickly to manage an estate and I must do it in your stead. It was your cousins who put you up to this foolishness! Or Darcy! Or that scandalous Miss Elizabeth Bennet! Jenkinson! Come here now and escort Anne to her room!'
Mrs. Jenkinson, dressed in a plain but pleasant blue pastel instead of the rigid black that Lady Catherine had decreed, stepped from a side room with the solicitor and the steward, "Hello, Lady Catherine. How nice of you to visit... but I am afraid that it is well past polite visiting hours. When your husband hired me to look after Miss Anne and to train her for her proper role, proper visiting hours was one of the very first things I taught her. Perhaps your governess should have done the same for you. Miss Debourgh, shall I have the footmen escort your guest out?"
"Yes, I am afraid that she is too overwrought for a proper visit. I just had the guest room redecorated and would regret to see it damaged. Please escort Lady Catherine to the dower house."
While two burly footmen dragged a kicking, screaming, and cursing Lady Catherine out of Rosings, Anne turned to her cousins, "Would you care for some more tea, or something stronger?"