RED
Elizabeth woke up feeling surprisingly good the next morning. She dressed herself in her walking dress which she could do easily enough. Molly brought her meal, so they broke their fasts together. Molly then helped put her hair into an easy pattern, which she covered with the black mobcap. She thought if she was to wear a mobcap for the rest of her life, she might even consider cutting her hair, but that decision could certainly wait.
In some ways, she hated the garment, and in others, she loved it. It would certainly make her life easier, as it would never again be necessary to make her hair overly fancy. She imagined that if she had a husband she liked, who was at all social, then things would be different. However, she had Mr. Darcy, and what more need be said. She imagined she would not become one of the 'society women' who spent all their times going from one engagement to another, the talk of the ton, busy morning, noon, and night. No, she expected her future to be relatively quiet.
Mrs. Darcy had no idea if her husband attended the season in town, or even if he had, if he would continue. She had no idea if he would want to proudly show off his wife as if he had chosen her, or he would want to hide her away in a dark dungeon and feed her snakes. For all she knew, they might only be in each other's company for a few hours per day, and sometimes not at all. She had seen more than one marriage that went along that way, including her own parents. She had always hoped for more but thought she would have to settle for less.
When her thinking started getting maudlin, or at least, when it started getting too maudlin, she would break off and think of the library. She would eventually be allowed to read the books on the black shelf, so it was not as if she was following her original plan of working at the mills. She would remind herself that she was a wife of a rich man, who still did not actually have to do much of anything. She would obviously have to tolerate him in her bed from time to time, and she would obviously have to birth and raise some children; but that would be her fate no matter what, so she was no worse off. She actually looked forward to the children and wondered if she would do a better job than her parents had.
Elizabeth's mood had managed to become somewhat more chipper, or at least less maudlin by midday, and she was making a good effort to explore the library. She was happy to see several texts on geography, geology, and other erudite subjects that she thought she might like to study; as well as a few books that were ancient, yet not quite ancient enough for the black shelves. She also found, much to her delight, quite a number of children's books, which would be entirely suitable for Molly's education. It was true that reading a story about ducks and geese might seem odd to a sixteen-year-old girl, but she had to learn sometime.
She was just examining a set of books seemingly related by some connection to Plato and Aristotle, when the door opened, and a footman said, "Mr. Knight is here to see you, Mrs. Darcy."
Elizabeth had no idea who that was, so the young man helpfully added, "He is Mr. Darcy's steward, ma'am."
The young man, perhaps a year older than Elizabeth seemed uncomfortable having to tell that information to the mistress, but it could not be helped.
"Might I have your name?"
"Noah, ma'am. Noah Hervey."
Elizabeth smiled to try to disarm him. "Very good to meet you, Noah. I would like to learn all your names, so might you tell your compatriots to introduce themselves when we next meet. It would be pointless for you to all do so at once, as I would have no hope of remembering them all."
Noah had never had such an odd conversation, but if the mistress wanted an introduction, well they would introduce themselves. He would of course tell the butler as was proper, and he would instruct the staff.
"Mr. Knight is in the yellow parlor, if you remember it, ma'am."
"I will ask you to escort me so I do not get lost, but I think it will do admirably. Thank you, Noah."
Noah was recently hired, so he did not know Mr. Darcy, but he had rarely seen any of his superiors thank a footman for simply doing his job, so he was a bit confused, but said, "Pleasure, ma'am."
The young footman led the way, and five minutes later, Elizabeth was facing Mr. Knight. The man stood up, bowed, and said, "Mrs. Darcy."
"Mr. Knight."
The man was about her father's age, with graying hair that was cut in a rather old-fashioned style, gray sideburns, and an impressive paunch. He still looked fit enough to shear sheep for days at a time, but he was obviously slowing down, and missing few, if any, meals.
The man also sported a look of what could best be described as thinly disguised disdain or contempt. This was obviously a man who knew more about her situation than the housekeeper or butler, which was surprising, but not overly so. A steward was a very highly trusted position. This might perhaps be the highest ranked employee Mr. Darcy had, so it was not entirely surprising that if her husband had one real confidant in the area, it would be the steward.
The man looked Elizabeth over in a most disconcerting manner. He was not leering as some men did, apparently thinking lascivious thoughts. It was more as if he considered her a problem to be solved, and he was trying to work out just how unpleasant the solution was to be.
Elizabeth tried waiting patiently, but it turned out that her patience was of limited supply, so she asked, as decorously as she could, "How may I help you, Mr. Knight?"
The man shook his head, as if dislodging himself from an unpleasant train of thought. "I am instructed to give you your pin money, Mrs. Darcy."
Elizabeth had almost forgotten about that. "Very well, Mr. Knight. How shall we proceed?"
The man stood up a bit straighter, and began, "I am instructed you are to receive £40 per annum. The usual custom in this house would be to pay any charges you made and then give you the balance monthly."
Elizabeth did her best not to grunt, growl or make any other unladylike noises. "I prefer to make my own purchases, Mr. Knight. Just give me the funds, and I will deal with my own purchases in my own way and my own time."
The man looked either affronted or entirely shocked and confused. It was hard to tell, but he looked very much like a man who wanted things done the 'proper way', which obviously amounted to 'his way'; but Elizabeth did not feel like dealing with him on a regular basis.
He said, "If we do that, what am I to do if you end up charging something?"
"Do you expect me to go back on my word, Mr. Knight?"
"No, ma'am – but I am responsible for the finances of this estate."
"Do you truly believe I am capable of putting even the tiniest dent in the finances of an estate like this?" Elizabeth asked in some exasperation, waving her arms around at 'this' to encompass the enormity of Pemberley. While she could, with some effort, just barely see his point, this seemed like he was just trying to make her life difficult just because he could.
"I have no idea, Mrs. Darcy. I am however in the master's confidence, so I know the truth of the situation."
The set of the man's jaw, and his absolute confidence that he thoroughly understood the new mistress, set that mistress' teeth on edge, but she tried to adopt a reasonable tone, just so there was one reasonable person in the room.
"I see, Mr. Knight, but let me ask you this. Do you know the truth, or his truth?"
"They are one and the same, madam."
"No, Mr. Knight, they most certainly are not!" Elizabeth said, trying and failing to keep her temper in check.
Obviously not intimidated by her escalating temper, the man continued implacably. "Are you saying that you are not married because of a compromise?"
The sheer effrontery of having an employee speak both openly and disparagingly about the mistress of the estate told Elizabeth all she needed to know about him, but she thought to try reasonableness one last time.
"That is true, Mr. Knight. It is also true that my mother engineered it. However, I had nothing to do with it, and if Mr. Darcy told you otherwise, he is vastly mistaken," leaving unspoken the very real possibility that her husband was a liar.
The man half‑grunted. "The apple does not …" but then managed to get his temper under control before finishing the old refrain, leaving unsaid the conclusion, '… fall far from the tree'.
He was normally quite an imperturbable man, but the fact that his master's life had been thoroughly interrupted by an adventuress and her mother, which could have real material consequences for his own life and occupation, coupled with her complete lack of respect for his position set his teeth on edge, and angry men are not always wise.
He reeled in his temper. "Mistaken or not, madam, he is the master, and I have my instructions. You are to have £40 per annum. He left it to my discretion how it was to be distributed."
Elizabeth snapped, "So you are saying you could wait until the end of the year and give me £40 and you would be within your instructions?"
Seeing that the conversation was going very badly, he said, "Yes, it would, but it would obviously not be the right way to do things, madam!"
Entirely disgusted with the man and fed up with his insinuations, which were in some danger of turning into outright accusations, Elizabeth said, "So what do you propose, Mr. Knight?"
Feeling the upper hand, Knight said, "I like to do things quarterly, so the total budget for the first quarter would be £10. I understand you are expected to pay for your postage, but I will deduct that from the next quarter's allowance."
Elizabeth thought she might break a tooth from grinding them so hard but said nothing. His remarks about postage, in addition to the blisteringly obvious level of pettiness her husband clearly possessed, reminded her that she would need to ensure that she did not get inundated with post from Hertfordshire, as her first order of business. The idea of paying money to read whatever nonsense her parents wrote was likely to keep her up at night.
Either unaware, or more likely uncaring, of the consternation his words caused the mistress, Knight continued, "For this quarter, I feel it only fair to add 17s 6p for the eight days you have already been married.
Elizabeth huffed at the sheer pettiness of the statement and said with quite an edge to her voice. "Is it your contention, Mr. Knight …" and the lady was proud of herself for saying his name ever so politely despite the provocation, "… that an estate that brings in a reputed £10,000 per annum needs to budget the mistress' allowance to the penny?"
Not liking the surly tone that the mistress was applying, he said, "There is no other way to look at it, Mrs. Darcy. What do you suggest I round to? The nearest pound? The nearest shilling? I was instructed that your pin money is £40 per annum, not 41, not 39. If you take offense with simple arithmetic, I cannot satisfy you with anything other than a suggestion you consult your husband."
"My husband may as well not exist, for all the good he is likely to do me, Mr. Knight," Elizabeth said, apparently wanting to demonstrate that the steward was not the only one who was not very wise while angry.
Knight, clenching his own teeth by then, said, "Your dealings with your husband are your business, Mrs. Darcy. Your dealings with this estate are mine."
Elizabeth abruptly stood up. "Very well, Mr. Knight. You obviously know my husband better than I do, as I cannot account for any other reason for you to exhibit such insolence to the mistress of an estate."
Knight stood up himself and took a deep breath to defend himself, but he at least had enough training in manners to not interrupt a woman who was speaking.
Said mistress continued, "I know that you do not think me to truly be mistress of this estate, and to be honest, you would not be wrong. Be that as it may, I swore a vow 'till death us do part'. I would hope that time is a long way away, and for your sake, I suppose you should hope that I either remain in a position of relative helplessness when my husband returns, or that my forgiving nature will forget this conversation."
Knight once again started to speak, but Elizabeth held up her hand. "We are chasing shadows, Mr. Knight. To be honest, after a single meeting, I have not the slightest desire to speak to you ever again. You are free to think me unreasonable, grasping, greedy, silly, or whatever other adjectives come to mind – but I would strongly recommend you keep such thoughts either inside your head, or at least not spoken in a place where they could be repeated and damage my reputation. Keep in mind, Mr. Knight that damaging my reputation will likewise damage my husband's reputation, and I am not entirely certain you want to rely on my husband's current tendency to simply take your side on every discussion. He is stuck with me for life. You cannot boast that security."
Elizabeth was not certain exactly what had made her say all of that. Partly it was the pressure of the last month coming to a head, and like a boil that needed to be lanced, Mr. Knight might well have just been unlucky to be present when she finally lost her temper. Partly it was the sheer pettiness of calculating her pin money to the penny, and the gloating, superior way he had presented it, as if he was being magnanimous with the extra 17s 6p. Perhaps – well, that was all speculation, and she would have six months for all the speculation she could stand.
For the moment, she just wanted the hated man out of her sight. "Mr. Knight, we are not off to a very good start, but that is of no importance. I do not care about the pin money so much as the pettiness you seem to delight in, but that is also of no importance. What is important is that we do not spend our time butting heads, so here is what you will do. Assuming Pemberley is solvent enough to advance me the few pennies for a letter, I will pay all my own postage with the butler. You need not worry about it. Put a £10 bank note in an envelope and give it to Mr. Jennings before the first day of the quarter. He will give it to me at the appropriate time, and you and I need never speak again.
Knight bit back the response that came to mind. He thought that anything he said was likely to make the mistress even angrier than she presently was, and the fact was, that she was a beautiful woman, and the master was likely to notice that – eventually. The best thing would be to try to repair his disastrous start, but he had no idea if that was possible at this point. He was not even entirely certain where things had gone wrong, but only a fool would believe he had not hurt his own prospects that day.
"I shall do as you say, Mrs. Darcy. I would hope that we can at some point get along better."
Elizabeth, still angry about just about everything about her betrothal and marriage said, "We shall get along fine so long as you remain in your world and I remain in mine, Mr. Knight."
With such an inauspicious beginning, Knight decided a retreat was called for. He thought would certainly have to apologize to the mistress at some point, but he thought that he should think on the best way to do that and try the approach at some point when she was less angry. Anything he said that day would cause more harm than help.
He bowed. "I shall do as you request, Mrs. Darcy. Just know that you may call on me for anything you might need."
Elizabeth just scoffed at the idea, but at least managed to keep it silent and mostly unnoticeable and decided to at least finish the conversation in a ladylike manner.
"Any need seems unlikely, but I shall keep it in mind."
Knight left the room, and Elizabeth wandered out into the hall. She had not taken Mrs. Reynolds up on her offer of a tour and was not very inclined to. She felt much closer to a prisoner in the house than its mistress, and she would worry about learning all about it when she was in a better mood.
She found Noah in the hallway awaiting her. She idly wondered if he had any other duties but was not overly concerned.
She smiled at the man nervously. "I should like to meet a few more of the maids and footmen, Noah. Not too many! Would you object to escorting me to my quarters, and you can introduce me to whoever we meet along the way. I believe I will go for a long walk now."
Noah did not quite know how to react to the question, but he thought that he certainly liked Mrs. Darcy more than any other ladies the master had ever had in the house, although to be fair, he liked just about every woman he had ever met more than Miss Bingley. Fortunately, he did not actually need to understand any more than that the new Mrs. Darcy was the kindest lady he had ever met, and she had given him instruction. He would follow her instructions, and then fully report the interactions to Mr. Jennings. That way, everyone would either be happy, or at least, unable to find fault with his behavior.
He managed to introduce the mistress to three footmen and two maids before she arrived at her chamber.
Mrs. Darcy thanked him for his escort, then entered the suite, calling for Molly. Apparently, she was to walk for a time.
The two women dressed warmly and in sturdy boots, and Elizabeth began her exploration of the Pemberley woods, which she expected to continue for some months. She could hardly wait for the Spring.
