Interesting people encountering each other.
Chapter 36: London Encounters
London, Tuesday the eleventh August. Seventh day
"You wanted to see me, Your Highness?"
The Prince of Wales, made the hint of a sitting bow and nodded his massive head. He was eating a late breakfast or an early lunch and quite a lot of pastry was piling up in front of him.
"Indeed, I did, Miss Bennet..."
He pointed toward the armchair opposite him and invited Jane to sit down.
When she was seated a servant came immediately and placed a cup and two plates in front of her.
"Please do me the favor to take part to my second breakfast. The chocolate is divine and the pastries come from the best baker of London. He has always refused to work at the Palace and so, because of him, I'm forced to eat two breakfasts in the morning. The first to still my hunger and the second to satisfy my unreasonable taste for this scoundrel's pastry..."
Jane smiled to the servant and let him pour a cup of chocolate.
She tasted it and a surprised smile came to her face.
Divine was indeed the word to use when speaking of such a beverage.
The Prince was quite satisfied to see her reaction.
No falsity in this particular young person.
"I wanted to thank you for your kindness with my father. Since he's fallen into this illness his guilt for my aunt's death has taken even more of his thoughts. Seeing you and believing you were Caroline's daughter had brought him solace even if it had done nothing to cure him..."
He sighed.
"But I do fear there's nothing to do to cure him... Or if it is none of our British, German or Italian doctors knows anything about it."
Jane was a little intimidated. After all that "walrus" of a prince –It was how the servants spoke of him– was the Regent of the Empire. She smothered a smile. Till July 1801 he was probably one of the most powerful persons in the world. Since the first of August that fact had become... subject to lots of discussions.
"I didn't know he was His Majesty, had I..."
The Prince of Wales stopped her with an energetic hand sign.
"You did what you did without the least knowledge of whom if was you were helping. I appreciate it even more. Courtiers are aplenty. Real compassionate persons are a rarity..."
She looked at him and her eyes focused on him.
"If I do understand the layout of power, Your Highness, you have the power to choose who's surrounding you. If there are more courtiers than honest persons around you, who is to blame?"
The Prince was just swallowing a big piece of his favorite chocolate roll and he could do nothing but spit what was left on his plate.
Plate that disappeared and was replaced by another --clean one-- in less than a second.
A very special servant had immediately be summoned and had helped with a few energetic strokes on the Prince's back...
After a few very long seconds of coughing the Prince was, once more, able to speak.
"You don't have scruples to say what you think, do you?"
"I was raised in the belief that the truth is what's important, Your Highness. And if a man who has all the powers is badly surrounded I don't see who he will be able to blame for him keeping bad company? God?"
"Ouch..." the Prince said. "You seem to partake to the feelings of the majority of my subjects. You don't like me..."
Jane could only shook her head.
"I neither like nor dislike you, Your Highness. I was raised in the belief that a King or a Regent should do its utmost to be an example..."
"And I'm not?"
Jane made no effort to hide her indignation.
"For gluttony, there's no doubt you are! And that's probably only one as rich and powerful as you could challenge you as an example..."
"Nothing else?"
"Your whoring is the most unseemly behavior for a King or Regent that I could imagine..."
The Prince sat up and leaned toward her.
"You would have preferred me to pluck young beauties in southern Estates like your French lover?"
Jane's indignation increased.
"He's no lover of mine and I wasn't plucked! He saved my life and the lives of friends and sisters with only his courage and his sword. Had you been in his place, you wouldn't have made five yards in the time he spotted us, came to us and saved us... I'm not even sure you're able to walk without being supported from all sides by an army of swarthy servants!"
That last remark was too much for the Prince who burst out laughing!
That stopped Jane's diatribe with more effectiveness than an ongoing fight would have.
"My, my, aren't we angry? Never in my whole life have I encountered a person with enough guts to be really truthful with me... Not on my appearance and not on my eating habits... "
"One comes with the others..." shot Jane without thinking. "You should eat less you would have less problems with your appearance and your health."
The Prince nodded enthusiastically.
"I know it, that what mother always said. She could! There was no risk of my throwing her into the Tower..."
"Such a risk doesn't exist for me neither," continued Jane. "You don't want to anger him too much. With my being brought here you've send a message which should be clearly understood as an 'invitation'... Had you put me into the Tower the content of the message would have been quite different. As would have been his reactions."
The Prince of Wales' look on her changed.
His guest was beautiful, there was no doubt to that, but she was also passionate and clever. No surprise this d'Arcy fell for her.
"You do believe he will come..."
He saw a light frown appear on her forehead. It soon was smooth out by her sheer will.
"I couldn't say..."
She was indeed sure of it...
A smile came on the Prince's face.
"You're lying there... You know he will come!"
"I'm not lying! Nobody knows the future! I no more than anybody else!"
"But you fear he will, isn't it?"
She nodded.
"He will not resist to the desire to answer to your invitation..."
"That's what I hoped for!"
"You won't capture him easily," said she.
"I have no desire to capture him, Miss Bennet! He's perhaps their leader but he is only one of seventy thousand. And even if I count only their leaders, he is only one in a dozen. He not alone and he is the only one who's able to reign in some of his generals. I have no desire to see Duroc unleash his armies on London. I'm perhaps a glutton and a debauchee but I'm no fool! I know where I stand and what I can still win. Seeing him and discussing with him outside of an official meeting will be my only chance to get acceptable conditions to our surrender. And that chance it's you who are going to get it to me!"
He saw that she didn't really believe him but that was all right. He had seen what he wanted to see. She was honest and forthright and she was the type of woman who could make a man hesitate between her and his career. And if she could get this d'Arcy sooner out of his warring business, it would be a real opportunity for his generals and his troops...
"You want to surrender?"
"Wanting? Never, never and never!" shouted the Prince. "But I'm a man who can face an awful reality. And the truth is that I do not have the troops to win this war here in Great Britain. And calling back my colonial troops would be playing them into his hands and to their destruction. So I will have to discuss a truce with him. And I want to discuss it before my back is against the famous wall..." He winked at her. "And I will use you to the very end. I'll threaten you and I'll take advantage of his feelings for you! I'll do anything in my power to get more than I would have got without you! Do you have a problem with that?"
She shrugged her shoulders.
"And what? I'm here and I'm your prisoner. You could throw me in the Tower or even in the Thames if you wanted to... I'm perhaps the person he cares for but that doesn't have changed me into a French supporter. I'm still one of your subject and all you can get for England and the Empire will be very welcome."
The Prince's face was lighted by a happy smile.
"That's my girl! I had my doubts when I first saw you that would understand but I'm quite satisfied with this little chat." He pointed toward little apple pies. "Try my little pies. They are wonderful. And with a sip of hot chocolate, they are even better..."
The rest of their 'chat' had been friendly and she had even had the opportunity to give the Prince her opinion about what he should do.
What he would do of her opinion was his business.
"Master Gardiner... What a joy to see you in good health! We were all very worried. Is everybody else in good health?"
"They are safe in the North, Jonas. That's the reason I could come. Knowing them perfectly sure gave me the opportunity to come back to London to try to save what's savable."
The door opened a second time and Charles Bingley came in.
"That's Charles Bingley, Jonas, son of Charles Bingley senior who you have, if I remember well, known..."
"Indeed, Master Gardiner. I remember this gentleman's father very well. You worked together..."
"Yes, Jonas and I believe I'll have the opportunity to do for the son what the father did for me..."
"I'm very happy to welcome you in our House, Mr. Bingley."
"Thank you, Jonas," said young Bingley while bowing to the Gardiner's butler who showed nothing but was very satisfied to see that the young man has enough wit to acknowledge him. He had a charming smile and, if he remembered well he had a love affair with Miss Jane Bennet.
"Please, Jonas could you give orders to prepare the blue room? Mr. Bingley will be our guest the next few days."
Jonas couldn't help but make a face.
"Sorry, Sir, but the blue room is occupied! Miss Lydia is currently occupying it..."
"Miss Lydia? Is she alone?"
Jonas shook his head.
"No Sir, she is with her father and sister!"
"Miss Bennet is here" asked Charles with hope in his voice...
"Miss Mary Bennet, Sir. If I'm well informed, Miss Bennet is still the Prince Regent's guest at the Palace."
"At the Palace?" asked Mr. Gardiner.
"The Prince regent's Guest?" asked Charles Bingley.
"It's a long story, gentlemen," said a voice coming from upstairs. "I'll be glad to inform you of all the details as soon as you have refreshed yourself. From the dust covering your coats and your weary faces I'll bet that you have made the journey from Pemberley in a record time..."
Mr. Gardiner opened his arms and hugged his brother.
"Edward, I'm so glad to see you again. I was worried when I was told that you were going to Rosings..."
Mr. Bennet hugged back.
"No need to be worried, we had the best protection available be it in Kent or here in London..."
"You'll tell us..."
He looked at Charles and himself.
"But you are right, we need a bath and a change..."
He turned toward Jonas.
"Jonas, there are a few people outside who will be our guests. Please find quarters for them and don't be afraid they look fearsome but they are, as for the time being, on our side..."
"Would it be Kennedy?" asked Mr. Bennet.
"Indeed," answered his brother. "He and his men escorted us the whole way. Without them we wouldn't be here yet..."
He looked at Jonas.
"Said Mr. Kennedy will be guest at my table, tonight, Jonas. Please take care of that particular guest."
"How's Jane?"
The question came from her uncle but Charles Bingley was feverishly listening.
"She's the most lucky from us all," answered Lydia. "She has an apartment, five maids, a private dressing room full of fanciful dresses and..."
"She's fine," interrupted Mr. Bennet. "Last time we saw her she was fighting against her tears and making efforts to look happy but, under the circumstances, she was quite fine..."
Charles looked at him.
"What circumstances?"
Mr Bennet looked at the young man and decided that even if he would have preferred him to d'Arcy it was not his choice to make and if Charles had lost Jane he had had enough opportunities to secure her a few months ago.
No reason to hid him the truth.
"The Prince Regent having learned from Lady de Bourgh that monsieur d'Arcy had shown an interest in Jane had us 'kidnapped' to his Palace in order to lure the Frenchman to my daughter's side..." He sighed. "We were allowed to quit, she wasn't..."
"I agreed to stay," said Lydia. "It would have been better for Jane not to be left alone..."
Her father looked at her with a little smile.
"Next time you want something, think it through before going into one of your tantrums. I'm quite sure you're really interested in your sister's welfare but clearly it came only second to your own fancies. And so you're here and she is alone at the Palace..."
Lydia made a face.
"You would prefer me an hypocrite?"
"I would prefer you a little less selfish, dear. Had you been less self centered you would have got what you wanted... So..."
"Will he come?"
Charles knew that if he came, he would lose his last chance in a race he has lost because of his own weak will.
"No doubt he will," answered Kennedy who was sitting at the table. "That man fears neither God nor devil. He went into the most heavily guarded Irish prison, killed with his sword half of the garrison and came out unscathed. They won't even notice that he is there. Perhaps her disappearance will give them a clue but I doubt that he will be willing to put her in a situation where she risks something. He'll get in, reassure her, perhaps kill the Prince Regent and then bail out." He snickered. "They will believe their Palace's haunted..."
Mr. Bennet couldn't help but try to give a little hope to the sympathetic young man.
"You should go to the Palace and ask for the permission to see her. I'm sure she will be glad to see a friendly face... And you could speak..."
"Charles... I'm so happy that somebody could come..."
He kissed her hand.
It was the first time and she did notice it.
"Sorry to be so late, but we were in Pemberley and we came back as soon as possible. It was my intention to go on to Rosings but I learned your presence at Mr. Gardiner's and I came immediately. I was afraid they would not let me in but it seems I was wrong..."
"I'm confined here, but people are allowed to come whenever they want..."
She smiled at him.
"How's Lizzie?"
He smiled back. He didn't come to speak of Darcy's happiness but he would not deny her the slightest pleasure.
"She's as happy as it is possible at five days from her wedding with the man she loves..."
Jane's happiness let her speechless. She had, somehow, known Darcy's feeble for Elizabeth from the first day on and she had, meanwhile, guessed that Darcy was not innocent in Charles speedy disappearance from her life.
They looked at each other and Jane could feel that her love for Charles Bingley was not dead. Another flame was burning in her heart but that flame had not extinguished the first one. It could be relived. It could...
He took something out of his jacket.
"That's for you, Your sister Kittie gave it to me. She believed you would need a recharge..."
She took the little bottle and her smiled increased.
"My favorite perfume... Each spring and summer Lizzie and I make it... It's lilac and rose spirit. We always considered that there was no better fragrance for either of us..."
"And you were right, Jane... It fits to you better than to their original flowers..."
For a second Jae had the hope that he would come to her, take her in his arms and madly kiss her.
He would have.
He would already be hugging her.
She looked at him and tried to convey her longing.
But he did not understand. Or feared what he was understanding...
Whatever it was, he never came.
At the end of the evening there was only one fire left burning in her heart.
Next chapter: London dreams