When Darcy encounters d'Arcy!
Chapter 53: Pemberley Tiger Dance
Derbyshire, Pemberley, Saturday the fifteenth August. Eleventh day.
"You're not welcome here..."
D'Arcy looked up toward the door and smiled at his cousin.
"Glad to see you too. Been a long time since we last met."
His remark brought not the slightest smile to Fitzwilliam's face.
He stood there straight as a post and clearly unsatisfied with what he was seeing.
"You're the enemy; it would be my duty to capture you and to hand you over to the legal authorities."
D'arcy's smile grew even larger.
"Don't hesitate... Come and get me. As you see, I'm unarmed, you should have no difficulties grabbing me..."
He held out his hands.
"Come on, I'm here and there's only you and me... Why are you hesitating?"
Fitzwilliam shook his head.
"You're family. I don't like you and I don't like what you represent but I won't be the first Darcy to betray another Darcy even if it's a French d'Arcy."
"My, my, what a half hearted statement. You could be a little more enthusiastic, couldn't you. After all I'm the most famous d'Arcy of all times, am I not? I just took all of Great Britain and forced my rule over the whole island..."
Fitzwilliam shook his head.
"No, you have not! I will not surrender just because you're my cousin. I'm still the master of Pemberley and Pemberley won't fall into your hands without a fight..."
D'Arcy stood up and took a scroll out of his jacket.
"Too late, cousin! Please have a look..."
Fitzwilliam walked nearer and took the scroll his cousin was handing him.
He unrolled it and began to read.
D'Arcy saw his cousin follow the lines of the Treaty and he could see the color fleeing his cheeks.
"That damn fool of a German walrus! He just abandoned us! He had no right..."
"He had no choice," said d'Arcy. "I had all the cards in my hand. The only thing he could save I let him save. He's retreating with his followers and what's left of his army to Glasgow, there to run even farther away..."
He smiled at his cousin.
"I overtook his circus this morning... If you want to toss him a few rotten cabbages when he passes near Pemberley I can lend you a few men and enough rotten fruit to smother him with..."
Fitzwilliam was just shaking his head. He couldn't believe it. This Treaty gave effectively all of Great Britain to d'Arcy. The war was over and they were defeated...
He looked at his cousin.
"So you're the new ruler over this island, are you..."
D'Arcy nodded.
"That's quite right and if you want to hand me over to the legal authorities do not hesitate any longer, I'll take myself into custody with pleasure!"
Fitzwilliam faced his cousin and they were both only a few inches from each other.
"That my King has cowardly ceased to fight you gives me no obligation to join him in his felony. I could still fight you. I should still fight you."
He pointed toward the window.
"We could see on Pemberley's lawn who is the best swordsman between us..."
"Indeed we could!"
They both were trying to burn their will into the other when a joyous voice snapped them out of their little confrontation.
"I see you have already met, I'm very glad to see how happy you are to know that if today you're only cousins, in the very near future you'll be brothers!" Mr. Bennet remarked.
They could not have been further from each other and still occupy the same room.
And they were looking at each other as would tomcats following the same trail.
He was sure that, would he exit the study, they would fall at each others throats.
"You are unreasonable, gentlemen. There's a time for war and then there's a time for peace and..." he showed them the roll with the Treaty he had just studied, "...it seems that the second invasion of Great Britain by a Darcy has only lasted two weeks before the defenders called for peace..."
He smiled at d'Arcy.
"Quite an achievement, monsieur d'Arcy. I'm very proud of your soon being part of our family..."
He then looked at Fitzwilliam.
"There's nothing more to do, son. His Majesty signed that Treaty. Great Britain has just passed under French rule. It's a fact and it's a legally endorsed fact. You can only accept the reality even if you find it difficult to stomach..."
Darcy answered by an ominous grumble.
Edward Bennet sighed. He had hundreds of miles behind him and the only thing he wanted to do was to go to bed and sleep to the morning.
And here he was trying to sooth his future sons-in-law into not killing each other.
"Well, I do believe that you are both gentlemen and so I'm going to ask you to give me your word to be peaceful one with the other at least until you're both married with my daughters. There after I'll hand that hot iron to them and I'm sure that they will find lots of things to occupy your time in more interesting manners than duelling..."
He looked from one to the other.
D'Arcy was the first to bow.
"I never intended t..."
Mr. Bennet immediately stopped him.
"I have really no interest in who began this stupid quarrel, monsieur d'Arcy. What I want is to see it stop and stop right now. My daughters having decided that they loved strong-willed proud and touchy gentlemen, I can do nothing but accept their choice. But I won't accept that those strong-willed, proud and prickly or sensitive or temperamental gentlemen start their own little war against each other each time I am not watching them. So, gentlemen, I'm waiting..."
There was a silence... A rather long silence and then Fitzwilliam took a long breath.
"Alright," said he finally. "You have my word that I won't...that I won't try anything against my cousin..."
"You couldn't..." hissed d'Arcy but was stopped by the fiery gaze of his future father-in-law.
"He's a guest under my roof and I will uphold the old laws of hospitably and blood links..."
"Neither will I," said d'Arcy after a few more seconds. "It's also my duty to uphold the sacred laws of hospitality and blood kin while he is guest in my house..."
"Your house?" shouted Fitzwilliam.
D'arcy shot him a dark and triumphant glance.
"Indeed my house, cousin! Now that Great Britain is French territory, it's the French legislation that rules the Land and in the light of that legislation everything that belongs to a Darcy belongs to me!"
They rushed toward each other and had Mr. Bennet not been fast enough to be standing between them they would probably have exchanged more than dark looks.
"Stop it! You just gave your word! Is an oath uttered by a Darcy worth nothing?"
That stopped them.
"I'm sure monsieur d'Arcy can explain why he took the precaution to call himself the owner of all Darcy properties. And I'm sure stealing it from his cousins were not part of his motivations..."
D'Arcy and Darcy exchanged another dirty look before pacing back.
"It was the only way to protect the family estates from Napoleon's greed. Since they are mine he will never be able to expropriate them without a just and legal compensation. And since what he wants is getting as much as possible for as little as possible it was an excellent way to ensure that he would look somewhere else..."
Mr. Bennet was quite willing to put what could have developed into a family feud behind him but after all these strong-willed, proud and tempermental gentlemen were about to become his sons and he had no real choice but to go on playing the middleman.
"So it's only a legal arrangement and you have no intent to disown your cousin?"
D'Arcy shot him an angry look.
"Of course not, I'm no thief and I alone own more land in France that all my cousins together in England..."
Of course he would add that last little sting!
God, how he would have loved to be father-in-law to a pair of gentle Mr. Bingleys...
He stopped an angry retort from Fitzwilliam Darcy.
"And you have no intention to use your cousin's property at all..."
There was a silence and both Mr. Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy looked suspiciously at d'Arcy.
"Well," insisted Mr. Bennet. "You do not have such an intent, do you?"
For the first time d'Arcy looked disgruntled.
"There's something," said he finally. "I have issued invitations to a few people. And since Pemberley is a family estate and geographically well placed it seemed a good choice to organize that little meeting there..."
"You organized your meetings in my house?" attacked Fitzwilliam.
"Legally it's mine!" shot back d'Arcy.
"Stop it immediately," shouted Mr. Bennet.
They both stopped.
"Could you give us some information about said meeting?"
"It's no bus..."
D'Arcy froze under Mr. Bennet's glare.
A few more seconds passed and the tension grew visibly.
But then d'Arcy sighed and finally nodded.
"Fine, I'll give you a few details..."
"How wonderful," mocked Fitzwilliam, "we are going to g..."
Mr. Bennet just looked at him and he immediately stopped talking.
A few seconds passed while Edward Bennet tapped lightly with his fingers on a nearby table. When he was sure that everybody had gotten the message he smiled and waved toward d'Arcy.
"Well, then monsieur d'Arcy, we are all listening!"
They had spend long minutes in each others arms, crying and laughing and hugging...
Then they had spoken of everything which was important but neutral.
And finally they came to the really interesting matters.
Jane, being the eldest, won the right to launch the first salvo.
"There are rumors," said she, "far down in London saying that your Fitzwilliam Darcy was not as gentlemanly as one could hope from a member of the Gentry..."
Elizabeth immediately launched a counter attack.
"There are rumors going around that your d'Arcy has been within the Royal Palace on a night when you were there... And some ugly gossip even implied that he saw not only the Prince Regent..."
Jane assumed her innocent and surprised maiden look.
"Ugly, petty and gossipy twaddle!"
Elizabeth just looked at her and smiled at her sister with sparkles in her gleaming eyes.
"I couldn't have said it better..."
They both burst out laughing.
"And now the truth," insisted Elizabeth.
"What truth?" answered Jane mimicking lack of understanding.
"The whole truth," said Elizabeth. "I won't accept less!"
"And if there's nothing more to say than what I already told you?"
"There's more, Jane. A lot more! Just looking into your eyes I see secrets lurking that only want to be shared with your little sister..."
"You see my secrets in my eyes?"
"Not only in your eyes, Jane. They are everywhere. In the flush of your cheeks, in the happy smile on your lips, in the way you flutter your eyelashes..."
She hugged her sister again.
"And it's so much easier to see them since I see these exact symptoms each time I look into my mirror..."
They couldn't help but giggle.
"Well," said Jane, "it could indeed be that there are one or two secrets..."
"Then, let's trade secrets," whispered Elizabeth.
They laughed a lot that evening...
"It's unacceptable..." groaned Fitzwilliam Darcy. "I won't be accomplice to such a..."
"It's brilliant," said Mr. Bennet interrupting the lengthy denunciation which he sensed coming. "Wouldn't you accept monsieur d'Arcy's offer were you at their place?"
"Of course not!" said Fitzwilliam. "They'll stay with us, fight with us and drive the French out of our land at our side..."
Mr. Bennet looked at his future son-in-law with a very unbelieving look on his face.
"Be frank, please and don't let your feelings for the author of said plan stand in your way. Would you not accept that proposition if it came your way? Moreover, wouldn't you be happy to accept it?"
Fitzwilliam forced himself to stay calm.
He couldn't believe it. This... This... He could find no word to define him.
This cousin of his really believed that he could rip Great Britain apart and that its inhabitants would help him to do it?
He was utterly crazy...
They would fight, they would resist, they would stand up against him and...
But lying under his anger and indignation there was still a little ugly cowardly part who knew the truth.
And that part of him soon made it clear that, to protect Elizabeth and Georgiana, to give his retainers a chance to escape the French rule, he would accept.
Of course, he would accept.
And to the gutter with a Crown Prince who just ran away!
"Perhaps..." ended he admitting. "There are arguments to accept that propositions. But..."
"No buts, Fitzwilliam," said Mr. Bennet in a low voice. "Really, there's no but. Even the conditions are easily acceptable. More so after our Royal Family's shameful escape. The Scots and the Welsh will come and they will accept to recreate their former Kingdoms. What's their choice? Being free in a Kingdom some of them lusted for for centuries or becoming a French département? Be serious man! No need to be a wizard or a soothsayer to know how that will end!"
He shook his head and looked at his other future son-in-law.
There was a mind there. A mind that planned months in advance. Perhaps even years in advance. A mind who had, till now, shown no weakness.
It seemed that his only weakness was upstairs probably gossiping like mad with her sister.
He smiled discreetly at the world.
He had never been a very faithful man. Being a soldier and fighting in a civil war had done that to him.
His faith had crumbled and that day when he was holding his dead son in his hands it had truly disappeared.
Soon he had formed the conviction that God perhaps existed, but that one thing was sure: he wasn't looking at what was happening on earth.
Or then only those days when he was really depressed and in want of a good laugh.
But, perhaps, he was wrong.
What would have happened to his land, to his country, to his people if that peculiar August day that man had not seen his daughter?
Yes, perhaps he had been wrong. Perhaps God was not only unconcerned but, from time to time, actively helping mankind...
He shrugged.
"Well, I suppose you'll organize that meeting with or without Fitzwilliam's agreement, will you not?"
D'Arcy looked up and, for the first time, he showed tiredness.
"I would have preferred doing it with his agreement but I won't let him stop me..."
Fitzwilliam was immediately up and wary.
"I could try..."
Mr. Bennet looked at the heaven and shook his head.
"Gentlemen, my eldest daughters are currently gossiping like mad in the green study. I propose that you go get your weapons and that you settle your little disagreement on the lawn just in front of them. I'm sure they will be very happy to know that one of them will be the lucky wife of a four year old boy who hides in the body of a grown man..."
He sighed.
"I'm a tired old man and tomorrow one of my daughters marries the man she loves, please grant me a wish and go get some sleep before making any more mistakes..."
He looked at them and at their sunken miens he knew that his little exaggeration about their mental age had triggered the right guilt feeling.
He sighed happily. They would not kill each other this evening.
And tomorrow would be another day.
Next chapter: Pemberley Night Stalker