September 29, 2014 – It's been a super busy weekend. Two weeks ago my son was in a single car accident and his car was totaled. He wasn't injured, thank God, and the accident was not his fault. (There are just some real jerks out there who act before they think and nearly get people killed in the process!) We finally found a replacement car and purchased it last night. Today I began the processes of getting the car ready for him to take over come the weekend. I also am teaching a class tomorrow, so not a lot of spare time on my hands.

Next up – a confrontation with Lady Catherine.

Chapter 19

Having left Georgiana in the care of Lord and Lady Perryton less than a week prior, Anne and Fitzwilliam did not feel obliged to call on her before leaving for Kent. They would be in Town for less than a day as it was.

It was decided that Miss Catherine would take young Anne for a tour of the gardens when they first arrived at Rosings. That would keep her away from Lady Catherine during the initial confrontation.

"We should speak to all the staff who have served at Rosings since you were born," Darcy suggested. "Can you remember many of them?"

"Not really. As a child I never paid too much attention to such things. However, I do know that most of the servants from my childhood are no longer in our service."

"Mrs. Stuart should be able to assist us."

"Stuart – Did you know she was my mother's lady's maid before she became housekeeper? And now that you mention her, I recall a conversation we had right before I married you." Anne gasped at the memory. "Fitzwilliam, she told me that she was the only one who remained at Rosing who had served my father!"

"There are no servants left at Rosings from that time but her?"

The implications were clear to them both. There may be a very good reason why the older servants were gone – there were none left to accuse Lady Catherine, or Maggie Stuart.

~~~/~~~

Anne Darcy invited Mr. and Mrs. Bennet to the nursery so they could meet with Elizabeth in private. Anne could tell the older woman was very anxious to hold the child that was likely her first grandchild. The Bennets had seen little Elizabeth, but that was only for a short while and in the company of many. Anne dismissed her daughter's nursemaids and brought her child to Mrs. Bennet, who was now seated in a chair waiting to receive the precious bundle. Mr. Bennet stood behind his wife and leaned over to get a closer look.

"Is she not the most beautiful baby you have ever seen?" Mrs. Bennet asked her husband.

"As beautiful as our own eight children?"

"Oh yes, for she is Elizabeth's." Mrs. Bennet realized what she had said aloud when her husband nudged her. "Oh, please forgive me, Mrs. Darcy! I should not say such things until we speak with your mother."

"I know you mean no offence, Mrs. Bennet, and unless we are sorely mistaken, you spoke nothing but the truth. I may have to resign myself to being known as Elizabeth."

"And now you have spoken too hastily," Mr. Bennet interjected. "I think there is much to learn and then much yet to discuss before any decisions should be made. For now, let us enjoy the wonder of a child." He looked back down at the baby. "She is beautiful."

Anne thanked him and decided to leave them alone for a few minutes. Elizabeth would be safe.

"Oh George," Mrs. Bennet spoke when Anne was gone, "For all these years I have ached for the child I would never hold again. God has been so good to us to return her, and to give our Elizabeth a daughter," Mrs Bennet looked down adoringly at little Elizabeth Darcy," to fill her mother's rightful place in my arms."

Mr. Bennet understood his wife's joy, but he was afraid of what tomorrow would bring. If Lady Catherine de Bourgh denied Anne Darcy to be anything but her own offspring, his wife would be devastated.

"I pray you are correct." Surely God could not be so cruel as to rip away his daughter from him again; not after he had suffered for twenty years knowing he had failed to keep her from harm.

~~~/~~~

The party's departure from London brought about a change in their traveling arrangements. Miss Catherine and Miss Anne rode with the Darcys while Elizabeth and her nursemaid rode in the Bennet carriage. Anne Darcy was interested in becoming better acquainted with her two "sisters" and the several hours' ride to Kent was a fine place to begin. This also afforded Mr. and Mrs. Bennet more time with little Elizabeth. Miss Anne proved to be an entertaining traveling companion. Catherine Bennet was not as clever as her younger sibling, but the young woman was pleasant enough company and the time passed quickly.

Soon the palings of Rosings Park were seen. Anne told her new companions that they were nearly there. She tried to put on a cheery façade, but her emotions were awhirl.

It was obvious they were unexpected. Servants scurried to unpack the trunks and maids were dispatched to precede the master and mistress and ready their chambers. Mrs. Stuart came out to greet them, along with Gibbons, the new butler. Darcy greeted the two chief servants with a large package in his hands.

"Mr. Darcy, shall I have a footman take that from you?" Gibbons asked.

"No, no. I would prefer to see to this personally." Mr. Gibbons displayed none of the disbelief he felt. "Is Lady Catherine engaged at present?"

"Yes sir, Mr. Collins has called. I do not expect him to be much longer."

Anne rolled her eyes in annoyance. She tried hard to forget the new rector of Hunsford. After the death of the previous holder of the living in January, it was Anne who convinced Darcy to allow Lady Catherine to select the new clergyman for the parish. She reasoned that as Lady Catherine was, for the most part, the sole resident of Rosings, her mother might as well pick a man whose sermon-making she preferred. After so many years of the kind service of Mr. Lawton, Anne thought Lady Catherine would find someone of his ilk to replace him. Instead she had chosen a young man, newly ordained, with little experience in the care of a congregation, and worse, no aptitude for preaching. His main qualifications were his malleability and devotion to his noble patroness.

When they had been at Rosings the previous spring, Anne and Darcy had been appalled by Lady Catherine's choice, but now that Mr. Collins was installed, there was little they could do but to try not to grin in church and to bear his effusions with poise and graciousness, all the while trying desperately not to encourage such fawning behavior.

"We will wait in the music room, then. As soon as the minister is gone, we will see her ladyship."

"Very good, sir."

Anne then spoke. "Mrs. Stuart, the Bennets are to stay in the family wing. Place the Misses Bennet together in the Rose Room and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in the Venice Suite. Please see the Misses Bennet to their chamber, and make sure a footman is nearby. They have expressed an inclination to explore the gardens after they have refreshed themselves from the journey."

Maggie took a quick look at the Darcys' guests. Her eyes narrowed for a moment before she schooled her features. "Yes ma'am."

"And Stuart, we will speak to you after we have spoken to Lady Catherine. In the library, if you please," Darcy instructed.

She nodded her understanding, whispered an instruction to a nearby footman and asked the two girls to follow her upstairs.

Darcy, package still in hand, led the remainder of the party to Music Room. Giving instructions not to be disturbed until Lady Catherine was at liberty to see them, he closed the door.

The music room opened to a large parlor that was the preferred room to entertain guests. Anne recalled many evenings where she would be obliged to play for those assembled in the parlor. In that room also hung one of Darcy's favorite pictures of his wife. It was painted shortly after Anne turned twelve. The background of the painting was the very room in which it was exhibited. Anne wore a lovely pale blue dress and stood next to the piano. The artist had even put in miniatures of the pictures on the wall, including the one he was painting, in anticipation of it being displayed there when it was completed. Anne's left hand was resting on the keys of the opening notes of the score of music in Anne's right hand, Scarlatti's Sonata K404 in A Major.

Darcy pointed out the painting and both Mr. and Mrs. Bennet gasped. But for the shade of hair and eyes, the portrait looked like it could have just been taken, and that the subject who sat for it was Anne Bennet.

"Anne was twelve when this was done," he explained, somewhat needlessly.

"The resemblance is remarkable, even more than between the portrait you hold and Mrs. Darcy. I think she has my eyes and not her mother's, just like my Anne."

Anne Darcy, being the object of the newest discovery linking her to an insignificant family in Hertfordshire, had not recognized how much Anne Bennet looked like her. Of course, she could not remember much of what she looked like as a girl unless she was looking at one of the several portraits she was forced to endure sitting for as a child. Darcy, on the other hand, could easily discern how much Anne Bennet looked like his wife before she had matured into a woman. Anne stared at the familiar picture. Darcy came to stand at her side and slid his arm around her waist.

"Courage, beloved," he whispered in encouragement.

"What can she possible say to explain this?"

"We shall find out shortly."

Anne did not reply.

"Did your butler say the local clergyman's name is Collins?" Mr. Bennet asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes. A Mr. William Collins. He was installed at Hunsford, the village attached to Rosings, this past Easter."

"I wonder if the man is my cousin. If we had not had any sons, Longbourn would be entailed on a relation named William Collins. He was studying theology last I heard; I believe is now old enough to have a living. That would be another extraordinary coincidence if it were the same man."

"Yes, it would be. However, I should wait to make any inquires on the matter until later. We have other business that is more pressing."

"Oh, most certainly."

"Perhaps you might recognize him if you saw him leaving?"

"I highly doubt it. I have never seen the man in my life. His father and I had a dispute of longstanding duration. I had not seen his late father since before his son was born. I only know what I do by a few letters we exchanged for the sake of the conveyance of Longbourn after my death. It is wise to keep informed on the mortality of your heirs."

Before they could further explore the uncomfortable subject of heirs, Gibbons informed them that Mr. Collins had just left and that Lady Catherine was at leisure to meet with them.

~~~/~~~

"Darcy, Anne! What a surprise. Where is Elizabeth?" Anne resisted the urge to answer "Here."

"She is in her nursery," Anne said instead.

"You should have brought her to see me first."

"She was tired and hungry, Mother."

"Then I will see her later. Who are your guests?"

Darcy did the honors. "May I present to you Mr. and Mrs. George Bennet of Longbourn in Hertfordshire. This is Anne's mother, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Anne and I met Mr. and Mrs. Bennet at a ball in the town of Meryton, which is near the estate where my good friend Charles Bingley is now ensconced as tenant."

"You are very welcome to Rosings."

"Two of their daughters are also here, but they wished to rest after the journey and then see the gardens."

Lady Catherine nodded. "What have you there, Darcy?" she asked, referring to the package he still stubbornly clung to.

Darcy set his jaw. It was time.

"This is the reason we have come and why I have asked the Bennets here as well." Lady Catherine looked over at the couple, and then looked back at Darcy. Anne had been watching her mother intently for any signs that she knew or recognized either Mr. or Mrs. Bennet. So far, there had been none.

"Let us see what has brought you to Rosings."

Darcy set down his burden and began to unwrap the painting. He was careful to situate it so that the back was to his mother-in-law. He talked while he worked.

"How amazed we were to meet the Bennets. We had gone to Hertfordshire to fulfill a pledge to Bingley to visit him at his new estate. Imagine my surprise then at the reaction of Mrs. Bennet when we were introduced."

"Yes?"

"She fainted, madam."

Lady Catherine looked confused. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet had not said a word.

"Fainted?"

"Yes, she took a long look at Anne and fainted. You may sympathize with our confusion when Mrs. Bennet called Anne 'Elizabeth' and then lost consciousness."

Lady Catherine grew angry. "I do not understand. What game are you playing?"

"I assure you, this is no game," Darcy said tersely, then continued. "The next morning we called on the Bennets at Longbourn, and there we were told a most heartrending story and then shown the painting I hold in my hands."

"Enough, Darcy! I demand you show me what has caused you to come in such haste and speak so discourteously to me. I am not accustomed to such behavior from you or from anyone."

Darcy turned the painting around and after a moment, Lady Catherine gasped. Darcy went on determinedly.

"Can you please explain to me, madam, why this portrait taken of Mrs. Bennet nearly four and twenty years ago looks like my wife? Is it only coincidence that twenty years ago Mrs. Bennet gave birth to a daughter who was stolen from them only a few days later – a few days before you gave birth to Anne? And then there is the picture of Anne in the music room, the one where she is standing by the piano. The youngest Bennet daughter, who is somewhere in this house at this very moment, and named Anne, believe it or not, looks like a twin sister of the Anne in that painting. For the love of God, at least reassure my wife that she cannot be the missing daughter of the Bennets?

Lady Catherine looked to the other older woman sitting in the parlor, and then her daughter, and then to the painting and finally back to her daughter Anne. Lady Catherine stared directly into Anne's eyes as she spoke.

"I wish to God I could tell you that you are not their daughter, but I cannot give you that comfort. I swear to you that I did not know where you came from, but know that I have loved you as my own flesh and blood ever since you were brought to me."

"Then Anne is adopted?" Darcy finally asked.

Lady Catherine still held her only daughter's gaze. "Yes."

The room was still; no one said a word. Anne stood, her face ashen. She started to take a step toward the only mother she had ever known, but faltered. She then looked at the woman who had by all appearances given birth to her, and faltered again. Finally she sat back down next to her husband, covered her face with her hands and began to sob.

Lady Catherine looked at Anne, unable to move or comfort her daughter, the horror of the situation written across her face. Mrs. Bennet sat transfixed, an equal measure of sadness and joy on her visage. Mr. Bennet stoically held his wife's hand. Darcy embraced Anne, but his eyes burned with condemnation towards Lady Catherine.

Anne took several minutes to begin to control herself. Darcy's quiet words of encouragement soothed her anxiety. When she was able to speak, she addressed the woman she had always called mother.

"Why Mama, tell me why? Please tell me how you could do such a thing!" she said, stuttering the words through her still flowing tears.

Lady Catherine closed her eyes and sighed. She suddenly looked much older. When she was ready, she looked at Darcy and nodded and fixed her gaze on Anne.

"No words can ever be said to justify what has happened to the Bennets, but please, let me explain what part I played. I swear to all of you that until today, I believed Anne came to us under very different circumstances.

"After I married your father, we tried and tried for an heir, yet I still could not conceive. Sir Lewis knew how disappointed I was to not have become with child. He did his best to comfort me, but nothing could take away the shame and embarrassment I felt from my inability to provide him with at least the hope of an heir.

"And then one day he told me he had come to a decision. It seems that he had become aware of a girl who was in trouble – unmarried and with child. I questioned him, trying to discover who the girl was, but he would never reveal her identity. Now I know why. He would only tell me that she had been brought to his attention by an old friend. I assumed it must have been this friend's daughter or niece. Sir Lewis proposed that we take this child as our own and I then wondered if the girl could be a relation.

"At first I was adamant; I would not allow it. I did not want the child to usurp the inheritance of any son I might still be able to bear, as much as I despaired that ever happening. Sir Lewis understood my concerns, for he held them too. He suggested that if the child were a boy, then he would become our ward. However, if it were a girl, he was prepared to claim her as our own. Sir Lewis was also planning to visit his properties in the West Indies and would be gone for many months. His plan was that we would still continue to try for a child, but if I had not conceived, I was to act as if I had. This would ensure that there would not be an untimely birth to foil his plans.

"I did not fall with child and so I obeyed my husband's wishes. My maid was brought into the conspiracy, for I needed her help. A few others knew, but Sir Lewis arranged for most of those details. All I knew was that I was to feign a normal pregnancy and when the time came, I would be told when I was to go into childbirth and that everything would be taken care of from there. If it were a boy, my 'child' would not survive. If it were a girl, then she would become my daughter."

Lady Catherine wove the tale she and Maggie Stuart had spent the past twenty years perfecting. So well did she know her lines that she wanted to believe she spoke nothing but the truth. Fortunately for her, the conviction in her voice lent credence to her story; her audience was absorbed in her narrative…

"Unfortunately, Sir Lewis did not return until after you came to Rosing, Anne. His trip was extended and by the time he came back to England, it was time to christen you. I was worried that he would not accept you as he had sworn. I should not have doubted him. I have never seen a man so enthralled with a child. He loved you as his own the moment he laid eyes on you. When you reached out and grabbed hold of his finger, you gained his eternal devotion. I even envied you for it."

"My father orchestrated everything?"

"Of course, how could I, a woman, have done what he did?"

"But I do not understand the need for such an elaborate scheme."

"Your father wanted no questions asked. The whole world would think you our daughter. Surely you know that the adoption of an illegitimate child by another family member is a not an unheard-of occurrence. Sir Lewis wanted no stigma attached to you. And for all that he went through to find you, he was right. Had you not looked so much like your real mother, no one would ever have been the wiser." Lady Catherine decided to press the point.

"No one need know, still. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, while I am mortified that you lost your daughter for so long, can you not see how much she has been given? She has always been treated as a de Bourgh. She was granted Rosings. Had she not become our daughter, Rosing would have been mine. Yet I never begrudged her that. She has been and will always be my daughter, at least to me. Let the world remain ignorant of her real birth. If this gets out, you will always hear whispers, Anne. Darcy you know I am right."

"At this time, I am at loss to know anything, Lady Catherine," he retorted.

"You do believe me?" she petitioned the Bennets. "I knew nothing of Anne's true parents until today."

"Please excuse my lack of pardon. My wife and I have had twenty years with our Elizabeth stolen from us," Mr. Bennet answered icily. Lady Catherine turned her attention to the one person she was afraid to address.

"Anne?"

Wracked by confusion and doubt, Anne stood and fled the room. Lady Catherine meant to follow, but her progress was arrested when Darcy put his hand on her arm.

"I do not think she wants to talk to you now. I will go after her."

After Darcy left, Lady Catherine felt all the awkwardness of being left alone with Anne's true parents. Her conscience assaulted her: she could not remain in their presence one moment longer, and Lady Catherine retreated to her chambers without a word.

Maggie Stuart is next on the Darcy's interview list.