A.N. Sorry for the long wait, I have my own business as well as work a full time job, and with the fall festivals going on and holidays coming have been really busy. I have not given up on this story, updating will just be a bit more sporadic for a while.
"What do you mean you're leaving?!" Louisa did not look away from directing her maid in the packing of her belongings as she addressed her sister's questions.
"I have been invited to join Charles and Jane for Christmas at Netherfield, and I have decided to go." Louisa answered, before instructing her maid to return one dress to the wardrobe and select another one.
"You can't possibly be serious about leaving, what about me? You know I will need you and Hurst to accompany me out to events if I am to find a husband." Her sister fumed, but Louisa's heart was unmoved, as she continued overseeing the packing.
"Hurst shall remain, heaven forbid he give up his mistress during the holiday season." She couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice, nor would she ever forgive her father for selling her off to such a man.
She could understand the disappointment the man felt when his family disapproved of him marrying the woman he had truly loved, because of her lack of dowry. She could even forgive his standoffishness in the early days of their marriage as he grieved the life he had wanted with that woman. However, she could not forgive his using money from her dowry to set the woman up in a small establishment in town, nor her father for allowing it to happen. Her father had been a remarkable businessman, as proven by the substantial fortune he had amassed, but he cared very little for his eldest child as she was not a beauty like her sister. Instead he had sold her off to the first gentleman who would have her, not caring how she would be treated.
It had been Charles who had stepped in to negotiate her pin money, and had close to doubled what her father had been willing to settle for, though it was still only a quarter of the income her dowry produced per annum. That her husband used half her dowry to support his mistress, and while his parents used the other quarter to make improvements on their estate. It was Charles who also negotiated that the Bingley family would higher a steward who would control the funds used for the estate, as well as the funds at the family's disposal, and had hired a man highly recommended by Darcy. In the three years since her marriage, the estate has finally started turning a profit this year thanks to this man. However, Mr Hurst's parents and younger siblings were so resentful of their spending being controlled, they wanted nothing to do with Louisa, and so she was not welcome at the estate. She had never met her in-laws.
Checking her sewing basket she came across the baby blanket she had been knitting her little one when she lost them. She had shoved it in the bottom of the basket, unable to even look at it in the early days after the loss. Even now she had tears welling in her eyes as she held it gently in her hands.
"Are you still blubbering about the child you lost?" Caroline's voice cut through her thoughts, but what was said next brought on a rage like she had never felt before. "It is as I have said, you were fortunate to have lost the child. Imagine all that you would have missed out on this season, first by being so heavily pregnant it would be rather unseemly to be seen. Then because you would have to be recovering. It is not as if this child would have miraculously made your husband love you, or even find you more attractive than that little that he has set up over in Cheapside. No, you were fortunate to have lost it..."
It was shocking to hear the sound of flesh hitting flesh ring out through the room, though not as much as realizing she was the cause. Seeing Caroline holding her reddening cheek had been a shock, but she felt no regret. "I do not know if my husband would have mourned the loss of the child had he known. I know he cares little for me, that he loves another woman more than he even cares for me. Hell, he thinks food and drink more than he thinks me. But he may have loved his child, and it is for this reason that I never told him of the loss. He is my husband after all, the only one I am likely to have, and so I will always try to live him as much as I am able, and spare him pain where I can. Therefore I am grateful I lost the babe before he and his family knew of it, at least this failure will not be thrown in my face by them. However, his feelings matter less to me at the same time in this instance, I wanted my child."
She glared at her sister, "However you can not see past your own inflated self worth to see how the loss has affected me. You who thought you could ensnare the Master of Pemberley when you are nothing but the daughter of a tradesman. You who can't see that your so called friends care nothing for you, and only come around so they can laugh at your inflated sense of self. Yet you are too dense to see it, and still Charles and I have stood by you because we loved you. We bore the humiliation so that we would not hurt you by having to tell you the truth.
"However, I am done, I want you out of my home. I will be directing the staff that you are to be up by eight tomorrow morning for the packing to begin and will be returned to Charles home by noon. Anything left behind will be sent along later."
"What...but how am I to attend balls and parties with no chaperone?" Caroline fumed, her cheek forgotten.
"I believe Charles told you to hire a companion of need be. Perhaps you should look into that." Louisa spoke coolly to her sister.
"How am I to pay for it, Charles has stopped allowing me to spend more than my allotted pin money, and has told me I have until the end of the season to find a husband or he will turn my dowry over to me, essentially labeling me a spinster." Caroline seethed, her cheek forgotten.
"Frankly Caroline, I don't care if you do become a spinster, it would serve you right for the heartless manner in which you have treated Charles and myself. Now, if you don't mind I have much packing to do as we leave early in the morning for Heartfordshire." With that she turned her back on her sister, effectively ending the conversation.
He could see the shock on his wife's face when she descended the stairs early the following morning and found him there waiting for her. It saddened him to think of all the pain he had put this woman through. He wished he could say that what he had heard her say to her sister as he stood at the door to her rooms had been eye opening for him, but sadly, that was not the case.
After hearing her speak of the loss of their child he had sought comfort in the arms of his mistress, returning to her home even though he had just left there. In his distress over the news of the loss of a child he'd known nothing about, he hadn't noticed the shocked and worried looks on the faces of his staff. If he had, they would have made sense when he entered his beloved Martha's bed chamber, and saw her in the throw of passion with another man. The man turned out to be the new footman she had insisted was necessary. Well, before leaving he insisted it was necessary they both leave the house he was renting.
He had then returned to his carriage, and drove to Darcy House to speak to his brother. There he told Charles everything, or the conversation he had heard between the two sisters, to hearing his wife say he cared for food and drink more than her, to finding another man in Martha's bed. He was stunned when the glass of port he'd poured for himself had been snatched from his hands and hurled into the fireplace. It was then his irate brother issued him an ultimatum. Be the husband his wife deserved, or he would move her back to his house and the income from her dowry would return to Bingley and be settled completely on her.
His brother had then explained that Charles himself had worked a clause into the marriage contract that a quarter of the income was to go to the family, while three quarters of it were to go to Louisa and Hurst to see to their comfort, her comfort. If at any time his sister found her treatment wanting, she could return to her brother's home and the income from her dowry would go to him to see to her comfort. He had waited till all parties had signed it, and the two fathers were gloating over having gotten their way, before gleefully pointing it out. However, Hurst himself had left to see Martha before this, so had known nothing about it.
Charles then told him, he had one chance to make his marriage work. He strongly suggested the followed the men of Meryton, and court his wife. When asked what he meant by that, Charles explained how the men of Meryton have been "courting" their wives in the hopes of rekindling the marriages. Charles said, that were Hurst himself to do so, he would see the treasure he had been given as a wife. That not only was Mrs Hurst a pretty face, but she was also sweet, loyal, and kind.
Hurst returned home and spent the night thinking on what his brother had said. Louisa had been a good and loyal wife to him, but he hadn't been any sort of husband to her. He decided right then and there he would do right by his wife
"I had heard of your plans for Christmas, and spoke to your brother to ask to join you. I hope you don't mind." He spoke when she joined him at the door.
"No, not at all." She spoke through her shock.
"I heard of their plans to leave early, so asked cook to prepare a basket for the carriage. I asked Charles if he and Jane would like to ride with us, as we will be staying with them, while the Darcys will be staying with the Bennets." He then helped her into her outerwear, before leading her to the carriage.
"Charles has agreed to ride with us, so we are off to Darcy House first, and then on to Netherfield." He explained, ignoring the confusion on her face. Taking pity after a few moments he said, "I overheard your argument with Caroline last night. It was eye opening to hear you claim I care about food and drink more than you. It made me realize how horrible I have been as a husband, and how much more you deserve. I should like to say this is the reason I am cutting Miss Whiltshire loose, however, I will not lie to you, you deserve better than that."
He explained that he had found his mistress in the arms of another and was in the process of removing her from the house he was renting. He could see she was skeptical of his intentions, but he was ok with that. He had earned her skepticism, and he would earn her respect.
