Chapter 43:

Elizabeth felt suffocated as she finally completed reading all the letters. When she opened the first one, she was shocked to see the striking resemblance in the writing between her mother, Sarah, and Mrs. Bennet. She had mentally prepared herself for the worst when she started reading the letters written by a woman she would never see in her life. She could sense the depth of her mother's love for Lord Anderson in her words, and she wondered how she could have trusted him so much to marry him but never disclose his name to anyone.

The letters written by her mother after she returned to London conveyed every detail of how she wanted to end the relationship with Lord Anderson, and Elizabeth found it strange that she suddenly wanted to end the relationship with him after returning to London. The reasons cited were the same as those mentioned by Lord Anderson. Her mother's words reflected a sudden shift in her regard for her husband. Elizabeth was shocked to read her words, demanding money, stating how Lord Anderson had taken advantage of her after marriage, ruining her.

She read the letters repeatedly, wanting to find one reason to discredit them.

These are not forged; there is no change in the writing from the initial letters till the last. Though similar to the hand of Mrs. Bennet, there was nothing else that stood apart. And Elizabeth knew Mrs. Bennet's choice of words very well, and she was certain the ones she had in hand were written by a woman with much more command of the language, and every word proved that whoever wrote it had a strong sense of judgment and intelligence, which Mrs. Bennet lacked.

After a couple of hours, Elizabeth gave up.

I cannot do this anymore. Now, I have nothing to defend her except my instinct. She could have never demanded money when she wanted to safeguard him from the whole world. She never married anyone else, and none of this makes sense.

Elizabeth realized that her only hope now was to find out the truth in London.

Someone must know what happened; we must find Mrs. Lewis. She was glad when no one disturbed her that morning, and she ate dinner in her room. Elizabeth could not stop thinking about how each family member would react to the truth. She was certain Lady Anderson would lash out at her once she became aware of the legitimacy of her marriage.

Elizabeth felt that the truth had not impacted her alone but spiraled to everyone and altered their lives forever. However uncertain the outcome of the truth would be, she was certain that she could never accept Lord Anderson as her father, nor would she care for his status, wealth, and the legitimacy of her birth. According to her, he was the most cruel man on earth.

She longed to discuss the matter with Darcy and was certain he would visit her that evening as promised.

Downstairs, Lord Anderson and his wife finally emerged from the study after a conversation they wished they had had before their marriage. Lady Anderson felt as though the world had crashed on her; she did not know how to disclose the details of her horrific situation to her daughter, who was already distressed.

From the moment she set sight onElizabeth, Lady Anderson had hated everything about her; the feeling came from the fact that Elizabeth had captured Lady Martha's regard and was given preference over her daughter. Now, she posted as a threat to her own status and position in life, and she has stripped Lady Anderson of her position as the wife of Lord Anderson.

She was enraged beyond measure, and all she wanted to do was throw Elizabeth out of Ashton Park at the very moment.

She understood that she was not merely Lord Anderson's legal daughter now but was to become Mrs. Darcy. From the conversation with her husband, it became apparent to her that neither her husband nor Darcy would be willing to abide by any of her requests.

She locked herself in her room, unable to find a way to break her daughter's heart with the truth.

Lady Martha did not disturb Elizabeth till Darcy arrived that evening. Once he arrived, he requested to meet Elizabeth in privacy.

"You can meet her in the library; I will be present, though."

"So, you have not spoken with her since she read the letters."

"No, I have not. I am well aware that the first person she would want to talk tobefore any of us is you."

Lady Martha sent for Elizabeth, and she hurried down, understanding that Darcy had arrived early.

Lady Martha said nothing as she entered the library, and Darcy immediately walked up to her and held her hand.

He motioned her to sit down.

"How are you, my love?" Darcy asked her.

"As well as you saw me a few hours ago," she smiled. "I expected to see you only in the evening."

"Well! I could not stay in Pemberly after you left. Did you read them?" he asked, eyeing the stack of letters in her hand.

"I did," she said, noticing that Lady Martha had given them privacy by stationing herself on the other end of the room.

"I spent all morning with these letters, and I don't know how to express what I went through while reading them."

"I am so sorry."

"She was very much in love with him, and all the letters express the same, but everything seems to have changed once she married him and returned to London. The letters declare what he already told us, that my mother wanted to end the relationship and demanded money."

"Maybe something happened after she returned to town, or someone forced her to write them."

"The moment I opened the first one, I doubted whether the letters were forged?"

"Why?"

"Because the writing is very similar to my mother's, I mean Mrs. Bennet's."

"Oh!"

"I know her hand very well, and the writing in these letters is exactly the same."

"So you doubt the Mrs. Bennet forged these?"

"I did, but there is nothing to prove it apart from the writing style. I say this because I know Mamma's choice of words and expressions. These letters are definitely written by someone who is far more sensible and intelligent, and that is not Mrs. Bennet for certain."

"I don't think we can brush aside your doubt that easily."

"Do you want to read them?" she asked Darcy.

Darcy read a couple of them and understood Elizabeth's reasoning. With his short acquaintance with the Bennet family, he was certain that Mrs. Bennet could not write anything so sensible with deep feeling and intelligent reasoning.

"It is very suspicious that the letters suddenly show deep hate and aversion towards the man she loved so much," Darcy exclaimed.

"Maybe she felt that way when she realized she was pregnant."

"But why did she not communicate the same to your father?" Darcy asked and bit his lips, seeing the flash of anger on Elizabeth's face.

"I meant Lord Anderson," he corrected himself.

"I do not know. Sometimes, I don't know whether all this is real or I am in a nightmare."

Darcy was silent; he was very worried about her. Ever since he discovered that she had almost ended her life on the cliff when they first met, he could not bear the thought of losing her.

"Fitzwilliam?" she called out to him.

"Yes, sorry, I was thinking about something."

"I must speak with Lady Martha now."

"Don't you want Lord Anderson to be present? We can request him to join us."

Elizabeth was not ready to see him, but she had no choice but to agree.

Lady Martha finally joined them.

"I have sent for him. I understand how tormenting it must have been to read through the letters. How are you feeling?" Lady Martha asked as she sat down beside Elizabeth.

"Not as tormenting as the discussion I am to have now," Elizabeth replied.

Darcy quickly stated Elizabeth's observation about the letters to Lady Martha.

"Well, it is not uncommon for siblings to have similar handwriting. Fitzwilliam, if I am not mistaken, your mother and aunt in Kent have the same hand; I have seen some of her letters and mentioned the same to Anne."

Darcy nodded in agreement.

"But, what felt strange to me is the sudden shift in the emotions of the person who wrote these; I am referring to the ones she wrote from London. How could such deep love change into hate?"

"I agree with you on that; I am still unsure if someone forced her," Elizabeth stated.

Just then, Lord Anderson entered the room, and Elizabeth stood upon his arrival; Darcy held her hand, sensing her temperament. As much as she tried, she could not look away from him and his piercing gaze.

As for Lord Anderson, he understood that Elizabeth had read the letters, and he was exhausted from the discussion with his wife some time ago and had no energy left in him for another wretched conversation about the past. He had entered the library with irritation, knowing very well that Elizabeth would not agree to his explanations. Even though the letter supported his actions, Lord Anderson resolved to keep the discussion short and not become emotional. But the moment he set eyes on her, his entire resolve melted away; he had last seen her storm out of the library the previous night, and now she stood before him, her face troubled but eyes expressing anger. The faint resemblance he had seen between Sarah and her initially became more distinct to him now; everything he had seen in Sarah years ago stood before him in the form of his daughter, Elizabeth.

He wanted to ask her how she felt but knew she would hate such civilities from him.

The tension in the room consumed each of them, and Lord Anderson finally sat beside his sister. Elizabeth could not bear seeing him; Darcy squeezed her hand, and she felt grateful for his presence. Understanding no one was willing to speak, Lady Martha broke the silence.

"Elizabeth has read the letters, and she doubts the authenticity of the ones written after you married Sarah," Lady Martha said.

"What?" cried Lord Anderson.

"Yes! Something is not right about the contents of the letters after your marriage," Darcy added.

"Are you stating that someone forged them?"

"We cannot say for sure. But don't you feel it is so strange that suddenly she wanted to end the relationship?"

"I did feel it was strange, and I wrote to her asking for an explanation. That is when she stated that she was ashamed of the marriage with me and wanted money to end the relationship. You can read the last few letters; she clearly stated that she wanted to marry Thomas Bennet," Lord Anderson said.

"You may not have realized it then, but can you not understand that these letters were written a few months after your marriage, which means she was pregnant with me? Don't you find it odd that she wrote to you without informing you of her condition? I thought you would be sensible enough, at least now, to understand this," Elizabeth said bluntly, looking at Lord Anderson with irritation.

She could see him struggle to respond.

"I do not doubt that she wrote all these letters; there are details no one else could know, and her writing is not forged. You may question my lack of sense, young lady, but now and then, I do not understand why your mother lacked it to keep me in the dark about her pregnancy."

"Stop accusing someone dead. Do you even care to understand the struggles my mother must have faced after returning to London and having married you? I have one question: answer me, did you ask her to hide your marriage after you married her to safeguard your reputation."

Lord Anderson was silent.

Lady Martha and Darcy were shocked by her question.

"Elizabeth, what are you saying?" Darcy asked her.

"I do not doubt this; the only reason she would have kept everything a secret was if she had promised to do so. I have a feeling that she did. Am I right, Lord Anderson?" she asked, fuming.

How she formally addressed him with a hint of sarcasm made Lord Anderson furious.

"I did not ask her to, but as I said, the idea to get married was hers, and when I initially refused, she promised me that she would keep it a secret till I returned to claim her hand. I still do not think that is the reason I kept it a secret."

"Of course, you would not because promises mean nothing to a man like you. You had all the wealth and connections in the world but could not make one trip to see her and seek her out. How could you?" Elizabeth cried.

"Can't you see, I did what she wanted me to do? She accused me of taking advantage of her, wanted to save her father's business, and wanted to marry someone else because she could not wait for me. Why don't you see that?"

"She did everything. What about you? What did you want? You act as if someone forced you to love her and marry her. Are you not ashamed to say this?" she asked in fury.

"Enough!" Lord Anderson cried, and for the first time, Elizabeth sensed that he had lost control of himself in anger.

"Lord Anderson, I will not have you treat her disrespectfully," Darcy intervened.

"I am not disrespecting her; she is the one who has no respect for me. I am certain she needs to be reminded of that."

"Respect is earned, sir, and not demanded," Elizabeth cried.

Lady Martha could not stand it any longer.

"Mark, now you understand her thoughts after reading the letters. Nothing has changed in her opinion about you, and honestly, I feel the same way. There is no use in arguing; let us decide on the pressing matter at hand. When are you traveling to London?" she asked Darcy.

"I am ready to leave any day, depending on Elizabeth's wishes. She has already written to her sister and aunt regarding the developments here."

"They know that we are engaged," Elizabeth said, trying to calm herself.

"I would like to come with you," Lord Anderson declared.

Elizabeth looked at him with irritation.

"Why?"

"Because as much as you want to know the truth and blame her death entirely on me, I want to know why she concealed everything from me and died this way when she could have saved everyone of the misery and rightfully stood by me as my wife today," he said without diverting his gaze from Elizbeth.

"You are welcome to stay at our house, Lord Anderson," Darcy said.

"Where is she staying?" he asked, referring to Elizabeth.

"She intends to stay at her friend's house, Mrs. Davis, who helped her in town when her uncle's family was away, but I doubt her uncle will allow it."

"Sarah looked up to her brother; she often said that if he were present, her father would not force the marriage upon her. She loved her family without any expectations from them; it was one of the qualities I admired about her."

Elizabeth tried hard to stop herself from arguing with him. She felt he had two alternate personalities, one defending himself in vain and the other unable to forget his regard for her mother in the past.

Darcy decided that they would leave for London in a couple of days, and Lord Anderson was to join them.

As they got up to leave, Lady Martha stopped them.

"Elizabeth, Lady Anderson knows the truth about you, and I am not willing to keep anyone else in the dark anymore. I would be speaking with my son and his wife now."

Elizabeth nodded, and from the grim expression on Lord Anderson's face, she realized that Lady Anderson would have been devastated. As much as she did not like his wife and daughter, she felt sorry for them as they were victims just like her.

Darcy requested Elizabeth to walk with him in the gardens and Lady Martha agreed.

"Stay within the vicinity of the house, if you do happen to walk farther away, you must take a maid along with you," she said as they headed outside.

Darcy sighed.

"No matter how tough the situation is, she doesn't forget to warn me about being alone with you," he said with irritation.

To his surprise, Elizabeth laughed; it was music to his ears.

"It is so amusing to see both of you this way, and I wish I did not have to think about other matters and enjoy this till our wedding."

"You find it amusing that she keeps insisting on us having a chaperone?" he asked with a frown.

"No, that seems like a sensible thing from her point of view; the way you are reacting to it makes it very amusing," she said, smiling.

"I think she does not trust me around you; I am glad she is not accompanying us to town. I wish you could stay with me in our townhouse."

"You very well know it might not be appropriate."

Darcy wanted to argue that since Lord Anderson was staying with him, it would not be questionable if she stayed at his house. But he did not say anything, understanding that Elizabeth would never accept the argument and would anger her even more.

"What happened? Are you upset?" Elizabeth asked him.

"No, honestly, I do not want to leave you alone. I would be much more peaceful to have you under my protection."

"I am safe here; you must not worry."

"I understand. Did you eat?"

"I did."

"If you feel lonely here, I can ask Georgiana to stay with you. You need not be alone in the nights."

"Fitzwilliam, I promise you, come what may, I will not decide to end my life; I know you are worried about that," she said, witnessing the shock on Darcy's face.

At that moment, Darcy did not care who was looking. He pulled her into an embrace, and Elizabeth could feel his heartbeat.

Among everything that she had experienced in life so far, she wanted to live only for him as she loved him beyond her own life.

Lady Martha watched the shock on everyone's face as she revealed the details about her brother and Elizabeth. She had summoned her son, daughter-in-law, and her parents to reveal the information. She contemplated keeping Lady Isabella's parents away from the truth. But soon realized it was a grave injustice to Elizabeth and her late mother to keep this a secret from anybody longer.

"Mother, what are you saying? Is Miss Smith my cousin? And she was employed here all this while in disguise."

"It was not disguise; she had to assume an alternate name as she had left her home because of mistreatment by her parents."

"But why didn't you tell me? You kept this a secret from me for so many months. I cannot believe it."

"I did it to protect her."

"No, Mother, you did it because you did not trust me. Ever since I married Isabella, you have been this way."

"Enough Philip, this is not about you or us. I called you all here about my brother and Elizabeth. And yes, Miss Smith is now Miss Elizabeth Anderson, and she is your cousin and part of our family. I hope you will treat her with respect."

"You are still worried about me treating her with respect? What you should be worried about is the relationship between us. After hiding such a big secret from me all these months, how do you expect me to live in this house peacefully? You have fooled me; I trusted you in everything, Mother. The only thing I did against your wish was to marry Isabella, and you have been so hostile towards her. Now, I cannot believe you are capable of this; I no longer trust you, and if you feel I am cruel in saying this, so be it. I no longer have the affection I had for you as a mother. I cannot trust anyone who lies to me and can never forgive you," he cried and stomped out of the room.

Her son's outburst tortured Lady Martha; she looked at Lady Isabella, assuming she would be happy by how her husband spoke. Surprisingly, she saw tears in her daughter-in-law's eyes, and her parents comforted her.

"Lady Martha, I am so disappointed to hear how you have treated our daughter. Please do not assume we will allow her to live here for the sake of society if you do not give her the respect she deserves," Lady Isabella's mother said and took her daughter away.

Lord Ashton's words pricked her in every possible way, and Lady Martha finally understood that everyone in her family, including her, had flaws.

After Darcy left, Elizabeth spent time with the children; she did not want to see anyone else and retired early. She paced her room, her thoughts circling around the letters she had read and reread since morning.

What are we to find in London? Will I discover the truth? I still cannot believe my mother demanded money from him. Did someone force her?

She missed Darcy, understanding how comforted she had felt the previous night to be under the same roof with him. His words of comfort and reassurance made her determined to care for herself mentally and physically. She started packing for the travel, feeling uneasy about Lord Anderson's intention to accompany them.

It was half past ten when she heard a knock on her door.

Who would it be at this hour? Maybe Lady Martha wants to see me.

Elizabeth opened the door expecting to see a maid and was shocked to find Lord Anderson standing outside her room. He stood with a candle and looked at her without uttering a word.

Elizabeth never expected to spend any time alone with him and could not understand what made him venture to her room at that hour.

"What are you doing here?" she asked bluntly, trying to hide her uneasiness.

"Have you not slept yet?" Lord Anderson asked.

"No."

"Are you well?" he asked, his tone, though icy, expressing care and concern.

Elizabeth could not mistake the concern in his voice; it was not the same man who had argued with her a few hours ago. As much as she wanted to say something spiteful to him, he could not.

"I am well," she replied, confused by her own words.

"Good night!" he said and left her.

Elizabeth quickly shut the door and struggled to catch her breath. She could not believe what had happened.

Why did he come at this hour? I assumed he must be pacifying his wife and daughter. He is trying to unsettle me in some way. No, there is no change in my ill will towards him. There is nothing but hate in my heart for the man who is responsible for my mother's death.

How did he get the courage to come to see me after all that he has done? Does he think no one will question him here? I must not allow it; I must tell Lady Martha I do not want to see or speak with him.

Even though it was late at night, Elizabeth left her room to speak with Lady Martha about her concerns. She had to walk across to the other side of the house to reach the family wing, and the hallways were dimly lit.

Elizabeth took the stairs to reach the upper floors and headed towards the direction of Lady Martha's room. She suddenly heard a noise behind her and turned around. It seemed to come from the upper floor.

Who could it be at this hour?

By instinct, she took the stairs that led to the upper floor, which had a wide corridor, and as soon as she set foot on the corridor, Elizabeth was shocked to see someone heading towards the terrace that overlooked the gardens.

Elizabeth ran towards the person and saw a woman near the terrace. What horrified her was that she suddenly stood up on the terrace wall, and Elizabeth could not mistake her intention.

Without losing an instant, Elizabeth ran forward and pulled the woman down as she was about to jump.

They landed on the floor, and Elizabeth was shocked to discover her identity.

"Lady Isabella? Good Heavens!"