Afterward, they danced a set together, then mutually decided they had experienced enough of the ball. Elizabeth departed to look in on Lily-Anne while Darcy took leave of their host. She found the baby sleeping contentedly, a tiny sliver of white peeking through her lower gum, and walked to her chamber with a lighter heart. Passing Miss de Bourgh’s room, she considered looking in on her as well to enquire whether her headache had improved. No sounds came from within. As she did not wish to disturb her if Miss de Bourgh had indeed found rest, she continued without stopping, but a scheme began to form in her mind. She quickened her step, eager to share the idea with Darcy.
Upon opening the door to her own chamber, she discovered that Darcy had not yet returned. A note, however, lay on the floor with her name written across the front. She picked it up and saw that it bore the de Bourgh seal. Before she had a chance to open it, Darcy entered.
She momentarily set the letter aside on a small table near the door. Whatever Lady Catherine had to say could wait.
“I have been thinking, Darcy. Let us suggest that your cousin Anne return with us to Pemberley from here. If she accompanies us, Lady Catherine cannot use the inconvenience or rigors of travel as an excuse to deny the invitation. Miss de Bourgh will conduct her journey under our protection, enabling you to personally ensure her every comfort, and Pemberley is closer than Rosings, so the length of the trip will prove less taxing on her ‘fragile constitution’ than returning to Kent. The scheme also provides the advantage of immediacy. If we plan the visit for some future date, once Anne is back at home her mother has leisure to devise any number of excuses to prevent its ever actually occurring.”
“She cannot just as easily invent pretexts in person?”
“Evasion and equivocation are more easily achieved from a distance.”
Darcy removed his coat and folded it over the back of a chair. “While that may be true, it seems Miss de Bourgh has another engagement that will prevent her coming to us as you propose. Lady Catherine informed me this evening that my cousin is about to become affianced to Neville Sennex.”
“Lord Sennex’s son?” Elizabeth allowed herself a few moments to absorb the information. She had observed no hint in Anne’s manners that a betrothal had been contracted, though hindsight now suggested that perhaps the engagement, not a headache, had caused her to decline Mr. Crawford’s invitation to dance. “I am all astonishment.”
“Miss de Bourgh might be as well, when my aunt informs her of the marriage. Lady Catherine has been negotiating the entire agreement without her knowledge.”
“But Anne is of age; she should have been consulted. After all, she does not have to give her consent.”
“My aunt is confident she will acquiesce, as she has no other prospects at present.”
Elizabeth pitied Miss de Bourgh. Ladies in society’s upper ranks often had little say in the selection of their own husbands; marriages amongst the ton were foremost business transactions designed to forge alliances, merge estates, build fortunes, and enhance pedigrees. Even among less exalted ranks, affection was often a secondary, negligible consideration, and Elizabeth was thankful anew that it governed her own marriage.
“Knowing Lady Catherine, I am hardly surprised that Miss de Bourgh’s inclinations were not considered. The marriage is quite a coup for your aunt.”
“Indeed, yes. It allies the de Bourghs with an old, established family and restores Lady Catherine’s line to the rank of peers after having married a mere baronet herself. Miss de Bourgh will immediately become the Honorable Anne Sennex, and rise to still higher precedence when the viscount dies and his son inherits the title. As the present Lord Sennex is a widower, even while he lives Anne will be mistress of Hawthorn Manor, one of the finest estates in this part of the country, and enjoy greater wealth than she knew at Rosings.”
“It sounds like a good establishment for your cousin, particularly as she has reached an age where many women must settle for less, if they marry at all. In exchange, Mr. Sennex acquires Lady Catherine as his mother-in-law. Miss de Bourgh certainly must have charmed him, for it would seem that most of the advantages of this bargain fall on her side.”
“Mr. Sennex will be amply compensated for any pain and suffering he endures as a result of his relationship to my aunt. Anne brings a substantial portion — the settlement Lady Catherine brought to her own marriage — and eventually will inherit the entire estate of Rosings.” He paused. “It is, by all appearances, a good match for them both.”
The hesitation, though so slight as to be almost imperceptible, suggested he had left something unsaid.
“However advantageous the marriage may be in worldly considerations, I cannot help but hope that Anne and her husband might also share affection — if not immediately, at least over time,” she said. “I have not met Mr. Sennex. What sort of man is he?”
“Unfortunately, I cannot say that I care for his society. Though my intercourse with him has been limited, in nearly every instance he has shown himself to be a man of short temper and unpleasant disposition. If fact, just this evening, rather than graciously accept defeat, he all but accused his whist opponent of cheating, though his own partner could not support the allegation. And despite invitations whenever I visit Riveton, I will not hunt with the gentleman, nor will Colonel Fitzwilliam.” Darcy went on to explain their aversion.
Elizabeth was sorry to hear the character of Anne’s fiancé so described. “For Miss de Bourgh’s sake, I had wished him to be a more amenable gentleman, but one can hope he might improve under her influence. Too, your cousin is used to living with someone of difficult temperament. Perhaps as mistress of her own house she will be able to better manage Mr. Sennex than she can her own mother. Or at least minimize the time she spends in his company. At present, she is constantly at Lady Catherine’s command.”
A sharp rap on the door so startled Elizabeth that she jumped.
“Darcy! I must speak with you immediately!” The voice was unmistakable.
Darcy glanced at the door, rattling in its frame with the force of repeated knocks, then back at Elizabeth. “Apparently, so are we all.”
Elizabeth scowled. “Does not Lady Catherine understand that we have retired for the night?” Faint strains of music and laughter indicated that the ball continued below. Whatever her ladyship required, could she not apply to Lord Southwell? This was his house, after all. “I suppose she will not go away until we answer.”
Darcy had scarcely depressed the latch when Lady Catherine burst into the room. Colonel Fitzwilliam followed, his entrance less dramatic, but his countenance bore a gravity that Elizabeth had never before witnessed in him. Clearly, the matter that brought them was no trifle.
“I have just come from my daughter’s chamber,” Lady Catherine said. “Anne is missing.”
“An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged… All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.”
— Henry Crawford, Mansfield Park
Likely Miss de Bourgh has recovered from her headache and returned to the ball,” Elizabeth said. “Have you sought her there?”
“Of course I have!” Lady Catherine replied. “What do you think I have been doing for above an hour?”
“Perhaps you might tell us, instead of abusing Mrs. Darcy for a perfectly reasonable question,” Darcy said.
Lady Catherine expelled an exasperated breath. “I sent Mrs. Jenkinson to Anne directly after supper to enquire after her headache. When she reported to me that Anne was not in her chamber, I looked for her in the ballroom. No one had seen her recently, but Lady Winthrop mentioned that earlier in the evening she had witnessed Anne dancing.” She cast a stern look at Colonel Fitzwilliam. “I thought surely Lady Winthrop had mistaken some other young lady for my daughter, but the colonel has admitted his guilt in the matter. I do not know what you were thinking, Fitzwilliam, to risk Anne’s health by exhausting her.”
“I did not believe any harm would derive from a single dance.”
“No harm? Look what your rash action has come to. Anne developed her headache as a result of overexertion, and now cannot be found.”
As Lady Catherine did not include the Darcys in her indictment, Elizabeth inferred that Colonel Fitzwilliam had omitted their involvement from his confession. She would have to thank him later for his discretion.
Recalling the previous night, when she had encountered Anne headed for a walk, she asked, “Have you looked in the gardens? It is a warm night, and I noticed numerous guests strolling outside earlier. Perhaps she decided to take some air.”
“Anne knows better than to expose herself to the night air,” Lady Catherine declared. “She never so much as sleeps with a window open.”
“Nevertheless,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “after searching all the rooms where company is assembled, I indeed circled the gardens, and sent two servants through the hedge maze. They startled more than a few couples, but Anne was not amongst them.”
“I should hope not!” Lady Catherine snapped.
“Has Southwell been informed?” Darcy asked.
“The earl is occupied with his guests,” Lady Catherine said. “He is a useless creature anyway when it comes to serious matters, and therefore performs greater service by distracting others from this crisis rather than taking the situation in hand himself. That is why I must rely upon Colonel Fitzwilliam and you.”
While concerned for Anne’s well-being, Elizabeth thought this situation hardly constituted a crisis. “Miss de Bourgh is a grown woman in familiar surroundings. Surely she is somewhere in the house, perfectly safe and unaware she has even been missed. In fact, she might have even returned to her chamber by now.”
“As I told you, we just came from there, after searching the ball. She is not in her room. And before you suggest that she has returned whilst we have been in conference, Mrs. Jenkinson waits for her there and would have informed me. Her chamber is only round the corner.”
Darcy reached for his coat. “Then let us search the remainder of the house. I agree with Elizabeth — Anne cannot have gone far. In the time we have spent discussing this, we could have found her and all of us returned to our own affairs.”
As he thrust one arm into the garment, the other sleeve disturbed the note Elizabeth had set aside upon his entrance. She had quite forgotten it. The sheet drifted to the floor and landed at Lady Catherine’s feet.
Her ladyship looked at Elizabeth sharply and took it up. “What is this?”
“I discovered it upon returning from the ball, but had not yet found opportunity to read it,” Elizabeth said. “It bears the de Bourgh seal. Is it not from you?”
“This is Anne’s handwriting.”