Mr. Darcy's Daughter (20 page)

"When
you return from Cambridge in the Summer, Miss Gardiner, I shall have done a
good deal more work on the grounds. I hope you will like them even more,
then," he said.

At
these words, Lizzie, quite genuinely alarmed that he was about to "tame
the unruly woodlands" as her mother had predicted he would, pleaded,
"Please Mr. Carr, I do hope you do not intend to cut down the woods and
drain the water meadows for pasture."

Mr.
Carr seemed astounded. "Cut down the woods? Why Miss Gardiner, whatever
made you think I could do such a thing? The woods around Rushmore Farm are, for
me, the most beautiful part of the property; they are full of grand old trees.
I would never dream of it, I assure you," he said earnestly. "As for
draining the water meadows, you must not forget I am an Irishman, Miss
Gardiner. I love the water meadows. I would no more drain them than chop down
the splendid old oak that stands at the front of the house."

Lizzie's
bright smile signalled her complete approval, and Mr. Carr looked decidedly pleased
with her response.

"Clearly
you think as I do, Miss Gardiner," he said, and she agreed, "Oh yes
indeed, I think they are the loveliest part of Rushmore Farm, Mr. Carr; you
have done much to improve the house, but without the woods and the meadows and
all the wonderful creatures that live in them, it would be just an ordinary
farm.

The
woods and meadows make all the difference. I am delighted that you intend to
leave them just as they are."

Clearly
happy to have her approval, he said, "I most certainly do. I can assure
you that when you return from Cambridge, the special beauty of the place will
not have been changed. When I spoke just now of work I intended to do, I was
thinking of the paddocks and stables for the horses. They need restoring."

Lizzie's
eyes shone with pleasure, but there was no time for more conversation for Dr
Gardiner and Cassy were coming downstairs.

Lizzie
gave him her hand as they parted and, at the very moment when he raised it to
his lips, Cassy entered the room.

Young
Darcy, standing at the door, had inadvertently obscured them from his mother's
view, which was just as well, for Cassy Gardiner had far too many things to
worry about, without beginning to be concerned about the possibility of her
daughter, who was not yet nineteen, being courted by the Irish-American
grandson of a stable boy.

As
it happened, Mr. Carr said his farewells quickly, thanked the Gardiners, and
left, taking young Darcy with him. They had business in Derby, to do with the
horse stud, Darcy said. Both Cassy and her husband had noted the easy
friendship that existed between their son and Mr. Carr. Richard was
particularly pleased. "Mr. Carr seems a mature and sensible man; I hope
his example will encourage Darcy to settle into a suitable career," he
said, as the two men drove away.

Lizzie
embraced her mother before her father assisted her into the carriage. Cassy
smiled for them, but watched them go with a heavy heart. The disturbing echo of
Josie's words at Pemberley, about the sad fate of women who sacrificed their
personal happiness in the service of others, and the memory of her brother's
despondent countenance as he met her eyes could not be easily dispelled.

*

Through
the Spring of 1865 and into the Summer, Michael Carr continued to work hard at
the farm, building up and developing the property he felt he had so
advantageously and fortuitously acquired. Ever since he had come into his
uncle's money, he had longed for a place of his own. Not so as to win the
favour of those members of society who valued a man by the extent of his
property, but because he longed to feel a part of a community, however small.

Never
having lived in Ireland, he had little more than ties of sentiment to the old
country; as for America, where he had spent his early childhood and some of his
later years, he felt no more at home there than he would in Brazil or Canada,
where many men had gone in search of fortune and power.

In
France, it had been different; he had enjoyed the life and loved the country,
with its ancient heritage and rich culture, but he was always at a
disadvantage. However proficient he became at the language, France was not his
home. He had made many friends, but remained always the outsider. Only in
England, where he had been at school for many years, had he felt some sense of
belonging. Since he had returned recently and become friends with young Darcy
Gardiner and met his family, his entire world had changed.

With
the acquisition of his own little piece of England, in a part of the country that
had once been home to his grandparents, he had at last begun to feel the tug of
a homeland upon his heart.

He
worked hard at improving the place and hoped to have it ready when Summer
returned. Perhaps, he asked young Darcy, they might even play a game of cricket
here. Darcy wasn't certain; he would have to ask his team, he said, but he was
sure something could be arranged.

"What
about a country dance, after the customary cricket match at Kympton?" he
suggested. Darcy was certain
that
would be very well received.

"Because,"
he explained, "apart from the annual Harvest Festival and the ball at
Pemberley, to which not everyone is invited, there are few places the younger
folk of the village can attend for a dance. Not everyone wants to go into Derby
to the assembly rooms. I am sure if you have a dance at Rushmore Farm, you will
be enormously popular with all the families in the district."

Mr.
Carr thought he liked the sound of that. It would be a very good way to get to
know all his neighbours, landholders and tenants alike.

"Perhaps,
we could have fireworks?" he suggested, and Darcy thought that was a very
good scheme, indeed.

It
would all require a great deal of work, of course, but Mr. Carr was confident
it could be done and Darcy promised to help.

Unhappily
for Mr. Carr, however, they were overtaken soon afterwards by events in London,
where the political situation was gaining in heat and rhetoric what it was
losing in logic and clarity. At breakfast, some days later, reading from a
letter he had received from Mr. Colin Elliott, MP, Darcy Gardiner announced,
"Lord Palmerston, having won a vote of confidence in the Commons, by the
skin of his teeth, is now, at the age of eighty, intending to fight another
election, on no issue at all, except that of his own popularity. The man's a
megalomaniac!"

Before
the day was out, Darcy, whose fascination with politics had been stoked to a
blaze by the news, was preparing to set off for Westminster with the intention
of "being in at the death" and involving himself in Mr. Elliott's
campaign for re-election.

That,
unfortunately, left Mr. Carr on his own, with no one to turn to for advice,
since with the onset of Spring, Cassy Gardiner was deeply involved in the
affairs of her father's estate, Pemberley.

Already
there had been disputes between old tenants and newcomers, which needed
settling, and the allocation of grazing rights on the Common, which was made
available to all, was coming up again as a potentially contentious issue. Mr.
Darcy's steward had appealed for Cassy's help in resolving the matter. She had
her hands full.

Returning
from Cambridge, her husband had brought no news, except that both Julian and
Josie had welcomed Lizzie with what appeared to be genuine pleasure. "No
doubt, they will enjoy having Lizzie to sit between them at table each
night," he said. "I must confess I found the quite palpable
atmosphere of coldness very difficult indeed."

"Poor
little Lizzie, I do hope she is not going to be miserable," said Cassy,
almost wishing she had not kept her promise to send them her daughter for
company. Richard was certain that Lizzie, being intelligent and sensible, would
find sufficient things to occupy her. "Anthony was clearly delighted to
see her," he said, and Cassy was reminded once more of Julian's sad tale
about the boy.

Meanwhile,
as if to mock her own discontent, letters from Kent and Hertfordshire brought
good news aplenty. Her cousins, Emma and James Wilson, were at the centre of a
resurgent campaign to press for electoral reform.

Emma
wrote:

With
the possibility of Mr. Gladstone being elected with sufficient support to lead
the Liberal and Reformist MPs in the new Parliament (for they have quite given
up on Lord Palmerston), there is a very real prospect that what we have all
hoped for may come to pass at last.

James
says he is embarrassed that England is being so tardy about giving ordinary men
the vote. (As for the women, no one is prepared to speculate when that might
even be regarded as a debatable proposition!)Your Darcy is here and being
exceedingly helpful. He has so much energy and keeps everyone entertained with
his imitations of Lord Palmerston.

Emma
was clearly enjoying the prospect.

Cassy,
who had never been able to summon up enough enthusiasm to become involved in
politics herself, could not help but admire her cousin's devotion to her
husband's cause of reform.

Not
long afterwards, from Netherfield came even more good news, as the Bingleys,
Jonathan and Anna, celebrated the return of Jonathan's son Charles to
Hertfordshire. Not only did they express their pleasure at his decision to work
at the new Children's Hospital, but the letter brought also the very special
news that Jonathan's daughter Anne-Marie was expecting her first child at
Christmas. Having no children from her first marriage, Anne-Marie had longed
for a child.

Anna
wrote of their happiness:

Especially
because dear Anne-Marie has suffered so much in the past, one almost has to
pray that this time it will turn out all right. She and Mr Elliott are
delighted, of course, but just at this moment seem to be concentrating more
upon the election which looms in July than the baby due in December.

Everyone
seemed to have their share of good news, thought Cassy, even Mr. Bowles,
Jonathan's steward, who had been a lonely widower for twenty years, was married
again. Her mother had heard from Mrs. Charlotte Collins that Mr. Bowles and his
wife Harriet, who had been Charlotte's faithful companion for many years, were
now in charge of managing the household at Longbourn. No doubt,
they
would be very happy, too!

To
Cassandra, all this bliss was beginning to sound tedious. Why, she wondered,
was her family so beset with woe?

Her
own keen anguish sprang from her brother's desperate situation, which was so
compounded by trouble that, as a consequence, her own life and that of her
family had been unavoidably affected as well. She was also well aware of the
depressing effect all this had had upon her parents.

Two
days later, the arrival of a letter from Lizzie brought some relief. She was
well and in good spirits. She had visited Julian's college and seen the great
library that was the heart of its treasures, as well the laboratory where he
did most of his work. Strangely, she said, Aunt Josie had never seen it.

"My
uncle says she has never asked to visit, although he would have liked to have
shown her its amazing secrets," she wrote.

Lizzie
wrote also of a soiree and supper party--which she and Josie had attended in
the company of the two Misses Wallace-Groom--at which they had met both Mr.
Barrett and his friend the publisher, Mr. Andrew Jones.

According
to Lizzie, anybody who aspired to be anything in the literary world had been
present, and Mr. Dickens had been expected to do a reading from his latest book
but had not turned up.

The
reason given by our hosts was that the great man was sick with bronchitis, but
Mama, you will not be surprised to learn that the gossips had it he was in
France with his mistress, Miss Nelly Ternan!

wrote
Lizzie. Cassy was rather shocked but read on.

You will also be happy to hear, Mama, that my dear brother
Darcy arrived quite unexpectedly last week and wanted me to accompany him to a
ball at a private house in Regent Street. I was at first reluctant to go,
because I had not brought anything suitable to wear for such an occasion, but
Aunt Josie
lent me one of her gowns, a beautiful confection of
cream silk and lace with a large rose on the shoulder. I finally went and my
brother declared that I looked "very acceptable," which I suppose
from him is a compliment.

To my surprise, I discovered, when we arrived at the house,
that Mr. Carr was to be one of our party. Darcy claimed his friend was in London
for a few days on business and had been coaxed into joining us. Mr. Carr
admitted later that he had been very reluctant, since he scarcely knew anyone
at all, except Darcy, but he was very glad he had allowed himself to be
persuaded. If I were to tell the truth, dear Mama, so was I, for Mr Carr and my
brother were the only men present with whom one could have a sensible
conversation.

Most
of the ladies were rather silly and very overdressed, while a lot of the young
gentlemen were foppish and had nothing to say, only town talk. When we danced,
they would ask, patronisingly, "And where have you come from, Miss
Gardiner?" as if one were a mouse.