Page 1 of Leave Her Wild
Chapter One
Darcy stepped down from his coach before Matlock House. It was not often that his uncle summoned him to the estate. After all, Darcy had been master of Pemberley Estate for some seven years, but a note had arrived two days earlier. “Urgent, it had said,” he murmured as he crossed to the entrance to greet the earl’s butler, Mr. Percevale.
“Welcome, sir,” Percevale said with a bow.
“I assume his lordship still requires my attendance,” Darcy said with a smile as he handed off his hat and gloves.
“Yes, sir. I am to show you through to the earl’s study as quickly as you arrived.”
Darcy smiled easily. His uncle always wished to be done with business speedily. “Then lay on, Macduff, and damned be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’”
“Shakespeare. Very good, sir.”
He followed the servant up the wide staircase marked with oak balustrades and trimmed with gold plate—so very stately; yet, also, so familiar. How often had he and his cousins, the earl’s sons, run up and down these steps? Perhaps more often than Darcy had at Pemberley, at least, as a child. Classical-style archways marked recessed areas, which sported statues and suits of armor. “History of the family and this part of England,” he thought.
With a knock and a short wait until a voice within called, “Come,” his attendance before the earl was executed with ease, as well as familiarity. Seated in a sturdy wooden chair behind an equally sturdy, as well as formidable, desk sat a man whohad crafted Darcy’s future, comparably as well as had his father, George Darcy.
His uncle did not look up from the much-crossed letter which rested upon the highly polished mahogany desk.
At length, Matlock sat back and gestured Darcy to a nearby chair. “Good to see you, boy.”
As Darcy was the master of one of the largest estates in England, he no longer considered himself a “boy,” but he made no comment. The man before him was the earl who held both George Darcy’s hand, as well as young Fitzwilliam Darcy’s person, when the Darcy family had lost Lady Anne Darcy. Darcy’s mother had passed from complications associated with multiple efforts at childbirth.
Lady Anne meant to present her husband with another son, and, after a series of miscarriages, she had finally given birth again. Not another son, but a daughter. Darcy’s sister. Georgiana was twelve years Darcy’s junior, and he adored her, but he often found himself the “parent,” rather than Georgiana’s brother. Anyway, Lady Anne had hung on for nearly two years after giving birth to Georgiana, but his mother had never been the same. Weak. Basically bedridden. No energy. The “light” of Pemberley passed in her sleep before any of them could pronounce a proper farewell, a fact that had haunted both him and his father.
In those first few years after Lady Anne’s death, the Darcys would all have faltered without the steady hand of the Earl of Matlock on each of their shoulders. It was only after the grief had worked its way through various stages that Darcy had considered how the earl, too, was also in mourning and required someone to support him. Lord Matlock had lost his youngest sister. In that manner, Darcy often felt he had failed the man he greatly admired.
“A Darcy,” the earl began without further preamble, “has been at the helm of Pemberley for centuries. From father to son throughout your father’s family’s bloodlines. Even when Pemberley was but a small castle guarding this part of Derbyshire.”
“Should I be prepared to recite a list of ancestors, my lord?” Darcy asked, half in jest and half in confusion, for he was not confident he understood the purpose of his uncle’s statement nor the necessity of this meeting.
“You were always a superior student,” the earl said. “There is no need for your performance. I hold no doubt you could go all the way back to France with a long list of your ancestors. Instead, read this.” The earl handed over the last page of the paper before him.
“What am I holding?” Darcy asked casually, though casualness was no longer part of his state.
“A letter from your Cousin Samuel Darcy’s son by Samuel’s second wife. One Bertram Darcy. Do you recall him?”
Darcy read what the earl had shared with him. “I do not understand. Per the original documents, Pemberley is to pass through my father’s line, not Samuel’s. The only way Samuel and his children inherit is if I do not produce a male heir. And later the continuation of male heirs from my son to his and so forth.”
“This Bertram Darcy assuredly knows that the line of succession passes through you, but he also comprehends that if you do not produce a child to inherit by your thirtieth birthday, Mr. Bertram Darcy may claim one-fourth of Pemberley Estate. He is making his intentions known now, per your father’s will and the original land grant.”
Darcy continued to read and reread the paper he held. “Samuel Darcy produced only daughters by his first wife and only Bertram Darcy by his second. Though originally the property was to be divided sixty percent for my grandfather andforty percent for Samuel’s grandfather, an agreement was made between my father and Samuel. As you are aware, Samuel has a small estate in Dorset at which he can rarely be found. He is not one to enjoy the life of a rural landowner. He spends the majority of his time in London or on archaeological expeditions. Why can Bertram not claim that land? Though I suspect Samuel enjoys the income as it currently is, and it will be where he retires when his exploring days are at an end. An annual annuity has been regularly presented to him by my father, and now by me, with a signed agreement that he never places a claim on any part of Pemberley. This is prime land to which this man aspires, and it sits where we have developed the roads to Lambton and beyond. It would cripple the rest of the estate if we lost that land. Set us back a decade or more.”
“I do not wish to ask, but is there a female who has caught your eye? A quicker than what you would prefer courtship could cut off Bertram Darcy before you must fight him in court. Even if you produced a female child first, you could prove your wife fertile and that an heir was possible. In my opinion, your agreement with Samuel supersedes this claim by Bertram. However, we must remember, if you produce a male heir, then any minor agreements with Samuel Darcy are no longer in effect. At your discretion, Samuel will lose his annual payment. Perhaps, he has encouraged Bertram, and Bertram has agreed to finance his father’s expeditions, in that case. Moreover, one never knows how the courts will rule in such matters, especially with an estate as large as Pemberley. There is some criticism of late in both Houses of Parliament regarding how the estates have paralyzed all of England beyond the aristocracy and the gentry.”
Darcy assuredly had planned to marry. Pemberley would require a mistress, but he had always thought he would wait until he was thirty before he sought a match. He would admit,but only to himself, he wanted a love match, just as had been the one shared by his parents. Lady Anne and George Darcy had held each other in deep affection, and, although their love story ended too soon, George Darcy had never considered remarrying. For his father, no other could have been the mistress of Pemberley House, other than Lady Anne.
“I suppose you are suggesting that I should go to London.”
“At least I was not required to order you to London,” the earl remarked. “You are always quick to recognize a solution.”
“Hopefully, there are a few potential brides taking in the Short Season. I shall send word ahead to Darcy House. Is either the colonel or Lindale in London? I am a miserable failure without someone to open doors.”
“You underestimate yourself, my boy.”
“I am assuredly ill-qualified to recommend myself to strangers,” Darcy argued.
“Such is because you will not give yourself the trouble,” his uncle argued.
