Expectations: The Transformation of Miss Anne de Bourgh (Pride and Prejudice Continued), Volume 2

Expectations:

The Transformation of Miss Anne de Bourgh

(Pride and Prejudice Continued)

In Three Volumes

By Melinda Wellesley

Fiction For Real

Madison, Wisconsin

Copyright © 2017 Melinda Wellesley.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes, and references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

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Expectations: The Transformation of Miss Anne de Bourgh (Pride and Prejudice Continued), Volume 2 / Melinda Wellesley. -- 1st ed.

ISBN for mobi version: 978-1-68023-033-8.

ISBN for epub version: 978-1-68023-036-9.

ISBN for PDB version: 978-1-68023-039-0.

ISBN for PDF version: 978-1-68023-042-0.

ISBN for LRF version: 978-1-68023-045-1.

ISBN for plain text version: 978-1-68023-048-2.

ISBN for HRML SmashReader version: 978-1-68023-051-2.

This work is dedicated to the memory of my friend the gifted writer Sara Campbell, who believed that if you can’t fit pirates into your novel, you’re probably writing the wrong book.

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.

―JANE AUSTEN

Expectations:

The Transformation of Miss Anne de Bourgh

(Pride and Prejudice Continued)

Volume Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

John Allenden sat in doleful silence on the lower bunk in the windowless six-foot by ten-foot room that he and Harrison would call home for the next several weeks. To think that he had surrendered his fine stateroom to the daughter of Lady Catherine de Bourgh! The irony was too great. The praise from his family for his gallant gesture would turn into well-deserved mockery. His sister the countess—how she would howl with laughter at his expense.

Harrison sat on the stack of two small chests, the only chair available in the room. Sir, if I am not being presumptuous, may I inquire into your distress?

Allenden tried to regain his composure. Harrison, how many times have you heard the story of my parents’ meeting?

At least a hundred, sir. It is a romantic tale much favored by the maids.

Allenden knew that not everyone agreed. When the widowed earl accompanied his sons to the Continent on their Grand Tour, the few who took notice offered doting smiles. But when he brought home a young and beautiful Italian wife, more people noticed, and many without benevolence. It made no difference that Lady Maria Vittoria outranked her husband as the eldest daughter of an Umbrian marchese—more than one tongue began to wag with suspicion. Chief among the critics was the widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh. Even though the family was personally unknown to her and lived several counties away in Wiltshire, Lady Catherine focused a harpy’s glare on the young foreign intruder and her equally attractive younger sister, who had accompanied the family home to England in hopes of making a similar glittering match. Mixing truth with fiction, Lady Catherine ignored the family’s collective happiness and portrayed the two noblewomen as children of a singer—even worse in her eyes, an opera singer—and she stated as an obvious conclusion that the older girl had trapped the earl into marrying her, as evidenced by the strapping baby boy on her knee. Making no inquiries into the dates of the marriage and the boy’s birth, which were nearly a year apart, the widow made it her mission to blacken Lady Vittoria’s reputation and exclude her younger sister, John’s vivacious aunt Lady Maria Andriana, from entering society.

Lady Catherine could do no harm to Lady Vittoria and her happy marriage, but her success against her younger sister had been complete. Any suitors were warned away by rumors, innuendo, and, in the case of the besotted son of Baron ——, a direct appeal to the young man’s mother. Lady Andriana found herself spurned by the family of the man she loved and shunned by society, and with a broken heart she retreated into the role of maiden aunt to her sister’s son and daughter. By all reports, Lady Catherine was well pleased with her work and set about canvassing her home county for more moral victories.

Allenden said, You remember what happened after the romantic part of the tale.

Yes, sir. Most lamentable. Lady Andriana certainly deserved better. She is a fine woman.

All the grief, all the dashed hopes and broken dreams, were caused by Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Harrison frowned in astonishment. Could it be the same woman?

How many of them could there be? No, Harrison. I took pity on the daughter of the viper who ruined my aunt’s prospects and gave fuel to my sister the countess’s spiteful scandalmongering.

A most unhappy coincidence, sir. But this young lady seems pleasant enough. After all, she chose to repack her bags rather than coerce the captain into taking all her belongings. Perhaps she is of a different temper than her mother.

Allenden could not hear his valet’s logic. He thought of his oldest brother’s wife and how she would savor this. Both of his brothers, Thomas and Philip, respected and loved his mother, never begrudging her the role of countess in her time and now dowager countess. However, once Thomas finally chose a very young wife five years ago, the troubles began. Having been elevated to the nobility with her advantageous marriage, the jealous and ill-prepared new countess resented mentions of her beautiful and charming predecessor. Lady Mary retaliated by belittling the dowager countess’s family at every opportunity, even resurrecting the decades-old lies about his mother and aunt.

Additional discontent lay in the state of the succession. Lady Mary had two young daughters, and John’s next elder brother, Philip, also had daughters. That left John as the ultimate heir if the young countess failed to produce a son. She lived in dread of his claiming the title someday and repaying her for all the disrespect she had shown his family. As a preemptive attack against future retribution, she denigrated his achievements and undercut him whenever she could. Not only had she purchased his commission below his social rank, but she had also cornered him into undertaking a dangerous mission or else subject his family to public humiliation over his want of courage.

Now, through an act of misguided kindness, he had given the countess more cruel gossip to spread by aiding the daughter of his family’s intractable adversary. The situation could not be more absurd. Well, at least now he knew what he had done, and he would not continue to aid the enemy. Miss de Bourgh would get no further consideration from him.

***

I tell you, Anne, I am sure of it. That dark and handsome Mr. Francis is Signor Domino.

In the stateroom, Anne and Mrs. Jenkinson had been listening to Harriet’s reasoning for the last five minutes. Harriet catalogued everything from his height, his hair, his eyes, and even the handsome shape of his calves, which she said she noticed even though he now wore boots. Mrs. Jenkinson considered her words, while Anne remained unconvinced. You had no mask, Harriet. Surely he would have recognized you. If so, why did he not acknowledge you?

We were none of us properly introduced last night because the unmasking never happened. If you were more familiar with dance etiquette, you would understand. Mrs. Jenkinson, do you agree? Outside the ballroom, Mr. Francis cannot treat us like he has seen us before.

Mrs. Jenkinson said that could be possible, although in her day such a fine point would not always have been so strictly observed.

Anne replied, But Captain Hawkins introduced us. Does that not mean he could admit to having met us at the masquerade? No, I do not believe you.

Harriet would not be deterred. You danced with him, Anne. Cannot you see him in that mask and cape?

But his manners are so different. Signor Domino was an absolute gentleman and showed us every courtesy. This Mr. Francis has barely spoken to us, and his disapprobation for no reason chilled me to the bone. No, I see no resemblance at all.

Dolly came into the room and announced to the ladies that she would be content to sleep in a room with three of the other servants and not inconvenience the ladies. Harriet asked her how Dr. Minton fared, relegated as he was to sharing cramped quarters with other servants. Dolly blushed and said in a meek voice, He is bearing up as best he can. I think he objected because he is a gentleman, after all. Now he will have to listen to Parker and Stevens snore and Holcombe complain about his rheumatism.

Mrs. Jenkinson offered a sympathetic nod, then apologized to Anne and Harriet. I am afraid you ladies will hear the same awful noise from me. Harriet laughed as Mrs. Jenkinson added that she did not know when she developed that affliction, but now she sometimes woke herself up. Harriet observed that Mrs. Ross would probably have rheumatism of her own, so Dolly should tell Dr. Minton that Anne will suffer just as much as he will. Anne hushed her, even as she tried not to smile.

With the port’s shelter an hour behind them, the rise and fall of the waves began to unsettle Anne’s stomach. Mrs. Jenkinson suggested they go up on deck for fresh air. Harriet added that watching the sailors would also distract Anne from her discomfort, then laughed.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lounging on the boards of the quarterdeck to escape his confining room, John Allenden forced himself to get used to the slow pitch of the ship. He would never be a man of the sea, despite all the trips his family had made to Italy, and every time he needed a few days to accustom himself to the endless motion. At least he suffered no sour stomach as so many others did. He had heard at least one person in the quarters next door get sick.

Hidden from view by sitting on the deck behind a water barrel, he watched the small crew down on the middeck tend to the ship and tried not to think about the throbbing ache