Judith Brocklehurst: Darcy and Anne

Twenty years ago, the famous Burley spring was a damp depression in a meadow, where women brought their washing, and the sick sometimes their aching bones. Then progress—or rather the desire for money—arrived. The hot spring, imprisoned in a fine stone casing, was surrounded with a Pump Room, bathhouse, and promenade, and renamed the “Burley Chalybeate.” Assembly Rooms, shops, and several hostelries and elegant lodgings sprang up around it. But numerous other springs had been so apotheosed, and many resort towns had hopefully sprung up. The number of visitors to the remote Derbyshire dale was not so great as could be wished. Although the summer was becoming very hot, the hotels were still not full, and the Duchess of Stilbury, whose visit was the most anticipated event of the season, had chosen to hire furnished lodgings rather than stay at the Royal George.

Had it been otherwise, even Mrs Endicott might have had trouble getting any attention for the timid young lady in the close bonnet and old-fashioned dress. As it was, the name of “Lady Catherine de Bourgh” was all that was needed. The proprietor, the proprietor's wife, the waiters, the chambermaids, the ostlers, the very potboys, all smartened up and bustled themselves about at the prospect of a Lady Catherine; and almost before she knew it, Anne was in possession of a very decent bedchamber, a private sitting room, and the services of a chambermaid, while in a rather larger bedroom, a capable-looking doctor, hastily summoned, was attending to her mother, with Mullins obeying his every command.

Dr Lawson soon joined her, and told her that Lady Catherine had broken her arm. But her principal problem was a very bad case of poisoning. She had obviously eaten some noxious food, probably some meat that had gone bad in the warm weather. He did not think that her case was desperate, but it was serious; a few hours would show how bad it was. In any case, she must not expect her mother to be well again in a few days, or even weeks. Lady Catherine would require attention by day and night, to a far greater extent than her maid could provide; he would like to send in a sickroom assistant, an excellent woman whom he had employed in several cases; would Miss de Bourgh agree to the expenditure? Anne assented.

“Now, I must leave you,” he said. “I have several other cases to see to; but I will return, and Mrs Williams will probably arrive before I do; I will tell them downstairs to send for her as soon as may be, for I think your maid is a little bewildered,” and he left.

Anne felt that she, too, was bewildered. But she must rouse herself, she must think. There was money in Lady Catherine's reticule, and she had paid off the post-chaise; but she had engaged herself in a good many expenses. She had no idea of how people arranged to pay for things, when they were from home. Her mother, or her mother's man of business, had always attended to such matters. Things were ordered, and bills paid; Anne had never had more than a few shillings in her own purse. Then, too, they would be expected at Pemberley—but no! her mother had not specified any particular date, no one would be anxious. But she was alone! she, who had never in her life been alone. What was she to do? How was she to go on? All her life, somebody had told her what to do; and now, she must think, she must act for herself.

She thought of writing to Mr Colby, her mother's agent, at Rosings, but the letter must go down into Kent, and then it would certainly take him several days to arrive. The best thing she thought she could do, was to write to Mr and Mrs Darcy, and send the letter by the post; if she had understood her friend of the carriage—Mrs… Mrs Endicott—aright, Pemberley was but fifteen miles distant. Her cousin might be haughty and disdainful, but if she wrote to him, he would certainly assist her. If he did not come himself, he would send someone; maybe his man of business, or the lady who was Georgiana's companion, for Anne did not rate her claims to attention very high. Letters, she had heard, usually arrived on the following day after they were sent. Someone would come, as early as tomorrow—or the next day. Meanwhile, the hotel people, and the doctor, surely would not ask her for any money for a few days—no! of course they would not.

She sat down at the desk, and after a struggle with the bad pen, and the black mud that the hotel called ink, she found the actual composition of the letter very easy; she had something to tell, she had something to ask. She folded the letter and directed it, then looked into her mother's room. No attendant had yet arrived, and Mullins was fully occupied; her mother could not be left alone. The chambermaid had disappeared, and there seemed to be nobody about the hotel who was not frantically busy. In the end, she timidly asked directions of a hurried waiter, and set out, a little nervously, to find the post office.

The post office was located not far away, outside the fashionable quarter, but only a couple of streets distant, beside the church, in the old part of the town. It was toward the end of a warm afternoon, the promenade was not busy, and the few strollers took no notice of Anne.

She had never in her life gone beyond the palings of Rosings Park on foot. She had never gone anywhere unaccompanied. She had always been told that her health did not permit her to learn to ride. Her exercise was always limited to a walk in the formal garden, or the grounds, and if she left them, it was for a carriage drive. Usually she drove with her mother, sometimes alone; but “alone,” of course, always meant in the company of Mrs Jenkinson. It was quite easy to find her way, but even so, she found the walk to the post office very tiring and trying; she felt that everyone must be staring at her; she wondered what she would do if she were to get lost; and the heat, radiating back from the fronts of the houses, distressed her greatly. The walk, of less than half a mile, seemed dreadfully long. However, she arrived at last; the place was not busy; in fact there were no customers; the civil postmistress took her letter; the letter was sent! it must arrive tomorrow, and her cousins would come and rescue her, or send someone, or write, at least.

The walk back was successfully navigated; but by the time she arrived at the hotel, heat, nervousness, and exhaustion had brought on a bilious head-ache. Her legs were shaking so much that she could scarcely walk up the stairs. She opened the door of her sitting room, to find Dr Lawson seated at the table, writing.

“Ah, my dear young lady,” he said. “They told me you were gone out, and I was leaving a note for you. Your mother is no worse, and we certainly need not fear for her life. Her arm has been strapped up, and Mrs Williams is there and knows just what to do for her. But let me look at you! What have you been doing? You are quite white; you are perspiring. The post office? You are knocked up after a walk to the post office? Dear me. Have I one patient, or two? You feel queasy? Yes, I thought so.” He strode to the door, and she heard him shouting at the head of the stairs, to someone, to bring a pot of mint tea—"Hot, mind!"—right away. Anne leaned back in a chair, and closed her eyes.

The mint tea made her feel much more comfortable; and she was very soon able to accede to Dr Lawson's request to see any medications that she was in the habit of taking. When he saw the half-dozen bottles, his face changed; he looked very grave, and took them up, one by one, muttering “Yes, very well; but this—no! together with this, my G—, what are they trying to do to the girl? And this—absolutely noxious—absolute poison!” He asked if she had any list of the ingredients used to make them up. “Yes, sir, for the doctor thought, if we were away for a considerable time, I would need more. I think I can find it… yes, here it is.”