Not trusting his wife, he filed a certified copy with the Court of Chancery. In addition, copies were given to his solicitor, Hilldale, and Darcy. It was stipulated in the new will the latter two would act as his executors in the event of his death.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Lady Catherine did not become with child for the first four years of their marriage. He was sure allowing him to visit her no more than twice a month had something to do with the fact they had no children.
Rosings Park was unentailed so either a son or daughtercould inherit, but there needed to be a child for that to happen. If no child was born before he was called home to God, then the de Bourgh line would end with him, but the estate would not become his termagant of a wife’s property—ever!
In the years since he had written his new will, his parents-in-law had passed away. The late countess had passed first, about a year previously, and then the Earl had followed her two months later. That left his brother-in-law as the new Earl of Matlock and, much to his wife’s chagrin, Lady Elaine was the new Countess.
Lady Catherine could not accept that one who had been the daughter of a lowly country squire was now above her as a countess. Like everything else she railed against, her vitriol affected nothing.
In late April 1789, Catherine had informed him that she had missed her courses and locked her door to her husband as she stated she was with child. In June of that year, she had reported feeling the quickening. She had condescended to allow the local physician to examine her, all the while telling him how to do his job. The man had confirmed her state and at the same time had requested Sir Lewis find a new doctor to care for his wife.
If she had been irascible when not with child, while she was in the family way Lady Catherine de Bourgh was always on a rampage. Staff and servants knew to keep out of her way as she had not a few times, without any provocation, struck the nearest servant to her.
Sir Lewis had to spend money to placate those not treated well by his wife. Thankfully in the more than four years since his wedding, Sir Lewis had reversed the fortunes of his estate and there was no trace of his father’s neglect remaining. Not only was the estate earning at, and above, the eight thousand pounds per annum level again, but he was investing most of the profits and building up the reserves which he had begun to replenish with the balance of his wife’sdowry.
On the twelfth day of January 1790, Lady Catherine de Bourgh bore a daughter. She was a small babe, born bald except for a tuft of brown hair on the crown of her head. Like all babes, she had blue eyes at birth. His wife wanted to name her Catherine after herself, but de Bourgh refused. He named her Anne after his mother, and the fact her one aunt was an Anne did not hurt at all.
Within a week of his daughter’s birth, Sir Lewis hied to London and Mr. Rumpole’s offices to change his will to reflect his daughter Anne as his heir.
He did not hesitate making the changes given his firm belief his wife would never unlock her door to him again. Having congress with Lady Catherine was not something he would miss, so he would not demand his rights.
The new will was filed with the court like the preceding one and copies were left with the same men who had received them before.
When he returned to Kent, his wife had already begun to write letters to her brother and sister to demand they engage one of their sons, preferably Andrew as he was a viscount, to Anne.
Lewis had forbidden her to mention it again and had written to his brothers to apologise and tell them to ignore his wife’s ravings.
To say Lady Catherine was displeased would be a vast understatement.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Thomas and Frances Bennet—called Fanny by all—were the master and mistress of an estate called Longbourn in Hertfordshire, about one mile to the east of the market town of Meryton.
Bennet was the only child born to James and Elizabeth Bennet. His mother had never fallen in the family way againafter Thomas’s birth.
Thomas and Fanny had married in October 1786, after a three-month courtship followed by a two-month engagement. Although his wife was the daughter of a solicitor and not born into the gentry, Bennet had fallen in love with the beautiful and vivacious Fanny Gardiner.
His eyes were fully open to her faults, she was not the most intelligent of ladies and had a penchant to gossip. She was however willing to learn and with his late mother, Elizabeth Rose’s—called Beth by all—assistance, Fanny had learnt to be a creditable mistress of the estate. Beth Bennet had assisted her daughter-in-law until her passing in early 1797.
Thankfully, Fanny loved her husband as much as he loved her which had made her willing to learn anything and everything that she needed to know to become a capable mistress of an estate.
She would never be a great reader like her husband, who was an academic as much as he was the master of an estate. Fanny did, however, enjoy novels and fashion magazines. When her husband would read to her on occasion, she very much enjoyed it. Whether it was the subject matter or his sonorous voice was not known.
The one thing Fanny feared was the entail to heirs male on the estate, and that without a Bennet son, Longbourn would pass to one in the Collins line. Bennet had soothed his wife’s fears by explaining to her that although at his passing if they were not blessed with a son, anything he had saved and invested as well as any chattel and jewellery not belonging to the estate would remain with his wife and whatever children they had.
He informed her that he had invested her dowry of five thousand pounds with her brother Edward who had opened Gardiner Imports and Exports in London. Added to that was a legacy of seven thousand five hundred pounds which hadbeen gifted to him by his beloved mother after their second daughter had been born. In addition, he sent Gardiner one thousand pounds from Longbourn’s income of three thousand pounds each year. Fanny understood and accepted that even if her Thomas was called home before her, she and any daughters, if there was never a son, would be very comfortable. She was finally able to relax and the fear of the entail was pushed to the back of her mind.
Gardiner, who was three years Fanny’s senior, was very successful and was building a strong business. To date, the returns on money invested with him produced an average of about ten percent per annum. In June 1792, he married a woman he dearly loved, Madeline Lambert.
Fanny’s older sister, Hattie Philips lived in Meryton with her husband Frank. He had been the late Elias Gardiner’s clerk, and when it had become clear Edward had no interest in the law, Frank had been trained to take over the practice.
When the Gardiner patriarch followed his beloved Jane to heaven in April 1788, Philips assumed the management of the practice. Hattie and Frank had no children.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
In mid-February 1788, a daughter was born to Thomas and Fanny Bennet. She was named Jane for Fanny’s late mother. She had been born with golden blonde hair and the bluest of eyes.
