Anne turned her head to look at her beloved father as he turned to look at her. Her breathing became less frequent and more shallow until she breathed no more. Sir Lewis breathed his last seconds after he was sure Anne was with God.
Chapter 30
John Biggs and Brian Johns arrived at Longbourn a few scant hours after the master and mistress passed away. Their mission was twofold. To deliver the letters they had been charged with making sure reached the Bennet estate, and to begin their new post guarding Miss Lizzy and her family. Miss Lizzy was as yet unaware of the fact they and the men who worked with them were now her guards.
As sad as they were Miss Anne and the master were in heaven, they would perform their duties and fulfil their promises to the two de Bourghs. The other four men would transfer to Longbourn after the interments. Both men were wearing black armbands on their left arms.
Bennet and Elizabeth had been engaged in a half-hearted battle across the chessboard when Hill informed the master the two guards from Oak Hollow were asking to see him. Bennet nodded his permission as Elizabeth began to cry. She knew there would be only one reason John and Brian would be at Longbourn now—Anne and very likely Uncle Lewis were not living any longer.
The two huge men were shown into the master’s study without delay. As soon as Elizabeth saw the black armbands her weeping intensified exponentially. The sound of Elizabeth’s mournful sobbing brought her mother, Jane, Andrew, and Mary from the drawing room.
Knowing what the tableau before them signified, Fanny, Jane, and Mary began to cry quietly. Fanny urged her second daughter out of the chair where she had sat playing chess withher father and gently led her sobbing daughter to the settee between the two windows looking out onto the park.
Mary sat on Elizabeth’s other side while Andrew comforted his wife as best he could.
“Are they both…?” Bennet began but the words died in his throat as the emotion hit him like a punch to the gut.
“Aye, Mr. Bennet, they be wif’ God,” Biggs averred simply. “We ‘ave to deliver these ‘ere letters.” Biggs withdrew three letters from his pocket and proffered them to Bennet.
“Thank you Biggs,” Bennet managed as he fought for composure. “I am sure you need to return to Oak Hollow. Are your men watching over Sir Lewis and Anne?”
“Aye, them an’ Missus Jenki,” Biggs responded. “Them letters will explain why we are to stay ‘ere at Longbourn.”
Bennet nodded. He remembered the reasons his late friend would want the guards at Longbourn. The two men exited the study and stationed themselves in the hallway on either side of the door.
“I must send a note to Netherfield Park,” Bennet realised, still very much in a daze.
“Come, let us return to the drawing room and wait for your father there,” Fanny gently led Elizabeth and the rest of the other family members out of the study. It broke her heart to hear the anguish in Lizzy’s crying.
Fanny guided Elizabeth to a settee. She pulled her to herself as soon as she sat next to her second daughter. “Lizzy, knowing Anne’s and Lewis’s passing was imminent does not make it easier to bear,” Fanny stated gently as she dried her daughter’s tears with her silk handkerchief. “Think about the fact neither Anne nor Lewis is suffering any longer and are together in God’s Kingdom where they will watch over us.”
“I know…Mama,” Elizabeth managed between sobs, “but it does…not make the pain…any less.”
“Of course not dear girl,” Fanny comforted. She pushed her own pain and mourning aside for now so she would be able to take care of her daughter. “Over time the hurt will lessen and you will slowly begin to feel better.”
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Bennet sent one of his grooms to Netherfield Park with a black edged note. Then he sat back and looked at the letter addressed to himself, and the others below it, which remained untouched on his desk. He chastised himself that he was procrastinating as if seeing who they were addressed to, or reading one to himself would somehow make everything more final than they were.
He carefully lifted the missives. There was one for Lizzy, another for Matlock—he remonstrated with himself for delaying looking at the letters until after he sent the note to Netherfield Park. When the groom returned he would have to have Hill send the man back. The third missive, the one which had been on the top of the other two, was for himself. Bennet was well aware Lizzy was in no state to read the letter addressed to her so he would keep it until she was in a state of mind where she could digest the words.
He lifted his letter and after staring at it for some moments, he cracked the de Bourgh seal. He took a sip of cognac to help steady his nerves, feeling it burn as it coursed down his throat, and then began to read.
7 October 1810
Oak Hollow
Bennet my friend,
If you are reading this then Anne and I are no longer in the mortal world. That Anne passed before me portends I have had enough strength to wait until she has begun her eternal slumber before beginning my own.
Biggs and Johns would have carried out my instructions anddelivered this letter to you, along with others. You are well aware as one of my executors why I have arranged for them and the rest of their men to join your household.
Before I say anything else, you must allow me to tell you how much your friendship has meant to me and Anne. I refer to all of you, especially Lizzy.
I was always sad Anne had no siblings, but in Lizzy, she had a sister. Even though she was not quite as close to your other four daughters, they too were thought of as sisters by Anne. We were family long before Jane married Andrew.
You objected to the way I structured my will, but I expect you to honour my wishes. There are no more living de Bourghs (I have never counted Catherine as a true de Bourgh) and as you well know, the rest of my family through marriage is very well taken care of. Do not forget both Matlock and my late brother Darcy agreed with and gave their blessing to the way I structured my last will and testament once Richard was master of his own profitable estate.
