George Wickham was not pleased. That damned prig had made it so he could not gain credit anywhere in the area. It was not like he could complain to his easily duped godfather that he could not gain credit and leave debts in his son’s name.
Instead, Wickham got friendly with some of the fast crowd. He convinced them that Fitzwilliam Darcy was trying to steal his inheritance, and he would pay them well if they beat him to a pulp. Unfortunately for Wickham’s cohorts, the night they made their attempt, their victim was with Richard Fitzwilliam. The two were walking back to their suite.
The cousins fought valiantly, but there were five of them. An additional set of fists on their side turned the tide. Charles Bingley had been strolling around the campus and seen the five attack two, which he knew was fundamentally unfair. Hence, he had joined the fight. It was not long before all five were on theflats of their backs, moaning and groaning from their various bruises, split lips, and other aches and pains.
Lifting the smallest of the five clear of the ground by the lapels of his jacket, Richard got the story out of the quaking coward of why they had been set upon. He and Fitz informed the men they had been taken in by a silver-tongued devil, who was the son of a steward. He was the one who was jealous of the heir to the estate, the one they had attacked. Richard warned them that as the son of an earl and nephew of a duke, cousin to a marquess, to name a few, if the men ever attempted something so dishonourable again, it would not go well for them or their families.
The next night, George Wickham was found very badly beaten, with a few broken bones and some missing teeth. As much as he would have liked to blame Fitzwilliam Darcy, he could not, as the prig had been at a chess match at the time of the beating.
Wickham was sent back to Derbyshire to recover, missing almost all of that school year.
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Even though his father was in trade, Fitz became rather close to Charles Bingley. Where he was dour and reticent, Bingley was amiable and outgoing. He eased Bingley’s way in society, and Bingley helped him in social settings, which were usually very difficult for Fitz.
The one drawback was when the Darcy heir met Miss Bingley and Miss Caroline. Both set their caps for him. That he was only nineteen and Louisa Bingley was two years older, and Miss Caroline not yet fifteen, meant nothing to them. It was when Fitz discovered a major character flaw in his friend that he was very easily led by his sisters, especially the younger one who knew just how to manipulate him.
From that first meeting on, Fitz made sure he and Bingley, who thankfully called him Darce and not Fitz, met at male orientated locations where the sisters would not be able to attend.
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In mid-April 1801, the Bennets, except for the three youngest children, attended the christening of the first child born to Madeline and Edward Gardiner in London at St Basil’s Church. It was the parish the Gardiners attended, which was not far from their home.
Edward had married his Maddie—as she was called by all who were close to her—in the same church in June 1796, but until she became with child in 1800, Maddie had believed that He would not bless them with children. Both Gardiners had been ecstatic when Maddie had felt the quickening leading to the birth of a son, Edward, to be called Eddy, on the second day of April.
Although he was never sanguine with what his father and sister had done to assist the late Fanny to entrap Bennet, Gardiner had maintained a correspondence with his sire and sister in Devonshire. An enthusiastic letter was received with congratulations for the birth of Edward the younger, but his father and sister—who was a spinster—decided it was too distant for them to travel. Maddie and Edward agreed that it was more than likely that they had related that the Bennets would attend the christening which had kept his father and sister away.
The two were aware that Fanny had birthed a daughter before she passed away, but they were not surprised Bennet would not allow any contact with them.
Much to Gardiner’s delight, Bennet had kept his vow that he would allow him contact with Jane. Even though he was only uncle to Jane, all of the Bennet children addressed Gardiner asUncle Edward and were soon calling his wife Aunt Maddie. The London Gardiners usually spent Easter and Christmastide with the Bennets at Longbourn. On the rare occasions the Bennet parents would be in Town, they would never miss calling on the Gardiners in Gracechurch Street.
Thanks in large part to the influx of investment from Bennet and his extended family, Gardiner had taken on two minor partners, making his company truly Gardiner and Associates.
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By 1803, the Bennets had managed to purchase back all of the land which the ancestor had fritted away, as well as additional land that had not been part of Longbourn originally. This was thanks to the ever-growing dividends Edward Gardiner produced. By that time, many in the extended family had invested with him.
Although Devonshire had tried to demure, Bennet had repaid the money he had added to purchase the share of Gardiner and Associates, with a twenty percent premium. He had tried to claim that he could do no less for all of his grandchildren, and Bennet had pointed out that they were quite well off in their own right. In the end, the Duke had accepted the funds.
At fourteen, Jane was an ethereal beauty based on the definition of beauty in society. Becca did not think she was being presumptuous when she considered all four of her daughters beautiful. Lizzy, who much to her chagrin was no longer taller than her twin, was an extremely pretty girl who, at twelve, was at that awkward stage between being a girl and becoming a woman.
Mary was ten, and had hair which was golden brown in colour, similar to Henry’s and her father’s. Well, at least Thomas used to have that colour; now he was mostly grey. Her eyes werean intriguing light blue. She was a very intelligent girl who like the twins and her parents, was a bibliophile. Little Ellie, who was five was the closest to blonde hair other than Janey, but rather than blue like her eldest sister, she had the same emerald green eyes as Grandmama Beth and Lizzy. Much to the surprise of her father, and others in the family, Ellie was fascinated with chess.
The Bennet sons were, in Becca’s unbiased opinion, the two handsomest boys ever born. Except for his golden eyes like her own, Henry was a copy of his father, while Tommy, with his hazel eyes with gold flecks in them, was a combination of both of his parents.
As they had expected he would be, by the time he was eight, Tommy was a few inches taller than Henry. Although as the eldest Bennet son, he would have preferred to be taller than his brother; Henry was a lot more sanguine with Tommy having more height than he would have been had Lizzy still been taller than himself. The twins tenth birthday two years past had been a special reason for Henry to celebrate, and not only because that was when the two of them graduated to riding a cob, but it was the first birthday he had an inch or so in height on Lizzy.
An unlikely friendship had sprung up between Jane, Lizzy, and Charlotte Lucas, who was nineteen. None of the three were bothered by the fact Charlotte was five years older than Jane and seven years more than Lizzy, who, for some reason, she called Eliza. They had become friends when Sir William sold the controlling interest in his businesses in Meryton and purchased a small estate—which he renamed Lucas Lodge—between Longbourn and the town. On advice from Bennet and Gardiner, who was visiting Longbourn at the time, he retained a five and twenty percent share of what he had sold, thereby having a steady flow of income to augment the one thousand pounds the estate earned. It had not hurt that, notwithstandingLady Lucas’s outburst, which almost lost her husband his knighthood, the Lucas parents had become rather close to Becca and Thomas Bennet.
Charlotte was the second eldest of the four Lucas offspring, her brother Franklin was the eldest, then after her was Johnathan, called Johnny, while the youngest, who was only seven, was Maria.
Charlotte was being courted by Frank Phillips. He had been less than two years out of university when he had been thrust into the position of taking over the Gardiner law practise. Since breaking the engagement with Hattie Gardiner, the last thing Phillips had been seeking was a wife. That was until recently when Charlotte caught his eye. He had been too busy first undoing the damage the Gardiners had done to the business—mainly regaining all of the lost clients, and then his efforts were directed towards building up additional clientele. He was impressed by Charlotte’s no-nonsense good sense and intelligence. He cared not she had a dowry of only five hundred pounds.
Becca sat with her head on her husband’s shoulder as she admired her family members seated in the drawing room. Tommy and Mary were having lessons with Mrs Hartland in the schoolroom. Jane, Lizzy, and Henry were in the drawing room, all counting the minutes until they were to accompany their father on a ride. Ellie was sitting next to Grandmama Beth as the latter read softly to her.
The youngest Bennet had begun lessons with the governess when she turned five, and although she was already beginning to read, she was never happier than when someone read to her, or in Lizzy’s case, told her a story she had made up.
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