As she was seated on the one chair in her inadequate quarters, she looked out of the window and saw a trap which looked like her father’s pull up to the front of the house. She stood and pressed her face to the warm glass excitedly. It was not her father, but Edward. He had come to save her!
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“A Mr Edward Gardiner to see you, Sir,” Hill intoned when he entered his master’s study.
His first inclination was to have Hill send the brother away and tell him not to darken his land again, but Bennet stopped himself. He remembered the Gardiner son as an intelligent and affable fellow who was a few years younger than himself. “First ask my mother to join me and then show him in,” Bennet allowed.
When Edward was shown into the study, he bowed to both Bennets within. If he was surprised to see the older Mrs Bennet seated off to one side, he hid that fact admirably.
“If you are here to plead your sister’s case, then I am afraid you will be wasting your time,” Bennet declared.
“That is the exact opposite of the purpose of my call, Mrs and Mr Bennet. I am here to apologise on behalf of my name for the infamous way you were entrapped by my sister, who was aided in it by our older sister, and to a lesser extent, our father. I know, it changes nothing, but I wanted you to know there is one Gardiner who does not agree with anything leading up to you being forced into a marriage with one to whom you do not want to be married,” Edward stated, still standing.
On hearing one of the last things he had expected to hear from a Gardiner, Bennet indicated for the man to be seated on one of the two chairs before his desk. “Although you bear no culpability in what was done, your words are greatly appreciated. I do need to ask, is this an attempt by your father to regain his lost clients?” Bennet queried suspiciously.
“Not at all…” Edward gave a brief synopsis of his conversations with his older sister and father and also the consequences which would be felt by the two.
“Where will your father and older sister go if Mr Phillips agrees to assume the law offices?” Beth enquired. “Your younger sister’s selfishness has been very costly for the Bennets and Gardiners alike.”
“I assume London, there are large firms of solicitors there who are always looking for more qualified men, but I know not,” Edward replied.
There was a knock on the study door, and when summoned to enter, Hill did so. “Master, your wife is demanding to see her brother, something about him setting everything to rights.”
“If you will allow it, I would like the chance to relate to my sister what I think of her actions, in your presence of course,” Edward requested.
Bennet looked to his mother, who nodded. “Bring her hither,” he commanded.
“I knew how it would be,” Fanny gushed as soon as she swept into the study and saw her brother. “You are here to save me from this cruel brute, are you not?”
“No, Fanny, I most certainly am not!” Edward held up his hand when his sister was about to begin her litany of complaints. “Do you know or care that your dishonourable scheme to entrapMr Bennet is costing Father his law offices in Meryton? Does it bother you that Hattie is, as we speak, releasing Phillips from their engagement because of her part in this travesty? Unfortunately, I do not believe anything like that concerns you because you, Sister, are the single most selfish being I have ever had the displeasure to know. What have you to say for yourself, Fanny? Do not attempt to defend the indefensible to me!”
Edward was not here to save her, only to censure her. What had she done which was so very wrong? She had married the man she had chosen to be her husband and before Hattie. Fanny ignored the fact that she was not living the life she had imagined, and the price that her actions were costing her father and sister. How could the latter worry her when it was not happening to her?
“You have always been jealous of me…” Fanny began to say. She stopped when her brother gave a derisive bark of laughter.
“Pray tell me, of what have I to be jealous? That you are a selfish, vapid, unintelligent, nasty woman? That you find yourself living under, very justified I dare say, severe restrictions? No, Fanny, I have never been envious of you, and even less so now. You have brought all of this down on your own head. Worse than that, your father and sister are now paying a heavy price as well. After today, I will not know you. Fanny; you have no honour,” Edward pronounced sadly.
Fanny stood frozen. This could not be happening to her! Had her mother not told her that only good things would be hers because of her beauty? She had believed that, but that was not what was occurring.
Bennet rang for Mrs Hill, who guided the stupefied woman back up to her bedchamber.
Bennet stood and extended his hand to Edward Gardiner, who was his brother-in-law after all. “I thank you for coming to see us today. It is pleasing that there is one Gardiner with whom it is a pleasure to be acquainted.” The two men shook hands.
“I thank you for your indulgence in seeing me,” Edward said sincerely. He bowed to the two Bennets and took his leave.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
His older sister’s wailing was heard as soon as Edward returned to his father’s house. It seemed Phillips had accepted her offer to release him based on her assistance in entrapping Bennet. It did not take long before Edward was apprised of the facts. As Phillips built the practice, he would make payments to Elias Gardiner until the agreed-upon sum for the structure and practice was paid. He and Hattie would not make for London as Edward had surmised, but rather to the south.
Gardiner related that he had a friend with law offices in Devonshire, and he was looking for another solicitor. A letter had been dispatched.
“I will call on all of the lost clients, beginning with the Bennets, and inform them of the changes,” Phillips declared. “If I am successful in convincing Bennet to remain as a client, I am hopeful once word spreads throughout the area, we will not lose more clients and the four others will return.” He looked at the man who would no longer be his brother-in-law. “I am sorry Hattie got hurt in all of this.”
“Phillips, you are blameless. My sister is not a child, and she made her bad decisions on her own. She is to blame for her own heartache,” Edward assured the man who had become his friend over the last few years.
In keeping with his prior schedule, Edward Gardiner left for London. A little more than a sennight later, a letter with anoffer for employment was received from Devonshire. Three days after that, Gardiner and his eldest daughter began the journey in a rented carriage with a cart following, containing their belongings.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
