The first place he decided to look was in Hertfordshire, in the market town of Meryton, only a few miles from Falconwood’s northern border. As it was the nearest town to his estate in that county, he decided to begin his search for the woman he would honour as his duchess in the small market town where he was sure no one would know of him.
Chesham in Buckinghamshire was the closest market town to his main estate but he was too well known there. Talk of what had happened to his previous wives was still rife in that town.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Bennets of Longbourn owned an estate next to Longbourn Village about a mile from the market town ofMeryton in Hertfordshire. It had been occupied by the Bennet family since shortly after the Conqueror became King William in 1066. Thankfully, the Bennets traced their roots to Norman descent which had led to them being awarded a very large estate in Hertfordshire.
Thomas Bennet sat in his study, for once not paying attention to the open book on his desk. As often happened ever since his fifth daughter had been born and the news his wife would never be able to bear another, he was lost in his thoughts.
He could feel the scorn of over eight hundred years of Bennet ancestors heaped on his head as he would be the last Bennet to preside over Longbourn as its master.
The estate was a fraction of the size it initially had been all thanks to a profligate son of his great-great-grandfather, his own great-grandfather’s older brother. The man had been an inveterate and terribly bad gamester.
By the time the man’s father had instituted the entail to heirs male, which forbade the sale of any remaining Bennet land and after disinheriting his eldest son, almost eighty percent of the original estate had been sold off to satisfy the dissolute man’s debts. The result was the creation of four other estates with the lost land.
The largest was Netherfield Park, then Haye Park, followed by Purvis Lodge, and lastly what used to be named Bennet’s Folly—as an insult his ancestor had richly deserved—but now renamed Lucas Lodge.
The man who had caused all of the Bennets’ losses had been most indignant he should be disinherited and had somehow convinced some unsuspecting lady to marry him. He had then assumed her maiden name of Collins as retribution to his father and the brother who had, in his mind, usurped his rightful place as heir. According to the letters and family historyBennet had read, the man who had caused all their woes—including the infernal entail, as his wife termed it—had broken with his family once he was named Collins and the remaining Bennets had not mourned his loss.
Up to and including his father’s generation, there had always been at least one Bennet son, sometimes two. Bennet had been the only son of James and Elizabeth Bennet. His father had passed before his mistaken marriage and his mother was gone these twelve years at least.
As it often did, his train of thought led him to the mean of understanding, shrewish, vindictive wife he had been trapped into marrying. He took a long draw on his glass of port as his mind took him back to that damned assembly.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Autumn Assembly Meryton 1786
Frances Gardiner, called Fanny, was on a mission. She had tried every art and allurement her mother had taught her and, to date, the reasonably handsome master of Longbourn had not looked at her.
This assembly was the first one the new master of Longbourn would attend after coming out of mourning for his father. She had been happy for William Lucas, the son of the owner of Meryton’s general store to pay attention to her—she loved attention from men, but he was lost to Sarah Huntington. The fact she had only been thirteen at the time did not phase Fanny. The loss of the owner of the Lucas Emporium had spurred Fanny to make sure she made a much better match than the woman she counted as a rival.
By the time she was sixteen Fanny set her cap for Thomas Bennet. Sarah Lucas was welcome to her tradesman husband; she would marry a member of the gentry. Thefact her father was the town solicitor—also in trade—and her brother who was at Oxford intended to go into trade as well, did not discourage the youngest Gardiner.
For Bennet’s part, before his father had passed he had thought about Fanny Gardiner as a mate for a few minutes. Being a very studious man who was a confirmed bibliophile, he could not countenance ever being tied to one as vapid and empty-headed as the solicitor’s youngest daughter.
Her failure to induce Mr. Bennet to offer for her had led Fanny to her plan for this evening. She had enlisted her older—by six years—sister Hattie as her accomplice. Hattie was engaged to their father’s law clerk, Frank Philips.
Hattie knew what her sister planned was underhanded and wrong and was extremely uncomfortable with it. The problem was she had never been able to resist her younger, more forceful, and far prettier sister. Due to her looks, Fanny was their mother’s clear favourite. Hattie had always sought their mother’s love and approval and found the easiest way was to follow Fanny which gained her the much desired attention from their mother who valued looks above all else.
It was well known Thomas Bennet eschewed dancing, so Fanny had a plan to catch him unawares on his way to the cardroom. She was not intelligent, but Fanny did not lack in cunning.
As soon as her victim made his walk down the short hallway towards the cardroom, Fanny fell into his arms as Hattie waited in the shadows. On cue, Hattie screeched bringing men out of the cardroom as well as many dancers from the main body of the assembly hall.
Fanny pushed her body against the shocked Thomas Bennet and made it seem like he had been kissing her. “ThomasI enjoyed your kisses, but we do not have an understanding yet,” Fanny stated innocently.
“Bennet, I will see you in my office first thing in the morning!” Elias Gardiner thundered. He had been in the cardroom when he heard Hattie’s scream.
“B-b-but I-I d-did n-not touch her,” Bennet protested as he came out of the stupor.
“Hattie, you saw all did you not?” Fanny demanded. Unable to look at anyone, the eldest Gardiner sibling nodded. “Did you see my Thomas kiss me?” She knew she would be consigned to hell, but nevertheless, Hattie nodded again.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The present
There had been no escaping his fate and now here he sat, nineteen years of being in a hellish marriage later, with five daughters, and no son, and there would never be an heir.
Knowing he needed a son, Bennet had performed his distasteful duty but instead of a son, a daughter had been delivered in October 1787, a little over a year after the wedding. She had been named Jane.
