“I will be in my first year, and Andy will be in his final one. You will join me the next year, and William will join us the year after,” Richard pointed out.
Soon the three were talking about one of their horses—but not before Lady Cassandra Carrington, who was almost seven and called Cassie, invaded her brother’s chambers wanting to play, and had to be evicted. She had been bored and impatient, as a girl of her age was wont to be, waiting for her friends to wash and change.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
There was a knock on the Bennets’ sitting room door and the Darcys were welcomed inside. They were not wholly surprised to see their host and hostess present as well. There was a tea service on the table, and Lady Edith poured for everyone. There was silence except for the sounds of teacups on saucers until all six had drained their cups.
“First, Lady Anne, in her letters to you, did Priscilla mention her sister of the heart who lived at a neighbouring estate?” Fanny opened.
Lady Anne nodded her head, as she remembered how often her friend wrote of her best friend she had made in Hertfordshire, Francine. “Fanny—you are that same Francine, are you not?” Lady Anne asked softly. As she now recognised who Fanny was, she knew from what Priscilla had written before the divorce, that the lady opposite her would have done anything for her friend. The relief of knowing she was with Priscilla’s true friend was nearly overwhelming, and any thoughts of Priscilla being ill-used by the Bennets were expelled from her consciousness. “Why did Priscilla stop writing to me? I never cut her, unlike others did, including her own family.”
“You will understand shortly, and please call me Fanny.” Fanny proceeded to tell Lady Anne how their mutual friend had been with child when the King tore her apart from her Freddy, how they had entered their confinements together, and that each given birth, Priscilla a stillborn son she named Frederick after his father, and Lizzy born to herself. “Now, Lady Anne…”
“Please call me, Anne,” Lady Anne requested softly as she dried her cheeks, the news immediately overwhelming her with sadness.
“Now, Anne, we come to the hardest part I need to tell you, which will explain why she never wrote to you again,” Fanny began again, trying to find the gentlest way to tell the lady sitting opposite her.
“She is no more, is she?” Lady Anne asked quietly, wilting into the arms of her husband when she saw the answer in Fanny’s eyes, grateful she had his arms around her and knowing that her friend had been denied such comfort when her Fredrick had been torn asunder from her life.
“I am so sorry.” Fanny herself fell into tears as she had finally met someone who loved her friend as much as she had and who would grieve with her. “She went home to God only hours after she had given birth. I sat with her and held her hand until she left the mortal world,” Fanny informed Lady Anne gently.
It took about ten minutes for Lady Anne to recover some equanimity. “I am well now, Robert; I think I suspected she was gone, but I hoped I was wrong. Do her parents not know?”
“No, they do not, and that is per Priscilla’s wishes. She told me, made me swear to her on her deathbed, that I could only inform those who asked. I understand now you were honouring what you thought were Priscilla’s wishes when she did not respond to your letters, but based on my vow, I could not inform anyone who did not reach out first. For that, I am sorry, but I trust you are able to understand why I could not,” Fanny stated evenly.
“It speaks very well of you that you are as good a friend to her in death as you were to her in life. Yes, I completely understand,” Lady Anne returned.
“Given the news you just learnt, do you want us to continue our conversation as we planned, Anne, or would you like to do so at a later time or date?” Fanny enquired.
“No, Fanny, I am willing to continue now if you are.” Lady Anne averred.
“Are you sure, Anne?” Darcy asked his wife, his concern for her touchingly obvious.
“Yes, Robert. I am sure. I have regained my composure and would very much like to hear about Priscilla’s life after she married the Duke—the Prince,” Lady Anne assured her husband.
With that, the other four exited the sitting room and the door was closed. The two ladies moved to sit next to one another on the settee. Lady Anne took Fanny’s hand in hers, the bond created in their mutual admiration of Priscilla one that would be for life, and already made them friends, and more, in under an hour’s time.
“If you have questions, please ask them, Anne,” Fanny allowed.
“How is it you have Netherfield?” Lady Anne asked.
“We live there, but do not own it. Priscilla added a clause to her will, one she never thought would be needed, but did so in the event the worst happening. Other than some small bequests, she willed everything to my Lizzy because we had been with child together,” Fanny related the same explanation she had told her husband to Lady Anne.
“Tell me honestly, it was your son who died, was it not? Elizabeth is Priscilla’s daughter, is she not?” Lady Anne asked with surety.
“How did you know?” Fanny enquired, already knowing the answer as it was in her daughter’s green eyes, should anyone be looking to find it.
“When I met Priscilla for the first time, she was Lizzy’s age. When I first saw Lizzy at the wedding breakfast, I thought I was hallucinating—seeing Priscilla as she was when we met. Then when I saw her from close up, I could see Priscilla looking back at me. Not only that, but Lizzy also sounds just like her mother,” Lady Anne stated. “Her father does not know he has a daughter, does he? Does anyone know she is a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland?”
“No, the Prince is unaware. Let me retrieve something for you. Priscilla wrote four letters before her final confinement. At Priscilla’s behest, I wrote the name and gender where needed in the letter for her birthfather; it is to be given to him when Lizzy receives hers, on her eighteenth birthday or when I feel it is needed beforehand. There is one to my Thomas, and one to her parents, all to be given to or posted to the recipients when Lizzy is informed.
“She made me swear I would honour her wishes before she told me what it was she wanted. It was her wish that we switch the babies and for me to raise Lizzy as my own. I made the vow; I could do no less. What I am about to retrieve is a fifth letter she had me write for her before she let go, which she signed herself.” Fanny stood and retrieved the letter she always kept close and handed it to Lady Anne who opened it and began to read.
5 March 1790
Netherfield Park, Hertfordshire
If my sister Fanny Bennet has handed you this letter then you are someone who was very close to me, and I can only think of two, Anne Darcy and Elaine Fitzwilliam, who might see my daughter and guess she is of my body and not Fanny’s child by blood.
