“The circle of those who know is ever widening…” All four parents told the three about the meeting and the decisions taken.
“It makes sense,” Andrew postulated as he unconsciously held Jane’s hand. “Lizzy has more than enough maturity to assimilate the information.”
“Poor William,” Richard pointed out. “He is going to be flummoxed. I wager he will apologise all over again for his comments at Pemberley more than eleven years past.”
“You could be correct, Richard,” Fanny smiled. “Another advantage is that they will both be able to become comfortable, one with the other, if this creates any distance with more than a year before Lizzy is launched into society.”
“She will not be sanguine about the way the truth has been bent. She knows Papa has an aversion to Town but will quickly see it is not as it was made to be and it was not the main reason for her never going to London,” Jane pointed out.
“I pity her De Melville Grandparents if they meet her once she understands what they did to her mother,” Fanny stated. “If Lizzy unleashes her anger on them once she knows she is a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, they will pray for her birthfather to take them to task in comparison.”
“The Christian thing to do would be to forgive them,” Jane highlighted.
“If they had shown any contrition for what they did rather than to have it forced by motivation to keep their position and the good opinion of society, I would agree, Jane,” Andrew stated. “They had sixteen years to offer amends, but they did not until they paid a social cost.”
“Thank you for not making me think about keeping a secret from Cassie.” Richard felt a sense of relief; he hated keeping secrets from the woman he loved beyond all others.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Charles,” Caroline Bingley whined, “when will you take me to Town? How will I meet men of the first circles when we only associate with tradesmen?”
“Do I need to point out to you again, Sister, that I am a tradesman? So is Uncle, who is your guardian,” Bingley countered. He had lost count of how many times they had this conversation, or a variation of it, with his pretentious harpy of a younger sister.
“How could our father make another man stinking of active trade my guardian?” Miss Bingley complained. “Mother would have never…”
“As it was not her choice, but rather father’s, what you were about to say is as irrelevant as it has been each time we have had this self-same conversation,” Bingley sighed with frustration. “If you continue in this vein, I will not ask Uncle if I may take you with me when I take up a lease at the estate in another year or so. Before you tell me I will need a hostess, I will simply request that Louisa and Hurst join me, and she will be my hostess if Uncle refuses his permission.”
As she always did, as soon as her brother mentioned the need for her guardian’s permission, Miss Bingley subsided. Her brother refused to introduce her to anyone other than the nobody Jamison friend of his. She would do her late mother proud and find a husband of the first circles, even if she needed to engineer a compromise.
Chapter 23
Once the Carringtons arrived, Mrs. de Bourgh asked if she could meet with all of the adults and the younger set from Miss Mary upward. As soon as everyone was seated, Catherine made her sincere, heartfelt apologies to everyone in the room she had wronged.
The longest was the public one she made to Anne. She had apologised to Anne in Kent but felt that she owed her daughter an apology with all of the family present as well. She fully acknowledged who she used to be and told them all how happy she was to be who she was now. When Catherine was complete, Anne was the first to tearfully hug her mother, and then each person present fully forgave Mrs. de Bourgh for any transgressions against them.
The last person to hug her and tell her proud he was of the way she had changed her life was Robert Darcy. He reiterated that his late Anne would have been proud of her, as were he and his children were.
After her apologies and her family’s acceptance, Catherine de Bourgh felt the last vestige of the weight of her former misdeeds lift from her shoulders.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Before entering the meeting where Catherine made her apologies, the Carringtons were waylaid by the other parents and the Prince. After a short conversation with the Prince, Darcy, and the other two sets of parents, the Carringtons agreed that it was time to tell Elizabeth the truth. It was decided that while Elizabeth and William were meeting with the parents and the Prince, Andrew, Richard, and Jane would sit with Jamey, Anne, Cassie, and Mary in a separate sitting room. The four youngest children would be informed by a group of their parents on Saturday morning.
Elizabeth could tell there was a certain tension in the atmosphere on Friday, but she had no clue what the source was and from what she could tell, William was as clueless as she. Assuming it was due to having Mrs. de Bourgh with them, she assessed the woman carefully, but it did not take her long to warm to Aunt Catherine. Elizabeth had met the lady only once, at Pemberley just after Aunt Anne passed away, but she was able to tell that Aunt Catherine had won approbation from all those she trusted when before she had garnered naught but disdain.
From Catherine’s perspective, she was drawn to the smart as a whip, sometimes impertinent, young lady with a rapier wit. She could not image hearing better musical talents than those of the Bennets and her niece Gigi. When she asked who taught them, she was told thatSignoreda Funti would return with the voice master after Twelfth Night, and that if Aunt Catherine was in residence, she would be welcome to take lessons with theSignore too.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Once dinner was over, Bennet told everyone there would be no separation of the sexes and requested Mrs. de Bourgh, Elizabeth, and William to join them for a meeting. Having no clue as to what they were being called to discuss, William and Elizabeth followed the group of parents, the Prince, and Catherine to the family sitting room. Biggs was stationed outside the door in the hallway. It made Catherine feel warm all over that she was to be included in an intimate family discussion.
Elizabeth was asked to sit on a settee between her father and Uncle Freddy, while William and Aunt Catherine sat on another with Robert Darcy. The Fitzwilliam and Carrington parents found seats close to Lizzy. There was a short silence, followed by a knock on the door, and Mrs. Nichols entered the room.
“Lizzy, no matter what you hear or read here, you must know that you have been, and always will be, a most beloved daughter to your father and myself. I want you to hear this clearly, that no matter what, you will be loved as much tomorrow as you are today,” Fanny began, her voice tremulous.
“Mama, what are you saying? I am starting to worry,” Elizabeth asked nervously as she felt her father take one hand and Uncle Freddy the other as each gave her a reassuring squeeze.
“I need to tell you the tale of the day you were born, Lizzy,” Fanny stated. “Mrs. Nichols is with us now because she is one of the few others that attended your birth. I have told you—all of my children—many times of my sister of the heart, Lady Priscilla, have I not?”
