David held Jane in his arms while Madeline looked between her niece and the two shocked ladies on the settee. Each lady had been joined by her husband. Before Miss Bennet fainted, David was about to explain that his cousin Andrew and his wife would have been at the dinner, but Emily was not feeling well.
The Earl introduced Gardiner to the ladies, and then, still in somewhat of a stupor, Gardiner made his wife known to the Countess and her sister. Like his wife, he was still trying to comprehend what he was seeing.
“What is it about us that caused your niece to faint? And without being rude, you and your wife are staring at my sister and me,” Lady Matlock stated.
“My Lady, this is going to sound like a question from an insane man, but did either of you have a daughter who was taken from your home in 1794?” Gardiner asked. He thought they would scoff at him, but instead Wendell and his son turned white, Mrs Wendell burst into tears, the Countess looked like she would faint, and Lord Matlock went a little grey.
“Did I never tell you about our daughter Ellie who was taken and mur…” Wendell began and then stopped when he saw Gardiner shake his head.
“You never mentioned a daughter to me. I suspected you had one because of the dowry account you have with me. I did not ask, as it was not my place to do so, and you have never said anything about your daughter,” Gardiner declared.
“Gardiner, if my brother never mentioned his daughterto you, why did you ask if one of us had a daughter who had been taken from us?” Matlock demanded
As he held Jane, David thought back to that day he had seen the girl on the horse across the fence. He had had a feeling, but he had been too scared to investigate it further. If he had gone to Longbourn and seen her, he would have discovered Ellie months ago.
Just then Jane began to stir. At first, she had thought it was a dream that the ladies seated in the drawing room and Lizzy had the same faces, the same eyes. It could not be. Yet, as she opened her eyes, first she noted she was still being held by David Wendell, and she lifted her eyes to the ladies. One was crying, being comforted by Mr Wendell, and the other looked in a daze while the man Jane had not met sat next to her with his arm around her shoulders.
She fought the urge to give into the light-headedness when she looked and once again saw two older versions of Lizzy before her. “Why do you look like my sister?” Jane asked softly.
Wendell had recovered somewhat. The memory of the girl he had seen from behind at Gardiner’s house a few years past flashed before his eyes. Surely not? “When was your sister born?” he asked. He waited for the reply with bated breath.
Jane was very shaken, so Gardiner replied in her stead. “The Bennets celebrate Lizzy’s birthday on the twentieth day of February…” He saw the faces of the couples before him fall while Mrs Wendell continued to cry. “…because they do not know her exact day of birth. She was a foundling…” Anything else Gardiner was about to say was lost.
“ELLIE!” Cilla yelled between her sobs.
“Ellie,” Jane repeated. “Lizzy told me she could not be called that anymore. She thought her parents sent her away for being bad, but we never believed that. She was bound and gagged when she was discovered.”
“Where is my daughter?” Cilla demanded while tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Cilla, do not get ahead of yourself. We do not know if it is her yet. I know you have prayed to find her alive for more than seventeen years, but we need to be careful. This is not the same, of that I am sure, but you remember all of the charlatans who tried to prey on our grief,” Wendell stated as calmly as he was able to.
If that had indeed been Ellie those years ago, how many years of suffering, of mourning her, would have been alleviated? He never told Gardiner about Ellie, and Gardiner would have had no reason to mention that one of his nieces was a foundling. If only he had looked harder, longer, and further. As things stood now, it seemed Cilla had been right all along. Would she ever forgive him for giving up and accepting that Ellie was dead?
“I think we all need to calm down, and then we can speak once everyone has recovered their equanimity,” Matlock suggested. “Once we are ready, this tale needs to be told from the beginning. It is the only way we will discover the truth of the matter.”
There were nods all around. Wendell rang for the butler and ordered wine, sherry, port, and brandy so they all had something to help calm their nerves.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy had jumped as soon as the lady began to fall. He had pushed a scandalised Caroline Bingley out of his path, not caring for her squawking. He was sure Aunt Catherine was berating her for her unacceptable behaviour. He reached the lady he now believed was Ellie before she slipped off the chair and onto the ground.
“You may put my daughter down, Sir,” Bennet commanded when he and Fanny reached Lizzy.
“Why would anyone care about a foundling who is,more likely than not, nothing but a peasant?” Miss Bingley interjected. She shrank back when Lady Catherine stood and pulled her hand back.
“Unless you wish to feel the weight of my hand on your face, I suggest you take yourself very far from us,” Lady Catherine threatened.
Seeing that the lady had made no idle threat, Miss Bingley retreated back to where her siblings were standing, watching the scene with wide eyes. “I told you this place was beneath us. Come, Charles and Louisa; we need to depart before we are infected by the madness hereabouts,” Miss Bingley demanded.
Bingley collected Hurst, who was seated next to the refreshment tables, and followed his sisters out of the assembly rooms.
As soon as the Bingley woman was gone, Bennet turned to the three strangers. “I am Thomas Bennet, master of Longbourn and Netherfield Park. This is my wife, Mrs Frances Bennet. To whom am I indebted for saving my Lizzy from falling onto the floor?”
“This is our aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh; my cousin, Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire, and I am Richard Fitzwilliam of Rosings Park in Kent. Is what Miss Bingley said true? Is this lady a foundling?” Richard asked.
“She is, what of it? We will never allow anyone to denigrate our Lizzy because we found her. She is and has always been treated like one of our daughters,” Fanny shot back at the younger man. “I will never allow anyone to harm any of my dear girls in any way.”
“Mrs Bennet, my nephew did not intend any slight; he has a particular reason for asking what he did,” Lady Catherine soothed.
