“For more than seventeen years, Ellie was known as Lizzy Bennet. She was loved and treated as one of the family in every way. We thought it would be better for you to meet her here before you join everyone in the drawing room,” Cilla told her younger son. All Barney could do was nod; he watched his mother leave the study.
“Once you have seen Ellie, then we will have time to tell you all,” Wendell promised.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and Cilla, holding Ellie’s hand, entered. She was not surprised Barney was struck dumb.
The instant he saw her; any doubt Barney had flew from his mind. She was a younger version of his mother. Had he seen her before this, Barney believed he would have known who she was right away.
“Hello, Bawny,” Elizabeth said softly.
On hearing Ellie call him that, Barney exploded off the settee and pulled his sister into a tight embrace. “Ellie, it is you,” Barney exclaimed as the tears fell freely at the reunion of the siblings.
Chapter 20
Barney did not release Ellie from his embrace for some minutes. He felt like if he released his sister, she would vanish all over again. He finally opened his arms, but very slowly, and was inordinately pleased when she did not disappear as a wisp of smoke would on the wind.
Elizabeth did not object to her brother holding onto her the way he had, as she understood the emotions he was experiencing.
He felt guilt for believing Ellie was no longer alive but admonished himself for the useless emotions. Whatever they had believed, all of them save for Mother and Aunt Elaine, the fact was that his sister had been discovered, and instead of the little pixie he remembered, before him stood the woman Ellie had grown up to become.
“Come, there are many others for you to meet,” Wendell told his second son.
“Father, before we do, will you please tell me how this miracle occurred so many years after Ellie was taken from us?” He remembered something David had said. “Wait, David, you are engaged to a woman who grew up as Ellie’s older sister?”
“Correct, do you remember me saying that Edward Gardiner is Jane and Ellie’s uncle?” David wondered. You received my letter that I was calling on a lady?”
“That I do remember, but I missed the part about her being related to Gardiner,” Barney replied, making sure this was not all a dream.
“Her name is Jane Bennet. Until the night of the dinner, I was unaware that Jane’s next younger sister was a foundling. By some act of God….” David, with help from his mother and father all told parts of the tale of the dinner.
“The Bennets tried to find us. They…” Wendell told of how Ellie was found, the condition she was in, and why the Bennets needed to keep travelling south. He enumerated the steps they had taken and what happened to the coachman they had sent to retrace the route they had travelled from Dronfield. He spoke of her being found in Meryton. “The same night we were hosting Jane and the Gardiners; there was an assembly in Meryton. Your Aunt Catherine, Richard, and William attended…” He told his son about how Ellie had been seen on that night and her reaction to being called Ellie.
Lastly, his mother explained how Ellie had believed she had been cast out of the house and family. She made sure her younger son knew that Ellie was certain that had never been the case.
When all was told, the most Barney could do was shake his head in wonder. As far as he could tell, Ellie’s location was discovered separately here and in London on the same day. Providence had ordained that Ellie was to be discovered on the final day of September, one way or the other. He did find it amusing that both David’s fiancée and Ellie had fainted at almost the same time while separated by more than twenty miles. “It seems to me that David meeting the woman is thanks to that spineless milksop, Bingley…a woman who sounds far better than he deserves,” Barney remarked.
“As little as I want to give that dishonourable man credit for anything, had she not felt so repulsed by what the investigators wrote about the puppy, Jane would not have come to London then,” David agreed. “I may not have met her at the same time, but we would have still met because Richard and William would have seen Ellie at the assembly. We would have come here, and hopefully, our relationship would havebegun and grown at that point.”
“We mere mortals will never be able to comprehend His plans, so I suggest we stop trying to do so and repair to the drawing room,” Cilla decided. She took Ellie’s hand and led the way out of the study, not waiting for her husband and sons.
While he followed, Barney thought about the change for the better in his mother. He so much hoped Uncle Stephen was on his way and that seeing Ellie would be the thing he needed to shock him out of the dark place in which he had remained since first believing her dead and then added to that sorrow, his wife and babe had been taken from him.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On Friday afternoon, as was their wont, the residents of Netherfield Park were at Longbourn when an express rider arrived. The rider told Hill his destination had been Netherfield Park but the butler there had directed him to Longbourn. Longbourn’s butler took the missive from the man and handed him the requisite coins. While the rider remounted and took off up the drive, Hill made his way to the drawing room, where he knew he would find Lady Matlock and Mrs Wendell.
All eyes were on Hill when he offered the Countess the salver. As soon as she had the missive in hand, Hill bowed to the room and withdrew.
“It is from Stephen,” Lady Matlock revealed. “Come, Cilla, let us hope Stephen is on his way.”
Barney watched his mother sit next to her sister. How glorious it was to see Mother glow with contentment once again. He had believed he would never again see that level of joy on her countenance. All he could do was pray that Uncle Stephen was travelling to Meryton, and he too would be affected in the same way.
Cilla sat next to Elaine and nodded. Her older sister broke their brother’s seal and unfolded the page.
3 October 1811
Glenmeade
Sisters,
