Your sprite, Lizzy
As happy as he was that she was doing well, and by the tone of her letter he could tell she was settling into life at Longbourn well, Henry missed his great-niece fiercely.
He would begin planning his next visit to the neighbourhood.
Chapter 7
1797 - 1801
Sherwood Dale was flourishing. Under Henry with Lucas Wickham, it was earning close to ten thousand pounds per annum.
Wickham’s wife Johanna had passed away in early 1798. Young George Wickham, once the last of his mother’s influence had been excised from him, was a very good student. He enjoyed his lessons and especially loved his time riding the estate with his father as the latter taught his son all about his duties as steward.
Henry’s friendship with Matlock and Darcy was as strong as it had ever been. There were many calls between the three estates. The friends never asked about the truth of Henry’s wealth, and he never found the need to discuss it with them.
William Darcy and Richard Fitzwilliam had begun their studies at Eton in September 1798, the same year that Andrew Fitzwilliam, Viscount Hilldale, began his time at Cambridge.
He knew that Darcy still pined for his wife, so he would not want to hear anything negative about her. To this end, Henry never mentioned anything to Darcy about the fact that his son and heir had become rather arrogant. It seemed to Henry that even though there had been little or no contact between the Darcys and Lady Catherine de Bourgh since her performance at Pemberley after her sister’s passing, the latter’s ideas, which had been forwarded by the late Lady Anne, had taken hold in young William.
Where the Darcy heir once relished being in company with Henry, he was now standoffish. It was harder to see when in company with his father or the Fitzwilliams, but Henry was certain the seeds of distance Ladies Anne and Catherine had sown had germinated.
The Fitzwilliams, parents and sons, who were ranked far higher than William Darcy, were not in the least at all like that. They were easy-going and affable and put on no airs. Henry was accepted as a close friend by them, and in a roundabout way through his late sister-in-law, a distant relative. He knew that William Darcy was unaware of the familial connection between the Fitzwilliams and the Bennets.
At times Henry worried for his friend, Robert Darcy. He had supposedly recovered from the loss of his Anne, but it was not hard to see that, regardless of the mask Darcy presented to his friends and the world at large, the deep melancholy over losing his wife was never too far below the surface. Henry was sure that watching his daughter grow up was both a pleasure and a source of pain for his friend.
Young Georgiana Darcy, called Anna by all, was growing up to be a very sweet young girl who, with her blonde hair and blue eyes, looked very much like her late mother—which was why Henry knew it was hard for Darcy. She was a shy girl but had none of her mother’s or, for that matter, her brother’s, improper pride in her.
Anna looked up to and loved her brother and her Fitzwilliam cousins. Regardless of the large age difference between them all, the older boys would play with their young sister and cousin whenever they had the time to do so. Henry hoped that Darcy would be in London with his daughter at a time when Lizzy and Mary were with him; he was sure the girls would enjoy one another’s company.
Although it was not as pleasant when William Darcy was home, Henry called at Pemberley anyway. He would nevertell Darcy, but he preferred being at Snowhaven because no one there displayed the aloofness the Darcy heir did. Lord and Lady Matlock called at Sherwood Dale as much as Henry did Snowhaven.
On one of their visits, Matlock and his wife, Lady Elaine, had expressed their concerns that Richard wanted to become an officer after university. Their worry was driven by the drumbeat of war coming from France since the end of the revolution and the coup d’état in November of 1799 when a Corsican General of the Army led the Brumaire coup, forming the Consulate, proclaiming himself the First Consul. Henry agreed with the Earl and Countess that the little man’s ambitions were far larger than just France.
Henry could have easily purchased an estate for Richard Fitzwilliam, but he knew that it would be seen as charity, and neither his parents nor Richard himself would have looked kindly upon such a gesture.
He would have to think about how, if at all, he could do something to keep Richard Fitzwilliam away from the darkening clouds of war forming over Europe.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
During the interceding years, when away from Lizzy, Henry made sure that between the letters, the reports from those watching over her, and the time he spent with her in Hertfordshire and London, he was always aware of what was going on in Elizabeth’s life.
Her stays in London were supposedly to be with the Gardiners—who had two children by 1801, Eddy, four, and Lilly, one—which was in part true. It all depended on which sister accompanied Lizzy to London.
When it was Jane, the girls remained at Gracechurch Street. Jane was still wary about Uncle Henry, and although the relationship between her and Lizzy had become closer and closer since the latter’s moving to Longbourn, her mother’sview of Uncle Henry still governed her interactions with him. When he would call at Gracechurch Street when Jane and Lizzy were in residence, although always unfailingly polite, Jane would always politely refuse any offer to join them in entertainment, going for ices, or any other activities with Henry and Lizzy.
When Henry dined with the Gardiners and Jane was present, she would only speak to him when she was addressed directly by Henry. And even then, while still not rude, the replies would be as concise as possible.
Jane, who had turned thirteen in January 1801, was still unable to see anything but the best in people and situations even when there was no good, or very little, evident. When people disagreed, her answer was to say they were both right. For some reason, she could not see the contradiction in the way she related to Uncle Henry and her general philosophy of life. Henry never pushed Jane.
With such a character as his eldest great-niece had, Henry was certain that, had he made her his heir, it would have taken some slick-tongued man no time at all to separate Jane and her fortune, dooming her to a miserable existence. This would be especially true once she had reached the age where the restrictions were mostly lifted. He recognised that she was basically a good person, her blindness with regard to her mother notwithstanding. That left her still under her mother’s influence as far as he was concerned in regards to himself and to the entail. Even though he would be two and sixty in May 1801, and his nephew was in his thirties, Jane could not, or would not, understand when Lizzy pointed out the illogical nature of their mother’s fears as regards to him.
The past four years had done nothing to convince Henry that his choice of heir was anything but the right one. Lizzy’s character developed as she became a caring, compassionate girl who at the same time would not stand for injustice and would defend her sisters against anyone, even the mostannoying one, Lydia. She was fearless.
One change Henry had made was to increase the amount Mary would receive in his will. At a young age, she was already displaying a keen sense of justice and high moral fibre.
As he had promised to do, Henry made sure all of Lizzy’s needs were met, and that included whatever she needed for riding. He had made sure all of the girls learnt to ride, starting with Jane. He had purchased ponies for Longbourn recently, as well as a gentle mare for Jane. Thanks to her mother’s nonsense, Jane had refused the mare, even though it was easy to see she very much wanted to accept it. Aphrodite would wait until Lizzy was ready for her.
His nephew had cornered him one day about how he could afford the horses and everything else. He told the truth about the ponies and the mare; he had acquired them at a good price from a friend. Thomas had receded and asked no further questions. Had Thomas pursued this topic, Henry would not have dissembled; he would have told his nephew that it was not his concern.
