“Mama would be apoplectic if she saw what thishovel not fit for pigslooks like,” Mary stated as she looked around.
Kitty nodded her agreement. She looked at her eldest sister present. “Lizzy, you do not look very surprised. Have you been here since Uncle Henry did all of this?” She asked.
“Yes, I would walk here from time to time to make sure it was being cared for like Uncle Henry required. And I agree with Mary about Mama’s reaction if she saw this house.” Elizabeth shook her head. “When Mama makes her pronouncements about the entail, Uncle Henry, or this house, among others, it saddens me that Janey does not question whether Mama iscorrect or not. I do not expect more from Lydia, but I had hoped Jane would acknowledge the truth.”
Henry ushered his great-nieces into the drawing room where they would wait for Cook to summon them to dinner. He looked at his very pretty nieces. “Enough maudlin thoughts! You have come to help me celebrate moving back to Longbourn, to live here for the first time since I departed for India in 1765. It has been a long road, but I am back on my family’s ancestral lands. I left here a young man on his way to seek his fortune, and I return as an old man, with white hair and who needs a cane to walk any distance of note. More than two and forty years have passed me by like it was but a few days. That being said, to be here, surrounded by my girls, tells me that mine has been a life well lived, at least to this point,” Henry mused.
“At least you still have your hair,” Elizabeth quipped.
That caused Mary and Kitty to giggle and Henry to grin widely. He could always rely on Lizzy to lighten the mood.
The meal was delicious, and there were no extraneous courses to attempt to impress anyone. It consisted of pheasant one of the manservants had shot, roasted to a turn, with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables, followed by a berry pie with some fresh custard Cook had made that afternoon.
After the meal, Henry conducted a tour for his great-nieces who were present. They each chose one of the bedchambers on the floor where Henry resided for when any of them would spend the night at the dower house.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The next day, Henry joined the Bennets at the manor house to celebrate Lizzy’s sixteenth birthday. He did not need Thomas to tell him that Fanny had him inherhouse against her protests. As normal, Jane was standoffish but polite; Lydia was just plain brash and rude.
Henry ignored the youngest Bennet and her mother asmuch as he was able to. Not that he expected more from Thomas, but the latter just sat there and smirked as he watched the atrocious behaviour of some of his womenfolk.
Due to the muted celebration—Fanny did not exert herself too much, as it was neither Jane’s nor Lydia’s celebration—Henry only gifted Lizzy a book. He was aware Lizzy knew he funded her clothing and her and her sisters’ education, so for her part she would have been more than pleased with no gift.
It was not hard to see that Lydia was trying to find a way to get the book and destroy it, but she could not approach without raising suspicion, so she had to control her jealous urges.
Besides, when God decided it was time for him to leave the mortal world, Lizzy would never want for anything for the rest of her life as well as the lives of her children, her children’s children, and their children. It warmed his heart that his vast fortune would go to one as worthy as Lizzy one day.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
When his six months of mourning were over in late February, William Darcy still eschewed London. He thankfully had the excuse that he would be spending time with Richard at Rivington to tutor him in estate management and assist in any way he could.
He had waited until Anna had left Pemberley for Snowhaven with Uncle Reggie and Aunt Elaine in mid-January 1807. It was after mid-March of 1808, when the spring planting had been completed at Pemberley before Darcy was able to travel south to join Andrew and Richard at Rivington. It was not that he did not trust Chalmers; he did implicitly. Rather, he had opined that as a new master of the estate, it would be good for the tenants to see him involved in the management of his land. As it was something his late father used to do, Darcy knew it was the right thing for his estate.
He made the mistake of stopping in London to take care of some business for a few days on his way to Rivington. The error was not seeing to his business interests, but it was rather deciding to call on Bingley at his brother-in-law’s house on Curzon Street.
Bingley’s older sister had married Mr Harold Hurst a year previously. She had been five and twenty, and Hurst was in need of her dowry of twenty thousand pounds to prop up his estate, which his late father had left in arrears. Due to the amount of her dowry, Hurst had overlooked that the money had been earned in trade. For the former Miss Bingley, it had been a step up from tradesman’s daughter to wife of a gentleman. Hurst’s estate, Winsdale, was in Surrey, less than ten miles from Rivington, which sat on the Surrey side of the Kent-Surrey border.
Although Darcy had not thought much about the new Mrs Hurst, she was not a problem like the youngest Bingley. Miss Caroline Bingley was three years younger than Bingley and believed herself to be the daughter of a peer rather than what she was—the daughter of a tradesman. She had attended the same seminary in London that her older sister had. That education combined with a dowry of twenty thousand pounds made for a very high in the instep Miss Bingley.
Worst of all, from the first time he had allowed Bingley to introduce his younger sister to him, she had set her cap for Darcy, and she was none too subtle about it. She often implied far more intimacy than there was. She thought nothing of using his name to garner invitations to events among theTonto which she otherwise would not have been admitted. No matter how much disinterest in her Darcy displayed, she did not relent in her chase of him. This was one time he was more than pleased his late father had made his aunt and uncle his sister’s guardians. He was certain that had Miss Bingley been introduced to his sister, she would have fawned over Anna, making her very uncomfortable. No matter howmany hints Miss Bingley dropped, other than Richard, none of the Fitzwilliams had allowed the shrew to be introduced to them. That meant Anna had never been subjected to her as well. He could not fault his family for refusing the connection and never pushed them to meet her. Darcy told himself he tolerated her for his friendship with Bingley.
Hence, it was when Darcy called at Hurst House that he realised he had erred. As soon as he saw the predatory gleam in Miss Bingley’s eyes and the way she glided across the room and latched onto his arm, he realised he should have sent Bingley a note asking him to meet at White’s or Boodle’s. Worse, he did not see Bingley in the room, which meant that Miss Bingley would construe his visit as calling on herself.
“Mr Darcy, how honoured we are that you called on us before any others in Town,” Miss Bingley purred before her sister, who was the hostess, could welcome him.
Past experience with the harpy had taught Darcy that unless he detached her talons from his arm, no hint would achieve that aim. He dropped his shoulder and then pulled his arm from her grasp. “I am here to see your brother, but I see he and Hurst are out. I will take my leave.” Darcy gave a quick bow, determined not to allow Miss Bingley to attach herself to his arm again, like a barnacle to the bottom of a ship.
“Charles and my brother-in-law will be back by and by; you should wait for them,” Miss Bingley cooed, batting her eyelashes at him.
“But Caroline, you know they will be at White’s for a few more hours yet,” Mrs Hurst interjected. Her statement earned her a dark, angry look from her younger sister.
“I will be on my way to White’s. Mrs Hurst, Miss Bingley, have a good day.” Darcy bowed and retreated from the drawing room with all speed.
“Louisa, how could you?” Miss Bingley screeched loudly enough that everyone, including Darcy, heard her. “You costme time with my Mr Darcy! We had not seen him for many months because of the inconvenience of his father passing away. Charles refused to take me to Pemberley to comfort him when he needed me most!”
Darcy escaped from the house before he heard Mrs Hurst’s response. How many times had his family, Richard especially, told him he was doing neither himself nor Miss Bingley any favours by allowing her to keep the delusion alive that he would offer for her one day? How could he do that without causing a breach between himself and Bingley? Once again, as he had several times, he would have to inform Bingley that he would never offer for his younger sister, even if she engineered a compromise. He could only hope Bingley would convey the message.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
