“Mama!” was Tom’s indignant response for both his brother and himself. “We will soon be sixteen!We are not babies!”
“Calm down, my sweet boys. No matter how old you are or will be, you will always be my babies. Are you not the youngest of my children?” she teased her sons.
“Very well, Mama,” the twins responded together, as they often did.
The Captains were very happy at the invitation after hearing about the massive dowries the Bennet sisters had, not knowing what was now public was less than the real number. The excitement was severely dampened when they heard whispers about the restrictions Bennet had put in place.
It was not long after that they realised these were not ladies who would have their heads turned by a man in regimentals wearing a scarlet coat. It was obvious to anyone with eyes in his head that the eldest three were no longer available in the so-called marriage mart.
“Thank you, ma’am,” said Colonel Forster. “I will take you up on the offer when my wife arrives.” With that acceptance, Mrs. Bennet returned to talk to her friends.
Charlotte Lucas, the oldest daughter, unmarried at the age of seven and twenty, and a long-time very good friend of the eldest two Bennet girls joined the group consisting of the Bennet sisters, Miss Darcy, Bingley, Darcy, and Colonel Fitzwilliam.
“Come now, Eliza, you know what follows. I have opened the pianoforte and the harp is ready for Jane.” She looked upon Lizzy with a bright smile.
“Some friend you are, always asking us to play for company,” Lizzy retorted good naturedly.
Lizzy liked Charlotte very well, even though she could not agree with her friend’s views on matrimony. Lizzy, like her parents and the rest of the Bennets, would only be induced to marry for the deepest love. Charlotte only sought a good situation that would unburden her parents of her care.
She had often shared her belief with Lizzy that felicity in marriage was purely a matter of chance. That if a man showed any interest, the young lady had better show more feeling than she felt so the man would have no misunderstanding whether she was receptive to him or not. She had also opined she did not want to know too much about her future partner ahead of time as she would find out as much as she needed to know after the wedding.
None of the Bennets agreed with what they referred to as her strange beliefs on matrimony, but they were nevertheless very good friends to Charlotte Lucas.
“And I would have you sing as well. Why would I not when there is none to match the Bennet sisters in singing and playing!” Charlotte enquired. Not prone to false modesty, the four Bennets nodded to Charlotte acknowledging her praise.
Lizzy looked at Jane who gave a slight nod, then she enlisted Mary and Kitty. “If Jane and I are to play then you two can sing,” Lizzy requested with a look that rarely allowed for opposition from her younger sisters.
As soon as the assembled guests heard the Bennet sisters were to perform, a hush came over the assembled crowd. “Prepare yourself to be amazed, William,” the Countess leaned over to Darcy and offered softly as Lizzy and Jane sat at their instruments.
The four Bennets started with a Mozart aria from the operaLe nozze di Figaro. Those who had not had the privilege of hearing the Bennets play and sing before thought they were at a professional concert at the height of the season in London. Lizzy and Jane played while Mary and Kitty raised their voices to the heavens, and just when Darcy thought he had never heard better, he heard the voice of an angel here on earth. Elizabeth Bennet joined the singing with her perfect mezzo-soprano voice.
Darcy was speechless. He had never heard anyone’s voice come close to the quality of the tones and notes produced by his Elizabeth. ‘When did she become my Elizabeth?’ he asked himself silently. It dawned on him it had been some days since he had fallen irrevocably in love with Elizabeth Bennet.
‘I must speak with her on the morrow,’ he instructed himself. He loved how they debated when they were in each other’s company. Not only did Lizzy hold her own with well thought out and intelligent positions, but she sometimes beat him and proved her opinions superior to his. Darcy, who had been the captain of the debating club at Cambridge and undefeated in the debate competition, was amazed how this young woman could run verbal circles about him when she chose to.
In addition to her debating skills, Elizabeth Bennet was a masterful chess player and routinely beat him. Rather than be chagrined, it only increased his ardour for her. The first time she beat him in chess; Uncle Reggie had consoled him sharing it had been many years since he was able to beat her at the game.
He knew at times she would take a position contrary to her own beliefs just so they could have one of their friendly debates. Yes, he acknowledged to himself, he was in the deepest, most ardent of love with this phenomenal woman.
The assembled crowd exhorted them to continue to play and sing, and the sisters ended up performing three songs for the very appreciative audience. Charlotte Lucas leaned to Darcy and the officers, mentioning when the Regent and Queen Charlotte had heard of the musical prowess of the Bennet sisters, they had commanded them to perform for them at Buckingham House, and the Royals had been extremely impressed. Darcy was even more impressed, not by the honour the Royals had bestowed on the Bennets, but by the fact they never boasted about it or anything else.
Meanwhile, Bennet was explaining the same thing he had earlier said to Spencer Goulding about how he changed his family’s fortunes to Mr. Jonathan Long and Sir William Lucas, who had asked similar questions.
Both were agog and requested Bennet ask his brother Edward Gardiner when a good time would be for them to come to meet with him on the morrow. Bennet said he would do so as he was already performing the office for Goulding so he would request Gardiner set times for all three of them.
Lady Lucas had always thought of herself in competition with Fanny Bennet, way back from the days before Fanny resigned the name Gardiner. The two had grown up in Meryton and were less than a year apart in age. As she sat ruminating, she understood why Fanny stopped gossiping and never could be bated into doing so after her twins.
There was no point competing when one was not playing on the same field, or in the Bennets’ case, in the same universe. Lady Lucas realised she was in one of the lower circles of the gentry for those just out of trade while Fanny and the Bennets were in the first circles and had wealth rivalling that of a peer of the realm.
The Bennet girls had more than forty thousand pounds each as dowries and her two daughters had less than four thousand between them. She did not know their fortunes were about to rise significantly after her husband had his meeting with Edward Gardiner and started to invest everything he could with Gardiner and Associates.
Fanny had said something and Lady Lucas, Sarah to her friends, smiled ruefully. “I am so sorry Fanny, I was wool-gathering. Excuse me, but what did you just say?” she asked softly.
“Nothing of much import, Sarah. I just wondered where you were as you seemed very far from here,” Fanny asked quietly, her eyes filled with kindness.
“I owe you an apology, Fanny,” Sarah Lucas said with a contrite look on her face.
“What do you think you need to apologise for, Sarah? I cannot think of anything.” Fanny had a confused look on her face.
