As Colonel Fitzwilliam spoke, what a good man she had lost was highlighted for Elizabeth. Mr Darcy was even better than she had begun to think he was.
“H-he w-was s-so b-bad?” Lydia stammered after she had heard about the by-blows. “I am so sorry. I am really one of the silliest girls in all of England, just like Papa always says.”
Bennet looked off into the distance. “I had the power to make everything better, and instead, I made sport of my family and hid in my book room,” he admitted. “We will accept your and Mr Darcy’s offer, and Lydia will attend theschoolin Derbyshire.”
“I will take my leave now and go speak to the other families to let them know that there is an option for their daughters.” Colonel Fitzwilliam bowed and made his way to the front of the house, where his stallion was brought to him.
Now that it was just the family, Bennet decided it was time to address some things. “When Lizzy used to beg me to do my duty to my family, I dismissed her request as being irrational, but it was me who was so, not Lizzy. Now that Jane has added her voice to Lizzy’s,combined with everything which has been revealed today, I can see how remiss I have been in my duties to my family. I am willing to admit that I have been in a snit since I married. I felt I was tricked with regard to my wife’s character.”
He saw his wife was about to protest, so Bennet raised his hand. “Please, Fanny, all of you, wait until I have completed what I want and need to say.”
Fanny nodded her agreement, as did the sisters.
“Rather than behave as a spoilt child, I should have taught you what it meant to act as a gentlewoman and the duties of the mistress of an estate. Instead of checking and correcting you, I made sport of you and most of my daughters. I should have demanded we employ a governess, something we could have easily afforded. Instead, I hid away. This leads us to Lydia and her actions. Had I taken charge of my family like I should have, we would not be in this position. That being said, Lydia should have known that to surrender her virtue before she was married to the man was wrong.
“In the education of our daughters, webothfailed.” Bennet took a deep breath. The next part was his biggest error of them all. “Lizzy, do you remember my comment before you departed for Hunsford, the one I refused to explain?”
“Yes, Papa, I do. You said you would clarify what you meant at some other time. Is this that time?” Elizabeth wondered.
“It is. Quite simply, the entail is at an end…” Anything else Bennet was about to say was lost in a cacophony of questions from the six females in the drawing room.
“Why?”
“How?”
“Why did you say nothing?”
“I thought we needed a son to break the entail.”
“There is a clause in the documents governing the entail of which I was aware, but never thought would be relevant. It has been since Mr Collins wrote me that letter in October of the previous year that I knew he was ineligible to inherit Longbourn. For my own entertainment, I said nothing to any of you or Mr Collins. I wanted to find a time when I would gain maximum entertainment from the telling. I was wrong. I could have relieved your worries about the future more than six months past. It was not amusing; it was cruel.”
“If Mr Collins is the fifth generation as stipulated in the entail, why is he not the heir presumptive?” Elizabeth questioned.
“Great-Grandfather Bennet, who wrote the entail for his own reasons, did not exclude the Collins line even though the first Collins—they used to be Bennets—caused the need for the entail. However, he had a younger sister, one whom he loved dearly, who was importuned by a clergyman, and she ended up passing in childbirth. Hence, he added a clause which excluded any clergymen, or their descendants, from the line of succession. That means even if Mrs Collins delivers a son, he is ineligible.
“Given that his late father, Clem Collins, was an illiterate brute, until William Collins wrote me that letter, I never imagined the clause would come into effect. I was wrong.
“I should have gone to Phillips as soon as I received the letter from Collins and had him exercise the clause. He would have written to my cousin and stopped him from coming. As I said, especially after reading the drivel in his letter, I saw too many opportunities for entertainment. I beg the pardons of all of you, especially you, Fanny.”
“Are you telling me that that odious man will never be able to throw any of us from our home?” Fanny asked. It was too good to be true; shehad to verify the facts.
“Yes, Fanny, it is a fact. As soon as our brother-in-law files the papers with the Court of Chancery, and they issue the new deed, the estate will be mine to dispose of as I see fit,” Bennet confirmed.
Fanny felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders. “Lizzy, I am so very sorry I tried to force you to accept that man,” she stated contritely.
“I forgive you, Mama. I do understand why you felt you needed one of us to marry him, even if Mary would have suited a clergyman far better than me. You were fearful of the future,” Elizabeth accepted.
“Also, my fault. If I had done what I should have when Collins wrote his letter, then you, Fanny, would not have felt the need to push Lizzy at him,” Bennet owned.
“If you will excuse me, I need to go get the papers in order so I can see Phillips first thing on the morrow.” Bennet stood and looked at his two youngest daughters. “This may be like closing the gate to the paddock after the horse has escaped, but Kitty and Lydia, you are not out in society any longer.” He looked at each girl sternly, killing any protest before it formed.
With that, Bennet left the drawing room, leaving his shocked womenfolk behind him.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy and his valet, Carstens, were riding in the Darcy travelling coach while the coffin was in a cart Darcy had rented. They had two more days of travel before they reached Pemberley. He had sent an express to Darcy House so the knocker would be removed and no callers be admitted until he returned. Gigi and Mrs Annesley were at Matlock House while he was away from London, so he knew his sister was well protected in his absence.
The look on Miss Elizabeth’s face when it had been shared that Miss Lydia had been violated by the dead seducer told him everything he needed to know. She blamed him for her sister’s fall from grace. And why should she not? He had been too proud to warn any of the residents of Meryton about the wolf in sheep’s clothing in their midst.
