“Gentlemen,” Colonel Fitzwilliam addressed the men who had escorted Wickham, “I have good news that you can pass onto your fellow officers, my cousin, the much lied about Mr Darcy will cover ALL debts of honour.”
The officers expressed the deep gratitude on their own behalf and that of their fellow officers in the Derbyshire Militia, saluted and started their return journey to convey the best of news to their comrades.
Wickham would remain in irons to ensure that he did not try to run until the ship had landed on the continent, and there he would be under constant guard until the unit went into action. Just as he started to plan how to make his escape, or more truthfully dessert, as soon as they went into action, he was disabused of the notion. He was told that he would be watched by multiple soldiers, and that if he did anything but his duty he would be summarily shot. A very dejected Private Wickham was led away and the Colonel, after thanking his fellow officers, mounted his horse and pointed it toward London, unable to check his smile the whole of the way.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The same day that Lady Catherine’s perfidy was brought to light and possession of Rosings Park was assumed by its rightful owner, Mr Thomas Bennet, who had returned from Town with the documents that broke the entail on Longbourn, was sitting in his office pondering how he could placate his wife after she had found out that he had withheld information about their wealth from her for so many years. He had always been able to deal with her nervous flutterings and sometimes ridiculous utterances, but the silence was something he had no idea how to break through. At least he could say he had pleased one of his ladies, as he had taken Lizzy’s suggestion to heart and put in safeguards that would discourage fortune hunters and attempts to compromise his girls into unwanted marriages.
He was a master at chess with a brilliant strategic mind, but he was stumped as to how to grovel before his wife and beg her forgiveness. He could offer her anything money could buy, but he knew that this was not a problem that he could throw money at. He would have to leave his book room and seek his wife out, talk to her and even beg for her forgiveness as many times as was needed. He found her in solitude in the drawing room. Mary was busy in the music room practising on the new grand pianoforte that had arrived that morning, and she was assisted by a master that had been employed to help her playing.
“Fanny, might we speak? Silence will not settle anything; we have to find a way to move forward.” She did not look at him, and he could see that she was silently crying, something she had been doing a lot of since he admitted their wealth to her. “Please Fanny, I am begging you. I will apologise as many times each day for the rest of my life if that is what you want, but please speak to me.” After what seemed like a long time, she turned to him as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
“I know that I am not an intelligent woman, Thomas, and I know that I can carry on and be silly, but was that reason enough to let me humiliate myself in front of you, the girls, and all of our friends and family? Do you think so little of me? Am I naught but an object of sport for you?” She asked, her voice lacking too much emotion meaning there was too much to hide.
She was about to get up and bolt from the room, as fast as the mother of five could. As she stood Bennet drew her into a hug. “I was wrong Fanny, I am so very sorry, I was wrong,” he offered, over and over again. At first his crying wife tried to push away from him, but after he had repeated his mantra ten or fifteen times, he felt her starting to relax into him. Soon after she lifted her hands and put them around his neck then rested her head on his chest and cried like a baby. After a while, neither paid attention to how long, the sobs started to subside and eventually stopped altogether. Bennet somehow got his wife and himself back over to the settee that she had been sitting on and then gingerly lowered himself onto the cushions with her on his lap.
“Promise me that you will never withhold information from me again, Thomas, and that you will treat me with respect. If I do not understand something at first, swear that you will explain it to me patiently until I do. We all know that I am not intelligent like you and our Lizzy, but I am still a person, not an object for you to make fun of. I want to know that you will no longer make sport of me and that you will not hide from me and the family in your book room any longer. You need to promise me all of this on your word of honour Thomas,” she challenged.
“You have my solemn oath, Fanny. On my life I swear to you that I will be a good husband to you and I will tell you all. Ask me anything that you want to know,” he encouraged as he rubbed her back. Fanny Bennet slipped off her husband’s lap but still held onto his arm as she sat on the settee next to him, so close that there was no daylight between them.
“How many years after we married did you know that we would be very wealthy?” she demanded.
“It was after Jane was born but before Lizzy’s birth that the company began to make enormous profits. Just after we were betrothed, I had provided most of the money that Edward needed to start Gardiner and Associates. He had the vision and business sense, so rather than take the money back I asked him for fifty percent of the company. He offered me seventy percent to match my investment, but I only accepted the fifty in shares. There was a legacy left to me by a distant uncle who had no other relatives that was almost five and seventy thousand pounds and other than the five thousand I settled on you, that I may have omitted telling you about, I gave all of it to Edward to start Gardiner and Associates.” He explained how it all started, waiting patiently as his wife considered what he had said.
“Why did you not put the money into Longbourn, or keep it to provide dowries for any daughters that we may have Thomas? I know that the investment ended up turning into a gold mine, but you could not have known that at the time.” She frowned.
“That is a very insightful question, Fanny,” Thomas was genuinely impressed at the well thought out consideration. ‘Perhaps Fanny is smarter than I, or even she, have given her credit for. Do I have so much more to make up to her than I had thought?’ He noticed his wife looking at him expectantly as he had gone silent. “My apologies, Fanny, I was trying to regain my thoughts from four births ago. It takes an old man a moment to recall his exact reasoning,” he teased, relieved she gave a small smile, even that strained one. “Let me address each, though first Longbourn. If there had been no entail, I would have invested money to enlarge and enrich Longbourn. Knowing my illiterate, malcontent and miserly Cousin Collins as I did, there was no way I could envisage investing the money in Longbourn to pass on to the Collinses if we had no son.
“As far as funds for possible dowries go, the truth was that I did not consider that at the time. It was when we were betrothed but had not yet been joined in Holy matrimony. When Edward asked me, although I knew that he was a good business man, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that Gardiner and Associates would grow to be the juggernaut that it did with a value that rivals and even exceeds the East India Company.” He was relieved he had made the right decision, but she was right, he had not known. “Do not forget too that he is your brother. The idea of strengthening ties with him was as important to me as it was winning you.” He kissed her forehead as she considered his words.
“How much is Gardiner and Associates worth Thomas?” she waited, hoping that she was truly free of fear and worry about their futures.
“Last time I checked it was a little more than five and twenty million pounds.” He smiled gently.
“What is our actual annual income Thomas?” she arched a brow as she asked him. Bennet took a breath. He knew that his wife may become angry at his answer, but he knew that he must give it, nonetheless.
“Not counting the two estates that belong to Jane and Lizzy, we earn close to one hundred thousand pounds a year from Gardiner and Associates,” he admitted. His wife said nothing. She stood up and made two turns about the room and sat down, a little farther from her husband this time. She gave herself a moment to collect herself and school her features, and then turned to her husband.
“With that kind of income, just how much do you…no, we have in the bank Mr Bennet?” she waited.
“Before I answer, and I will, so bear with me just a bit, Fanny. A little more than half of our annual income is used to purchase land and goes back into investments. That said, we have a little over seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the bank between liquid money, gold, and jewels.” He held his breath.
“I can hardly fathom numbers like you have mentioned Thomas. We have gold and jewels?” She asked with an incredulous look on her countenance. “Just how wealthy are our girls, and why did you only share the truth with Jane and Lizzy?”
“Let me answer the last part of your question first. I was worried that our youngest and silliest daughters would not be able to keep the secret, and that the knowledge would make Lydia especially more brash and flirtatious. You know that Kitty would have followed her like she always does.” He frowned, “Lizzy and Jane took Mary into their confidence two to three years ago which is why she changed so much at the time.”
“Do you not see Thomas, that if you had taken responsibility for your family and not hidden yourself away from your youngest daughters, had bothered to educate them as you did the older three that they would be very different now? I am willing to concede that I pushed our girls out far too early, but I wasscaredThomas. I was so fearful for the future. I would have been able to shift for myself, but the thought of five daughters, penniless and evicted from the only home that they have ever known drove me to distraction. Now, what about the girl’s wealth?” she demanded.
Before he continued, Bennet thought about what she said. ‘Fanny is right. So much would have been different if I had acted better. Had I exerted myself like I did with Jane and Lizzy, how much might all of my girls have done? Look at the change in Mary since her sisters disclosed our true position to her and took her in hand. That should have been me that helped her improve herself!’ He felt the well-deserved shame at his inaction, ‘There is nothing I can do to change the past, but I will make sure that I address all of my faults from this day forward.’ Making this promise to himself, he answered his wife’s question with the honesty and contriteness it deserved.
“Each of our girls has a dowry of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds as I told you. In addition, each one owns a five percent share in the company. At the value of the company today, that means that each five percent share is worth about one and one quarter million pounds. In addition, for the last four years, Jane has owned Bennington Fields, which she renamed Bennet Fields, and Lizzy has the once named Netherfield Park that she recently named Bennet Park. I have added much land to each estate so they each yield about twenty thousand pounds per annum, which is invested at the girl’s behest.
“Now that the entail on Longbourn has been broken, the additional land that we have which is not part of the girls’ estates, as well as some that was added to their estates, will devolve to Longbourn. When we are done with all of the improvements, Longbourn’s income will exceed the other two estates.’” He offered all and more than she had expected.
“May I redecorate Longbourn?” She waited.
“Fanny, you may do whatever you please. Your pin money will now be almost limitless. How would you feel about adding some wings onto the house while we refurbish it and enlarge the park as well? If we need to, we can live at one of the girl’s estates until the work is done, so we will not need to be inconvenienced during construction,” he suggested, hoping it would help her forgive him. Not that the money involved would, but the offer that she could do as she pleased with more square feet than she currently had. Fanny smiled as she thought of something that tickled her fancy.
