“As I am him. Thank you for your apology and your help with the schools. You will do son, you will do.” Bennet too chuckled and they stood.
The men shook hands and Bennet wrote his express to the school. Darcy said his goodbyes to the ladies in the family sitting room, and feeling better about a possible future with the only woman that he could ever love than he had since his disgusting excuse of a proposal, he made the quick walk across the square to his home.
If anyone had seen him, they would have rubbed their eyes as Darcy was smiling and whistling a tune as he meandered along.
Chapter 12
As planned, the Bennet ladies minus Lydia, left for Madame Yvette Chambourg’s shop on Bond Street early in the morning. They were met by Mrs Gardiner and her eldest, Lily. Due to her mourning, Charlotte did not join them. Lizzy and Jane had invited their friends Georgie and Tiffany, as they were sure that Mary and Kitty would get along well with the two young ladies. Just after the Bennet and Gardiner ladies had alighted their conveyances, a carriage pulled up with the Matlock coat of arms emblazoned on the doors. Georgie stepped out first followed by Tiffany and then, to the oldest Bennet sisters’ surprise, they were followed by Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam, Countess of Matlock and Lady Marie Fitzwilliam, Viscountess Hilldale.
The ladies entered the shop where introductions and curtsies were made. Jane and Lizzy, who had been nervous about their mother meeting the Fitzwilliam ladies, found that their worries were all for naught. Fanny Bennet continued to be calm and much altered and was a perfect example of propriety as she was introduced to the two titled ladies. Jane and Elizabeth both began to believe that their mother had truly changed, that it was not a momentary response to having her fears settled. No one had happened to notice the Bingley carriage passing just before the ladies entered the most exclusive modiste’s shop in London.
After the introductions were made, Ladies Elaine and Marie were assured that their presence was not in the least unwelcome. When it was asked why the shop was closed to all except their party, the Fitzwilliams and Georgiana were flabbergasted to find out that Madame Yvette Chambourg’s store was one of the many businesses owned by Gardiner and Associates, which meant that the four Bennet girls were actually part owners of the establishment thanks to their ownership stake in Gardiner and Associates. Madame Chambourg received thirty percent of the profits after all expenses were paid. Fanny Bennet had been fully informed of the scope of the holdings, as her husband was keeping his pledge to be completely open and honest with his wife.
It was disclosed that Gardiner and Associates’ largest single business was the Dennington Shipping Lines. It was by a factor of five compared to the nearest competitor. The line was by far the largest passenger and freight shipping line in the realm. The company owned massive shipyards, where they not only built commercial ships, but a high percentage of the ships that the crown commissioned for the navy. What Mrs Gardiner did not share was that their shipyards also built all of the ships for the East India Company and that over the years Gardiner and Associates had gained a five and thirty percent share of said company. It was a connection that both companies chose not to make public. Everyone believed that the East India Company was the one that rivalled or exceeded the value of Gardiner and Associates. That assumption was very wrong; it was a symbiotic relationship. The East India Company purchased ships for a significantly reduced rate, and Gardiner and Associates had the pick of the goods that the Company imported into England at much reduced pricing.
Mrs Gardiner, who was acquainted with Ladies Elaine and Marie as they were on some charitable boards in common, when asked if there were other businesses that were owned wholly or in part by Gardiner and Associates, were dumbstruck once more when they were told the names of some of the finest stores on Bond Street and other London shopping districts as either owned outright or in which the company owned a major stake. The most surprising was the ownership of Gunter’s, as well as Boodle’s and White’s gentleman’s clubs; additionally, they owned a controlling interest in Chippendale’s Makers of Fine Furniture.
Mrs Gardiner did not mention, as she did not like to boast, that Gardiner and Associates had extensive holdings around the world, including in the former colonies of America. Some of their most valuable holdings that had started out as dirt cheap land purchased on speculation, were the mines that they owned overseas, primarily in the Americas, India, and Africa, that included gold mines, diamonds, and other precious gems. She did not mention the company’s many other interests in factories, estates, or shops dotted all around England, Scotland, and Ireland. In Wales they owned a large number of coal mines.
Fitzwilliam Darcy would have been interested to hear that Gardiner and Associates had recently purchased a controlling interest in his favourite bookstore, Hatchard’s. When Gardiner and Associates either purchased outright or obtained a controlling interest, they allowed the managers of said businesses to run them unimpeded. If things were not broken, they did not try to fix them. They only got involved when needed and given the scope of the company’s diverse holdings in manufacturing, carting, shipping, and distribution, they were able to reduce costs and increase profits wherever they had interests.
Had the above knowledge been known to the Bingleys and Hursts, they would have started to understand the wasp’s nest that they were allowing Caroline Bingley to kick. It would have explained the men’s unceremonious ejection from their clubs, why they were being refused service in most London shops, and why, just that very afternoon, Miss Caroline Bingley had been refused entry in Gunter’s and told never to return. Perhaps that if Bingley had had a backbone and were he and his sister Mrs Hurst not intent on appeasing their delusional sister, their life would have followed a very different trajectory.
The ladies had a grand time shopping especially now that they no longer needed to hide their true wealth. All of the Bennet ladies, but Lydia, ordered completely new wardrobes. Kitty did not complain when she was restricted to dresses that were appropriate for one who was not out yet and did not have the variety of colour or the more daring cuts like those that her mother and three older sisters ordered. From Madame Chambourg’s, the party made its way along the street to the milliners, drapers, a shoemaker, and a number of other stores. They ended their excursion at Gunter’s, where they were treated with the deference owed to the owners and the family of said owners.
Before the parties separated to return to their various homes, Mrs Bennet extended an invitation for the Fitzwilliams to join them at Bennet House for their first official dinner party. The Darcys were to be invited; Jane and Lizzy’s godparents and their families had already accepted the invitation. Lady Matlock thanked Mrs Bennet and accepted on behalf of her family after Lady Hilldale said that they also had no prior commitment that would stop them attending.
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Charles Bingley and Louisa Hurst heard their younger, volatile sister before they saw her. “I HAVE NEVER BEEN TREATED THUSLY!!” She yelled as she walked into the drawing room where her siblings were looking at her like she had two heads. “Do not look at me so! You cannot believe the day that I just had.” She threw herself onto a settee in a most unladylike fashion.
“What vexes you so, dearest sister?” No matter how much appeasement exacerbated the problem, Louisa Hurst and her brother were set on what they believed was the path of least resistance.
“What vexes me, Louisa, is the way that I was treated today!” the harridan shrieked in her high-pitched, grating, and annoying voice. “Not one of my friends was at home to me again today! Then I went to Gunter’s and do you know what those lowlifes did?” Without giving her siblings an opportunity to answer, she carried on her rant. “No, you do not, you cannot even imagine! They would not allow me entrance, and they told me,me, a person ofmyrankand wealth, never to return. I will let it be known to all that they should never darken that hovel’s doorstep again!” Caroline hissed.
‘My sister is truly delusional! We are not being called on, no one will accept a call from us, and we are being refused service at more and more establishments. My husband and Charles were told to leave their clubs and never return, that they would not be granted entrance even as guests of another member. Are Charles and I making things worse? No, we have to treat her this way. Her tantrums are not to be borne, so we will do what we need to so that she remains somewhat calm,’ Louisa told herself ignoring the voice in her head telling her that things would not end well.
Before she could attempt to placate her sister, she continued the rant. “To make matters worse, I saw those fallen Bennet women.” The name ‘Bennet’ was spat out of Caroline’s mouth like an expletive. “They were with some of their younger sisters and that ridiculous mother of theirs with some other ladies entering Madame Chambourg’s shop on Bond Street as if they owned the place!” If the shrew had noticed that Miss Darcy, her ‘dear friend,’ was one of the ladies she would have had an apoplexy but thankfully she had been hidden by some of the other ladies in the party. As much as she boasted to anyone who would listen, and many who would not, about her connection to the Fitzwilliams, she had never been admitted to their company so she did not recognise the two ladies as she passed the modiste’s store. “I should inform Madame Chambourg about the low kept women that she admits to her shop!”
“Caroline, calm yourself,” begged her brother, who was praying that they could calm her down before the expected explosion of a full-blown tantrum. “Once we have been to the ball in just over a sennight, you will be able to hold your head high and all of the people who have wronged you will see the truth.”
“Yes Caroline, Charles has the right of it. Sister, I recommend that you withdraw from society for now, then you will make a triumphant entry at the ball and everyone will watch as you, all of us, receive our due. We will see who will be sorry then.” Louisa’s words mollified her delusional sister.
“You are correct brother and sister; I will not cast pearls before the swine. When I make my triumphant entry at the ball, all will see myrankandclass. Those fallen sluts and pathetic Bennet women would not dare to show their faces among ourpeers.” She reaffirmed her own beliefs, but to all others witnessing the scene, they would have determined Miss Bingley was delusional enough that had her brother and sister been able to see the truth of her mania and not want to see, only what they desired to see, she would have been consigned to a cell at Bedlam.
Brother and sister both breathed sighs of relief that they had averted the expected tantrum after Caroline left the parlour to go rest in her bedchamber. Although she did not have a full-blown tantrum, she did cast many nick-knacks into the fire and against the wall.
“Maybe after Darcy sees her at the Duchess’s and Countess’s ball, he will reconsider her as a possible bride,” Bingley speculated allowing his own delusion to rule.
‘Is my brother as delusional as Caroline? Even before the break, anyone with eyes could see that Mr Darcy disdained Caroline. Are we doing the right thing? Should we retire to Scarborough and leave Town and the Ton behind? No Caroline would explode if I made that suggestion, and Charles does not have the resolution or fortitude to make and stand by such a decision. All will be well after the ball, will it not?’ As much as she saw the delusions that her brother and sisters had, Louisa Hurst had her own. She would soon find out that the biggest lies that often do the most harm are the ones that we tell ourselves.
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A few days ahead of schedule, the carriage and cart from Sherwood Park bearing Mr Ashby and Hunsford’s new vicar, Mr Harrison, arrived at the parsonage in Hunsford. Miss de Bourgh, along with her long-time companion Mrs Jenkinson, were waiting to greet her new parson having received an express from the man telling her the time he and his friend Ashby would return. The parsonage servants, who already liked their new master very well after his initial visit, were also lined up waiting for him.
Once the equipages halted and the men alighted and greeted Miss de Bourgh and her companion, the parsonage’s man assisted Ashby’s footmen as they started to unload all of Harrison’s possessions. Before she left, Anne extended an invitation for the men to join her at Rosings Park to dine that evening, which was gratefully received. Anne blushed becomingly as Mr Ashby gave her a warm smile while he bowed over her hand and then placed a soft kiss on said appendage.
‘I am very glad to see that the delightful Miss de Bourgh is not indifferent to me. After hearing about her history from Andrew, I know that I will have to proceed slowly. I would hate to frighten her off before she is ready to move forward with a courtship,’ thought Ashby as he and Harrison helped the ladies into the phaeton that was driven by Miss de Bourgh.
