Chapter 14
Bennet House was ablaze with hundreds of beeswax candles as the family stood in a receiving line to greet their guests for the first ever formal dinner that Mrs Bennet presided over in Town.
The Darcys arrived first, followed closely by the Gardiners. Next were the Bedfords, accompanied by their five and twenty-year-old son Lord Hugh, the Marquess of Birchington and heir to the dukedom. His two older, married sisters lived in the north and were not in Town. The Fitzwilliams arrived soon after, and not three minutes later the Jerseys presented themselves with their two children in tow. The heir, Wesley, Viscount Westmore who was two and twenty and his sister Lady Loretta, seven and ten, were the last to enter the house.
Most in attendance were well acquainted, so it was only Mrs Bennet and her two younger daughters that needed to be introduced to the Bedfords and Jerseys. Mary and Kitty were beyond shocked to meet the Duke, Duchess, Earl, and Countess who claimed them as nieces. The young people all congregated together. Lady Loretta was well known to Miss Darcy and Lady Tiffany as she too was an alumna of Greenlake School for Young Ladies. Lord Wesley sat with the young ladies, enjoying all of the beauty arrayed in front of him. The two sisters who were companions of some of these very ladies, were happy to have the night free to spend valued time together.
The Marquess joined the older Bennet sisters, the Colonel, Darcy, and Marie and Andrew. The final grouping had a Duke, a Duchess, two Earls, two Countesses and the Bennet and Gardiner parents.
After aperitifs and some inconsequential discussion, Thatcher announced dinner. As it was a formal dinner, precedence was followed. The Duke escorted Mrs Bennet, the Duchess went in with Mr Bennet, Lady Jersey was with Lord Matlock while Lady Matlock was escorted by Lord Jersey. Lord Hilldale and Mrs Gardiner paired while Lady Hilldale was escorted by Mr Gardiner, followed by Darcy and Elizabeth then Jane and the Colonel. The Marquess requested to escort a surprised Mary, who had to blink twice to make sure she was not dreaming. Lord Wesley walked with Kitty and the other three girls were arm in arm.
After the removal of the second course, the Duke stood and cleared his throat, asking everyone to charge their glasses then raised his own. “It is my honour to toast the Bennets and welcome them to town. We are well pleased to be able to acknowledge the connection openly. My old friend and mentor wanted to hide in the background, but I know that I speak for all when I say how happy we all are to be in this very pleasant company. May our friendship grow from strength to strength.” He nodded at Bennet then bowed his head in deference to Mrs Bennet. There were many ‘hear hears’ and after the room quieted, Bennet rose to respond.
“On behalf of my family, I thank you all for joining us and it makes us very happy to see so many friends assembled at this table. Bedford has the right of it; it has been far too long that we have not been in company together. To old and new friends, may we always remain such.” Bennet toasted all assembled.
At the end of the meal, Mrs Bennet led the ladies to the drawing room while the men remained to enjoy their drinks and tobacco. After tea had been delivered to the ladies, Elizabeth turned to her godmother. “Are all the plans in place for the ball next week?” she asked, brow arched in question.
“Yes, Lizzy, everything is in place. If either the Bingleys or the Hursts put a foot out of place, they will never know what hit them,” she informed her goddaughter.
“Godmother, Aunt, Mama, Lady Elaine, Jane, Marie,” Lizzy looked at each woman as she said her name, “I want to propose one small change. If a setdown is to be delivered to Miss Bingley for spreading vile lies about me,Iwant to be the one that delivers it.”
“I for one do not see that as a problem, do any of you ladies?” Fanny spoke for the group and the rest of the conspirators all shook their heads. Mrs Bennet had been informed of the plans and the reason for them, and she threw her full support behind the endeavour. No one spoke about one of her girls in that vile way and lived to talk about it!
The grand pianoforte was opened and Ladies Tiffany and Loretta were playing a duet when the men returned. It was not lost on anyone present that Darcy and the Colonel made beelines to the oldest two Bennet daughters. The matriarchs all sitting together gave each other knowing looks. Anyone who knew Jane could see that she was falling in love with the dashing and ebullient Colonel, who in a matter of days would be resigning his commission and selling out after being informed of his estate and fortune the previous evening. In nature they were opposites, she was serene and steady, but as Bingley had recently learnt to his chagrin, she was no pushover and was a woman with purpose and resolution. He was outgoing, fun, and loved society, but too was firm in his resolve and honourable as the day is long.
Darcy and Miss Elizabeth were also opposite in disposition, but the other way around. Darcy was more like Jane while Lizzy was more like Richard. They had their love of reading and a deep intelligence in common. All of the observers were cognisant of the fact that the best thing they could do was to sit back and allow nature to run its course. They all knew that Lizzy would push in the opposite direction if anyone tried to be a matchmaker, and after Jane’s experience with the inconsistent and weak Bingley, she needed to be left to her own devices.
After much excellent exhibition of music, both playing and singing, where even the Duchess and the two Countesses had agreed to play, the party ended close to midnight. Before she left, Lady Matlock extended an invitation to the Bennets for a family dinner on Tuesday coming where her niece, Anne de Bourgh, would be present along with a good friend of Andrew’s, Mr Ian Ashby. Having no prior commitments, Fanny Bennet accepted on behalf of her family.
“Mary to be a Duchess one day, who would have thought it possible?” Lizzy asked with a mischievous glint in her eye as they walked to their bedchambers.
“Do not tease me, Mrs Darcy to be. He only escorted me to dinner, nothing more,” Mary retorted, blushing warmly to belie the fact that she was not indifferent to the possibility. An amused Lizzy was blushing too.
“He also sat near you in the drawing room and watched closely as you played the pianoforte. We will not tease you Mary, but he is a very good-looking man,” Jane pointed out, as a woman would have to be dead not to notice the Marquess.
“What about your Colonel?” challenged Kitty, who had been quiet up to that point.
“My Colonel? He is notmyColonel,” Jane denied vehemently all the while blushing scarlet, which caused her three sisters to giggle.
“The lady doth protest too much. He is very muchyourColonel Jane,” Lizzy corrected as she arched her right eyebrow in challenge, daring Jane to contradict her.
Rather than respond, Jane opened her chamber door and with a “good night sisters” she was gone and the door was shut with some force, which made her sisters burst into laughter.
The next morning four gentlemen sat in the library at Bennet House playing a friendly chess tournament. Bennet was joined by Matlock, as he had been asked to call him. Bedford and Jersey were facing off across the field of battle. Matlock had just lost to Bennet, and as the other two were concentrating on the strategies, Lord Matlock was sitting and thinking about a question that he would like to ask, but could not determine whether Bennet would take exception and think it impertinent. He eventually decided that if Bennet did not want to answer, he would say so.
“I say Bennet, I know that Gardiner and Associates is huge. I am an investor and I could not be more pleased with the returns, but how on earth did your brother create the behemoth that it is now? It is not my business, so if you choose not to answer I will not take offence. My wife informed me of some of the names of businesses that Mrs Gardiner shared with her and I was shocked to learn that the company’s holdings were so extensive.”
“If you two are willing to delay the game, I am not averse to sharing the history of the company with you,” Bennet replied easily.
“Tell the story Bennet, I am sure that Jersey and I would be interested to hear this as well.” With a nod from Lord Jersey, Bennet started the tale.
“I was betrothed to Fanny in late ‘86. Edward, who I already knew was a wizard in business, had taken five thousand he inherited from his father and had made risky, high reward plays. Most thought him crazy, but he saw what others did not. In five years his five thousand pounds had become thirty thousand. Soon after my betrothal to his sister, he and I were in his study and he laid out his vision for a company that he wanted to name Gardiner and Associates. He said it would take two to three more years for him to grow his funds to the point that he felt there would be enough capital to begin.
“He was and is by far one of the most intelligent men that I know. The more he talked about what he wanted to build. The more I saw his vision, I told him that I had seventy thousand in the four percents and due to the entail on Longbourn, I did not want to invest in the estate. At least I did not until I had a son as I could not see myself improving land that would pass to my illiterate Cousin Collins.” Seeing Matlock’s recognition of the name, Bennet clarified for him, “The father not the son.” Bennet took a long sip from his glass of port and continued the telling.
“The original plan was to build the foremost import export business in the realm. Although I supplied seventy percent of the money, I only accepted fifty percent ownership. Gardiner wanted me to have seventy, I said I was happy with thirty, so we compromised on an equal share. Then a year after I had invested, a geologist retained by Edward to scout for opportunities, was visiting some family in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the former colonies in the Americas. He sent a letter to Edward telling him that he discovered a vein of gold while walking on some open land. He did not have the funds to purchase the land, so he asked Edward to fund the project.”
“The company purchased a very large swath of land for next to nothing and the geologist, Mr Rowdy Thatcher who is of no relation to our butler, was given ten percent of all profits that were produced as a finder’s fee and managed the operations of the gold mine that was developed on our land. It was just after Jane was born in ‘88 that the mine started to produce, and produce well. We purchased all the available land around the original parcel as soon as Rowdy confirmed his find. It was not long before we were raking in far more money than even Gardiner’s most optimistic forecast had predicted. Using some of the vast wealth that we now had, we purchased an abandoned diamond mine in India and a lot of the surrounding land.
