“Sorry,littlebrother, I cannot agree with you,” Hilldale stated. “Wicky would have to be insane to think that Uncle Robert did not mean every word he said to him. He is cunning, a profligate, and a libertine, but I do not believe he is insane. The morrow will tell.”
“What Andrew said agrees with my thoughts on the subject,” Matlock added. “Yet, it is all conjecture until you hear from him.”
“Please excuse us, Richard and I need to go meet Hurst and the three of us will spend a little time with the Bingleys,” William reminded his father, uncle, and eldest cousin.
After farewelling their family members, the cousins made their way to the Cock and Bull Inn to meet Hurst before joining the Bingleys.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Charles, how can you embarrass us in this way? We travelled for days from Scarborough to come see the graduation ceremony, and you did not obtain tickets for us,” Mavis Bingley screeched at her son while her youngest egged her on.
Arthur Bingley was normally a man who would keep out of things within the family unless he had no choice. Seeing his son unjustly berated was one of those times. “ENOUGH!” The Bingley patriarch yelled. Taking advantage of the blissful silence, he continued. “Which of the men who graduated today were relatives of ours, and pray tell, where is the invitation we were sent?”
Mavis and her youngest daughter, Caroline, were shocked. Mr Bingley never gainsaid them. Why would he do so today?
“Well, Charles did not do his duty and secure us an invitation!” Mavis exclaimed.
“I asked and I was told in no uncertain terms that it was by invitation only, and no one outside of family or close friends had been invited. Hurst, also landed, who I met today, was the only friend they invited and that is because he has been close to Lord Hilldale, Fitzwilliam, and Darcy for many years,” Charles explained.
“Well, you are a good friend too,” Miss Caroline, the youngest Bingley, asserted.
“Caroline, I have known them for less time in the number of months than Hurst has been a friend of theirs for the numbers of years. Unlike us, he is not in trade; his father owns an estate in the West Riding of Yorkshire,” Charles explained. “Do you know how embarrassing it was to try and inveigle an invite to the ceremony for my family, who had never met any of them?”
Miss Louisa Bingley, one and twenty and the eldest of the Bingley offspring, very much wanted to tell her mother and younger sister how ridiculous they were being, but she knew that nothing she said would be heeded, and when she was alone with her mother and Caroline, they would release their vitriol, aimed at herself.
As she always did, Mavis Bingley ignored what her son said about their family being in trade. “You should have…” She closed her mouth with a clack when her husband interjected.
“No, Mrs Bingley! This subject is closed, unless you would like to discuss the pretensions of the wife of a tradesman thinking it is her right to rub shoulders with members of the first circles and a peer of the realm. You claim to know all about high society, and yet you seem to forget that if those so far above us desire the connection, it is for them to seek it, not for you to force yourself and Caroline on them,” Bingley stated firmly. “Your allowances will be withheld if I hear of either of you speaking of this again.”
As she knew that her husband would not make that particular threat without being willing to do what he said he would, Mavis accepted that it was time to say no more on the subject. Seeing that Caroline was about to object, Mavis pinched her favourite’s arm to garner her attention.
“How da…” Miss Caroline swallowed the words she wanted to say when she saw her mother had been the one to hurther arm. Before she could ask why Mamma did so, she saw the emphatic shake of her mother’s head. She understood the order.
“If you had allowed me to tell you before you began to reproach me, you would know that Fitzwilliam, Darcy, and Hurst will join us for tea in an hour,” Charles shared.
“What a good son you are,” Mavis gushed, completely forgetting her pique from a few minutes ago. “Does that mean we will meet the Earl and Countess of Matlock, Viscount Hilldale, and Mr Darcy, the owner of Pemberley?”
“No, Mother. Only my friends will be here. The others have no reason to join them,” Charles clarified.
Just as she was about to begin to berate her son again, Mavis saw the look of warning on her husband’s countenance. She pasted a fake smile on her face. “It will be an honour to meet your friends,” she managed as calmly as she could. ‘Why is it that Caroline is the only one in the family who understands how important it is to rise above our roots?I suppose it is better than meeting none of them,’ Mavis thought to placate herself. ‘Once they see how wealthy we are, I am sure we will meet the rest of their family.’
‘All I can do is pray that Mamma and Caro do not show these men how uncouth and vulgar they can be. Please God, do not allow either of them to ask about the estates’ incomes.’ Louisa had her eyes pointed towards heaven as she sent her plea to God Almighty.
Mamma was already using the term ‘old maid’ as if upon reaching her majority Louisa was on the shelf. She and Caro both had dowries of twenty thousand pounds thanks to Papa’s carriage works being so successful. She had attracted some interest in Scarborough, but no one who touched her heart, andunlike what her mother and younger sister spoke about, Louisa had no interest in a marriage of convenience.
Thanks to their mother’s inculcation, Caroline believed she would marry someone from the first circles, preferably a man with a title. Louisa had never been sorry that rather than go to the seminary in London that her mother had wanted her to attend, Papa had supported her desire to attend a school for young ladies in Scarborough, close to their home and with girls that Louisa had known for many years. Mamma had not been happy when Papa had not supported her against Louisa. Her hope, and it may be a vain one, was that her father would take a stand when Mamma wanted to send Caro to Miss Hathaway’s School for Young Ladies in London after the youngest Bingley turned sixteen in April 1804.
One of the main deciding factors against the school in Town had been when her mother had taken Louisa to tour the place in her fifteenth year. It had been easy to see that those connected to trade were treated with disdain by the daughters of gentlemen, and Louisa suspected, when there were no adults to see what they were about, it would be far worse than just disdain. She was positive that her younger sister would have a supremely bad experience at Miss Hathaway’s.
Louisa was pulled out of her reverie by the arrival of three men in the private parlour her father had reserved for their tea. She stood as her father, mother, and sister did so as well.
Fitzwilliam was aware he could not call his friend ‘Bingley’ with his father present. “Charles, will you introduce your family to us?” Fitzwilliam requested.
“Fitzwilliam, Darcy, and Hurst, it is my honour to present to you my family, Mr and Mrs Bingley, Miss Bingley, and Miss Caroline. Family, the Honourable Mr Fitzwilliam, Master Darcy,and Master Hurst.” Charles Bingley was aware he could have mentioned the names of their estates and homes in London; however, he omitted that information by design.
Having read up about the families Charles had a connection with ahead of time, Caroline Bingley was aware that although Richard Fitzwilliam was the son of an earl, he was a poor second son. About this man, Hurst, she had not read anything so she dismissed him as inconsequential. That left Fitzwilliam Darcy, heir to one of the largest and richest estates in Derbyshire, not to mention a house in Town, one of the mansions around Grosvenor Square no less. He was the man for her.
Louisa saw the moment her sister fixated on Master Darcy. Before Caroline could make a cake of herself and embarrass the family, Louisa grabbed her by the elbow and led her indignant younger sister to the corner farthest from the guests.
