It was not long before his two eldest daughters walked into his study, after knocking and being bade to come in. He told his daughters who they would be seeing. Lizzy had met both of them; Janey, only Mr Hurst.
“Papa, why did you not mention their names?” Elizabeth asked.
“Because your Uncle Frank told me that the older Mr Hurst does not want his name known publicly. I know that youtwo will be able to keep the confidence. You can tell no one, not even your good friend, Charlotte Lucas,” Bennet instructed his daughters. “You will keep their names secret, will you not?”
“We will, Papa,” Jane and Elizabeth chorused.
“Go retrieve your outerwear; we will depart in five minutes,” Bennet stated. “I will wait for you in the entrance hall.
In less than five minutes, Bennet and his two eldest daughters were in the carriage.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“The town looks very similar to Winsbury near Winsdale,” Louisa remarked as their coach rolled down the main street of the market town of Meryton.
“I dare say it is the same as hundreds of market towns dotted across the land. By the by, Father’s note indicated we are to meet with the solicitor, one Frank Phillips, as well as the owner’s friend, a Mr Bennet. Would it not be a small world if it were the same man we met at Gardiner’s offices?” Harold enquired.
“I am sure there is more than one Bennet in the kingdom,” Louisa opined.
Just then the coachman guided his team through a turn to the west. In less than two miles the equipage passed the estate’s gateposts.
Chapter 9
Bennet, Jane, and Elizabeth stood beside Frank Phillips, with the second daughter between her father and uncle, as they waited on the stone steps leading up to the veranda in front of the double front doors of Netherfield Park’s manor house.
Elizabeth was bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation, proving that regardless of her abilities and intelligence, she was still a girl of twelve. Jane was standing serenely on her father’s other side, looking every bit a young gentlelady.
When the coach came to a halt, the Bennets and Phillips watched as two of the largest footmen they had ever seen sprang down from the back bench and one of them extracted the step and opened the door. As they looked on, they saw Mr Hurst alight and then turn to hand out his wife.
Harold inclined his head to Louisa. “It is a small world after all. Two of the Bennet family members are the ones we met, and the blonde is the girl I met the first time I visited Gardiner and Associates with Father,” he shared.
“It is good to see you again, Miss Elizabeth and Mr Bennet,” Louisa stated as she curtsied.
“Mr Bennet, will you introduce the gentleman to both of us and Miss Bennet to my wife, unless she does not remember meeting me?” Harold requested.
“I do remember you, Sir,” Jane said diffidently.
“In that case, Mrs Hurst, it is my pleasure to present my eldest, Miss Jane Bennet, Janey, Mrs Hurst. Mr and Mrs Hurst, my brother-in-law and the solicitor representing Mr Morris,Mr Frank Phillips. Phillips, Mr and Mrs Hurst,” Bennet made the formal introductions as bows and curtsies were exchanged. “We are with Phillips because since Morris took up residence at his primary estate in Devonshire, I have seen to his estate for him and my two eldest,” Bennet cocked his head towards his daughters, “have filled the roles performed by an estate’s mistress. Hence, Mrs Hurst, if you want to know anything about the tenants, they are the ones to ask.”
“That is laudable that you have assisted your friend in that way,” Harold observed.
“If you will follow us up to the front doors, the butler and housekeeper, Mr and Mrs Nichols, are waiting there,” Phillips invited. “They have served in their roles for well over ten years, and Mrs Nichols is the younger sister of Bennet’s housekeeper, Mrs Hill.”
No one had noticed that Elizabeth had walked to where the two huge footmen were standing. “You do not look very scary to me,” she said, as she tilted her head back to see their faces.
“Only if we need to be, little miss,” Biggs responded with a ghost of a smile. He was impressed; the girl was fearless.
“Come, Lizzy,” Bennet called, “we are following your Uncle Frank into the house. You may quiz thesmallmen once our assistance is no longer needed.” He shook his head, only his Lizzy.
Harold could not help but smile. Very few would approach Biggs and Johns without any hesitation like Miss Elizabeth had. She was an extremely confident and happy young girl. He watched as she skipped her way up the steps to where the rest of them were waiting on the veranda.
Seeing the way Mr Hurst was watching Lizzy; Bennet closed the distance between them. “Lizzy is very perceptive; had she sensed that your men were unfriendly, she would not have approached them.”
With her abilities, had she not been a young girl and the daughter of a gentleman, Harold would have brought her to his father’s attention. That made him think of Louisa and her willingness to assist with his missions if having a wife with him would help his intelligence gathering. Since the start of the war in May, his father’s department had identified more than a dozen French spies, in fact, he was aware that some of the men were closing in on a ring of traitors in Scarborough. He had discussed it with Louisa on their journey into Hertfordshire.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when they were introduced to the butler and the housekeeper. “Mrs Nichols will conduct a tour of the house and once it is completed, I will make you known to the steward who will accompany you when you ride the estate,” Phillips revealed.
The house was about half the size of the one at Winsdale, but it was not small, and from what Harold had seen on their arrival and since, it spoke of a well-built and well-maintained structure.
