Your best friend,
Charlotte
Elizabeth wrote to Charlotte the same day she received this most welcome letter. She also wrote to her Aunt and Uncle Phillips to let them know she was well and appreciated their support.
When she informed her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner of Charlotte’s news, both with respect to the Bennet family and to Jane Bennet specifically, they agreed after what the Bennets did it was nothing less than they deserved.
Charlotte’s letter was also the catalyst for Elizabeth to start accepting that she may have been very wrong about Mr. Darcy.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On Tuesday, Madeline Gardiner attended the meeting of a charitable committee on which she served. During tea afterward, she was approached by the Countess of Matlock. “Mrs. Gardiner, how are you?” Lady Matlock greeted her acquaintance.
“Thank you for asking, your Ladyship, I am well,” Madeline responded.
“May I ask you a question? I need help with something,” Lady Matlock asked.
“Please feel free to ask anything,” Madeline responded.
“I have a daughter, Lady Tiffany, who is just seventeen,” Madeline nodded and Lady Matlock proceeded. “I have been having the devil of a time finding a companion for her. She is an active sort and she desires a younger lady who can keep up with her. Mayhap you know of anyone like that?”
“Yes and no,” Madeline replied. When she noted Lady Matlock’s quizzical look she elucidated. “My niece, Elizabeth, is living with us; she is our ward now. It is a long story, but it is hers to tell, not mine. She is twenty and extremely active and athletic. That being said, she does not need a paid position. Without revealing the exact amount, she has a fortune that would rival many dowries in the upper echelons of theTon. She is a gentlewoman, so working for money is out of the question.”
“Do you think she would agree to meet Tiffany and my niece Giana—Georgiana Darcy, who is staying with us. To have her as a friend may be a solution for a while, but only If the girls get along,” Lady Matlock enquired.
“Lizzy has been through much, having just left the only home she has known near Meryton in Hertfordshire. We are giving her a few days to rest and then we will talk to her. I will suggest she meet with your daughter so they can see if they would like to further a friendship,” Madeline told the Countess.
Something about the town and the first name stirred a memory in the Countess. “May I ask what her full name is?”
“Currently, it is Elizabeth Bennet, but she no longer wants to use that family name, so I have a feeling by the time you meet her she will be Elizabeth Gardiner,” Madeline shared.
Lady Matlock remembered the conversation she and her husband had with their nephew about his late father’s wishes. When she had asked why he was asking now, he had not explained fully, rather alluding to a love lost to another due to his wrongheaded ideas. However she suspected it had something to do with the country miss whose name had appeared in every letter William had written to Giana from Netherfield Park. The name was Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
Listening to Mrs. Gardiner talk about her ward Lady Matlock realised she was possibly the same girl William had spoken about as the lady he loved and who was lost to him as she was to be betrothed to Catherine’s idiot parson.
“She is unattached?” Lady Matlock asked casually.
“Very much so,” Madeline confirmed.
The Countess wanted to meet the young lady before she would consider what, if anything, to do with the newly acquired intelligence.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy did not know if he felt better or worse after he spoke to his aunt and uncle. They had explained to him what his father meant when he told his son tomarry well. It had nothing to do with connections or fortune and everything to do with love, respect, and compatibility.
He became despondent and withdrawn and decided he needed time at Pemberley. Being at his estate was always a balm to his soul. On the same day his aunt was talking to Mrs. Gardiner, Darcy departed for Pemberley.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Miss Bingley was most annoyed when she arrived at Darcy House uninvited. She intended to put her plan into motion by having Mr. Darcy visit Gardiner Emporium, but she was informed the master of the house had left Town.
The butler, a Mr. Killion, refused to provide any information other than the master was away. Miss Bingley left in a snit and vowed the butler would be the first one she sacked when she became Mrs. Darcy.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Jane Bennet hated her life. Everything she had planned for her former sister was now happening to her. The only positive thing she had managed to do was to demand a clause be added to the marriage settlement stating once they married, Mr. Collins had to bathe each and every day or she would be granted an annulment.
When her idiot betrothed repeated the drivel his father had told him about the evils of bathing, he had been asked how it was everyone else bathed daily and none of them were sick from it. When he was asked if they should apply to his patroness for her opinion, he accepted the clause with alacrity.
