“The local solicitor wrote to me about an estate for sale,” Holder replied. “Edith saw the direction and remembered what Jane had said the day we discovered the girls. Seeing the direction, which she had not seen when I first corresponded with Mr Phillips made her realise that the town and county could have been the ones Jane was trying to say. My honour demanded we investigate it; hence, I requested a meeting with you. When I saw the notice, I knew the truth.”
“Phillips was one of Bennet’s solicitors and is residing at Longbourn, the Bennet estate. He and his wife own Netherfield Park,” Gardiner responded. Then he remembered something. “The dowry account you have with me, is it for Janey, Lizzy, and Mary?”
“Indeed, we could do no less. Other than them not having the honorific of Lady, they are the daughters of the Earl of Holder,” he confirmed.
“Then, the girls are very wealthy, even if you decide to withdraw…” Gardiner began to say.
“Never!” Holder and Edith chorused.
“As I was about to say, Bennet—who loved his daughters dearly—and my late father put money away for the sisters’ futures. Until he passed away, Bennet sent all profits from the estate to me to add to the girls’ portions. The account funded by my late brother-in-law and late father for the sisters has a worth above fifty thousand pounds. That does not count the fact that they are the current heirs to Longbourn.” Gardiner explained that when one of them birthed a son who did not have his own estate and would take the Bennet name, the estate would be his on reaching his majority.
“We have skirted about the main issue,” Holder pointed out. “What will become of our daughters…your wards?” He felt Edith grip his hand when he asked the critical question—the one that could break their hearts depending on the reply. Regardless of the fact they had adopted the girls, Gardiner was their legal guardian, and Holder would not use his power to go against their guardian’s wishes.
“Maddie and I only saw the girls with you briefly when we arrived.” He looked at his wife who nodded. “What we saw was a family. You do not differentiate between them and the son of your blood. I, we, would have to be blind not to see the familial love between you even in the brief time we saw the girls. To rip them away from you would be tremendously damaging to them. You are the only parents they have ever known. As such, I do not intend to harm my nieces by forcing them to leave you. I could no sooner take them away from you than cut off my arm. The only thing we ask is to be known to them as their aunt and uncle.”
Edith, who had been holding her breath to hear if she would be losing her darling girls, began to sob uncontrollably, not because of sadness but with relief.
“Lady Holder, I am a mother,” Maddie stated as she rubbed the countess’s back. “That is what you are, and have been to Jane, Lizzy, and Mary from the time you rescued our nieces…”
“Unca Edwawd!” Elizabeth exclaimed as she entered the room. She and Jane had been on their way to the library when they heard Mamma sob. She did not remember the face, but when she heard the kindly looking Mrs Gardiner mention ‘her nieces’, Lizzy had plucked the name from the depths of her memories.
“How on earth does Lizzy remember my name?” An astounded Gardiner queried.
“Did we mention that Lizzy has perfect recall?” Holder stated proudly. “If she sees, hears, or reads something once, she can remember everything. We were not sure Lizzy would remember, but when the girls first came to us, Jane would mention your name fondly. On the subject of abilities, Jane can add columns of numbers in seconds and find errors in not much longer. She would put my maths professor at Cambridge to shame. Not to be outdone, Mary is very intelligent like her sisters, but she is well on her way to becoming a virtuoso on the pianoforte.” Holder looked at Edith, who had dried her eyes. She nodded. “Will you two have Mary and Jamey join us?”
With nods, both girls exited the room.
“We never made a secret of the fact they are foundlings,” Edith stated. “We now know they were never that as we know where they came from. However, from that first day they were with us, we made sure they understood that we have never considered them anything less than our children, just like Jamey is. After the way we found them in Hyde Park, we felt it was critical they had no doubts that we wanted them and that they would never be a burden to us, but rather, they were integral parts of our family.” She turned to Mrs Gardiner. “As we are related through my daughters, please call me Edith. However, if you are uncomfortable doing so in public, address me as Lady Edith.”
“Thank you, your…Edith. I am Maddie,” she returned.
The four children returned to the drawing room and sat on a settee together.
“Jane, Lizzy, and Mary, Mr and Mrs Gardiner are your aunt and uncle,” Holder told his daughters. He could not describe his relief that they were to remain their daughters. “Jane, you do not remember, but you mentioned Uncle Edward when we first brought you to Holder House.”
“She said ‘Unca Edwawd’,” Elizabeth corrected.
“Yes, Lizzy, that is what she said, but only because at that age, she could not pronounce all of the letters yet,” Edith explained.
“This is your Aunt Maddie, and you have a cousin, Lilly, at home in the nursery. She is right at eighteen months of age,” Gardiner stated. “You also have two half-sisters who live in Hertfordshire on the estate where you were born, Longbourn.”
“We have more sisters?” Mary chirped enthusiastically. “What are their names?”
“Catherine, called Kitty, and Lydia. They are six and three,” Gardiner replied. “The one who abandoned you…” Gardiner told his nieces a sanitised version of their birth-mother’s life and death, terming the latter a tragic accident.
“So the lady who gave birth to us and left us in Hyde Park realised that she was wrong before her accident?” Jane verified.
“Indeed, Jane. Your birth mother was truly remorseful for what she did,” Gardiner confirmed. He found he no longer harboured any animosity towards his late younger sister. How could he when she had given her life to protect the two daughters who lived with her?
“When will we meet our sisters?” Elizabeth questioned. “As Jamey is our brother, they will be his sisters as well!”
“There is much for your uncle and me to discuss. We will retire to the study and discuss some things,” Holder stated as he stood.
Gardiner followed the earl to his study. “As your wife stated, we are connected through the girls, so please call me Gardiner,” he suggested once he had taken a seat in one of the wingback chairs indicated.
“And you may call me Holder. You must know that if I doubted whether I would make an offer for Netherfield Park, I am certain now. I want the girls to know where they came from. It will be important to them to know their sisters. You did say that no reminder remains of that bastard who was so weak he had to harm women and those who could not stand up to him? His name is not spoken by anyone in the area, is it?”
“Yes, that is true. The girls have been adopted by Phillips and his wife and have his name now. My late sister was moved to be laid to rest next to our older sister and our parents, and that man is in an unmarked grave in a section of the cemetery reserved for indigent people. Any proof of his existence has been wiped away.” Gardiner went on to explain that Phillips was his former brother-in-law and how he had come close to sending his late wife away over her role in the compromise of the girls’ late father.
