~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The parsonage party was invited for the after-church meal on Sunday, and Collins planned tocleverlybring up his cousin’s courtship by a viscount. He was pre-empted by Lady Matlock and not in the way he wanted.
“Miss Elizabeth Bennet, I have wanted to congratulate you on your sister being courted by the son of one of my closest friends,” Lady Elaine enthused. “Edith wrote to me and told me how much she, Paul, and her girls like Miss Bennet. She told me she could not be happier for her son.” She gave her sons the gimlet eye. “If only one of my sons would find such a woman!”
Collins refused to concede. He bowed low to his patroness. “But, Lady Catherine, does not my cousin being courted by a viscount go against your strictures regarding the maintenance of the distinction of rank?”
In her embarrassment, Charlotte Collins would have climbed under the settee she was seated on if she had been able.
“Mr Collins!” Lady Catherine’s voice cracked like a whip. “Did you not hear my sister state that the Earl and Countess ofHolder approve of the courtship? As such, who, pray, are you to question them?”
His patroness’s rebuke almost caused Collins to begin crying. Why was it he could never prove his superiority over a Bennet? He receded and sat pouting in silence. He would deny everyone his wisdom. Had he known that his silence pleased everyone else, he would not have been as sanguine about keeping quiet as he was.
“I apologise, Lady Matlock; I was not able to thank you for your kind words. Of all the people I know, no one deserves happiness more than my older sister,” Elizabeth said in response to the countess.
“If she is anything as selective as you regarding who she will marry…” Lord Hilldale began to jest before his parents turned their displeasure on him. “Please pardon me, Miss Bennet; it was a poor attempt at humour on my part. I am usually better at jesting than that.”
It was unfathomable that the viscount was apologising to his impertinent cousin. Collins could not understand what was happening around him.
Thankfully, the butler called them to the dining parlour for the meal before Mr Collins could make more of a cake of himself. Elizabeth looked at Lady Catherine, who looked like she had aged during Elizabeth’s stay in the area. She supposed that the stress of Miss de Bourgh’s illness and impending loss was wearing on her ladyship. Elizabeth understood that the family was looking for as much normalcy as they could find while waiting for Miss de Bourgh to go to her final reward.
Elizabeth stepped over to Lady Catherine and offered the matron her arm. “I am thinking of you and Miss de Bourgh, my Lady,” Elizabeth said softly.
Lady Catherine said nothing, but she gave a tremulous smile and applied pressure to Elizabeth’s arm with her ratherbony fingers. She allowed Elizabeth to escort her to her place at the table.
As she sat after guiding Lady Catherine to her seat, Elizabeth did not miss the resentful glare from Mr Collins. She ignored the petty man.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As Phillips had asked for more time to verify what he and his clerk had discovered, he invited Bennet to his office on Monday morning. It was the sixth day of April, a clear, warm spring day when Bennet tied his gelding’s reins to the bar in front of the law offices.
Bennet accepted the offer of a cup of coffee and waited across the desk from Phillips.
“Did you never read the copy of the entail documents which you have at Longbourn?” Phillips enquired.
“I never saw the need until this business with Lydia and the scoundrel forced me to reevaluate my choices. I always assumed they said what I already knew: the estate is entailed to heirs male and can only be broken with the agreement of my heir.”
“It does say that; however, Henry Bennet, your great-grandfather was furious at his son who caused him to sell almost half of his estate. He was disenchanted enough that he added a clause to the entail stating that any descendants of William Bennet, who later became William Collins, are forbidden to inherit Longbourn.” Phillips sat back, his fingers interlaced as he waited for his words to sink in.
“My idiotic cousin may not ever be master of Longbourn!” Bennet realised. “That excludes any sons he may have, does it not?”
“Indeed, that is correct.”
“As I have no son, and as far as I know Collins is theonly other one in the line of succession, what happens to Longbourn?”
“If there is no male heir, the entail to heirs male is at an end. You may will the estate to any of your daughters you chuse, and it cannot be divided between them. The entail becomes one for descendants of the body of Henry Bennet’s son, your grandfather James. That way, William Bennet’s line remains ineligible. In addition, the entail prohibits the estate being mortgaged or sold off in pieces, or sold at all for another five generations, and then only to one of Bennet blood.” Phillips looked at the papers before him. “I think that is everything. Wait, there is one more thing. The husband of the daughter you leave the estate to must take the Bennet name so that a Bennet will remain the master. If you are alive to see grandsons, you may leave it to one of them.”
“Are you sure there is no other possible Bennet cousin?” Bennet questioned.
“Bennet, look at your family Bible. Your family is not a large one, and you were the last male child born to a male of the Bennet line. Even if there are any males out there born to a female Bennet before you had daughters, he is not in the line of succession. No one in the Bennet-Collins line can inherit, so that leaves only you and your girls. From this point the line of succession flows through both males and females; and after you, the next generation is all female.”
“I need to tell Fanny. As much as I make sport of her, I know her fears are real. That she will never have to leave her home should help banish her so-called nerves.”
The two men talked while Phillips prepared the document to be filed with the court of chancery. They agreed that Collins would not be told anything until the court issued the new deed.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Being home at Pemberley had not been the balm to Darcy’s soul that he had hoped it would be.
