When Bingley had been asked if he knew what happened to his younger sister, he had said that he knew not.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
What none of her family knew was that Miss Caroline Bingley had annoyed her fellow passengers, the crew, and officers to such an extent that her money for her fare had been returned to her, and she had been put ashore in the Bahama Islands. All there was on the small island was a small fishing village, and Miss Bingley had been most put out, complaining bitterly to one and all.
A ship had called late one night to collect fresh food and water. She had boasted how she had fifteen thousand pounds with her, and she would pay to be taken away from the god-forsaken island. So desperate was she to be away from the nobody villagers that she had ignored how rough-looking the men were.
They put her in a longboat and rowed out to the anchored ship. On deck one of the men who had been ashore spoke quietly to the captain. The captain nodded.
Caroline Bingley’s belongings were seized, and she was thrown in the brig. The next day she was dragged up to the deck and was about to vent her spleen when she saw the black flag flying in the wind. It had a skull and crossbones on it.
“She don’ look any better in light o’ day,” one man spat out. “She be no good to us; send ‘er ta Davy Jones’s locker.”
Although she had no idea who this Davy Jones was, Miss Bingley knew she was in trouble. “You can keep my money; just let me go,” she begged.
“Yir money is ours already,” the captain barked. “Rather than make ‘er walk the plank, she can be our maid on the ship.”
For almost five years she toiled as a servant. The time had chased any of her former pretentions, airs, and graces from her person. One night in Port Royal, Jamaica, she and a longboat went missing. No one ever heard of Caroline Maleficent Bingley again.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Little Eloise made her way onto the shaded veranda and walked up to one of her grandmothers and sat herself on her lap. “You did not want to come play with us, Grandmama Cathy?” Eloise asked.
“I am too comfortable here with your other grandparents, little one,” Lady Catherine replied kindly.
Lady Catherine had mourned her daughter for a full year before she had rejoined the life of the family. Gone was the lady who thought she knew all; there were no more pronouncements and no talk of the separation of the ranks. She had softened greatly, and out of all of her nieces and nephews, she was closest to Elizabeth Darcy. It had been the most natural thing for her to fill the role of surrogate grandmother to the new generation of the extended family.
It had taken Lady Catherine two years before she went to Rosings Park again. She had approved of the changes, and more importantly, she was sure her late daughter would have as well.
Lady Elaine and Matlock were also seen as grandparents to the children of the extended family beyond the ones born totheir sons’ wives. As Matlock approached his seventieth year, he planned to turn more and more of the running of Snowhaven and the other estates tied to the earldom over to Andrew and Mary.
Elli turned to her mother. “Mamma, where are my other aunts?”
“Aunts Kitty and Anna will not be here because they are giving you some more cousins, and Aunt Lydia and Uncle Braiden are to arrive next week,” Elizabeth responded. “Aunts Emily and Priscilla and their families are at Holder Heights with the Carringtons.”
“But Aunt Jane is here, and she is a Carrington?” Eloise was puzzled.
“Yes, Elli, dear, I am a Carrington. However, your Uncle Jamey, our children, and I are here with you for a month before we go to Holder Heights to spend time with those there,” Jane explained.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Emily, Kitty, and Anna had come out together during the season of 1814. Thanks to the house’s massive size, the joint coming-out ball had been held at Holder House on Park Lane. Word spread that Kitty had a substantial dowry, and she was courted by many fortune hunters. As the men discovered there were many restrictions governing the release of her dowry, those needing an infusion of funds sought other, easier targets.
Emily was courted by and married Lord Francis Russell, the Marquess of Tavistock. He was the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Bedford.
A month later, Anna began to be called on by Lord John Russell, the first Earl Russell and the Duke of Bedford’s third son. They were married eight months later. Not to be outdone,in the same ceremony with Anna, Kitty married the duke’s second son, Lord George William Russell, who was an officer in the army. When they married, he had just been promoted to the rank of brigadier general. The infatuation Kitty and Lydia used to have with officers had nothing to do with the former’s choice of husband.
To date, they each had two children, and as Eloise had been told, each was close to her lying in for a third time. Fanny was to leave in two days to be with Kitty.
Lydia and Priscilla had come out together during the season of 1817. Even though the former had been eligible to come out during the previous season, she chose to wait. Her experience with the long-dead seducer had made Lydia much more cautious around members of the opposite sex who were not family members.
Priscilla met Lord Wesley de Melville, Viscount Westmore and heir to the Earl of Jersey, about halfway through her season. They were married in February 1818.
Being much more careful, Lydia reached her majority before she met Braiden St James, the second son to a country squire in Wiltshire. Even though he was only a ‘spare’, Braiden’s father had taught him estate management alongside his older brother. After Oxford, he had read the law. He and Lydia had met at the home of a mutual friend. They had taken things slowly and fallen in love. The wedding was in January of the current year.
Seeing that his fifth son-in-law had no estate of his own and was well versed in estate management, Bennet made St James and Lydia the master and mistress of Rosings Park. St James went from being on his way to becoming a barrister to master of an estate twice the size of the one where he was born.
None of the extended family knew yet, but Lydia had missed two months’ courses and suspected she was with child.
