Brother, have you and that low born wife of yours gone insane? Are the shades of Snowhaven to be polluted thus!
To take in a foundling is bad enough, but to give this mongrel the revered name Fitzwilliam, the honorific title of‘lady’, and to bestow a dowry of fifty thousand pounds on her! You have lost you mind, and I am of a good mind to move to have you committed to Bedlam!
If you do not heed my wisdom, I will know how to act. I am seriously displeased!
Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Reggie could see that his wife was ready to order a coach and go show his officious sister just how she felt about the words his sister had dared to write about their daughter. Elaine was used to Catherine’s slings and arrows against her and ignored it, but she would not forgive a slight against her daughter. Reggie calmed his wife and chose to ignore the nonsensical missive for the present; he would not dignify her claptrap with a response.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
June 1793
Elaine Fitzwilliam was preparing a birthday celebration for her much beloved daughter. She could hardly remember what her life had been like before the vivacious and precocious two-year-old was part of the family. She smiled to herself as she ruminated on Andrew’s reluctance to leave for Eton after he turned fourteen, and how smug Richard was because he was able to remain home with Lizzy. Even though she could articulate clearly and was able to say‘Richard’without a problem, the name‘Itch’that she called her brother stuck.
Lizzy was a very articulate two-year-old who had already started some basic reading. She seemed to have an insatiable love of books and devoured every children’s book that she could get anyone to read to her. Elaine was sure her smart as a whip daughter would soon be reading a lot more than books for children as soon as she was able to read better.
The Countess was snapped out of reverie as she saw a blur of dark ringlets in a bright yellow day dress approaching her at full speed. Elaine bent down, catching her petite daughter in her arms, and swinging her up to hug and kiss her as the beleaguered nursemaid, huffing and puffing, caught up to her charge. The maid curtsied to the mistress who released Lizzy and told her that she would take charge of her daughter.
“Mama!” Lizzy demanded her attention.“Did you remember to let Cook know that only a chocolate cake will do?” she asked with as much seriousness as a two-year-old could muster with speech far above her age. All of Snowhaven had learnt that Lady Elizabeth had a sweet tooth, and especially loved chocolate cake. Cook always seemed to have some chocolate cake and milk available when ever Lady Elizabeth wanted some.
“Yes, my darling daughter,” she replied with a smile that she felt deep in her heart,“Cook is making a special cake for you, and yes, it is chocolate.” As a two-year-old is wont to do, little Lizzy squealed in delight and clapped her hands. Even though she was intelligent, in all other ways she was very much like other children of the same age.
“When do Uncle, Aunt, and Will arrive, Mama?” Elizabeth asked. She loved the Darcys and had been to Pemberley a half a dozen times over the last year. With her love for the written word, she had a special bond with her soon to be ten-year-old cousin William. For his part, William could not fathom the intelligence of his little cousin. And to further their joy, Anne de Bourgh was staying with her Derbyshire relations for the summer, and the seven-year-old heiress of Rosings was as much under Elizabeth’s spell as any other in the family.
No matter how many times Anne’s mother had admonished her, demanding that she have no contact with the foundling, she was encouraged to do so by Mrs Jenkinson, her uncles, and aunts, and cousins who she loved dearly. Anne was now learning to ignore her mother’s pronouncements like the rest of the family, though distance made that ever easier. And after the insulting letter when Elizabeth was adopted, Lady Catherine had not been invited to any family gatherings. This past Christmas she had shown up at Pemberley uninvited and had been turned away. To say that she was seriously displeased would be an understatement. It was another affront to her which she added to the list that was growing ever longer, and she was finding ever greater solace in the idea that one day she would take her revenge when they least expected it. The family was well pleased that she had seemed to learn from her experience of being turned away, as she had not attempted to arrive uninvited again, but they would learn the truth and she would make them rue this day as well as those wishes she had been denied.
With Lizzy holding her hand, Lady Elaine went to verify that all of the arrangements for her daughter’s birthday were in place with Mrs Smythe, the housekeeper.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
It had been a little over a year since Lizzy had been taken from Longbourn and almost eight months since that malicious wench had been dead. As planned in November of the previous year, Edward Gardiner had married his Madeline, whom the rest of the family welcomed wholeheartedly. She was a compassionate and affectionate woman, and anyone watching could easily see that she and Edward had married for true love. Jane and John, as much brother and sister as any born of the same parents, could not wait for the next time that they could spend time with Aunt Maddie, who told the best stories and used voices for each character.
In a little less than a month, Jane and John would become brother and sister as Bennet and Tammy Manning were to be married. The two had started courting shortly after they had attended Gardiner’s wedding which had been unchanged as no one was mourning his sister. Bennet was finally going to marry someone he loved and loved him in return for who he was, not material gain. Tammy had never asked her betrothed about financial issues or his income; she did not demand a settlement as she trusted her Thomas and wanted to marry him simply because she loved him. She wanted to help him as the mistress of the estate by taking care of the day to day running of their home. Tammy also wanted to provide a loving home for their children. She wanted the children to know they had both a loving mother and father. Most importantly, she wanted to be able to freely express the love she bore for him as a woman loves a man. The two had not anticipated their wedding vows…too many times.
Bennet asked his brother-in-law Phillips to prepare a settlement. When Tammy read the settlement as her fiancé requested it of her, she was gobsmacked at the extent of her Thomas’s holdings and wealth. He settled five and twenty thousand pounds on her with the explicit permission to reside at either Bennington Fields or Netherfield Park for the remaining days of her life if he should predecease her and they had no son to break the entail for Longbourn which would necessitate her removal.
When the fifth of March had arrived, it was an awfully hard day for the family and servants of Longbourn. Miss Lizzy would have been two. It was a very sombre day as all of the residents contemplated what they had lost through the loss of her. Four-year-old Jane prayed that God would look after her sister for her. With Tammy there to lift their spirits by considering good possibilities, some even outlandish, they made it through the day in tolerable fashion.
When Ned Collins, Bennet’s miserly and illiterate cousin who was, in fact, his brother-in-law no matter how neither liked to acknowledge that fact, got word that his cousin was remarrying, he took it as a personal affront. He had not been unhappy to hear that the first wife had died with no sons born, so how dare his cousin try to have a son with a second wife! His own son of six years had to listen to his father rant for hours about how the hateful Bennets were scheming to keep him from claiming what was rightfully his.
There had been some hushed disapproving comments in the neighbourhood about the master of Longbourn marrying a former servant, but Bennet did not care. He had the support of his family and true friends, and that is all that counted. After one person had been severely rebuked by the master of Longbourn for making unfounded and ignorant comments about his wife-to-be, no one else made another comment within his hearing, regardless of what they thought in private.
One who had given his unreserved support was his particularly good friend Lucas. He and his wife Sarah had admonished any who spoke against the new Mrs Bennet. Bennet thought about his friend who had become a newly minted knight of the realm, now called Sir William Lucas.
At the end of March that year, their majesties, the King and Queen of England, had made a stop in Meryton. For some reason, no one knew exactly why, the mayor, Mr William Lucas, had made a speech of which, for reasons known only to him, had pleased the Monarch who had accordingly knighted the now Sir William Lucas.
The new knight was instructed to present himself at St James for the formal investiture, a subject on which he would expound on as many times as possible. Sir William decided that a knight of the realm should not be in trade, so he promptly sold his business and purchased a tiny estate that he named Lucas Lodge.
Bennet did not believe that his knighthood had changed him very much; he was still the same socially loquacious man that he had ever been. Sir William did place a lot of pride in his accomplishment, and no one had the heart to tell him that the King handed out knighthoods on a whim, whether deserved or not. The new Lady Lucas was aware of the truth of the matter, so there was little or no change in her. Sarah Lucas had been one of the few friends that Fanny Bennet had left until the truth of what her former friend did was revealed. That was the last time that Lady Lucas thought about the woman!
The wedding was set on the first day of July 1793 to be held in Longbourn’s church. Tammy had no living family members, so Edward would walk her down the aisle and Hattie would stand up for her. The betrothed couple had discussed John. It was decided that although Bennet would be John’s father in all ways that counted, he would not be adopted by Thomas Bennet and so would keep the Manning name. Notwithstanding the fact that Tammy had not had much time with her husband before he had been shipped off to war and had died without knowing he had a son; her former husband had been a good man. To honour him, she wanted her son to bear his father’s name. Like her, John senior had no family alive so at least this way his branch of the Manning family would live on through his son.
The servants at Longbourn could not have been happier to be gaining the new Mrs Bennet as their mistress. She had been functioning as thede factomistress for many months and had always been kind and fair—in other words, the opposite of her predecessor. She was never demanding and would not call a servant from his or her task to do something that Tammy could accomplish herself with little trouble.
No, there was no one in the world who repined the passing of the former Mrs Bennet, not even her former paramour Sam Hodges, who had taken up with some smugglers in Fowey, Cornwall led by a Clay Younge.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
