Page 16 of Her Favourite Daughter

Reverend Clem Collins

“This is the last chance for you two to ask for another sentence other than execution,” Leeds stated as he looked from Matlock to Holderness.

“As I said when you asked this some weeks back, I will not stand in the way of justice. I agree with Mr Collins insofar as what the de Bourghs planned was evil personified. The truth is that dead or alive, Bethie is missing for no other reason than them being driven by greed, pride, and a desire to rise to a rank to which the de Bourghs are not worthy,” Matlock stated.

“I, too, stand by what I said then. Like Matlock and Elaine, Anne and I do not accept the de Bourgh parents as family any longer,” Holderness added. “At four, our niece is young enough that she will likely not remember who her birth parents were.”

“In that case, I will write to Their Majesties, but first, we need to inform our wives of what we have learned. I do not know about your ladies, but Amelia will not appreciate me not including her in this,” Leeds stated. Leeds saw his friends raise their hands, indicating they felt the same way.

They made their way to the drawing room where their ladies and the Fitzwilliam and Darcy sons were.

Lady Amelia did not miss the serious look on her husband’s face. “You have some news, do you not?” she asked. She saw the three nods from the men. “Then come and tell us.” She turned to Andrew, the eldest of the three cousins. “Andrew, this may be a good time for you three to go ride.”

The cousins never had to be told twice, as all three loved riding horses above all other activities.

Once the boys were out of the room, the three ladies looked at their husbands expectantly. Matlock told them about the epistle he wrote to the parson at Hunsford and gave them the gist of the information received in the parson’s return missive that day.

The three ladies were crying softly, but they were tears of anger, not sadness. “Your resolve to have those two abhorrent persons tried and convicted of treason, and then executed, has not softened, has it?” Lady Amelia asked the three men. “It would not please me if you have.”

“No, Amelia, my dear wife, there will be no reprieve for them. Even though I am hopeful that Bethie still lives seeing that no body has been discovered; we know what they intended. It will be the tower. Hanging is too good for them,” Leeds said.

Neither Lady Elaine nor Lady Anne disagreed.

“So be it. I will have a letter on its way for His Majesty with one of my couriers within the hour. There will be no mercy for the de Bourghs,” Leeds determined and then made for his study.

As he had said it would be, the missive was shortly on its way.

The next day, the three families departed for London. They wanted to be present when the criminals were brought to justice.

Chapter 6

Based on the fact that Lizzy began to crawl on the first Saturday in September, Fanny and Bennet guessed that she must be around seven months of age, which meant that her birthday was in early February. As she began to crawl on the third day of September, they chose the third day of February as the day her birthday would be celebrated.

Soon after arriving at Longbourn, Fanny had weaned James, leaving her to feed Lizzy exclusively. The day James bit her when suckling had been the precipitating event for Fanny to stop feeding her son at her breast.

It pleased Fanny greatly that her children were surrounded by loving grandmothers, an adoring grandfather, not to mention aunts and uncles who loved them. Edward pledged to spend two or three days each month in Meryton so that he would come to know his nieces and nephew better.

Something over which Fanny was torn was that she had missed her courses in August. She was waiting to see if she had no indisposition in the current month before considering whether or not to tell Thomas. After thinking deeply about what she should do, Fanny decided that until and unless she felt the quickening, she would say nothing to Thomas. Just like she had not when the previous time had once again ended in disappointment. Her hope, something she prayed on daily, was that now that He had shone His favour on them in guiding her to find Lizzy, that she would no longer suffer miscarriages.

What Fanny forgot to take into account was that there was nothing Bennet did not notice about his wife. The previous time she had been with child and then lost it within two months, Bennet had been aware. Knowing how devastating each occurrence was to his Fanny, he gave her no indication that he knew what had happened.

That was the case now. Being the attentive husband that he was, he knew when his wife would have her menses and was aware she had missed the last month’s indisposition. As he would not force Fanny to confide in him and understood that her reticence to say anything was as much to protect herself, as him, from disappointment, Bennet would not give any indication that he knew she was in the family way again.

He hoped that Fanny would confide in Mother and Penelope sooner rather than later, as it would give them one more thing to focus on other than their grief. Their feelings were understandable given the fact that on the first day of this month it had been one month since his father and brother had met their end in that horrendous accident. The three children were a balm to the soul of his mother and sister-in-law. Jane, with her calm sweetness; James, and the rambunctiousness of a toddler; and then there was Lizzy. She was such a happy babe, and the best medicine against melancholy there was in the house.

When she sat on the lap of her Grandmama Beth or her Aunt Penelope, as she gurgled, smiled, giggled, and flapped her arms in delight, she banished any thoughts of loss and pain. Now that she had begun to crawl, she was even more fascinating. Mother and Penelope made sure not to shower Lizzy with a disproportionate share of attention. They both spent as much time playing with Jane and James.

In the meanwhile, when he was not spending time with his family, Bennet was busy running his estate. The ledgers his late father left him were clear and well-kept, so Bennet had had no delay in understanding the estate’s position, which was very healthy. The only major change Bennet had made was switching the excess funds from the four percents to be managed by Gardiner. He only deposited the funds not needed to be held in reserve if there was a bad year of harvests or some other emergency befell them with his brother-in-law.

As Gardiner was able to attain a return of around ten percent per annum, Bennet was confident that his daughters would have very respectable dowries long before Jane was to come out after turning eighteen.

That their children should not enter society too early was a subject he and Fanny viewed without any differences.

Since his return to the neighbourhood, Bennet had renewed his friendship with many of the men he had been close to before leaving for Grantham. Some of them like Long, Goulding, and Purvis were landowners like himself. One of them, though, a man he was perhaps closest to outside of his family, was a merchant. His name was William Lucas and was a year older than Henry would have been had he lived. Lucas had been a friend of both Bennet brothers and was a very jovial, good-hearted man who owned the general mercantile, the haberdashery, and a bakery and tea shop in one in Meryton.

Lucas was married; his wife, Sarah, was Fanny’s good friend. They had three children so far. The eldest, Franklin, was eight; next was Charlotte, who was six; and then they had a second son, Johnny, who was one, a month younger than James.

When Sarah Lucas called, she brought Charlotte with her. It did not take long before the latter and Jane were happily playing together.