Page 29 of Her Favourite Daughter

“Did I omit telling you?” Bingley jested.

The pillow aimed at his head by his younger sister demonstrated her lack of amusement at his jesting.

“I have to ride to Meryton to sign the lease and deposit the payment, but as soon as I do, we will be renting Netherfield Park for two months. We may take possession on the day before the Collinses arrive at their family’s estate,” Bingley revealed.

“When will you go to sign and pay for the lease?” Hurst asked.

“I will go to my bank in the morning and have a draft drawn on my account. From there, I will make the twenty-mile journey in order to inspect the estate first, and if it is as Collins described, I will sign the contract,” Bingley stated. “By the by, Mr Phillips asked that we keep the knowledge that Miss Bennet is the heiress of the estate confidential. He wants to keep fortune hunters from knowing. In addition, Hurst, the Bennets are related to Mr Gardiner, with whom both you and I invest.” Bingley paused. “Hurst, I know Lulu and Caroline have appointments with their modiste on the morrow. Would you like to join me? A second opinion about the estate would be welcome.”

“I would be happy to accompany you,” Hurst responded.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Bingley and Hurst met Mr Phillips at Netherfield Park. They were impressed by the way the estate and manor house had been maintained. Hence, it was an easy decision for Bingley, with his brother-in-law’s agreement, to sign the short-term lease at Mr Phillips’s office and turn the draft over to him to pay for the two months’ rental.

So it was that the Bingleys and Hursts departed London at sunup on the final day of June 1807. They all rode in the Bingley coach while the personal servants and most of the trunks followed in the Hursts’ carriage. After two hours of travel, they took a break at a coaching inn. Once they were refreshed and the horses rested, the final leg into Meryton commenced.

Caroline and Louisa were seated on the forward-facing bench—the former on the left, the latter on the right—opposite Bingley and Hurst. About one and one half hours since departing the inn, the coachman slowed the team of horses as they entered the town of Meryton.

As she looked at the shops of the market town, Caroline audibly gasped when she saw a group of young ladies and a young man walking in the opposite direction to where they were travelling. There were two rather huge footmen walking a few yards behind them, but that was not what caused Caroline to react as she did.

“What is it?” Mrs Hurst enquired.

“I noticed some young ladies walking. One of them looked like she could be a younger version of the Dowager Duchess of Leeds,” Miss Bingley stated.

“Where? I did not see them.” Bingley queried. He was opposite Caroline.

“All you will see are their backs now, if anything, thanks to the giant footmen with them. Perhaps my eyes were fooling me,” Caroline opined. For some reason, she remembered what she had said when she read the article about the Duke of Leeds’s death. Surely that was a childish fantasy. She would not be the one to discover the missing duchess, would she?

Chapter 11

“No, William, you may not go directly to Netherfield Park,” Clem Collins told his son good-naturedly. “You have been ready to jump off the bench and run since we departed Hunsford. I know you are keen to see Caroline again, but we need to greet the cousins first. What will the Bennets think if we arrive and you are absent?”

“Son, as soon as we greet the Bennets and tell them your betrothed is resident at Netherfield Park, I am certain that Fanny will send a note inviting them to call. You will see her today or in the morning at the latest,” Ophelia Collins opined.

“I know it is not good manners for you to arrive without me, but it has been six weeks since I have seen Caroline. Letters are not enough,” William Collins replied.

“William, we are almost there; the carriage just entered Meryton. You know it is only a mile from here,” Collins reminded his son.

As they did each year, the Bennets sent one of their carriages to Hunsford to transport the Collinses, and allowed them to use it when their cousins returned to their home in Kent.

“I wonder how Lizzy will amaze us with her abilities and intelligence this year,” Ophelia mused.

Since Lizzy had learnt chess when she was six, other than the first few games she ever played, she had been nigh on unbeatable. The other four Bennet children were all proficient at the game, but it seemed like the middle Bennet sibling was always a half a dozen moves ahead of any opponent she played.

“The three Fitzwilliam and the two Darcy men consider themselves rather formidable at the game. It would be interesting to see how long it would take Lizzy to beat each of them,” Collins wondered.

Before his wife or son responded, the carriage turned past the open gates of the estate and onto the drive, which was just more than a mile, through the large park to reach the mansion. It was well known in the family that, aside from saving for the children’s futures, Bennet and Fanny had renovated the house, more than doubling the size, some six years past. An expanded library and a ballroom had been added to the impressive manor house.

As they approached, Collins noticed that some of the ivy which had been removed during the renovations was growing back in various places on the walls. He noted that just like Fanny, Bennet, and their five children did each time his family arrived, they were standing in front of the front door under the expanded portico.

Never before had Fanny and Bennet been dreading the arrival of their cousins like they did at that moment. They could see that Lizzy was also apprehensive, but not nearly as much as they were. After the revelations the day subsequent to her turning sixteen, Lizzy had wanted to bring Jane into the circle of those who were aware of the truth, but she had agreed not to when Bennet and Fanny had begged her to wait until after they spoke to Clem and William Collins.

Because of their request to Lizzy, there could be no more procrastination. As Bennet stood waiting for the coachman to bring the pair of horses and the carriage to a halt, the voice of his conscience told him that rather than being selfish, he should have made enquiries after reading the newspaper in 1799.

Fanny had never felt so nervous before in her life. She could swear that she felt shuddering, flutterings, and palpitations as she waited to greet the cousins. Fanny knew that the feelings were all contrived in her mind. As much as it would kill her to lose Lizzy, since telling her daughter the truth of how she joined the family and Thomas casting doubt on her long-held belief that she had saved Lizzy from monstrous parents, she had asked herself how she would feel if one of her children had been taken and someone hid the fact the child had been discovered and was hale and healthy. She could not allow another parent to suffer so, regardless of how much it would cost her if her favourite daughter left Longbourn.

She knew that her thoughts were premature. It was why they would seek counsel from Cousin Clem. Fanny was sure, or at least she hoped, he would give them good advice without condemning them for what they had done in keeping Lizzy with them and never seeking her birthparents.