Page 37 of Her Favourite Daughter

“Your Grace, I must beg your pardon,” Anne Fitzwilliam blurted out.

“Please do not ‘grace’ me to death. That will take much getting used to. For now, I am Lizzy. And what do you have to apologise for, Miss Fitzwilliam? We only met today.” Elizabeth returned.

“The late Mr and Mrs de Bourgh were my birth parents. I feel some…” Anne Fitzwilliam closed her mouth when Lady Bethany raised her hand.

“Miss Fitzwilliam, did you conspire with them to harm me?” Elizabeth asked.

“No, of course not, I was four at the time, locked in the nursery to keep me out of the way,” Anne Fitzwilliam replied.

“And there you have the reason why you have nothing for which to beg my pardon. I understand that all those who were actually responsible for what happened to me as a babe have met their ends. You have no more blame than I do for what happened,” Elizabeth insisted.

Anne Fitzwilliam looked a little sheepish seeing the ‘I told you so’ looks from her parents.

“Whoever desires to scribe the epistle to the dowager duchess, please feel free to use the desk in my study,” Bennet offered.

“It should be one of us,” Lady Anne suggested.

“Elaine and Anne, you should compose the letter together.” Matlock turned to his host. “Bennet, will you please show the ladies to your study?”

“My wife will,” Bennet replied. “Fanny?”

“Please follow me,” Fanny said as she led the countesses out of the drawing room.

Once Mamma and the ladies who had said they were her godmothers left the drawing room, Elizabeth turned to the remaining guests. “Other than Lady Amelia, do I have more family?” she asked.

“Your mother is the only one left on the Osborne side. Her parents are gone, and Amelia was the only child who survived to adulthood. You do have some more distant family. We are your cousins, Anne, who left the room; William; Giana; and me,” Holderness indicated his son and daughter. “I inherited the Holderness title when your grandfather, who also happened to be named Robert Darcy, went to his final reward. We had a common great-grandfather for whom we were both named.” He looked at his daughter. “Giana will enjoy having another female relation.”

“Then, she will gain three more female family members,” Elizabeth insisted. “Jane is three years older than me, but Mary is a year younger than I am, and Kitty, her proper name is Catherine, is more than two years younger than Mary.” She paused as she thought of something. “My Bennet, Gardiner, and Phillips families all celebrate my birthday on the third day of February; is that when I was born?”

“Unless I am misremembering it, you were born on the fifth day of March 1791,” Matlock responded.

“Dash it! You are nine months younger than me, not ten!” James realised.

“Lizzy and James are very competitive,” Jane informed the guests.

Conyers had thought to reprimand Master Bennet for speaking to Lady Bethany in that way when he had stopped himself. Like between Giana and him, there were no rank or titles, just a brother and sister. He had to admit that regardless of his former opinions, the Bennets had brought his cousin up to be a self-assured lady whose emerald-green eyes flashed with intelligence and wit.

In fact, he felt some envy when he saw how close all four Bennets siblings and Lady Bethany were. From what he could tell, it was a very close familial relationship. They were all close to one another in age and did not have a twelve-year age difference like he and Giana did, which he assumed added to the bond he could detect between them.

No, his cousin had not grown up lacking anything from what he could see. Rather, Bethany had enjoyed being part of a loving family which it seemed treated her no differently than a by-blood member of the family. He had many opinions to revise.

The three matrons returned to the drawing room. “The courier is on his way. He has been instructed to look for the Leeds coat of arms and check at the coaching inns along the way. Amelia will receive the reply we sent from Seaview House today or tomorrow, and I will wager she will depart right away,” Lady Anne opined.

“Is there a suitable inn in the town?” Holderness enquired. “I know neither Anne nor Elaine will agree to be parted from their goddaughter, at least until Amelia arrives.”

“Yes, the Red Lion Inn in Meryton is of a high quality, but I fail to see why you need an inn,” Bennet wondered after he had looked at Fanny, and she nodded.

“We must sleep somewhere,” Matlock said.

“And we have twenty open bedchambers at Longbourn, so there is no need for you to go to the inn,” Fanny interjected.

“We did not want to impose,” Lady Elaine responded.

“Lizzy, or Bethie as you call her, is family to us all; hence, we are all family. As such, you will remain at this estate. We will not hear of you taking rooms at the inn when we have an abundance of chambers,” Fanny insisted.

“I agree with Mamma. How are we to get to know one another if you are not here?” Elizabeth queried.

The invitation was graciously accepted.