Page 46 of Her Favourite Daughter

“It is fortunate that Bennet keeps well-stocked stables, seeing that we left Seaview House in such a rush,” Holderness stated. “We knew not where we would be hosted nor how long we would be here, so the horses were ridden to London. I suppose Matlock and I could have them brought here, if they were needed.”

“You are welcome to keep riding Longbourn’s horses,” Bennet stated as he entered the room. He had been working in his study, knowing that after the meal, the conversations with Amelia would last for some hours, and the chances of getting any work done would be very small. “Unless, of course, you consider my horseflesh inferior,” he jested.

“You know very well we have all been impressed with your mounts,” Matlock returned with a grin. “For Andrew, Richard, and William not to want their horses delivered and to be happy with what you have is a great compliment.”

Bennet inclined his head, acknowledging Matlock’s words. He turned to his cousin’s son. “William, you impressed Mr Pierce. He has recommended you as his replacement.”

“Thank you, Bennet. Caroline approves as she quite likes the neighbourhood and our neighbours,” William Collins responded. “We had a tour of the parsonage, and we both agree it will be more than enough for us. In fact, I believe the house here is a little larger than the one in Hunsford. That is only important insofar as there will be room when, if, He blesses us with children.”

“In that case, the living is yours.” Bennet granted. “You will work with Pierce to learn what you must and agree on a date he will depart, will you not?”

“Thank you, Bennet, I will not let you or the parishioners down,” William Collins accepted gratefully. “Yes, I will coordinate with Mr Pierce.”

Even though the open windows in the room were facing the one side of the park, those within heard the sounds of multiple riders arriving at the stables and the voices to accompany them. While the five who had returned from their ride went to wash and change, the two walkers entered the drawing room within moments of each other.

It was not long before those who had gone riding were changed and had joined those in the drawing room. Fitzwilliam was not the only hungry one.

Chapter 17

With everyone having broken their fasts, Fanny, Amelia, and Bennet excused themselves and made for the study. Once there, Bennet did not sit behind his desk; rather, he and Fanny sat on the settee between the windows looking out onto the park while Amelia selected a comfortable armchair facing them. Bennet had placed the part of the note Fanny had found that fateful day on the low table next to where he was seated, assuming that Amelia would want to see it.

Amelia would ride with Bethie just after first light on the morrow and she could only imagine the pleasure she would feel when racing her daughter over the fields. She was pleased that love of riding was another thing they shared. Now was not the time to think of that upcoming pleasure, she, Fanny, and Thomas needed to have a serious conversation.

“I have heard pieces of the tale, but will you please tell me how you discovered Bethie?” Amelia requested once she was comfortable in the chair.

Fanny first informed Amelia about all of her disappointments, from the stillborn babe to the many miscarriages which had affected her feeling of equilibrium in a serious way. She said she was thankful for her two children but yearned for more.

Knowing how Anne had suffered with a few miscarriages and how much she and Francis would have wanted more children, Amelia understood Fanny’s pain.

Thereafter, between Fanny and Bennet, they related how and why they had no choice but to leave Grantham as soon as possible. They recounted that on the next day, the fifth day of August 1791, they departed before first light because they knew they needed to reach Longbourn with all speed.

Next, Fanny took over and spoke of her walk in the forest near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. “At first, I thought that the sound of crying was in my imagination; something driven by my desires to have more children. However, the wailing became more insistent, and I followed the sounds. As I did, the crying became louder. I entered a clearing and saw the carriage. It was an older one, not in a good state of repair and only pulled by a single horse. The wailing was very loud now, so not seeing anyone around, I opened the door, and that is when I found Lizzy, or as you call her, Bethie. She was on the floor of the cabin on a blanket and in her swaddling, although as she flailed her arms and legs, she had opened much of the blanket that had been used to swaddle her.” Fanny paused. “We have the blanket in which she was swaddled as well as the gown she was wearing.”

“I had swaddled her myself that morning after feeding her. It was a white, silk blanket with a pattern of embroidered rows of raised flowers in the same colour as the blanket. The gown was a plain white one without any special marks or embroidery,” Lady Amelia remembered.

“That is it,” Bennet stated. “Would you like them fetched now?”

“Thank you, Thomas. There is no need right now; I would enjoy seeing them later.” Amelia looked from Fanny to Thomas. “Will you continue telling me what occurred next?”

“At that point I was extremely alarmed. I wanted to know who could leave a defenceless and obviously hungry babe alone in that way. That was when I looked to one side and saw the criminal seated on the ground, leaning against the trunk of a tree. After checking for signs of life, of which there were none, I found a partial piece of a note in his one pocket.”

Bennet handed the piece of paper to Amelia.

While she read the vile words, Amelia felt the anger for the late de Bourghs burn white hot all over again. If Mrs de Bourgh were not already in hell, Amelia would have taken pleasure in dispatching her to the eternal fires of damnation. She held her temper and said not a word, nodding for Fanny to proceed.

“For what I am about to say, I apologise. As soon as we spoke to Cousin Clem, we knew what I, and then Thomas, suspected all those years ago was wrong. However, then we did not have the knowledge we do today. My first thoughts after reading those despicable words were that some terrible parents wanted their daughter murdered for some reason.” Fanny saw the look forming on Amelia’s countenance. “Think of it from my side. I found a babe crying in a carriage in the woods, a dead man with instructions, written in a female hand, to kill said babe and make sure the body was discovered. That was all I knew, so I admittedly made an assumption. At the same time, I was not about to allow anyone to hurt the little mite again.”

“When I look at everything through your eyes, I can see how you arrived at your conclusion,” Lady Amelia owned.

“As I was still feeding James at that point, I returned to the carriage, lowered all of the blinds and fed the child. Once she was sated, which took some time, I used my handkerchief as a temporary napkin, as the poor dear needed to be changed urgently.”

“That was why the men who discovered the carriage and body a few days later saw a soiled napkin in the cabin of the conveyance.” Amelia remembered something. “Fanny, did you unhitch the horse and tie it to a tree with a long tether?”

“I did. I knew not when the body would be discovered, and I could not allow an innocent animal to die of hunger and thirst if it took too long. There was a brook close by, and there were more than enough sources of food for the animal.” Fanny looked to Amelia, who nodded for her to continue the retelling. “At that point, I knew she was a female, so after re-swaddling her, I walked back to the coaching inn just outside of Gainsborough, and there I saw Thomas.”

“The nurse, a young lady from Grantham named Sophie, and I spoke to Fanny about her returning with a babe from her walk.” Bennet took over the tale. “She told us all and showed me the note. Without thinking, I agreed with her. We named her Elizabeth Rose after my mother and continued our journey south as soon as we were able without telling any local authorities we had a foundling with us. As Fanny has stated, we thought we were doing the right thing to protect little Lizzy from danger and those who wanted her dead. I suppose that accepting it was her parents who wanted her dead made it easy to leave the area without a word to anyone.”

“In Meryton, we did not dissemble and tell them Lizzy was born of my body. We just never corrected the assumption she was because of the similarities in looks to Thomas’s mother. Once Lizzy had been with us for a year or two, and we had never found any trace of anyone seeking her, in our minds, it reaffirmed that we had done the correct thing.”