Chapter 2
The Library
Longbourn
Gertrude pushed the door of the library and stepped in cautiously. She had been instructed by the housekeeper, Mrs. Hill, to clean the grate of the fireplace in the library because the master was currently busy elsewhere.
Gertrude knew, as did everyone in Longbourn, that Mr. Bennet was accustomed to spending every spare hour in the library and was almost always settled near the library fire at this hour of the day. Mr. Bennet was not an unkind master, but she had no desire to intrude on him unnecessarily.
But Mrs. Hill was correct; the room was empty, though the door to the adjacent office was cracked open, and she could hear Mr. Bennet and Miss Lizzy speaking with an unknown gentleman.
Gertrude hurried over to the fireplace along the east wall and began sweeping it. It was not a task that required much attention, and thus the girl found herself listening vaguely, and then intently, to the conversation next door in the study.
“Mrs. Simpson left you seventy thousand pounds,” the stranger declared.
“What?” cried Miss Elizabeth, obviously in disbelief.
“Elizabeth has inherited seven thousand pounds?” asked the master in unmistakable amazement.
“Elizabeth has inherited seventy thousand,” the unknown voice declared. “Seventy thousand.”
Gertrude gasped aloud, and then covered her mouth with one hand. Seventy thousand pounds? She could not even imagine so great a sum as one thousand pounds, but seventy? Miss Elizabeth would be very rich indeed.
She finished sweeping the fireplace and hurried quietly out of the library, smiling to herself.
She liked Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth very much; both were kind to the maids and did not make enormous messes for the servants to clean up.
Miss Mary was also pleasant, but the youngest two Misses Bennet were very annoying indeed, scattering clothing around, romping around in light clothing and getting it dirty, and so on.
She knew that the Bennet girls would lose Longbourn when their father died, but with so vast a fortune, Miss Elizabeth would be well enough, as would her mother and sisters.
It was wonderful news.
/
The Study
Mr. Gardiner sighed and said, “I am quite as shocked as you both are, I assure you.”
“I am not even Mrs. Simpson’s blood relation!” Elizabeth repeated, her face pale. “It does not make sense!”
“The will itself is, of course, with Mrs. Simpson’s solicitor, but I remember the gist of it,” her uncle said.
“Mrs. Simpson was very fond of both Madeline and you, and made special note in an accompanying document that neither of you ever asked for money. Apparently she was the subject of multiple demands from various relations over the years, and grew quite weary of it.”
“Does this mean that Aunt Gardiner inherited money as well?” Elizabeth asked, her brow furrowed.
“Oh yes, I should have mentioned that,” her uncle said, and then cleared his throat and added sheepishly, “but I confess to some discomfort. The truth is that Madeline inherited ninety thousand pounds and the house on Half Moon Street from her great-aunt.”
Mr. Bennet, who had been doing rapid sums in his head, said, “Elizabeth, your bequest will bring you almost three thousand pounds in the four percents!”
Elizabeth wiped her mouth with her handkerchief, more for something to do than anything else, and said, “That... it seems impossible, Uncle Gardiner. What of her other relations? Surely they deserve the money more than I do!”
“Madeline and you are the primary beneficiaries,” her uncle said, “but Mrs. Simpson left a few hundred pounds here and there for other relatives and longtime servants, and Jane received three thousand pounds.”
“Oh, I am glad she remembered Jane!” Elizabeth cried out. “I know that they did not know one another particularly well, but no one is more deserving than Jane.”
“Is there any chance that anyone will contest the will?” Mr. Bennet demanded, having partially recovered from the shock of learning that his second daughter was now wealthier than he was.
“Mr. Harris assured me that the legal documents are watertight,” Mr. Gardiner said.
“But let me explain some of the background. Mr. Simpson, who has been dead for twenty odd years, was previously married and his first wife birthed two fine sons. She tragically died of consumption many years ago, and Mr. Simpson married Miss Annabelle Beaumont, daughter of Lord Beaumont, baron, a few years later. The new Mrs. Simpson was a good deal younger than her husband, and thus it is not surprising that she was widowed while still middle aged.”
Mr. Gardiner paused to see whether his audience of two had any questions, but both remained silent, their entire attention fixed on him.
“When Mr. Simpson died,” he continued, “he left his property equally divided between his two sons and his wife. Mrs. Simpson was a canny woman and invested wisely, partly with me and my business in these last years, and also lived a moderately frugal life for a woman of means. Her stepsons were more reckless, unfortunately.”
“Unfortunate, if not surprising,” Mr. Bennet muttered.
“Quite. In the five and twenty years since she was widowed, Mrs. Simpson transformed a large sum into a substantial fortune. During her lifetime, she was asked by her stepsons, and her stepsons’ relations, for money, and was moderately open handed in the beginning, but she cut them off when they continued behaving recklessly.
She cared deeply for you and your aunt, and decided to make you her primary beneficiaries. ”
Silence fell for a minute, and Elizabeth, who prided herself on her quick response to situations, found herself struck dumb with disbelief.
“The money, where is it?” Mr. Bennet finally inquired.
“Much of it is in government securities and some is in investments. I have been named executor of the will, along with Mrs. Simpson’s man of business, and will be responsible for looking after Lizzy’s bequest until she is of age.”
Elizabeth felt herself relax a little at this. She would turn one and twenty in five months, and it was a relief to know that she was not actually mistress of a great fortune at the moment, though she would be soon.
“Well, Elizabeth,” her father said, “congratulations on your sudden acquisition of wealth.”
“Thank you?” she replied, sounding uncertain. She chuckled and said, “I... it is such a shock, Father. I still wonder if I am dreaming.”
“I understand,” her uncle remarked with a rueful smile. “I am considerably older than you are, and I keep pinching myself. We were very comfortable in the past, but this inheritance will change our lives considerably, I hope for the better.”
“You hope?” Mr. Bennet asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“What is it that Christ said? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God? Of course, this surprise bequest is wonderful, but there will doubtless be challenges as well.”
“Like indigent relatives knocking on your door?” Mr. Bennet mused.
“Yes, exactly. Madeline and I both have cousins and nephews and nieces who need financial assistance, and will have to be sensible about using our new fortune wisely. I do not wish to encourage a dissolute lifestyle in anyone.”
The tradesman sighed, shook his head, and turned toward Elizabeth. “So that is the situation. You still have some months before you can access the principal, but I would be glad to arrange for you to use some of the money as you wish, Lizzy.”
“Oh!” his niece replied. She pondered for a moment and then said, “I do not wish for any funds now, Uncle. I know you will look after my affairs well enough, and I am still so bewildered over what has come to pass that I cannot think clearly.”
“That is very sensible,” her uncle declared, and her father, who had been stroking his chin thoughtfully, said, “Do you wish for your mother and sisters to know of your new riches, Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth groaned, wrinkled her nose, and asked, “What do you think, Father?”
“It would be unwise to tell them,” Mr. Bennet replied promptly. “Your mother and sisters will endlessly beg for money for ribbons and lace and new dresses and the like.”
Elizabeth turned questioning eyes on her uncle, who said, “I agree that it would be unwise to share news of your sudden acquisition of wealth with my sister and my younger nieces, though perhaps for different reasons. As a rich single woman, you will be the subject of great interest from gentlemen in desire of a wife.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single lady in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a husband?” Elizabeth suggested, arching one eyebrow.
Both men laughed, and her father remarked, “Very good, my dear, very good. Your uncle is quite right.”
“Do give me a moment to think, please,” Elizabeth requested.
Her male relatives lapsed into silence for a full five minutes, until finally Elizabeth said, “I will not tell them of the entire sum, but I would like to tell my mother and sisters that I have inherited money from Mrs. Simpson which will provide close to seven hundred pounds a year in income. That will comfort my mother. In order to keep the begging down, perhaps we can tell them that I do not yet have access to the money?”
“Yes, that is quite in order,” her uncle remarked. “The money will be tied up for some time as everything is sorted out.”
“Mamma is very worried about the entail, you know,” Elizabeth said, her dark eyes solemn. “If something were to happen to Father...”
“They would all be cast into the hedgerows,” Mr. Bennet finished, with a return to his own sardonic manner.
“You know that your Uncle Phillips and I would not permit such a thing,” Mr. Gardiner said sternly.
Elizabeth smiled at him gratefully. “I know you would do what you could, but you have children of your own, and they are your primary responsibility. If I truly am going to be mistress of nearly three thousand pounds a year, I will be able to care for my mother and sisters with ease, and I will do so.”
“You may find that more difficult than you imagine,” Mr. Bennet said in the driest tone his voice was capable of conveying.
Elizabeth’s expression hardened, and her chin came up. “With all due respect, Father, I believe that I am more stubborn than you are regarding such things.”
Mr. Bennet, who had already been shocked today, was shocked again. Elizabeth was his favorite daughter, and they usually coexisted happily, and yet there was a thread of indignation in that statement. He turned toward his brother-in-law, whose own expression was carefully blank.
“I do not suppose you understand how difficult it is to withstand the pleading of your mother and sisters,” he said truculently.
Elizabeth stared at him for a moment and then said, “I suppose I do not. But since I too have been living with uncertainty about my future when you die, Father, I have an extra incentive to manage money well.”
Her father looked genuinely amazed at this, which Elizabeth found both surprising and exasperating.
She was an intelligent woman, and knew well that it would be difficult for her mother to support all five of her daughters on a mere two hundred pounds a year, which was all that they would have as interest from the five thousand pounds of her mother’s marriage portion.
Longbourn, entailed away from the female line, would go to a distant cousin, Mr. Collins.
No, not difficult – impossible, given that they had been raised in comparative luxury.
Elizabeth had refused to give in to despair, but yes, the situation was dire as all five daughters remained unwed, and her father grew older and older.
“If you were so very concerned about your future,” her father said irritably, “why did you refuse Mr. Collins’s offer?”
Elizabeth felt a flare of genuine anger and forced herself to breathe in and out a few times before she said, “Mr. Collins is a sycophantic fool, Father, and he would have driven me entirely mad. I did not respect him, I did not like him, and certainly I could never love him. I am thankful that you supported my refusal to marry the man, and I thought you understood why I did.”
“Of course I did, Lizzy,” her father replied, and reached out to take her hands in his own. “You would have been completely miserable as his wife. I confess I did not realize that you were so very concerned…”
He trailed away, shook his head, and then turned an apologetic look on Mr. Gardiner, who was watching the scene with studious calm.
“Brother,” Mr. Bennet said, and forced himself to smile.
“I am certain you are weary after your trip and wish to refresh yourself. I will have one of the maids escort you to your chamber. Perhaps you can come down to the drawing room in an hour and we will tell the rest of the family about Elizabeth’s inheritance? ”
“That sounds excellent,” Mr. Gardiner agreed, and Elizabeth stood up and said, “Please allow me to take my uncle upstairs, and then I will take the hour to rest and reflect in my bedchamber. I am rather overcome.”
“That is completely understandable,” her father said.