Chapter 27
Come Tuesday morning, Sir William Lucas could not account for the reason that a chaise and four, with a coat of arms emblazoned on the doors, came to a halt in his drive at Lucas Lodge.
The knight was seated in his small study with its lone window looking out over the drive.
He did not move from his chair, as he knew he would be summoned if need be.
Imagine his surprise when he saw Mr Fitzwilliam, the former colonel and one-time guest at his estate, step out of the coach. That was nothing to the shock Sir William received when the man leant into the conveyance and handed out his widowed daughter.
Seeing this, his vaunted reputation for hospitality did not spur him to move.
Rather, he stood there staring; trying to solve the puzzle before him.
As he kept watching, his mouth hanging open, a footman assisted another lady from the coach.
From her dress, Sir William could tell she was a maid.
That told him that propriety had been observed, and his widowed daughter had not ridden alone with a single man.
As he concentrated on Charlotte, he was happy to see she had thrown off her half-mourning clothes.
Then, Sir William saw a look of contentment on her countenance, one he had not seen on her since before her short but disastrous marriage to Collins.
More than anything else, seeing the joy radiating from his daughter finally removed the lead from Sir William’s feet.
Exiting his study, he saw the heads of his wife and youngest daughter looking out into the hall.
“William, were you expecting guests?” Lady Lucas enquired.
“I was not,” Sir William averred. “It is Charlotte, Sarah, my dear. Will you not join me in welcoming her home?”
“Indeed, I will,” Lady Lucas agreed.
With Maria trailing behind, the Lucas parents reached the front door in time to see the housekeeper accepting Mr Fitzwilliam’s and Charlotte’s outerwear, such as it was in the summer.
“Charlotte, we had no word of your coming home,” Lady Lucas stated.
Her suspicions were raised when the former colonel offered her eldest daughter his arm.
She knew from letters received from her daughter that Mr Fitzwilliam was now the master of Rosings Park.
She was not imagining things when it appeared to her that the man was looking at Charlotte with great warmth.
Could it be that after her hasty decision of accepting the late Mr Collins, which had proved to be a great mistake, Charlotte had come to the attention of not only a good man but a very wealthy one as well?
“Prior to certain events of yestermorning, I had no idea I would be at Lucas Lodge today, and sending a message was not practical as we would have arrived at the same time,” Charlotte stated cryptically.
“What events?” Lady Lucas began to ask when her husband placed his hand on her arm.
“Come, Sarah, let us all retire to the sitting room. I am sure Charlotte will reveal the purpose in her coming,” Sir William suggested.
With Maria following, the two couples made for the named room.
Seated within were the two Lucas sons, the eldest of the four offspring, Franklin, two years older than Charlotte, and Johnny, three years younger than her.
Both stood at the entry of their parents, Charlotte, Maria, and a man unknown to them.
They had been away from home when he had been hosted at Lucas Lodge.
There was no missing the way the gentleman had Charlotte’s hand on his arm covered with his other hand possessively.
“May I introduce my sons who were not present when you were last with us?” Sir William requested. After Fitzwilliam nodded, the knight made the introductions.
The brothers relaxed when they heard that the man was the one who had been a guest in their home and was now the owner of a great estate. With what they had heard about him, they were sure he had no dishonourable intentions towards Charlotte.
Charlotte decided there was no reason to procrastinate. “Mama, Papa, and siblings, yesterday, Richard asked for my hand in marriage, and I accepted him,” she revealed.
For a few moments, the shock of the announcement kept the Lucases mute.
It did not last for long. There was no missing the felicity, and dare she say, love, Lady Lucas saw flowing between her eldest daughter and her betrothed.
She stepped forward and pulled Charlotte into her arms. Maria joined them and hugged Charlotte from one side.
Meanwhile, Sir William and his sons approached Mr Fitzwilliam with hands extended to shake his.
“Sir William, may I have a moment of your time?” Fitzwilliam requested.
“You do not need my permission. After all, Charlotte is a widow,” Sir William responded.
“I am aware of that, though we would appreciate your blessing,” Fitzwilliam declared.
“You have it; there is no need for a private audience for that. I know you are well able to take care of my daughter, and if she accepted you, she must have deep feelings for you because she is independent now,” Sir William stated.
“More than you know,” Fitzwilliam replied with a grin. Seeing the questioning looks as he shook his future brothers-in-laws’ hands, he indicated it was not his tale to tell.
If the Lucases had been surprised that Charlotte was engaged to Mr Fitzwilliam, when they heard that Miss de Bourgh intended to bequeath Charlotte half of her rather substantial dowry, they were flabbergasted.
When Charlotte told them that she would give half of the money over to be used as a dowry for Maria, her family was left unable to speak.
“With a dowry of ten thousand pounds, Maria will be a much better prospect. If she does not find a man who is worthy of her hand, she will be independent, especially as the money will be invested with Mr Gardiner,” Charlotte laid out.
Charlotte slept that night at Lucas Lodge, and although he was with them until after dinner, to observe propriety, Fitzwilliam spent the night in a comfortable suite at the Red Lion Inn in Meryton.
After they broke their fasts with the Lucases, Charlotte and Fitzwilliam, accompanied by the maid, departed for Kent.
After Charlotte left, the Lucas parents realised in their excitement over their daughter’s news, they had forgotten to mention Jane Bennet’s engagement.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Later in the afternoon the Gardiners and Bennet sisters had arrived at Snowhaven; an express arrived from Rosings Park.
Lady Matlock was with her husband in the study when the butler delivered the missive. When the butler intruded, they had been speaking of how much they both liked the Bennet sisters even after knowing them only for a few hours.
“It is from Richard,” Lady Matlock stated when she took the epistle off the salver.
Lord Matlock waved the butler away with his thanks. The man bowed and withdrew, pulling the study door closed behind him. “Will you read Richard’s words and then tell me?” Matlock requested.
“Come join me on the sofa.” Lady Matlock patted the seat next to her. “We can read it together.”
Even had he desired it, Matlock would not gainsay his wife. Once he sat, he took the letter from her, broke the Rosings Park seal, and opened the pages. As his arms were longer, he held it so that they could both read it.
13 July 1812
Rosings Park
Mother and Father:
You know me, as I like to get right to the point. I am engaged to be married. No, you do not know her well, but you have met her. I have been attracted to her since Easter past. Unfortunately, at that point, she was married to a sycophantic dullard.
“Richard too! I will be driven to distraction, with both of our sons to be married. Reggie, all of my prayers are being answered,” Lady Matlock enthused. “Go on reading. That way we will know who our other daughter will be.”
Her name is Mrs Charlotte née Lucas (a very good friend to both Miss Jane Bennet and Miss Elizabeth.) The reason I do not use her married name is by her request due to her abhorrence of that name. She was married to Aunt Catherine’s late idiotic, ignorant, obsequious parson.
You will remember meeting her and her parents briefly when you were at Rosings Park after Anne consigned Aunt Cat to the dower house.
She is now out of mourning; she mourned less than three months, which in my opinion was far too long. I respect the fact that she would not be hypocritical to satisfy the unreasonable societal demands that she should mourn a full year for a man she neither liked nor respected.
Her forthright manner is one of the many things which drew me to her even when she was married, and it is one of the reasons why I love her now.
When we spoke earlier today, she revealed that she too felt an attraction to me.
As neither of us was aware of the feelings we had for one another, you can draw the correct inference that we never acted on our feelings.
In fact, we never displayed them for the other to see.
Collins’s passing was a blessing and freed Charlotte from a lifetime of regret that she accepted him.
She only did so because at 27 she felt she was a burden to her family.
Part of her calculation was that he had a good situation and had a home where she would be mistress, and she believed he was not vicious.
In that, she was sorely mistaken. No, he never raised a hand to her, but there are many ways to cut one other than physically.
She is my perfect match. Without either of us knowing it, we each fell in love with the other. When I declared myself, she asked me if I was sure that she was right for me because my position would give me the pick of London’s well-dowered ladies.
I disabused her of that notion.
You met her parents before they departed Rosings Park. Remember, they are Sir William and Lady Lucas (he is a knight) of Lucas Lodge in Hertfordshire. Their estate is less than a mile distant from Longbourn—the Bennet sisters’ home.