Chapter Twelve
“Beth!” A beautiful dark haired young woman came running out the front door of Longbourn, with an even more beautiful blond gliding behind her at a more sedate pace. Another one with dark hair stood at the door.
“Lizzy!” Beth was helped down by their new footman and ran into her cousin’s arms.
“How did you know it was me?” Lizzy laughed.
“Hmmm…how indeed? And that would be Jane, and Mary stands at the door like a real lady. Where are the other two?”
“Upstairs with their governess, likely looking out the window.” Lizzy looked up, and was correct, two young blonds were looking down on the scene below. One was smiling, and the other had pursed lips.
“I’m guessing the one smiling is Kitty, and the other Lydia.”
“You already know us well from our letters.” Jane smiled serenely.
Just then an older gentleman exited the house and came over to Beth. “You must be my niece. You look almost exactly like your mother, except your hair is darker. More like your father.”
Elizabeth walked straight to him and gave him a hug.
Thomas Bennet was more startled than he would like to admit.
His girls occasionally hugged him, but he had not been touched by a stranger in many a year.
He stood rigid for just a moment and then grabbed up the girl who looked so much like his sister and gave her a bear hug.
She smelled sweet, like roses, just like his sister used to.
Lord, what a fool he had been. “I am so sorry for your loss. Your father was a good friend to me, once. I wish we would have reconciled long ago. Now it is too late, but you are here, and I am glad of it.”
Elizabeth’s eyes were glassy when she stepped back. “I am as well, uncle.”
“Will you not introduce me to your companions? Lizzy has told me of who you are traveling with, but we should observe formalities.”
“Of course! Thomas Bennet, please meet my governess, companion, and true friend, Mrs. Mamie Russell. Also meet my travel brother, and best friend to my true brother Ethan, John Smith. Mamie, John, my Uncle Thomas, Jane Bennet, Elizabeth, and Mary. Those two up in the window are Kitty and Lydia.”
“Your ‘travel brother’?”
“Yes. Ethan thought it would be safest if John traveled as my brother and Mamie as my aunt. We were going to change it when we arrived here but decided to leave things as they are. If you do not mind, of course. However you choose to introduce us to your neighbors will be fine.”
“Maybe we will introduce Mrs. Russell as your aunt on your father’s side, and John as her nephew.
There are a few in town who knew your father and obviously knew my sister here.
Although Mrs. Russell has blond hair, they would not believe she is related to any of us, and it’s best you do not have a second brother, when I’m sure my daughters have told half of Hertfordshire about you and Ethan. ”
“Oh, of course, that makes sense. Did you get that Smithers? Jackson? Eddie? Mamie is my aunt on my father’s side, and John is her nephew.
” Beth looked around to see if there were any other servants within hearing distance.
“I’m sure you’ll speak to your own servants.
” Her servants all bowed in acknowledgement.
All three of them truly liked their American employers and would keep their confidence.
Jackson was already thinking he might ask to travel back to America with them when they returned.
He had been a cavalry soldier and was impressed by what he’d been told about their horse farm.
Gainful employment was hard to come by these days, and he really wasn’t good looking enough to be a footman.
If it wasn’t for Colonel Fitzwilliam, his brother would never have hired him.
Mr. Bennet shooed them all inside like a gaggle of geese and Jane called for the housekeeper, Hill, to show them to their rooms. The three young Bennet ladies were agog at the size of John.
Beth had written about him many times, but there was no one near Meryton of his size.
Six foot five inches with shoulders nearly as wide as the doorway.
Jane thought he was rather handsome. Mary found him completely intimidating.
Lizzy was Lizzy and liked him immediately because he was Beth’s friend.
Mr. Bennet would hold his opinion until he had a chance to speak with him a bit.
John Smith had not yet said a single word.
~~~~~
Jane ran a very comfortable home. The servants were cheerful and respectful. The furniture was fashionable but commodious. Tea was ample, but not ostentatious. Their rooms were relaxing and welcoming.
Kitty and Lydia were allowed to come down for tea with their governess Mrs. Greaves. Catherine was very friendly and bubbly, while Lydia was reserved and surprisingly cynical.
“What are you learning from Mrs. Greaves, cousins? Are either of you musicians or artists? Neither of you have written me as much as your older sisters, so I have much to learn of you.”
Lydia just squinted her pale blue eyes and let her sister speak for both of them. “I love to draw, and Lydia is very good at chess! She can also make any bonnet look more fashionable. She has a real talent for that! Lydie, you should run up a get your latest creation and show Cousin Beth!”
“I will do that later.”
“Oh! Very well! Mrs. Greaves has also taught us music. We both have tried playing instruments but are not very good. We both sing though! You play the pianoforte, do you not?”
“I do! And all three of us play chess. We could have a tournament!”
Lizzy piped up, “That would make papa very happy! Lydia and I are the only two who will play him. He was a master at Cambridge and gives no quarter. Are you up to some fierce competition?”
“Mamie and I are fairly good, but John is the one who will give your father a run for his money.”
Lydia turned her eyes to the big man who was sitting quietly in a corner. “Shall we play Mr. Smith? There is a board in the attached parlor.”
John nodded and followed Lydia into the next room. Mrs. Greaves followed them and pushed both pocket doors wide so she could hear the conversation in the next room while chaperoning the players.
The ladies had lively conversation getting to know each other better, while Mr. Bennet sat to the side with Mrs. Russell and conversed softly. Lydia and John were perfectly silent as they played the first game.
“You let me win.”
“I thought it would be the polite thing to do for the first game.”
“Just the first?”
John just nodded and reset the board. The second game was hard fought, but John won easily.
“You play very well, Mr. Smith. Why did you let me win the first game?”
“As I said, I thought it would be polite. I rarely meet anyone who can beat me.”
Mr. Bennet had come in to watch the last game. “Is that so? Would you like to try me after dinner? I am rather hard to beat also.”
“I would be honored, sir.”
The rest of the day was spent in good company.
Dinner was delicious, and the two gentlemen went straight to Mr. Bennet’s study to have after dinner drinks and play a round or two of chess.
Bennet was truly impressed by Smith’s broad knowledge of many subjects, and skill at his favorite game.
By the time they rejoined the ladies nearly two hours later, he had decided he liked the gentle giant very much.
He was also impressed by Mrs. Russell who was intelligent and genteel.
Beth was very much like his sister had been, and how his Lizzy was now. They appeared to be two peas in a pod.
He wondered if his niece would be able to draw Lydia out.
She had collapsed into herself after her mother died.
Fanny had spoiled the girl quite outrageously.
When she was no longer the center of her mother’s attention, she became angry and hostile to her sisters.
At eleven years old, Bennet had wondered if his youngest was beyond redemption, but then they found Mrs. Greaves.
Jane, at nearly nineteen, had taken over as mistress of the house, and insisted the younger girls must have a governess.
She was struggling taking over the house, since her mother had taught her little of running Longbourn, and told her father she simply could not be responsible for raising her sisters also.
Jane had always been such an easy, pliable girl, but when she marched into her father’s study two months after her mother passed, she showed she had a backbone of steel.
She did not ask her father to hire a governess; she demanded that he do so.
She explained that they could easily afford one now that her mother’s spendthrift habits was no longer an issue…
‘and by the way, we will be economizing from now on and putting money aside for all your daughters. I already spoke to Uncle Edward, and he will be investing mother’s dowry so we each have more than just one thousand pounds to go into our futures.
’ To say Bennet was shocked would be an understatement.
His Fanny would wail and cry to get her way.
Jane simply put her foot down and said, in the most genteel of ways, exactly what would be done.
By the look in her eyes, he dared not countermand her edicts.
From that day forward, Jane was the queen of their home, and everyone did as they were told.