Chapter 6
The drive from Longbourn to Pollaner was about fifty miles, and with the duke’s fast carriage, it took about half a day.
Elizabeth’s first view of her new home was quite intimidating. They passed the gates that led into the park before the house was even in view. It took another twenty minutes before she could see it, but when she did she felt her jaw drop a bit.
The front facade was almost castle-like with four turrets and distinct crenellations across the top. However, she also glimpsed views of gardens around the side, which is definitely not something that would be outside a castle.
The closer they got, the bigger the house appeared, until finally, they came to a stop at the front door. The duke disembarked first then turned around to help Elizabeth down. He escorted her into the house where they were greeted by a cheerful middle-aged lady.
“Welcome home, Your Grace,” she said.
“Mrs. Hampton, I want you to meet my daughter, Lady Elizabeth. Elizabeth this is Pollaner’s housekeeper, Mrs. Hampton,” he said.
Mrs. Hampton curtseyed deeply. “It is good to see you home again, Lady Elizabeth,” said Mrs. Hampton. “When you were kidnapped all those years ago, we all thought you were gone for good.”
One of the things Elizabeth had learned as she traveled was that everyone but the nursery maid who helped Elizabeth escape had assumed she had been kidnapped when she disappeared. The nursery maid had helped that rumor by claiming that Elizabeth had been with her up until dinner time that day.
The maid had been sacked for losing her charge, but the duke had secretly rewarded her. She was now married to a local, somewhat prosperous, farmer with several children of her own.
“Thank you, Mrs. Hampton,” said Elizabeth.
The duke turned to Elizabeth. “Mrs. Hampton will see you to your room and will introduce your maid. The two of them should be able to take care of anything you need or want. I shall see you again at dinner.”
He then walked away, climbing the stairs so quickly that Elizabeth almost felt as if he was running away from her.
“Now, Lady Elizabeth, let’s get you settled,” said Mrs. Hampton as she gestured toward the stairs.
She began climbing the stairs with the housekeeper. Behind her she heard the noise of two footmen bringing her trunk inside.
Elizabeth was shown to a suite of rooms, including both a bedroom and a sitting room with a fireplace in the wall between them. The décor was pleasant though a little more pastel than Elizabeth preferred.
Elizabeth’s maid’s name turned out to be Anna, and she seemed to be a cheerful, younger version of Mrs. Hampton. In fact, when Elizabeth looked more closely at her new maid, she said, “Are you Mrs. Hampton’s daughter?”
Anna laughed. “She is my aunt, but everyone, even my father, says I look just like her.”
“Well, Anna, it is good to meet you,” said Elizabeth. “I am in your care.”
“Of course,” said Anna. “Now, I suppose our first order of business will be to go through your wardrobe to determine what you have and what you need. Though perhaps you would like to rest after your journey. Or would you like a tour of the house first?”
Elizabeth laughed at her maid’s scattered ways. It felt good. She had been so nervous that she had not laughed in a couple of days.
“What I would like most of all is a hot bath. Can that be arranged at this time of day?”
“Of course, any time,” said Anna as she gestured toward a door in the side of the bedroom wall.
The room turned out to be a bathing room. There were two large copper cisterns in the corner where water was stored. One of them had a small coal furnace built in beneath it to heat the water. There was also a very large bathtub, the largest tub Elizabeth had ever seen.
“This fire is always burning. It keeps this room warm as well as keeping this water hot, so you can have a pleasant bath any time you wish, even multiple times a day if you desire,” said Anna.
“That sounds lovely,” said Elizabeth. “Though I imagine it gets too warm in here in the summer.”
“We usually open the windows in warm weather. Alternatively, we can turn it off if the weather is so warm that you prefer cold baths, my Lady,” said Anna.
“Well, we can leave that decision for another day. For now, if you could prepare my bath, I would be very grateful.”
“Of course, my Lady,” said Anna.
Elizabeth went back into her sitting room to relax until the bath was ready.
She reclined on the most comfortable chaise she had ever sat on and looked around her.
Everything was well-made and elegant. The room was designed with comfort in mind rather than ostentation, which she was grateful for.
She suspected she would have quite enough ostentation in the rest of the house.
For a few minutes, she wondered what she would be doing with her time from now on. She was certain she would never have to thread another needle again unless she wished to. Her only other hobbies were playing piano and reading, but one could not live a life where those were one’s only activities.
After only five minutes, Anna returned to tell her the bath was ready. As Elizabeth lowered herself into the delightfully warm water, which was scented with a pleasant-smelling oil, she sighed. This was perfect.
~~~~~
Elizabeth spent the rest of the day going through her wardrobe with Anna, who eventually concluded that all of her evening gowns would need to be replaced.
They simply weren’t elegant enough for a duke’s daughter.
Her day dresses were acceptable if she wasn’t expecting company, but she would need additional ones that were of a higher quality.
At first, Elizabeth was offended, but she allowed realism to bring her out of that.
It simply made sense that a duke’s daughter would be required to dress more elegantly and more expensively than a gentleman’s daughter.
Besides, Anna had been assistant to the deceased duchess’s lady’s maid, so she was certain to know what she was about.
As the dinner hour approached, Anna helped Elizabeth into her best gown and re-styled her hair. Anna then guided her to the drawing room where the family typically gathered before going in to dinner.
As soon as Elizabeth entered the room, she was practically tackled by a hug from an unknown source.
Once she was released, she could see that the hug had come from an exuberant young man, about fifteen years in age.
He had dark brown eyes and dark, almost black, hair which curled in a slightly rebellious sort of fashion.
“Sorry to tackle you unexpectedly,” said the young man. “I’ve just been so looking forward to meeting you for three years now.”
“You must be Edward, my brother,” said Elizabeth.
“Exactly,” he said with a grin. “And you are Elizabeth, my older sister. I have always wanted a sibling, so I was overjoyed when Father told me you were actually alive but were still in hiding from Mother.”
“So, he told you why I was raised elsewhere?” asked Elizabeth.
Edward’s cheerfulness faded a bit as he said, “He did. Honestly, it was both shocking and not that surprising all at once. Mother has always doted on me, so at first I was surprised, but then I thought about how she treated everyone else, and I realized that she likely could have done what Father said she did.”
Even that small reference to her childhood experience made panic begin to rise within Elizabeth. She changed the subject slightly in an effort to prevent it from breaking free. “If she spoiled you, I would assume you miss her a great deal.”
“Well, yes…and no,” said Edward. “I am wearing mourning for her.” He pointed at a black armband. “However, I do not think she will be missed much.” He leaned toward Elizabeth and whispered. “She really wasn’t a particularly nice person.”
When Edward had pointed out his black armband, Elizabeth suddenly realized her father, the duke, had not been wearing any such thing. Perhaps he did not mourn his wife at all.
Before she could continue the conversation, the duke entered. “I hope you have settled in well enough, Elizabeth,” he said. “Do you like your rooms?”
“They are perfectly lovely,” she said. “Everything is very comfortable. Thank you.”
“I am glad. I had no idea what you might like, so I had Anna and Mrs. Hampton decorate it for you. It was all done very quickly, though, so if there is anything you would like changed, just say the word.”
Although Elizabeth would prefer a darker palette, she said, “There is no need for that. After all, we will be going to London in a few months. Next summer will be soon enough to make those kinds of decisions.”
“That is, of course, assuming that you come back here next summer,” said the duke. “It is entirely possible that you will be invited to several house parties, and you may prefer to attend those rather than return here.”
Elizabeth was beginning to get an odd feeling from her father. It was almost as if he liked the idea of having a daughter, but now that she was real and a part of his life, he didn’t actually want the responsibility of keeping her.
If that was truly how he felt, perhaps it would have been better if she had accepted the offer of her own establishment.
She pushed that thought aside for now. Since she was here, she would take every opportunity to accustom herself to her new station. Once she was in London, she could decide if she would rather be on her own.
The three of them went in to dinner. Apparently, they would be eating in the small family dining room, which was three times the size of the main dining room at Longbourn.
Elizabeth listened to her father and her brother chat, but even that small conversation was sparse. The duke didn’t seem to care very much what his son got up to as long as he paid attention to his lessons and didn’t cause problems.
After the third course was served, the duke turned his attention toward Elizabeth.
“Tomorrow, I will arrange for Mrs. Hampton to accompany you into Chelmsford, which is the nearest market town. There, she can introduce you to all the shopkeepers, making it possible for you to charge your purchases to me. Once that is accomplished, you may shop to your heart’s content. ”
He looked at her gown briefly. Then he added, “I would recommend commissioning some new clothing so that you will be more comfortable in London society next year.”
“Thank you, Father,” she said. “Is there a budget I must stay within?”
He chuckled. “Sometime in the next few weeks, I will set up a fund of fifty thousand pounds for you. That money will be yours, and the interest of it will be used to pay for any of your purchases. It would be nearly impossible for you to overspend, but even if you do, I will not complain overmuch unless it becomes burdensome.”
“I assume that fund will be my dowry when I marry?” Elizabeth asked.
“Precisely,” he answered. “It will also become your income should you decide to establish an independent living situation.”
“That is very generous of you, Father,” said Elizabeth.
“On the contrary, I am concerned that it might not be enough,” he said. “If you find you cannot maintain an appropriate standard, do come talk to me.”
Elizabeth could not imagine spending more than two thousand pounds per year, which is what the interest of fifty thousand pounds would be. After all, that was the same as Longbourn’s income, and it had provided for five ladies and one gentleman very comfortably.
Still, Elizabeth noted that the duke was not just concerned with her pleasure when offering such generosity. He was also concerned with her ability to maintain a certain standard. If she did not look the part of a duke’s daughter, it would reflect badly on him.
Suddenly, all his kindness over the years shifted in her mind, and she realized that Uncle Brandon, the duke, her father, had never been overly concerned with her happiness. Rather all his gifts were designed to give her the education appropriate to a duke’s daughter.
Mr. Bennet had been correct. The Duke of Essex was kind enough to her, but he was fundamentally a selfish man.
Elizabeth held back a sigh at this realization. She told herself that it mattered little. She had the financial support and the social backing to make her own way in the world, to find her own happiness.
“Thank you, Father,” she said again. “You have been very generous. Is there anything in particular I should be doing with my days?”
“You are still fluent in your foreign languages?” he asked.
She nodded. “Then I would recommend you spend some time each day with your music. Other than that, you may do as you will. Is there anything you would like to do? Horse-riding? Driving? I have even heard that some ladies like to garden or even hunt and fish.”
“Hunting and fishing do not particularly appeal to me, and it is the wrong season to take up gardening,” she said. “Nor do I ride, but I have always wished to learn how to drive. Doing so would allow me to explore my new home far more effectively.”
“I believe we have a phaeton that my late wife used to drive around the property,” said the duke. “Speak to Mrs. Hampton about it, and she will put you in contact with one of my servants who can teach you how to drive it.”
By the time dinner was over, Elizabeth had come to the conclusion that, while the Duke of Essex would gladly spend money on his children, he would prefer to spend as little time on them as possible.
She also came to the conclusion that if she ever wanted anything, whether it was knowledge, help, or material goods, she should speak first to Anna, then to Mrs. Hampton, and only ask her father when it was absolutely necessary.