Chapter 6
Based on the fact that Lizzy began to crawl on the first Saturday in September, Fanny and Bennet guessed that she must be around seven months of age, which meant that her birthday was in early February.
As she began to crawl on the third day of September, they chose the third day of February as the day her birthday would be celebrated.
Soon after arriving at Longbourn, Fanny had weaned James, leaving her to feed Lizzy exclusively. The day James bit her when suckling had been the precipitating event for Fanny to stop feeding her son at her breast.
It pleased Fanny greatly that her children were surrounded by loving grandmothers, an adoring grandfather, not to mention aunts and uncles who loved them. Edward pledged to spend two or three days each month in Meryton so that he would come to know his nieces and nephew better.
Something over which Fanny was torn was that she had missed her courses in August. She was waiting to see if she had no indisposition in the current month before considering whether or not to tell Thomas.
After thinking deeply about what she should do, Fanny decided that until and unless she felt the quickening, she would say nothing to Thomas.
Just like she had not when the previous time had once again ended in disappointment.
Her hope, something she prayed on daily, was that now that He had shone His favour on them in guiding her to find Lizzy, that she would no longer suffer miscarriages.
What Fanny forgot to take into account was that there was nothing Bennet did not notice about his wife.
The previous time she had been with child and then lost it within two months, Bennet had been aware.
Knowing how devastating each occurrence was to his Fanny, he gave her no indication that he knew what had happened.
That was the case now. Being the attentive husband that he was, he knew when his wife would have her menses and was aware she had missed the last month’s indisposition.
As he would not force Fanny to confide in him and understood that her reticence to say anything was as much to protect herself, as him, from disappointment, Bennet would not give any indication that he knew she was in the family way again.
He hoped that Fanny would confide in Mother and Penelope sooner rather than later, as it would give them one more thing to focus on other than their grief.
Their feelings were understandable given the fact that on the first day of this month it had been one month since his father and brother had met their end in that horrendous accident.
The three children were a balm to the soul of his mother and sister-in-law.
Jane, with her calm sweetness; James, and the rambunctiousness of a toddler; and then there was Lizzy.
She was such a happy babe, and the best medicine against melancholy there was in the house.
When she sat on the lap of her Grandmama Beth or her Aunt Penelope, as she gurgled, smiled, giggled, and flapped her arms in delight, she banished any thoughts of loss and pain.
Now that she had begun to crawl, she was even more fascinating.
Mother and Penelope made sure not to shower Lizzy with a disproportionate share of attention.
They both spent as much time playing with Jane and James.
In the meanwhile, when he was not spending time with his family, Bennet was busy running his estate.
The ledgers his late father left him were clear and well-kept, so Bennet had had no delay in understanding the estate’s position, which was very healthy.
The only major change Bennet had made was switching the excess funds from the four percents to be managed by Gardiner.
He only deposited the funds not needed to be held in reserve if there was a bad year of harvests or some other emergency befell them with his brother-in-law.
As Gardiner was able to attain a return of around ten percent per annum, Bennet was confident that his daughters would have very respectable dowries long before Jane was to come out after turning eighteen.
That their children should not enter society too early was a subject he and Fanny viewed without any differences.
Since his return to the neighbourhood, Bennet had renewed his friendship with many of the men he had been close to before leaving for Grantham.
Some of them like Long, Goulding, and Purvis were landowners like himself.
One of them, though, a man he was perhaps closest to outside of his family, was a merchant.
His name was William Lucas and was a year older than Henry would have been had he lived.
Lucas had been a friend of both Bennet brothers and was a very jovial, good-hearted man who owned the general mercantile, the haberdashery, and a bakery and tea shop in one in Meryton.
Lucas was married; his wife, Sarah, was Fanny’s good friend. They had three children so far. The eldest, Franklin, was eight; next was Charlotte, who was six; and then they had a second son, Johnny, who was one, a month younger than James.
When Sarah Lucas called, she brought Charlotte with her. It did not take long before the latter and Jane were happily playing together.
In the evenings when Bennet and Fanny spoke in their shared bed before they allowed Morpheus to claim them, they would discuss their day and how rich they were in the family they had.
There was no disagreement that, notwithstanding the accident that claimed Father and Henry, the life of the family had improved significantly since Lizzy had become a member of it.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Osbornes, Fitzwilliams, and Darcys arrived in London the day after the epistle Leeds had sent with his courier to His Majesty reached the king.
As soon as he entered Leeds House on Portman Square—Winchester House on St James Square, his primary London residence, was in the middle of being rebuilt and would not be completed until the end of 1792 or early 1793—Leeds wrote a note to the king and sent one of his men to St James’s Palace with orders to place the missive into the hands of Major-General Robert Goldsworthy, His Majesty’s chief equerry.
It was the most direct method to address the king, as military men were not interested in all the politics like a member of the privy council would be.
Three hours later, a reply from George III, written by Lieutenant-Colonel Greville, another of the king’s equerries, was received in which he granted his permission for the Duke of Leeds and the Earls of Matlock and Holderness to accompany members of the Royal Guard when they made their way into Kent on the morrow to arrest Mr and Mrs de Bourgh.
The duchess and two countesses wanted to be present for the arrest but accepted that they could not be.
The apprehension of the criminals on the morrow would more than likely not illuminate where Bethie was, but it would be satisfying to see Mr and Mrs de Bourgh when they realised that all their scheming had been for nought.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Why did you command the butler to remove my letters I have written to the king instructing him to reverse his illegal order stripping my… our titles and removing you from the line of succession? You have cast each of my letters into the fire! This is not to be borne!” Catherine de Bourgh screeched.
“Your letters are tantamount to an admission of our parts in the plan to kidnap and murder Lady Bethany. Rather than reverse the order, you will be responsible for our arrest for treason followed by execution,” de Bourgh shot back.
“Treason! You never told me we could be accused of treason for removing the impediment to us becoming the Duke and Duchess of Leeds!” Catherine lied.
He let out a bark of derisive laughter. “I most certainly did,” de Bourgh responded.
“In fact, it was the reason I cited for this whole path being one of insanity. Then, God forgive me, I gave in to my greed and conspired against the babe with you. And for what, so you would finally be above your brother and younger sister? Do not forget that there was never a guarantee that my cousin would not outlast me; in which case, even without his daughter, you would have never been duchess. Perhaps you are so delusional that you thought you would be able to murder Leeds as well?”
Catherine looked away. Had that lowborn nothing Younge succeeded, his next task would have been to dispose of the current Duke of Leeds.
Now, unless one of her letters ordering the king to change his edict reached him, she would never be a duchess.
It was unacceptable that she would never be higher in rank than her brother-in-law and sister.
Before either Mr or Mrs de Bourgh could continue their argument, the drawing room door was kicked open and members of the Royal Guard marched into the room. They were followed by none other than the Duke of Leeds and the Earls of Matlock and Holderness.
Even if his wife was not aware of what this meant, de Bourgh was. They had found proof of what he and Catherine had attempted to do, and the soldiers were here to drag them to the Tower.
“How dare you…” Catherine tried to bluster before she was cut off.
“HOW DARE YOU? Not only did you have my daughter kidnapped with the aim of having her murdered, but you just admitted to wanting to have me murdered as well,” Leeds growled.
“I know not of what you speak,” Catherine prevaricated. “You must be in your dotage.”
“Mrs de Bourgh, we were on the other side of the door as you and your husband spoke of your disgusting plan. In addition to three peers of the realm, the major and his men heard every word. Even had we not had your husband’s confession already, your own words would have condemned you,” Matlock stated with disgust.
No matter how much he searched his memory, de Bourgh could not remember confessing to anyone. He had a faint recollection of seeking solace at the parsonage, but he could not remember any of the details.