Chapter 15 #3
“Fanny and Thomas, Bethie’s adoptive parents, selected the third day of February to celebrate her birthday. It was an arbitrary date based on when she began to crawl,” Lady Elaine explained. “We told the Bennets what her real birthdate is.”
At that moment, Amelia resolved that as long as she was alive, she would endeavour to be present at each of her daughter’s future birthdays.
She knew not to push too hard, regardless of her desires.
For Bethie, this meeting was with new people with whom she had no ties.
Yes, they were connected by blood, and Bethie had accepted her as mother, but they had a long road to travel before her daughter would feel comfortable in her presence.
“Before I meet the Bennets, will you three tell me what you know of how Bethie was discovered? I am sure I owe the Bennets a debt I would be unable to pay in multiple lifetimes,” Lady Amelia requested.
“Mother, if I may make a suggestion? Meet the Bennets in the drawing room, and once that is done, then you, Mamma, and Papa can retire to the study and speak. You will get first-hand answers instead of us repeating what they have told us, even if I do remember everything,” Elizabeth proposed.
Amelia looked at her friends, who both nodded. “In that case, I will defer to my daughter. Lead the way, Bethie. I am ready to meet those who saved you.”
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The eight Bennets in the drawing room were becoming a little nervous. They knew that the dowager duchess had arrived close to an hour previously, but she had yet to come and meet them.
The two earls and their three sons looked unconcerned while Anne was chatting quietly with Jane, and Giana was seated between Mary and Kitty.
The door opened, and everyone in the drawing room stood.
“Mamma, Papa, Grandmama Beth, Aunt Penelope, Jane, James, Mary, and Kitty, I present my mother, Lady Amelia Osborne, the Dowager Duchess of Leeds. Mother, Mr and Mrs Thomas Bennet, Mrs Beth Bennet, Mrs Penelope Bennet, Miss Bennet, Master Bennet, Miss Mary, and Miss Kitty,” Elizabeth said by way of introduction.
As Amelia looked around at the various Bennets, she could see the way they looked at Bethie with love and that she looked back at them in the same way.
Had the Bennets not found her, it was very possible Bethie would not have survived until the carriage with the dead criminal next to it was discovered some days after she had been kidnapped.
No matter what they suspected or did not about her birth family, they had saved her daughter’s life and brought her up as a loved member of the family and not as a foundling.
“Regardless of how many years I did not have with Bethie, or as you call her, Lizzy, I want to thank you for saving and loving my daughter,” Lady Amelia stated.
She approached Mrs Bennet and opened her arms. “You were the one who rescued her, were you not?” Lady Amelia said in sotto voce next to the other lady’s ear.
“I did, Your Grace,” Fanny replied as she felt relief flood her body. Lady Amelia was not angry with them for the years she had lost, only grateful for caring for her daughter.
“Do you call our common daughter ‘Your Grace’?” Lady Amelia enquired. “She is, after all, a duchess.”
“Of course not!” Fanny exclaimed.
“As we are both mothers to her, there will be no more ‘Your Grace’. Please, will you call me Amelia? Before you claim you cannot, how do you address my best friends and their husbands?” She indicated the countesses and the earls with her head.
“We address one another informally,” Fanny owned. “I will use your informal name as long as you call me Fanny, Amelia.”
“That is settled then.” Lady Amelia turned to her daughter. “You are very fortunate you grew up in a house with a grandmother. My parents were called home long before Francis and I were blessed with you, as were his.”
“Grandmama Beth, Aunt Penelope, and my siblings, even James, are much loved by me,” Elizabeth teased.
Amelia arched an eyebrow at the jest towards the Bennet heir.
“You will soon discover that Lizzy and James love to compete at anything and everything,” Fanny explained. “Their rivalry is usually friendly.”
“Mr Bennet and Fanny, Bethie suggested we speak in the study. Do either of you object?” Amelia asked.
“Please call me, Thomas,” Bennet interjected.
“You have not been shown to your suite yet, so you may wash and change. Before you object; yes, you are being hosted here,” Fanny insisted.
“After being apart from your daughter for almost sixteen years, do you think we would not have you sleep under the same roof as her? Also, dinner will be in an hour, and then, you will meet some more family and friends after dinner. This is a long way of saying that Thomas and I will speak with you and answer any questions you have, but I would recommend we begin to meet on the morrow after we break our fasts.”
“That is wise. If someone would be so good as to show me to my chambers, I would be grateful,” Lady Amelia agreed.
“I will show Mother to her suite,” Elizabeth volunteered.
Mother and daughter left the drawing room arm in arm.