Chapter 25 #2
As they commenced their northerly journey, Wickham felt the indignity of riding on the box, but he held his peace, not wanting the Younges to turn on him while he still needed them. Soon enough, he would have the wealth he deserved, and he would never ride on the box again.
Due to departing in the early afternoon, with stops at almost every inn along the way, by the time it was too dark to travel, they had only reached mid-Bedfordshire.
Wickham was fuming that he had not been able to convince Karen to allow him to hold onto the funds from the sale of the house for safe keeping.
She had insisted on having them deposited into a bank.
Had she been foolish enough to entrust him with their funds, Wickham had intended to keep them once he ensured that the Younges would be arrested and thrown into gaol.
Because he had no blunt of his own, he was forced to share a dingy chamber with the oaf, Younge.
He was aware that once the Younges were employed at this Kiveton Park, it would take some time for them to earn the trust they needed in order to execute his brilliant plan. Wickham hated the idea of spending more months seeming to enjoy the Younges’ company.
He could not even go to Karen that night because she was sharing a room with another female passenger she had met on the post.
This was certainly nothing like the life his mother told him was his due, but that would be his soon enough.
As soon as he forced that girl who was a duchess to marry him, he would have everything he deserved.
His mother would have been very proud of him.
Patience; he needed patience to see this through until the end.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On Monday morning while most of the coaches which had travelled to Kiveton Park headed almost due north to Hornby Castle, the Bingleys and Hursts travelled northeast towards Scarborough.
Given that the castle was almost ninety miles distant and Scarborough a little less than eighty miles, both groups of travellers would reach their destinations on Tuesday.
Men had ridden ahead to make sure that accommodation would be available for those travelling to Hornby Castle.
They reserved all of the rooms at the inn in the town of Wetherby.
The departure on Tuesday morning was with the sun; it would take another six hours to travel less than forty miles.
When the convoy entered the town of Bedale, Amelia had informed Bethie that it was the market town closest to the castle, which was about seven miles distant.
She also related that there was a relatively large town about seven miles to the north of the castle, called Richmond.
From the time the lead coach passed the gatehouse, it was more than a four-mile drive to reach the castle.
Bethany and her Bennet and Gardiner families were awed when they saw Hornby Castle for the first time—none more so than the two eldest Gardiner children.
They had been warned that it was a large structure.
However, nothing prepared them for the sheer size of the castle when they beheld it.
Even those who had attended St James’s Palace could see that this edifice was considerably larger.
For the most part, there was only one storey above the ground level, but the building was spread out over a very large area.
There were corner structures that had a second floor.
One of these was heavily covered with ivy.
There were patches of ivy on other parts of the walls as well, but not to the extent that it had grown over the walls of that one corner of the castle.
The Buxtons and several of the servants who had been at Kiveton Park, had arrived back at the castle before the residents.
When the coaches were drawn to a halt before the front entrance, Mr and Mrs Buxton were standing before four neat lines of servants looking for all the world like they had been back at the castle for days, not a few hours.
Those who had not seen the castle before stared at the huge sandstone portal.
The sculpture above the entryway rose at least thirty feet above it and featured a coat of arms being supported by a lion on one side and bull on the other.
Above the coat of arms was a sandstone crown.
The top section, that was above seven feet in height, had a recessed window carved into the sandstone with another, smaller lion within.
‘All this is to be mine?’ Bethany asked herself in wonder. She would not allow the enormity of this estate to overwhelm her. She was not one to allow herself to be intimidated.
The more Bethany saw, the more she realised how much she had to learn.
Thankfully for Bethany and the arriving Bennets, Amelia and the Fitzwilliams and Darcys were quite familiar with the layout of the castle.
Due to the huge size, the wing where the Fitzwilliam brothers would be housed was far distant from the family wing of the castle.
That is where everyone else, including Conyers—who felt rather smug about it—were to be housed.
Contrary to her cousin’s smugness, Anne Fitzwilliam had looked at her brothers with sympathy that they had been placed so far from everyone else.
Bethany knew she would feel less overwhelmed once Mamma and Papa arrived.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Fanny and Thomas Bennet departed Longbourn at first light on the Tuesday their family arrived at Hornby Castle. Hattie and Frank would follow them north in a sennight. The Bennets had been thankful the first day they had accepted callers was on Friday past.
On that day and Saturday, they had been inundated with friends and acquaintances wanting to congratulate the new baron and baroness.
The first to come on Friday, a little before calling hours, had been Sir William and Lady Lucas.
The former had joined Meryton in his study while the latter had gone to sit with Fanny in the drawing room.
When Sir William had addressed him as ‘my Lord,’ Meryton stopped his friend and told him that either Bennet or Meryton would suffice.
Sir William had been chagrined at the level of his self-importance after his minor elevation.
He apologised and asked his friend to address him as Lucas as he used to answer to, before he allowed his knighthood to go to his head.
With the air cleared, Meryton told Lucas all about their time in London, the audience with the royals, and the new Bennet House in Portman Square.
Meanwhile, a very contrite Sarah Lucas begged her friend’s pardon for her past high-in-the-instep behaviour. Fanny had told her friend that she had never taken offence and all was forgiven.
Seeing that her friend was calm and had made changes to herself, Fanny informed Sarah that Charlotte was being unofficially courted by a very good man.
She had Charlotte’s permission to do so if she judged that her mother would receive the information calmly.
However, Fanny made no mention of his name.
She would leave that to Charlotte; Sarah knew who Richard Fitzwilliam was and that he was well connected and wealthy.
Thankfully, her friend had not asked more of her, so Fanny had let sleeping dogs lie.
Ladies from the other four and twenty landed families around Meryton called on Fanny while their husbands paid their respects to her Thomas. The same was true for most of the prominent denizens of Meryton.
In the days before the onslaught of callers and the Monday after the Sabbath, the Bennet parents had managed to address any estate and tenant needs.
Meryton had met with his steward and confirmed that everything was ready for the upcoming harvest. Fanny had spent time with Mrs Hill going over those things which needed to be done in the coming weeks and made sure her housekeeper had everything she required to continue to respond to tenant needs in her absence.
Hence, when they departed on Tuesday morning, it was with a clear conscience.
They were missing their children very much.
For her part, Fanny could not wait to see her favourite daughter surrounded by all to which she had been born.
Hattie had not wanted to leave without her Frank, which was why she was not travelling with her sister and brother-in-law.