Prologue
In fact, Mrs. Maud Carlyle, the midwife, had opined that Mrs. Bennet was built to deliver children. That had been the belief until her last child, was breech and by the time he had been delivered never drew his first breath, and Fanny had bled to death.
Thomas and Fanny Bennet were vastly different in character, but that was what made them perfect for one another. Where Bennet was unsociable and somewhat of an introvert, Fanny was an extroverted social butterfly. He loved books and scholarly pursuits and she fashion and company.
Fanny had been the best of mothers, showering her three children with unlimited and unrestricted love.
As the time for her confinement had drawn near, Bennet had taken his children to visit his cousin, Lord James Bennet, the Earl of Holder.
Unless his cousin was in Town at Holder House on Grosvenor Square, he, his wife, and their three sons could be found at their estate in Staffordshire, Holder Heights.
Jane, Lizzy, and Tommy knew their Aunt, Lady Amelia Bennet, as Aunt Amy.
It was Aunt Lia to Tommy as he could not pronounce Amy yet.
Lord James Bennet had two sons, James Junior and Phillip, as well as three daughters, Marie; Cassandra, called Cassie; and Alicia, called Allie.
Phillip was around the same age as Tommy, just as Cassie and Allie were similar ages to Jane and Elizabeth, respectively.
The children loved to spend time with their cousins, so their father sending them to Holder Heights did not concern the three Thomas Bennet children.
Even though Tommy was only two, he was as enthusiastic as his older sisters to visit ‘Unca Jamey,’ ‘Aunt Lia,’ and his cousins, especially Phillip who would soon be three.
Thomas was thankful that his children were not at home when their beloved mother passed. He was not looking forward to explaining that they would never see their mama again, especially to Elizabeth who was wise beyond her years and had been extremely close to her mother.
Bennet wrote the most difficult letter of his life to his wife’s younger brother, Edward Gardiner.
There once were three Gardiner siblings, but Hattie, the oldest, had been taken some fifteen years earlier by influenza.
After his father passed on, Gardiner sold his father’s law practice and used the money to start his import and export business, Gardiner and Associates.
It was not widely known, but Bennet invested Longbourn’s profits with his brother-in-law and was building a tidy sum. It was not a large fortune, but it was enough to provide his daughters with at least ten thousand pounds each, as well as a small legacy for Tommy.
Longbourn was entailed, but not away from the female line.
Two generations earlier, the master had had a son who liked to gamble.
Before anyone could make a claim against the estate, he entailed it so that all or part could not be sold off under any circumstances, and only a Bennet by blood could inherit, male or female.
A miserly and illiterate distant cousin, Ned Collins, who had married one of Thomas Bennet’s cousins, believed Longbourn was entailed away from the female line.
It mattered not how many times he was told it was secure with a child of either gender, he could not fathom that a female descendant could take precedence over his claim.
What further eluded him was that with the stipulation of being a Bennet by blood, the Collins line could never inherit, regardless of the circumstance.
Thankfully, the man’s wife had eventually managed to make him understand that he was placing his energy into something for which there was no reward.
More importantly, her son William understood this fact quickly, as he surpassed his father in acumen and common sense.
Bennet did not bother with sending them a notification of his Fanny’s demise.
From the time that Ned Collins finally grasped the facts of the entail, there had been no further contact between the Bennet and Collins families.
The same day that Bennet sent the express to Gracechurch Street, Gardiner left his young wife, Madeline, at home and made for Meryton with all haste.
Had the children been at Longbourn, his wife, even in her delicate condition, would have accompanied him, as the Bennet children loved their Aunt Maddie.
Gardiner, himself feeling bereft of his only remaining sibling, gave his brother a hug of support before sitting in one of the armchairs in Longbourn’s study.
“It is hard to believe I am the only Gardiner remaining now. My one comforting thought is that I hope Fanny has re-joined Hattie and our parents.”
“Thank you for coming, Gardiner. I must make some hard decisions, especially about Tommy. I think it will be better for him if James and Amy agree to keep him there. Tommy will be with Phillip, who will be like a brother as they grow up, and he will have a mother figure. The girls and I would be able to spend the summer with them each year so he will never forget his father and sisters. I have much work on the estate and I am not equipped to raise a boy of two. Fanny did all of that,” Bennet’s voice choked up at the mention of his beloved.
“I am sure your cousins will do anything to help that they are able to, Bennet. Have you informed Philips that Fanny is gone?” Gardiner asked.
Jacob Philips had purchased the law practice from Gardiner and lived in the old Gardiner house with his wife, two sons, and a daughter. All Longbourn’s legal issues were dealt with efficiently by Mr. Philips.
“Yes, he was here earlier, and I updated my will. Heaven forbid, if something happens to me and Tommy, then my oldest living daughter will inherit at her majority. Before you ask, yes, my neighbours still think I clear two thousand a year. In a way, that is true in a sense as the rest goes to you to add to my portfolio,” Bennet told his brother by marriage.
After the funeral, Gardiner returned to his wife and business, and Bennet journeyed to Holder Heights to break the devastating news to his children.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Martha Bingley had never been happy married to Arthur, who had died of a heart attack some six months previously.
He left her with, in her opinion, a small widow’s portion, a far too small, leased house on Gracechurch Street near Cheapside, and three young children.
They lived a few doors down from number 23, where the Gardiners resided.
Martha was envious of the Gardiners’ much larger house and their ability to afford far more servants, and often commented on it, which taught her children to believe the same.
Her oldest, Charles was ten. Louisa was eight, and Caroline was five.
Martha had never wasted an opportunity to tell her children how important it was for them to rise from their status as wife and children of a tradesman to the ranks of the gentry.
She also oft repeated and ingrained in her children that their lot in life was not their fault.
She blamed an amorphous them or they, though, if asked, she was never able to define who them or they were, nor what they had done to affect her family’s lives.
It was always useful, however, to have a scapegoat excuse for her to use for not making such an effort herself.
Her husband had moved them from Scarborough some three years previously to become a minor partner in Gardiner and Associates.
He had promised that as the business grew, so would their fortune.
There had been no visible improvement in their wealth as of his death, and to her chagrin, her daughters had a pittance of a two-thousand-pound dowry each.
On his passing, Gardiner had bought out the late Bingley’s stake in the company for seven thousand pounds, which had been placed in a trust for Charles until his majority and was to be managed by Edward Gardiner.
Martha’s widow’s portion was two thousand pounds, but their living expenses were paid out of the interest and dividends earned by the principal that would one day be her son’s inheritance.
The roughly seven hundred pounds per annum that Gardiner generated from the invested principal was enough to pay the rent and their living expenses while leaving a few hundred pounds to be added to the principal.
Martha wanted to get her hands on as much of her son’s inheritance as she could, but Gardiner had been charged with the management of the funds, and Arthur Bingley had placed strict guidelines on said management, as he had known who and what his wife was.
He did so to protect his son’s money from his avaricious wife.
Even though she disliked and resented the Gardiners for their apparent wealth and success, Martha kept up the pretence of a friendship with Gardiner’s young wife, as it usually led to an invitation to dine with them at least once or twice a week, and Martha was not willing to jeopardise those invitations, as she and her three resentful children enjoyed the quality of the repast they found at Madeline Gardiner’s table.
Madeline Gardiner was nobody’s fool. She knew full well the truth of Martha Bingley and her grasping children, but she also felt sorry for them after they lost the patriarch of their family. This led her to keep inviting them, even against her personal preferences.
When Madeline Gardiner had a miscarriage, she did not tell Martha Bingley, as she knew the woman was incapable of concern for any beyond her own selfish desires. Luckily, Maddie had the support of a loving husband to get her through her sadness over losing their first babe.
It was at one of the dinners the Bingleys were invited to that they met the widower Thomas Bennet.
Martha saw the man as the answer to her prayers.
He was a gentleman whose family had been on their land for a good number of generations, and he seemed to be reasonably well off.
She was determined to marry the man, and incorrectly believed that would raise her and her children’s status to the gentry.
No matter how much she fawned over Thomas Bennet, batted her eyelids at him, behaved coquettishly, or tried to employ any of her vast array of feminine wiles, the man showed no interest in her.
When she perused her reflection in the mirror, she saw a woman of not yet thirty who still had her looks about her.
She could not understand how it was that she had not been able to turn Mr. Bennet’s head at all.
She decided that as he seemed like an honourable man, there was only one thing for it, she needed to compromise him, and she intended to conscript her children to help her.
Once she explained how their lives would improve as the son and daughters of a gentleman, her older two agreed to assist her in any way they could. The opportunity came before Bennet was to return to Longbourn, when the Bingleys were invited to dinner the night before his departure.
Martha had not missed that her quarry sequestered himself in Mr. Gardiner’s study after dinner, though she did not know, or care, it was his way of escaping her attentions.
A half hour after her victim separated himself from the company, she gave Charles and Louisa a wink and then stated she needed to use the necessary.
On opening the study door slowly, she saw her victim had fallen asleep on the settee. She lay down next to him, freeing a breast from its constraints and placing his hand on it. Just then, as planned, Charles and Louisa opened the door and screamed.
“What are you doing in here, woman?” Bennet demanded as he pushed her off of him and she landed unceremoniously on the hard floor, her breast still hanging out of her dress.
“Oh, but Thomas, you were saying how much you wanted me before we were discovered,” Martha stated with a straight face.
Maddy and Edward Gardiner shook their heads at the obvious compromise.
Unfortunately, several servants had come running when the two Bingley children screeched, so it seemed there was no hushing up the event.
Even if the Gardiners could hush their servants, they were sure that the despicable woman and her spawn would crow about it to one and all.
Bennet’s honour would allow him to do naught but marry the woman. “I need to return to my home and inform my daughters of my impending marriage,” Bennet spat out with distaste. “I will return in a sennight.”
The look he gave the self-satisfied woman would have been enough to wilt a flower, but she cared not. She had achieved her aim; she was to be the wife of a gentleman!