Chapter 7
Elizabeth did not want to believe what the groom was telling her when he returned from the spot where the master’s body had been discovered.
She hoped beyond hope that there had been some sort of mistake and that her Papa was just injured, was not dead, as she had been told.
How could it be that her father, who had been the rock that anchored Longbourn until he allowed grief and guilt to consume him, was no more?
When they brought her father’s body home for the final time, Elizabeth had sobbed great wracking sobs of grief as the reality hit home.
She was alone at Longbourn, except for her loyal servants.
Louisa was her friend, but she had to be circumspect around her mother and younger sister.
It hurt Louisa that she could not go to her friend and offer her succour.
Elizabeth knew she could write to Marie and Andrew with a request for their help, but she was cognisant of how much they were having to manage, what with Holder Heights and the Holder holdings in addition to their own estate and concerns.
They also had a babe to contend with. Elizabeth chose not to add to their burden.
Uncle Gardiner would take care of the money aspects, but she would not impose on him more than that.
He and Aunt Maddie had two-year-old Lilly at home and another babe on the way.
Mr. Philips would take care of all the legal issues and make sure her father’s wishes were honoured.
Elizabeth knew full well that if both Jane and Tommy were declared dead in six years, then she would become the owner of Longbourn.
Her only problem was the way her father’s will had been written—the evil woman and her younger devil’s spawn were allowed to live at the estate until it was claimed by the heir.
She could not be angry with her papa, as there was no world in which he could have imagined the scenario which had taken place.
After he was stricken with grief and guilt, he had become an indolent man who was in no way comparable to the man she had known most of her life.
Elizabeth reckoned if he had been more his old self, he would have changed his will to reflect the new reality.
As he had not done so, she was left to live with the reality and not what might have been, which would have been far more preferable.
While she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and mourn her father, Elizabeth did not have that luxury.
She had been effectively running the estate for a year, and now there was no choice.
So much loss, but she firmly reminded herself that Jane, Tommy, and the rest of the Bennets were alive!
They had to be! Her Jane and Tommy could not have left her so alone in the world.
As Elizabeth did at least once a week, she sat down and wrote a letter to Jane that would never be posted.
She knew writing to Jane helped her relieve her stress, and helped her feel connected to her sister.
How she would have loved to have Jane’s calming influence with her!
‘Jane and Tommy, I know you are alive,’ Elizabeth told herself, a mantra she reiterated more than once each day. ‘You have to be!’
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
When Martha was told her husband had lost his life in a riding accident, she cared not a whit that the man himself was dead.
In fact, she thought he deserved such a fate after the way he treated her!
She was, however, very much afraid of what it would mean for her and her daughters.
How soon would the heir arrive to throw her out of the house?
She knew Charles had just been awarded a living at Hunsford in Kent, but she had so far received no invitations from her son.
She was not content with how Charles seemed uninterested in assisting his mother and sisters.
He had let them know he would ingratiate himself with his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, but it would take time, so he would be too busy to see them in the near future.
Things were not ideal for her at Longbourn; it was nothing like she imagined her life would be after she engineered the compromise.
Martha had imagined seasons in London coupled with her power of persuasion would have been enough to have her husband adopt her children and give them his name.
None of that happened! When the children had used the name Bennet in Meryton after their arrival in the neighbourhood, one and all had derided them, as her husband had made it known how he had not adopted his stepchildren and their name was not Bennet.
She remembered the humiliation she had experienced when she and her children had attempted to charge their purchases to the estate’s accounts, only to find out her miserly husband had expressly forbidden the merchants to allow her to use his accounts unless they did not want remuneration.
How was she to know her husband was serious when he informed her about the accounts at the time of their reading of the settlement?
At least they were in a comfortable house with a roof over their heads. Martha had attacks of nerves as she worried she would soon be in the hedgerows and homeless with two dependent daughters. Where would she go?
She had alienated her first husband’s brother in Scarborough when she had attempted to seduce him.
Who knew he took his vows to his wife seriously?
Now the uncle refused to allow Charles or any of them back into his home, all because of a little thing when Charles was discovered trying to watch the daughters of the house bathing.
The day her late husband’s solicitor was due to arrive to read his will—the copy that would be disclosed to her—Martha had flutterings and palpitations of her heart as she was convinced she would have days to vacate the property with only the two thousand she brought into the marriage.
Her daughters had two thousand pounds each, but their money was secured and could not be touched until they either married or turned five and twenty.
Mr. Philips turned over her widow’s portion of two thousand pounds to her and reiterated that all rules Mr. Bennet had instituted during his life regarding the treatment of his remaining daughter and of Charles Bingley not being allowed on the property were codified in the will.
He also explained the profits from the estate would be placed into a trust account and would be turned over to the heir when said heir claimed the property, effectively cutting off the avaricious woman’s hope she would have access to estate money.
Philips was clear if Mrs. Bennet wasted her portion, she would not receive a farthing from the estate for her pin money or any of her personal needs. He opined she should invest the money in order to continue to receive a monthly allowance.
“Am I not to know who this mysterious heir is that holds my fate in his hands?” Martha demanded.
“When it is time, you will be notified. You are aware you may not discharge any of the servants, unless they are ones you hired and pay out of your own funds, do you not?” Philips asked.
“I am well aware of that fact!” Martha replied, acerbically. “Is my stepdaughter, a young woman, going to continue the unladylike practice of managing the estate?”
“If I do not do so, Mrs. Bennet, then it would not be long before you had no food on the table or servants to take care of your demands!” Elizabeth challenged. Martha had no answer and looked away, petulantly.
“In that case, we are done here,” Philips stated as he gave the twice-widowed woman a withering look.
“You, madam, will observe a year of deep mourning, and do not let me hear of any additional inept attempts at seducing men in the town to help you with your needs and disrespecting the memory of your late husband!” Seeing the outraged look the woman affected, he added, “You are reputed to be a strumpet, which is why none of your seductions have succeeded!”
There was a loud, wounded gasp by the woman, but neither Philips nor Elizabeth paid her mind.
Philips stood, bowed, and left. “Do not look so smug, Miss Bennet! Your father and sister both died rather than be with you!” Martha stated spitefully and then flounced out of the drawing room.
Until that moment, Elizabeth had not believed her stepmother so very evil and unfeeling.
‘Papa, if only you had amended your will to remove the woman if you were no longer with us!’ Elizabeth remonstrated.
The reality was what it was, so she would have to make the best of a bad situation.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
According to the notches on the tree, they had been on their island for a year.
With the tools and other items recovered from the doomed ship, they had built two wooden cabins raised off the floor of the jungle.
There was a large one where the Bennets slept, and a smaller one for the three surviving crew members.
The Bennet males and the crew members divided the daylight into four-hour shifts where one of them manned the top of the hill on the lookout for a ship.
After the first major rain—and it rained often—they learnt to cover the dry wood with some of the canvas from the doomed ship’s sails.
Flints had been recovered from the wreckage, so lighting the kindling that would fire the wood would be as simple as striking two flints together.
No ship had been sighted, except for one, two months previously.
The Earl was taking his turn at watch when he spied a ship.
He was about to light the fire when he decided to use the spyglass that they kept on the summit to view the vessel.
He thanked God he did, as it was flying the standard of a privateer.
As much as it depressed him not to light the fire, he stepped back and placed the flints in their place.