Chapter 16
Jane Bennet was very much in love and had little doubt that Lord Perry Rhys-Davies returned her affections.
They had never broken propriety, but they had spoken a lot.
Since that first meeting when they literally bumped into one another, her affection for the dapper Duke of Bedford had been growing apace.
The day after he walked her and her cousins to Hyde Park, he had presented himself at Gardiner House, a few doors down from one of his townhouses that was on Portman Square.
He had come ostensibly to talk business with Jane’s uncle, but that talk had lasted only minutes before he and her uncle had joined her and Aunt Maddie in the drawing room.
He had been invited to dinner; they were invited to a meal at his townhouse; they had gone to see a play on Drury Lane; and, not a few times he had been at the right place at the right time to walk with them when Jane took her cousins for a walk.
When Jane had returned to Longbourn in the middle of July, the Duke, whose business in Town had kept him there until she returned to Longbourn, made an appointment with her father to look at some horses at Bennington Fields.
Lord Perry, as he preferred to be called, had disclosed his interest in Bennet’s oldest daughter and for the first time it was obvious that the feelings were reciprocated.
During one of their conversations, it was mentioned that the Duke’s younger sister was married to the new Earl of Matlock.
Bennet was amazed by the coincidence that the man interested in Jane was brother-in-law to Lady Elizabeth Fitzwilliam.
Perry had been told about how Andrew’s sister had come to be a Fitzwilliam, but he did not feel that was something that he could talk about to another, and Bennet never mentioned his stolen daughter Lizzy.
Jane and her parents had just arrived at Gardiner House to prepare for her come out.
She would make her curtsy before the Queen in a sennight and then that night would be her coming out ball.
Perry had already been granted the second, dinner and final sets.
Jane thought back to the rather uncomfortable conversation she had with Charles Bingley and Franklin Lucas.
Although respecting her father’s wishes not to declare themselves, the competition between the two for her attention as if she were some prize to be won had gotten to be too much for her.
Without the other knowing, and with the support of her parents, she requested that each of them come to Longbourn one morning.
The two had arrived at the same time, thinking that the other was encroaching on his time with Jane.
They were soon disabused of their notions.
“I have invited you both here as for some reason you have this, quite frankly, childish rivalry between you for my affections.” Both had the decency to look chagrined as they inspected their boots for blemishes.
“I am not a prize at a fair to be won and it saddens me to have to tell you both that as much as I esteem you, as brothers or cousins, I do not look on you as you would want a woman to look on the man that she wants to be her partner in life.
“I am sorry if this occasions either or both of you pain, but I would rather do so now before you make a public declaration and then are embarrassed by my rejection, for that is what would happen. I hope that we may still be friends, but I will understand if you find that is too hard for you,” Jane concluded.
As she remembered the conversation, she was gratified that neither man had taken it too hard for more than a few days; it seemed that knowing of the other’s interest had driven them more than love for Jane.
Bennet was in anticipation of playing a face-to-face match against Lady Elizabeth, who now beat him far more than she lost. He would go to Matlock House with Perry a few days after Jane’s ball and finally make the young lady’s acquaintance in person.
Tammy and Jane would accompany him to meet Perry’s sister.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Fitzwilliams had arrived in Town a few days before the end of October.
Elaine was in half mourning and the rest of the family out of mourning altogether.
Reggie was never far from her thoughts, or that of her children, but she knew that it was time to join society again and she was sure it was what Reggie would have wanted for her.
She was not sorry that she had delayed her re-entry into society by a year, and she would be forever grateful for her children’s support in that.
The family received a profusive welcome back to Matlock house after an almost two-year absence.
The housekeeper had executed the instruction from the mistress to assign the largest suite in the family wing to the Dowager Countess which would be the dowager suite.
All of Lady Elaine’s furniture was moved and the chambers were decorated in the same style and palette as her mistress chambers had been.
Marie had also instructed the housekeeper how she herself and the master required that their chambers be decorated, but she omitted mentioning that she and Andrew only used one chamber for sleeping regardless of the mores of the Ton.
On the first day of November, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam strutted into Matlock House sporting his brand-new rank.
He would normally not have received a promotion so soon after attaining the rank of major, but the commandant of the training ground was struck down by a heart attack and General Atherton had issued a field promotion for Richard, who was now the Commandant of the Royal Dragoons Training School.
Personally, he would have preferred to be leading a company of men, but this was the army after all, so he went where he was ordered to.
He had not been back to Snowhaven for six months, so he was extremely pleased that the family was in Town again, a mere two-hour ride from the training grounds.
A few months back, Richard had been visiting Perry at Portman Square; for some reason that was the townhouse that he had started to use the most when he was introduced to the Gardiners, and he knew that his brother and Uncle George were both heavily invested in Edward Gardiner’s company.
His breath was taken away when he met the angelic looking Miss Jane Bennet.
If it were not for the fact that even though she was not out yet there was an extraordinarily strong and palpable bond between the beauty and his brother-in-law, Richard would have set his cap for the lady.
As it was, he was the perfect gentleman and restricted his flirting—one of his main accomplishments was the art of flirting—to hardly at all.
The little bit he did do was rewarded with a not-so-subtle look of warning from Perry.
“Itch,” Elizabeth exclaimed as she saw her brother when she descended the main staircase.
“It is so good to see you, and your rank insignia are not the same as when you were home last! Oh, my goodness, they made you a lieutenant-colonel. The army must be short on qualified officers,” she teased, while being enormously proud of her brother who had now received his second promotion for merit.
“And here I was thinking you were a proper lady, squirt,” he teased her right back which earned him a playful slap on the should before she wrapped her arms around her brother and kissed his cheek.
“Are you joining us tonight at the Gardiners for dinner, squirt?” Richard asked.
“I would have, as I would have met Mr Bennet earlier than planned, but I am leaving this afternoon for Jersey House. I will be there for a few days with Gigi, Amy, and Retta. We are going to work on Aunt Sarah to see if she will allow Retta to come out a few months early and I will delay mine some so we can share the experience and a coming out ball,” Elizbeth explained.
“You just want to see Wes, I would wager,” Richard ribbed his sister who blushed and slapped him again, this time not too playfully and reminiscent to her days as a little girl she stuck her tongue out at her brother.
“Now Lizzy,” her mother smiled, “What has Itch done to earn such behaviour from a young lady of approaching sixteen?”
“He was teasing me,” Elizabeth said petulantly. It was easy to forget that even with her intelligence, playing and singing like a professional, Elizabeth was still a young lady of fifteen. The fact that she had fully developed womanly curves made it easy to forget how young she was.
“Go make yourself ready; has de Chambé packed your trunks yet?” Elizabeth nodded.
“Good, Aunt Anne and Georgie will be here in a matter of minutes.” As soon as her mother was not looking, Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at Richard again before she went to get her outerwear leaving her brother guffawing and her mother looking on in question.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Tammy and Thomas Bennet were very pleasantly surprised on meeting the Earl and Countess of Matlock at the dinner at Gardiner House; they were down to earth and did not think too highly of themselves.
In Bennet’s opinion, it boded well for his upcoming meeting with the elusive Lady Elizabeth.
The Dowager Countess delivered her daughter’s regrets due to plans that had been made before arriving in London.
They especially liked the Earl’s younger brother, Richard Fitzwilliam of the Royal Dragoons, who had a good sense of humour and was not afraid to display it.
The four Fitzwilliams found the Bennets very gentile and affable, and those who had not met her were taken aback at the beauty that was Miss Jane Bennet.
She was talking to Perry and Marie’s mother, the Dowager Duchess, while Perry was staring at her in a besotted fashion while he sat with his sister and brothers-in-law, not hearing a word that they said.
Richard would have pulled Perry’s leg if he thought that it would have been noticed.