Chapter 12 #2
Anne introduced her housekeeper and butler, the same couple that her mother and Aunt Anne had hired, Mr and Mrs Firth, and asked them to make sure that all the guests and their trunks arrived at the correct chambers.
Before going up to her chambers, Amy was pleased to see her parents and her older brother and wife.
After greeting the rest of her family, she was shown to her chambers in the suite that she shared with Lizzy.
Georgiana and Kitty were in the next suite across from William and John, who were placed next to James and Tom.
As her lady’s maid Thénardier was changing her, Elizabeth was sad that Will would not be joining them as he would be spending Easter with the Bingleys and their friends in the Meryton area. At least she had seen the object of her love at Pemberley for Gigi’s and her birthdays.
The following day, the De Melvilles joined the party at Rosings.
From Elizabeth’s perspective, it was a mixed blessing.
Retta, who was fifteen, would be joining them, but so would Wes.
She did not know how to deflect his attention, and she could say nothing to him as it would be a highly inappropriate conversation for a girl not out to have with a man.
The following morning Elizabeth decided to take one of her long rambles before the sun rose, accompanied by Aggie and Johns.
Before she exited the house, she went to the kitchens and was rewarded with a warm roll and two fresh muffins.
With Aggie sniffing everything in sight, Elizabeth set off at a fast pace.
She walked through the formal gardens, which were a lot less formal than they used to be and had grown to be ten times more beautiful through the years and arrived at the grove that she enjoyed walking in on her prior visits.
She walked until she found the almost hidden path to the glade.
There was no wind, so there was nary a ripple on the surface of the pond.
The little bit of disturbance was caused by the odd fish breakfasting on the insects on the water’s surface.
The pond looked like a large mirror reflecting the surrounding trees and the sky above with the streaks of light produced by the rising sun.
Elizabeth sat on a big rock with Aggie looking at her expectantly and wagging her big tail.
Johns was standing a little way off, but where he could see his charge and the area around her clearly.
“I know what you want, Aggie,” Elizabeth told her faithful friend who was getting on in years but was still as she always was.
The tail began to thump the rock hard. Elizabeth broke the roll in half, popped one half into her mouth and offered the other half to Aggie who after one chew, swallowed it.
Next, she took the two muffins out of the cloth that the cook had wrapped them in.
She called Johns over and gave him one and then ate the other herself.
When she and Johns had finished the treats, Elizabeth returned to the grove and walked until she arrived at the parsonage.
Mrs Bamber was out collecting eggs and waved to Elizabeth.
“What a big dog Aggie is, Lady Elizabeth. Each year I see her, I marvel at her size. It is a pity that my boys are yet abed, they would love to pet her,” the kindly woman said.
“You may tell your sons that when we ride this afternoon, I will come by with Aggie for them to spoil,” Elizabeth offered.
“That is very kind of you to indulge them, my Lady,” Mrs Bamber stated. Each gave a slight curtsey, and Elizabeth continued her ramble across the park, heading back towards the house.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The next note pleased Mrs Fitzpatrick no end.
Return end of April. Feeling safe, will start discharging outriders. By next spring, down to two per carriage.
It meant another year to wait, but if it meant that their guard would be down, it was worth it.
Finally, she would be able to execute her plan!
She would not inform her pet Wickham yet; she would wait until they were much closer to the date of execution before she did that.
She knew from his actions at Pemberley all those years ago that he was impulsive, so she would not allow him to spoil her plans a second time.
If she even suspected that he would be an impediment this time, she would simply have him killed.
Wickham was no closer to devising a plan to get the old lady to withdraw a significant sum from the bank. As far as he knew, all of her money was in one bank, unaware that she used three. The one he knew of was the one that sent her supposed ‘quarterly widow’s pension’, which had to be a fortune.
He resigned himself to the fact that he would not be able to extract money from the old bat, so what would he do?
Then he had an epiphany. After he killed the one he hated, he would kidnap Georgiana Darcy!
She would be older now and would fetch him a handsome ransom.
He was certain that her dowry would be above twenty thousand pounds, so he would demand that sum, which was more than enough for him to make his way to the former colonies and a new start.
If he happened to take her virtue before returning her, so much the better!
Better still, if she were with child, he would have a right to the Darcy fortune when his heir was born!
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Jones hoped that his secret employer would not be angry with him, as he still did not have any significant news for her.
So far, there had been no summons to meet with his ‘brother,’ so it seemed like he had not fallen out of favour.
He was sure that he had Branch in his confidence to the point where he would soon be able to share his true reason for being at Pemberley with him and gain him as an accomplice.
He would be able to glean much better intelligence on the movements of the families that his employer craved.
Branch had been making sure that whoever was paying for the information was continuing to receiving little titbits to whet the appetite.
The master had planned that they would appear practically unguarded in about a year.
He had said that the person he suspected to be behind Jones was not the most patient of people, so he was deriving pleasure from dragging out the time of the eventual confrontation.
The aim was to catch all of the criminals in one fell swoop; that way there would be no stragglers or loose ends to deal with at a later date.
The master, his son, the Earl, and the Lieutenant-Colonel were working on a detailed plan that would have the perpetrators think they had an easy target, until the trap was sprung.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Will Darcy was enjoying a quiet Easter with the Bingleys and Hursts. There were visits from friends in the neighbourhood, but with one more month of deep mourning left for Bingley and Mrs Hurst, the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection was subdued.
Bingley had taken to estate management with gusto, and combined with his new resolute personality, Will was confident that it would not be too many more months before he would be able to leave his friend to it with a clear conscience.
Will missed being with his family for Easter—especially Elizabeth. He knew the De Melvilles were part of the group at Rosings, but he was heartened when he remembered what his parents had told him about their observations of the interactions between Wes and Lizzy.
He knew that he needed her in his life like he needed the air to breathe.
She was essential to his happiness, and he was starting to believe that it was not just from his side.
He did not want to be presumptuous, but he had done as his parents suggested and during the days at Pemberley before his return south, he had surreptitiously observed her and she did seem to look at him a lot, and he saw no disapprobation as she did.
Will had gone into Meryton to the bookseller, whose store he frequented at least once a week, and was always welcomed warmly by the proprietor.
He purchased a calendar for both the current and the following year.
He had circled the first day of February 1808 as the possible date of his cousin’s come out and had taken to crossing off each day as it passed.
He willed time to speed up as he was impatient for the day that he would be able to dance with her at her coming-out ball.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
One afternoon, the weather had decided that some spring rain was in order, so a group was sitting in one of the drawing rooms. The younger group of Alex, Lily Gardiner, and the twins were off playing some games in another parlour.
The parents were all enjoying a quiet discussion in the smaller drawing room.
Anne and Ian had shared how much they had enjoyed their honeymoon at Seaview Cottage.
Once they were done, Jane and Perry described the enjoyment that they had in seeing so many varied locations, noting that they had followed the same path that Perry and Andrew had taken on their grand tour, making brief stops around the Mediterranean.
The big deviation from the grand tour was from the Kingdom of Sicily because they had to cross the sea to the Sultanate of Egypt.
They described the ride on the animal known as the ship of the desert, a camel, and how they had looked on the great pyramids at Giza and seen the enigmatic looking sphinx with her missing nose.
Jane had told the listeners that she could not imagine how the pyramids had been constructed, as when they got close enough the sheer size of the stone blocks that were used had astounded her.
Luckily, there were not too many days of rain, so there were many outdoor activities.
Wes De Melville was beginning to get the idea that Elizabeth did not think of him as any more than her friend’s brother.
He had asked Retta to try and find out what Elizabeth’s feelings were, but she had flatly and correctly refused his application.
He was not willing to give up yet. He would bide his time until she came out into society and then he would present his suit because life with her would be truly pleasant.
Elizabeth was wishing that it were two years in the future, and she had been presented and already had a suitor, though it was definitely not Lord Wesley De Melville. She was not yet aware that her brother Andrew had agreed to share the privilege of approving her suitors with her birth father.
When Andrew had approached him a few days before about the subject, Bennet had been touched that Andrew proposed that he have a role in approving or disapproving of any suitors for Elizabeth.
It was not something that Bennet had been expecting, but it was an office that he was pleased to be able to fulfil when the time came.
Like most in the family, Bennet had noted that Elizabeth had two potential suitors before she had even taken her curtsy before the queen.
And he, like most everyone else, was aware of her obvious preference for her cousin Darcy.
He would be interested to see if the two would be able to get out of their own way and become a couple.
Tammy had never seen her husband happier.
When they had first reunited with Lizzy, she had feared that there might be tension between the adoptive and birth families, but her worries had been for naught.
The families had integrated so well it was like they had always been one large family.
Lizzy had started calling her Mother Tammy some months after she publicly added the title of ‘Father’ to Bennet.
She understood the delay and would have been happy to continue on as Aunt Tammy, but her heart had swelled with happiness the first time Elizabeth had used the appellation.
The De Melvilles and the Ashbys departed for Surrey a week after Easter.
Elizabeth and Georgiana felt bereft of Retta’s and especially Amy’s company after the latter had been with them for many months, though they were not allowed to wallow in their sorrow as they had the Bennets and Rhys-Davies with them yet.
Towards the end of April, the Bennets, Fitzwilliams, Rhys-Davies, and Darcys took their leave of Anne and Ian.
The Bennets went to Hertfordshire and the other three families travelled north.
It was the very day that a joyous Marie informed her husband that she had missed her courses for two consecutive months.