Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The day after Elizabeth encountered Mr Wickham, an unfamiliar carriage pulled up in front of Longbourn.
The coachman jumped down, but before he could open the door, and much to their surprise, Lydia practically tumbled out, so excited was she to see Elizabeth.
As the family came out into the yard to greet her, she launched herself directly at her second-eldest sister, running, babbling all the way, completely disregarding her other sisters and her friend Mrs Forster who was being handed down by the coachman.
“I came as soon as I heard! We are rich now, are we not? La, fifty thousand pounds! Do you have any money with you today? I have spent my pin money, so I need more. How much is my dowry?”
Elizabeth removed Lydia’s hand from her arm. “I will not speak of this now, Lydia. It is rude of you to ask. Go see to your friend and greet our parents.” She turned away, only to meet her father’s glare. Without a word, he turned and went back into the house.
Jane and Mrs Bennet greeted Mrs Forster and invited her in for tea. She accepted; she was also bubbling over about the ‘inheritance’.
“Once we heard the news that your family is now so very rich, Lydia could not stay in Brighton another moment! Now she will have her pick of the officers to marry! Or she can marry a lord!” giggled Harriet Forster, as she reached across the table to put more sugar into her tea.
Apparently the two spoonfuls Jane had already added were not enough.
Mary openly stared at her lack of manners.
“It was most kind of you to bring Lydia to us, Mrs Forster. You have gone to a great deal of trouble to do so!” cried Mrs Bennet.
“I do not mind of course. And Lydia will need my escort when we take the shopping trip to London she has promised me.”
Quiet gasps were heard from all the ladies except Lydia and their mother. Elizabeth silently fumed as her other sisters turned their faces to stare at her with wide eyes.
Soon after, Mrs Forster bid them farewell and the carriage was on its way to her house in Meryton.
Elizabeth needed to speak with Lydia. “Mama, would you please sit with us a little while longer? I need to explain Mr Goulding’s wishes, and my responsibilities to his estate.” The three ladies sat down again as the tea things were cleared away.
“Lydia, Mr Goulding did not leave his estate or his fortune for my personal use or for our family’s use.
He has left me the dower house at Haye-Park, and some money to manage it, that is all.
And it is not fifty thousand pounds; not even close to that much!
Mr Goulding charged me to use his fortune to create a charitable organisation to help the people of Meryton and its surroundings to prosper. Is that not right, Mama?”
Before their mother could answer, Lydia cried, “That is stupid! This is our chance to have new clothes made in London! Papa could buy a smart new carriage instead of that creaky old black one! I am ashamed to be seen in it! That old monster is dead, Lizzy! He is dead! You can do whatever you want with the money and no one will care!”
“Lydia, do not call him a monster! He has provided us with a place to live should we need it!” Mrs Bennet scolded. She turned to Elizabeth. “Lizzy, could we not just purchase a few new gowns each? Surely that would use very little of the money?”
“Mama, Mr Goulding was a friend to you and Papa for many years. I know you understand his wishes. You grew up here! You must remember when the town was larger and busier. He wished to do something to help all the people of Meryton. Besides that, it is illegal for me to do anything but carry out his request. I cannot use his money. I must follow the law.”
Lydia stood and flounced out of the room, shouting as she went, “Of course you can. He is dead. You are just being stubborn, Lizzy!”
Mrs Bennet wrung her hands. “I suppose you must do so. Would just one new gown hurt all that much?”
“It would still be illegal.” Elizabeth took her mother’s hand. “You do understand that if I give Lydia an inch, she will try to take a mile. She will never be satisfied. She will not give up until she gets what she wants. There would be no ‘just one gown’.”
Leaving her mother, Elizabeth took herself out to the kitchen garden, within sight of their cook in the window.
Of course, Lydia would insist on coming home to add to all the aggravation she had already!
She wondered if Colonel Forster had had enough of his wife and her guest and had been glad of the excuse to pack them up and send them back to Hertfordshire.
She would also lay odds that Mr Wickham was still lurking somewhere in the neighbourhood.
Sitting at his desk, Darcy reread passages from a letter, the first he had received from Mr Thompson.
Sir,
I have some clarification on the inheritance of Miss Elizabeth Bennet. The late Mr William Goulding did not leave his estate and investments to her outright. Rather, his wish was to create a charitable society for the benefit of the community.
Miss Bennet has been charged with the responsibility of creating the charitable society Mr Goulding envisioned, though the choice of a young lady who mere weeks ago attained her majority was controversial and has caused gossip, suspicion, and jealousy.
Darcy leant back in his chair and smiled.
So Goulding had put his trust in Elizabeth to carry out the daunting task of making his vision come true.
He could not have made a wiser choice. Controversy be damned, Darcy thought with no little ire towards the jealous gossips.
Elizabeth would work hard and not give up until it was done, a proper legacy for such a humble, exemplary man.
Returning to the letter, he read:
Mr Goulding was quite alone in the world.
The Goulding family has dwindled and finally died out entirely.
He himself was once married and the father of two children, but a fire destroyed their home, and his young family was killed.
He suffered terrible burns in the fire when trying to save them.
He had no extended family at all and, due in part to his lingering illness, only a small circle of close friends.
Since he had no heirs, this charity will be his legacy.
Darcy thought of his first meeting with Mr Goulding, who then became an admired friend to him.
He did not make friends easily, did not relax around strangers until he knew them well, and sometimes not even then.
Yet he had taken to Goulding on his first encounter.
He remembered his first sight of the man, sitting on the ground, too weak to rise, deep scars covering one entire side of his face and the top of his head, tufts of grey hair growing in patches surrounded by ruined skin.
The man, sick and disfigured, was intelligent, kind and engaging, self-deprecating, with a gentle sense of humour.
He had smiled sheepishly at Darcy when he approached.
Goulding must have been a very fine clergyman.
He had chosen a difficult path as a missionary when, as a gentleman’s son, he could have landed an easy assignment in a comfortable rectory.
Darcy wished he could have heard the man’s sermons.
A man who had lost so much, yet met the world with gratitude for his faith, his home, his friends, and his community.
Tears came to his eyes, and he was glad there was no one to see.
Goulding had seen something in him beyond his fortune and his birth.
He had seen a kindred spirit. Darcy regretted not seeing him again all these months later.
He had a habit of that, it seemed: finding people he esteemed greatly and then leaving them behind to return to his place in the ton. He had done that with Elizabeth too.
He reread another passage in Thompson’s letter that had raised his ire:
Despite the efforts of Mr Philips, Miss Bennet, and a few others in the community, many of the locals still believe that Miss Bennet has inherited outright, and that she, and by extension her family, is now wealthy.
Apparently, Mrs Bennet’s ‘at-home’ afternoon this week was fair to bursting with single male visitors, to the point where the traumatised Bennet family is no longer accepting invitations and will have no visitors until the terms of the will have been settled.
Good Lord! Darcy had believed Mrs Bennet to be mercenary, but if even she was withdrawing her family from society, it must have been very bad indeed.
For gentlemen, such avaricious attentions were bothersome or even disgusting. For ladies, they were dangerous. He would have Thompson look into Elizabeth’s safety and the safety of her sisters, and advise him as to whether he should surreptitiously hire some guards for the Bennet ladies.
Meanwhile, he would contribute to his Elizabeth’s work. In his mind, Darcy ran down the list of charitable causes his family patronised. Choosing two organisations from the long list, he prepared letters to their solicitors.