Chapter 23 #2
William Collins froze on entering the drawing room.
Aside from a man, who he assumed was his cousin, two older ladies, who he thought looked like servants, were five of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.
They must be Mr Bennet’s five daughters.
Why had he not known how much beauty there was among his cousins before he resolved not to marry one of them?
“William Collins, at your service,” he said as he bowed low.
Suddenly he realised they did not know about his determination.
When he stood from his bow, he allowed his eyes to rake over his cousins.
He would marry one of the three beautiful blondes, and he would have all of them under his thumb to do with whatever he chose.
“Mr Collins!” Bennet barked when he saw the lecherous way in which his cousin was looking at his daughters.
Collins reluctantly pulled his eyes from the five beauties and bowed deeply again, just as his patroness taught him to do. As he was ranked higher than his cousin, he was about to ask for an introduction. He was pre-empted when his cousin began to speak.
“Jane, Lizzy, Mary, Kate, and Lyddie, this is our distant cousin, Mr William Collins who is the heir presumptive of the estate. Mr Collins, Miss Jane Bennet, Miss Elizabeth, Miss Mary, Miss Catherine, and Miss Lydia, my precious daughters,” Bennet introduced.
Each of his daughters gave a shallow curtsy when her name was mentioned.
“And who are these ladies? I trust one is not your wife as I forbade you to marry again,” Collins stated haughtily. He was not happy his cousin had usurped his right to ask to be introduced, but his worry over the footmen, whom he was sure were not far off, kept him from voicing his displeasure.
“The ladies are Mrs Dudley and Miss Jones, companions to my daughters. Mr Collins, let me be rightly understood. If I chuse to remarry, it will be my decision with no thought of what your opinion on the subject is. Unless you want me to show you the door, you will not mention another word on that subject while you are here, and do not allow me to catch you leering at one of my daughters again. When I said they are precious to me, that was not hyperbole.”
“But daughters can mean nothing to their father,” Collins responded. He chose not to address anything else his cousin said, still sure that one of the blonde beauties would be the future Mrs Collins.
“That, Mr Collins, is so much stuff and nonsense,” Bennet shot back. “Mr Collins, I require your presence in my study now, and I mean now! You will not remain alone with any of my daughters at any time! Do you understand?”
Collins nodded his understanding with no good cheer.
Any time he thought to deny something his cousin demanded as unreasonable, he saw the picture of the two mountainous men whom he was afraid would be able to snap him like a dried twig.
That image in his mind made sure Collins held his peace.
He looked around nervously to make sure one of the men was not behind him.
“Mr Collins, I am tired of this nonsense about a birthright. Do you know that Longbourn used to be more than double the size it is now?” Bennet questioned once the door to his study was closed. He did not miss the pungent smell of body odour and stale sweat which emanated from the idiot.
“You lost half of my estate?” Collins almost shrieked.
“No, Mr Collins, one William Bennet lost half of the Bennet estate. He gambled away that which was not his, and my great-great-grandfather honoured the debt even though William Bennet had no right to pledge any part of the estate.”
“Why do I need to hear about the Bennet who was so irresponsible? Is that why you stole this estate from the Collins line?”
“You really are half-witted,” Bennet barked.
“William Bennet was disinherited. He then left and found a woman to marry in Kent. Her name was Collins. You are a direct descendant of the late William Bennet before he changed his name to William Collins. Now please explain how this estate is your birthright. If great-grandfather had been thinking logically, he would have excluded anyone who came after William Bennet, or Collins, as a result of his marriage.”
“This could not be true! My father and grandfather before him would not have told me about my birthright if what you say is not a fiction. You are only saying this to try to keep from me what is mine!” The spittle flew from Collins’s mouth as he spoke.
“If you try peddling these lies, I will not consider taking one of your daughters as my bride, and I will take pleasure in throwing them into the hedgerows, and you and those ape-like men you employ will not be here to save them!”
“Regardless of your desires, as I told you in my letter, none of my daughters are for you. That does not count the fact that two of them are not out. When I saw that lecherous look in your eye, you were lucky I did not call you out.” Bennet paused and applied pressure with his forefinger and thumb to the bridge of his nose, as he tried to calm himself.
He did not like the effect the man was having on him.
“I hereby rescind my invitation. You will leave my estate. I do not want one under my roof who was gaping at my daughters the way you did.”
“You CANNOT evict me from MY estate!” Collins screamed.
“It is not your estate, and if I have anything to say about it, it never will be. I may do what I will. You are no longer welcome here. I should have refused your attempt to invite yourself to my estate when you wrote that ridiculous letter you posted to me. I can now see you are as big a simpleton as I guessed you were based on the rambling drivel in that letter,” Bennet retorted.
“How dare you? My patroness approved of that letter,” Collins squawked. “I will tell her what you said, and you will be sorry when you feel her ire.”
“Then, she is a bigger fool than you. As amused as I am, it is time for you to leave.” With that, Bennet rang the bell; Hill and Biggs entered the study. Bennet had to fight to hide a smile when he saw the way Collins cowered at seeing Biggs.
“Mr Collins is leaving us forthwith,” Bennet told his butler.
“Make sure he packs and packs only his own belongings. Biggs, you and Johns will then take him to the Red Lion Inn. If he comes back to Longbourn, he is to be arrested as a trespasser,” Bennet instructed.
“Biggs, tell the landlord at the inn that Longbourn will pay for one night because I had been willing to allow him one night here. After that, it is all on him.”
As much as Collins wanted to rail against his cousin, the presence of the giant man in the study kept his mouth closed. When the enormous man his cousin called Biggs told him to move, Collins did so without hesitation.
Unfortunately, when the delusional buffoon left Bennet’s study, his rather pungent odour did not.
Bennet stepped out from behind his desk to open the two windows on the eastern wall and opened his door wide.
Slowly the smell dissipated. When it became bearable to breathe in his study once again, Bennet closed the door and then the windows.
He looked at the wall above the fireplace where a portrait of his late parents hung.
“I was wrong. I should have looked for another wife as soon as Miss Gardiner was interred. I cannot allow Longbourn to devolve into the hands of such a man. I was a stubborn fool, was I not Mother and Father?” He asked his long-dead parents. “What should I do?”
Just then a voice in his head spoke, ‘You fool, you know what to do. You are so close to being in love with Louisa Bingley, and if you got out of your own way, you would be fully in love with her. She is your friend, you respect her, and she is your intellectual equal. Now stop being the stubborn fool you spoke of and win the lady.’ Bennet sat without moving as the words took hold of him.
He had been fighting his inclination for Miss Louisa Bingley for no good reason at all.
What a fool he was. He did not know how, but somehow his parents had answered him. Of course, they would because he could only imagine how they would both be turning over in their graves if Bennet allowed his imbecilic cousin to get his grubby hands on Longbourn.
When he went back over the interactions with the younger Miss Bingley, he could see how he would vacillate between being very friendly, almost courting her and pulling back when his ridiculous determination not to marry again took hold.
Had he not promised himself he would only marry for love and respect?
When he had heard about Melissa’s death, he had told himself that his chance for a love match had died with her.
That was not true. He thanked God for sending Collins to him so he could understand what a terrible mistake he was about to make and wake up and see what was right before him.
There was one thing he needed to do before he spoke to Miss Bingley…Louisa, or Lulu, as his daughters addressed her. He must speak to his daughters.
To that end, he knew he needed to strike while the iron was hot.
Bennet stood and made his way back to the drawing room.
His daughters and the companions were still within.
“Mr Collins is no longer a guest at Longbourn, and if I have anything to say about it, he will never darken our doorstep again,” he began.
“Good. I felt a shiver up and down my spine when he leered at me and my sisters,” Jane stated as her sisters all nodded. “Had you not already done so, I would have requested you evict him.”
“I had an epiphany; possibly more than one, while I was alone in my study. In good conscience, I cannot allow that man to ever gain dominion over Longbourn. To ensure that, I need to marry and sire a son.” Bennet looked around at his daughters’ expectant faces.
“To that end, I think I have a lady in mind.”
“Are you finally going to admit what we all see?” Elizabeth asked with a wide smile. “You and Lulu were made for one another.”
“You do not mind that I would be marrying a friend of yours?” Bennet verified.
“It is not the same as it would have been if you had offered for Charlotte. To us, she is not only a best friend but also like an older sister,” Jane explained.
“Lulu is almost ten years older than me, and she would make you a very good wife, and although we may not call her ‘Mama,’ she would be a very welcome member of the household.”
Bennet looked from daughter to daughter and each nodded enthusiastically.
“That was far easier than I had envisaged. Thank you my wonderful daughters. I will call on Miss Bingley, Louisa, in the morning.”