Chapter 3 #2
“Good Lord above, it gets worse and worse. I had hoped much of what she said was unjustified, but I see now that most, if not all, is true. She is the only one that has ever seen me with absolute clarity and she is lost to me. And as the fates would have it, she is the only woman that I will ever love.” As he said the last, tears ran down Darcy’s cheeks while he cried for the first time since his father passed.
Richard allowed him time long overdue to vent the grief and realise he was not the man his father had raised him to be.
Hopefully, he would not stop there but become the man his sons would be proud to emulate.
In Darcy’s case he was not as far off as he presumed as he was not intentionally malicious, just disrespectful, and carried on with little regard of others.
When Darcy had collected himself, Richard waited and nodded once in approval of both the allowing of his grief to be released and to accept that change was required.
“Now it is time to gather up your reserves and buck up, cousin. You may be correct; but then maybe you are not.” He chuckled and nodded when his cousin looked at him quizzically “If you can make a real change, to learn from her reproofs and show her that you have attended them, then maybe, just maybe, she will want to know you more.” Richard challenged.
For the first time since the disaster that was his proposal, Fitzwilliam Darcy had a glimmer of hope.
“One more bit of news to share before we stop. I remembered I had not yet told you that Anne gave me a letter for my father, one she did not want her overbearing mother to know about. Just be aware that it could be the call for help we have been desperate for her to ask for.” Richard nodded once at his cousin who nodded once back.
If Anne had finally asked for help, woe to any that tried to deny them the chance to help her.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Mr Thomas Bennet sat at his desk in his study and reread for the third time the express that had arrived the previous evening from his daughter Elizabeth.
He agreed wholeheartedly that he must take action to protect the citizens of Meryton and its environs.
He had suspected Wickham was not all he portrayed himself to be, but he had never expected this.
If he had had an inkling the man was so bad, he would have had Sir Randolph Norman, the head barrister at the largest firm at the Court of Inns retained by both his brother Edward and himself for their personal and business affairs, investigate Wickham fully.
Sir Randolph’s firm retained the best investigators that money could employ.
It was too late now, but he at least could go see Colonel Forster right away.
But first he needed to talk to Fanny. He rang for Hill, the long-serving Longbourn butler, and asked him to summon the mistress.
He also asked that Mrs Hill, the housekeeper, bring his wife’s salts to the study.
Ten minutes later, his wife of four and twenty years entered his study, nervously waving her hanky as she was almost never summoned to her husband’s inner sanctum.
“Please sit, Fanny. I have some things, serious things to tell you, and I need you to listen very carefully,” Bennet stated in a calm, even tone so she would not over react and miss the import of his words.
“Ooooh Mr Bennet, are you dying? Are I and the girls to be thrown out of Longbourn into the hedgerows before your body is cold in the ground?” As she said the last, she looked as if she was going to have one of her fainting episodes, so Bennet shook his head to answer her immediately, speaking fast.
“No, my dear, I promise you I am well. What I am about to share with you will prove to you that no one will ever be able to throw you into the hedgerows.” His wife visibly calmed, but still looked nervous as she had no idea what had the power to do that now that Elizabeth had rejected Mr Collins’s proposal.
“Before I share the good, no, the great news with you; I must tell you some news that will put us on our guard with respect to one officer in Colonel Forster’s regiment of the Derbyshire Militia.
” He wanted to impart the more important of the two as it was of great concern when a seducer was amongst his daughters.
“Lydia and Kitty love a man in regimentals like I used to. It is so cruel that they are back in and that Miss Jones is scolding them all the time. Mr Wickham is a particular favourite of Lydia’s again now that that freckled thing, Miss King, has been sent away,” Fanny commented.
“Fanny, please. As your husband, I demand that you listen to me. When I tell you all, you may ask all you will so that you and I can come to an accord, do you understand?” He asked gravely and his wife nodded slowly.
“Lizzy has learnt information about Lieutenant Wickham from a credible source which proves he is no gentleman. He is a gamester, a wastrel, a despoiler of maidens that abandons them to deal with any and all consequences alone, a leaver of unpaid debts, and a lying manipulator. His tale of ill-use at the hands of Mr Darcy, which you and my silly younger daughters accepted as gospel, was naught but lies based on a kernel of truth.” Bennet stated.
It was said with the kind of authority Fanny had not seen for a long time. In seeing the man she married re-emerge, she settled and listened to all he had to say.
Bennet explained everything that Lizzy had passed on about Wickham, and when she looked doubtful, he refuted her disbelief with the proof of debts and the document that Wickham signed resigning all claim to the living in return for the money.
He asked if his wife had questions about Mr Wickham, adding that other than Colonel Forster no member of the Militia would be permitted at Longbourn.
As she saw the truth of the matter, Fanny Bennet did not complain, and asked him to go on to the good news.
Bennet knew that this next part would be very hard for Fanny to grasp at first, so he proceeded at a steady pace as he explained about his true wealth.
He told her about Netherfield Park and Bennet Fields, his and the girls’ stakes in Gardiner and Associates.
He pointed out for his Fanny, for his beloved Fanny, that she would not have to make do with only five thousand for her and their daughters.
She alone would also have the interest on one hundred thousand pounds and the use of Purvis Lodge, which he had recently purchased with the help of her brother Phillips to be converted to a dower house.
He also explained that Elizabeth was making Collins a proposal to end the entail if she felt the time was right, and that if he accepted, Fanny would never have to leave Longbourn, although even with the entail she had many choices of places to live.
If the entail was broken, then a dower house would be constructed on Longbourn’s land and Purvis Lodge would be torn down and that small estate used to enlarge the park at Longbourn.
Bennet had expected loud exclamations or fainting, bouts of nerves or repeated hysterical laughing with a fluttering hanky, but not this.
His wife sat stock still. She was not even blinking, not making a sound.
At long last she lifted her head and met her eyes.
“You, Thomas, have allowed me to believe that we are poor, that neither I nor my girls have a future, and now you tell me that we are as rich as the royal family! Why, Thomas? Why did you torment me so? Why did you allow me to make such a fool of myself in front of our girls and our friends? Did we not love each other when we first married? And you now add the insult that Lizzy, Mary and Jane know, but I did not. How can they ever respect their Mama?” she asked with absolute sadness and hurt.
It hit Bennet suddenly what he had selfishly put his wife through.
“You are correct. I owe you an apology, a very deep apology, Fanny. I always intended to tell you, but I had too much fun. I should never have treated you as an object of sport. I am sorry, Fanny; I do apologise, my dear girl, from the bottom of my heart. There is no excuse for my behaviour.
“I simply became used to the way things were and I certainly did not want everyone to know the truth of our situation. I was worried that if you knew, you would tell Hattie and Lady Lucas, and then everyone would know. I thought that this was the way to protect against fortune hunters, but Lizzy has a far better way that she suggested in her express to me. It was very wrong of me. Can you ever forgive me?” he asked sadly.
He was being forced to re-examine his actions for a far longer period of his life than he was comfortable with.
“I can see that you are sincere, Husband; I may yet forgive you. It may be a while before I do and it will take me longer to stop being angry with you. Believe it or not, I still love you, so this hurts far more than if I did not,” she stated softly while silent tears fell.
“Thank you, my dear. I have to go into Meryton now and address the Wickham issue, but I promise that we will talk later. I love you, too, Mrs Bennet. I too never stopped loving you and expected that you would be overjoyed and undone. I am so very sorry for my behaviour.” He lifted her hand and kissed it gently as he squeezed her hand to convey his deeper love.
Seeing how calm his wife had become drove home that he should have told her the truth years ago, for their lives would have been infinitely better.
He kissed his wife and then called for his horse, Jupiter.