Chapter 11 #3
‘If I had not been so blind, I would have seen the glaring contradictions in what that lying manipulator told me. Thank God that he was removed before he ruined Lydia. It seems that he was close to achieving that aim before he was taken to task for his lies, debts, and seductions. How close did my family come to being ruined by my wilful blindness? Yet as Papa said, the past is in the past, we, Mr Darcy and I included, need to move forward. Yes, we need to learn from our past mistakes, but we cannot live in the past anymore.’
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The two men had settled comfortably in their chairs in Bennet’s study.
Each was sipping a glass of Bennet’s excellent port.
Darcy told Bennet about the two schools he would most like to suggest and both had openings.
Bennet knew that as Darcy was recommending Greenlake School for Young Ladies for Kitty, which was in Town; it was the same school that he had sent his own sister to, and Lord Matlock had sent his daughter Lady Tiffany to the same one.
It was a recommendation made without any reservation.
Although at almost seventeen Kitty would be a year or two older than the average girl that entered the institution, Bennet was comfortable that Kitty would do very well at the school.
Dark Hollow School for Girls under the direction of headmistress Mrs Hesperia Gilbert seemed like the ideal place to take Lydia in hand.
Darcy passed on the information that Mrs Ponsonby had received from her cousin.
All privileges had to be earned at Dark Hollow, and the more a girl did not comply, the harder her life would become with more chores, mode of dress, going as far as functioning as a maid to others.
The first step in the consequences was wardrobe.
Depending on the offence, a girl could end up wearing a scratchy burlap dress for weeks at a time.
It did not hurt that the school sat in the centre of a large estate and that the nearest town was more than a twenty-mile walk from the estate’s gates, which were more than two miles from the school.
Bennet decided that if this school could not help Lydia, then the one that could did not exist.
As soon as Darcy departed, Bennet would send an express to headmistress Mrs Hesperia Gilbert to ask how soon that he could enrol Lydia.
“I thank you for all of this, your assistance was invaluable. But I now must ask, what are your intentions toward my second daughter, Darcy?” Bennet asked directly, going to the heart of that concern, wanting to know before Darcy left.
“Entirely honourable, sir,” Darcy answered without having to think about it.
“If I can fix the many faults that Miss Elizabeth highlighted for me, and her opinion of me consequently improves so that I am not the last man in the world that she could be prevailed upon to marry anymore; hopefully to the point that she in fact thinks me the only man that she would be willing to marry; then I will again ask her to marry me. This time without the insults in the proposal. If that comes to pass and she accepts me and you confer your blessing and consent, I will marry her,” Darcy laid out the whole of his hope in his reply.
“I know you are not a fortune hunter, as you offered for Lizzy when you believed her penniless and with no connections of note. I have an idea that your income is far higher than the reported ten thousand per annum. It has come to my attention that your cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, has been paying attention to Jane, and after what he said to Lizzy about a second son needing to marry with some consideration to money, I am not sure that Jane’s attraction is not her vast wealth,” Bennet said after he had considered the younger man’s answer for a short time.
“That, Bennet, would be a legitimate concern with anyone but Richard. Let me address the comment that he made to Miss Elizabeth first. He saw that I was already well on my way to being besotted with Miss Elizabeth. He and I have always been more like brothers than cousins. Just like I said something I did not mean at the assembly where I first met your family, Richard said what he thought that he needed to so that if Miss Elizabeth held a tendre for him; he let her know in his own foot-in-mouth way that he was not available to her. He has told me that it was an arrogant presumption on his part that he said what he did without any empirical evidence that Miss Elizabeth cared for him beyond friendship.”
Darcy paused for some seconds and gathered his thoughts.
“His parents are much like mine were, and nothing like Lady Catherine. They have taught, no drummed into their three children’s heads, that the ONLY reason to marry is love and mutual respect.
If they ever expected that Richard or Tiffany made a choice based on anything other than love and respect, they would be vociferous in their opposition.
They are not like most members of the Ton.
Also, Richard is not a poor, and I mean wealth wise, second son.
“What he does not know is that he has inherited his Grandfather Hampton’s estate and fortune.
His parents will inform him if he is ordered back to the Peninsula to go fight against the tyranny of Napoleon.
My Aunt Elaine, Lady Matlock, was the only issue of her parents.
As far as Richard knows, she inherited their estate Brookfield, which is but fifteen miles from Pemberley in Derbyshire, and had a clear eight thousand per annum.
There was a fortune of thirty thousand pounds that has been invested in your company along with the profits from the estate these fifteen years since his Grandmother Hampton passed.
Last time I spoke to Uncle Reggie, his fortune was well over three hundred thousand pounds.
“They wanted to tell him before he was ordered to war the first time where he participated in the various battles, including both at Badajoz, and thankfully survived with only slight wounds. They did not mention anything before as they knew that his sense of honour would not allow him not to go. Given that I believe that he is well on his way to falling in love with Miss Bennet, I believe that he will sell out the instant that he knows about his true position. I intend to recommend that Aunt Elaine and Uncle Reggie tell him now. That way he will not feel that he is being dishonourable and selling out just because of the orders.” Darcy let him in on the family secret without hesitation as it most certainly affected his daughter’s happiness.
“Thanks to your recitation, I am convinced that he is not a fortune hunter and I will let my wife know as well. I knew a Reginald Fitzwilliam at Cambridge very briefly; he was two years ahead of me. Seemed like a capital fellow, but we never spent enough time together to become friends. Tall fellow, blond with very blue eyes, also from Derbyshire I believe,” Bennet mused.
“That is my Uncle Reggie. He mentioned that he remembered your name from Cambridge and is looking forward to meeting you on Wednesday at Darcy House.” Darcy chuckled.
“As I am him. Thank you for your apology and your help with the schools. You will do son, you will do.” Bennet too chuckled and they stood.
The men shook hands and Bennet wrote his express to the school.
Darcy said his goodbyes to the ladies in the family sitting room, and feeling better about a possible future with the only woman that he could ever love than he had since his disgusting excuse of a proposal, he made the quick walk across the square to his home.
If anyone had seen him, they would have rubbed their eyes as Darcy was smiling and whistling a tune as he meandered along.