Chapter 12
As planned, the Bennet ladies minus Lydia, left for Madame Yvette Chambourg’s shop on Bond Street early in the morning.
They were met by Mrs Gardiner and her eldest, Lily.
Due to her mourning, Charlotte did not join them.
Lizzy and Jane had invited their friends Georgie and Tiffany, as they were sure that Mary and Kitty would get along well with the two young ladies.
Just after the Bennet and Gardiner ladies had alighted their conveyances, a carriage pulled up with the Matlock coat of arms emblazoned on the doors.
Georgie stepped out first followed by Tiffany and then, to the oldest Bennet sisters’ surprise, they were followed by Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam, Countess of Matlock and Lady Marie Fitzwilliam, Viscountess Hilldale.
The ladies entered the shop where introductions and curtsies were made.
Jane and Lizzy, who had been nervous about their mother meeting the Fitzwilliam ladies, found that their worries were all for naught.
Fanny Bennet continued to be calm and much altered and was a perfect example of propriety as she was introduced to the two titled ladies.
Jane and Elizabeth both began to believe that their mother had truly changed, that it was not a momentary response to having her fears settled.
No one had happened to notice the Bingley carriage passing just before the ladies entered the most exclusive modiste’s shop in London.
After the introductions were made, Ladies Elaine and Marie were assured that their presence was not in the least unwelcome.
When it was asked why the shop was closed to all except their party, the Fitzwilliams and Georgiana were flabbergasted to find out that Madame Yvette Chambourg’s store was one of the many businesses owned by Gardiner and Associates, which meant that the four Bennet girls were actually part owners of the establishment thanks to their ownership stake in Gardiner and Associates.
Madame Chambourg received thirty percent of the profits after all expenses were paid.
Fanny Bennet had been fully informed of the scope of the holdings, as her husband was keeping his pledge to be completely open and honest with his wife.
It was disclosed that Gardiner and Associates’ largest single business was the Dennington Shipping Lines.
It was by a factor of five compared to the nearest competitor.
The line was by far the largest passenger and freight shipping line in the realm.
The company owned massive shipyards, where they not only built commercial ships, but a high percentage of the ships that the crown commissioned for the navy.
What Mrs Gardiner did not share was that their shipyards also built all of the ships for the East India Company and that over the years Gardiner and Associates had gained a five and thirty percent share of said company.
It was a connection that both companies chose not to make public.
Everyone believed that the East India Company was the one that rivalled or exceeded the value of Gardiner and Associates.
That assumption was very wrong; it was a symbiotic relationship.
The East India Company purchased ships for a significantly reduced rate, and Gardiner and Associates had the pick of the goods that the Company imported into England at much reduced pricing.
Mrs Gardiner, who was acquainted with Ladies Elaine and Marie as they were on some charitable boards in common, when asked if there were other businesses that were owned wholly or in part by Gardiner and Associates, were dumbstruck once more when they were told the names of some of the finest stores on Bond Street and other London shopping districts as either owned outright or in which the company owned a major stake.
The most surprising was the ownership of Gunter’s, as well as Boodle’s and White’s gentleman’s clubs; additionally, they owned a controlling interest in Chippendale’s Makers of Fine Furniture.
Mrs Gardiner did not mention, as she did not like to boast, that Gardiner and Associates had extensive holdings around the world, including in the former colonies of America.
Some of their most valuable holdings that had started out as dirt cheap land purchased on speculation, were the mines that they owned overseas, primarily in the Americas, India, and Africa, that included gold mines, diamonds, and other precious gems. She did not mention the company’s many other interests in factories, estates, or shops dotted all around England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In Wales they owned a large number of coal mines.
Fitzwilliam Darcy would have been interested to hear that Gardiner and Associates had recently purchased a controlling interest in his favourite bookstore, Hatchard’s.
When Gardiner and Associates either purchased outright or obtained a controlling interest, they allowed the managers of said businesses to run them unimpeded.
If things were not broken, they did not try to fix them.
They only got involved when needed and given the scope of the company’s diverse holdings in manufacturing, carting, shipping, and distribution, they were able to reduce costs and increase profits wherever they had interests.
Had the above knowledge been known to the Bingleys and Hursts, they would have started to understand the wasp’s nest that they were allowing Caroline Bingley to kick.
It would have explained the men’s unceremonious ejection from their clubs, why they were being refused service in most London shops, and why, just that very afternoon, Miss Caroline Bingley had been refused entry in Gunter’s and told never to return.
Perhaps that if Bingley had had a backbone and were he and his sister Mrs Hurst not intent on appeasing their delusional sister, their life would have followed a very different trajectory.
The ladies had a grand time shopping especially now that they no longer needed to hide their true wealth.
All of the Bennet ladies, but Lydia, ordered completely new wardrobes.
Kitty did not complain when she was restricted to dresses that were appropriate for one who was not out yet and did not have the variety of colour or the more daring cuts like those that her mother and three older sisters ordered.
From Madame Chambourg’s, the party made its way along the street to the milliners, drapers, a shoemaker, and a number of other stores.
They ended their excursion at Gunter’s, where they were treated with the deference owed to the owners and the family of said owners.
Before the parties separated to return to their various homes, Mrs Bennet extended an invitation for the Fitzwilliams to join them at Bennet House for their first official dinner party.
The Darcys were to be invited; Jane and Lizzy’s godparents and their families had already accepted the invitation.
Lady Matlock thanked Mrs Bennet and accepted on behalf of her family after Lady Hilldale said that they also had no prior commitment that would stop them attending.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Charles Bingley and Louisa Hurst heard their younger, volatile sister before they saw her.
“I HAVE NEVER BEEN TREATED THUSLY!!” She yelled as she walked into the drawing room where her siblings were looking at her like she had two heads.
“Do not look at me so! You cannot believe the day that I just had.” She threw herself onto a settee in a most unladylike fashion.
“What vexes you so, dearest sister?” No matter how much appeasement exacerbated the problem, Louisa Hurst and her brother were set on what they believed was the path of least resistance.
“What vexes me, Louisa, is the way that I was treated today!” the harridan shrieked in her high-pitched, grating, and annoying voice.
“Not one of my friends was at home to me again today! Then I went to Gunter’s and do you know what those lowlifes did?
” Without giving her siblings an opportunity to answer, she carried on her rant.
“No, you do not, you cannot even imagine! They would not allow me entrance, and they told me, me, a person of my rank and wealth, never to return. I will let it be known to all that they should never darken that hovel’s doorstep again! ” Caroline hissed.
‘My sister is truly delusional! We are not being called on, no one will accept a call from us, and we are being refused service at more and more establishments. My husband and Charles were told to leave their clubs and never return, that they would not be granted entrance even as guests of another member. Are Charles and I making things worse? No, we have to treat her this way. Her tantrums are not to be borne, so we will do what we need to so that she remains somewhat calm,’ Louisa told herself ignoring the voice in her head telling her that things would not end well.
Before she could attempt to placate her sister, she continued the rant.
“To make matters worse, I saw those fallen Bennet women.” The name ‘Bennet’ was spat out of Caroline’s mouth like an expletive.
“They were with some of their younger sisters and that ridiculous mother of theirs with some other ladies entering Madame Chambourg’s shop on Bond Street as if they owned the place!
” If the shrew had noticed that Miss Darcy, her ‘dear friend,’ was one of the ladies she would have had an apoplexy but thankfully she had been hidden by some of the other ladies in the party.
As much as she boasted to anyone who would listen, and many who would not, about her connection to the Fitzwilliams, she had never been admitted to their company so she did not recognise the two ladies as she passed the modiste’s store.
“I should inform Madame Chambourg about the low kept women that she admits to her shop!”