Chapter 23 #4
Jacobson, perhaps cowardly, could not face the look that he was sure that he would see on Helen’s countenance if he told her of his illness, impending death, and the guardianship.
He hugged his daughter tightly, kissed her on both her cheeks and her forehead, and left her with instructions to enjoy herself and her time with her sister-like friend.
As Bennet prepared to have Helen summoned to his study to make the painful revelation, he remembered how Jacobson had looked at his waving daughter for the last time until his carriage made a turn and was lost from view.
He asked Mr Hill to summon his wife, youngest daughter, and Miss Jacobson to the study so Helen would have their support.
The ladies seated themselves on the settee.
Helen had a Bennet either side of her. At first, she was concerned that she had upset someone and that she was to be sent home, but soon she understood that she was, in fact home.
As gently as he could deliver such devastating news, Bennet told her about the conversation with her father, the ramifications of his illness, and of his impending demise.
As much as she wished that her father was there to make the revelation himself, she understood why he could not.
Some news was too painful to impart oneself.
Helen’s hands were gripped firmly by those on either side of her as her silent tears streamed down her cheeks and fell on her gown covered legs as her heart broke for her father, but soon Fanny could not fail to hug her sixth daughter, holding tighter when Helen sank into her comfort.
When she pulled back, she was better for having allowed her grief and accepted Bennet’s handkerchief, giggling when he winked at her and pulled out another and handed it to his wife, then laughing when he winked at her again and pulled out a third and handed it to his Lydia.
His moment of levity had allowed all his ladies to smile as they collected themselves.
“Our father is quite incorrigible. You will keep him, anyway, will you not?” Lydia asked hopefully, and Helen could not help but feel wanted, not just accepted as a ward.
“Do you have any questions for us, Helen?” Fanny asked gently.
“W-w-what am I to call you and Lord Longbourn now?” she asked quietly as she looked up at the Countess.
“My dear,” Fanny hugged her in again, “in all but name you are one of our daughters. It is up to you, you may call me Mother, as you can have only one Mama, or Aunt Fanny, whichever feels right. The same for Thomas, either Father or Uncle Thomas,” Fanny promised before letting her go again.
“Helen,” Lydia turned to her friend as her friend turned toward her.
Lydia took both Helen’s hands in hers, “I am so very sorry that your papa is sick, but we are to be sisters indeed and not just in feeling. I have thought of you as my slightly older sister for a long time, and now you are.” Lydia’s arms replaced her mother’s as she hugged her newest sister and best friend.
“For now, I think I will be more comfortable with Aunt and Uncle,” Helen admitted and both the Earl and Countess nodded.
It was as they expected, but they hoped soon she would know she was as loved as the rest of their daughters and would feel more comfortable with the idea of calling them Mother and Father.
“When will I see Tim? I so feel for him that he is to have all of the responsibility of running Janet’s Well at such a young age. ”
“He is required to spend as much time as possible learning how the estate runs from your father,” Bennet explained gently.
“His education will require his total immersion. Once we hear that your papa has gone to join your mama in heaven, we will make sure that we go to Tim so you can condole together. For Tim’s sake and yours, I pray that the event is not too soon in happening. ”
“I did not have a chance to say goodbye to Papa,” Helen said as the tears renewed themselves as thoughts and regrets cascaded in her mind.
Bennet reached into his desk drawer and withdrew the first of the two sealed letters for his ward that he was holding for her father.
“Before he departed, your papa requested that I hand this to you after we informed you of his illness and your becoming our ward. Once you have read it, you are free to write to your father and brother as much as you desire. I believe we fully stock the desks in your sitting rooms weekly, but if we need to buy the whole of Meryton out of ink and paper and make a cart’s full of delivery for more, we will,” he vowed, gaining giggles from all of his girls, allowing them each to take a breath before the next, and possibly the hardest part of the interview.
He handed the missive to Helen who held it if as if it were the most precious gem in the world.
“Is there anything else, Papa?” Lydia asked, knowing that Helen would want to go read the letter as quickly as she could as well.
“Before you go, Helen, there is but one more thing to address. Lydia just received a new wardrobe as a gift for doing so well at your school and I refuse to treat my daughters differently. We will have a few gowns made up here as we have a wedding and some family events. When next in Town, your new wardrobe will be ordered for you. As you are not out, you will receive the same colours allowed ladies on the verge of becoming young women. Keep in mind that even when you and Lydia do have your come outs, we will not push either of you to marry, nor are we hoping you will leave us too soon. If you never marry, we will be glad to keep you with us all of our days. You will not be allowed to pay for your wardrobe or writing supplies and the like, as they are for us expected and our pleasure to provide. Additionally, you get ten pounds a month for pin money for you to use or save as you will,” he nodded when her jaw dropped.
“But that is too much!” Helen protested.
“I do not play favourites with my daughters nor do I treat any as less than. Do not ask me to. Those parents that do one or the other have children that end up growing up with resentment,” he explained.
Helen nodded. When said like that it made perfect sense as five, no six daughters in one house would easily cause such.
“Now you are free to leave or read it here, as you wish,” he said gently.
“We are here or will come to you as you desire,” Fanny added.
Helen thanked her new aunt and uncle and left the study hand-in-hand with her new younger sister to go read her letter from her Papa that was worth more than all of the gold in the world to her.
Once they had left, Bennet informed his wife that he would increase Helen’s dowry tenfold to five and seventy thousand pounds.
The money would be invested in Gardiner and Associates so that by the time that she married, if she so chose, it would be substantially more.
She was gifted a one percent stake in the company out of Bennet’s remaining five and twenty percent so she would never need to worry about money again for as long as she lived.
Tim’s legacy was increased to fifty thousand pounds with a one-half percent stake in Gardiner and Associates.
The stakes gifted to the two remaining Jacobsons had but one restriction, that they could not be sold unless to one of the Bennets or Gardiners.
Dividends were theirs to do with as they willed.
“That is perfect. I wonder if by the time we meet Timothy he will be our fourth son that we get to bring into our family?” Fanny teased, and after so long with not having to worry about the entail, she and Thomas both began to laugh that softened many formerly painful memories.
The new sisters repaired to their shared sitting room.
Lydia asked Helen if she wanted the solitude to read her letter, but Helen shook her head so Lydia settled into a chair and opened her current book.
As she did, she smiled to herself, wondering what her former self would have thought if she had glimpsed into the future and saw this moment.
She would have denied it and all she could say to herself now was ‘Yes, Lydia, I read books!’ Lydia kept an eye on Helen but focused on her book so she was ready to support her sister, but allowed her to take things at her own pace.
Helen, after a time of just staring at her Papa’s broad strokes that formed her name on the outside of the missive, finally turned it over and broke the seal on the thick communication. It contained two letters, one from Tim and one from her Papa. She read Tim’s first.
Janet’s Well
Surrey
28 May 1812
My dearest sister,
If you are reading this letter then Lord and Lady Longbourn are now your guardians, and mine too if Papa does not hold on until my one and twentieth birthday.
Yes, my sweet and loved sister, after our loss of Mama just over a year ago, to be contemplating losing Papa is beyond comprehension, but contemplate it we must. I know that you will be loved and cherished with the Bennets, Helen.
I could tell how much you adore Lady Lydia from your letters that you posted to me from school.
As much as I wish that I were older and had already learnt all that is needed to run the estate so that you could be with me, I know that the reality of my abilities does not yet accommodate my wish.
At first, when Papa told me that he was sick and what he was going to do for your future, I was consumed by a rage that made your anger after Mama passed look like a small pique.
Once I calmed down and listened, really listened and used some of my God given good sense and logic, I understood that as much as I wanted it to be otherwise, Papa had the right of it.