Chapter 25
As busy as they all were, the day of the pre-wedding ball was upon them and the three men were no longer alone at Bennet Fields. The Bedfords, their two daughters and their husbands and children arrived two days previously. The Jerseys had arrived with their son and daughter in tow that same day.
Not long after, Anne de Bourgh, her betrothed Ian Ashby, and his family had arrived.
The party included Lord and Lady Ashbury; Ashby’s brother and his wife, Lord and Lady Amberleigh; and lastly his soon to be one and twenty-year-old sister, Lady Sarah.
That evening before dinner, Andrew’s best friend Lord Harold Smythe, the Earl of Granville, also arrived.
At a large dinner that night, the aforementioned Earl was introduced to all of the Ashbys.
He had met the Earl in the Lords, but had not as yet had many dealings with the man.
At first Lord Granville thought that Lady Sarah Ashby was just another pretty debutant with an empty head who would try and impress and entrap him like so many before her, which had led to him being jaded.
It did not take too long for him to see that his assumptions were very wrong.
Although pretty, she was definitely not empty headed and did nothing to court his good opinion.
If anything, she did not seem very impressed with him.
She was well read, broadly educated rather than narrowly as most ladies were, and was not afraid to contradict him when she disagreed with him.
She could quote Descartes, Kant, Voltaire, Smith, Machiavelli, Plato, and Socrates with ease, and was familiar with the current works of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel.
She took issue with some principles ascribed to ‘absolute idealism’ that the three espoused, but found their work interesting.
He found himself enchanted and appreciated that his friend had kept his word.
Other than an introduction, there was no matchmaking, no innuendo, not a hint for a walk in the gardens, nothing.
The Earl of Ashbury was at least as wealthy as his friend was, so money could not be incentive for her, and Lady Sarah had a healthy dowry of fifty thousand pounds so there was no pressing need for her to marry.
For the first time that he could remember, possibly ever, a lady had captured his attention.
Although she did not outwardly show it, the debonair peer impressed Lady Sarah Ashby.
Unlike so many that she had met in her two seasons in town, he had no interest in or need of her sizable fortune.
‘He seems to be interested in me as a person not just as an adornment, and was very respectful of my point of view,’ she thought.
She felt a kindred spirit in Lady Elizabeth Bennet who had read the same books as she had and more to boot.
Other men had classed her a ‘blue stocking’ when they were actually intimidated by her intellect, but the Earl of Granville seemed to revel in debating her and probing the logic behind her positions, just like Lady Elizabeth had experienced with Mr Darcy.
They had related very similar experiences with inferior men trying to prove their superiority to themselves.
‘Best of all, he showed no censure or disquiet when I contradicted his own positions on more than one occasion,’ Sarah Ashby remembered with no little pleasure.
Before everyone parted that night, Granville had requested and been granted the first and supper sets by Lady Sarah.
He did not care that his dancing the first would send shockwaves through the Ton, or that a tidal wave of gossip would ignite when he danced a second set with the same lady.
The following day Darcy’s cousin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived with his family along with the rest of the invited friends and family who needed a place to stay.
The Darcy party included his wife Grace, his two sons, Paul eighteen and Joshua fifteen, and daughter Mary Faith, who was but twelve.
A small number of acquaintances and officers that Fitzwilliam was friendly with from his days in the army, including his former commander General Grant Atherton, planned to arrive the morning of the wedding.
The General and the majority of the other hosted guests would return to town the same day.
Most of the soldiers could not be spared from their duties for too long, but wanted to be there to see the former Colonel get leg shackled.
Once they met his betrothed, there was a unanimous opinion that none of them would object to being caught in the parson’s mousetrap with such a woman, or any of her sisters for that matter.
Pity that the three eldest were taken and the three youngest were not yet out.
There had been hunting for the men, teas and visits for the ladies, and a lot of boisterous playing for the children. Lady Longbourn was careful to include her local friends and acquaintances in all of the events leading up to the marriage.
At one of the teas Lady Lucas took a private moment and looked around.
She was sitting in a drawing room with a Duchess and her two daughters, a good number of Countesses, a Baron’s wife, two Viscountesses, and a number of wives of baronets.
In addition, there were a good number of untitled members of the Ton, and Grace Darcy, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The inclusion of the local ladies like herself, who were in actuality so far below in station to the guests, reinforced for Sarah Lucas that her friend was indeed unaffected by her precipitous elevation.
The local ladies were well received and not looked down on or made to feel inferior, which enabled them to relax and enjoy the tea with friends, old, and new acquaintances.
Both the Park and the Fields were near capacity but were able to accommodate all of the guests that needed to be housed.
The preparations for the ball had been made, and there was more than enough white soup and food that not a single guest would go hungry.
The Bennet Field’s ballroom glistened as the servants had polished every surface and made sure that every speck of dust was banished.
The housekeeper and butler, who were on staff when the estate was still Bennington Fields, had watched in awe as the Bennets had razed the old house to the ground then built the new, much larger manor house on the soon to be former Miss Jane Bennet’s estate.
During the rebuild, all retainers had been paid in full and put to work around the three estates owned by the Bennets until the new Bennet Fields was ready for their return.
The two stood now taking in the sights before them.
Neither of them had ever imagined that he or she would ever see such an event at a house in which they served, as it was so far from town.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The morning of the ball Gardiner, Bennet, Andrew and Reggie Fitzwilliam had travelled to Bennet Fields to meet with Bedford, Jersey, and their respective sons, and Darcy, Richard and Ashby (Anne’s betrothed).
Andrew had requested permission to invite his friend Harry Smythe to join the meeting and had met with no resistance.
Gardiner had informed the group that the company had acquired the rights to develop the steam engine beyond the current scope of use in industry and mines.
They had retained James Watt, a steam engine pioneer; Richard Trevithick, who had built the first steam locomotive in ‘02; and George Stephenson, who was developing applications for steam locomotives to transport freight and passengers over distances with much speed on rails of steel.
Additionally, they had also retained, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, who was working on steam to drive ships and whose son at six showed a great aptitude for engineering and followed his father around as he worked.
Gardiner explained that they had a number of locations for each man to lead a team of engineers and other scientists to work on the transportation of the future.
Each man was offered an opportunity to invest while these emerging technologies were in their infancy.
Not one of the men present demurred and each invested heavily.
None could imagine the returns that their investments would create in the not too distant future that would make returns to date look like a pittance.
Later that afternoon, Darcy felt abnormally satisfied with himself as he lay resting in his chamber while Carstens fussed with his clothing for the ball in the dressing room.
‘She agreed to THREE sets without blinking,’ he reminded himself again.
The smile that had emerged since Elizabeth had consented to the dances returned, ‘and if that is not a positive sign for the future, then God help me I do not know what is.’
In chambers down the hall from Darcy, Lord Hugh Rhys-Davies was thinking about his Mary.
‘I wish that the two months was over!’ he thought as his impatience built.
‘I understand why Bennet set the two months, but I wish it were over. How I love her, and she has disclosed to me that my love is requited. Only a little less than a month to go. My desire for her increases each and every day along with my love. I can see that she will be as passionate for me as I am for her, and in my opinion, we cannot say our vows before man and God soon enough so we do not have to part again.’