Prologue #2
Not long after, notices were delivered to the Goulding and Long families, both close to the Bennets. Once the notices had been delivered it was not long before all the neighbourhood was aware Mrs. Francine Bennet was no longer among the living.
As soon as Charlotte prepared herself, she made for Longbourn as fast as her legs could carry her to go condole with her friends.
At five and twenty, Charlotte, unlike the Bennet sisters, was not romantic and knew she was considered on the shelf.
With an almost non-existent dowry, she was aware her chances of marriage were slim to none.
She had resigned herself to that fact and planned to make the best of her life as a spinster.
She would find a way not to be a burden to her family even if that meant taking the position of a governess or companion.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Gardiners arrived before sundown, for they had departed Gracechurch Street within an hour of Bennet’s express. Edward Gardiner was the youngest of the three Gardiner siblings, and the opposite of his sisters in temperament and intelligence.
After Oxford, rather than take over his father’s law practice in Meryton, the one his brother Phillips now ran, Edward sought employment with an import-export company in London.
The owner, who had no children or relations, retired, and sold the business to Gardiner at a price he could afford—which was a fraction of the actual value of the company.
Edward renamed the business Gardiner and Associates to honour the original owner.
Within five years he had built a thriving business with a healthy income.
Gardiner had tried to convince his brother Bennet to allow him to invest Longbourn’s profits and his sister’s five-thousand-pound dowry, but up to that point Bennet had done nothing—it was too much trouble and the effort would have taken him away from his beloved books.
After a few years of wasting his breath, better conserved to cool his porridge, Gardiner dropped the issue.
Some eight years ago, Gardiner had married Madeline Lambert.
Her father was the rector of the church in Lambton, Derbyshire.
They were blessed with four children, two sons bracketed by two daughters.
For this trip, the children remained home with their governess and nursemaids, as it was a sombre occasion.
When Aunt Maddie entered the drawing room, her two oldest nieces fell into her arms. She had always been closest to Jane and Elizabeth, who she treated as surrogate daughters before her own oldest, Lilly, had been born.
Charlotte Lucas looked on as her two friends cried on their aunt’s shoulder.
She wished there was more she could do for her friends, but she knew just being there and supporting them was healing for Jane and Eliza.
Charlotte and her family were the only ones who called Elizabeth Eliza rather than Lizzy.
As it was becoming warmer, it was decided the funeral would be on the morrow.
Charlotte and the three oldest Bennet girls helped write notices to the members of the local community announcing the date and time of the funeral service, which would be held at Longbourn’s church, with the interment in the family plot directly following.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Charlotte, I feel guilty for all the times I participated in making sport of my mother with my father. Now I will never be able to beg her forgiveness,” Elizabeth moaned as she sat with her friend while the men were at the church for the funeral and interment.
“Eliza, reproaching yourself will change nothing. Besides, you told me it was only done in the privacy of your father’s study. Unlike him, you never showed disrespect for your mother publicly,” Charlotte pointed out.
“I suppose that is true,” Elizabeth allowed, through a watery smile.
“You loved your mother as I know she loved you, even if she had a hard time showing her love at times. I know it is but two days since your mother passed, Eliza, but what is it you are always telling the rest of us?” Charlotte asked her eyebrows raised.
“Only think about the past as the remembrance gives you pleasure?” Elizabeth returned.
“Now is the time for mourning, but life has to carry on. Once you have mourned your mother as she deserves to be mourned, you will live by that credo once again,” Charlotte assured her grieving friend.
“It is hard to see moving past this now, Charlotte, but I dare say you have the right of it—in time,” Elizabeth allowed.
“Who will push you and Jane to get married now?” Charlotte tried to raise her friend’s spirits.
“I am sure Aunt Phillips will take up that particular mantle,” Elizabeth smiled, although it did not get close to reaching her eyes.
“Has anyone written bad poetry for Jane lately?” Charlotte asked, trying to get Eliza’s mind off her grief, even if for a short while.
“Not since Mama, may she rest in peace, ran Mr. Jeffries off; there has not been another. It is just as well, as Jane felt no inclination toward the hapless man,” Elizabeth remembered.
Their mother had pushed Jane out at fifteen, reasoning her security would be assured if she got her daughters married well as soon as might be.
The Jeffries had leased Netherfield Park, and the son had been chosen by Fanny Bennet as Jane’s future husband.
At first, he had been interested and had written Jane some of the worst poetry either Jane or Elizabeth had ever read.
His parents were disgusted at the relentless campaign waged by Mrs. Bennet and left the area, son in tow.
Mrs. Bennet had complained they used Jane ill.
No one ever told her the real reason the Jeffries abandoned the neighbourhood was her and her vulgar behaviour.
As Elizabeth and Charlotte remembered the occurrence, Elizabeth acknowledged her mother had been a singular character. Luckily, even if Aunt Phillips tried to fill the office of matchmaker for her nieces, she did not live at Longbourn.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Two days later, Gardiner and Phillips were meeting with Bennet in his study. “Will you at long last allow me to help build up some capital for my nieces’ future?” Gardiner asked.
“Take the five thousand pounds from Fanny’s dowry and do what you will with it,” Bennet waved his wrist in his brother Gardiner’s direction. “If there are profits, I will send them to you also.”
Gardiner was sure Bennet would forget his resolution as soon as he and his wife departed Longbourn, but at least he had his late sister’s dowry to work with.
Unknown to Bennet, his two brothers had decided they would add principal as well so their nieces would have something when needed.
It would not be an enormous amount, but it would be better than the one thousand pounds they each had now.
“What will you do about the girls’ education?” Phillips asked.
“The same as we do now. They are free to learn that which interests them,” Bennet waved the question off.
His brothers knew talk of him stepping up had been just that, talk.
They were sure he would closet himself in his book room and the work of running the house and caring for his younger daughters would fall to his two oldest. They did not push Bennet.
They would revisit the subject after allowing him time to mourn his wife in peace.
As much as his wife and her attacks of nerves had often disturbed his peace in the house, Bennet admitted to himself that the house was too quiet now. He accepted the truth; he did not know what he had until it was gone.
The following day, the Gardiners returned to London and their children, leaving the six Bennets alone in the house to mourn. Many of their neighbours and friends visited to condole with them, but the one constant was the almost daily presence of Miss Charlotte Lucas, much to her friends' pleasure.