Chapter 7
Though Elizabeth and her father had only intended to stay in London for a fortnight, it was the fourteenth of October before they finally came home.
There had been a mountain of paperwork to deal with, and they were reminded repeatedly that the cogs of the legal system moved slowly, so it couldn’t all be done in a single day.
First, there was the paperwork that transferred Mrs. Blythe’s property to Elizabeth. There were separate documents for each of the houses as well as each of the investments and Mrs. Blythe’s bank account.
Then there was additional paperwork for Elizabeth to sign over ownership of the Cheapside townhome to Uncle Gardiner.
Finally, there was a great deal of work to do to determine which investments to sell and which to keep. With Uncle Gardiner’s help, she kept a few of them which he was confident would be good for the foreseeable future, and she sold the rest, transferring the money to the funds.
When all was transferred and settled, Elizabeth had seventy thousand pounds in the funds, ten thousand in specific investments, and three Mayfair properties each of which brought in a profit of between five and six hundred per annum after deducting the cost of upkeep and permanent staff.
All told, if she left the investments to mature without touching them, she could expect an income of over four thousand pounds per year.
As she waded through all the legalities of her new wealth, Elizabeth occasionally recalled the little fairy, Jeanie, who had told her she would be wealthy, and every time she did, she laughed.
When Elizabeth first heard that Jeanie was granting Elizabeth’s wish to be rich, she assumed that, since the wish was uttered with the limited desires of a child, it would be granted according to the understanding of a child.
She would have been happy to receive one hundred pounds.
She would have been overjoyed to receive one thousand pounds.
Instead, she had received such an enormous sum that neither she nor any of her relations truly knew what to do with it all.
For now, at least, it was all placed where it needed to be, and it was all legally hers, though her father would retain control of it until her twenty-first birthday. Now that it was settled, it was time to return home to Longbourn.
Coming home felt decidedly odd to Elizabeth. So much had happened in the last four weeks that she felt almost like a completely different person to the one who had left in the middle of September.
She soon found, however, that while she may be different and her prospects and situation may be different, her family was still the same.
She was welcomed with open arms and a smile from Jane as well as mild resentment from her mother.
Mary seemed pleased to see her, and Kitty and Lydia were only interested in the gifts she brought with her.
Once Elizabeth had cleaned up from her journey, she retrieved her gifts from her luggage and passed them around.
Unsurprisingly, Lydia was the first to open hers. She gasped with pleasure to find that it was a package of ribbons. They were not just any ribbons, though. It was ten yards of ten different ribbons, each of the finest silk and each of a different color.
“Lizzy!” she cried as she ran her hand along the soft material. “These are beautiful. It will take me years to use it all. I think I shall re-trim my brown bonnet first, though. Can you imagine this pink silk against that chocolate brown material? It shall be lovely!”
By the time Lydia was done talking, Kitty had opened hers. It was a complete oil painting kit with forty tubes of paint and a variety of brushes. Kitty looked up from it with an odd expression on her face. Elizabeth couldn’t tell if she was pleased or not.
“I thought you liked painting, but you never seem to ask for supplies,” said Elizabeth, “so when I found this kit, I thought it was perfect. Do you not like it?”
“I…I do,” said Kitty. “I just don’t know where to paint or how to do it without getting messy.”
“That is simple enough,” said Elizabeth.
“Just use the back parlor in the winter. We only use it in the heat of the summer, so the rest of the time it is empty. You can lay down an old sheet to protect the floor and wear an old dress to protect yourself. When the weather is warm, you can paint outside or even in the greenhouse.”
With a little glimmer of hope, Kitty turned to Mama and asked, “Mama, may I?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Mama. “I suppose it isn’t any different than Mary practicing piano in the second drawing room. As long as you aren’t disturbing our guests, there can be no real problem.”
Kitty turned back to Elizabeth. “Thank you, Lizzy. Thank you so much.”
“You are quite welcome,” said Elizabeth.
Mary’s gift was a set of pearl-tipped hairpins. Like Kitty, she had an odd expression of both joy and concern. “I think these might be too fine for me,” she said when Elizabeth questioned her.
“Of course not,” said Elizabeth. “They will look stunning against your dark hair. Do you not agree, Jane?”
“I do agree,” said Jane. “After all, your hair is a similar shade to Elizabeth’s and you, yourself, have complimented her when she had pearls in her hair.”
“Hmm, I suppose you are correct,” said Mary, a tiny smile growing on her face. “Thank you, Elizabeth. They are lovely.”
Jane’s gift was a dress length of pale blue silk.
She didn’t say much, but Elizabeth could tell that she liked it.
Elizabeth had been worried that Lydia would be jealous that she had received ribbons instead of a full gown, but she was too busy telling Kitty everything she was going to do with them to notice Jane’s gift.
When Mama opened her package, she found a pattern for embroidery that would make a lovely pastoral scene when completed. It also contained the screen, an embroidery hoop, and all the silk thread needed to complete the pattern.
“Oh, Lizzy, this will take me ages to complete,” said Mama. She sounded exasperated, but Elizabeth could tell she was secretly pleased. Her favorite thing to do when she wasn’t gossiping with her friends was pattern embroidery.
“Now that you have all opened your gifts, Papa and I have something to tell you,” said Elizabeth.
Suddenly, everyone’s attention went from admiring each other’s gifts to being riveted to Elizabeth and Papa.
“Does this have something to do with why your father took you to London but not any of the rest of us?” asked Mama.
“It does,” said Papa, and Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief that it seemed he would be making the announcement.
She had not been looking forward to doing it herself.
“Last month Elizabeth received a rather unusual and complex inheritance. It was necessary to spend some time in London in order to take care of some legal and financial matters related to it. It is all settled now, however.”
“What kind of inheritance would be so complicated as to require four weeks in London?” asked Mama. “And why would Lizzy be receiving any kind of inheritance? We have no relations who have died recently, at least not that I know of.”
It took nearly half an hour to tell the tale and to answer all of the questions that were asked.
Whatever confusion and jealousy remained at the end of the conversation was smoothed over when Elizabeth told them all that they would be spending the first three months of the new year in London, shopping to their heart’s content.