Chapter 13 #3
“Then, she will gain three more female family members,” Elizabeth insisted.
“Jane is three years older than me, but Mary is a year younger than I am, and Kitty, her proper name is Catherine, is more than two years younger than Mary.” She paused as she thought of something.
“My Bennet, Gardiner, and Phillips families all celebrate my birthday on the third day of February; is that when I was born?”
“Unless I am misremembering it, you were born on the fifth day of March 1791,” Matlock responded.
“Dash it! You are nine months younger than me, not ten!” James realised.
“Lizzy and James are very competitive,” Jane informed the guests.
Conyers had thought to reprimand Master Bennet for speaking to Lady Bethany in that way when he had stopped himself.
Like between Giana and him, there were no rank or titles, just a brother and sister.
He had to admit that regardless of his former opinions, the Bennets had brought his cousin up to be a self-assured lady whose emerald-green eyes flashed with intelligence and wit.
In fact, he felt some envy when he saw how close all four Bennets siblings and Lady Bethany were.
From what he could tell, it was a very close familial relationship.
They were all close to one another in age and did not have a twelve-year age difference like he and Giana did, which he assumed added to the bond he could detect between them.
No, his cousin had not grown up lacking anything from what he could see. Rather, Bethany had enjoyed being part of a loving family which it seemed treated her no differently than a by-blood member of the family. He had many opinions to revise.
The three matrons returned to the drawing room.
“The courier is on his way. He has been instructed to look for the Leeds coat of arms and check at the coaching inns along the way. Amelia will receive the reply we sent from Seaview House today or tomorrow, and I will wager she will depart right away,” Lady Anne opined.
“Is there a suitable inn in the town?” Holderness enquired. “I know neither Anne nor Elaine will agree to be parted from their goddaughter, at least until Amelia arrives.”
“Yes, the Red Lion Inn in Meryton is of a high quality, but I fail to see why you need an inn,” Bennet wondered after he had looked at Fanny, and she nodded.
“We must sleep somewhere,” Matlock said.
“And we have twenty open bedchambers at Longbourn, so there is no need for you to go to the inn,” Fanny interjected.
“We did not want to impose,” Lady Elaine responded.
“Lizzy, or Bethie as you call her, is family to us all; hence, we are all family. As such, you will remain at this estate. We will not hear of you taking rooms at the inn when we have an abundance of chambers,” Fanny insisted.
“I agree with Mamma. How are we to get to know one another if you are not here?” Elizabeth queried.
The invitation was graciously accepted.
As Conyers followed the housekeeper to the suites he, his sister, and cousins had been assigned, he shook his head, remembering the assumptions he made about this family.
The house was not opulently decorated, but it was all done to be comfortable with elegance.
The more that he saw of the house, the more he realised that the Bennets, although not as wealthy as the Darcys, were very well off.
Hilldale was given his own set of rooms with one bedchamber and an attached sitting room. Fitzwilliam and Conyers were sharing a suite with a sitting room between their bedchambers. Anne and Giana were similarly situated in their own suite.
By the time the guests reached their suites and bedchambers, their personal servants were already unpacking their trunks.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
After the Darcys and Fitzwilliams had washed and changed, the Gardiners and William Collins had returned. The earls and their sons all greeted Gardiner warmly, seeing that they all invested with him.
That evening the Phillipses, Bingleys, and Hursts joined the Bennets for dinner. It was then they were informed that Elizabeth Bennet was in fact Lady Bethany Osborne, something proved indisputably. For the nonce, Elizabeth requested that everyone continue calling her Lizzy or Elizabeth.
Knowing that Amelia would not care a fig what her daughter was called, Ladies Elaine and Anne did not attempt to correct their goddaughter.
The Darcys and Fitzwilliams were still absorbing the fact that Bethie, or Lizzy as she preferred to be called, had been twenty miles from London for so many years.
Everyone had agreed to defer the detailed and harder conversations until after Lady Amelia arrived and was reunited with her daughter to allow Elizabeth-Lady Bethany some time to begin to come to terms with the new facts of her life.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The next morning Lady Amelia Osborne received a reply from Anne and Elaine urging her to come to Seaview House.
It lightly chastised her for even asking, while at the same time pointing out she was welcome in any of their homes anytime.
Within an hour, she was on her way, having been packed in anticipation of the epistle from her friends.