Prologue - The History #2
A practice that would carry over for many years had been started Eastertide a year earlier.
Tom and the Jamisons travelled to neighbouring Hertfordshire to visit one of the two estates that would be Tom’s on his gaining his majority.
Tom worked closely with his stewards to learn how to manage his estates—lessons his father had denied him—fully intending to be a hands-on master rather than leave the work to them and be an absentee landlord.
Tom excelled at Oxford just as he had at Harrow, and was a well-rounded student, a top-level opponent in fencing, and a boon on the cricket field.
Though forced apart from his family, Tom was content with his lot, almost appreciating that he was never invited to Town by the Duke and was an unknown in society.
November 1665
With two estates that together had a clear five thousand per annum plus five acres of land in Mayfair, Tom Rhys-Davies was a wealthy man in his own right.
From the day he gained his majority on the nineth day of October 1665, he was independent.
This ensured he had no need to request any support from his father.
The Duke had once again tried to challenge his son’s right to inherit, and like all previous attempts, this one had been futile, costing the bitter man money with no return.
As soon as he lost that case, the Duke revoked his second son’s legacy and stopped paying him any further allowance.
If that was not bad enough, he sowed further discord over the years telling Sed that his younger brother had stolen part of his inheritance.
Tom, by his own admission, was a man violently in love.
The once-annoying Karen Jamison had grown into a wonderful young woman of eighteen.
She was kind and intelligent, and shared Tom’s love of the written word.
While they had other things in common, that was one of the things he believed would sustain them over many years.
He knew that at one and twenty he was too young to marry, but he also knew that he would never marry any other, and from their conversations he was certain that Karen was just as much in love with him.
It had been six long years since Tom had visited his ancestral home, and both he and Hastings were in their final year at Oxford.
He had thought it would be many years before he saw Longfield Meadows again when a black-edged notice was delivered to him in early November at the apartments he shared with Hastings in Oxford.
It was with trepidation that Tom opened the missive.
He was devastated to find it contained the news his mother had passed due to a tragic accident.
Tom privately believed that it was his father’s callous treatment of the late Duchess which driven her into an early grave, and his anger simmered.
Tom expected his brother’s cold shoulder given that Lord Birchington had not replied to even one of his letters over the years.
He strongly suspected that his father intercepted the post at Longfield Meadows, but he did not know that the Duke had charged Sed’s valet to intercept and forward any post to or from his second son to himself.
Sed barely acknowledge Tom, but his sisters greeted him warmly.
Tom was disgusted at his father’s granting a betrothal of Amelia to an aging earl and was currently planning to barter Elizabeth to the highest bidder as soon as she was out, if he even waited those four years.
The Duchess had begged the Duke not to consign her daughter to a life of misery with the Earl, but, as he always had done, the Duke turned a deaf ear to his wife’s entreaties.
Amelia believed that their mother had lost the will to live.
She had started to take long walks, and one morning after the Duchess left the house it had started to snow.
When Lady Esther had not returned after four hours, a search was conducted.
They found her body but a few hundred yards away.
She had evidently slipped and hit her head hard, and the cold had taken her.
During their talk, both sisters relayed to Tom how callous Sed had become thanks to their father’s corruptive influence.
It was too late to help Amelia, but Tom swore to Elizabeth that he would find a way to save her.
He would mourn his beloved mother for a year, and then he would propose to Karen Jamison.
As he was getting ready to leave, his mother’s former lady’s maid surreptitiously slipped a letter from her mistress into one of Tom’s jacket pockets, which his valet discovered while unpacking for him after he had returned to Oxford.
Tom sat down with a glass of port and opened the unexpected missive.
9 October 1665
Longfield Meadows
My darling son Thomas,
I know that you have written letters to me as I have to you, but for his own selfish reasons your father has decided that the more he isolates you from the family the better. If I could explain your father’s callous behaviour, I would, my sweet son, but I cannot.
If you are reading this, then I am with my parents in heaven.
I used to have four of the sweetest children, until your father decided to corrupt Sed and turn him against you.
I have never understood the avarice that drives your father, and that is why I made sure that you and you alone will inherit Papa’s property and wealth.
No matter what your father attempts, he will never be able to take what is yours by law.
This cruel separation has all but broken my heart, my darling son.
I know not why we have had to endure such torture.
With all that I am, I believe that there is some part of the sweet boy that was your brother left deep within Sed.
My hope is that he will rediscover that part of himself one day before it is too late.
Tom scoffed at what his mother wrote about his brother. Not for her hope, but that there was any redeemable part of Sed’s character. If there was, Tom had seen none of it during his short stay at the estate in Yorkshire.
If I know you, my son, you think that I err, and you could be correct. But a mother has to have hope that all of her children can be good people. You, Thomas, are the best of people. You are loyal, and I know that you will care for all of those dependant on your estates in Hertfordshire.
Always remember that although you were born with the name Rhys-Davies, you are also a Bennet.
Our line ended with the death of my father, but it was an honourable name with a rich history.
The earldom became defunct with my Papa’s passing.
It is a great pity that you are not allowed to inherit the title.
I see so many characteristics of my father in you that in my mind the name Bennet lives on, regardless of what your last name is.
Marry for love, my son, and do not allow your father to try to dictate your choice of bride. His pride is such that regardless of how estranged you are from him he will feel that he has the right to approve of or deny your choice of wife and force his will on you.
I charge you to pay him no heed, and although it seems that Amelia is lost in a terrible arranged marriage, I beseech you to protect your baby sister.
With all my love,
Your Mother,
ER-D
December 1666
Tom Rhys-Davies had recently completed the year of mourning for his mother.
Then, as he had promised himself, he made the journey from Longbourn to Ashford Dale to propose to Miss Karen Jamison, the woman who possessed his heart.
The fact that Hastings, who was as close as any brother of the blood could be to Tom, would be his brother in fact, was an added bonus.
On his arrival at the Jamison’s estate, he requested to see the master.
The manservant who doubled as a butler showed him to the master’s study.
Tom, who did not believe in platitudes, got directly to the point.
“Mr. Jamison, I request your permission to have a private audience with Miss Jamison,” Tom words were more statement than request, which made Karen’s father smile.
“Let me summon her for you, Tom. And, if she accepts you, I will be proud to call you son,” Mr. Jamison said as he rang for his man.
Karen arrived, and Mr. Jamison kissed his daughter on the forehead on the way out of his study, partially closing the door. “Hello Tom,” Karen welcomed him warmly, but Tom, more focused on her eyes than her words, was relieved to see the look of love directed at him.
Tom dropped to one knee and took Karen’s hands.
“As I promised, I came here as soon as I was able. I am but two and twenty but waiting the whole of a second lifetime would not change the fact that you are the only one that I would ever desire as my partner in life, Karen. I have declared my love for you before, and I reiterate it now. You are the only one that I will ever love as a wife, and I ask for your hand in marriage as I hope to give you mine. Karen Jane Jamison, will you fulfil my heart’s desire and agree to be my wife? ”
“Yes, Tom, yes. Yes. I will marry you. You are the only man that I would ever agree to marry,” Karen averred.
A minute later, Mr. Jamison returned and did not have to ask her response, just as he had not needed to ask what Tom would say to his daughter.
He gave his consent and blessing as he shook Tom’s hand.
Tom had brought a draft settlement with him, and Karen’s father was shocked when he saw Tom’s true wealth enumerated.
Tom was settling five and twenty thousand on his daughter who only had a dowry of two thousand pounds!
The settlements were signed as Mr. Jamison could see nothing that needed amending, and he shared the good news with his wife and son, who were waiting for his pronouncement in the parlour of the small manor house.
Hastings gave his best friend a bear hug, administering a friendly warning to never make his sister unhappy.