Prologue - The History #4
The next day when it was reported that her bed had not been slept in, and her governess' as well, the Duke authorised a half-hearted search. When no trace of the two was found and with the maid reporting that the young lady’s things were all in her chambers, the Duke assumed that she had been taken by brigands.
As money was his true god, he determined to pay no ransom should a demand be received and actually considered himself lucky, as he would keep her dowry of five and twenty thousand.
Seeing his father’s lack of care for his sister’s welfare, Sed questioned his father’s character for the first time, as Elizabeth had never done any harm to anyone.
After hearing that he would gain her dowry in his coffers, the feeling passed as he considered the sum of all that he would inherit one day.
On his father’s orders, he was not informed that his brother had been at the estate.
The Duke instead stated that his brother had chosen to break with the family, and that they were all better off because of it.
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Two days later, Tom Bennet’s carriage arrived at Lindenbury.
The occupants of the carriage could not miss the black cloth wrapped around the gate posts.
When they approached the manor house, it was a smoking hulk.
The steward informed them that a fire had started in the master suite at some point the previous evening and neither the Earl nor the Countess had survived.
The servants had all made it out alive, but for some unfathomable reason, the doors to the master suite had been locked from within.
Their hearts heavy with sadness, brother and sister departed the estate. They surmised that Amelia had decided to end her suffering and had chosen to join their beloved mother in heaven rather than be tied to such a man.
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April 1667
Tom and Karen Bennet were married after the Bennets observed a three-month mourning period for Amelia.
They determined that they would not let anyone know of their true wealth.
They lived in a quiet community and were determined not to stand out in the shire.
As they had children—Tom Junior, then Esther, Jane, and Elizabeth--their son’s inheritances and their daughters’ true dowries were kept secret.
Most of their fortune was invested, and Netherfield Park was leased out through an agent, a solicitor named Henry Gardiner, with clear instructions that the name of its owner must never be revealed to tenants.
Beth Bennet decided, after her sister’s experience, that she would not marry.
Her governess became her companion and she settled into a quiet, happy life as a spinster aunt to her nephew and nieces.
By mutual agreement, the connection to the Duke of Bedford was never discussed among Tom, Karen, and Beth, or any of the Jamisons who were aware of it.
The Bennet children grew up never knowing of the connection.
With Karen’s whole-hearted endorsement, Tom placed an entail on all of his properties so that they could never be broken up or sold off and could only be inherited by direct descendants of himself and Karen Bennet.
The old Duke died of an apoplexy in 1669 and Sed became the fourth Duke of Bedford.
He never attempted to contact Tom, in part ashamed of his behaviour toward his brother, as he had come to see the ill-will in his father’s teachings over the years.
He also felt that he needed to respect Tom’s decision to break with the family, as he believed his father’s assertions that it had been his brother’s choice.
Years later, when his own son was an adult, Sed found an old trunk buried deep within the attic.
Upon opening it, he discovered all of the letters that he, Thomas, and his mother had written to one another which his father had intercepted.
He knew Tom had taken on their late grandfather’s name, so a night after its discovery, Sed sat and wrote a long and detailed letter about the truth of his family and what his father had done to destroy it.
On the outside he wrote ‘Only to be opened if there is no Rhys-Davies heir to the Dukedom.’ The Duke informed his son of the letter and charged him to inform his wife and son of its existence and that each heir and his spouse should be told the letter existed, but that it should not be opened unless the worst happened and there was no Rhys-Davies heir.
Once the current generation of Bennets and Jamisons passed away, there would be no one left that knew of the connection to the Rhys-Davies.
In 1724, the late Tom’s son, Tom Junior, was approached by the Grosvenors about the five acres that had been won by the late Earl of Meryton, as they wanted to develop some land and build townhouses.
Rather than sell, Tom Bennet stated that in return for two townhouses, he would give the land over to the project.
After the contracts were signed, the building of what would become known as Grosvenor Square began.
For almost one hundred and fifty years, generations of Bennets and Rhys-Davies lived their separate lives never knowing of the connection between them.