Chapter 5
A five-year-old Lady Elizabeth was pouting.
She could not understand why she could not ride Fairy just because of a light dusting of snow.
What Lizzy called ‘a light dusting of snow’ was in fact an almost four feet deep accumulation from an early December blizzard which had roared through Derbyshire and the surrounding counties.
It was Snowhaven’s turn to host the family for Christmastide this year.
Lizzy went to seek out her papa and found him in his study with Andrew and Richard who were home from school for the Christmastide break.
Both were now enrolled at Eton, the former in his final year before Cambridge while the latter was in his first year at the august institution of education.
“Papa, Gigi will be able to come see me, will she not?” Lizzy asked after running into the study without knocking.
She had decided that Georgie was too long a name for her baby cousin, so Lizzy had chosen to call her Gigi.
In the two and almost three-quarter years since Miss Darcy had been born, Lizzy had taken her duties of ‘much’ older cousin very seriously in her self-appointed role as childhood guide.
The truth was that from the time that Georgiana was able to walk, the two had been inseparable whenever the families were in each other’s company, which was fairly frequently.
“If, as I suspect, the roads are not clear for a carriage,” her father said, grinning at her downcast look when he mentioned the roads, “then Uncle George will use some of Pemberley’s sleighs so the ten miles between our estates will not be a problem.”
“As long as the snow is not too deep for the horses,” Richard, who was still called ‘Itch’ by his little sister sometimes, ever the practical one, clarified.
Before his sister could become sad again, Andrew threw his younger brother a look that said ‘be quiet’ and addressed his Lizzy.
“I do not believe it will snow again before the Darcys leave their estate on Friday, and with four days between then and now I am sure that they will arrive as scheduled and you will spend time with Gigi soon enough.” The three males were enchanted as Lizzy lit up with pleasure at Andrew’s reassurance.
It was hard not to join in her enthusiasm and joy when her whole countenance was as bright as the rising sun.
Elaine Fitzwilliam sat in her study going over the household accounts and as her thoughts often did, she could not help but think about the supreme feeling of pleasure that having Lizzy as a daughter had on her.
From time to time, much less now than the first two years, Elaine felt guilty about the family who had been deprived of the whirlwind that was her daughter.
All she could do was hope that somehow Lizzy’s birth family sensed that she was loved and cared for.
As she sat and ruminated, she could not but remember the first time that Lizzy had accompanied them to town for the season in February of that year.
Lizzy was most excited when they arrived at Matlock House on Grosvenor square.
She was so keen to explore the new house—or new to her—and the fact that Darcy House was just across the square did not hurt either.
She would be able to see cousins Will and Gigi as much as her heart desired.
If she had her way, she and Georgiana would sleep at each other’s houses for the length of the season.
It took all of five minutes for the housekeeper and butler to fall under Lady Elizabeth’s spell.
Mrs Kerry O’Grady and Mr Humphrey Thatcher were extremely loyal long-time employees.
The normally stoic butler could be seen cracking a smile at many of Lady Elizabeth’s antics; and the cook, Mrs Carlyle who was usually a no-nonsense person, was soon wrapped around the little miss’s finger and made sure that there was always some chocolate cake on hand.
Lady Elaine had been most amused as she and her sister-in-law Anne agreed that it seemed that the employees’ first loyalty now rested with Lizzy.
In London, William continued the practice the two had started almost a year prior, they would read the same book and then discuss their impressions.
It was both impressive and frustrating to him that he invariably lost an argument when it came to a quotation from a book.
No matter how long-ago Lizzy had read it, she could recall any quotation word-for-word.
Initially William had challenged his cousin’s recall and would search for passages only to discover that she was absolutely correct.
William, who was himself highly intelligent, could only imagine that the older his cousin got, the harder it would be to keep up with her intellectually.
He loved his cousin as well as he loved his own sister.
It was a week after arriving in Town that Lady Elaine was entertaining some of the leading matrons of the Ton with her sister Anne at Matlock House; her guests included the Almack’s patronesses: Lady Jersey, Countess de Lieven; Countess Esterhazy; and Lady Cowper.
Lady Rose Rhys-Davies, Duchess of Bedford, was also present.
The ladies were discussing the upcoming season when the whirlwind that was Lizzy blew into the drawing room.
She at least had the decency to blush when she saw that she was disturbing the ladies.
At first the patronesses and duchess could not understand why the child was not under the control of her governess until Lizzy opened her mouth to speak.
The ladies were impressed beyond anything that they had expected.
Here was a not yet five-year-old girl who sounded like one many times her age.
She spoke like a young lady, not as expected for one of her tender years.
When she happened to mention some of the books that she was reading, mouths hung open in a most unladylike fashion.
Lizzy mentioned that she had just completed ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, so the Duchess decided to play along and ask her opinion of the Bard’s work.
Not only were her opinions cogent, well formed, and backed by logic, but Lizzy could recite the noted passages flawlessly.
It was easy to see that the girl did not think that what she could do was anything special; it was just what she did.
Within five minutes the beautiful little girl had all of the great ladies of the Ton in her thrall, while Ladies Elaine and Anne looked on beaming with pride.
Lady Anne pointed toward the pianoforte in the corner.
“Will you play for us, Lizzy?” The girl curtsied and sat on the bench after her mother raised it for her.
With no music sheet provided, Lizzy lifted her hands and started to play a movement from ‘Lascia ch'io pianga’ from Handel’s Rinaldo.
Yes, there was a mistake here and there, but mainly due to the size of her hands and not being able to cover a complete octave with them, and of course her shorter legs could not reach the pedals.
When she was done there was silence until the Duchess led the applause which rose to a crescendo.
Within days of the visit, word about the prodigy that was Lady Elizabeth Fitzwilliam had spread through the Ton like wildfire.
There had been some hushed whispers of her merely being a foundling, but those were silenced as it became clear that the most powerful members of the Ton would not hear a bad word spoken about the young girl.
It was noted that Queen Charlotte had asked her cousin, the Duchess of Bedford, to arrange an audience for the Countess to bring her remarkable daughter to see her.
They had been in London for a month when Ladies Elaine and Anne heard about a wonderful store on Gracechurch Street near Cheapside that belonged to Gardiner and Associates.
One morning the two mothers took their daughters to peruse the wares and fabrics from all corners of the known world.
While they were shopping, they were introduced to the owner’s wife, a Mrs Gardiner who obviously was with child, and was looking for some fabric from India for her niece, Miss Jane Bennet.
What Lady Elaine could not know was that as the ladies spoke, Jane looked at the highborn girls, and when she looked at Lady Elizabeth a memory stirred that she could not place so she dismissed it to the back of her mind.
When Elizabeth looked at the ethereal-looking girl who was but two to three years older than herself, she thought that she looked similar to the girl that she used to see in her dreams. Before she could consider the meaning of her memory, Lizzy and Gigi were called by their mothers and told that it was time to return home.
The Countess was snapped out of her reverie when the subject of her thought burst into her study, assuring herself that Gigi would be arriving on Friday. ‘I have to teach my daughter to knock and wait for leave to enter,’ her mother reminded herself before giving her full attention to her daughter.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The almost two-and-a-half years since James’s birth had seen the Bennet family expand further.
A year after her confinement, Tammy Bennet was once again with child.
By the time she reached her seventh month, she was huge, far bigger than with her previous two confinements.
Mrs Ponsonby opined that the mistress of Longbourn was carrying twins, and Mr Jones did not gainsay her.