Chapter 11 #2
Jane’s parents had recently sat her down and asked her if she wanted to go to a seminary like Louisa and that Caroline was to attend.
Jane had informed her parents that she was happy to continue the lessons with Miss Jones and the masters that were brought to Longbourn, and that she saw no reason to go to a seminary to learn what she could at home.
When her parents pointed out that she would meet many new girls, Jane simply said that she was not deficient in friends and believed that quality trumped quantity.
Her parents were happy with her well-reasoned answers and accepted her choice without regret.
For Jane’s part, she had heard the stories of the viscious young ladies that attended seminaries from some of the gatherings she had attended with her aunt.
That information, added to the knowledge that the Bingley girls seemed to relish that environment, further convinced her that it was not for her.
After she broke her fast, one of the Longbourn grooms took Jane in a gig to collect her cousin Franny in Meryton, and then they made their way to the Long estate, Longmeadow.
As was the norm, Mrs Long met the gig. Her daughters, dressed in mourning, were next to her waiting in anticipation for Jane to arrive.
A picnic was planned for that day and Mrs Long asked the three younger girls to walk to the blanket and pillows that was set up for them near the benches under the old oak tree in the centre of the park.
As Jane made to follow, Mrs Long stayed her progress as she put her hand on Jane’s arm.
“You have no idea how much my husband and I appreciate the selfless way that you have dedicated yourself to helping my daughters grieve the loss of their parents,” she said to Jane with the thanks honestly offered in both look and expression.
“It is my honour to help them, Mrs Long,” Jane said, “I remember how all of our friends wanted to help us after Lizzy was taken.” Her voice waivered as it was still hard for Jane to talk about her younger sister.
Mrs Long felt herself flame with embarrassment as she remembered how she used to be, that she was among those who had done nothing more than offer perfunctory platitudes. “My prayer is that your sister is somewhere in the world and is loved and cared for,” she said sincerely.
“That too is my prayer,” Jane said. She was afraid that she had begun to forget Lizzy, how she looked, what she sounded like.
It had been six years. What did her sister look like now?
Was she in fact well? When she had told her papa that she could not remember what Lizzy looked like, he told her to look at the portrait of his late mother, as in his opinion Grandma Elizabeth looked like Lizzy would when she grew up.
Mrs Long walked with Jane towards the three girls sitting and chattering among themselves and a servant soon brought a tray with their repast. Jane closed her eyes and repeated her private and nightly prayer to God in Heaven: ‘Please, God, make sure that Lizzy is well loved and cared for and that I see her again one day.’
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
A ride in Hyde Park had been proposed in which the three older boys and three younger girls would take a ride along the Serpentine.
A very embarrassed Charles Bingley had admitted that although he had some lessons from the stable master at Netherfield Park, he was not a confident rider yet.
Richard and William worked with him each morning and soon Charles was over his aversion to horses.
He had not wanted to admit to his friends that he had been fearful of the animals and was well pleased he no longer was.
By the day of the proposed ride, anyone seeing Charles Bingley on the back of one of the Darcy cobs would not have suspected that he had not been riding for many years. The six riders were accompanied by both Biggs and Johns, as well as a footman-guard from Darcy House and a groom from each house.
Riding was one of the accomplishments that Anne de Bourgh had learnt and loved since she was freed from the oppressive control her mother tried to exert over her.
Like musical ability, Lady Catherine did not know how to ride, so she had decreed that her daughter should not partake in that pastime.
With Mrs Jenkinson’s arrival that had changed, and it had most especially changed since she had become part of Uncle Reggie’s household.
After two hours of riding, the group returned along the Serpentine, exited the park, and headed to Gunter’s where they would meet the Darcy and Fitzwilliam parents with Alex, if he were awake.
Given her sweet tooth, Elizabeth was in her element at Gunter’s.
From the flavoured ices to the array of cookies and pastries, she would have had one of each if her mother had not restricted her to one ice and one cookie or pastry.
True to form she chose a chocolate cookie piled high with sticky sweet icing.
With the fame garnered by the Queens approbation, there were few members of the Ton who did not recognise Lady Elizabeth Fitzwilliam, and the object of the attention was amused.
In her mind, she did nothing exceptional, she was just being who she was as her family encouraged.
Everyone returned to Matlock House for a farewell dinner for the boys who would return to Eton in the morning.
Before dinner, Ladies Elaine and Anne were sitting on a settee while Lady Anne bounced a delighted Alex on her knee.
“You know Elaine,” Anne observed, “with all the attention that Lizzy receives, she is thankfully very unaffected.”
“I could not agree more, Anne,” Elaine replied.
“With her abilities she could have easily become spoilt, vain, and arrogant, but thankfully she is none of those things. She is so bubbly, happy, and humble it is often a wonder we are talking of the same daughter rather than two,” Elaine looked on her daughter with maternal pride.
“You do see that she does not realise she is anything out of the ordinary, do you not?”
“Did she say something?” Anne asked.
“Not directly,” Elaine said thoughtfully, “but I can tell from the unaffected way that she talks about herself. You never know what will be as she gets older, but I believe that this part of her character will not change.”
Anne nodded her head and then asked a difficult question that was on her mind.
“Now that Lizzy has become so well known,” she asked tentatively as Alex squirmed, placing him on his feet to make for his brother and sister sitting with the rest of the young people, “what will happen if her birth family hear of her and realise that she is the Lizzy that was taken from them?”
“Reggie and I have spoken of that eventuality many times,” Elaine said, as she felt her heart contract at the thought of ever losing Lizzy.
“If they can prove that they are indeed her parents, then we would relinquish her, of course. But no matter where she lives, she will always be my daughter,” Elaine said as a tear slid down her cheek.
“And I will not hesitate to ask that she be allowed to spend some of her year with us so that she can keep us close if she ever needs us. I at least have to ask and pray they see it is with the love of our daughter so they can allow it.”
The next morning, the Darcy carriage made the circuit around the square to load Richard’s trunk while the family wished their sons and young Master Bingley a good and safe trip back to Eton.
It was less than four hours, so the boys would be back at their house by the early afternoon.
The family stood outside until the carriage turned onto the road from Grosvenor Square.
As William sat with his eyes closed feigning sleep, he was deeply troubled by the attraction that he had begun to find for his Cousin Elizabeth.
‘She is but seven!’ He admonished himself.
It was not just that his cousin had accomplishments that most debutantes could not dream of having, but it was her mind that attracted him the most. He was fifteen now and had recently started to notice the fairer sex in ways that he had never before.
While some women drew his attention and made him want more base needs fulfilled, his time with Elizabeth was the opposite—free of all restraints one usually had when conversing, there was no fear that he was thinking too deep, that she would not challenge him on his stances and conjectures, and that she stimulated his mind.
The problem was that at the age of fifteen William could not separate his attraction to Lizzy’s mind from the bodily reaction that caused his member to take on a life of its own that he had started to have regarding some pretty maids.
In his mind they were one and the same, so it seemed perfectly logical to him that he should protect Lizzy from his attraction.
He had feelings that he did not understand, and William hated not being in full control or not having the answers.
‘It cannot be. I must fight this inappropriate attraction, Lizzy is just a silly little girl,’ he lied to himself.
‘I will have to keep my distance from her, and this aberration will pass!’ he said, trying to find a solution to the problem that he believed he was creating.
He felt better now that he had come to a decision.
He knew that he would have to be exceedingly careful because if he ever did anything to hurt their sister, he would have to answer to Andrew and Richard, and then the rest of the family, including his own parents.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Am I bad father because I do not think of Lizzy every day anymore?” Bennet asked his wife as they lay in bed one night in post-coital afterglow. Tammy slapped her husband’s arm playfully.
“Thomas Bennet,” she said as she made sure that she looked into his eyes.
“There is no better father than you. It has been over six years so it is only natural that you do not think of her all the time, but I am as certain of the fact that you will never forget her as I am of how deeply I love you.”
Bennet kissed his wife soundly. “Thank you, Tammy, you always know how to make me feel better,” he said lovingly.
“Is that not why you married me, silly man?” she asked as she teased him. “You always feel good to me,” Tammy added saucily.
“Marrying you was the best thing that I have ever done,” Bennet said as he feathered kisses down her neck.
“Thomas,” Tammy got his attention as she changed the subject, “are you disappointed that I never became with child again after Kitty and Tom?”
“How could I be? And you call me silly!” he punctuated with a kiss. “With Lizzy included we have seven children in the family. No, I am not sorry about not having more. As it is, besides Lizzy being taken from us, God has been exceptionally good to us.”
Tammy could not but agree with her husband and soon fell asleep in his arms, as she had every night since they had married.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Young George Wickham was getting more and more resentful. Here he was doing menial labour because his adoptive father now made him work for his allowance. He remembered the conversation they had had a few weeks prior.
“George, I need to talk to you,” the older Wickham stated after dinner one night. The younger man nodded sullenly and followed the older to the small parlour in the house and they both sat down.
“Yes, father,” the son said, even though he inwardly railed against calling this man such, for now he had no choice.
“You will soon be fourteen,” Mr Wickham pointed out, “a lot of boys of our station start working and contributing when they are ten or eleven.” Seeing his son about to object vociferously, he continued before he was interrupted.
“I never expected that of you and neither do I now. However, to learn some responsibility, from now on if you want your allowance you have to earn it by helping to work our small farm.”
George Wickham bristled at the mention of ‘station.’ He was supposed to receive a gentleman’s education, not deal with the swill of swine! When his real father returned from London, he would set Mr Wickham to rights!
“But William Darcy does not have to work for…” George started to say when his father cut him off.
“No matter what you tell yourself, you are not the same as the Darcys and you are not entitled to anything, and will you please get rid of that fool notion that you are Mr Darcy’s natural son.
YOU ARE NOT!” Mr Wickham, who generally did not raise his voice, did so now.
He was at his wit’s end as no matter how many times or who told him that what his mother told him was false, George had latched onto it as a starving cur would a bone.
As in the past, George did not hear that which was not part of the narrative in his head, so he decided that his father was jealous of his birth and connections so far above his own.
The adolescent determined that he could not live like this any longer, that he would need to act sooner rather than later so that he could start living as would befit a man of his status.