Chapter 9 #2
“No, Andrew, I do not want to change my mind. I believe it will be good for me to hear from Mr Lucas in person; besides all of you,” she looked to her family, “will remain here with me to draw strength from, if needed.”
“If that is your decision, we will have him summoned.” Andrew nodded once at the door. Biggs, who had been standing station in the hall, was asked to bring the young man in the office to the parlour in five minutes.
Elizabeth was seated on a settee with her mother on one side and Andrew on the other. Father Bennet was next to his wife standing behind Elizabeth. The rest of the family sat on either side of her in a wall of protection. At the appointed time, Biggs showed Franklin into the parlour.
“Lady Elizabeth, I thank you for your condescension in agreeing to hear my apology today.” He said without hesitation and Elizabeth gave a slight nod of her head.
“There is no reason nor excuse for my intended behaviour towards you. It was abhorrent, and I swear that I will never behave in such a fashion again, your Ladyship.” Franklin made the right decision in not trying to offer justifications for his unjustifiable behaviour.
“If I may, I believe I owe your cousin, Miss Bennet, an apology as well.
“Jane is not my cousin, she is my sister,” Elizabeth stated in a clear voice.
“Miss Bennet, I lied to you at your coming out ball. I did resent your choice, though, for all of the wrong reasons. I was trying to fix my own problems in the wrong way, I should never have tried to use either you or Lady Elizabeth to do so.” Franklin held his breath as he waited for the responses.
“For myself, it is easy to forgive you, Mr Lucas,” Jane told him.
“However, if you had hurt my sister Elizabeth after all that she has endured, I would have never been able to grant you forgiveness. I hope that you are able to move forward and be satisfied with your life, and one day find a lady you love absolutely and who loves you in return.” Franklin inclined his head in thanks.
“I find that your contrition is real and accept your apology. I am not ready to be in conversation with you socially, so I request that unless and until you are informed by my brother or Father Bennet, when we are at the same event that you do not approach me,” Elizabeth stated.
“If it will be easier for you, as I told the Earl, I will absent myself from any event that we would attend in common,” Franklin informed her.
“That will not be necessary so long as you honour my wishes,” she replied with a little bit of warmth in her voice. Franklin bowed to the occupants of the parlour, wished them a good day, and made his exit.
“Someone had better inform Richard, I am sure he is plotting Mr Lucas’s demise even as we speak,” Will said with a grin.
“I will write to Itch,” Elizabeth volunteered. “He should hear from me that I am well and have accepted the man’s apology.”
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The next day, when Richard returned to his quarters, there was a letter waiting for him in Lizzy’s hand.
He opened it and read it, then reread it to make sure that he had understood the contents.
Andrew and Will had both added pages to assure him that all was well, and that Lucas had been sincere.
He knew that Lizzy, Andrew, and Will were all good judges of character, so he moved Franklin Lucas from the “may need to be killed’ list to the ‘needs to be watched’ list.
Richard would do anything for his sister’s protection.
Elizabeth was too important to their family for him to ever allow any to harm her.
He knew that George Wickham and his insane Aunt Catherine were still out there somewhere though, and he was in no way deluded that they had disappeared or left England.
He was sure that at some point there would be a confrontation between the family and one or both of them.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Ian Ashby arrived at Longbourn before midday on the day he was expected.
He was extremely impressed by what he had seen of the estate so far, as it looked like it exceeded his father’s estate of Ashbury.
It was certainly bigger than his brother Stephen’s estate of Amberleigh.
Ian knew that Lady Elizabeth and his sister Amy were close, though unfortunately, she had not been able to join her brother on his trip to Longbourn as she was visiting a common friend of Lady Elizabeth’s, Lady Loretta De Melville.
He was shown up to his chambers, two floors above the family floor and next door to the Duke of Bedford’s chambers.
After washing, he joined the residents in the largest drawing room prior to lunch.
It did not take long for him to find Anne and for them to find seats away from the others so that they could talk while her companion, Mrs Jenkinson, kept an eye on her charge.
“Anne, I missed you so much,” Ian told her softly.
“As I did you, Ian,” Anne responded with pleasure.
“Please tell me that you do not require a long courtship. It has been a good number of years since I have known that I love you,” he revealed.
“It is the same for me, Ian. I thought that the fates were conspiring against us each time something happened to defer my entering society. I just knew that we would not be kept apart for too long,” Anne replied as she caused herself to blush at her forwardness.
“May I have a private audience with you on the morrow please, Anne?” he asked hopefully.
“Yes, Ian, you most certainly may, so long as you request permission to do so from Andrew prior.” She reminded him, ensuring there would not be the minutes’ delay needed after they talked.
“Then I will speak to him after the meal.” As if Ashby conjured the time, the butler announced that luncheon was ready.
Ashby and Anne sat next to one another and spoke between bites during the meal.
At the end of the meal, Ashby was about to ask his friend for an audience when the butler announced that a courier had arrived and wished to see the Duke of Bedford.
Perry had a knowing look on his face as he went to meet the courier. He returned a few minutes later and there was a bulge in his jacket pocket. “Bennet, may I have a few minutes with my betrothed?” Perry requested.
“No more than ten minutes in my study, and the door remains half-open,” Bennet allowed.
“You have already proposed, Perry, so what is this interview about?” Jane asked curiously once they reached the study.
“When I proposed, I did not have this as it was at Longfield; and then I had to wait while it was made smaller for you, my love,” Perry was holding a velvet-covered box in his hand.
He opened it to reveal a stunning ring. It had a large sapphire in the centre which was surrounded by diamonds, none of them small, all set in what looked to Jane as if it were silver.
“It is not silver, my Jane; it is platinum, which like you is very rare and precious.” Perry slipped the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand, and it fit her perfectly.
“You did not have to spend so much money on me,” Jane said, while admiring her ring.
“I did not buy it for you, Jane, although I would buy you anything you desire. This ring was my paternal grandmother’s engagement ring.
Mother used the one from her mother so this one had just been gathering dust until you came into my life, and I knew that you were the one for me,” he corrected her.
“But it fits perfectly, how did you know my size?” she puzzled.
“I had help from your mother. She measured one of your rings and supplied the size to me so I could have it ready for you. Unfortunately, it took longer than I would have liked to arrive in Town and then it still needed to have the size adjusted. It seems Grandmother Pearl had much larger fingers than yours.” Perry drew his betrothed to himself and they used their remaining time wisely with their lips locked in a battle of which neither kept score.
On their return to the drawing room there were many exclamations over Jane’s ring. Even though she was tempted, Elizabeth refrained from mentioning her sister’s swollen lips and the matching set on her brother-in-law.
Ian managed to get Andrew on his own and requested that they be allowed to talk in private.
After a request to Uncle Thomas, Andrew led Ashby to the study.
“Let me save you some time,” Andrew cut Ashby off before he could make his request. “You want to ask my sister Anne for her hand?” Ashby nodded.
“I have no objection to you marrying Anne, but there is one issue. It has only been a few weeks of courtship. If you had requested a betrothal right away, this conversation would be moot.”
“I was not sure about Anne’s opinion on the subject,” Ashby explained.
“Now you are?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, completely,” Ian confirmed.
“It is too close to the date that I granted a courtship,” Seeing Ashby was about to argue, Andrew lifted his hand. “That being said, I require you to wait until after Jane and Perry’s wedding. In that case, you have my permission to approach her on the day after the wedding.”
“It is less than six weeks; I believe we will survive,” Ashby responded.
“You had better!” Andrew warned. “I assume you will not want a long betrothal?” Ashby nodded his head. “I will grant a minimum of three weeks.”
Ian thanked his friend and returned to share the information with Anne.
She would have preferred not to wait, but she agreed that the time that Andrew demanded was not without consideration.
It was even generous, considering they had only enjoyed a few weeks of courtship, with only a few days of it in common.