Chapter 11
Now that she and the family were aware of her true birthday, she would be sixteen in two days. There was a bonus! Elizabeth and Georgiana shared a birthday, so they would have a joint celebration at Pemberley.
Elizabeth smiled as she thought about how reluctant her birth brothers William and James had been to return to their respective schools.
The two had departed to Cambridge and Eton, the day after their sister’s wedding to Perry in January, which was also the day her sister Anne had become betrothed to Ian Ashby.
Anne was now a married woman, for less than a month.
As it was still cold in the north, she and her new husband Ian had gratefully accepted Uncle George and Aunt Anne’s offer to honeymoon at Seaview Cottage.
They would make time to visit Lake View House when it was warmer.
Elizabeth and Georgie had both stood up for Anne, while Ian’s brother had done the honours for him, having returned in time for the wedding, from his own wedding trip.
Thoughts of wedding trips made her think of Jane.
In one of the few letters that had arrived, Jane had gushed about how they were on Perry’s private ship and were making a tour of the Mediterranean Coast, except France, where the great terror still gripped that country.
In the same letter, the new Duchess had told her sister and asked her to pass on to her brothers, sisters, and cousins, that all gifts she purchased for her family on her wedding trip would be presented to them when she and Perry returned from their wedding trip.
Jane had also written that she hoped they might return before the family all met up with the newlywed Ashbys at Rosings in April for Easter.
There was a positive result when Anne and Ian departed on their trip. The Earl of Ashbury allowed his daughter Amy, who was fifteen, to accept an invitation to stay with her new sister-in-law until the families all met in Kent for Easter.
Andrew and Marie were blissfully happy. The only thing that marred Marie’s happiness somewhat was that she was not increasing yet.
Her mother, who was with them at Snowhaven keeping Elaine company, had urged her not to be concerned, telling her daughter that she had been wed four years before she was with child with Perry, and Mother Elaine had shared that it had been more than three years for her.
It was four months to their fourth anniversary and Marie prayed that it would not be too much longer before she began to increase.
Elizabeth missed her cousin Will and was expecting his arrival in time for the joint birthday at his home.
They had written and discussed books via the post, but it was just not the same as being in each other’s company.
Elizabeth had no wish to deny that she was hopelessly in love with her cousin, but she was unsure of his feelings and understood that she should not try to ascertain his feelings until she was out—which was still two long years from now.
Elizabeth was aware that Wes De Melville, Viscount Westmore, seemed to have tender feelings for her based on the attention he paid her.
He always stayed within the bounds of propriety, but she was not blind.
What she did not know was that she was only blind when it came to knowing how her cousin Will felt about her.
She liked Wes, but as a friend and nothing more.
If she had shared her feelings with Mrs Annesley, she might have had it pointed out to her, just how unobservant she was to her cousin’s feelings for her.
The Bennets were enjoying their time at Snowhaven immensely.
Bennet did spend time in the large library, but the most pleasure that he derived was furthering his knowledge of his daughter’s life over the last fifteen years.
The more he learned, the more certain he was that she had been discovered and adopted by the perfect family.
Even though he had never met Lizzy’s Papa in person, he could feel the late Earl’s presence in the home.
Each day that they spent together brought the family closer. As Bennet was sitting in the library, he could not but remember the first visit of a sennight’s length that the Snowhaven party had spent at Pemberley in early February.
George Darcy had purposely not mentioned the library for the first few hours after the Bennets and Fitzwilliams had changed and joined the family in the drawing room.
It was not too long before Georgiana and Alex led their cousins outdoors, once they bundled up, to go look at the horses in the Darcy stables with Biggs, Johns, and Mrs Annesley not far behind.
Right on cue, Lady Anne Darcy invited Tammy and Bennet to join her and her housekeeper, Mrs Reynolds, for a tour of the house.
George could not miss Bennet’s look of disappointment of there being no mention of the library.
Bennet did not know it, but that was where the tour would terminate.
George Darcy was waiting for the Bennets in front of double doors as his wife excused her housekeeper.
“I thought I would join you for the last part of the tour,” George built his friend’s suspense. He decided it was enough and he and his wife each pulled a door open and watched him, certain few would ever get the chance to see such an unguarded reaction from Mr Thomas Bennet.
As Bennet stepped into the room, he thought he had died and entered Nirvana. The smell of leather filled his lungs as his eyes tried to take in the sheer number of tomes!
The library was immense! The bottom level was larger than the largest ballroom Bennet had seen, and there were two more levels above it!
There were four spiral staircases that allowed one to gain access between them, and the upper two floors had a wide companionway, so one could peruse the books.
The books and items of wonder were stacked floor to ceiling on all three levels, so each section had a ladder on rollers to reach the upper shelves.
Throughout the space were tables and comfortable leather armchairs. Bennet surmised that if had he ten lifetimes, he would not be able to read half of the books arrayed before him. “The descriptions that I had heard hardly did the reality justice, Darcy,” he stated in awe.
“We do have a slight advantage over most,” George admitted, “When my first ancestor, Pierre D’Arcy, was awarded Pemberley by William the Conqueror, he had a large collection in French; you see them in the glass cases,” George pointed out.
“The reverence for the written word started with him, and every subsequent master over many generations added to the collection, this one included, and thus we have arrived at the point that you behold before us.”
“Thomas, are we going to see you while we are at Pemberley?” Tammy asked only half in jest.
“That all depends on whether the Darcys are willing to supply me with a bed in this incredible library of theirs,” Bennet re-joined.
He did spend time in the library alone, but not at the exclusion of activities with the family.
A good few hours were spent in the library with Lizzy, and it is there they started debating books, bringing them even closer than they already were becoming.
Bennet grinned as he remembered how his friend had made him wait to see the room he wanted to see above all others. He had to think of a way to return the favour. He did not have an idea yet, but he knew one would come, given enough time.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Greg Jones had done as his secret employer had asked.
He had kept his nose clean and out of trouble, save the one time in Kympton when his friend John Branch had saved his hide.
During one of the Fitzwilliams and Bennets visits to the estate, Jones received a note from his ‘brother’ to meet him in the tavern in Kympton.
Jones had forgotten that he had told Branch almost a year earlier that he had no living family, so when he told his friend that he was going to request some time off from the stable master to meet his brother, Branch’s suspicions were immediately raised.
Employing the skills he had learnt in the army, Branch followed Jones discreetly. After Jones entered the Galloping Stallion Inn in Kympton, he waited a minute and then followed his quarry. He saw Jones sit in a booth. The next one was empty, so Branch slid into it.
“Ya were not followed, were ya?” the man Jones was meeting asked. This unknown person was eventually discovered to be one of Mrs Fitzpatrick’s footmen.
“Nah, no one suspe’ts nothin’,” Jones returned confidently.
“Ya bin’ there for a long time; she wants you to start gatherin’ informat’n about the family’s movements, ‘specially when both Darcys and Fitzwilliams be travlin’ together,” his contact relayed the instructions.
“That be easy fir me ta get,” Jones boasted, “I be friends wif a man ‘oo be an assistant to the driver o’ the Darcy’s coach!”
“I am to return every fortnight. There be a big chestnut tree on t’e green.
On t’e one side there be a knot’ole wif a piece o’ wood that ‘ides it. Put notes in there fir me.” The man started to get up, Branch made like he was asleep with a half-finished tankard of ale in his hand in case the man saw him.
He did not, and as Jones remained to finish his ale, Branch took the opportunity to slip out of the inn, after which he saw the contact mount his horse and take off towards the south.
Branch made haste back to Pemberley. He needed to see the master.