Chapter 28

Late February 1812

M ary had gone from counting weeks, to days, and finally to hours until her Richard was expected to arrive. Hence when the sounds of carriages in the drive were heard, she sat up extra straight while fighting her urge to spring up and run to the front door and into the drive. The unseasonably frigid temperatures at the end of February would not have discouraged her, but she held by propriety.

Elizabeth was seated on a settee with Jane and Charles—the latter two had returned from their honeymoon a fortnight earlier and were very comfortable at Purvis Lodge—and as much as she wanted to tease Mary about the obvious anticipation, she could not. Although she was not ready to jump up out of her seat, the weeks since she had seen Mr Darcy had certainly made the heart grow fonder. Unfortunately, unlike Mary and Richard could do, she could not write to the man with whom she was fast falling in love.

Bennet and Fanny were seated next to each other in arm chairs placed close together. As he also expected the arrivals were Fitzwilliam and the Darcys, he did not pay much attention to the door when it was opened. His senses were heightened when he heard Fanny gasp next to him.

The three sisters who were in the drawing room were amazed to see a man who looked very much like a younger version of their father.

“Is that the way you greet a brother you have not seen for longer than a quarter of a century,” James boomed.

It took a moment for the shock to wear off as Bennet regained control of his legs. He surged to a standing position. “James!” he exclaimed before meeting his brother in the middle of the room.

The men clasped onto one another to make sure neither of them were dreaming as tears fell unashamedly from the brothers’ eyes. They did not release the grip on each other for some minutes. “How is it you are arrived sooner than you estimated?” Bennet inquired as soon as he took a step back from his younger brother. It was then he saw the three younger persons standing in the doorway smiling at the tableau before them. “James, I assume this is Henry,” Bennet inclined his head to the tallest of the three who looked like a younger version of James and himself. Henry nodded. “That must be Maria,” Bennet looked at the girl who had some similarities in her looks to Lizzy, but was taller than his second daughter. “That must make you Abraham the Adventurer,” Thomas quipped.

“You are all so very welcome, but where are the rest of your party?” Fanny gushed. “Oh but first, I am your Aunt Fanny, your cousins who are present are Jane, who is married to Charles Bingley, the man next to her, Lizzy, and Mary, who will be married in three days.” Each person smiled as their names were mentioned. “The youngest two, Catherine and Lydia are at their lessons, but we will summon them to meet you.”

James was relieved to see from the welcome that what Thomas had written about he and Fanny having forgiven him, were not just words on a page. The warmth exuded showed genuine pleasure that he and his family had arrived. “As to why, Abe healed far quicker than the medical men had thought he would. He still needs to build more strength in his legs, but aside from a limp, he is able to move on his two legs without assistance. The how is…” He related what the Duke of Bedford had done and that they had arrived in London only the previous afternoon, too late to set out for Longbourn. “Thanks to very favourable winds, we reached London a few days earlier than Captain Hillard had estimated. At first light, we departed one of the Duke’s houses, which was made available to us, and now we are here. The Freemans and the two small men who travelled with us are in the coaches, we did not want to overwhelm you. I will set them up at the inn until we are able to move into Netherfield Park…”

“You may move in today,” Bingley reported. He explained how he had taken the lease on another estate so Netherfield Park could be ready for the Bennets whenever they arrived.

“In that case, I will request that the coachmen convey us to the estate…” James began to say.

“We have only just got you back and met your children. If it is all the same to you, we would like you to remain. I believe there is a little about which we need to speak, and the cousins need to become acquainted,” Bennet suggested.

James looked at his sister-in-law. “As long as it is not an imposition, we would like to remain,” he accepted.

“This is the house in which you were born; you and your family are always welcome here,” Fanny insisted.

Before anyone could speak, Mrs Doubtfire shepherded Catherine and Lydia into the drawing room, and Fanny introduced her two youngest to their uncle and cousins.

“Do we need to return to our lessons right away?” Catherine asked as she looked from her mother to their companion.

Fanny looked at her friend who nodded her head. “I think we can forgo lessons for today. It is not every day an uncle and cousins you have never met arrive,” she granted.

“Excuse me while I go speak to the coachmen and give them directions to Netherfield Park,” James stated before making his way out of the drawing room.

Abe was soon speaking to Catherine and Lydia in one corner answering myriad questions about where he had lived, the voyage, and of course how he had been injured.

Henry and Maria joined their older cousins and went about the business of coming to know one another.

Fanny watched the scene before her with great pleasure. The breaking of the entail was of course a positive, but much more important was that the hole which had been created in her Thomas’s heart the day James took flight was now well and truly filled.

When his brother returned, Bennet stood. “Brother, will you join me in the study?” Bennet requested.

“Of course,” James replied and then followed Thomas.

It was a very strange sensation for James when he entered the study. The last time he had been within, his late father had sat behind the desk. Now it was his brother’s study. He stopped the train of thought before he began to chastise himself for his impetuous actions then. There was no way to go back and change the selfish decision he had made all those years ago, so there was no point in dwelling on it. Rather than sit behind the desk, Thomas took one of the two armchairs before it.

“That buffoon of a cousin of ours will not be happy when he receives the letter I need to write,” Bennet mused, “but it needs to be done, and I will do so after we speak.”

“I know father and our ancestors will be well pleased Longbourn will never become the property of a Collins,” James stated. “As far as the breaking of the entail goes, I do have one stipulation. It is one I thought of after you mentioned how you would be sanguine with Abe becoming master here as it would continue the Bennet name at Longbourn.”

“Go ahead.” For an instant Bennet had thought his brother wanted to have the estate for Abraham, but then he replayed the words over in his mind.

“Like you, I want the Bennet name to endure at Longbourn. I ask you to do something I also will institute in my own will regarding Netherfield Park. In your case, as you have only daughters, would a clause in your will that Longbourn can only be passed on to one of your daughters if her husband takes the Bennet name be fitting?”

“I had already made plans to meet with Phillips to create a new entail. You remember him as the late Hattie’s husband.” James nodded that he did. “What it will state is that parts of the estate can never be sold off, and the only ones who can inherit, regardless of their sex, must be a direct descendant of either mine or yours. I have no objection to adding the stipulation regarding preserving the Bennet name with the estate.”

“In that case as soon as we are settled, I will go see Phillips to have a will drawn up for myself, and I will use the template you outlined for an entail on Netherfield Park. Now Thomas, I mentioned in my letter that I am well off, so if you will not allow me to assist with the estate, then surely you will not bar me from adding to my unmarried nieces’ dowries.” The last thing James expected was his brother to let out a bark of laughter.

“Do not look aggrieved, Brother. There was more than just the estate and who it would belong to, of which you and I were not aware. Were you aware Grandmama Clarissa and mother both had sizable dowries?”

“Vaguely”

“Your namesake and Mother…” Bennet related that which had been told to him all those months ago which had been the impetus for him to take charge of his and his family’s life. He did not gloss over his prior failings as a husband and father, or his former propensity to hide from his duties in his study. The more he told, the more James’s eyes grew wider, and his eyebrows rose higher until they reached his hairline.

“It was my actions which drove you to behave as you did,” James lamented.

“Now that I look at it, I am able to admit that which I refused to do then. Every decision was mine, and I used you, the changes in Fanny, and the entail as excuses to hide from what I should have been doing,” Bennet acknowledged.

“Your daughters, my Maria, and Abe, have such fortunes,” James marvelled.

“With no thanks to myself. If it was not for the forethought of our grandfather and mother, my girls would have had a pittance. I had always counted on at least one son like all Bennets before me and since, as was granted you. I used that as a way to justify my not saving. Then when it became obvious Fanny would not be able to bear another child, the entail became my excuse for inaction. No James, it had nothing to do with you or any other. That thankfully is in the past. As soon as I was shocked out of my indolent state, I began to do what I should have done more than twenty years past. You say you have funds with you.” James nodded it was so. “I suggest you speak to Gardiner. He, Maddie, his wife, and their children will arrive on the morrow. He routinely more than doubles the returns of the funds.”

“I suspected Fanny’s brother would do well in trade. I will follow your suggestion and speak to him while he is here. One thing I would like to have you change is regarding the dowry for Maria. I had set aside ten thousand pounds each for her and Abe. I would like that money added to the total and then the new amount divided between your daughters, Maria, and Abe.”

“It will be by five as Jane’s dowry was released when she married. Mary is marrying in a few days as was mentioned, and her dowry is already listed in the settlements, so it cannot be changed. So you are not caught off guard, Mary’s fiancé, Richard Fitzwilliam, is Viscount Hilldale, heir to the Earl of Matlock. Also, even though Lizzy has not acknowledged it publicly, she is being unofficially courted by Fitzwilliam’s cousin, Darcy. He is the master of a massive estate in Derbyshire.”

“My sons and daughter will enjoy meeting their first noble. I told you what Maria asked before we decided to head for England, did I not?”

“You did. We may not be able to connect her with royalty, but an earl and countess will be a distinct possibility. Do you still enjoy port?” Bennet queried.

“Indeed, I do. What I found in the United States was nothing to what Father used to keep.” James took the glass his brother proffered and took a sip. It reminded him of the first time his father had offered him his first sip of the dark red wine in this very study. “I can taste that you have continued to use the same supplier as Father.”

The brothers chatted and renewed their close relationship piece by piece.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

When Hilldale and the two Darcys were shown into the drawing room by Hill, Mary could no longer restrain herself and threw herself into her betrothed’s arms.

“I missed you as much, if not more, my darling girl,” Richard said softly close to his Mary’s ear. It was then he looked around and saw the unfamiliar faces who bore a resemblance to various Bennets he was familiar with.

Darcy felt his heart skip a beat when he entered the room with Giana on his arm and on seeing him, Miss Elizabeth’s…no, Miss Bennet’s whole countenance lit up with pleasure. Could it be that she harboured tender feelings for him? He felt Giana tense up as there were people she had never met in the room, persons he assumed were the long lost American Bennets.

“Richard, may I introduce you and the Darcys to our cousins? You will have to wait to meet Uncle James who is in the study with Papa.” Hilldale nodded and Mary performed the honours.

Seeing Giana was uncomfortable meeting new people, Elizabeth stood and after accidentally brushing Mr Darcy’s arm, led Giana to the settee where she had been sitting with Maria and Henry. When they sat, Giana was between Elizabeth and Henry.

For the first time, Giana looked at the man sitting next to her and when she saw how tall and handsome he was, she blushed furiously. It did not take her long to discover the Bennet cousins were as welcoming of her as the five Bennet sisters had been. It took only a few minutes before she was speaking and contributing when needed.

There was no question in his mind Miss Bennet had intended to make contact with his arm, and that sent a frisson of pleasure coursing through his body. As much as he wanted to speak to her this very instant, Darcy knew he could not be so selfish and attempt to commandeer her attention when she was getting to know the cousins she had just met.

Before long, James entered the drawing room, and Fanny made the needed introductions. When he noticed his sister-in-law looking for her husband, James related he was writing a letter to Hunsford.

Fanny excused herself after making sure James was speaking to Mr Darcy, and joined her husband in the study. “Your cousin will not be well pleased when he receives this letter, will he?” she asked a question to which she already knew the answer. “Charlotte was forewarned this was a very real possibility so I hope she does not regret her decision to tie her life to that of Mr Collins.”

“I had to write now. I prefer the simpleton see it in my own words, and not the letter I am sure Lady Lucas will write as soon as she learns of James’s return. I have a feeling Charlotte never informed her mother that my brother is the father of two sons,” Bennet responded after he returned his quill to the inkpot. “How are the cousins doing together?”

“From what I can see they are meshing together well. It is uncanny how much Henry looks like his father, who looks like you. Not to mention Maria and Lizzy,” Fanny reported.

“I should have expected James would not notify me they were able to leave Iceland sooner than expected. As a child he used to love surprising me and our parents. When he first entered, I saw that same mischievous grin he used to sport when succeeding to astound us in his younger years. I could not be happier to be reunited with my brother.”

“I can see that,” Fanny leaned over the chair and kissed her husband. “We will have to make more space at the table for four more. The Hursts will arrive an hour prior to dinner. Louisa needs more rest since she is with child.”

“This letter will be completed soon. As soon as it is, Hill will collect it to send it express. After all of that, I will rejoin you and the rest in the drawing room.” Bennet pulled his wife into a hug, and administered a languid kiss before she exited the study and he returned to the letter he was writing.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

To give the new cousins an opportunity to see a little more of Longbourn, after everyone donned their outerwear, Elizabeth, on Darcy’s arm, led the cousins, Giana, Catherine, and Lydia into the park. The two young couples, one married and the other soon to be so, chose to remain indoors in company with their respective partners.

They made a quick circuit of the gardens and at Abe’s request, Elizabeth led them to the stables. She understood Abe was not allowed to ride yet, but he was in anticipation of his return to the saddle.

While the rest looked into each of the stalls in the stables, Darcy remained with the lady he loved. He took a deep breath. “Miss Bennet, if you are agreeable, and I receive your father’s permission, I request a private interview with you in the morning. However, if you do not desire to hear what I have to say, tell me now and I will remain silent on the subject.”

Elizabeth’s cheeks took on a deep pink hue as she felt the heat rise in them regardless of the chill in the air. “Indeed, there is nothing you could say to me that I would not want to hear,” she stated forwardly.

His whole countenance lit up and his face-splitting smile brought both of his dimples into prominence. “In that case, when we return indoors I will see your father for permission to address you. I will be counting the minutes until then. Miss Bennet, your answer has made me a very happy man.”

She finally knew she was in love with Mr Darcy, and he and no other would ever suit her as a husband. Elizabeth cared not how they had arrived at this point given their overly rocky beginning; all that was important is that they had reached it.