Page 2 of A Life Diverted
“Yes, her joy is obvious, and I am sure Wendell is no less happy,” Matlock replied.
“It should not be more than a fortnight before we are able to travel north. I agree, Anne, who very much would like a daughter, or even another son after all of her disappointments, will accept the role of additional godmother.” Matlock paused as he thought about something.
“Catherine will not love this news. Even though she has not presented de Bourgh with a son, she would always crow that Anne was the only girl in the family; not so any longer.”
“At least she has accepted that neither we nor the Darcys will betroth one of our sons to Anne. That is another reason she will not love the news of Ellie’s birth,” Lady Matlock opined. “Unlike Anne, Ellie will not be related to William by blood.”
Neither the Darcys nor the Fitzwilliams held that marriage between cousins was healthy, and especially not first cousins.
“True, but Anne and Robert will not engage William to anyone and take his choices away from him. That was one of the reasons they gave Catherine, in addition to William and Anne being close cousins,” Matlock returned. “I gave her the same reasons we would not allow Andrew to become betrothed now.”
“At least she receded without any unpleasantness. Marriage to Sir Lewis has softened her somewhat,” Lady Matlock stated.
That evening the Darcys joined the Fitzwilliams for dinner. It did not hurt that their houses in London were across the green in the centre of Grosvenor Square from one another, making calling on each other’s houses rather easy.
As expected, Lady Anne Darcy accepted the role of godmother to Ellie and promised to write to her friend as soon as she and her Robert returned home.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Dronfield was a town in the north-eastern part of Derbyshire.
It was an unremarkable market town, as many were, in the realm.
The oldest church in the parish was St John the Baptist’s Church.
The rector was one Thomas Bennet, the second son of James Bennet, the master of Longbourn.
Longbourn was near the market town of Meryton, in Hertfordshire.
Meryton was, in essentials, much the same as Dronfield.
His older brother Henry was the heir to the estate and worked hard with their father to improve Longbourn.
Henry had been too busy with his projects at Longbourn to think of marrying. He was two years older than Thomas, who was eight and twenty.
There was an entail to heirs male which would end with the generation after Henry and Thomas. As Bennets traditionally had sons, and more often than not, more than one, there was no concern that the Collins branch would inherit the Bennet estate.
Unlike his older brother, Thomas was married.
After graduating with a degree in theology from Cambridge, the younger Bennet son had served as a curate at the Longbourn village church.
Two years later, after he had taken holy orders, Thomas met Mr Elias Gardiner’s youngest daughter.
Mr Gardiner was Meryton’s only solicitor.
Her name was Frances Gardiner, but everyone called her Fanny. Her mother, Jane, had passed away when Fanny was five, so she had been raised by her father, older sister Hattie, who was ten years her senior, and her brother, Edward, who was five years older than her.
Even though she was not the most educated woman in the world, Thomas fell in love with her, and she with him.
Unlike many others, Fanny was open to being taught.
It helped that she had a reasonably quick wit and caught onto things rather fast. Also, it was not her fault she had grown up without a mother to superintend her education.
Even though her father was in trade, James and Beth—Elizabeth Rose—Bennet accepted their second son’s choice of bride when he told them he planned to offer for Fanny. They were happy one of their sons was interested in marrying.
Thomas and Fanny did not have many expenses, which enabled them to marry on a curate’s wages.
It did not hurt that Thomas had been gifted with a legacy of ten thousand pounds by his father when he graduated.
In addition, Fanny came to the wedding with a dowry equal to the amount of Thomas’s legacy, so the combined amount gave them eight hundred pounds per annum from the four percents.
That amount added to Thomas’s five and seventy pounds he earned each year as a curate, allowed them to live well and save money too.
It also helped that they lived at Longbourn.
Six months after his marriage, Thomas Bennet received a letter from the vicar of the St John the Baptist’s Church in Dronfield.
He was to retire in six months and as he was allowed to appoint his successor, he had written to his good friend, the professor who ran the school of divinity at Cambridge, for recommendations.
Professor MacGonagall wrote to his friend and highly recommended he speak to Thomas Bennet.
On receiving a letter from Mr Bamber, and suspecting Fanny could be in the family way, Thomas Bennet travelled north on his own to meet with the vicar and spend some weeks in the parish.
Mr Bamber and his patron were greatly impressed by Thomas and offered him the living, which he accepted conditionally, explaining he needed to canvass his wife’s opinion first. Within days of arriving back at Longbourn, a letter was posted accepting the position.
A month later, just after Fanny felt the quickening confirming she was indeed with child, Thomas and Fanny Bennet departed for Dronfield, Derbyshire, in a rented carriage.
To make sure Fanny was not over-exerted, the three-day journey was traversed in five days.
This is what led to Thomas, Fanny, and Jane Beth Bennet—born in January 1788 and named for Fanny’s late mother and her Grandmama Beth—living at the parsonage attached to the church of St John the Baptist in Dronfield.
Fanny made a very good clergyman’s wife, and she was universally loved in the parish.
Even those who never thought any man could step into the large shoes left by Mr Bamber, who had served at the church for more than four decades, were quickly convinced that the former vicar and the patron had chosen very well.
Thomas Bennet’s sermons were always written by himself, were educational, and delivered the message of that week’s scripture without hitting the congregants over the head with fire and brimstone.
The church was as full as it had been under the predecessor, and the Bennets were very popular in the neighbourhood.
By the time Jane was two, it was clear she was becoming a beauty, much like her mother. Fanny did not like people judging herself by her outside appearance; she did not want that for Jane either.
Even though Fanny was not raised to be a gentlelady, she had learnt as much as she could from Mother Beth at Longbourn, so she was determined that Jane would be raised like a gently born lady should be.
Fanny would not have her daughter be an empty vessel who had nothing but her looks.
Jane would be educated and have all of the accomplishments she needed.
Fanny and Thomas agreed they would employ a governess for Jane before she turned five.
The highlight of Jane’s second birthday was that Grandpapa James, Grandmama Beth, and Uncle Henry made the journey—braving the much harsher winters in the north—to celebrate Jane’s second birthday on the second day of January 1790.
The Longbourn Bennets remained at the parsonage for a fortnight before making the return journey to Hertfordshire. Thankfully the weather had moderated a little and made the trip somewhat more pleasant.
Life for the three Bennets in Dronfield continued very pleasantly, their popularity only growing apace.
The one major disappointment Fanny had had was a miscarriage in May 1791.
Other than that, the family was as happy as could be.
All of that changed in January 1794, about a fortnight after Jane’s sixth birthday, when a black-edged letter was received at the parsonage in Hattie Phillips’s hand—she had married her father’s head clerk, Frank Phillips, some five years past.
Bennet and Fanny had opened it with trepidation, suspecting it was Fanny’s father who had been called home to God. They sat in Thomas’s study while the governess, Miss Rhonda Weasley, a lady from Wales, was working on sums with Jane.
With Thomas there for support, Fanny took a deep breath, smoothed out the paper, and began to read the missive.
14 January 1794
Phillips Cottage
Meryton
Fanny, I am sure you think this is about our father. Although he is not as healthy as I would like, he is alive and well.
Thomas, I do not know how to tell you this delicately, so I will say it directly. As sorry as I am to tell you this, your father and older brother are no longer living.
They went to Hertford for some shopping and other estate business, and the only inn they could find rooms at was the Hog’s Head Inn.
That night, when they had already retired, some unsavoury characters took to fighting in the taproom.
Candles were knocked over, and before anyone did anything about them, they had caught the fabric of the curtains on fire.
Within minutes the whole structure was ablaze.
Your family members were two of twelve who lost their lives at the inn that night.
I am writing on behalf of your mother, who has been sedated to help her with the shock of losing her husband and eldest son. She will not be easy until you, Fanny, and Jane are at her side.
I urge you to leave as soon as may be.
With my deepest sympathy,
Hattie
After crying with his wife over the loss of his father and brother, the new master of Longbourn made for his patron’s house.
Sir Guy Gisborne understood and promised to find a temporary man as soon as may be. Bennet vowed to remain until the man was in place. In a little more than a sennight, on the afternoon of the final Tuesday of January, the three Bennets and Miss Weasley began their journey south.