Page 23 of A Life Diverted
D avid held Jane in his arms while Madeline looked between her niece and the two shocked ladies on the settee.
Each lady had been joined by her husband.
Before Miss Bennet fainted, David was about to explain that his cousin Andrew and his wife would have been at the dinner, but Emily was not feeling well.
The Earl introduced Gardiner to the ladies, and then, still in somewhat of a stupor, Gardiner made his wife known to the Countess and her sister. Like his wife, he was still trying to comprehend what he was seeing.
“What is it about us that caused your niece to faint? And without being rude, you and your wife are staring at my sister and me,” Lady Matlock stated.
“Did I never tell you about our daughter Ellie who was taken and mur…” Wendell began and then stopped when he saw Gardiner shake his head.
“You never mentioned a daughter to me. I suspected you had one because of the dowry account you have with me. I did not ask, as it was not my place to do so, and you have never said anything about your daughter,” Gardiner declared.
“Gardiner, if my brother never mentioned his daughter to you, why did you ask if one of us had a daughter who had been taken from us?” Matlock demanded
As he held Jane, David thought back to that day he had seen the girl on the horse across the fence. He had had a feeling, but he had been too scared to investigate it further. If he had gone to Longbourn and seen her, he would have discovered Ellie months ago.
Just then Jane began to stir. At first, she had thought it was a dream that the ladies seated in the drawing room and Lizzy had the same faces, the same eyes.
It could not be. Yet, as she opened her eyes, first she noted she was still being held by David Wendell, and she lifted her eyes to the ladies.
One was crying, being comforted by Mr Wendell, and the other looked in a daze while the man Jane had not met sat next to her with his arm around her shoulders.
She fought the urge to give into the light-headedness when she looked and once again saw two older versions of Lizzy before her. “Why do you look like my sister?” Jane asked softly.
Wendell had recovered somewhat. The memory of the girl he had seen from behind at Gardiner’s house a few years past flashed before his eyes. Surely not? “When was your sister born?” he asked. He waited for the reply with bated breath.
Jane was very shaken, so Gardiner replied in her stead.
“The Bennets celebrate Lizzy’s birthday on the twentieth day of February…
” He saw the faces of the couples before him fall while Mrs Wendell continued to cry.
“…because they do not know her exact day of birth. She was a foundling…” Anything else Gardiner was about to say was lost.
“ ELLIE !” Cilla yelled between her sobs.
“Ellie,” Jane repeated. “Lizzy told me she could not be called that anymore. She thought her parents sent her away for being bad, but we never believed that. She was bound and gagged when she was discovered. ”
“Where is my daughter?” Cilla demanded while tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Cilla, do not get ahead of yourself. We do not know if it is her yet. I know you have prayed to find her alive for more than seventeen years, but we need to be careful. This is not the same, of that I am sure, but you remember all of the charlatans who tried to prey on our grief,” Wendell stated as calmly as he was able to.
If that had indeed been Ellie those years ago, how many years of suffering, of mourning her, would have been alleviated?
He never told Gardiner about Ellie, and Gardiner would have had no reason to mention that one of his nieces was a foundling.
If only he had looked harder, longer, and further.
As things stood now, it seemed Cilla had been right all along.
Would she ever forgive him for giving up and accepting that Ellie was dead?
“I think we all need to calm down, and then we can speak once everyone has recovered their equanimity,” Matlock suggested. “Once we are ready, this tale needs to be told from the beginning. It is the only way we will discover the truth of the matter.”
There were nods all around. Wendell rang for the butler and ordered wine, sherry, port, and brandy so they all had something to help calm their nerves.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy had jumped as soon as the lady began to fall.
He had pushed a scandalised Caroline Bingley out of his path, not caring for her squawking.
He was sure Aunt Catherine was berating her for her unacceptable behaviour.
He reached the lady he now believed was Ellie before she slipped off the chair and onto the ground.
“You may put my daughter down, Sir,” Bennet commanded when he and Fanny reached Lizzy.
“Why would anyone care about a foundling who is, more likely than not, nothing but a peasant?” Miss Bingley interjected. She shrank back when Lady Catherine stood and pulled her hand back.
“Unless you wish to feel the weight of my hand on your face, I suggest you take yourself very far from us,” Lady Catherine threatened.
Seeing that the lady had made no idle threat, Miss Bingley retreated back to where her siblings were standing, watching the scene with wide eyes.
“I told you this place was beneath us. Come, Charles and Louisa; we need to depart before we are infected by the madness hereabouts,” Miss Bingley demanded.
Bingley collected Hurst, who was seated next to the refreshment tables, and followed his sisters out of the assembly rooms.
As soon as the Bingley woman was gone, Bennet turned to the three strangers. “I am Thomas Bennet, master of Longbourn and Netherfield Park. This is my wife, Mrs Frances Bennet. To whom am I indebted for saving my Lizzy from falling onto the floor?”
“This is our aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh; my cousin, Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire, and I am Richard Fitzwilliam of Rosings Park in Kent. Is what Miss Bingley said true? Is this lady a foundling?” Richard asked.
“She is, what of it? We will never allow anyone to denigrate our Lizzy because we found her. She is and has always been treated like one of our daughters,” Fanny shot back at the younger man. “I will never allow anyone to harm any of my dear girls in any way.”
“Mrs Bennet, my nephew did not intend any slight; he has a particular reason for asking what he did,” Lady Catherine soothed.
Suddenly a realisation hit Bennet. “You know from where Lizzy came! ”
The three opposite nodded. Now it was Fanny’s turn to faint. Thankfully, Bennet supported her, and with the aid of Mr Fitzwilliam, they got her to the chairs.
Elizabeth began to stir. When her eyes opened and her vision cleared, she saw the men who had been staring at her.
Papa was there, and Mama was next to her on a chair, seemingly senseless to the world.
Suddenly she remembered what had caused her to lose consciousness, something she had never experienced before.
“Why did you call me Ellie?” Elizabeth asked.
At that moment, Bennet knew. The notes he had in the safe mentioned Ellie many times.
She used to call out, “Ellie will not be bad again,” many times at night after she first came to them.
“Lady Catherine, gentlemen, as soon as my wife recovers, we should make for Longbourn; it is only a mile from here. I think we have much to discuss.”
After looking at her nephews, who nodded, Lady Catherine turned to Mr Bennet. “We will accompany you,” she confirmed.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“We need to leave this backwater as soon as may be!” Miss Bingley screeched the instant the coach departed.
“But Caroline, if I abandon the estate, then the money I paid will be forfeit,” Bingley reasoned. “I am supposed to be learning to manage an estate. How can I do that if we are not at an estate?”
“I care not. We need to go back to London. There Messrs Fitzwilliam and Darcy were not distracted by a chit who is a foundling, and where that awful Lady Catherine did not berate and insult me at every turn. I want to go back to Town, and there is nothing which will keep me here!” Miss Bingley insisted.
“One of the men was about to offer for me before you forced us into this benighted place.”
“If you think one of them would ever offer for you, you are more delusional than I thought,” Hurst stated. “Go ahead, Bingley, tell this harpy what they have both told you about never offering for her.”
She was about to aim her vitriol at her lush of a brother-in-law when Miss Bingley decided to turn on her brother first. “Is what Hurst said true?” she demanded.
Bingley could not look at his younger sister, so he simply nodded his head.
Rather than unleashing a tantrum, Miss Bingley considered her options.
She had boasted to all of her friends about returning to London engaged, so engaged she would be.
She knew how to act. “I have decided we should remain a few more days,” she announced and made it appear she was looking out of the window as she planned how to go about gaining that which she deserved.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
By the time everyone calmed, it was time to eat dinner. Rather than allow Cook’s effort to go to waste, they went into the dining parlour, although no one was particularly hungry.
Seeing that Cilla was still in a daze, Lady Matlock took over as hostess.
When most of the food was sent back, she told the butler to let Cook know it was not a comment on the quality of her cooking, but rather, everyone had received a great and unanticipated shock which had rendered them without much of an appetite.
She further told the butler to allow the servants to enjoy the food rather than letting it go to waste.
Instead of a separation of the sexes, everyone sat around the table in the same position they had for the meal. The men had glasses of port or brandy in front of them and the ladies sherry or wine.