Page 24 of A Life Diverted
Wendell knew he must tread lightly. He was fairly certain it was not the Bennets who had taken Ellie, but he needed to be sure.
“I will begin. Cilla and I, and Elaine and Matlock both had two sons, and we never thought there would be another until Elizabeth Elaine Wendell was born to my wife on the fifth day of March 1791,” Wendell told.
He did not miss the way the Gardiners and Miss Bennet looked at one another when he mentioned Ellie’s full name. “What is it about her name?”
“I was only six at the time, but she told us her name was Lizbet,” Jane revealed. “One night I heard her say ‘Ellie’ in a dream, and I asked her who Ellie was. She told me it was her old name, and she could not be called that because the family who used that name had not wanted her anymore.”
Cilla began to cry all over again. “S-she thought w-we d-did not w-want her?” She wailed.
“Mrs Wendell, do not forget she was less than three, and from what Bennet has told me, she was drugged, bound, gagged, and placed below the seat of the carriage he and his family were riding in as they travelled south,” Gardiner related.
There was a chorus of indignant ‘bound,’ ‘drugged,’ and ‘gagged’ from the three Wendells and the two Fitzwilliams.
“Allow me to continue,” Wendell suggested when everyone calmed again.
At least he was fairly certain the Bennets had not had a hand in taking Ellie.
“She was always…” He told them about his daughter’s first almost three years, her love for faeries and pixies, how she used to get herself filthy, and the fun she had hiding.
“That is why Lizzy, or Ellie, refused to partake in any games where there is hiding involved,” Jane noted.
Wendell then spoke of the day that they found Ellie was missing.
Jane related that her father had been a clergyman and had served at the St John the Baptist’s church in Dronfield.
She told of the letter telling them that Grandpapa James and Uncle Henry had died and the decision to travel south.
“The day before you found her missing was the day we departed the parsonage. As we left in the middle of the day, we stopped at an inn just outside of Matlock…” Jane related all she had been told of their travels until the evening Lizzy, or Ellie, had been discovered by the coachman at the Bleating Sheep Inn in Huntingdonshire.
She repeated what she had been told about why they could not delay.
She explained how Mama, Papa, and Grandmama Beth had notices made with information about the girl they found, but left out certain facts that only those who truly knew her would know.
She related how they had been informed by Sir Guy Gisborne that the coachman had died in a horrendous accident somewhere between Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire.
“What facts?” Cilla demanded.
“Her nightgown…” Jane prompted.
“Was thick, warm, white fabric with her initials embroidered on the upper right chest in red. A large ‘W’ with a smaller ‘E’ either side, all connected,” Lady Matlock stated.
Tears running down her cheek now that there was proof Lizzy’s birth family had been found, Jane simply nodded.
“I made it for my niece,” Lady Matlock, also crying now, stated.
Cilla was certain it was her girl, but there was one more thing which would make it certain. She had to know for sure. “Does the girl you know as Lizzy have a birthmark on her back, below her left shoulder?” Cilla asked.
Jane nodded.
David was aware that what he was about to do was far outside of the bounds of propriety, but he cared not in this instance.
He turned his back and removed his jacket and waistcoat.
Then his cravat. Lastly, he loosened his shirt until the back of his left shoulder was exposed.
“Is the one on her back like the one on mine?” David enquired .
Notwithstanding the situation, Jane felt the heat rise in her face. All she could manage was a weak, “Yes.”
“It is, it is our girl. I told you Ellie was alive,” Cilla sobbed and smiled at the same time. “A mother always knows if her child is living or dead. Where is she? When can we see her?”
“As much as we understand your desire to be with your daughter this instant, there is more you need to know about Lizzy…Ellie,” Madeline cautioned.
“Whatever happened to her has made her very scared of change, and do not forget, no matter how wrong her ideas are about how she left you, she thinks, or she did when she remembered, that she was given away for being a bad girl .” Madeline saw that Mrs Wendell was about to launch into a full-throated protest. It was easy to see expressions of the daughter in the mother.
“We all know it is not the truth. She was obviously drugged and removed from your house for some nefarious reason.
“All I am saying is that things need to move at a speed with which she is comfortable.” Suddenly Maddie remembered something. “David, did you not say your cousins are in the area of Meryton right now?”
“That is right. Richard and William are with that Bingley fellow at Nether something or other,” Matlock confirmed. “Catherine and Giana are there as well.” Seeing the questioning looks from the Gardiners and Miss Bennet, Matlock explained who Lady Catherine and Giana Darcy were.
“Netherfield Park. Then there is a very good chance they will encounter Lizzy, especially if they attend the assembly tonight. Sorry, she has always been Lizzy to me,” Madeline said contritely.
She saw nods of understanding. “She is at Longbourn with the Bennets. If the two men have a similar reaction to seeing her face as Jane had to seeing Mrs Wendell and Lady Matlock, then I have a feeling that before we contact them, who Elizabeth is will be known to the Bennets, and to her as well. ”
“I understand that we will have to do this gently, but I must see my girl with my own eyes. The last time I saw her, she was not three yet; she is twenty now,” Cilla said as she dried her eyes again.
“Jane…Miss Bennet, did Ellie say who took her?” David asked. Could it be he would fulfil his dream of paying back the bastard who kidnapped his little sister?
“Papa had everything Lizzy has said, both awake and when she has dreamt, written down. If my memory serves, the few times she spoke about how she was, in her words, sent away , she spoke of one man in the study. She cannot see his face.” Jane turned to Mr Wendell.
“You said you were robbed that night, did you not?”
“Indeed.” Wendell paused. “We suspected Ellie was wandering around the house when she came upon the miscreant. Until today, we thought he had murdered our girl and disposed of her body.”
“Had the coachman not found her when he did, or had this blackguard given my niece a little more laudanum—I assume that is what he gave her—he would have succeeded in murdering her. I would wager that whoever this was did not have the stomach to end the life of a little girl outright. Hence, he drugged her and placed her where it would be difficult to discover her. I suspect he assumed that by doing that she would not live.”
“And my girl has been loved?” Cilla asked, tears threatening once again.
“Yes, Fanny and Bennet loved and raised her like any of their other children. They would never allow anyone to make Lizzy feel less than, and in fact, dowered her with the same amount as her three Bennet sisters,” Gardiner assured Mrs Wendell.
Wendell was about to say that Ellie did not need that, but he held his peace.
There would be time later for those discussions.
“Cilla, I know you want nothing more than to see and hold Ellie again, but I am about to beg your indulgence. If Gardiner will accompany me, I will ride to Longbourn on the morrow to speak to Ellie’s adoptive father.
With everything our girl has been through, we need to be very careful how we approach her.
I will not ask to see her when I meet with Mr Bennet. I will only do that with you.”
“Father, I would like to join you to see Richard and William to discover if they know Ellie is near them,” David insisted.
“And I will accompany Uncle Edward. Lizzy will need me by her side.” Jane smiled shyly at David, letting him know she would be happy if he remained in the area. Suddenly something hit her. “Lizzy used to speak of Dawy and Bawny .”
“Those are her brothers. David, you know, and Barney, Barnabas, will arrive from a friend’s house in a sennight,” Cilla related. For the first time in more than seventeen years, she had a wide, genuine smile on her countenance.
“I will send an express to Barney calling him to London,” Wendell decided.
Her older sister could have cried all over again, this time because of joy, at seeing her sister light up like that once again.