Page 3 of A Life Diverted

W hen they were almost ready to depart Dronfield in the afternoon of the final Tuesday of January, Bennet was aware they would not get far before they needed to stop for the night. He was insistent they begin anyway.

He was still reeling from the news that his father and brother were both gone.

Knowing how much in love his father and mother were, he was very worried for his mother and her state of mind.

To that end, both he and Fanny had written to her, and he had sent them via an express rider the same day Hattie’s letter had been received.

All Bennet could do was hope and pray the knowledge that her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter would soon be at her side would give his mother a measure of strength and comfort.

He had been willing to rent a carriage for his family and Miss Weasley and to pay for a cart to follow with their belongings, but his patron had insisted Bennet use his comfortable carriage.

If that had not been enough, Sir Guy had sent a cart from his estate with some of his own men who would load and then transport everything that could not be taken on the carriage.

As the conveyance jerked into motion, Bennet and Fanny looked back with warmth at the parsonage which had been their home for almost six years.

It was the house where Janie had been born.

Also, it was the location where a potential child was lost, but that was one sad memory among so many happy ones.

“How far do you think we will travel today?” Fanny enquired once the carriage was in the countryside just beyond Dronfield.

“Yes, Papa, when will we arrive and see Grandmama Beth?” Jane chirped. Like most girls of six, Jane did not grasp the concept that it would be some days before they arrived at Longbourn.

“Janie dear, it will be three or four days until we reach Meryton,” Fanny explained indulgently. Then she looked at her husband, waiting for his reply.

“It is between thirty and forty miles to Matlock. I do not think we will go any farther today. That means if we depart at first light in the morning as I plan, we will cross out of Derbyshire into Leicestershire within two hours. That should put us in, or just past the border with, Northamptonshire on the morrow. The next day we will be traversing that shire, meaning we should be at an inn in Huntingdonshire by that night. From there, we should be able to reach Longbourn the next morning,” Bennet estimated.

A half hour later Jane was asleep, her head resting in her mother’s lap. “Our Jane is such a good child; she never complains,” Fanny said as she ran her fingers through Jane’s golden blonde tresses.

“We were certainly blessed with a child who is so easy-going,” Bennet agreed.

Jane woke when they reached the first rest stop. They were not there long, as the team was changed with efficiency. Less than three hours later, with dusk quickly waning and night taking over, they arrived at the coaching inn just north of Matlock.

While the Bennets and the governess went into the inn and paid for the rooms for the night, the coachman took the conveyance to the coach house and stables.

There was room enough for the horses in the stables, but none in the coach house.

The coachman left the carriage outside in the courtyard.

He was not worried about anything happening to it overnight, but he would make sure it was loaded with warming bricks an hour before they were to depart the next morning, and then he would see them replaced with newly warmed ones just before the vicar and his family boarded.

The next morning, just before the dawn lightened the sky, the Bennets and their governess broke their fasts with some hearty fare in the sitting room between the two chambers they had slept in the previous night.

Less than an hour later, they were on their way south. Thanks to the measures the coachman took, the interior was comfortably warm.

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

Much to Cilla’s delight, before her daughter reached six months of age, her eyes had changed and become emerald green just like her own and Elaine’s. Like her mother and aunt had been at the same age, Ellie was a petite girl.

Since her birth, Ellie Wendell had been a favourite of her family and her husband’s family, both by blood and marriage.

That was not universally true, however. Lady Catherine de Bourgh was not overjoyed that Anne was no longer the only daughter in the family.

Additionally, George Wickham tolerated the girl but did not like the amount of attention she garnered when his friends were in company with her.

Ellie was an intelligent little imp who loved nothing better than to hide away from everyone, especially Nurse.

Many a morning from the time Ellie no longer slept in a cradle, the poor Nurse found the girl’s bed empty.

The first time, the poor woman had almost been apoplectic until the little pixie had been found under her bed.

Each time, she would break into peals of laughter when she was eventually found.

She was very proud of herself for having managed to stay hidden for so long, even if more often than not it was her giggling which gave her away .

During Ellie’s first years of life, they had visited both Snowhaven and Pemberley. Both estates had much larger manor houses than Willowmere, thus giving Ellie many more locations in which to hide away.

She loved Uncle Stephen Granger. He was her mother’s and Aunt Elaine’s brother and master of Glenmeade in Staffordshire, where the sisters had been raised.

He was younger than his sisters and had recently married; Ellie loved her Aunt Adele as well.

The Grangers had not been blessed with children yet.

If they were never granted any, then either Barney Wendell or Richard Fitzwilliam would inherit Glenmeade.

By January 1794, Ellie was almost three.

No matter how intelligent the little mite was, she still had trouble pronouncing certain words.

Those who knew her were able to decipher what she was saying.

Her parents were not concerned, as both David and Barney had experienced the same at Ellie’s age, and by the time they reached the age of four, they had grown out of the quirk and were able to pronounce words correctly.

There was one thing she loved even more than hiding, and that was stories about faeries and pixies.

In the spring, when the buttercups and bluebells flowered, Ellie would run as fast as her little legs would carry her to see if she could find a faerie or pixie.

Her brothers, and if they were present, her cousins, would indulge her while always keeping her in sight and never allowing her to go too far afield.

Even though Icky , as Ellie called George Wickham based on the other boys calling him Wickie, did not pay her attention like her brothers and cousins did, Ellie did not dislike him, as he had never done anything to cause her to do so.

In fact, occasionally he would deign to tell her a story about faerie princesses.

Hence it was that when Nurse came into the nursery on the morning of the final Wednesday in January to wake Master Barney—who was almost nine—and Miss Ellie and she did not see the latter in her bed, Nurse was not overly concerned.

She knew it meant she would need to seek the giggling imp and bring her back to the nursery to get her dressed for the day.

Nurse looked around and saw Miss Ellie’s winter robe hanging where she would have expected to see it.

Thankfully the little miss was wearing her thick, warm, night gown.

It was the one on which her aunt, the Countess of Matlock, had embroidered her niece’s initials in red cotton.

Red was Miss Ellie’s favourite colour at that moment.

The initials were a large ‘W’ in the centre with a smaller ‘E’ either side of it, all three letters connected.

Seeing that the little miss’s winter robe had not been taken, she was sure that the pixie was not far away.

Barney woke after one shake. He looked over at his sister’s bed.

“Ellie is hiding again, is she not, Miss Malfoy?” Barnabas asked as he shook the sleep from his eyes.

“I hope she has chosen a good place to hide, one in a warm room.” He was still not happy that he had remained in the nursery and not with David—who was twelve—and the cousins and friends with him at Willowmere for a few days, all of whom were in bedchambers.

“Aye, me as well, Master Barney. Miss Ellie does like to lead me on a merry dance, she does,” Miss Malfoy responded with an indulgent smile.

As she did every morning, the nurse went and selected clothes for the two youngest Wendell children to wear.

She placed what she chose for the boy on his bed while he was in the bathing room.

Miss Malfoy walked over to the little mite’s bed.

When she looked at it closely, she could see the bed was hardly disturbed, as if it had not been slept in for all or most of the night.

She felt the bedding, and everything was as cold as could be, regardless of the fire which had been giving warmth all night.

Something did not sit right with Nurse, so she called another maid to assist the young master to dress and went to go see the mistress.

She did not want to cause Master Barney concern, so when she left the nursery, Miss Malfoy schooled her features.

Once out, she rushed to the master’s suite as fast as her legs would carry her without running in the halls.

As she reached the suite, the master was exiting the chambers.

“Miss Malfoy, what is it? Are Barney and Ellie well?” Wendell demanded to know.