Page 33 of A Life Diverted

F anny’s opinion that her husband would offer those who had arrived and any others who joined them, to be hosted at Netherfield Park had been correct.

Matlock accepted the generous offer on behalf of his family.

“In the years Ellie has been here, am I to understand that she never remembered who took her from the house?” Wendell pressed once the subject of where they would reside in the neighbourhood had been settled.

“No, in her dreams his face was always blurry, so she could not make out the features,” Bennet replied.

“When Lizzy, Ellie, first came to us, my wife instructed the then governess to write down anything the mite uttered in her dreams. All of these years, I have kept the pages.” Bennet reached into a drawer in his desk.

“You may take them because I am sure the names and utterances recorded will mean something to you, as you would be familiar with them and we were not.” He handed the bound pages to Wendell.

With the other men crowded around his chair, Wendell began to read the script on the paper.

“Illem,” Darcy read. “It is what she used to call me. She could not say ‘William’ yet.”

“Ichy,” Richard noticed, “and ‘Andwu.’ That is what she used to call Andrew and me. At least, Ellie did not call any of us ‘Icky’; that was reserved for one and one alone.”

“Wickham!” Those who knew the libertine chorused .

“None of you seem too happy to repeat that man’s name,” Gardiner noted. “What did he do?”

“He was the godson of my late brother-in-law, Robert Darcy…” Matlock told Bennet, Gardiner, and Phillips a short synopsis about George Wickham and how Robert Darcy had finally had his eyes opened to the truth of his former protégé.

“We had not seen him nor heard anything about him for some years, until a few months ago when the bastard intruded on our notice again,” Richard reported.

“His aim was Giana and her fortune. He was convinced that his foolproof plan had no chance of failure…” With aid from William, Richard told Bennet and the others what Wickham had attempted to do.

“Could he not be a candidate for the theft and kidnapping at your house?” Phillips enquired.

“It was something about which we,” David indicated his cousins, “speculated. However, there was no indication it was him. He did not slink away from Willowmere and even participated in the search for Ellie. Wicky was not close to her like the rest of us, but to his credit he never did anything to hurt her, and occasionally he would even entertain her a little. Richard and William can correct me, but I have never seen Wicky—as we used to call him—as one who would dirty his own hands.”

“I agree with David,” Richard stated. “His effort with Miss Younge all depended on her. He watched but kept himself away from the action. I have always thought him a bit of a coward.”

“There are no clues contained within which would point us towards the criminal who took Ellie from us,” Wendell noted, frustration evident in his voice.

“It is not surprising she does not remember what happened before she was three,” Andrew opined. “For myself I know I remember nothing before I was five or six.”

The others in the study nodded their agreement .

“As we cannot change the past, I suggest we speak of a way forward,” Bennet suggested.

“Jane told you how Lizzy reacts to change, or has in the past, did she not?” He saw nods from those who had met Jane the previous evening.

“My suggestion is that whatever we do, we do with her best interests at heart.”

“I am certain Cilla is, or has been, telling your wife that we would never attempt to sunder the connection between Ellie and your family, Bennet. We all want to heal and not cause more suffering,” Wendell stated to assure his host he and his family would still be part of Ellie’s life, and she theirs.

He did not miss the way Bennet and his brothers-in-law relaxed at that statement.

Wendell, like the other men who had arrived with him, could see that the Bennets were well off, so he would not insult them by offering to recompense them for the years they had cared for Ellie.

It would have been a double insult because of one thing he was certain, what they had done, they had done out of love and not obligation.

It seemed from the conversations with Jane Bennet and what he had seen so far that Ellie could not have been discovered by better people.

Instead, he decided to address what he had been told about a dowry.

“Bennet, Jane mentioned that you have dowered Ellie with the same amount as your other three daughters. Is that accurate?” Wendell enquired.

“It is,” Bennet confirmed. “Regardless of her blood, she has been a daughter to us all these years, and as such, I could not have done anything less for her. Whether she lives here or with you, it is hers.”

“If I have not said it directly, allow me to now thank you and your family before we continue to discuss the dowry,” Wendell stated.

“Had you not cared for her as you did and, heaven forfend, left her with a parish, God only knows where she would be today. I am positive she would not have been in such a home. She obviously grew up in a loving home and with a family who loves her. As hard as it is to say, especially given my wrongheaded belief Ellie was not alive, but there is no guarantee she would have still been living had you not taken her in and cared for her in the way you and your family did. For the love and care you have shown my daughter, I will forever be in your debt.”

“You are not in our debt. It was an honour and a privilege to have Lizzy here with us. She saved my mother’s life, so if anyone is in debt, it is us.

” Bennet saw the quizzical looks from the men not of his family.

“When we arrived home, my mother had given up…” He told all, including how Lizzy had brought his mother back from her deep melancholy and given her a desire to live again.

“We always knew Ellie was a special girl, even in the less than three years she was with us before she was taken,” Wendell stated.

David, her uncle, and cousins all nodded their agreement.

“I do not say this out of a lack of appreciation for what you have done for our girl, but Ellie does not need the dowry you have been generous enough to gift her.” Wendell raised his hand to quell the protest forming on Bennet’s lips.

“You may make free to verify this with Gardiner, with whom I, and most of us here, invest. I never touched Ellie’s dowry money, not even when I thought she had been murdered.

Cilla would not countenance it, so I left it.

Gardiner may correct me if I am wrong, but there is more than forty thousand pounds in her dowry account as of the last time we checked.

It is because she has more than enough that I respectfully suggest you take what you would have given Ellie and divide it among your two youngest daughters. ”

“Why only the two youngest?” Bennet queried .

“Because if things proceed as they seem to be advancing between Jane and me, Father does not want to seem like he is fishing for a larger dowry for her to bring to a possible union between us,” David interjected.

“Jane wrote that we needed to discuss things. Have you proposed yet?” Bennet asked.

“No, we are courting; however, last night…” David related what had occurred when Jane fainted and his reluctance to release her after she regained consciousness. “It was not in public, but you know that no matter how loyal servants are, there will be talk.”

“Neither my wife nor I would have any of our children forced into an unwanted marriage,” Bennet responded.

“When you speak to Jane…” David saw the raised eyebrows when he used her familiar name, “…Miss Bennet, I am sure you will discover that if we marry, it will be a mutual decision. On that subject, I know Miss Bennet is of age, but I request your permission to address her in private.”

“Granted,” Bennet replied succinctly. He looked back at Wendell. “With regards to the dowry, I accept your reason, and I will withdraw the dowry we bestowed on Lizzy, however, your sensibilities notwithstanding, it will be divided between my three other daughters.”

Wendell acknowledged Bennet’s decision with an inclined head.

Before they could speak further, the butler entered the study to inform his master and the guests that tea was being served in the drawing room.

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

During the break for tea, Fanny and Bennet could only marvel at the view of Lizzy sitting between her birth mother and Aunt Elaine on the sofa. The likeness between the three was even more pronounced than before they sat together .

As tea drew to a close, it was decided that the Wendells and Fitzwilliams who had accompanied Jane that morning would make the three-mile journey to Netherfield Park to take up residence there.

Lady Catherine, as the acting mistress of the estate, would accompany them to make sure suites were assigned and to answer any questions the housekeeper and butler may have.

“Jane, will you grant me an interview before we depart?” David requested. “I do have your father’s permission to address you.”

“It will be my pleasure to agree to said interview,” Jane responded as she blushed with pleasure.

She stood and spoke quietly to her mother, who gave permission to use the summer drawing room.

Jane returned to David. “We need to wait a few minutes; Mama has rung for Mrs Hill to have a maid posted outside of the room, and we will have ten minutes alone.”

As keen as he was to address Jane, David waited for five minutes to tick by. It was no time at all, but to him it seemed like aeons. As soon as he saw the last second tick away, David sprang up from his seat and offered Jane his hand.