Page 43 of A Life Diverted
S tephen Granger was redirected to Longbourn, like his nephew and heir, Barney had been before him, after he washed and changed. He was told it was only three miles distant. His coachman, who before this journey did not have much work in his role, had been given directions to the other estate.
As much as he hoped that the reason for his sisters asking him to take the leap of faith and travel so far from Glenmeade was a good one; until he saw them, he would not know.
The truth was that he had been praying that Almighty God would call him home so he could be with his Adelle, their child, and Ellie.
His faith was too strong to take his own life, and he had sworn an oath to himself that until Barney became the master of the estate, he would remain and make sure that his nephew had all the tools he needed to manage Glenmeade successfully.
Granger was confident he had taught his nephew well, but he had made the commitment to be with Barney until he reached the mentioned age, and he would not go back on his word.
Like the carriage he had gifted to his nephew, the one Granger was in was on the smaller side, also drawn by a team of two horses. Just like the butler had indicated, the journey to the other estate passed rather quickly.
By the time it was drawn to a halt, Granger saw his sisters, their husbands, and his two Wendell nephews waiting to greet him .
Granger’s lone footman opened the door, and he alighted.
“Stephen, it is so good to see you here,” Cilla enthused as she pulled her brother into a hug.
“You are too good to trifle with me; tell me at once, is Ellie alive, and have you discovered her?” Granger demanded. The answering smiles would have told him it was so, even had he not seen the nodding heads.
“Before you ask the questions I am sure you desire, let us enter the house,” Wendell suggested.
The butler relieved Granger of his outerwear.
“Come, Uncle,” an ebullient Barney requested. Barney led his uncle towards the summer drawing room with the other five following them. He stepped to the side and indicated Uncle Stephen should enter the room.
Before he had taken more than three steps into the drawing room, Granger froze.
Standing before him was a younger version of Elaine and Cilla.
Even had he not been praying Ellie was alive, as soon as he saw her, he would have known who she was.
“Ellie!” he exclaimed. He strode into the room, closing the distance between himself and his niece.
As he got close to her, he opened his arms pulling her into their circle with a warm hug.
Tears fell unashamedly. “I never thought I would see you again in the mortal world. What a blessing this is.”
While Mother, Father, Uncle and Aunt Fitzwilliam, and her brothers followed her unmet Uncle Stephen into the room, Barney waited until they were all in before he pushed the door closed.
“Although I do not remember you, I understand that you are Mother’s and Aunt Elaine’s brother, my uncle,” Elizabeth articulated when she stepped back.
She was real, he had felt it for himself when he hugged her.
If only his Adelle had lived to see this miracle.
Granger understood why God had refused to call him home.
It was to show him that not all of those he thought were no longer in the mortal world had truly left it.
He had so many questions, but for now, he was just marvelling at the woman before him.
He only remembered her as the little sprite, but he so much wanted to come to know her as the woman she was now.
Everyone took seats, and Cilla rang for tea.
Soon enough Mrs Hill was supervising a maid who had placed a tray before Cilla.
She poured for each one, knowing their preferences.
It was a pleasure to her that she already knew how Ellie preferred her tea—one lump of sugar, a dash of milk, and no lemon.
He soon drained his cup, ignoring the shortbread and lemon biscuits on the plate. Rather, Granger looked at his family expectantly.
He was not disappointed; between all of them, Ellie included, the whole story was laid out for him.
By the end of the telling, Granger whistled softly.
If he did not know it was true life, he would have thought it a plot of a fantastical gothic novel with all of the twists and turns and the near discoveries.
Like the others in the room, he was not pleased that the culprit was as yet unidentified.
“More is the pity you have not been able to see the criminal’s face in your dreams, Ellie,” Granger lamented.
“Sorry, Uncle.” Elizabeth cast her eyes down.
“Little one, that was no criticism of you,” Granger assured her. “According to a book I was reading, there is far, far more we do not know about the working of our brains than the tiny amount we currently do know. It is not something you would have purposefully forgotten.”
Her uncle called her ‘little one’ just like the one with the indistinct face in the dream did. Elizabeth was sure it was only a coincidence.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Barney saw Miss Charlotte Lucas and the rest of the Lucas family, sans the brothers he had heard about for the first time after church on Sunday.
The Lucases alternated between attending St Alfred’s in Meryton and St Hugh’s Church in Longbourn Village.
Since the initial visit when they had learnt about Lizzy’s true parentage, the Lucas family had kept their distance from Longbourn to allow the Bennets and their new connections to become familiar with one another without the scrutiny of friends watching the goings-on.
It had not been requested of them; they just had decided it was for the best in the short term.
Hence, Charlotte was well pleased to see Jane and Eliza at church.
There was a large group sitting with the Bennets, some Charlotte recognised from her call the other day, and some of them she did not know.
As soon as the service concluded, Charlotte made her way to Eliza. Jane was lost in her fiancé’s eyes. Charlotte was sure she would not be seen by her even if she stood right in front of Jane.
“Eliza, who is that? The man who looks quite a lot like Jane’s betrothed,” Charlotte enquired while standing next to her best friend.
Elizabeth beckoned, and Barney joined his young sister. He was happy Ellie had called him to her side; he had just been wondering who the lady speaking to his sister was.
“Barney, this is my best friend, Miss Charlotte Lucas of Lucas Lodge. Charlotte, Mr Barnabas Wendell, my next younger Wendell brother, of Glenmeade in Staffordshire. Barney arrived the day after you and your parents called, and Uncle Stephen Granger,” Elizabeth pointed out the gentleman speaking to Sir William, “arrived yester-afternoon. He is the current master of Glenmeade and Mother and Aunt Elaine’s younger brother. ”
“Do you assist your uncle at his estate, Mr Wendell?” Charlotte enquired.
“In a little more than three years, when Barney is thirty, the estate will be his. Uncle Stephen has no children of his own,” Elizabeth explained.
“As you are Ellie’s best friend, please address me as Barney.
Besides anything else, with my father and older brother here, calling me Mr Wendell could become rather confusing,” Barney responded.
“Yes, Ellie has explained things correctly. Since I returned from my grand tour after I graduated from Cambridge, I have been working with Uncle Stephen to learn all I need to know about Glenmeade. By the time it becomes mine, with his excellent teaching, I will be a competent manager of the estate.” Barney looked at his uncle.
“I believe the reason for his wanting me to take the estate at thirty is no longer valid, but when I raised it with him, he refused to change things.”
Charlotte knew there was a story there, but she did not know Mr Wendell…Barney well enough to ask him about it. Mayhap Eliza would inform her as to what her brother had referred.
Elizabeth drifted off to her mothers, and some of her aunts, leaving Charlotte and Barney together. “My brothers may disown me if they see me speaking to you,” Charlotte said with a deadpan expression.
“Am I so objectionable?” Barney asked with mock affront.
“You are not, but they are Oxford men, and you admitted attending that other , as they call it, university,” Charlotte revealed.
Barney released a full-throated guffaw which caused not a few people standing outside of the church to swivel their heads towards him.
“I never had time for that old Cambridge versus Oxford rivalry,” he said.
“I have been accused of far worse faults than having the deficiency of character of being a Cambridge man.”
It was not hard to see that Barney was jesting, and like his younger sister, who he called Ellie, he seemed to dearly like to laugh. It was a trait Charlotte, who never took herself too seriously, enjoyed.
“Tell me, Barney, has Eliza, that is what I call Elizabeth, expressed a preference between being addressed as Ellie or Lizzy?” Charlotte enquired.
“She told me she answers to both, so she does not prefer one over the other. I suppose it is an easy way to tell the origins of the family member by the way they address her,” Barney revealed. He cogitated for a moment. “Why Eliza?”
“I always liked that form of the diminutive for Elizabeth. When we became friends, Eliza was seven and I was thirteen. I requested her permission to address her thusly, and she agreed. I am the only one who uses that name, and I have done so ever since she allowed it,” Charlotte explained.