Page 68 of A Life Diverted
“To help you in this, I have written some letters, two that you will post for me after you have told her. I wrote just in case the worst happened. The most important of them all is for my—our—daughter. You will know when to give it her if you need to before she is eighteen.
One is for my Freddy; it is the top one on the escritoire in the corner. Please fill in her name and gender where I have left spaces in his letter. As far as her birthfather goes; what, if any, relationship she has with him will be her choice alone.”
Priscilla went silent for a minute or two and Fanny was worried she had passed until she saw her chest still rising and falling—barely. “Priscilla, conserve your strength,” Fanny beseeched.
“No, I must complete this now. One is for Thomas to thank him for raising my child as his own. Will you be able to keep this from him until Elizabeth is eighteen?” Fanny nodded—she had given her oath.
“I need you to understand, Thomas will not allow the truth of Elizabeth’s birth to be concealed from her birthfather, and you know why I believe it is imperative to keep this from him do you not?
I do not want her being raised in a loveless gilded cage as the royals are wont to do. ” Fanny nodded her understanding.
“The fourth one is my goodbye to my parents. If they try to contact me before that time—only if they are looking to make amends and not for selfish reasons—you may inform them of my passing, otherwise, the letter will suffice.” Priscilla paused to gird her strength and recover some breath.
“I need to dictate a letter to you in case you ever meet any of my friends—the few who have remained true to me—and they suspect the truth.
Fanny brought paper and wrote what her friend dictated and then with some of the little strength Cilla had left, she signed the letter shakily.
“Lastly, please summon the midwife, maids, and Nichols back in, but have one of them bring your son. Did you name him, Fanny?” Fanny shook her head. “We will name him Frederick, as that will allay suspicion when his gravestone is seen.”
With effort, Fanny reached the door and conveyed the mistress’s orders. As soon as the four women entered, one maid was told to transfer little Elizabeth to the cot in Mrs. Bennet’s room and the other maid was told to place Fanny’s stillborn boy in Priscilla’s daughter’s cot.
With supreme effort, Priscilla swore the maids to silence and had Fanny write out a note that awarded each two thousand pounds.
Next, Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Sherman were sworn to silence, and awarded five thousand pounds each.
Mrs. Nichols told her ailing mistress she would do it for nothing, but Priscilla insisted, telling her to gift the money to her children for their future if she did not want it for herself.
Once the two of them were alone again, Priscilla had the breath to speak to Fanny one last time.
“You, my sister, were the reason I did not give up after I lost my Frederick. I love you, Fanny.” After her final speech, her breathing became nearly undetectable, until she breathed her last and her last exhale slowly escaped.
Priscilla had clung to life to make sure her wishes were known and had let go once she knew all was in order.
Fanny sat crying, holding her best friend’s hand for more than an hour after she ceased to breathe and only slowly made her way back to her chambers when she was told her daughter needed to be fed.
It was then that Mrs. Nichols sent a footman to summon Mr. Jones, the local doctor and apothecary. He pronounced both mother and son dead. He examined Mrs. Bennet and her daughter and exclaimed that both seemed to be doing as well as could be expected in these first hours.
Fanny looked at her daughter, discovering she had a great deal of hair on her head already; it was the same mahogany colour as Priscilla’s. Her eyes were blue, but Fanny was aware her eye colour could change as much as six to eight months after birth.
‘ I will love your Elizabeth, your Lizzy, as if she were born of my body, Priscilla, just as I will always love you. I will do all you have asked of me, and as difficult as it will be to keep this from my husband, I will not tell Thomas about the swap of our babies until the time you have decreed. I will miss you every minute of every day I have left in the mortal world, but I will have a small part of you with me at Longbourn. Farwell, my friend; may God bless you and watch over both you and baby Fredrick for me. ’ Fanny intoned to herself—her eyes lifted to the heavens—as Elizabeth suckled hungrily.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The day before Priscilla and baby Frederick’s funeral, the Prince arrived at Netherfield. After he spent time crying over the body of his former wife and his late son, he sought Fanny Bennet out. “Why did she not tell me she was with child, Mrs. Bennet?” Frederick asked.
“You know why, your Highness. She loved you so very much, and she did not want to make a terrible situation harder than it already was. She intended to tell you after you were married to ensure you would not dishonour your father’s wishes,” Fanny explained.
“Thank you for not letting her pass away alone, Mrs. Bennet. She may not be with us anymore, but she will always reside in my heart,” Frederick stated solemnly.
The Prince admired Mrs. Bennet’s baby daughter, who Jane was watching over as Elizabeth slept in her cot.
He saw her hair colour was similar to Priscilla’s, and when the babe woke and opened her large eyes he noted her deep blue eyes which looked like Fanny’s eye colour.
He may have been a Prince, Duke, and a General, but he had no idea that eye colour could change, as Elizabeth was the first babe he had seen so soon after birth.
His Royal Highness, the Duke of York and Albany, Earl of Ulster, remained until after the funeral, then, with his heart breaking all over again, he departed back to Town.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Less than a week after Priscilla’s passing, Thomas Bennet returned to Longbourn. Once informed by the Hills where his wife and daughters were, he went directly to Netherfield Park without stopping to change or wash.
Bennet had started his journey merely hours after receiving the missive from Fanny telling him that both Priscilla and her son had passed. He was sure his wife was devastated, understanding well how strong the bonds of sisterhood were between the two.
On his arrival at Netherfield Park, he was shown to the chambers his wife was in.
On seeing her husband, the well of emotions Fanny had been holding back burst open as she fell into her husband’s arms, crying with wracking sobs that tore at his heart.
Bennet had no reason to believe she was crying for anything but Priscilla and her son.
He, too, lamented; they would have gladly taken him into their hearts and home had he survived.
It would have given his wife the solace of assisting her Cilla during all of her years to come.
Fanny’s resolve to honour her late friend’s wishes by not informing her husband of Elizabeth’s true parentage almost failed her as she cried in his arms, and he comforted her with soothing words.
Just as she was about to tell him all, her pledge to her dear Cilla replayed in her head and she remained silent on the subject.
“How I will miss her, Thomas. To lose both her and her son in the same day almost killed me, but I knew I needed to remain strong for our daughters,” Fanny told her husband once she was able to talk again.
“I know how close you were, Fanny, and it is understandable you will mourn her and her son. Take as long as you need to grieve her, for we will face this as a family,” Bennet promised gently as he kissed her wet cheeks.
“Thomas, there is much I need to tell you,” Fanny stated as her husband dried her tears with his handkerchief.
“A month ago, or perhaps it is now longer, Priscilla made a new last will and testament. She dowered each of our daughters we have or will have with twelve thousand pounds each, except for Elizabeth,” she nodded in understanding at his confusion.
“I will explain all of that soon, Thomas, but please know that if you predecease me, I will have two thousand a year, making the entail immaterial if we are never blessed with a son.”
“My goodness, Fanny, such generosity! I am speechless,” a flabbergasted Bennet stated. “You do know we have money invested with Edward do you not?” Fanny shook her head. “I will add to Jane and our future daughters’ dowries, and to your portion as well from the dividends your brother earns for us.”
“Thomas, Cilla was enormously wealthy. I have trouble comprehending the size of her wealth, and she argued when I tried to refuse her gifts that it was a mere pittance in the grand scheme of things. Now, to Lizzy. I do not know if Cilla had a premonition, but she said she took it as a sign from God we were with child at the same time. In her last will and testament, everything not willed specifically to another would have been for her child had he survived. She added a clause that in the case both she and her child passed away, everything else would go to our second child,” Fanny told her husband the well-rehearsed story.
“Good Lord! Just how wealthy is our new daughter, Fanny?” Bennet asked in shock.
“In addition to Netherfield, Cilla had over three hundred thousand pounds invested for her; it is being managed by Edward. We are allowed up to five thousand per annum from the dividends to use as we see fit.” Fanny paused as her husband assimilated the size of the enormous fortune his second daughter had been gifted.
“Our brother Phillips is the executor of the will, and there is a stipulation that her wealth is to be carefully hidden from the world and herself until she is betrothed or until her eighteenth birthday. Lizzy is to be informed then, and everything becomes hers when she attains her majority three years later or if she marries prior to turning one and twenty.”
“We will use a good part of that annual allowance to increase the portions of Jane and any subsequent children we have in addition to the money we earn from my investment with Gardiner. I will have our brother draw up documents that will safeguard our daughters from fortune hunters, and I cannot but approve that Elizabeth’s wealth must not be known until she is ready to make that decision for herself,” Bennet agreed.
Fanny told him of the heart-breaking scene when Prince Frederick came to say his farewells to Cilla and his son. She then led her husband into the adjoining room where Jane was sitting and watching as a nursemaid bounced the gurgling babe on her lap.
“Papa, do you see my Lizzy,” Jane enthused as she ran into her father’s outstretched arms.
“I do, my little Janie, but let me get a closer look at your new sister,” Bennet said as he accepted the babe from the nursemaid.
Out of her swaddling the biggest blue-green eyes stared back at him, and Bennet was lost in that instant.
Unlike Jane, she had mahogany coloured hair similar to Bennet’s late mother’s, and he was immediately under her spell.
Two days later, the Bennets moved back to Longbourn.