Page 72 of A Life Diverted

“Fanny, Bennet, and my beautiful nieces, I am so happy to see all of you,” Edward Gardiner said to the Bennets as they arrived at the parsonage. They were welcomed by Reverend Lambert for a family dinner to meet his daughter and her siblings.

“Will you introduce us to your new family please, Gardiner?” Bennet requested.

Gardiner proudly introduced his betrothed Madeline, called Maddie; her father, the Reverend Arthur Lambert; Harry, the eldest Lambert offspring, and his wife Amanda; and the middle sibling, Grant.

“Edward told me you girls are very advanced in your musical and language studies,” Madeline Lambert told her soon-to-be nieces, hoping to put them at ease. “Where are your other three sisters?”

“Mary was tired from our excursions today, so she is with Kitty and Lydia at the inn,” Fanny explained.

“Oh, yes,” Hattie Phillips interjected, “Fanny’s girls are more accomplished than many older girls.

” Hattie no longer gossiped, but she was proud of her nieces, for it was on them she and her husband poured their attention and time to make up for the sad fact she and Frank had not been blessed with children of their own.

“ Quam operor vos facere, Miss Jane?” Reverend Lambert asked Jane how she was in Latin, sure girls so young might know a word or two, but no more.

“ Ego sum etiam valde gratias ago tibi, domine. Quid agis hodie ?” Jane responded in his selected language, saying she was well and asking the clergyman how he was with perfect elocution. Just when he believed he could not be more shocked, the younger girl introduced as Lizzy spoke.

“ Domine dominus noster Latina didicit ex nostra bene Lectiones sumus .” Elizabeth offered proudly, telling him that they had learnt Latin well from their masters.

“Good lord!” Mr. Lambert exclaimed.

“Would you rather converse in Greek, French, or Italian, sir?” Elizabeth asked innocently. After the shock wore off, there was laughter in the room as everyone assimilated the knowledge that Hattie Phillips had not made an empty boast.

After a very enjoyable dinner, Maddie led the ladies and the two eldest Bennet sisters to the drawing room while the men sat and drank their port or brandy at the table. “Lambert, do you know the Darcys?” Bennet asked.

“Quite well. They are the nicest of people, always willing to help, and not just with money. Why do you ask? Do you know them?” Lambert senior asked.

Bennet relayed the happenings at Pemberley that morning.

He had to calm his daughters’ uncles down; both wanted to ride to that estate to whip the insolent whelp.

“There is no need, because his father will hear of it and punish him,” Lambert senior opined.

“Trust me when I tell you that Robert Darcy does not believe in sparing the rod and spoiling the child. Lady Anne loves all things musical and is an extremely proficient player of the pianoforte and harp, so I am sure she would have loved to have heard your Lizzy play.”

The statement from Lambert calmed the uncles considerably and placated Bennet to a certain degree. No one spoke to any member of his family thus, no matter who they were in their circle of society or whatever their rank.

When the men joined the ladies, Jane entertained them on the upright pianoforte in the drawing room. It was the second time that night that Hattie Phillips’ pronouncement had been proven as honest as it had been unbelievable.

“My goodness, first Lizzy and now Jane. How is it you are so proficient at such young ages?” Madeline asked.

“Have you heard of Signore Alberto da Funti, the most sought-after music master in London?” Fanny asked playfully, and both Maddie and her sister-in-law Mandy agreed they had.

“He has been with us for two days a week for more than three years now, teaching our girls and others from our neighbourhood.”

“Even so, your girls must have innate ability to be as advanced as they are at such young ages, regardless of the quality of their masters,” Amanda Lambert opined.

She was pregnant with her and her husband’s first and could only pray her child would have a small measure of the intelligence and talent she saw in the Bennet sisters, not to mention the striking beauty of the two present.

“The reason we started bringing in language masters was the way Jane and Lizzy, and later Mary, picked up Italian from the Signore . He has been working with the older two for over two years but has had only a few months with Mary. Jane and Lizzy speak Italian like a native, and Mary is just beginning and catching on nicely. It seems my girls have an aptitude for languages,” Fanny offered by way of an explanation.

It was not a boast, just a statement of fact.

Not long after, the Bennet, Gardiner, and Phillips families returned to the Big Bull Inn to turn in for the night.

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

Two days later, on a warm and clear Friday morning, Edward Gardiner and Madeline Lambert were joined in holy wedlock at St. Crispin’s church in Lambton.

As he preferred to walk his daughter up the aisle to her betrothed, Mr. Lambert’s good friend and the pastor of the Pemberley church had the pleasure of performing the marriage rites in his friend’s stead.

The wedding breakfast had been organised by a committee of ladies from the parish and was celebrated in the hall where the bi-monthly local assemblies were held in Lambton.

Given the Lamberts’ popularity, especially their goodhearted Madeline’s, practically everyone in the small market town wanted to wish them well.

Many of the ladies in the town had provided dishes, so there was enough food to feed all those who attended—twice over. It was a boisterous affair, and only quieted for an instant when the master and mistress of Pemberley stopped by.

Mr. Robert and Lady Anne Darcy made a brief visit to wish the bride and her groom happy. They scanned the crowd, quickly finding the well-dressed couple with the three beautiful and impeccably behaved girls, correctly guessing they were the family to whom William had been so rude.

When the little girl with the mahogany hair turned around, Lady Anne gasped, blinking slowly because she was certain she was wrong, despite what she thought she had seen.

Growing up, her dearest of friends was Priscilla De Melville.

The two had been introduced when Priscilla was five and Anne Fitzwilliam, as she was then, eight.

From that point on, they had spent as much time together as their respective parents would allow.

Lady Anne knew all about Priscilla’s marriage to Prince Frederick and had written to her friend on a regular basis.

After the King had forced the two apart, Lady Anne’s letters were not answered again, and she suspected it had something to do with Priscilla’s parents breaking with her.

It had hurt Anne Darcy to lose touch with her friend, but she had respected her friend’s wishes.

Lady Anne could not believe her eyes; before her she saw Priscilla as she was at age five when they first met.

She gracefully rubbed her eyes to make sure she was not seeing things, but it did not change the picture before her.

The same hair, height, and the eyes. The brightest green eyes, so stunning, which Lady Anne would never forget.

Realising that she was staring, she took her husband’s hand as they paid their respects to Reverend Lambert and departed.

“Anne, are you well?” Robert Darcy asked with concern. His wife suffered from indifferent health at best. “You look as if you have seen a ghost.”

“Robert, I should not have stared, but the family, the one William abused, their one daughter? It gave me chills up and down my spine when I saw her,” Lady Anne shared with her worried husband.

“What about the girl perturbed you, my sweet?” Robert asked his wife, concerned at her feeling so very unsettled when they were discussing none but a child. “I will cancel our acceptance of Holder’s invitation if you are too disconcerted by being in company with that family.”

“NO! That is not what I want, in fact I want the very opposite . You remember my friend—my dearest friend—Lady Priscilla De Melville as was?” Lady Anne asked.

“I do. She was a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Duchess of York and Albany until the King ordered a divorce,” Robert remembered.

“You know she was my very close friend since we were little girls, do you not?” Robert Darcy nodded. “What flustered me today was seeing one of those gorgeous girls, the one with the mahogany-coloured hair and green eyes,” Lady Anne explained.

“I saw all three, but did not note individual features,” Robert owned.

“I felt as if I were eight again; I would have sworn I had gone back in time to the day I met Priscilla at five, because that girl did not just look similar to her, she looked exactly like my friend,” Lady Anne insisted.

“How can that be, unless the family is somehow related to the De Melvilles,” Darcy surmised.

“Which is why it is imperative we keep to the visit with the Carringtons next week. I need to see her close up to be sure it was not a trick of the light or my imagination, as I have been missing Priscilla these almost six years with no news of her,” Lady Anne stated emphatically.

“You know I would deny you nothing it is in my power to grant you, Anne. I will not change the plans. I did receive a note from Holder, and William is welcome. In fact, Jamey is excited to have the company of another boy his own age,” Darcy shared.

Lady Anne hoped Priscilla did not think she had cut her as her parents and many others had. If only she had some way of contacting her friend again!

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

“Mama, why was the tall, pretty, blond lady staring at me at the wedding breakfast?” Elizabeth asked as the family walked back to the Black Bull.

“You were not the only who noted that, Lizzy, so did I. I have no idea why, but I doubt we will ever see the lady again,” Fanny responded.

She would not admit it—could not admit it—but Fanny felt she knew exactly why Lady Anne Darcy had started at Lizzy.

She might have need of the fifth letter she carried with her.

“How long will it take us to reach Uncle Paul and Aunt Edith on the morrow?” Jane asked.

“It is about four hours,” Bennet averred. “Do you have somewhere you need to be tomorrow that you worry about the time it will take us?”

“No, silly Papa; I just wanted to know,” Jane returned through a big smile.

“You have the right of it, Janie. Your Papa can be silly, can he not?” Fanny responded playfully to her now giggling daughters.

“Do not be silly, Papa,” Mary told her father in between giggles.

Bennet gave a mock-stern look which caused his three daughters to giggle all the harder, a sound he could never hear enough times in a day.

“If I see that mean boy again, I will kick him,” Elizabeth insisted.

It was true she had been upset, but at some point that had turned to anger.

William, that was his name, the housekeeper had called him William. Insufferable William!

“If that rude boy shows his face again, Uncle Phillips and your father will protect you,” Hattie stated with conviction. She would have loved to have given the boy a piece of her mind, for no one frightened her nieces and got off scot-free!

“If I see him, I will box his ears,” Jane insisted, her arms akimbo, “No one talks to my sister in that fashion!”

“If I were the rude boy, I would keep far away from you, Jane,” Fanny stated with amusement.

“Will you box his ears if he apologises?” Bennet asked, trying to hide his grin from his almost eight-year-old.

“Mayhap not if it is a sincere apology,” Jane replied thoughtfully. “I may hold off punishing him for now,” Jane related perfectly seriously.

“Do not forget, daughters,” Fanny stated as they entered their suite of rooms, “we must always allow those who trespass against us the chance to own their error and beg the aggrieved party’s pardon first.”

“Yes, Mama,” all three girls chorused.

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

That evening at the inn, as their servants packed for their departure to Holder Heights, another group of servants were packing for the master, mistress, the young master, and their nephew, young master Fitzwilliam.

Like the Bennets and Phillipses, the Darcys planned to depart for the Carrington’s estate early the next morning.

The Earl and Countess of Matlock, Lord Reginald and Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam, and their older son and heir, Andrew Fitzwilliam, Viscount Hilldale, would arrive at Holder Heights early in the afternoon that Saturday, if all went as planned.