Page 9 of A Life Diverted
D uring the first day, the coachman made good progress. As the girl had been discovered at the Snorting Bull Inn in Huntingdonshire, it was where he overnighted.
As Mr Bennet had spoken to the innkeeper the morning before they departed for the south, the man was familiar with what had occurred; however, no new information about a missing girl had been discovered in the intervening days.
With the landlord’s permission, Smithers posted a notice on the wall in the taproom.
The next morning rain was coming down in sheets.
Not wanting to wait any longer, the coachman decided to press on.
It took longer than normal given the torrents of rain, but he eventually reached the last inn where they had made a rest stop in Northamptonshire before travelling on to overnight in Huntingdonshire.
It was the same at the Bleating Sheep Inn.
No word of a lost girl. Like before, the landlord did not object to Smithers leaving notices behind.
Seeing that the rain had lessened, the coachman left the inn and drove on northward.
While he was driving along a stretch which, on one side, had a very sharp drop to a raging river below, a rather strong wind began to blow, which rocked the carriage from side to side.
There was no choice but to continue on given the lack of shelter where he was.
Suddenly there was an unexpected gust of wind with great force.
It caught the carriage and flipped it, the horses, and the coachman over the edge of the drop as if they weighed nothing. By the time it reached the river below, the carriage was broken into firewood thanks to rocks it hit along the way down, and there was neither human nor animal left living.
The notices which had not been carried away by the wind were destroyed by the river which had been swollen by the torrential rain.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Until a letter arrived from Sir Guy telling that his carriage had not returned, Bennet had had no reason to believe that Smithers and the carriage had done anything but arrive back at his former patron’s estate as would be expected.
A few weeks later, a second missive was received in which Sir Guy related that wreckage of his carriage had been discovered in Northamptonshire and Smithers had not survived. Given the occurrence, Bennet had not thought to burden Sir Guy with information about Lizzy.
She had been with them for about a month now, and it felt like she was a part of the family already.
The Bennets made no secret of the fact Lizzy was a foundling or that as long as she resided with them, they expected her to be treated just like any other Bennet.
It was during this time that Bennet began to learn about his role as master of the estate.
He was fortunate that fellow landowners in the area were very generous with their time, especially Sir Kenneth Morris, a baronet and owner of Netherfield Park, an estate larger than his own on the other side of Meryton.
It was about three miles from one manor house to the other, and as time passed, the two men became the best of friends.
Messrs Long, Goulding, Purvis, and Saltz, all owners of smaller estates than Bennet’s, were the other principal men who assisted Bennet in coming to grips with his role.
His late father had educated him to a certain extent, but knowing his second son had decided to go into the church, James Bennet had put most of his efforts into teaching Henry, his heir.
Bennet did not resent his late father for that decision, especially when he had recommended his father do so.
No one had imagined a scenario where both father and heir would be taken together.
No matter how busy he kept, Bennet made sure to make time for Fanny and his girls—he was beginning to think of Lizzy as such—and he was happy to see that Lizzy seemed to be becoming more and more comfortable with him and his family.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Each day that passed and no one came to enquire about Lizzy was, in Fanny’s mind, a gift from God.
At some level, she knew that there was a very good chance a family was hurting, missing their daughter.
If they came calling and they knew things no one else would, Fanny would hand her over with pleasure.
But unless and until that occurred, the little girl was part of her family.
At times, she wondered if God had sent them Lizzy to replace the child she had lost when she had the miscarriage.
When she had suggested that to Thomas, he had told her that God in His wisdom would not hurt one Godly family to reward another.
Given his former vocation, Fanny had deferred to her husband’s judgment in that.
It warmed her heart to see how close Janie and Lizzy were becoming.
She was sure that if Lizzy remained with them, she and Jane would be as close, if not closer, than any sisters who were related by blood.
Lizzy had been a balm to Mother Beth’s grief as well. Fanny remembered back to the first Monday after they had arrived at Longbourn, their third day in residence.
Mother Beth had been sitting in the drawing room, staring out in the direction of the graveyard next to the church as the melancholy of her loss was threatening to overwhelm her regardless of her promise to move forward.
Lizzy, sensing Mother Beth’s sorrow, had climbed up on her lap, hugged her, and rested her head on her shoulder .
That loving act had pulled Mother Beth out of her melancholy. She had engulfed Lizzy in a warm hug. Even though Mother Beth had shed some tears, she had felt happier and stronger. From that moment on, she had truly moved forward and engaged in the work of living.
Since then, Mother Beth and Lizzy had almost adopted one another. Even though there was a very special bond between her and Lizzy, there was no reduction in Grandmama’s time or love for Janie.
Between time with the girls and teaching Fanny everything she needed to know to be a good mistress of the estate, Beth Bennet did not have time to allow her sorrow to rule her life. As she had said she would, Beth had moved to the dower house a fortnight after Thomas and Fanny arrived at Longbourn.
Thankfully her late husband, James, had seen fit to make sure the house—more like a large cottage—was always in good repair and it had been cleaned once a month.
Like the rest of the house, the stables, with room for two horses, and the small barn, which doubled as a carriage house, were in good repair as well.
Her little carriage was kept in the barn, and the pony that pulled the conveyance was very warm and comfortable in the stables, well cared for by the groom Thomas assigned to her.
He doubled as her manservant when needed.
Beth used to ride, but it had been some years since she had, so the second stable stall was empty.
Thanks to her phaeton, Beth could visit the manor whenever she pleased. Much to the delight of Jane and Lizzy, she would take them for rides with her when Fanny and Bennet allowed it, which was any time Jane did not have lessons with Miss Weasley.
In this way, life at Longbourn settled into a comfortable rhythm.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~ ~
At first the notice of a reward had not garnered much attention. However, that all changed when the reward reached and exceeded one thousand pounds.
Suddenly the Wendells were inundated with people claiming to have discovered their daughter. The newspaper had listed her name, approximate age, and not much else. It made sorting through all those attempting to prey on the family’s grief that much easier.
Wendell watched his wife sink further into melancholy by the stream of parents, trying to pass their own children off as Ellie; willing to sell their daughters for the reward.
After a month, he had the notice removed from all the papers in which it had appeared.
Not only that, but all of the papers printed an announcement that the offer for a reward had been rescinded.
Only once the stream of grasping liars who were attempting to make money off the Wendells’ misery ceased, were they able to begin a measure of healing.
He finally had to accept that Sir Albus’s opinion that the thief had murdered and then disposed of their beautiful, sweet girl was more than likely the truth. It was time to tell Cilla what he had accepted.
“If Ellie was no longer alive, I would feel it in my heart! I know my girl is alive. I will be the mother David and Barney need, but that does not mean I will ever stop hoping I will see my girl again,” Cilla insisted after Joseph had told her about the conclusion he had reached. “It is not even two months yet.”
“I want to believe that more than anything in the world, but we need to move on. There is nothing more I would like than to be proved wrong. This is what I need to accept for my own sanity, my love,” Wendell replied.
“Please understand I am not demanding you agree with me. I will not attempt to change your mind. Even though it is what I believe, I will leave her dowry where it is. It will remain invested and will always be hers.”
Cilla felt the anger bleed out of her body.
Joseph had been correct; they each had to do what they felt they needed to be able to move forward.
They had two boys who needed their love.
David and Barney missed Ellie terribly, and the last thing the boys needed was their parents to be at loggerheads over Ellie’s disappearance.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
A young boy had been playing in a field in Leicestershire, not far from the border with Northamptonshire, when he found a partial page of paper with script on it. He took it home to his Da, who could read, at least a little.
“Da, what be this?” the boy questioned as he thrust what was left of the page up to his father.