Page 19 of Ever After End

CHAPTER 18

O n Monday, the first of June, Elizabeth, Jane and Mary accompanied their Uncle Gardiner into Glastonbury. They rode in their uncle’s carriage, Elizabeth’s hired carriage following behind with the luggage. Suddenly they heard a shout from outside, the carriage stopped, and after a moment, their groom appeared at the window of the carriage to inform them that a carriage on the way to the same place was on the side of the road, one of their horses having thrown a shoe. The company wished to know if their groom could ride on the back of their carriage into the village or to Ever After End, so that he might return with a fresh horse.

Their uncle agreed, and upon learning that the other party had only two passengers, began to offer for them to follow them in Elizabeth’s hired carriage instead of waiting for their servant, who could follow them later.

Before the offer could be made, however, another head popped up beside the groom, and a young woman with a mischievous expression peered in. “Are you all going to the fairy tale place too? Can we travel with you?”

Uncle Gardiner nodded his head but before he could offer the use of the second carriage, the young woman had grasped the carriage door, opened it, then reached behind her and pushed an older woman up and into the carriage, then climbed in after her, squeezing in beside her companion and Uncle Gardiner.

“Cramped isn’t it?” The young woman remarked to them in a rather grating tone, “Thanks for the ride.”

“You must be Miss Abigail Dutton!” exclaimed Elizabeth.

“You got the lucky one, me being the only American, but let me see. Hmmm. There are three of you ladies, so you must be the jewels of what was the town, Aunt Martha?”

“Merryville,” the older woman supplied.

“That was it, the jewels of Merryville. You must be the Bennets!” Miss Dutton said.

“It is Meryton, but yes, we are the Bennets,” answered Elizabeth easily, liking the young woman’s refreshingly forward nature.

“We are putting the cart before the horse, are we not?” asked Uncle Gardiner. “Allow me to start the introductions. I am Mr Edward Gardiner, of London. These are my nieces, Miss Jane Bennet, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and Miss Mary Bennet.”

“Well, like Elizabeth said, I’m Abigail Dutton, from Tennessee, and this is my aunt, Mrs Martha Sprague of Chilbolton, Hampshire.” She looked over at Mary appraisingly. “You’re the sister that’s as poor as Job’s turkey. Don’t worry about it. You’re pretty enough, and there'll be gentlemen aplenty here. Mrs Darlington must have invited some gentleman looking for a pious wife.”

Mary and Jane’s eyebrows rose high at her forwardness as the young woman’s aunt sighed and rolled her eyes heavenward. “Abigail, I have told you a hundred times, if you do not stop speaking of money and using slang, you will never be wed. They don’t do that here.”

“Well we had nothing to talk about before the money, did we?” retorted Abigail. “Then Pa found coal and iron on our land, and though we finally have something to talk about, we have to keep it quiet, meanwhile, everyone calls us codfish aristocracy.”

“We have no idea what that means, but I am certain no one will call you that in Somerset,” promised a wide-eyed Jane.

“They did when we got to Manhattan. Means new money ; the old dutch in New York hate new money,” said Miss Dutton. “My parents died in a carriage accident last year, after we arrived in London. They hoped to buy me a noble husband, but I can’t get a sponsor. My aunt’s husband was an English merchant she met in Charleston, so her connections can’t help me. A girl I met in town told me about this place. Said maybe I’d find an Englishman cracked enough in the head to take me. My ma was set on me marrying a proper gentleman, but only scoundrels and adventurers want new money in America.”

“We learned of Ever After End from a couple who met there. They are leasing an estate near our home,” Elizabeth shared.

“What was it like, winning the lottery?” asked Miss Dutton of Elizabeth.

“To be entirely truthful, it has been bittersweet,” said Elizabeth candidly. “No one except a few close relations, such as my sisters and my uncles, treat me the same any more. Everyone instantly wanted something, and because my uncle placed my funds in trust, I cannot give them away. I have lost friends I cherished dearly. But the entail on our estate had not been dissolved yet when I won, so it was a great relief to know that I could assist my family, should it become necessary.”

“I heard about those entails. We don’t do that in America, not since before the revolution, Pa told me,” said Abigail. “I had problems like yours when Pa got rich. All of a sudden if we couldn’t or wouldn’t give money away, we weren’t friends anymore with people we knew all our lives. Once they’d ask for money, things’d never be the same again. I’d be sitting on the curb with a cup collecting coins if we had given everyone we knew everything they asked for.” She sighed heavily. “I still miss Suellen Roy. She was my best friend.”

“My best friend turned against me too,” Elizabeth said sympathetically. “I miss Charlotte Lucas every day.”

Less than a half hour later, their party pulled up in front of a very attractive eighteenth century stone manor surrounded with abundant gardens. Somewhat larger than Netherfield, the park was stunning, and Elizabeth was already fantasizing about taking a walk when she was handed down.

A lady with a motherly demeanour in a high-quality gown that was two seasons out of fashion waited on the steps for them with a man in his fifties, who stood next to her with a military bearing. The gentleman was wearing an odd assortment of faded military regalia and attire appropriate for a country squire. The regalia and the attire was all quite obviously out of order.

“Well met!” said the lady. “I am Theodosia Darlington, the mistress of Ever After End. Welcome to my home, I am very glad to have you all. May I introduce our senior gentleman chaperone, Major Archibald Bartholomew? Major Bartholomew resides here at Ever After End, along with a selection of my close friends who serve as chaperones.”

“Thank you for your kind welcome,” spoke up Uncle Gardiner. “I am Mr Edward Gardiner of London, and these are my nieces, Miss Bennet, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and Miss Mary Bennet of Longbourn in Hertfordshire. And unexpectedly, we also have with us Mrs Martha Sprague, and her niece Miss Abigail Dutton, whom we found on the road with a lame horse.”

Greetings were tendered to everyone, and Mrs Darlington invited them all to take tea in the drawing room, so that the ladies might take refreshment, and their relations could ascertain their well being before leaving them there.

“I assume you have rooms at The Somerset Arms?” Mrs Darlington asked Uncle Gardiner and Mrs Sprague, who nodded. “Mr Atkins will have you well looked after there, I assure you. They take particular care of our friends.” They all followed her inside, Elizabeth innocently avoiding her uncle’s pointed glare at Major Bartholomew’s mismatched boots.

There were three young ladies, and five gentlemen in the room, along with three older women, two of whom were presumably chaperones, but were playing chess alone in the corner. From the guests, they were introduced to Miss Charlotte Abernathy, the Honourable Miss Aurelia Winslow, Miss Lavinia Blackwood, Mr Samuel Fletcher, Mr Thomas Elwood, Mr Lawrence Audley, Mr Edmund Cartwright, and Lord Charles Montague, Earl of Chesley. There was also a Mrs Edwina Abernathy, the grandmother of Miss Abernathy.

The older guests and their host took tea and made pleasant conversation at one side of the room while the younger sat on the other side and began the slow business of becoming acquainted. Jane tried to make pleasant conversation with Miss Winslow, who snubbed her immediately, while Elizabeth made friends with Charlotte Abernathy. Miss Abernathy was a sweet but guileless girl of about nineteen, with a dowry of three thousand. Mrs Darlington’s report stated that her grandmother was growing frail, and that the woman wished to see Miss Abernathy settled before she passed, for she had no other living family. She would inherit her grandmother’s small house in the country, but her grandmother’s insubstantial portion would immediately revert to a distant cousin after her death.

Miss Lavinia Blackwood was the daughter of a gentleman from Exeter, aged twenty, with a dowry of five thousand and very unfortunate teeth. She had, somehow, managed to gain the approbation of Miss Winslow, which Jane had not accomplished.

Miss Winslow was the daughter of a baronet from Birmingham with a portion of ten thousand pounds. There had not been a mention of why the lady might be twenty-four and still unmarried with such a dowry, but Elizabeth suspected it might be because she was so unpleasant.

The gentlemen looked terrified. They all appeared as if they suddenly realized that they were here to court women and drink tea, and they were all out of tea. Mr Samuel Fletcher was the twenty-four year old second son of a very minor gentleman from Surrey, who was a cousin of Mrs Darlington. Presumably he needed to marry a dowry, or perhaps Jane would be his target, being the heiress of an estate herself.

Mr Thomas Elwood was a twenty-nine year old philanthropic man of about two thousand a year, with no estate of his own. He was from London, and had inherited his fortune from a maternal uncle. He reportedly spent a great deal of time in charitable endeavours in the city.

Mr Lawrence Audley was the thirty-five year old master of an estate of about four thousand a year in Bedfordshire, who was a skilled equestrian and horse breeder. Presumably he was still unmarried because he had not found a lady with the right enthusiasm for his interests.

Mr Edmund Cartwright was an substantially wealthy self-made businessman of only twenty-seven. He was unmarried because he was devoted to his work, but he was now in the market for a wife, presumably a genteel one. It was said that he was also looking for an estate within a reasonable distance of London. His business had recently matured into something extremely profitable, Uncle Edward said he knew the fellow from town, and they had exchanged friendly greetings when they entered the room.

Lord Charles Montague, Earl of Chesley, was reportedly a wealthy nobleman with an estate worth twelve thousand a year, and was presumably the prize of the party. The reason he reportedly had not married was because though he was a social creature, he could not bear to be managed, and there had been too many compromise attempts in London. He had remained in the country for some years after, but had never met any ladies who interested him in his county. He had attended at the urging of Lady Jersey, who had known Mrs Darlington through Lady Anne Darcy and Lady Matlock for years. The Almack’s patroness referred a guest or two to Ever After End every summer, and the Earl had lately, being nearing thirty, expressed the desire to find a match and begin to fill his nursery.

When the ladies finished their tea, they said goodbye to their relations, and headed upstairs with the housekeeper, while those who had already seen their rooms dispersed to explore the house. Mrs Darlington prepared to meet the next group of guests on the stairs.