Page 13 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
W hen he reached Sherwood Dale, Henry had a heavy heart.
He knew it was because he missed seeing Lizzy every day and experiencing the new wonders she discovered in the world daily.
To be able to see things, to which he had become jaded, through Lizzy’s eyes was a treat Henry had never expected to have.
Lizzy was a shining light, one which warmed any who cared to see how special she was.
It was why he had taken steps to make sure that no one at Longbourn would be allowed to dim her light.
If Thomas did not stand by their agreement, Henry would use his enormous wealth to punish those responsible for hurting Lizzy.
Not the least of them would be his selfish, indolent nephew.
The question of why Thomas was so different from his late father was one which plagued Henry.
The late James Bennet and Henry had not been close. However, his brother had been very attentive to his duties, was not selfish, and was certainly never indolent. The only thing Henry could imagine was that as the only child, Thomas had been too indulged, which had spoilt him.
Until Thomas’s supremely selfish act of demanding Lizzy be returned to Longbourn for his own amusement, Henry had included a small legacy in his will—fifty thousand pounds, which was small when compared to his vast resources—as, after all, his nephew was closely related by blood.
One of the things he had done when Mr Crawley made the changes he had ordered to the will was to have Thomas removed as a beneficiary.
After his first meeting with Fanny, she had never been in the older version of his last will and testament.
Henry had added bequests to dower any Bennet daughters, other than Lizzy, with thirty thousand pounds each.
With the wealth Lizzy stood to inherit, the other sisters’ dowries were a pittance.
Like he had done with what Lizzy would inherit—if she was his eventual heir and nothing changed—he made sure that the dowries were protected both from the Bennet parents and any potential fortune hunters.
There were some special terms which would reduce the amount for each daughter individually if she refused education and behaved improperly.
The Bennet parents would never be told that any of their daughters were very well-dowered. He was sure that they would want to know how he was able to do so, and Fanny would crow about the amount to one and all.
Henry knew Lizzy had wormed her way into his heart, but he had not expected the pain of the separation to be so great.
He pushed the hurt of missing Lizzy to the side when his carriage came to a halt in the gravel-covered drive before the manor house of his estate.
Wickham, the butler, and the housekeeper were all present to welcome him.
Behind them the servants were arranged in two neat rows.
Henry had issued orders that no one was to wait outside to welcome him in inclement weather or in the cold.
As this was a clear spring day, even though he did not see the need for such a display, Henry would not say anything but to thank those waiting to welcome him.
After conveying his thanks, he indicated that the servants should be released, which the housekeeper and butler did.
Before Wickham left, Henry requested his steward meet him in his study in an hour.
The man had said he would be there, and then Henry had made his way up to the master suite where Rouse was already busy unpacking the trunks.
After essentially not being in residence at Sherwood Dale for six years, there were numerous trunks to deal with.
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Elizabeth was missing Uncle Henry terribly.
The only thing which made her move to Longbourn tolerable was that the three nurses, who had taken care of her since she could remember, were there, and one of them was with her at all times.
In addition, Mrs Bellamy had begun her lessons already, and Luke came with her just like he did when they had been at Netherfield Park.
She did not know Papa, and she had only briefly met the lady whom Papa told her was her mama. That lady did not seem very happy with her, but Lizzy knew not why.
Fanny was not pleased. Her husband had happened upon her when she was trying to tell Jane to keep her distance from her other, less pretty, sisters.
He, who never before cared about how she raised Jane, had threatened to withhold a half year’s pin money if she ever spoke against her other daughters again.
Not only that, but Thomas had ordered that Jane would join the lessons with the governess, and she would remain in the nursery.
He had told Jane that it was wrong not to be friendly towards her younger sisters.
Fanny had held her peace because she was not willing to forgo even one quarter’s allowance.
She had wanted to move Jane out of the nursery and into a bedchamber because she was concerned that as Miss Lizzy had been raised by Uncle Henry for six years she would try and undo all of her lessons about how Uncle Henry would steal her home one day. Her husband had overruled her.
At least, Elizabeth was not alone in the nursery; Jane was there; she was nine, and Mary had been brought back from the cottages the day after Elizabeth came to Longbourn.
Mary would be four soon. At first, Jane was a little distant, but something had changed, and she seemed to become friendlier each day.
Mary seemed to be in awe of her. Mary wanted nothing more than to learn to play the pianoforte, and she was amazed that her next older sister could already play it.
She did not say it, but Elizabeth was surprised that Jane did not play an instrument and that she had never been taught by a governess but was to begin her lessons as of the next day.
For his part, Bennet saw it was better to, than not, abide by the terms of the agreement with Uncle Henry.
In the few days since Lizzy had come to Longbourn, he had seen how right he was about the petite girl’s intelligence.
In addition, she looked like a younger version of his late mother.
They had played one game of chess. He had won, of course, but it had been no easy feat.
She had made him work for every one of her pieces he took, and she had removed many of his warriors from the board.
His second daughter’s reading level was that of a child almost double her age, and she comprehended what she read. No, he would do nothing which would induce his uncle to take Lizzy away as agreed to in that infernal document.
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Like her younger sister, Hattie Phillips was not pleased, but for very different reasons.
Frank had a lock placed on the door leading from the house into his offices, and if that was not bad enough, there was another lock on the door to his office from the outside.
When a few days past, some men had come to do some work at her husband’s behest; Hattie had thought nothing of it.
That was until she decided to go snoop in his offices when she knew he and his clerks had vacated them for the rest of the day.
She had been angry that the door which used to give her access to the law offices was locked. She could not very well go to her husband and demand he give her a key. That would entail her admitting to searching through his papers, and Hattie did not relish that.
The next day, she went into the office at a time she knew her husband was out and demanded that the head clerk provide her with a key.
He had politely, but firmly, refused. Hattie had ceased her demands when the man informed her of the instructions from Mr Phillips.
No one was to receive a key without his permission.
Hattie knew her husband’s employees well enough to know they would not gainsay Frank.
With no good cheer, she had retreated. One of her primary sources of information to gossip over had been lost to her.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Henry had been at his desk for less than ten minutes when there was a knock on the door.
“Come,” he called out. The door opened, and his steward entered, his hat in hand.
Henry indicated the chairs before his desk and waited for Wickham to choose one.
“I know my estate is in good order; otherwise, you would have let me know about any issues.”
“That is true enough, Mr Bennet,” Wickham agreed.
“The spring planting is proceeding anon, and the tenants are as happy here as I have heard from fellow stewards in the area that any of theirs are. Mr Darcy’s steward, Mr Chalmers, has been willing to answer questions whenever I had any.
It is not often I have anything to ask him after almost ten years, but it is good to know he is available in case I have something to discuss with him. ”
“I could see from the reports you sent while I was away for these past six years that I could not have left the estate in better hands.” Henry paused for some seconds.
“Please tell me if I overstep, but how are things going with your wife and son? Has there been an improvement since the conversation we had in this office?”
“For about a year, it was better, or so it looked. That was until I discovered that Johanna was filling my George’s head with all of her covetous beliefs and was teaching him to be grasping like she is,” Wickham revealed.
“I began to educate George myself, and I believe over the years since I began I have erased the harm she did. To punish me when I began to supervise my son’s education, I am afraid my wife lashed out in a most inappropriate manner. ”
It was easy to see this was a difficult subject for Wickham to discuss. “Wickham, you have no obligation to tell me if you do not choose to,” Henry stated. He had a good idea what Mrs Wickham had done.