Page 21 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
Contrary to his niece by marriage’s nonsensical pronouncements about the house, it was far too large to be termed a cottage and had been constructed with the comfort of its inhabitants in mind.
The structure was two storeys in height and faced with the same beige stones which adorned Longbourn’s manor house’s facade.
On the ground level were the kitchens—with a set of rooms behind for the cook-housekeeper, a study, spacious dining parlour, nice-sized drawing room and a smaller parlour.
The first and second floors were where the bedchambers were found.
Half of the first floor consisted of the master suite with a private sitting room between two bedchambers.
Attached to the master’s and mistress’s bedchambers were two small but very generous sized rooms for servants, a valet, and a lady’s maid.
In addition, there were three more bedchambers.
The second floor had a suite, not as large as the master’s, and four additional bedchambers.
The attics had been constructed both for storage and space for female servants.
A sturdy stables had been built with rooms above it for four male servants.
To one side of the stables was a nice-sized coach house.
Henry had purchased a phaeton and a gig when he had decided it was time to execute his plan and move onto Longbourn’s land.
There was room for his smaller carriage in the coach house as well.
A great advantage which reduced the need for more indoor servants was the fact that when Henry had the house rebuilt, he had ordered pipes for hot and cold water with a cistern and boiler attached to a pumping system.
To fill a bath or to have water to wash dishes, et cetera, in the scullery was as simple as turning a valve on a faucet.
Henry could only smile when he thought about this and what Fanny would have said about the peasant’s house having something so convenient that Longbourn’s manor did not have.
Thanks to the sisters—Mrs Hill and Mrs Nichols—a cook who could function as the housekeeper as well had been employed.
She had been allowed to employ two scullery maids in addition to two more maids for the house.
Two manservants were added, and they with the coachman and footman, would live above the stables.
On Wednesday, the day before Lizzy’s sixteenth birthday, Henry invited the residents of Longbourn to enjoy a meal in his new home.
He received a note from Lizzy that she, Mary, and Kitty would attend.
It told that their father had not made attendance mandatory.
He did not want to trouble himself—Henry saw it as a petulant protest to being made to live by the agreements they had made—and as soon as he said that, Fanny, according to the note, had refused, allowing Jane and Lydia to do so as well.
Rather than be upset, Henry was pleased.
The best of the Longbourn Bennets would be in attendance.
Mrs Bellamy had been invited as well, and she had accepted.
Luke was at Eton in his second year. Henry had Eton offer a scholarship to Mrs Bellamy for Luke, which she had accepted knowing that education was the way for Luke to have a good life.
She did not know it yet, but she would receive the same offer from Oxford when Luke was ready to move on to university.
When Henry thought of Luke going to school, he remembered with fondness the way Lizzy had pouted that she was not allowed to attend university just because of her sex.
She had correctly stated that she would have done better than almost all of the males at the institutions of higher learning.
It had not been a boast; Henry was sure she would have done as well, if not better, than she had predicted.
As it was a cold early spring evening, Henry had sent his carriage.
He was well aware that Lizzy could walk the trifling distance from the manor house to the dower house without exerting herself.
However, he knew she would not complain because she was aware, as he was, that Mary and Kitty did not enjoy walking like she did. One thing Lizzy was not, was selfish.
It was her care for others which reassured him that he had chosen his heir with care, not that he had doubted his choice for more than five years now.
He heard the crunch of wheels on the gravel drive which led to the dower house.
Henry stood—it took him more time to straighten himself and his old bones out than it used to only a few years previously—and made his way to the front door.
He opened it just in time for three of his great-nieces to pour into the house.
One of the maids was there to relieve them of their outerwear.
“Mama would be apoplectic if she saw what this hovel not fit for pigs looks like,” Mary stated as she looked around.
Kitty nodded her agreement. She looked at her eldest sister present. “Lizzy, you do not look very surprised. Have you been here since Uncle Henry did all of this?” She asked.
“Yes, I would walk here from time to time to make sure it was being cared for like Uncle Henry required. And I agree with Mary about Mama’s reaction if she saw this house.
” Elizabeth shook her head. “When Mama makes her pronouncements about the entail, Uncle Henry, or this house, among others, it saddens me that Janey does not question whether Mama is correct or not. I do not expect more from Lydia, but I had hoped Jane would acknowledge the truth.”
Henry ushered his great-nieces into the drawing room where they would wait for Cook to summon them to dinner.
He looked at his very pretty nieces. “Enough maudlin thoughts! You have come to help me celebrate moving back to Longbourn, to live here for the first time since I departed for India in 1765. It has been a long road, but I am back on my family’s ancestral lands.
I left here a young man on his way to seek his fortune, and I return as an old man, with white hair and who needs a cane to walk any distance of note.
More than two and forty years have passed me by like it was but a few days.
That being said, to be here, surrounded by my girls, tells me that mine has been a life well lived, at least to this point,” Henry mused.
“At least you still have your hair,” Elizabeth quipped.
That caused Mary and Kitty to giggle and Henry to grin widely. He could always rely on Lizzy to lighten the mood.
The meal was delicious, and there were no extraneous courses to attempt to impress anyone. It consisted of pheasant one of the manservants had shot, roasted to a turn, with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables, followed by a berry pie with some fresh custard Cook had made that afternoon.
After the meal, Henry conducted a tour for his great-nieces who were present. They each chose one of the bedchambers on the floor where Henry resided for when any of them would spend the night at the dower house.
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The next day, Henry joined the Bennets at the manor house to celebrate Lizzy’s sixteenth birthday. He did not need Thomas to tell him that Fanny had him in her house against her protests. As normal, Jane was standoffish but polite; Lydia was just plain brash and rude.
Henry ignored the youngest Bennet and her mother as much as he was able to. Not that he expected more from Thomas, but the latter just sat there and smirked as he watched the atrocious behaviour of some of his womenfolk.
Due to the muted celebration—Fanny did not exert herself too much, as it was neither Jane’s nor Lydia’s celebration—Henry only gifted Lizzy a book. He was aware Lizzy knew he funded her clothing and her and her sisters’ education, so for her part she would have been more than pleased with no gift.
It was not hard to see that Lydia was trying to find a way to get the book and destroy it, but she could not approach without raising suspicion, so she had to control her jealous urges.
Besides, when God decided it was time for him to leave the mortal world, Lizzy would never want for anything for the rest of her life as well as the lives of her children, her children’s children, and their children.
It warmed his heart that his vast fortune would go to one as worthy as Lizzy one day.
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When his six months of mourning were over in late February, William Darcy still eschewed London. He thankfully had the excuse that he would be spending time with Richard at Rivington to tutor him in estate management and assist in any way he could.
He had waited until Anna had left Pemberley for Snowhaven with Uncle Reggie and Aunt Elaine in mid-January 1807.
It was after mid-March of 1808, when the spring planting had been completed at Pemberley before Darcy was able to travel south to join Andrew and Richard at Rivington.
It was not that he did not trust Chalmers; he did implicitly.
Rather, he had opined that as a new master of the estate, it would be good for the tenants to see him involved in the management of his land.
As it was something his late father used to do, Darcy knew it was the right thing for his estate .
He made the mistake of stopping in London to take care of some business for a few days on his way to Rivington. The error was not seeing to his business interests, but it was rather deciding to call on Bingley at his brother-in-law’s house on Curzon Street.