Page 42 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)

“I now realise that was infatuation, not love. Even had he sworn off owning slaves, I am sure we would not have been a good match. It is the same with Franklin, I do not believe I will ever see him as more than a friend’s brother.”

“Would you like me to request that Charlotte speak to Franklin? It will be better for both of you if he does not waste more of his time.”

“Thank you, Lizzy. I hope I do find the one I truly love one day.”

“It will happen according to His will. Just you wait and see. When you least expect it, it will be your turn.”

“And I hope the same for you.” Elli squeezed her cousin’s hand.

Once the sun was up above the horizon, the cousins made their way to the base of the hill where a footman and groom were tending to their horses.

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

That afternoon when Charlotte visited Elizabeth and Jane at Longbourn—since Jane had changed, she and Charlotte had become as close as the latter was to Lizzy—she was told about Elli’s lack of feelings for Franklin.

“In my opinion, my brother’s attraction to Elli stems from the one he had always had for Jane. As they look similar, he transferred his desires to Elli. He has long known that Jane did not see him that way. I will speak to him when I return to Lucas Lodge,” Charlotte stated.

“Elli was worried that her stating her feelings to me would somehow come between us in our friendship,” Elizabeth related.

“Eliza, absolutely not!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Even had she led him on, which she most certainly did not do, I would have been upset with her, but that would not have caused a rift between us. As it is, Elli is not at fault. She has never encouraged Franklin; it has been all from his side.”

“I will tell Elli when we see her on the morrow. I know she will be greatly relieved. Even after I assured her it would be so, she was nervous that things would not go well when I spoke to you,” Elizabeth explained.

“Feel free to tell her that nothing of the sort occurred.” Charlotte paused. “Is it only me who has noted that your Uncle Henry has slowed a lot recently?”

“No, we have all seen the same, but as he likes to point out, he is no longer a young man so it is only right he should feel his age,” Elizabeth replied.

“I can tell you that he is very satisfied with seeing his sister again, and the two of them becoming so close. Aunt Felicity will be nine and seventy in November. As far as Uncle Henry goes, his sight is all but gone, but his mind is as sharp as ever. Mrs Bellamy is dedicated to making sure that our great-aunt and uncle have all their needs met.”

“How did Luke do at Oxford?” Charlotte enquired.

“Very well. As you know, he has just graduated,” Jane replied. “He spent a few weeks with his mother at the end of the school year before he went to join Uncle Edward in London. He is learning the trade from our uncle after he decided that the law was not for him.”

“Uncle Edward says that Luke will make a very good manager one day,” Elizabeth added.

She remembered the days when she was thirteen and used to have a tendre for Luke.

At that age he had no interest in girls, even one who could climb trees and play games boys enjoyed as well as any.

As they both grew and got older, Elizabeth had realised it had been no more than a girlish infatuation.

However, she and Luke would always be friends.

“Lizzy, you were wool-gathering,” Jane said as she tapped her sister’s shoulder.

“Please excuse me,” Elizabeth apologised without explaining the direction of her thoughts. “What say you we go and visit Aunt Felicity and Uncle Henry at the dower house?” Elizabeth suggested.

“I would like to join you girls,” Fanny interjected.

No one had noticed her sitting quietly in one corner of the room. Ever since that first meeting with the Taylors at Longbourn, Fanny had been much quieter and more contemplative.

Jane and Elizabeth looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders.

“You are welcome, Mama, as long as you are sure,” Jane stated.

“We were going to ride, but if you do not want to walk, we can have Hill call for the carriage. It should not take too long to have the conveyance ready, and I know the horses are not working on the estate today.”

“Yes, I am sure. It is time I saw the house I called a hovel, for myself. Please have Hill let the coachman know we would like to depart in a half hour,” Fanny said rather calmly.

It was not that she doubted all she had been told, but she had to see it for herself.

For so long, she had clung to her stubborn beliefs which had been fuelled by her husband.

So that she could be sure, she needed to swallow her pride and call on the house where the man who she used to accuse of wanting to throw her from Longbourn lived.

Fanny still thought that Jane should secure the heir’s son, or failing that, Mr Bingley, but she had realised that her eldest would no longer tolerate being pushed at men regardless of Fanny’s desire to help.

As soon as the carriage approached the dower house, and Fanny got her first look at it, she knew, without seeing any more, how wrong she had been in this regard.

Why had she not listened to Lizzy, Mary, and Kitty when they had told her she was mistaken.

Even when Jane added her voice, Fanny dismissed it as Jane being influenced by Uncle Henry and Lizzy.

Once she alighted, Fanny followed her eldest daughters and Charlotte Lucas into the house. The further she walked inside the house, the more of a fool she felt.

“Lizzy, I know I heard your voice, and Jane’s too. I believe Miss Lucas is with you, but I hear one more set of footsteps, so who is it, Mary or Kitty? Or is it one of Felicity’s grandchildren?”

“It is Fanny, Uncle Henry,” she identified herself.

Uncle Henry’s eyebrows shot up until they disappeared into the white hair of his hairline.

Next to him, Aunt Felicity coughed. “Welcome, Niece,” she said, quickly slipping into her role as hostess. “To what do we owe this honour? After we first spoke about the house, I would have thought we would have welcomed you sooner.”

“I had much to consider. It is not pleasant looking in the mirror and not being sanguine with one’s own reflection.

” Fanny paused and took a deep breath. “Uncle Henry, please accept my apologies. I used you as my excuse for my behaviour and my supposed attacks of nerves. If my husband had explained the true nature of the entail when we married, I would have felt far less pressure than I did.”

“The truth is that until I insisted he read the document when I first came to call, thanks to his own indolence, your husband was not aware that the Collinses were excluded from the line of succession. Neither did he know that the first son born to one of your daughters would be the heir presumptive if Felicity had not borne a son, who himself had begot a son,” Henry related.

“Wait! Thomas knew before Jane was born? Why did he wait until after Lizzy came into the world to tell me?” Fanny demanded.

“For his own reasons, he chose not to tell you. The reason for his disclosure to you was because I required him to explain the truth of the entail to you, or I would have informed you myself,” Henry explained.

“There is no excuse for the way he told you things to make you upset for his own sport, but that being said, you were not a very good mother to your daughters either, were you Fanny?”

“No, I do not suppose I was.” Fanny turned to Jane and Lizzy. “Do you think you will ever be able to forgive me for the way I treated you over the years?”

“As long as you genuinely intend to change, then yes, Mama, I am willing to pardon you,” Elizabeth stated. “There is one thing you need to do more than any other.”

“What is that?” Fanny queried.

“Take Lydia in hand, Mama,” Jane replied.

“Can you not see that Lydia is becoming ungovernable? She was allowed to forgo her education, something that even I, who did not put forth the amount of effort I should have, am sorry about. For a woman, an education is not a disadvantage, but rather it is an advantage. And Mama, you can never again denigrate the looks of any of my sisters because they do not look like you. Lizzy, Mary, and Kitty are beauties in their own rights, but more importantly, they are intelligent and good people.” Jane paused as she smiled.

“You, who have always been on the lookout for men to marry us, have missed that one of your daughters is being courted unofficially. No, it is not me!”

Jane’s words slammed into Fanny like a cyclone’s wind.

So much so she almost missed the last thing Jane had disclosed.

A daughter being courted, and it was not Jane?

How could she have missed that. She hung her head as she admitted that if it was Lizzy or Mary, she would not have cared to notice.

“I really need to do something about Lydia, do I not?” she admitted.

“Mama, bringing Lydia to heel will be a difficult endeavour. If you are serious about doing this, the only way may be to send Lydia to a school for difficult young ladies. I know that will be very hard for you,” Elizabeth smiled as she realised something.

“With you behaving as you have for some weeks now, and if Lydia goes to school, Father will have nothing of which to make sport.”

What Lizzy said was incentive enough for Fanny. “Your father will say that we cannot afford to send her to school,” Fanny said sorrowfully.

Fanny did not notice Elizabeth look at Uncle Henry with an arched eyebrow as she cleared her throat, nor did she see his almost imperceptible nod as he understood Lizzy’s unspoken question.

“I know of a charity which educates males and females. They will pay for Lydia’s schooling, so Papa will not be able to object on financial grounds.

We,” Elizabeth indicated Jane, “with aid from Mary and Kitty, will convince our father there are more advantages than disadvantages.” Elizabeth did not prevaricate about the charity.

She simply omitted the information that it was wholly funded by Uncle Henry .

Soon after, Fanny was led on a tour of the house by Jane.

“Your mother seems to be changing for the better,” Charlotte, who had been silent the whole time, noted.

“I will pray it will continue and not be anything short-term,” Elizabeth replied.

A half hour or so later Fanny returned to the drawing room with Jane. She was in shock. The house was far more comfortable than Longbourn’s manor, and it was not that much smaller. Yes, she had been a fool about so many things.