Page 49 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
“I t is completely unacceptable that Mr Darcy will not travel with us into Hertfordshire,” Miss Bingley screeched. In three days, they were to make for the benighted estate in the wilds of Hertfordshire, and her brother had just broken news to her which she most certainly did not want to hear.
“It will be interesting to see how you will force Darcy to change his travel plans,” Hurst prodded. His florid complexion was lit up with a grin.
“You sot, no one spoke to you!” Miss Bingley spat out, but she considered her brother-in-law’s words.
Her aim was to be agreeable to Mr Darcy at all times, so how was she to achieve that?
If he heard she was upset with his choice to travel alone, a day or two after them, he would not be pleased.
She turned to her brother. “In that case, we will delay and join Mr Darcy when he travels.”
“Caroline, that will not work,” Bingley asserted.
He quickly thought of how to articulate what he needed in a way which would appeal to his sister’s desire to impress Darcy.
“What will our guests, including Darcy, think if they arrive at the estate with us, and you have not prepared it to receive guests yet?”
As much as she wanted to refute her brother’s words, Miss Bingley could not.
“Even though I am positive Mr Darcy will be bereft of my company on the journey into that backwater, I have decided to make the sacrifice and travel as planned so I can be sure the house will be presentable when Mr Darcy and the others arrive.” She was determined that one way or another she would not return to London as a single woman.
“She is delusional,” Hurst said quietly as he shook his head.
Bingley heard his brother-in-law’s words; he could only pray that Caroline had not. It would invite a tantrum, and Bingley wanted to avoid those at all costs. He tried to push the problem of his younger sister from his consciousness by thinking of meeting possible angels in Hertfordshire.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Having had a good night’s sleep, the first one not in an inn since he had been wrongly ejected from his parsonage in Hunsford, William Collins descended the stairs looking forward to meeting the ladies of the house.
He was specifically in anticipation of meeting his betrothed who had been promised to him by his cousin.
When they spoke before bed the previous night, Collins had learnt that his intended, Miss Elizabeth, had a house of her own.
When he had asked where the ladies were, his cousin had said his wife and daughters had retired as soon as they arrived home.
as they were tired, something Collins understood given the frailty—in body and mind—of women compared to virile men like himself.
The smell of comestibles to break his fast drew him to the dining parlour. He puffed out his chest and strutted into the room in an attempt to impress his betrothed with his manliness.
His chest deflated with alacrity when he saw none within but Cousin Bennet.
“Where are the ladies, and more importantly, where is my intended?” Collins demanded as he proceeded to fill his plate to overflowing with coddled eggs, sausage, ham, bacon, and some of the roast beef left from the previous night’s dinner.
Bennet’s eyebrows shot up at the display of gluttony from his buffoon of a cousin.
It was amusing to see, but he could not appreciate the sport without his wife and daughters present to react to it.
There was no choice; he would have to order his gelding saddled and ride out to bring his recalcitrant women home.
He remembered the dunderhead had addressed him.
“My wife and daughters had early calls to make,” he prevaricated, “after the meal I will ride out and escort them home.”
The explanation sounded plausible to Collins, and besides, he was already seated and busy shoving as much food as possible into his mouth. He grunted as he masticated, allowing some of his semi-chewed food to be spat out of his mouth onto the tablecloth.
Seeing how uncouth the man was, gave Bennet pause for a few moments as he reflected that this man would not be a good husband to Lizzy or any other.
He pushed the thought from his mind as he reminded himself how his second daughter and his wife needed to be punished for their open defiance of his wishes.
He was delighted by the fact that Lizzy had no way of knowing of his plan.
Seeing his cousin shovel food into his mouth, and then masticating with his mouth open was enough to put Bennet off his meal.
He stood, his legs pushing his chair back.
“I will be gone for an hour or two as I go retrieve my wife and daughters,” he stated as he left the dining parlour as fast as his legs would carry him.
The grunts and sounds of chewing were audible for longer than he had hoped as Bennet almost ran towards his study. He rang for Hill and ordered his gelding saddled. A half hour later, Bennet was on his way to Purvis Lodge.
By the time he arrived, his mood had soured decidedly.
How dare Fanny and her daughters make a fool of him in this way?
Bennet dismounted Odysseus and threw the reins towards an approaching groom.
He stalked up to the front door and banged on it.
Some minutes passed before the door was opened, which only added to his pique .
“May I be of service, Sir?” The butler enquired.
“I demand my wife and daughters be brought to me this instant,” Bennet barked.
“As I know not who you are, Sir, I know not who your family members are. I can, however, tell you that other than the master, mistress, the young masters, and young misses, there are none others in the house,” the butler responded unflappably.
“I want to see for myself!” Bennet demanded.
“If you will be so good as to give me your name, I will request permission of the master and mistress for you to enter.” Mr Mercury bowed.
As much as he wanted to berate the man before him, Bennet acknowledged that as he had never called on Purvis Lodge since the Taylors took up residence, the butler had no way of knowing who he was. “The name is Thomas Bennet, your master’s cousin,” he stated begrudgingly.
“I will go confer with my master.” Before the man on the step could blink, the butler closed the door. He knew full well who the man was as Mr and Mrs Taylor had prepared him. He had behaved exactly as he had been instructed.
Bennet could not believe he had been left on the doorstep.
Could not the man have allowed him to wait in the entrance hall?
He supposed he should have expected that the family from the former colonies would have a butler who was deficient in his duties.
They would not know better. His mood would have worsened exponentially had he known that he was the object of derision in the dining parlour.
Taylor allowed a few minutes to pass, then he turned to his butler. “Mercury, in a minute or two, please give my cousin my apologies. Tell him he is welcome during calling hours, but we are still enjoying our breakfast.”
The butler bowed and headed towards the front door, making sure to walk with no urgency .
At long last, the door opened. Bennet was about to step inside when the butler delivered his message and closed the door while Bennet stood on the step with his mouth hanging open.
“My horse!” he called out angrily to the groom.
Five minutes later he was back atop Odysseus and on his way to Longbourn’s dower house.
He had his horse up to a gallop to fight the frustration he was feeling, which meant it was less than five minutes until he reached his destination.
He did not wait for a groom. Without noting the quality of the structure, Bennet dismounted and went to pound on the door.
By and by, none too soon for him, it was opened by a manservant.
He tried to push past the man, but the large man was immovable.
“Take me to your master! Enough of this; I am here to take my wife and daughters home,” he snarled.
“The master ain’t ‘ere. No one but us servants be ‘ere,” the man growled, showing he was not intimidated in the least.
Instead, Bennet felt rather scared. The man looked at him like he was nothing, and he guessed that if he tried to push past him, the servant would throw him from the house without a second thought. Why, oh why, had he signed rights to the dower house away as long as Uncle Henry was living in it?
“If that is true, surely you would not object if I looked around the house just to satisfy myself that I have done everything to find them, would you?” Bennet used a conciliatory tone of voice.
“Ya can look, but I will be with ya,” the man allowed. This was what the master instructed, so it was easy to grant.
While he went from room to room, first on the ground level and then the first and second storeys, Bennet began to notice the quality of the house. He even went to look in the attics after the brawny man allowed him to do so. Not a trace of his wife and daughters. Where were they?
When he exited the house, Bennet turned and looked at it.
It was a well-built, modern structure, smaller, but not that much so, than Longbourn’s manor house.
It seemed his wife had seen this house, which was part of the reason she had calmed so much.
Why had he not instructed Philips to add a clause written into the fake contract that made his wife’s residence in the dower house contingent on the new master’s permission?
Bennet was aware he needed to ride back to Purvis Lodge to arrive in about a half hour. From there, if his women were not discovered, he would go see Phillips. If the document was not prepared yet, he would want to know why, but it would allow him to add the clause he had just thought of.