Page 52 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
First, on his wife for not providing sport for him as well as removing Lydia from the house, and second, Lizzy for betraying him and siding with her mother.
He poured himself a glass of port, but after the first sip he pushed the glass away.
After his cousin’s display at the table, the port tasted like ash in his mouth.
All he could hope was that he would discover his family soon so all of this would be worthwhile.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
At St Hugh’s, the church in the Longbourn Village, Bennet felt the eyes of the congregation on him as he and his large cousin were the only ones seated in the Bennet pew.
There was a quandary. How to introduce Collins.
If he did so as his heir, Phillips and the Taylors were in the church, and they would refute his words.
If they did not, most others in attendance knew who the true heir presumptive was.
He would just introduce him as his distant cousin, which was, of course, true.
Now he needed to convince the fool not to speak of being the heir to Longbourn. He leant over so his mouth was close to the odiferous man’s ear. “Do not mention your status as my heir here.”
“Why should I not?” Collins responded indignantly .
“Because my neighbours will consider that vulgar, and they will shun you. How will you ever live here if that occurs?” Bennet dissembled.
“I see your point,” Collins agreed. “I will not speak on the subject.”
Bennet was very grateful. He had come too far to have the whole caper destroyed by the overweight man’s saying too much. The service began, and Bennet kept shooting surreptitious glances to see if any of his family members had slipped in. They had not.
After the service, he approached Hattie Phillips away from her husband. “Have you seen your sister of late, Mrs Phillips?” Bennet enquired nonchalantly.
“No, not for some days yet, but I did… no, Fanny asked that I keep it in confidence,” Hattie revealed. “She wrote to me from Hertford, but more than that I cannot tell you.”
“Come now, Sister, surely you can reveal to me the contents of my wife’s letter,” Bennet cajoled.
“She did not tell me what inn she and four of your daughters are staying at, but she did share that she and the girls, well except Kitty, who she says is not out yet, will attend the Autumn assembly on Thursday of next week, but please do not repeat it. She asked me to keep that information private. As you are her husband, I am sure it is allowable for you to know?” Hattie burbled.
‘ Perfect, ’ Bennet thought. ‘ How unintelligent is my wife? She does not realise that requesting Hattie not to tell is a guarantee that she will. I knew my superior intelligence would win out in the end. What a simpleton she is to think she is able to outsmart me !’
As soon as he reached his house, Bennet ordered a tray in his study—he would take all his meals there until he was rid of his cousin so as not to see him eat like a pig eats its slop again—and began to plan what would occur at the assembly.
It had been almost two decades since he had attended such an event, but to see Lizzy put in her place was more than worth it to leave his study and attend.
He would plan as thoroughly as possible and not say a word to the witless, malodorous cousin until the day of the assembly.
That way the instructions would be fresh in his simple cousin’s head.
Further, he would make sure that on Thursday the man knew what he needed to do to compromise Lizzy.
Only a few more days before his wife and daughter would pay for their impudence.
If Collins thought it was strange he was alone at mealtimes going forward, he never mentioned that fact. The food was plentiful; who needed more?
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Even though they did not leave London as early as Bingley would have preferred, at least they were on their way before the clock struck eleven. According to Caroline’s whinging, even that had been too early.
He had not told Caroline yet because it would not make any difference to her, but a few days past, his man of business had passed a note from Mr Phillips in Meryton to Mr Bingley.
It was nothing too important, but Mr Phillips had reminded him that the dower house was not part of his lease, and he and his guests were forbidden access to the house and land around unless invited by the residents of the house.
There was no reason to tell her, as she would never venture out and roam around the estate. If he said something, of course his younger sister would want nothing more than to see the house.
Other than Caroline’s complaining that Mr Darcy was not with them, the journey into Hertfordshire went rather smoothly.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Although he was disappointed that Richard and de Bourgh would travel on their own and not with him due to some business of which the two needed to take care, Darcy was more than pleased that he would be leaving early Thursday morning and not stuck in a coach with Miss Caroline Bingley.
If Darcy was correct, then Bingley and his family should be arriving at Netherfield Park at this time.
As far as he was aware, Richard and de Bourgh would arrive at the estate in Hertfordshire today.
Darcy envied the fact that although Richard was the son of an earl, owner of an estate, and reasonably wealthy, Miss Bingley was not interested in him as part of her marital aspirations.
He hoped that Richard’s estimation was correct, that she may be attracted to de Bourgh, as he was wealthier than Richard, with a larger estate, and a house in London. That fact might give Darcy some respite from the shrewish harpy when he was living in the same house with her.
His thoughts wandered to his sister, whom he had not seen for a while because he was assisting de Bourgh.
He had written to Anna promising that he would attend Christmas with the Fitzwilliams, so he would be in her company for certain.
Just a few days previously, Darcy had received a cryptic reply in which his sister said something to the effect of never knowing if they would see one another sooner.
Notwithstanding his initial anger that he had not been appointed Anna’s primary guardian, over the years as he had watched his baby sister blossom under his aunt and uncle, it had proved the rectitude of Father’s choice over, over, and over again.
Anna was a friendly, outgoing girl. Aunt Elaine and Uncle Reggie had chased her shyness and reticence away.
Miss Younge, now Mrs Younge as Anna’s companion, had been a steady force for good in his sister’s life through growing up without a mother and then the loss of Father.
Darcy was aware that Anna had some very good friends, but he had never met them and knew nothing about them.
As long as his aunt and uncle approved of them, he could have no complaints .
He was pleased that his attitudes about those he felt below him had changed over the last few years.
It had been slower than his cousins would have preferred, but change he had.
He had owned the truth of Andrew and Richard’s words regarding the hypocrisy of his attitude about Mr Bennet.
The death knell of that attitude had been his Aunt Catherine’s actions.
It was she who had convinced Mother to become prejudiced, and he had held onto that for far too long.
In doing so, he had dishonoured his father’s memory.
No more. If he ever met Mr Henry Bennet again, he would have much humble pie to eat.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Who are they?” Miss Bingley asked when she saw two gentlemen standing and waiting for the Bingley coach to come to a halt at their leased estate.
“That is Fitzwilliam, and the man with him, I assume, is Mr Albert de Bourgh,” Bingley related. “He told me they would be arriving today, possibly before us, so I wrote to the housekeeper and told her to assign them to suites on a guest floor.”
“Is Mr de Bourgh related to that hussy Anne de Bourgh, whose mother wants her to steal my Mr Darcy?” Miss Bingley demanded.
“Darcy will never marry someone he does not want to,” Hurst interjected.
Miss Bingley took that to mean what she wanted it to. Bingley jumped out as soon as the step was extended. Hurst followed him, then the former assisted his sister out while the latter did so for his wife.
It was then the arriving party saw the coach being unloaded ahead of theirs. “Those are the biggest footmen I have ever seen,” Bingley stated when he saw the huge men carrying trunks from the conveyance as if they weighed nought. He watched in awe as they disappeared into a servants’ entrance.
Bingley was not aware that the two men had in fact arrived a few days previously, and what he was seeing was to give him the impression they had only now arrived.
He had no way of knowing they had been in the area earlier because of the letter from Richard’s father asking them to go see and assist Mr Bennet.
The reason the trunks looked like they weighed nought to the huge men was because they were, in fact, empty,
As he had met all four in the Bingley party previously, Richard made the introductions to de Bourgh.
He did not miss the predatory way Miss Bingley was evaluating the new master of Rosings Park.
The woman would never learn, but if de Bourgh drew some of her attention from William, it would be a boon to his slightly younger cousin.
She had heard that the de Bourghs were very wealthy. If Mr Darcy would not step forward, then mayhap Mr de Bourgh would do. Miss Bingley needed to learn more about him first.
With her nose in the air, Miss Bingley led the way into the house where the butler and housekeeper waited to welcome them.