Page 138

“That is the point Mama, used to . You are not the same person that you used to be,” she soothed.

“Yes, you still like to be in control,” Anne winked at her mother as she teased her, “but there is none other than I would prefer as my mother, and I know that you have never done anything out of malice. Everything that you have done was out of love and fear. You know Mama, you were the way you were because you were afraid that if you did not control all of the minutia that something bad would happen to me and those that you love.” Lady Catherine nodded acknowledging the truth in her daughter’s statement.

“If Reggie, Elaine, and I did not love you Catherine, would we have taken the time to try and help you change the way that you were toward others? Look at where you are, you are in their Graces’ home, a wanted and very much included part of the celebration of our nephew’s nuptials three days hence. ”

“I am sorry Anne and Anne,” she looked at each as she said their names, “I allowed myself to be consumed by maudlin thoughts and made assumptions that at heart I knew were not true. I thank you both, and if you are sure that you want your older, but not always wiser sister with you after my daughter’s suitor gets to the point and marries her, I would like to visit with you, my younger and much wiser sister, for some months so that I do not impose on Ashby and Anne at the start of their marriage. ”

“Your company will never be an imposition, Mama,” Anne kissed her mother on both cheeks, and after Lady Catherine put herself to rights, the three joined the rest of the ladies in the drawing room.

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

Lord Sedgwick and Lady Rosamond Bennet, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, would have the honour of being part of the receiving line at the ball later that night.

The Duke of Bedford was some years his brother’s senior.

The Duke’s wives, although Lady Rose Bennet was seven years Lady Sarah Bennet’s senior, were as close as any sisters.

Lord and Lady Jersey, Cyril and Pricilla De Melville, Lady Sarah Bennet’s brother and sister-in-law were also part of the closely knit family circle.

They were seen almost as another set of parents by the Bennet’s children, and they were a very much-loved Aunt and Uncle.

Cousins Wesley, Viscount Westmore and the heir to the Earl of Jersey and his sister Lady Loretta were very close to their Bennet cousins.

Lord Wesley, Wes to family and friends, was not quite a year older than Lord James Bennet and had recently graduated from Cambridge.

Ladies Catherine and Mary thought of their cousin Loretta, or as they called her, Retta, who was about six months younger than the youngest Bennets, like another sister.

The three cousins had requested that they have their come out together even with Retta being a little younger, their mothers granted the request with pleasure.

Georgiana Darcy had met Lady Loretta on her first visit to Longbourn the previous year, and she had felt an instant affinity to the young lady.

It was not just that they were closer to one another in age; they were of similar disposition.

Both were somewhat shy, and both were well read and intelligent.

It was not long after they met that Lady Loretta was calling Miss Darcy Georgie and being called Retta in return.

Shortly after, they considered one another their closest friend, and when the Darcys had travelled north for Christmas, the two kept up a very active correspondence.

They were both overjoyed to be back together again for the whole of the fortnight before the double wedding.

In the billiards room where the younger men had gathered, Graham Phillips approached the man that he hoped would soon be his brother. “Bingley, may I speak to you in private?” Bingley nodded and the two found an empty parlour near the billiard room.

“How may I be of service, Phillips?” Bingley asked, fairly sure he knew what he was about to request.

“I am sure that you have not missed that my courtship with your sister Caroline has been progressing very well.” Graham hedged and Bingley allowed that it was so. “I am in love with your sister and would like your permission to have a private interview with her.”

“Even if I were a blind man, I would not be able to miss that the tender feelings are mutual. I have never seen Caroline light up the way that she does when you enter a room,” Bingley sighed, certain that his younger sister would accept an application for her hand from this man with alacrity.

“It has not escaped my notice that you have never once asked about her dowry. Do you know how much she has?”

“No Bingley I do not, nor would I care if she were penniless. Whatever the truth, I would not want to marry her any less than I do now. I am not a very wealthy man, but I am comfortable and well able to support myself and a wife. My parents have gifted me a legacy of fifteen thousand that my Uncle Thomas and Aunt Sarah matched. In addition, I have the use of one of Uncle Thomas’s smaller townhouses on Portman Square for as long as I need it, rent free.

I will soon move from being a clerk to a fully-fledged barrister, and as you may know I have been offered a true position with Norman and James, so my prospects are good,” Phillips took a breath and looked Bingley in the eye, “I hope that you see that your sister’s dowry or lack thereof, had no influence on my decision to offer for her. ”

Bingley extended his hand, safe in the knowledge that his future brother wanted to marry Caroline for the right reasons.

After the men shook hands, Bingley spoke the words that Graham had been waiting to hear with bated breath.

“Yes, Phillips, I will grant you your interview. I will go and summon Caroline, wait here. Never hurt her!”

“I would sooner die than ever cause her a moments pain!” Phillips looked at him aghast at the thought of Caroline hurting.

Bingley nodded and left the room, leaving a somewhat nervous young man pacing in the parlour.

It seemed like a lifetime, but in a few minutes the man who had become a good friend returned with his sister in tow.

“You have ten minutes, and the door will remain partially open,” Bingley stated letting them know that his terms were not negotiable.

‘ Please, God, let this man that I love beyond reason propose to me. I know that I deserve happiness, I will remember Lizzy’s advice to think only of the past as it gives me pleasure, ’ Caroline Bingley told herself as she watched the beginning of her dream coming true when the man that she loved above all others took her hands in his and got down on one knee in front of her.

Her heart felt like it was beating as fast and hard as a galloping horse.

“Caroline, from the first moment that my eyes beheld you I felt an invisible magnetism that drew me to you. I find that any version of my future that I imagine requires you in it. The more that I got to know you, the more I was captivated by your kindness toward others, your unselfishness, and the way that you care so deeply for everyone’s feelings.

Your treatment of the servants in your brother’s home impressed me.

I watched you treat them as people who deserved respect, not some dirt on your slipper as many do.

I watched your interactions with them when you had no idea that you were being observed so that I knew I was observing the real you, not some contrived person to impress others. ”

“Miss Caroline Heather Bingley, I love you with all that I am and would like to, no I need to ask you to be my helpmeet and accept my hand in marriage because without you my life will be empty. Will you marry me, Caroline?”

Tears of joy flowed freely down her cheeks as she heard the words she had once thought she would never hear from any man, never mind one that she loved so deeply.

Momentarily overcome with emotion she was unable to speak so she nodded emphatically, not wanting Graham to misread the situation or think that she was about to refuse him.

“Is that a yes, Caroline?” he chuckled, her blush and her eyes already telling him she loved him, her nod making his heart soar.

“Yes, yes, as many times as you need to hear me say it, yes Graham, I will marry you. I too love you and felt the attraction from the first time that we met. I am so very…” Whatever she was about to say was lost as her betrothed had stood up and his lips descended to hers, brushing them so Caroline Bingley experienced her first kiss from a man that was not a family member.

After their lips touched softly, Phillips drew back to make sure that his fiancé did not object to his action.

Rather than objection, he saw a look of unadulterated pleasure, her lips parted and begging for more and being a gentleman, he obliged his lady.

The kisses got deeper and more passionate as her arms wound around his waist as if by their own volition, and then she felt his tongue probing her lips.

The sensation was wonderful, so she did what came instinctively and opened her mouth and welcomed his tongue with her own.

They would have kept kissing had they not heard Bingley clear his throat before he knocked on the door to announce that he was entering.

By the time he made his way into the parlour, the couple was standing a respectable distance one from the other although the swollen lips and heightened colour of both did not require a soothsayer to tell him what had taken place.

Bingley lifted an eyebrow as he surveyed the inhabitants of the room and there was no missing the look of pure unadulterated bliss on both. “Is there something you want to ask me, Phillips?”