Page 2 of Pride & Precipitance (The Victorian Vagaries #1)

The next morning, Lady Astley woke at dawn as was her habit, and went for a hard ride.

She loved horses, and only rode the best, although happily, no one in Meryton noticed so far that her horseflesh was of a much better quality than she ought to be able to afford.

Unbeknownst to anyone besides her Uncle Hexham and her Uncle Gardiner, Elizabeth was wealthy far beyond her husband’s generous fortune.

When Elizabeth was fourteen, she overheard her uncle discussing an investment with a gentleman in his office.

Later, after the gentleman left, Elizabeth made an observation or two regarding the investment to her uncle that had not already occurred to him.

Realising that she was correct, and that he could do very well following her ideas, he sent for the gentleman to return and invested two thousand pounds in the venture.

The investment paid off and rather quickly too.

Following Elizabeth’s advice, Mr Gardiner planned it to be a short-term investment, and indeed, by the end of the following quarter, the investment was worth ten thousand pounds.

On Elizabeth’s advice, Edward Gardiner cashed out the investment.

By all rights, he reasoned, he would never have made the eight thousand pound profit without Elizabeth’s observations.

It was only fair that she should benefit from her wisdom.

Gardiner contacted Lord Hexham and with his assistance, opened a trust for Elizabeth in the amount of four thousand pounds.

She would be able to access the funds when she reached her majority.

“What will you do with the money, Elizabeth?”

Aunt Madeleine asked while they were doing their embroidery one afternoon.

“I surely do not need it, because Uncle Robert is looking after my dowry from my mother. I believe it would have been better if Uncle set the funds aside for your children, rather than for me,”

replied Elizabeth. “Especially since you have taken me in these last two years and have been unfailingly kind to me all this time, Aunt Madeleine.”

“Oh Elizabeth, of course you should have your share,”

answered Aunt Madeleine. “Your uncle sent the gentleman away, and would never have proceeded with the investment if you did not speak up with your perspective. Half of the money is yours. We would never take it.”

“Very well then, but only because you insist, Aunt,”

Elizabeth relented. “I think I would like to leave half of the funds in the account and use the other half for a new investment if my uncles are agreeable. If I can earn a few thousand pounds more through other investments, I would like to use the funds to help my stepmother and sisters in the case that my stepmother is correct and they are thrown to the hedgerows someday.”

“Of course you would think of helping your family before yourself, Elizabet h, ”

her aunt said with a shake of her head.

“That is just like you.

But you must admit that my sister has not been kind to you, nor have yours.

You know you owe them nothing, and they are not your responsibility.

Besides, your uncle has similar ideas.

Every year, we set aside a small portion for your stepmother and sisters’ welfare, and those investments will give them a measure of security if it becomes necessary."

“I know this Aunt, but you know my father hasn’t a shilling left of my mother’s dowry,”

replied Elizabeth.

“Last year when he closed my stepmother’s accounts at the shops in St Albans, it was made obvious to everyone that he had allowed the current Mrs Bennet to fritter it all away foolishly.

She has redecorated Longbourn four times in the last ten years, and has spent far too much on gowns and ribbons and lace for herself and my sisters.

Mama has still not ceased complaining that now she must make do with the dressmaker and milliner in Meryton, and that economies must be made.

“Mama’s portion will not be enough to sustain them if my father dies. I know it is not my responsibility, but I could not live with my conscience if I allowed them to suffer from my father’s neglect while I do not. Papa has spent so much money on rare books, and Uncle Phillips despairs that my father makes no effort to separate his purchases from the entail of the estate, which ought to be easily done. The sale of his library would provide my mother and sisters with a small fortune, but our cousin will inherit all when my father passes this life due to my father's unwillingness to make a simple list of his personal possessions to add to his will.”

“You are too good Elizabeth, but we love you all the more for it. My dear, you have suffered indeed from your father’s neglect, only differently than your sisters,”

Madeliene Gardiner said as she hugged her niece.

“Unfortunately, we cannot let them know of the funds, because hedgerows or no hedgerows, Fanny will never allow a shilling to go unspent.

If she or your father knows you have even a pence to your name, they will not rest until they have taken and spent it.

And I fear that if Fanny realises you are being treated like family here and not as a nursemaid to the children, then she will force you to return to Longbourn.”

Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth said nothing else as she attended to her embroidery, which was frightfully poor.

She knew her aunt was correct.

Mrs Bennet only allowed her to stay in London because she thought her brother’s family was using Elizabeth as a servant.

Fanny would have liked to use Elizabeth as such herself but Thomas would never allow it.

for it would look bad before their neighbours. In London, Fanny thought that the wretched girl was tending her brother’s children and no one in Meryton was any the wiser.

*****

Elizabeth’s uncles approved her plan, and sat her down with a number of investments to consider.

The fourteen-year-old sat quietly as they explained the merits and risks of each investment and then asked questions and made her own observations to her uncles.

They were shocked by how well she understood it all, and how she saw parts of the picture that no one else thought of, jumping up to pull reference books down from her uncle's shelves to confirm certain facts pertaining to various industries.

Elizabeth planned to separate her two thousand pounds into two investments, so there would be less risk of losing all by putting all of her eggs in one basket.

Her uncles were so impressed by her observations they both made several new investments under her advisement.

These investments took longer to mature than the previous one.

It was almost six months before the first bore fruit, earning Elizabeth a two thousand pound profit, and the other earned five thousand pounds in profit by the end of the following year.

Now, at almost fourteen, Elizabeth had eleven thousand pounds.

She kept to her original plan of keeping half of her capital in trust and reinvesting the other half.

England was exploding with industry, and Elizabeth had an uncanny knack for sniffing out short-term investments that brought windfall returns.

Her Uncle Hexham made her a gift of several subscriptions to investment and industry periodicals, and she read them as well as all the newspapers and books on many subjects that were never followed by women, including agriculture and engineering.

She gained a sense for knowing which industries might have temporary surges in profits, and just when to withdraw from an investment before the value fell back to normal.

Uncles Gardiner and Hexham began blindly investing in anything she recommended.

Neither gentleman had seen such tremendous returns before, and soon, Uncle Gardiner’s worth was nearly doubled, and all of his children were assured handsome dowries or funds to start their careers.

A generous fortune earned by these measures also ensured the security of Uncle Hexham’s estate for many generations.

Elizabeth also became quite skilled in small inventions.

Mostly little gadgets that helped make life easier.

By the age of seventeen, Elizabeth had four patents on file under cover of a business name, and her worth from these inventions and the profits from her investments was over sixty thousand pounds.

Elizabeth jumped a stone wall as she rode her beloved horse Artemis, her bonnet flying off her head as she sailed through the jump.

Heedless to the loss of the bonnet, knowing one of the grooms following her would pick it up, she rode on as she considered her fortune now.

When she married Sir Christopher Astley, a renowned physician famous for his advances in medicine, the gentleman signed away all rights to all of her funds, and gave her free rein to pursue her business ventures without his interference.

Even without the fifty thousand pounds, the house in town, and the estate in the country left to her by her husband, her worth was many, many times more now, at the age of twenty-five, than it was when she met him at the age of twenty.

Once she was married and no longer had her uncles cautioning her so much to be careful with her funds, she became quite bold in her investments.

By the time she became widowed she was wildly rich and could indulge in nothing but the best clothes, jewels, horses, and carriages, although she was careful in Meryton not to attract too much attention.

She might have been snubbed as new money when she purchased an enormous mansion in Mayfair, but considering Christopher's knighthood, the fact that he brought so many wives and heirs safely through childbirth, he was therefore very valuable to society, as well as Elizabeth’s close connection to Lord Hexham and his family, no one considered snubbing her.

Indeed, most ladies liked Elizabeth very well indeed.

She was an intelligent guest ,and a superb hostess herself.

She even began breeding horses herself at Newmarket.

She visited her stables twice a year, making plans with her breeding and training managers.

Now, her horses were in high demand, although she rarely sold any, as she tended to hoard horseflesh at her properties.

Her stables even acquired the secret to breeding Palominos, a stunning blonde horse previously only owned by the royal family and other important dignitaries in Spain.

Even in London, where it was known that she was vastly wealthy, people had no idea how much wealth she truly possessed.

She maintained an enormous amount of security to protect herself and her four year old daughter, Miss Diane Astley, from fortune hunters.

Heiress snatching [1] was wildly popular amongst the ton, facing few legal consequences and no social ones at all.

A gentleman could kidnap his bride from her family, extort her guardians into giving him all of the young lady in question and her sisters' dowries to save their reputations, and only the young lady would be whispered of.

Even in circumstances where the lady never consented to the marriage, never said I Do, matches were rarely annulled, particularly if they were consummated by force.

A young woman was usually advised to make the best of her situation and abandoned to her new nightmare.

Here in Meryton, people had no idea of her worth, thinking she only had her late husband’s fortune, which was large enough on its own.

She may have to tolerate her stepmother’s unkindness and that of her sisters in Meryton, but at least there was little risk of being kidnapped and forced into marriage.

In town, no one knew anything for certain, but it was noticed by many that Elizabeth possessed other sources of wealth and indeed, several enterprising noblemen were involved in her investments as well.

In London it was more dangerous for her than in Meryton.

She was well connected, with friendships in some of the most powerful families in England, including Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.

The Queen made it a point since Elizabeth’s widowhood to keep her friendship close, and Elizabeth suspected that if she were to remarry, her new husband might be obliged to accept a title.

Her Majesty was nothing if not shrewd, and there was little chance of her allowing a family of Elizabeth’s wealth to remain outside of the nobility for long, particularly if she married anyone of prominence or great wealth of his own.

Her Majesty would insist upon ensuring her family's fealty to The Crown.

Any gentleman she married would likely be given at the very least an earldom if he did not have one already.

When Elizabeth returned to Lilac Cottage, she groomed her horse herself, as she always did, and went into the house through the kitchen.

She headed up to her rooms, where her maid Sarah was waiting with her bath.

Sarah was Elizabeth’s only friend at Longbourn growing up, and when Elizabeth was obliged to use deception to get away in order to marry Sir Christopher, Sarah left the Bennets' service to become her maid when Elizabeth and her husband returned to London.

Elizabeth trusted no one alive more than she trusted Sarah Smith.

The only exception was perhaps Mr Banks, her personal steward.

Elizabeth hired all of her male servants by recommendation of an officer in the regulars, a Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, who was skilled in recommending retired officers who needed work and were fiercely loyal to her because she was fiercely loyal to them, and because they were paid incredibly well.

Mr Banks, unlike the other men she hired through Colonel Fitzwilliam, was invalided out of Her Majesty's service, and walked with a cane and a limp.

Usually, such a man would not be considered suitable for employment, and if he had no family to assist him, would have starved in the streets.

However, Colonel Fitzwilliam knew that in addition to being intelligent, well-spoken, and well-written, Mr Banks was shrewd and had ruthless street intelligence and the ability to blend in nearly anywhere or with any class of persons with the correct attire.

He was perfect for the task of her personal steward, and to hell with society’s expectations.

The man would do nearly anything to protect Elizabeth and her interests, and Elizabeth trusted him without question.

After her bath, Elizabeth broke her fast with her daughter Diane in the breakfast room.

Although she knew it was not fashionable for children to eat outside the nursery, Elizabeth felt differently.

She believed children belonged with their parents as much as possible, and if there were no guests for breakfast or lunch, Diane ate with her, much to the disapproval of Nanny.

After breakfast, she and Diane took their morning walk with their dog Beau.

A King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, Beau was a gift when Diane was born from the Duke of Marlborough in thanks to Sir Christopher for bringing his duchess safely through childbirth.

Although technically Diane’s pet, Elizabeth herself was incredibly attached to the dog and never travelled without him.

She could see why King Charles II was so enamoured of the breed, she thought to herself.

Never had she encountered a more loving and gentle creature than Beau, and with his white and red Blenheim colouring, silky skirt, and sweeping tail that never ceased moving, Beau was glorious to behold.