Page 23 of The Next Mrs Bennet

N etherfield Park’s butler sent a note to his master and mistress at Longbourn telling them that Mr and Miss Bingley departed the estate just after eleven that morning, with the latter complaining vociferously. In the same note, he mentioned that Johns and his men being stationed outside Miss Bingley’s suite for the rest of the previous day insured that no estate property was removed in error and kept any breakages to a minimum.

“The Bingleys are no longer at Tommy’s estate,” Becca reported to the ladies sitting in the drawing room with her. “From what Nichols could glean from their personal servants, they are for London.”

“If they thought the threats about their ruin were empty, they will be made painfully aware that we are serious about this by the reception, or lack thereof, they will receive in society,” Lady Anna related. “Yester-afternoon, one of our couriers was sent with messages to the Duchesses of Bedford and Hertfordshire, as well as Lady Jersey and her fellow patronesses of Almack’s. They will find all doors of London society closed to them, and soon, like my William warned them, the news of their ruin will be spread throughout the kingdom.”

“Mother, you excluded the Hursts, did you not?” Marie verified.

“Indeed. I made sure to state directly that the Hursts are not to be tainted by the actions of the two Bingleys,” Lady Anna replied.

“Andrew told me he met with Mr Pierce yesterday and applied for the common licence,” Lady Elaine revealed. “The vicar will issue it on the morrow, just in time for the wedding the next day. Becca dear, you must let us know if you need any assistance in planning for the wedding.” The other ladies all nodded their willingness to assist as well.

“Thank you, Aunt Elaine, and all of you. Seeing that Jane and Andy want a simple affair, there is not much to do. Besides, with no tenant at Netherfield Park, the staff and servants are available as needed. That estate’s cook and kitchen maids are here with ours, so the wedding breakfast will be ready, and there will be more than enough food,” Becca reported.

“Have you sent invitations to the local families Jane wanted to attend?” Beth asked her daughter-in-law.

“Yes, I sent a footman with the cards earlier this morning. The Phillipses, Lucases, Longs, Gouldings, and Purvises have been invited to the wedding breakfast, but anyone is welcome to attend the ceremony at the church,” Becca responded. “The only ones from London to attend will be the Gardiners, as they will arrive on the morrow.”

“Janey is very happy that Maddie, Edward, and the young cousins will be here,” Beth noted.

“Does she know that her birthmother’s father and older sister perished in a fire a year or so ago?” Marie enquired. “She never met them, did she?”

“Janey is aware, and no, she never knew them. So although she was sorry that they lost their lives, she had no connection to them. Her Uncle Edward only kept very cursory contact with them and never mentioned them to Janey,” Becca told.

“It is good timing as we will move to Town to prepare for Mary’s coming out a sennight after that oddity of a cousin of Thomas’s arrives,” Marie observed to speak of something somewhat more pleasant. “When is the special guest to arrive, Aunt Elaine?”

“The day before Catherine’s sycophant,” Lady Elaine replied.

“And as far as we know, the investigation is ongoing,” Lady Anna pointed out. “It should be complete by the time the man arrives here, should it not?”

“That is the plan,” Becca responded.

“I still cannot believe the temerity of the man,” Connie huffed. “Not only is he obviously quite insane, but to invite himself to your home the way he did is far beyond the pale.”

“My guess is he is delusional, and the way he worships my sister-in-law, he would not think to question anything she tells him,” Lady Elaine opined.

“Let us speak of more pleasant things,” Connie suggested. “Is it not strange that Mama’s granddaughter is to marry her nephew?”

“If one did not know that Andy was born nine years after you, then yes, Connie love, it would seem rather strange,” Lady Anna smiled at her youngest child. “It will make me both aunt and grandmother to Jane, and I suppose I will be Andy’s grandmother as well as his aunt also.”

“I trust our husbands are enjoying their chess tournament in the library,” Connie stated. “At least they cannot complain that Ellie is there to beat them.”

“She is with her cousins at the moment,” Becca revealed. “She will take on the winner after dinner this evening. She said she will even remove her queen to give her opponent a fighting chance.”

There was a round of light laughter from the assembled matrons.

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

The weather was good for this time of the year, which allowed the younger generation of the family to have varied activities and not be restricted to indoors. The aforementioned youngsters had split into two groups. Mary, Rosemarie, Felicity, Harriet, Giana, and Ellie were ensconced in the music room while the rest were riding to Oakham Mount.

As much as Mary would have enjoyed riding next to Richard and being in his company, she did not want to desert her youngest sister and her cousins who were close to her in age. She was enjoying getting to know Giana, so that mitigated her missing Richard—somewhat. They had similar tastes and abilities in music; both loved playing the pianoforte, and coincidentally, they had been taught by the same music master.

At the moment, Mary and Giana were playing a duet on the pianoforte, Ellie was accompanying them on her cello, Rosemarie on the harp, while Felicity and Harriet leant their voices to the piece.

The riding party was somewhat larger and was made up of the Fitzwilliam brothers, Darcy, the two eldest Bennet sisters, Will the younger, Ian, Tommy, and Henry. The first three had their own stallions with them; the rest were all riding some of the plentiful mounts available in Longbourn’s stables.

Richard was riding ahead with his younger cousins; Jane and Andrew were next, and Elizabeth and Darcy were bringing up the rear, if one did not count the four footmen-guards escorting the riding party. Two were a few horse lengths behind Lizzy and Darcy and the other two on the sides.

Jane and Andrew were riding as close to one another as they could while not having their horses collide. “After this long wait, I cannot believe we will finally say our vows to one another in less than two days,” Andrew remarked as he leaned towards his beloved Jane.

“I am counting the hours,” Jane replied as she directed a smile with the power of the sun at her fiancé.

“Have you noticed that Fitz…?” Andrew did not miss Jane’s raised eyebrows. “I have called him that for as long as I can remember, it will take me a while to change the habit,” he explained. “As I was about to ask, have you observed that Liam and Lizzy seemed to get along famously?”

“It is still very early. They only met on Friday past,” Jane stated. “That being said, I tend to agree with your assessment of the way they relate to one another. We need to leave Lizzy alone to come to things in her own time; you know how stubborn she can be. We must not try pushing her towards him.”

“That is the truth about my soon to be sister,” Andrew grinned. “Now, what of you my soon-to-be-Viscountess Hilldale? Are you sanguine with a shortened wedding trip so we will be able to attend Mary’s coming out? And do you truly not object to remaining here until that block-headed parson arrives on Wednesday?”

“Had I not wanted to, I would not have agreed to spending some days at Netherfield Park and shortening our wedding trip,” Jane assured her beloved. “We will have complete privacy thanks to Mama and Papa allowing us to reside at Tommy’s estate—which will be empty except for us—until we begin our actual wedding trip.”

Andrew could not wait until he and Jane were married, and they could be alone, not to be forced to part again. He already resided at the estate they would share after the wedding. As soon as the Bingleys had vacated, he had moved there for propriety’s sake seeing that he and Jane were engaged. Other than sleeping at Netherfield Park, every other minute of the day was spent at the Bennets’ estate, and almost all of it, in Jane’s company.

Just out of earshot behind her older sister and soon-to-be brother, Elizabeth was riding her mare Aphrodite next to her cousin, who was on his stallion Zeus. She had stopped speaking for a few moments as she watched the palpable joy that flowed between Janey and Andy.

“They make a very good couple, do they not?” Darcy commented.

“Please pardon me, Liam; I was basking in the love which radiates off them.” Elizabeth inclined her head towards the couple ahead of them. “That is the kind of love I hope to find when it is my turn to match up with my one true love.”

It had been less than a week, but Darcy was beginning to hope that he would be the one who would inspire that kind of love and devotion from Elizabeth. That morning, he had been very happy when she had suggested they drop cousin before their names. He had agreed with alacrity.

“That is what I seek too,” Darcy replied. “It is what my late parents had and what I see around me in most of my closest family, so I will not settle for less in my own life. I am very sorry it took so many years for us to meet one another. There were so many times over the years when we almost met, but did not.”

“Do you remember you told me that a Darcy failing is taking responsibility for things for which you bear none?” He nodded as Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. “This is one of those times. You were busy dealing with so much, including the deaths of your most honoured parents. When your father took you with him to Glen Morgan Heights, it was not your choice, but his. After your father joined your mother in heaven, you had your estates to manage at such a young age. It was not a conscious decision you made not to meet us, so you bear no fault at all.”

“When you put it like that, I cannot argue against you,” Darcy owned. He looked over at his riding partner and wanted to get lost in her emerald-green eyes. Yes, she was a beauty, but what attracted him most about Elizabeth was her intelligence and intellectual curiosity.

In the four or five days since they had met, he had discovered that Elizabeth did not agree with him unless she actually thought he was right. After Darcy’s move to Longbourn, they had many opportunities to debate. When she disagreed, she would argue her points with vigour and always used well-reasoned thought backed up by provable facts. Another thing that attracted him was her love of books that so many in the Bennet family had, starting with the parents. He had been shocked when he heard her prowess in Greek and Latin; it was something she apparently learnt from her mother. She was a very unique lady, and each day he spent in her company, he fell further and further under her spell. He had begun to comprehend that she was possibly exactly the woman who, in disposition and talents, would most suit him. Her understanding and temper, though unlike his own, would answer all of his wishes for the traits he most desired in the partner of his future life.

There was no need to rush anything. They had time, and Darcy wanted to allow things between them to develop without pressure. He could only hope that at some point she would feel an attraction towards himself, one which would, at some time in the future, grow into an ardent, deep, and abiding love.

If Elizabeth was honest with herself, she would admit that she had been attracted to Liam from the very first time they met at the assembly. Then it had been his handsome features which had pulled her to him. He was still very handsome; in fact, the more time she spent in his company, the more Elizabeth found to admire in his looks. However, it had become so much more than his outward aesthetics.

Yes, he was an erudite and extremely well-read man, but he never held himself to be more intelligent than her just because of his sex. In fact, it was more than that. When they debated, which they had done several times already, he treated her like an intellectual equal. Never once had he condescended to her as if she were just some weak-minded female he was humouring. Elizabeth knew nothing of his feelings for her—she knew he seemed to enjoy spending time in her company—but she was aware that there was a spark of the genesis of tender feelings for Liam. Only time would tell.

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

Bingley and his sister arrived in London later in the afternoon of the day after their ignominious eviction from Netherfield Park, the day the door had been locked to them on their exit from the manor house. Due to being fatigued from travel, neither brother nor sister went out in society on the Wednesday they arrived. By the time they reached Bingley’s leased house on Curzon Street, Caroline was hoping word about their ruin had not reached London yet. She had convinced herself nothing had changed in her relationships with those of the Ton .

That night, after dark had fallen, they did go out to call on the Hursts at their London home, a mile closer to Mayfair than the Bingley’s town house. Bingley did not miss how reluctant his older sister and Hurst were to receive them. Unless he was deficient in his understanding, they seemed to be looking about to make sure no one saw them admit the two Bingleys to their house.

“Louisa, Hurst, what is it? You seem not to desire our company,” Bingley enquired.

“You should be thankful I agreed to call on you after you abandoned me…us in that little backwater. My first inclination was not to join Charles, but he insisted that as we are family, I must,” Miss Bingley sneered.

“You should have followed your desires and not come here,” Hurst barked. “Have you two lost all sense of decency? Your failed attempt to compromise two of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s grandchildren is already widely known in Town. We are fortunate to have been excluded from the scorn, but if we allow you to call on us again, we will partake in your ruin.”

Bingley felt as though he had been punched in his belly. How were the details of their folly known in London already? It had barely been more than one day. “S-surely not, Louisa? A-are you saying you will no longer know us?” he managed.

“As sad as it is, that is exactly what we are saying,” Mrs Hurst confirmed. “We have known for some time that Caroline has no morals, but you Charles? How could you? I can only thank God that I have learnt that to follow Caroline in her delusions of grandeur would only lead to ruin. I cannot fathom why you went along with it. I am sure it was Caroline’s plan, was it not?”

Bingley nodded.

“If we are not welcome, we will depart! When we rise in society, we will not know you,” Miss Bingley screeched.

Her sister shook her head sadly. It seemed that her sister had not heard a word that had been said about how ruined the Bingley name was. She watched as her younger sister stood and cut her and Harold in their own home as she swept out of the room.

“Did you lose your way so much, Charles? Why would you attempt to do this to a woman who Mr Darcy told you more than once was being courted? And, I suspect, after he had warned you numerous times that Caroline would ruin herself and you with her. Mr Darcy will not mitigate any of the self-inflicted damage,” Mrs Hurst mused.

“The fact that Miss Bennet did not so much as look at me drove me to make the biggest error of my life. It also cost me my friendship with Darcy,” Bingley admitted.

“Before you go, Bingley, my advice to you is that you separate yourself from Caroline and put as much distance between yourself and London as you are able,” Hurst suggested. “Also, do not attempt to enter White’s or Boodle’s. They have already revoked your memberships and will throw you out should you attempt entry.”

“Not that she will listen, but warn Caroline she will be turned out of any shop patronised by members of polite society,” Mrs Hurst added.

Bingley said a final goodbye to his sister and brother-in-law. It was a very subdued man who made his way out to his coach. He took a deep breath before he boarded; he was sure that his younger sister would vent her spleen at him for making her wait; he was not wrong.

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

The next morning, Thursday, ignoring the dire warnings of doom and gloom from her brother, Caroline Bingley dressed in her most fashionable outfit to make some morning calls. Not one of her friends was at home to her. In fact, at each of the houses, she was told in no uncertain terms, never to return.

To placate herself, she decided to do some shopping on Bond Street. Spending copious amounts of her brother’s money always made her feel better.

No matter how much she caterwauled and loosed invectives and profanities, she was not allowed to enter a single shop. If that were not bad enough, anyone she approached gave her the cut direct. If anyone saw her before she neared them, they cut her and crossed the street.

It finally began to sink in, through the haze of her delusions, that she was well and truly ruined.