Page 9 of The Next Mrs Bennet
I n 1799, Richard Fitzwilliam, age seventeen, entered Cambridge, one school year before Andrew would graduate from the same university, which he did in April of 1800. At the beginning of October 1800, his cousin, Fitzwilliam Darcy, began at the venerable institution of higher learning.
Over the years, the Fitzwilliam brothers had continued to call the Darcy heir Fitz. He would have preferred William, but they explained there were too many in the family already. Eventually he accepted the name.
It was sad that Fitz had never met the Bennets. The cause for that was the protracted illness suffered by the late Lady Anne Darcy. Her death, soon after her dream of a second child was realised, turned the Darcy men, who had always been taciturn, bordering on reclusive, into hermits. Lady Anne’s death occurred on the fourth day of March 1796, two days after the birth of a daughter, Georgiana, who was called Giana by all who were close to her.
Thankfully, before she succumbed to her fate, Anne Darcy had extracted promises from her husband and son that they would not blame her daughter for her death. As hard as it was for them, both Robert Darcy and Fitz mourned Lady Anne, but kept their vow to her and made sure that Giana was loved.
At the start of the 1802 school year, Robert Darcy sent his orphaned godson, George Wickham—whose father had been the steward at Pemberley—to Cambridge to receive a gentleman’s education. Also commencing his studies at the university that year was Charles Bingley, the son of a very well-off tradesman.
In order to stop his Uncle Robert from trying to force Fitz to share living quarters with the parasite who was Wickham, Richard had organised it so he and his younger cousin would share a suite.
In Richard’s opinion, Uncle Robert had a major blind spot when it came to George Wickham. His uncle was wilfully blind to Wickham’s avaricious, profligate, dissipated behaviour.
No matter how many times he had been told of the seductions, theft, and vicious propensities of his godson, Uncle Robert had refused to see it. Not even the fact that before his parents had passed away, young Wickham was not welcome at any Fitzwilliam or Cavendish property seemed to break through the older Darcy’s delusions with regards to his godson.
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In the summer of 1800, the family, which included a four-year-old Giana Darcy, had congregated at Snowhaven for part of the summer. The two Darcy men, however, had gone north to Glen Morgan Heights in Scotland as they did every summer. It was the first time the youngest Darcy met the Bennet girls, and although she did not remember their family name, she loved spending time with the three older Bennet sisters, especially Lizzy, whose middle name was the same as Giana’s familiar name. At two, Ellie was too young to play too much with the older children, although she was often with her older sisters and brothers. Neither Henry nor Tommy Bennet paid the girl any attention. They were at that age when any girl who was not their sister was ignored.
Robert Darcy had cajoled his brother-in-law Matlock, against the Earl’s better judgement, into allowing an almost seventeen-year-old George Wickham to come to Snowhaven so he would not be alone at Pemberley.
It soon became evident that George Wickham was captivated by Jane Bennet, who was one of the most beautiful girls anyone had seen. Although Jane was but a girl of eleven at this point, he had heard talk she had a large dowry. She was not comfortable around young Wickham and had told that to Henry and Lizzy—who were both nine—so whenever Jane ventured out, aside from a footman, the twins, and more often than not, others were with her.
One day Jane was admiring some wildflowers and had not noticed the others had moved on ahead. Wickham must have been following, waiting for her to be on her own. He had approached her, pulled her to himself, and tried to kiss her. Unfortunately for him, the twins realised Jane was not with them and came flying back with Richard and a footman in their wake.
One second Wickham had been trying to force his lips on Miss Bennet, and the next he was lying on his back, the wind knocked out of him.
The twins, led by Lizzy, had launched themselves at him, and their shoulders had connected with his back. A dazed George Wickham stood up and saw what had hit him; he was about to aim a kick at the nearest twin to himself, the impertinent girl, when a fist connected with his chin and his world went black. Richard, who at eighteen was rather strong, had arrived.
It went without saying that Wickham was ejected from Snowhaven. When Robert Darcy returned to Pemberley, his godson had poured lies in his ears, so when Matlock told him what had occurred, he discounted most of it. The upshot was a ban on Wickham ever setting foot on Fitzwilliam or Cavendish land again. His actions had ignited Lizzy’s ire to the extent that she told everyone she hated the boy who attempted to hurt her Janey. She vowed if she ever saw the miscreant again, he would be sorry.
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Richard was fully aware that Wickham would have been sent down from Eton without Uncle Robert interceding on his behalf. His Darcy uncle was the only one who could not see an education was the last thing Wickham would get at Cambridge.
Knowing Wickham’s trick of claiming to be Fitzwilliam Darcy to gain credit, Richard and Fitz had visited every store in the area, telling them that if they issued credit to one claiming to be Fitzwilliam Darcy, or using his real name, George Wickham, they would not be responsible for the debts he would leave unpaid.
George Wickham was not pleased. That damned prig had made it so he could not gain credit anywhere in the area. It was not like he could complain to his easily duped godfather that he could not gain credit and leave debts in his son’s name.
Instead, Wickham got friendly with some of the fast crowd. He convinced them that Fitzwilliam Darcy was trying to steal his inheritance, and he would pay them well if they beat him to a pulp. Unfortunately for Wickham’s cohorts, the night they made their attempt, their victim was with Richard Fitzwilliam. The two were walking back to their suite.
The cousins fought valiantly, but there were five of them. An additional set of fists on their side turned the tide. Charles Bingley had been strolling around the campus and seen the five attack two, which he knew was fundamentally unfair. Hence, he had joined the fight. It was not long before all five were on the flats of their backs, moaning and groaning from their various bruises, split lips, and other aches and pains.
Lifting the smallest of the five clear of the ground by the lapels of his jacket, Richard got the story out of the quaking coward of why they had been set upon. He and Fitz informed the men they had been taken in by a silver-tongued devil, who was the son of a steward. He was the one who was jealous of the heir to the estate, the one they had attacked. Richard warned them that as the son of an earl and nephew of a duke, cousin to a marquess, to name a few, if the men ever attempted something so dishonourable again, it would not go well for them or their families.
The next night, George Wickham was found very badly beaten, with a few broken bones and some missing teeth. As much as he would have liked to blame Fitzwilliam Darcy, he could not, as the prig had been at a chess match at the time of the beating.
Wickham was sent back to Derbyshire to recover, missing almost all of that school year.
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Even though his father was in trade, Fitz became rather close to Charles Bingley. Where he was dour and reticent, Bingley was amiable and outgoing. He eased Bingley’s way in society, and Bingley helped him in social settings, which were usually very difficult for Fitz.
The one drawback was when the Darcy heir met Miss Bingley and Miss Caroline. Both set their caps for him. That he was only nineteen and Louisa Bingley was two years older, and Miss Caroline not yet fifteen, meant nothing to them. It was when Fitz discovered a major character flaw in his friend that he was very easily led by his sisters, especially the younger one who knew just how to manipulate him.
From that first meeting on, Fitz made sure he and Bingley, who thankfully called him Darce and not Fitz, met at male orientated locations where the sisters would not be able to attend.
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In mid-April 1801, the Bennets, except for the three youngest children, attended the christening of the first child born to Madeline and Edward Gardiner in London at St Basil’s Church. It was the parish the Gardiners attended, which was not far from their home.
Edward had married his Maddie—as she was called by all who were close to her—in the same church in June 1796, but until she became with child in 1800, Maddie had believed that He would not bless them with children. Both Gardiners had been ecstatic when Maddie had felt the quickening leading to the birth of a son, Edward, to be called Eddy, on the second day of April.
Although he was never sanguine with what his father and sister had done to assist the late Fanny to entrap Bennet, Gardiner had maintained a correspondence with his sire and sister in Devonshire. An enthusiastic letter was received with congratulations for the birth of Edward the younger, but his father and sister—who was a spinster—decided it was too distant for them to travel. Maddie and Edward agreed that it was more than likely that they had related that the Bennets would attend the christening which had kept his father and sister away.
The two were aware that Fanny had birthed a daughter before she passed away, but they were not surprised Bennet would not allow any contact with them.
Much to Gardiner’s delight, Bennet had kept his vow that he would allow him contact with Jane. Even though he was only uncle to Jane, all of the Bennet children addressed Gardiner as Uncle Edward and were soon calling his wife Aunt Maddie. The London Gardiners usually spent Easter and Christmastide with the Bennets at Longbourn. On the rare occasions the Bennet parents would be in Town, they would never miss calling on the Gardiners in Gracechurch Street.
Thanks in large part to the influx of investment from Bennet and his extended family, Gardiner had taken on two minor partners, making his company truly Gardiner and Associates.
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By 1803, the Bennets had managed to purchase back all of the land which the ancestor had fritted away, as well as additional land that had not been part of Longbourn originally. This was thanks to the ever-growing dividends Edward Gardiner produced. By that time, many in the extended family had invested with him.
Although Devonshire had tried to demure, Bennet had repaid the money he had added to purchase the share of Gardiner and Associates, with a twenty percent premium. He had tried to claim that he could do no less for all of his grandchildren, and Bennet had pointed out that they were quite well off in their own right. In the end, the Duke had accepted the funds.
At fourteen, Jane was an ethereal beauty based on the definition of beauty in society. Becca did not think she was being presumptuous when she considered all four of her daughters beautiful. Lizzy, who much to her chagrin was no longer taller than her twin, was an extremely pretty girl who, at twelve, was at that awkward stage between being a girl and becoming a woman.
Mary was ten, and had hair which was golden brown in colour, similar to Henry’s and her father’s. Well, at least Thomas used to have that colour; now he was mostly grey. Her eyes were an intriguing light blue. She was a very intelligent girl who like the twins and her parents, was a bibliophile. Little Ellie, who was five was the closest to blonde hair other than Janey, but rather than blue like her eldest sister, she had the same emerald green eyes as Grandmama Beth and Lizzy. Much to the surprise of her father, and others in the family, Ellie was fascinated with chess.
The Bennet sons were, in Becca’s unbiased opinion, the two handsomest boys ever born. Except for his golden eyes like her own, Henry was a copy of his father, while Tommy, with his hazel eyes with gold flecks in them, was a combination of both of his parents.
As they had expected he would be, by the time he was eight, Tommy was a few inches taller than Henry. Although as the eldest Bennet son, he would have preferred to be taller than his brother; Henry was a lot more sanguine with Tommy having more height than he would have been had Lizzy still been taller than himself. The twins tenth birthday two years past had been a special reason for Henry to celebrate, and not only because that was when the two of them graduated to riding a cob, but it was the first birthday he had an inch or so in height on Lizzy.
An unlikely friendship had sprung up between Jane, Lizzy, and Charlotte Lucas, who was nineteen. None of the three were bothered by the fact Charlotte was five years older than Jane and seven years more than Lizzy, who, for some reason, she called Eliza. They had become friends when Sir William sold the controlling interest in his businesses in Meryton and purchased a small estate—which he renamed Lucas Lodge—between Longbourn and the town. On advice from Bennet and Gardiner, who was visiting Longbourn at the time, he retained a five and twenty percent share of what he had sold, thereby having a steady flow of income to augment the one thousand pounds the estate earned. It had not hurt that, notwithstanding Lady Lucas’s outburst, which almost lost her husband his knighthood, the Lucas parents had become rather close to Becca and Thomas Bennet.
Charlotte was the second eldest of the four Lucas offspring, her brother Franklin was the eldest, then after her was Johnathan, called Johnny, while the youngest, who was only seven, was Maria.
Charlotte was being courted by Frank Phillips. He had been less than two years out of university when he had been thrust into the position of taking over the Gardiner law practise. Since breaking the engagement with Hattie Gardiner, the last thing Phillips had been seeking was a wife. That was until recently when Charlotte caught his eye. He had been too busy first undoing the damage the Gardiners had done to the business—mainly regaining all of the lost clients, and then his efforts were directed towards building up additional clientele. He was impressed by Charlotte’s no-nonsense good sense and intelligence. He cared not she had a dowry of only five hundred pounds.
Becca sat with her head on her husband’s shoulder as she admired her family members seated in the drawing room. Tommy and Mary were having lessons with Mrs Hartland in the schoolroom. Jane, Lizzy, and Henry were in the drawing room, all counting the minutes until they were to accompany their father on a ride. Ellie was sitting next to Grandmama Beth as the latter read softly to her.
The youngest Bennet had begun lessons with the governess when she turned five, and although she was already beginning to read, she was never happier than when someone read to her, or in Lizzy’s case, told her a story she had made up.
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In the summer of 1805, the Cavendishes, Fitzwilliams, and Bennets all travelled to Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland. Marie’s father, the Duke of Bedford, who happened to own the Dennington Lines Shipping Company, allowed the use of his personal vessel, The Rose, to transport the three families across the Irish Sea to Dublin from Liverpool.
The group had toured the city and its environs for a sennight before reboarding the ship, which sailed them down the coast to the harbour at Dungarvan. There they had been met by a convoy of coaches, which had conveyed them the less than seven miles to the castle near the town of Bohadoon. At fourteen and ten, respectively, Henry and Tommy, like their male cousins of similar ages, were beyond excited to be living in a real castle for six weeks.
The Fitzwilliams had been hoping that Fitz and Giana Darcy would join them, but the former refused, still in mourning for his father, who had passed away about a year previously. Robert Darcy had, according to his doctor, been taken by a weak heart—everyone believed he had not been able to go on without his Anne—and since then, the new master of Pemberley had become even more withdrawn and aloof than he used to be before. Richard had been designated Giana’s co-guardian in the late Robert Darcy’s will.
Thanks to his grand tour, and after two years of touring, becoming familiar with the running of Hilldale, Andrew had not seen any of the Bennet cousins for a few years. When he saw Cousin Jane, who was sixteen, his jaw almost hit the ground. Yes, she was a beauty, and as he got to know her once again, he discovered that she was a lady of many interests and quite a lot of intelligence. The confidence she displayed meant she was not just a pretty bauble for someone to attach to his arm like most debutantes of the Ton were.
Richard, who had gone into the Royal Dragoons as a second lieutenant after he graduated from Cambridge in April 1801, had already been promoted to captain. He was amazed at how much the Bennet sisters had matured since he saw them shortly after his initial training in the army. Even was he looking for a wife, which he was not, one thing he knew for certain was that although at fourteen Lizzy was too young to think of in a romantic sense, given her quick wit and intelligence, she would never be a good fit for him. He had time, so he would think of the possibilities of finding his helpmeet in the future.
That summer brought big changes for Jane because, for the first time in her life, she felt an attraction to a man. She was well aware that nothing would proceed for at least another two years because Mama and Papa, with agreement from all three grandparents, would not allow her to come out until she was at least eighteen, and possibly even nineteen. She was stoic about having to wait, and as she told Lizzy one night, if Andrew was not willing to wait for her, then it was not meant to be.
Only the anticipation of sailing on the Rose to return them to Liverpool induced the boys, from young William Cavendish on down, to leave the castle without too much fuss.