"Well that was disaster if I have ever seen one" said Lord Sutton a few hours later after they had all rested and refreshed themselves before gathering in Netherfield's drawing room before dinner.
"Definitely not what I expected though Gardiner did give us a warning before we left" agreed his father.
"How did that environment of ignorance ever produce our Lizzy?" the viscount seriously asked Mr. Gardiner.
"Lizzy is a mixture of the guidance of my dear wife, a good governess and masters, and an attentive father who was fascinated with her mind and watching it grow" he answered.
"Even if it was for his own purpose I can only be thankful for his nurturing her intelligence so, since it made her into the incredible woman that she is, but I cannot but abhor his reasons for doing so" said the duke who had been talked into joining everyone in the drawing room by his wife before taking dinner on a tray with her in their rooms because he was not up for dinner with everyone and he definitely would not leave her for long.
"Nor I" said his uncle, disgusted at all he had heard this day.
"Her mother has got to be the daftest, most spiteful creature I have ever met" said Sutton to the protest of none now that they were no longer in her presence and he was not insulting the woman to her face in her own home.
"Not a quick one at all and I was appalled by her reaction to her pregnancy" his brother agreed. "Sadly she honestly believed what she was saying."
"Yes she could hardly fathom her dear Jane would deceive her so or that a duke would overlook her for her less desirable sister. I guarantee she will make up excuses for every lie Jane told before the day is over" said Mrs. Gardiner.
"I would love to hear what she comes up with though I can do without ever being in her company again" said Lady Matlock. "Do forgive us for disparaging your family so, but it is hard to be respectful after watching the things they said and did to Lizzy"
"No apologies necessary I assure you. I am just as upset over it" Mr. Gardiner assured the countess.
"Vincent, what was that nonsense you were speaking of about a bet, though you may be correct?" asked his mother.
"You believe my Elizabeth may be carrying twins, aunt?" asked the at once frightened and excited duke.
"Madelaine and I had discussed the possibility the night she held the dinner at Derbyshire House before we left town."
"We were both shocked at how fast she was increasing though she had said as much in her letters" said Mrs. Gardiner.
"A friend of mine betted his wife was increasing with twins and I lost the bet" said Sutton. "She was not nearly the size of your wife at the same stage of pregnancy, which is when we first made the bet though she had also been said to be increasing at a fast rate."
The duke was nervous. While he would be delighted to have two babes, his wife was a small woman and she was already having difficulties with her condition. He feared for her wellbeing if she were indeed carrying two babes. He went to join his wife with a fearful heart as everyone else was called into dinner.
BH***************************BH
"How are you feeling, my love?" the duke asked his wife as they dined in their private sitting room attached to their chambers.
"I am well" she answered.
"That could not have been easy to endure. If I was so outraged, I can only imagine how upset you must have felt. I know how much you love your father."
"Much more than he ever loved me it seems" she said with a sigh as she wiped her mouth before her husband handed her up from her seat and called for a servant to remove their trays.
"I have no doubt that he loves you but unfortunately it is a selfish love. He loves you as long as you do as he commands and make his life easier" he said as he led her into their chambers and helped her undress before discarding his own clothes.
"I just need you and all is right in my world" she said as she joined her husband on the bed.
BH***************************BH
Thomas Bennet was outraged and dejected at this turn of events but he was not yet defeated. Instead of him being happy that his most deserving daughter had married so well, he was livid that she had defied him so. She sat there and let her so call husband humiliate him in his own home as she proudly denied his right to dictate her life. She deceived him into letting her go to town, knowing she would never return, leaving him with no choice but to run the estate in her stead. It was petty and beneath him but he wanted to punish her for her defiance and he had just the way to do it.
Not even his wife knew her birth secret and had no idea who Elizabeth truly was. In actuality he had no right to consent or deny her marriage though he never intended to abide by the agreement he made in order to raise her. Now that she had defied him so and was so proud of her marriage, he vowed to tear it apart just as his own was torn apart years ago. He cared not that it meant she may never return to him and that she would come under the notice of the one he hated with a passion and vowed never to contact again, he only wanted her to suffer for her defiance and he would do anything to take the life she now had away from her so that she would suffer for daring not to do his bidding.
He took out some paper and wrote the one person he had been hiding her from as he thought back on how his life had ended up this way.
He had just returned from his grand tour and was attending the ball of one of his fellow travelers, Lord James Jordan, the Marquess of Sanford and future Duke of Covington. He was not close to Lord Sanford, but he was a friendly fellow who liked to entertain and he invited everyone to his welcome home ball as soon as they had docked in London. Thomas, who detest balls, decided to attend at the behest of his good friend William Lett, son of a gentleman from the south. He had not been at the ball for more than an hour before he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever beheld. She floated into the room on the arm of a distinguished gentleman in uniform, which he later found out was the future first Duke of Wellington and her father. (1) Her name was Lady Elizabeth Wellesley and she was stunning. Her bright, intelligent green eyes shone in the candlelight.
He gathered up his courage to ask one such as she for a dance and had the most enjoyable thirty minutes of his life conversing with the intelligent and witty woman. They spoke of books, politics, and mainly the war as they discussed her father's brilliant military career thus far, and it ended far too soon. He was happy when she agreed to a second set which was equally stimulating. He was immediately taken with her. He postponed his return home and started paying calls on the beautiful Elizabeth and they were soon in love to the great consternation of her father. Though he was an opened minded man who cared little for the rules of society, the then Major General Wellesley, disapproved of their relationship as he had arranged for her marriage to the Marquess whose ball they had met at. They were both devastated and pleaded with him to change his mind and allow the marriage of true affection to no avail.
Left with no other choice, the couple decided to elope. They stole away in the middle of the night and made way to Scotland only to be caught by her father and his men and forcefully separated directly following their nuptials. Even the fact that they were now legally married and had already known each other carnally the previous night did not sway the Major General from his view. He refused to allow the marriage to be recognized and threatened to kill Thomas if he ever contacted his daughter again, the powerless country gentleman could do nothing to stop him from taking her away by force.
Lady Elizabeth, who was found to be increasing with their child, was then sent to visit friends her father made when he was serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp, though Thomas did not know it at the time. Thomas Bennet was heartbroken and devastated with little will to live. He defied the Major General's orders and searched everywhere for his Elizabeth, never being able to find her.
He never heard from her until almost a year later, when he received a letter from his beloved written shortly before her death, announcing the birth of their daughter and the plans her father had of leaving the babe in Ireland while she would be made to return home, forced to lie her way into an annulment, and made to marry the Marquess. She did not doubt that her father would use his connections to obtain his goals. Thomas quickly made his way to Ireland, but it was too late. His Elizabeth had died of childbed fever a sen'night following their daughter's birth. He demanded custody of his daughter from Wellesley's friends that had planned to adopt the babe and rushed her back to England.
Preferring to have his granddaughter raised in England with at least one of her parents and feeling guilty over his daughter's death, Wellesley finally agreed not to fight him for custody of the babe as long as Thomas promised to marry quickly and give the babe a loving home with several stipulations as to how the babe were to be raised. She must be raised according to her mother and grandfather's station in life, given the best of everything. She must be raised an accomplished young woman with the comportment of one of the first circles with a governess and access to all the masters she required.
She must be allowed regular visits to her grandparents who would present her to society. She may be allowed a come out under her grandmother's care alone, when she reached seven and ten. She may be allowed to marry before her majority but only to someone her grandfather approved of. Mr. Bennet agreed just to end the turmoil though he never planned on abiding by the agreement. He hated the man for tearing his Elizabeth away from him and he would never forgive him. He vowed to never allow him to be a part of his child's life. He took his babe, named Elizabeth after her mother and his own, away from Wellesley and away from town.
Wellesley's little interest in finding out who he was when he offered for his daughter worked in his favor when he realized the man knew nothing about the estate he had recently inherited. He fled to Hertfordshire, marrying the first pretty face he saw in order to appease his longing for his Elizabeth and trying to obliterate his daughter's connections to the Wellesleys by telling no one, even his wife and daughters, anything about his first wife.
Fanny Bennet nee Gardiner was a woman of beauty with a mean understanding. She was mean spirited and bitter about the life she thought she married into. Though she did become the mistress of an estate as she wished to be when she married the widowed father, she did not receive any of his love or attention. That was all given to his precious Elizabeth. She hated the beautiful little girl on sight and barely tolerated her presence, her only benefit being the money her Jane got from her unknown grandfather for her dowry. Little did she realize that the 10,000 pounds her husband told her he was given for the care of the babe was only a pittance of what he received from Wellesley. The Major General deeply loved his only daughter and hated the way her life had turned out. He had snatched her only happiness, which was always important to him, away from her because of the societal dictates he abhorred and rarely followed though he could not approve of the young man's character.
His guilt over his hand in her misery led him to overcompensate for the daughter he was going to selfishly take away from her as he had taken her away from her husband. He gave her a dowry of 60,000 pounds and set up an additional trust of 100,000 pounds to be turned over to her care when she came of age. The dowry would of course go to her husband with the condition that half of the principal would go to her father if she never married after the age of forty years if he still lived, while the other half and any interest accrued would go to her sole control. The trust would come under her sole control as soon as she came of age, regardless if she married or not. Her father or future husband would have no rights to her trust.
Both her dowry and trust would be kept under his care. He paid Bennet 30,000 pounds upfront and contributed a further 2000 pounds a year for his granddaughter's care. The monetary contribution did ease his guilt though he would regret his decision over the years. Thomas Bennet had no intention of using any of the funds beyond the initial 30,000 and the monthly payments. Her other funds were under her grandfather's care and since he had no plans of telling his daughter of her heritage, those funds would go untouched.
He knew the powerful man could easily track him down and take his daughter away from him for breaking the agreement he signed before being given custody of her and he had lived in fear of him doing just that during the first years of his daughter's life. After ten or so years of hearing nothing from the great man, he deemed Lizzy of little importance to him and his fear eased. He now set out to contact the very man he vowed he never would all in order to ruin the happiness of the girl he fought so hard to keep. He knew Wellesley to be a proud man, one who ruined his own beloved daughter's happiness when she dared to defy him, so Thomas had no doubt he would ruin the happiness of his granddaughter just as easily and tear her away from her husband as he had done her mother.
There was a signed contract saying only the now duke could give away Elizabeth's hand in marriage and she had unknowingly broken the agreement as her father had planned to do all along. He would use that to bring the man, who was fortunately in England at the moment, to Hertfordshire and disassemble the marriage as he had done his own. Her husband may be a duke but so was her grandfather, and a more powerful man he had yet to meet. He planned to enrage the gentleman with a story that Elizabeth had been the one to defy all of his stipulations.
He would say his daughter was the one who refused to let him be a part of her life and had knowingly defied him by marrying her husband without his permission. He would say she was aware of his existence and the existence of the contract but vowed to never know her grandfather for what he had done to her parents. Lizzy would be righteously angry at the great man if she knew the truth of her birth and he used this knowledge in his favor, knowing his strong headed daughter would rail against the man when he came to her with his demands, further angering the man who had the power to take her from her husband.
He went to bed with a light heart after sending out the hate filled express of lies, as he saw no way his plan would fail as he expected the proud man to leave London at first light to ruin her life.
(1) This a fictional portrayal of the Duke of Wellington who in reality had no daughters and would have been too young to father Elizabeth's mother at the time of this story. He also was not the family man I have depicted him to be in my story as the loving relationship with his wife did not exist. I think my Duke of Wellington is vastly more appealing than the man history depicts :)
For those that question of using his character in my story, I wanted to use a real person as Elizabeth's grandfather and wanted to use a powerful figure that did not have any daughters in real life so that I would not have the need to portray her mother as a factual character as well and I also needed a figure who would have enough power in the world to actually be able to separate her parents as well as do some of the other things you will read about in upcoming chapters. Thanks for allowing me my poetic license.