Chapter 6

December 1805

Both Bennet and his second daughter were besides themselves with worry. It had been confirmed from Jamaica that the cousins, Jane, and Tommy had boarded The West Indies Trader and she had sailed as scheduled. Two days after their departure, a storm of epic proportions had descended on the area without warning.

No wreckage had been found, meaning that there could be no official determination and the Earl, Countess, and their family could not be declared dead for seven years. Bennet took Elizabeth with him to visit the last remaining family member they were aware of, Lady Marie Fitzwilliam at Matlock House in London. She had married Andrew Fitzwilliam, Viscount Hilldale a year previously.

"Uncle Thomas," Marie's cheeks were stains with tears. She saw Elizabeth and enfolded her younger cousin in her arms. "Lizzy, I am so very sorry, Jane and Tommy." Lady Marie descended into a fresh round of tears. Her husband took her into his arms tenderly.

"It is my choice to hope Marie!" Elizabeth stated with stiff back. Until wreckage is found, and we are told that all hope is lost, I choose to believe that all of our family are alive and waiting to be rescued! My courage always rises when things look bleakest."

"I will pray that you are right Lizzy," Marie said with a tremulous voice.

"Are you managing my cousin's assets?" Bennet asked the Viscount.

"I am Bennet," the Viscount replied. The two had met soon after Marie accepted the Fitzwilliam heir's offer of betrothal. "Everything will be held in trust until, as we hope and pray, they are found and returned to us hale and healthy or the seven years pass. Marie and I leave for Holder Heights in a few days and we intend to remain there and manage the Holder holdings as best we can."

"If you want to communicate with us, please send any letters to the care of my solicitor, Mr. Jacob Phillips of Meryton. I am sure you know the reason," Bennet stated.

Two days later, the same day that the Viscount and Viscountess departed London for Staffordshire, Bennet and Elizabeth returned to Longbourn.

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

Shortly after their arrival they were accosted by Martha Bennet. "Did you learn any news about your precious Jane?" Martha asked spitefully.

"Madam!" Bennet growled a warning and turned on his heel. The slamming of the study door reverberated throughout the house. The truth was that Thomas Bennet was wracked with guilt. If he had kept Jane and Tommy at home, they would have been with him now and not, as he suspected, at the bottom of the sea somewhere.

The only glimmer of joy in his life was his Lizzy, who would spend many hours talking and reading to him in his study. As he withdrew into himself more and more, he began to spend almost all of his waking hours in the study with a book and port.

When Elizabeth wanted to have a meal in the company of her father, or spend time with him, she would go into his study. He was always pleased to see her, but she did not miss the looks of anguish and guilt on her father's face, and he would not talk about the subject with her, so he continued to stew in his misery.

It was during this time that Elizabeth slowly but surely took over the running of the estate. A month after his new habit of closeting himself in his study, Elizabeth invited Mr. Phillips to Longbourn and cared not if her father wanted to be left to his own devices. At her request, she had Phillips set up a trust that he administered, and to which she had access.

Before her father had begun to sink into the doldrums of despair, he had taken an active role in the running of the estate—now all he cared for was his port and books. Bennet knew that Lizzy needed him, but he could not. The feelings of guilt paralysed him and he was doing as much as he was capable of doing.

Without Bennet being in the present as he was before, Martha and her nasty daughter started to take advantage of the situation once they had seen no change after a month or so. Louisa tried to blunt their verbal attacks, but they simply ignored her.

Not long after her sixteenth birthday on the fifth day of March 1806, the loneliest one Elizabeth ever celebrated, Caroline Bingley slapped Elizabeth who refused to give her a bracelet her father had aside for her birthday before the tragedy. It was gold with some delicate scroll work and had diamonds spaced four to five inches apart.

In her younger days, Elizabeth had been taught to punch by her male Bennet cousins. She drew her hand back and allowed her fist to fly. Caroline Bingley was flat on her back in a matter of moments. Elizabeth had delivered her blow to the shrew's upper left shoulder, a little above where a breast should have been had Miss Caroline developed any of note.

Mrs. Bingley had been proud of her daughter when she slapped a high and mighty Bennet girl but was incensed when the chit retaliated. "How dare you!" Martha Bennet screeched as she walked toward Elizabeth with her arm cocked ready to put the chit in her place.

"I would think twice about striking me if I were you Mrs. Bennet!" Elizabeth growled. Martha Bennet stopped her advance, not nearly as confident as she had been before. "I know all about my father's rules for you. While I may not be willing to disturb him, I am quite capable of communicating with Mr. Phillips and," Elizabeth indicated the servants, including the Hills watching, "they would take pleasure in restraining you should I ask it!"

"You hit my dear daughter," Martha tried to bluster.

"After she slapped me as I would not give her something that belongs to me!" Elizabeth returned forcefully.

By now Caroline was sitting up and wailing. "Punish her mother!" she whined.

Elizabeth looked at her stepmother in a challenging way. The woman had a modicum of good sense, so after helping her shaking daughter off the floor, she withdrew to her chambers, taking her caterwauling daughter with her.

No matter how Elizabeth tried, she found nothing to induce her father from his study. She knew that many nights he fell asleep on his sofa in his cups. He was unshaved and unkempt many days and was losing weight as he hardly ate solid foods. As the summer of 1806 wore on, Elizabeth had no idea how to coax her father out of his study.

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

What none in England knew was that the hurricane that caught the ship unawares in August of 1805 had killed most of the officers and crew as they had battled to sail the ship in raging storm. Mostly intact, the ship had been blown onto and over a reef that almost entirely surrounded a small uninhabited island that was part of the chain of islands that made up the Bahamas. There were a few hundred known islands in the chain, and hundreds more unknown.

James, Amelia, Jamie, Cassandra, and Phillip Bennet along with their cousins Jane and Tommy Bennet were among the handful of survivors that walked away, uninjured for the most part, from the wreck that finally broke apart and sunk in the lagoon that was formed between the reef and island. Being below decks in the body of the ship had saved their lives as well as the three crewmen who survived.

Once the part of the ship they had been in came to rest in the lagoon, the Earl had the good sense to lead his family out of the hulk. His family and three crew members were able to reach the beach in the dark of the night, made even blacker by the still raging storm. The survivors huddled under trees they found after a few hundred yards of beach. At some point a few hours later, there was an eery calm followed once more by the intense fury of the storm.

The Bennets and the remaining crew rode the storm out until it finally abated as the dawn broke. Once the clouds cleared and the light was able to reach them, they all walked out from under the trees onto the beach. The West Indies Trader was turned into matchwood! There was floating timber and trunks in the lagoon. Not a single longboat had survived the ordeal.

The Earl took charge and organised the survivors into groups of two or three to go explore and then return to the beach in a few hours. Luckily for them, the storm had provided a bounty of downed fruits, some birds and small animals that had not survived the storm.

Jane, Cassie, and Tommy walked up a hill rising a mile from the beach. It had a flat top at the summit from where they would see that although the island was not huge, it was not tiny either. From their vantage point, as they walked around the summit to see all sides of the island, they saw that there was a stream that ran into a natural pool to their west. They knew at least there was plenty of fresh water. The reef seemed to circle the island except to the south there was a gap of mayhap a hundred yards where the angry sea had free access to the lagoon.

On their return to the beach, it was determined they would have more than enough food and water for a lengthy stay, but they had no knowledge if the island was on any of the shipping routes or how, and more importantly, when, they would ever see another ship sail close to them.

The first task was to collect as much useable material as they could including timber, canvass from the sails, and trunks. As the three surviving crew members were all seamen, they naturally deferred to the Earl. One had been the cook/surgeon, another a carpenter, and the third was a seaman who used to help set the sails.

A fortnight later a utilitarian structure had been built made waterproof with canvas from the mainsail. The men, older and younger, had hauled a good supply of wood up to the summit of the hill where a rotating watch was set to keep an eye out for a ship. It did not take long for the social distinctions that would have separated them in England to be all but forgotten.

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

Lord William Darcy, Duke of Derbyshire and Earl of Lambton walked his friend to the carriage that would bear him back to his unit at the end of three months of deep mourning. After a month, his friend had given Whickham a cottage for his own use where the contents from his father's house had been placed.

Richard Fitzwilliam had recently been promoted to major and made a company commander. George Wickham was keen to return as he would be a platoon officer in his friend's company. The fact they would be shipped to Iberian Peninsula in January of 1806 was not lost on the Duke.

Even though there had been no major battles with the French Imperial Army since the declaration of war in 1803, the young Duke was sure it would only be a matter of time. He respected both his cousin and friend for their commitment to their duty, but he could not help but worry for their safety.

At the reading of his fathers will, there were no big surprises for him. Neither Wickham nor Richard had not anticipated the legacies that were left to them. Fifteen thousand to the former and fifty thousand to the latter. Both elected to have their money invested and there had not been a moment's thought about selling out and resigning from the army.

Richard had been made a co-guardian of Lord William's young sister. Georgiana missed her beloved father terribly as he was the only parent she ever knew. Miss Younge had been a godsend in helping Gigi though the grief that she hardly understood. At four and twenty, he was not ready to think about a wife yet and he was now father and mother to a sister more than twelve years his junior.

"Godspeed George," Lord William clapped his friend on the back as they stood in the enclosed courtyard.

"Must you depart?" Lady Georgiana asked plaintively. Wickham had almost been like another brother to her since their father's tragic end.

"I must Gigi, I have my duty and it is especially important to me to fulfil it. Just like your duty is to look after William now," Wickham winked at the young girl.

"Well in that case, I will take care of William for you," she answered seriously. The adults around her did their best to keep straight faces.

With a last shake of his friend's hand and a light kiss on the top of the girl's head, Wickham mounted the conveyance and was soon off. Brother and sister watched until the vehicle made a turn out of the courtyard onto the main drive and was gone from view.

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

By the time that 1805 drew to a close, Bingley had managed to gamble and whore away more than half of his legacy. Luckily for him, he realised that at the pace he was on, he would burn through his money before the end of the approaching year.

His mother was not an option as her allowance and his sisters allowances were a pittance thanks to his tight-fisted stepfather. As much as he had a selfish disdain for the feelings of others, he well knew the penalty of showing up at Longbourn to see his mother and sisters—and worse—he could hear Gardiner's threats in his ear of what would happen to him if he had any contact with that man's family again.

He left London heading in the direction of Kent and Surrey. He had briefly considered asking Mr. Gardiner for work, but he knew that there was no chance the man would hire him, even had he been the last available man in the world.

When he considered what occupation would have a reasonable return for the minimum of work, he realised that he would need to take orders. He had completed his degree with no distinction, in fact passing only by the skin of his teeth, as he had been too interested in extra-curricular activities at Oxford. He found a small seminary not far from Hunsford in Kent where for fifty pounds, the head of the school was willing to cut the time needed to take orders from a twelve month to six months.

So it was that in mid-1806 when Lady Catherine de Bourgh was seeking a man for the living Rosings Park had within its gift, the head of the school, for another fifty pounds, sent the great lady one name: Mr. Charles Bingley.

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

As they approached the one year mark of the date the family should have returned from their long voyage, there had been no improvement in Thomas Bennet. As he was not there to countermand his wife's orders, she slowly but surely began to fulfil the role of mistress, the best she knew how.

Worried more about her father than what the woman was up to in the house, Elizabeth did not challenge her. Martha was not able to hire or fire staff, but she had started to redirect some of the maids from their normal duties to be personal servants to her and her daughters.

The maid who was lucky enough to serve Louisa could breathe easier as the older Bingley daughter was infinitely more pleasant and respectful than the other two harpies. The friendship between Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Louisa had continued to flourish, even if Elizabeth had less time to be a young lady, as she had to keep Longbourn running.

Luckily for Elizabeth, her stepmother did nothing overtly against her. As mean of understanding as Martha Bennet was, she knew the reason the estate was running efficiently was because of her stepdaughter. Mother and youngest daughter would make comments about how unladylike all of her activities were but did nothing to interfere with her tasks.

As long as her husband, who she hated with a passion, stayed alive and his daughter ran the estate, she and her daughters would not be turned out into the hedgerows by the heir, whoever the mysterious man was. Over the years she had asked about the heir and received no answers to her enquiries.

Elizabeth could have put a stop to Mrs. Bennet's encroachment with regard to the duties of mistress. She had so much to worry about with her father and keeping the estate running well it was a fight she decided not to have—at least at this point in time. Her father's equanimity, such as it was, was more important to her than reining in her stepmother and her youngest spawn.

Her father used to gift Elizabeth books they would read together. The last one, before he had withdrawn, had been Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore which was reread many times over. It became a treasure that represented how her father used to be.

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

Thomas Bennet was aware of his monumental failure to protect his family. He had allowed his damned honour to rule and marry a woman he should never married. That had led to him leaving Tommy with his cousins permanently. Bringing that woman into his house had brought her lecherous son into his household as well, which had led to Jane staying with his cousins.

He still had one child left; he knew that, but he could not overcome his feelings of guilt his mistakes had cost the lives of two of his beloved Fanny's children. As much as he had always loved spending time with Lizzy—reading with her, debating what they had read—each time he saw his beloved daughter it was a stark reminder of his perceived failures.

A few days after the one year anniversary of the date that the ship should have arrived back in England and after drinking all day, in the afternoon Bennet ordered Orion saddled and tore over the fields. The groom had hesitated before saddling the stallion as his master was clearly foxed. In the end he did as bade to do, as the master was in no mood to listen to anything the groom said.

Bennet rode out of the area around the stables much faster than normal and tore across a field. Being in his cups, he was not seated as he should be and was also not holding the reins as tightly as needed. Orion jumped a little culvert, something horse and rider had done many times before. However, with his state of inebriation, Bennet slid off the speeding horse hitting the ground with tremendous force that snapped his neck. In an instant Thomas Bennet was no more.

When Orion returned riderless to the stables, the grooms mounted an immediate search and hour later one of them found the lifeless and cold body of the late master.