Chapter 7

Elizabeth did not want to believe what the groom was telling her when he returned from the spot where the master's body had been discovered. She hoped beyond hope there had been some sort of mistake and that Papa was just injured and not dead as she was told. How could it be that her father, who had been the rock that anchored Longbourn until he allowed the grief and guilt to consume him, was no more?

When they brought her father's body home for the final time, Elizabeth had sobbed great big wracking sobs of grief as the reality hit home. She was alone at Longbourn, except for her loyal servants. Louisa was her friend but had to be circumspect around her mother and younger sister. It hurt Louisa that she could not go to her friend and offer her succour as she desired.

Elizabeth knew she could write to Marie and Andrew and request their help, but she was cognisant of how much they were having to deal with at Holder Heights in addition to their own estate and concerns, and with all of the Holder holdings. Elizabeth chose not to add to their burden. Uncle Gardiner would take care of the money aspects, but she would not impose on him more than that. He and Aunt Maddie had two year old Lilly at home and another babe on the way.

Mr. Phillips, her father's solicitor would take care of all of the legal issues and make sure that her father's wishes were honoured. Elizabeth knew full well that if in another six years both Jane and Tommy were declared dead, then she would become the owner of Longbourn. Her only problem was the way that her father's will was written, the evil woman and her younger devil's spawn were allowed to live at the estate until it was claimed by the heir. She could not be angry with her papa as there was no world in which he would have imagined the scenario that had taken place.

After he entered the malaise of grief and guilt, he became an indolent man that was in no way comparable with the man he once was. Elizabeth reckoned that had he been more his old self, he would have changed his will to reflect the new reality. However, he had not done so, thereby leaving her to live with reality and not what may have been.

She wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and mourn her father. However Elizabeth did not have that luxury. She had been effectively running the estate for a year and now there was no choice. So much loss, but then she reminded herself that Jane, Tommy, and the rest of the Bennets were alive! They had to be! Her Jane and Tommy could not be gone as well leaving her quite alone in the world.

As Elizabeth did every day or so, she sat down and wrote a letter to Jane that would never be posted. She felt that writing to Jane helped her relieve her stress. How she would have loved to have Jane's calming influence with her! 'Jane and Tommy I know you are alive,' Elizabeth told herself as she did more than once each day. 'You have to be!'

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

When Martha was told her husband had lost his life in a riding accident, she cared not a whit that the man himself was dead. In fact, she thought he deserved such a fate after the way he treated her! She was, however, very much afraid of what it would mean for her and her daughters. How soon would the heir arrive and throw her out of the house?

She knew that Charles had just been awarded a living at Hunsford in Kent, but she had so far received no invitations from her son. She was not sanguine to the fact that Charles seemed not to be interested in assisting his mother and sisters at all. He had intimated that he would ingratiate himself with his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, but that would take time so he would be too busy to see them in the near future.

Things were not ideal for her at Longbourn, it was nothing like she imagined her life would be after she engineered the compromise. She had imagined seasons in London and her powers of persuasion enough to have her husband adopt her children and give them his name. None of that happened! When the children had used the name Bennet in Meryton after their arrival in the neighbourhood one and all had derided them as her husband had made it known he had not adopted his stepchildren and their name was not Bennet.

She remembered the humiliation she had experienced when she and her children had attempted to charge their purchases to the estate's accounts only to find out that her miserly husband had expressly forbidden the merchants to allow her to use his accounts unless they did not want remuneration. It was not her fault that at the time she did not believe her husband was serious when he informed her about the accounts!

At least they were in a comfortable house with a roof over her and her daughters' heads. Martha had attacks of her nerves as she worried that she would soon be in the hedgerows and homeless with two dependant daughters. Where would she go?

She had alienated her first husband's brother in Scarborough, when she tried to seduce him. Who knew he took his vows to his wife seriously? Now he refused to allow Charles or any of them back into his home, all because of a little thing when Charles was discovered trying to watch the daughters of the house bathing.

The day her late husband's solicitor was due to arrive to read his will, the copy that would be disclosed to her, Martha had flutterings and palpitations of her heart as she was convinced that she would have days to vacate the property with only the two thousand she brought into the marriage. Her daughters had two thousand pounds each, but their money was secured and could not be touched until they married or turned five and twenty.

Mr. Phillips turned over her widow's portion of two thousand pounds to her and reiterated that all rules that Mr. Bennet had instituted in life regarding the treatment of his remaining daughter and one Charles Bingley not being allowed on the property were codified in the will. He also explained that the profits from the estate would be placed into a trust account and would be turned over to the heir when said heir claimed the property cutting off the avaricious woman's hope she would have access to estate money.

Phillips was clear that if Mrs. Bennet wasted her portion she would not receive a farthing from the estate for her pin money or any of her personal needs. He opined she would invest the money in order to continue to receive a monthly allowance.

"Am I not to know who this mysterious heir is that holds my fate in his hands?" Martha demanded.

"When it is time, you will be notified. You are aware that you may not discharge any of the servants, unless they are ones that you hired and pay for out of your own funds, do you not?" Phillips asked.

"I am well aware of that fact!" Martha replied acerbically. "Is my stepdaughter, a young woman, going to continue the unladylike practice of managing the estate?"

"If I do not do so Mrs. Bennet, then it would not be long before you have no food on the table or servants to take care of your demands!" Elizabeth challenged. Martha had no answer and looked away petulantly.

"In that case we are done here," Phillips stated as he gave the two-time widow a withering look. "You madam will observe a year of deep mourning and do not let me hear of your inept attempts at seducing men in the town to help you with your needs and disrespecting the memory of your late husband!" Seeing the outraged look the woman affected, he added, "you madam are reputed to be a strumpet, which is why none of your seductions have succeeded!"

There was a loud wounded gasp by the woman but neither Phillips nor Elizabeth paid her mind. Phillips stood, bowed, and left. "Do not look so smug Miss Bennet! Your father and sister both died rather than be with you!" Martha stated spitefully and then flounced out of the drawing room. Until that moment Elizabeth had not believed her stepmother so very evil and unfeeling. 'Papa if only you had amended your will to remove the woman if you were no longer with us!' Elizabeth remonstrated.

The reality was what it was, so she would have to make the best of a bad situation.

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

According to the notches on the tree, they had been on their island for a year. With the tools and other items recovered from the doomed ship, they had built were two wooden cabins which were raised off the floor of the jungle. One larger where the Bennets slept, and a smaller for the three surviving crew members.

The Bennet males and the crew members divided the daylight into four hour shifts where one of them manned the top of the hill on lookout for a ship. After the first major rain, and it rained often, they had learnt their lesson and after the wood was dried out, they had covered it with some of the canvas from the ship. Flints had been recovered from the wreckage so lighting the kindling that would fire the wood was as simple as striking two flints together.

No ship had been sighted, except for one two months previously. The Earl was taking his turn at watch when he spied a ship. He was about to light the fire when he decided to use the spyglass they kept on the summit to view the vessel. He thanked goodness he did as it was flying the standard of a privateer. As much as it killed him not to light the fire, he stepped back and placed the flints in their place.

When his watch was complete, he shared what he had seen with his wife, Jane, Jamie, and the two crew members not on watch. There was universal agreement he had made the correct decision. There was no reason to leap from the frying pan into the fire. Cassie, Phillip, and Tommy were on a fishing expedition at the time and were informed when they arrived later with that night's dinner.

The jungle provided more than enough fruit and wild vegetables. There was no shortage of water and the secluded pool that had been seen on the first inspection of their island, was ideal for bathing. The mornings were reserved for the males and afternoons the females.

Phillip and Tommy had found a young parrot shortly after arriving on the island that had an injured wing, they surmised, from the storm. He or she was simply named Parrot and after a year, Parrot was very vocal. During the waking hours the multi-coloured bird would be found perched on one of the boys shoulders. James and Amy Bennet opined that even if Parrot was able to fly, it would not leave the boys who always made sure that there was an ample supply of fruit on hand for the bird to feast on.

'How I hope that Papa and Lizzy are well and not suffering too much not knowing out fate,' Jane thought one day. It was a few days after the one year anniversary of their being stranded on the island that the children had named New England. It was a name that was accepted by all. 'Please do not give up hope for us to be discovered; I have to believe that we will be found. If there are privateers in the area, then our Royal Navy cannot be far away either. Please God, send us a ship to rescue us.' Jane lifted her eyes to the heavens to repeat her daily prayer for deliverance.

She smiled as she thought about how close she and Jamie had become. Jane wondered if she would feel like this about her cousin had they not been stranded and thrown together as they were on New England. After all, if they were home, Jamie would have been busy on his estate Glenmeade in Leicestershire making their time in company together limited. After a lot of thought she decided that the chances were a resounding yes, it may have taken longer, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she and Jamie had been formed for one another.

As the group entered their second year stranded on New England, they all kept hope alive that one day they would be rescued and reunited with their families at home.

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

The first few months after her second husband's death, Martha Bennet had been on edge waiting for the heir to arrive and claim his inheritance. As her confidence grew with each passing day that the heir did not arrive to claim his property, Martha once again asserted herself as mistress of the estate.

It would have been easy for Elizabeth to disabuse the woman of her pretentions, but she decided that with the limited power available to her stepmother, it took some of her duties off her plate. As long as the interloper had no control over the purse strings and no power to engage or fire servants, Elizabeth would allow her to believe that she was the mistress of the manor. She was perfectly happy that Miss Jones, their former governess was now her companion. Miss Jones was a link to her sister and brother like her precious book was a link to her father.

About three months after her father's death, when Elizabeth changed from full to half mourning, Mr. Phillips was at the estate making one of his visits to make sure that all was running as it should be and that Mrs. Bennet had not crossed any lines stipulated in her late father's will.

"No Mr. Phillips, she has refrained from anything that would contravene any of Papa's rules," Elizabeth reported as they sat in the study, now effectively her study. She unconsciously patted her packet to reassure herself her copy of Utopia her father had gifted her was on her person as it always was when she was awake.

"What of her usurping your authority as mistress?" Mr. Phillips enquired.

"I have decided to allow her to believe she is mistress…" Elizabeth explained her reasoning to Mr. Phillips.

"Be wary of that one Lizzy, you give her an inch and she will want a mile," Phillips warned.

"Yet she will only receive an inch," Elizabeth stated with determination.

Just then the subject of their discussion barged into the study without so much as a knock on the door. "Why do you meet with my stepdaughter when I am mistress here?" Martha demanded.

Phillips was about to disabuse the brash woman of her pretentions when Elizabeth gave a slight shake of her head. "Mr. Phillips meets with me about estate business as I manage it," Elizabeth stated evenly.

Martha sniffed with disdain and looked to Phillips. "Where is this heir who was supposed to inherit? If he does not want his inheritance, then my Charles should be made the master here!" she stated primly.

"There are a few issues with that statement, Madam," Phillips replied slowly so his words would not be misunderstood. "Firstly you know what will happen should your son set foot onto Bennet lands do you not?" Martha barely nodded. "Next only a Bennet by blood may inherit, so there are no circumstances that any of your progeny may inherit the estate and Bennet holdings." He paused to allow his words to sink into the woman's thick skull. "The reason the heir has not been made known is a matter of law. Until seven years from the loss of the ship passes and all on board are declared dead," Phillips reached over and squeezed Elizabeth's hand as she grimaced when he said the last, "then the heir will claim the inheritance." He was careful not to use the heir's gender.

"So I have six years left I may live here with my daughters?" The woman lit up with pleasure as she realised that there were years ahead of her before she would have to consider finding a new home. She already had a plan for Caroline to compromise the heir when he finally showed himself so they would finally get full control of the estate and its funds.

"Technically correct, as long as you do not commit any of the infractions that will have you removed from the estate without warning," Phillips reminded the woman whose face became contorted with a pinched look.

"Well I never!" the woman spat out as she sailed out of the study without closing the door.

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

"Please brother," Lady Georgiana Darcy beseeched her brother. "I would love to study under music master Signore da Funti! As you are well aware, he does not travel more than forty miles from London.

"Without making a promise Gigi, I will see if there is aught I can do. Before you suggest it, you know how much I eschew society in Town, so our townhouses are out. Staying with our aunt and uncle at Matlock House would be a possibility," Lord William said soothingly.

At eleven he knew that his sister was far more advanced than many twice her age on the pianoforte and to study with the music maestro was one of her dreams. It had been a few years since Miss Younge had been able to teach the girl of eleven anything on the instrument. The Duke had hired masters from Derby, but they were not Signore da Funti and could only take his sister so far.

"I would hate to be away from you for months at a time Wills, we are all that is left of the Darcy family," Georgiana said sadly.

"As I said, I will look into options and attempt to find a solution. In the meanwhile, as much as I hate Town, we will spend a month there every now and again so you may start some lessons with the Signore. I know you want more time with him. As soon as I find an acceptable solution, I will let you know Gigi," Lord William compromised.

He had been hunted enough by debutantes and their families as Marquess Pemberley. Now that he was a Duke at five and twenty, the huntresses would be relentless. After his sister skipped out of his study, the Duke picked his quill and penned a note to his man of business to seek properties for sale fifteen to forty miles from London.