Grandma Bennet
Chapter Three – The return of the brother's Bennet, January, 1770
"What is wrong, my dear?" Elizabeth asked her husband when she went to bring him his lunch and found him pacing in the sawdust-stewn forming yard.
Thomas stopped his pacing and took his dear wife's hand, "My brother John is dead. He broke his fool neck racing a friend from the four-horse club. Father writes too ask me to return home. As you know, my sister married that wastrel Jim Collins. Father does not wish that man to have Longbourn, even if John's gambling had reduced the property down to less than a third of it's original size."
Elizabeth squeezed her still handsome husband's hand, "And what do you want to do?"
"Our Thomas has always been more of a farmer than a carpenter. He has applied himself to learn the business, but his heart is not in it."
"Yet all that Henry speaks of is returning to England to attend Oxford or Cambridge. He despises the what he considers 'the primitive life.' So where does that leave us, Husband?"
"I never wanted to force my dream on my sons. I had hoped... but it is what it is. You and I both know that the situation here is deteriorating quickly. Parliament continues to impose unfair taxes and tariffs, while hotheads here press for a greater voice... or even complete separation. I think... I think that we should send both of our sons back to England. Thomas can take over Longbourn and work to raise it back to its former glory. Henry can attend his school and try to make something of himself."
Elizabeth's expression faltered, "I wish that Henry would... I am afraid that his character..."
"Say it, my dear wife: Henry is lazy and prone to seek comfort and pleasure over work. I am sad to say that he has always been that way, despite both of our best efforts to improve his character. But at least his interests lie in academics rather than debauchery. So a university is his best option."
Elizabeth had tears in her eyes as she agreed, "I hate to see them both go, but what must be must be. Let us go and speak with them."
Another week saw Thomas and Henry Bennet on board a large schooner which had been constructed in the Bennet shipyards, sold to a lumber company, and was now bound for Liverpool with a cargo of oak. While Thomas made friends among the crew and applied himself to reading a book on agriculture, Henry hid in his tiny stateroom and buried himself in translations of the ancient philosophers. The two brothers had once been close, but over time their interests and characters had pulled them apart.
Albert Gardiner, the family solicitor, met them in Liverpool, where he saw to the disposition of their bags and read the letters sent by the senior Bennets. Thomas Bennet proceeded immediately by post to Longbourn, where he found his grandfather being beleaguered by Mr. James William Collins, his deceased aunt's husband. The man had been pressing his father-in-law to turn over the estate to him, but Anthony Bennet had remained resolute. In fact, he had already worked with Mr. Gardiner to place a provision on the property, entailing the property to follow the male line.
Jim Collins was a large man with a history of violence, but Thomas Bennet had worked in the shipyards with his father for many years. When Jim Collins attempted to lay hands on the young man, he quickly discovered that the "colony rat" was powerfully built and knew how to fight. After a brief and violent altercation in front of the manse, the butler had to wake Mr. Collins with a bucket of water and send him on his way.
Thomas Bennet was three and twenty when he re-introduced himself to his grandfather. Anthony liked his grandson right away and, since his own health was failing, wasted no time in beginning the young man's training so that he could hand the estate over. As his father had warned Thomas, the estate was only a shadow of what it had once been. Anthony Bennet, his now deceased uncle, had lived a life of gambling and running with the fast crowd, costing the estate some of its best farms. The young man determined to do all that he could to restore Longbourn to its former glory.
Meanwhile, Henry Bennet stayed in the house of Albert Gardiner in London while preparing to attend Cambridge. Mr. Gardiner had a practice in Meryton, but there was not enough business there to keep him occupied and support a growing family, so he also kept a house in London, on Gracechurch Street. Anthony was a good and honest man, but he had married a wife for her looks rather than for her intelligence, a decision he had since come to regret.
Magdalene "Maddie" Gardiner had given him four children: Edith, Rose, Frances, and finally Edward. Edith was a pretty girl, but not too bright and too easily led. Rose was brilliant and beautiful. She was her father's joy. She wanted to learn all about her father's trade, but her mother adamantly protested. Frances was unquestionably the most beautiful of the three girls, with golden blond tresses, cerulean blue eyes, and a figure which was developing far too early for her father's peace of mind. Finally, there was Edward, a young man who took to all of his lessons with enthusiasm and who dreamed of a life at sea.
Maggie Gardiner was not the brightest of women, but she was cunning. Raised in near poverty, she had used her beauty and figure to capture and up-and-coming solicitor, raising her status far above the rest of her family. That family might have expected her to also help them rise, but she shunted them away as soon as she could. She had her eyes on rising much further, and if she could not, then her children must.
So when her husband hosted the young Mister Bennet, her hopes rose. She had lived her childhood as a tenant farmer's child on Longbourn land. In her little world at the time, the Bennets were as rich as lords. She would do all that she could to keep young Mister Bennet visiting... and when the time was right, she would make certain that he took one of her three daughters as his bride. It was just a shame that her youngest and most beautiful daughter was still not out.
Frances Bennet liked to eavesdrop. Adults never gave her all of the information that she wanted. So when she overheard her mother instructing her two older sisters on how to catch young Mr. Bennet, she found a good hiding place and listened to it all. Imagine! If I could catch Henry Bennet, I would be the mistress of a great estate! And what a good joke it would be if I married before either of my sisters! I am the prettiest, after all!
