AU Pride and Prejudice

Fan Fiction

Blindsided

Previously

Shadows flickered on the wall as flames danced in the hearth. Emmaline set the now empty cup on a low table and slipped under the blankets and laid her head on Mr. Bennet's chest. She had seen, or been told of, more than one man, woman, or child, victim of extreme cold having someone else crawl under a blanket with them while living among the natives of the new lands. Therefore, Emmeline saw no reason not to do it herself.

Bennet Wakes

Ch. 23

Silence, nothing but silence, filled the room as Thomas opened his eyes. He was confused for a moment as to where he was. That was mostly due to not only where he was lying, but what he was lying under.

"Father?!" Elizabeth did her best not to shout as she rushed to her father's side and crouched down. "How are you feeling?"

"Drained, but rested. I know I am contradicting myself, but that is how I feel." Mr. Bennet turned his head and felt Emmaline's head on his chest; she was fast asleep. "What is going on? Where are we? Why are we sleeping on the floor?"

Elizabeth could not help it; she laughed, but kept it low. "I am sorry, I am not laughing at you. It is your facial expression that I find amusing. As for why you are on the floor, it is like this." She went on to explain everything and her father's eyes widened as he looked in between his wife and his daughter.

"How much has your mother slept?"

"Not much." Elizabeth gave her father a soft smile. "Mother has been getting some little naps here and there. You finally showed enough improvement that I was able to convince her to take a longer rest, but she refused to do it anywhere but next to you."

"I do not suppose I can get anything to eat? I am famished."

"She said you could have soups." Elizabeth turned and sent the servant to get her father something to eat. She was about to say more when Emmaline stirred, turned her head towards Thomas and then opened her eyes.

"Thomas!" Mrs. Bennet bolted upright, yet again tossing english formalities to the wind, but only because she had just woken up and was delighted to see her husband awake, without any signs of being delirious. "You are awake."

"My dear, I thought I had left this world and ascended into heaven," Thomas smiled as he caressed his wife's cheek. "For I find myself in the company of a most beautiful heavenly creature. And yet, this other inhabitant of this paradise seems determined to feed me nothing but broth. Is that her idea of real food? How am I to thrive on such meager fare?" He put on a sullen expression.

"Poor Mr. Bennet, stuck with soup and a heavenly angel. How dreadful. But I suppose I could offer you Doctor Wilson's alternative of a coffin and a grave instead. However, I would rather not, for a little cherub needs more than one angel to guide it on the path called life. Alas, it is up to you to choose."

Elizabeth left the room to inform everyone that her father had pulled through, as her mother's reply had sparked a playful banter that she did not want to interrupt. And she certainly was not going to tell others the news that her mother had just given to Mr. Bennet; that was Mrs. Bennet's place, not hers.

Elizabeth made her way downstairs. "Our father…" Mrs. Darcy began as she saw Mr. Bingley, Jane, Mary, Kitty and their suitors in the parlor with the rest. "Just woke up and is now complaining to mother about her refusal to let him eat anything but soup."

"Let him complain away. That is all he is getting until she says otherwise." All his daughters were too relieved that their father had survived to go against Mrs. Bennet's orders.

"I think I need to go talk to your parents, and you need to come too Elizabeth." Lady Catherine stood up without explaining herself and walked out the door, leaving everyone else to chatter happily about their delight over Mr. Bennet's recovery: one that they owed to Emmaline.

Lady Catherine and Elizabethe walked upstairs, past the drawing room, past the room where Mr. Bennet was now propped up eating soup, and past her own library. It was only when she reached her own bedroom that she took out the box the Bennets had handed her to Elizabeth, and then took the one sent by the two servants of Mrs. Gunnarsson into her own arms. The two ladies then retraced her steps to where Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were.

"You need to see the things in this box, and my instincts says we need to go through your other things at the same time." Lady Catherine opened the box, handed Mrs. Bennet the note and, after the couple had read the note, handed Thomas's wife the box while Elizabeth opened the other box

"First…" Lady Catherine pointed out the horn and Japanese coins. "Those items by themselves are worth a pretty penny. I am almost certain you could get the entailment off Longbourn just by selling those items alone." She then asked what Mr. Barnes had said about the items they had taken to him.

Mr. Bennet explained everything: the map, Tiara's will, Mr. Gunnarsson's actions and the gentleman's trusted friend's own choices. As he talked, he set aside the bowl of soup he had just finished and went through the smaller items. "These chains are from Africa. They were often worn by officials in the fourteenth century." Thomas was amazed they were in such good shape. "They match the ones I have seen in my books back home. Nonetheless, I doubt they are worth much, as they have nothing on them that makes them stand out." He set the chains aside and then picked up a couple of rings.

"I recognize those things!" Emmaline gasped. "How on earth did they get in that box?" It was a rhetorical question and they both knew it; most likely they had been put there by her own father.

"Whose are they?"

"My mother's. She was given them by a traveler who had been out in the west of the new lands. He said the people he came across called themselves Dine. My father's travels never took us that far inland."

Mr. Bennet, along with Elizabeth, continued to go through the items. Meanwhile, Lady Catherine sat in a chair looking through Mrs. Bennet's mother's journal. Emmaline, however, looked at them, saw the items they were going over and practically jumped out of her skin as she realized what had been wrong with the friend bit.

"Mr. Bennet…" She faced Thomas. "When we were packing to leave, Mr. Barnes did say that my father's friend who bought that land and drew up the will for my father was Mr. Bergfrue Solveig, did he not? And you know I am a descendant of *Harald Hardrada?

"I believe he did. And, yes, I know." Thomas and the others were puzzled when Emmaline started laughing. "What is so funny?"

"That sly old fox." Emmaline picked up the horn, inspected it again, then stood up. "I should have figured out what he was trying to tell me long ago. I cannot believe I have been so dense." Mrs. Bennet went over to Lady Catherine, horn in hand. "Turn over my mother's journal."

"Now what?" Lady Catherine saw nothing.

"Open it." When the lady that Mrs. Bennet now called Mother did, Emmaline showed her a marking on the horn and then pointed to one of the corners of the back cover . They both burst into laughter.

"There is a high chance that Ivar's wife did not just hand your family a gold nugget," Lady Catherine said, looking at Mr. Bennet with a grin. "Odds are the woman handed you the most splendid gold mine. The one she has been searching for ever since she married Mrs. Bennet's brother. We need to get the best barrister to Rosings Park as soon as possible, but for a different reason than this. No need to give any fortune hunters a clue about what we have here."

"Yes, we do." Mrs. Bennet continued to laugh. "My father has to have written another will. Where it is, I do not know but it has to be out there."

Lady Catherine said nothing. However, Emmaline's words caused her to double-check something her sharp, and more experienced, eyes had just spotted.

*Harald Hardrada ...Reminder, he was a real Viking guard, supposedly the first one.