Page 42 of Collins Takes Charge

RF

“Please inform Colonel Fitzwilliam that I will be following you as soon as I change and have my horse saddled,” William told the man who bowed and then mounted his horse.

Once he was changed, he took his leave of the ladies in the drawing room. Cousin Fanny wanted to know where he was going, but he had not replied.

Within a quarter of an hour, William was on Vulcan riding for Netherfield Park.

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

Thomas Bennet was unsettled. His perturbation was directly connected to his cousin, who would be the next master of Longbourn.

He was too intelligent to not be able to see that Cousin Collins was anything but the fool he had assumed he was when Bennet had read the letter from him. That was nothing to the revelations about the Collins family being landowners; they were the same as him, landed gentlemen.

Why had Father and Grandfather related things about the Collinses he now knew to be false? They were both long gone, so it was not as if he could ask one of them, could he?

Based on the quality of Cousin Collins’s stallion, the Collins family were well off. From the size of the estate his cousin had described, Bennet estimated that the income was between five and six thousand pounds, about what Longbourn should be at… No, he was not sorry about that. Why should he exert himself so that his cousin would have a more profitable estate one day?

Discovering the truth of the Collins’ situation, that they owned a profitable estate and said estate would go to the firstborn son, explained why the Collins father and older brother had renounced their claims on Longbourn in favour of the second son, William Collins.

Trying to discover what had occurred so many years past, Bennet opened the family bible and traced his history back through the generations. He came to the entry for his great-great-grandfather, Henry Bennet, who had three sons and a daughter. There were entries for each of Henry’s offspring except for his third son, who had been named William Clem Bennet. Next to his name someone had scrawled ‘betrayal’, but there were no entries for William Bennet aside from his birth. If he died without issue, there was no date of death listed, as there had been for every other member of the Bennet family through the years. Only his own name, date of his birth, the date of his marriage to Fanny, and the dates of his daughters’ births were recorded without additional information. Obviously, as all were still living, no dates of passing were noted. So why did William Bennet have nothing? No marriage, no children, no date of death. Bennet had a feeling that the answers to his questions lay with the Collins family.

It was enough wasting good reading time thinking about this, so Bennet pushed it aside, took a sip of his port, and picked up his book.

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

Mr Nichols had been informed that a Mr Collins would be calling, and he was to be shown directly up to the suite being shared by Colonel Fitzwilliam and Mr Darcy.

William Collins followed the butler up to the third floor, the guest floor, and knocked on the door leading into the suite in question.

“Welcome, Collins, your prompt reply and coming here are greatly appreciated,” Fitzwilliam said as he shook the parson’s hand vigorously. “Collins, this is my cousin, Fitzwilliam Darcy; William, Mr William Collins, the rector of the Hunsford parish.”

Now that his belly was feeling somewhat better, Darcy was able to give a creditable bow in response to the one from the parson.

“Would you like something to drink, or should we get to the reason for our meeting here today?” Fitzwilliam looked at his sullen cousin, “even if one of us does not want to be here because he hates to have his faults pointed out. We can speak freely because my batman is stationed in the hallway in case anyone attempts to listen at the door. Darcy’s valet is sitting on a chair at the servant’s door so it cannot be opened. Hence, we will not be overheard.”

As much as Darcy wanted to retort, stand, and march out of the sitting room, three punches to his belly were enough to hold him in place.

“What was it my cousin did that ignited your cousin’s hatred of him?” Fitzwilliam asked Collins.

“Who hates me?” Darcy demanded.

“My cousin, Elizabeth, the second Bennet sister. I think hate is too strong, but she certainly dislikes you with a passion,” William stated.

“But she flirted with me when she was at Netherfield Park to care for her sister, Miss Bennet,” a flabbergasted Darcy said. “She debated with me like no one has ever done before.”

“Mr Darcy, you claim to be a gentleman, do you not?” William enquired.

“Of course I am a gentleman; my manners and character are above reproach,” Darcy claimed petulantly.

“Mr Darcy, I know from Fitzwilliam that you have a sister of about sixteen, do you not? One with whom you two share guardianship?” William queried. He saw Mr Darcy nod that it was so. “Then, Sir, allow me to ask you this. How would your sister have reacted if some man said what you said about my cousin in your sister’s hearing, the man not caring for the feelings of any other, nor lowering his voice? In addition, what would you have done to that man had you been told what he said?”

As soon as Darcy exchanged Miss Elizabeth for Anna, he could see that the words he spoke would have destroyed her. She would have never wanted to be in society again, and he would have called out the man. He turned white as the realisation struck him like a runaway cart barrelling down a hill.

“I can see that the image of your sister in my cousin’s place has caused you to feel sick to your stomach. Perhaps each time before you are about to speak in anger, you should ask yourself how your sister or someone close to you would react to the words you were about to speak. Now, allow me to address why I asked if you consider yourself a gentleman. You do know that the realm is at war, do you not?” William pressed.

Not trusting himself to speak as he was already feeling like the worst kind of cad, Darcy only nodded.

“If you had paid attention to anything but your own concerns, you would have seen that ladies outnumbered the men by almost two to one at the assembly you attended. As a gentleman, was it not your duty to dance with some of the ladies due to the dearth of men? My cousin was not being slighted. She and every lady chose to sit out two sets each to allow anyone who desired to dance to have a chance. As to giving her consequence, just who are you, as the guest of one leasing an estate here, to give consequence to one whose family has been on the land in the area for generations?”