Page 87 of Collins Takes Charge

If the clergyman has not done so already, inform Anne that he has changed his name from William Bennet Collins to William Collins Bennet.

I mention the above so you know that Miss Jane Bennet is gently born. She has no fortune of which to speak.

Until recently the father was rather indolent; his wife was a touch vulgar (Mrs Bennet was not gently born); and his younger two daughters were rather badly behaved. Thanks to intervention by William Bennet (ask your younger son and his affianced; I will not write what occurred here) there has been a great change in all the aforementioned family members.

The Bennets have no connections of note. Jane has two uncles. One is the local solicitor in the above town and the other is none other than Edward Gardiner with whom we all invest. Gardiner is Mrs Bennet’s older brother and the solicitor, Mr Phillips, is married to my future-mother-in-law’s older sister.

Personally, I would not have cared if she had enough uncles to fill up Cheapside because I know she is the only woman for me.

When you meet her, you will see that she is a great beauty, but it is her inner beauty which drew me to her. She has impeccable manners, and I am sure that with your assistance, she will become an excellent future countess, which I pray is long in the future.

Jane is 23, but it is not because of a lack of suitors that she is not married. She, like her next two younger sisters, refuses to marry without love and respect regardless of financial considerations. If she decides she cannot find that with me, she will not accept me when I offer for her. However, I am very hopeful that will not be the case.

Her next younger sister, Miss Elizabeth, accepted a courtship just today with your taciturn nephew. Darcy has been dangling after Miss Elizabeth since he arrived in the area, but his sense of duty was interfering with his desire to court her. He also made a rather poor showing of himself (again, ask Rich, he can elucidate the details of William’s poor behaviour) so he is fortunate Miss Elizabeth looked past that and accepted his offer of a courtship. As I said about Jane, unless she is truly inclined towards William, Miss Elizabeth will not accept him.

It seems you will have two daughters and possibly a new niece to introduce to the Ton.

I must beg you not to remonstrate with Anne and Rich when I inform you that they were aware I was interested in a lady. I swore them to secrecy because I wanted to come to know Jane without her feeling undue pressure with your presence here before I declared myself.

“I knew they were keeping something from me!” Lady Elaine exclaimed. “Based on what our son wrote, I cannot be upset with them for keeping their word to him. Read on, Reggie.”

I have requested leave for you and Father to be hosted at this estate from Bingley, even though he is a little miffed about the lady chusing me (Anne and Rich will be able to inform you as to why). Hence, if you two decide you cannot wait to meet your future daughter, you need only send a note.

With respect,

Andrew

“Reggie, you must send a note forthwith. I must meet this paragon who has managed to entice our eldest son from the state of being a confirmed bachelor,” Lady Elaine enthused.

“I will write to that Bingley fellow right away. At the same time, I think there is much Anne and Richard have to tell us,” Matlock agreed.

While her husband composed the missive, Lady Elaine made for the drawing room where she knew Anne and Richard were sitting. When she entered, she nodded to the maid who had been unobtrusively chaperoning the engaged couple. The girl bobbed a curtsey and left.

Lady Elaine sat and smiled at her son and future daughter. Her husband joined them in a matter of minutes and nodded to tell her a courier was soon to be on his way to Meryton.

“We understand there are some things you have hidden from us…” It took a while for them to hear about each of the things Andrew indicated they should ask about.

Fitzwilliam and Anne told his parents all. The former was pleased that once his parents were made aware that he and Anne had been sworn to secrecy about Andy’s news, they did not censure him. His parents valued honour too much to hold it against them.

“Only William could insult the woman with whom he fell in love,” Lady Elaine said as she shook her head. “I am pleased that apologies were made and accepted and, from what you say, our nephew has been knocked off his high horse. It was very well done by the younger Mr Bennet to force the parents and younger daughters to look at their actions and behaviour without the family being ruined.”

“If all clergymen were like that man, there would be very little sin in this country of ours,” Matlock opined.

“Will you two join us for a few days in Hertfordshire?” Lady Elaine asked.

Anne looked at Richard and nodded. “It seems like we will accompany you. I will be able to make hay of the fact that I will marry before Andy,” Fitzwilliam stated.

“Boys will be boys,” Lady Elaine said lovingly as she shook her head.

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

Mrs Marion Crawford arrived to see her sister at Netherfield Park. She reached that estate on Friday shortly after noon. Once the sisters had some time to speak in person rather than by epistle, they along with Lord Hilldale and Mr and Miss Darcy, entered the Darcy coach to convey them to Longbourn.

After the introductions were made, Bennet asked Mrs Crawford to join him and his wife in his study. One of his past errors that he was correcting was now including his wife when anything affected her directly.

By the time the Bennet parents and Mrs Crawford left the drawing room, Darcy was seated next to Miss Elizabeth, Hilldale was next to Miss Bennet, Anna was speaking to Kitty and Lydia, and Mrs Annesley was watching the latter three indulgently. William Bennet and Mary were already sitting next to one another, their heads close together.

For propriety’s sake, William had volunteered to move to the parsonage in the Longbourn Village the day of the engagement, taking Mr and Mrs Pierce up on the invitation they had extended to him.