“Again, Lizzy is downplaying her ability. She and that beast of a horse routinely outrun the rest of us, and there are a number of stallions in the group,” Will proudly proclaimed.
“Why did you name her Saturn?” Bennet asked, astounded at another coincidence.
“Andrew started it,” Elizabeth explained.“He named his stallion Orion because of the three stars on his forehead. I decided to use a celestial body as my big brother had, so when I saw the rings on her forelegs, I named her Saturn. Anne,” she indicated her cousin with Perry and Jane,“chose the name Callisto for her mare.” Then she added,“Gigi did not follow our lead, she named her mare Brown Beauty.”
“It seems that it is another similarity between our families. My stallion is Jupiter; Jane’s is Mars,” seeing the questioning look Bennet clarified,“yes, Jane rides a stallion. My dear wife named her mare Neptune. Well, you get the idea. It may seem that my interests are restricted to chess and books; but I, in fact, have many interests—the study of celestial bodies being one.”
Before they departed, Perry confirmed the Bennets would view the townhouse on the morrow at ten, as there had been no chance to do so during the day. It was not long after that everyone departed for their homes with plans made to meet on the morrow after the Bennets saw the townhouse.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As they crossed the threshold after arriving at their house, Martha turned to her husband expectantly.“What is it that you are not telling us, Oscar? After the meeting in the study, you looked like the cat that got all of the cream, so I know it was not bad news.”
“You are correct as ever, Martha, it was thebestof news. Jane sold us Netherfield!” He informed his wife and son with glee just as they made it up the stairs, from the front door and into the drawing room.
“If that is a tease, then it a cruel one, Oscar. You know how much I love living at Netherfield!” she frowned.
He pulled out his copy of the signed-and-witnessed Intent to Purchase agreement to prove it was so; he was worried that his wife would suffer apoplexy, so great was her joy. She hugged her husband as the document slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor, where Charles retrieved it and read it.
“Wait, father, did you say thatJanesold it to us?” Charles asked.
“Yes son, Bennet gifted it to her. As her husband-to-be has more than enough wealth and properties, she chose to sell to help her brothers, who will not inherit one of the other estates and young Kitty,” Oscar explained.
“The price is very good, father,” Charles observed.“He could have asked up to one hundred thousand pounds!”
“You are correct, son; Bennet wanted a number that he could divide by three without too much trouble!” Charles suspected that they had received a‘friends-and-family discount’as ninety thousand was just as easy to divide by three.
As late as it was, the butler was still instructed to open a bottle of champagne, so that the Bingleys could toast their good fortune and their entry into the realm of landed gentlemen.
Chapter4
Perry met the Bennets at ten in the morning. Before they ascended the stairs to the door, he pointed out Darcy House opposite and Matlock House, three doors down, on the same side of the square as they now stood. As they were about to enter, they spied Elizabeth returning from a walk in Hyde Park, being trailed by two enormous footmen, her companion, and with her huge dog Aggie trotting easily at her side.
Elizabeth, too, saw her brother-in-law and the Bennet family, so headed toward them.“Will he bite if we try to pet him,” James asked nervously.
“No, Aggie is fully trained;shewill do nothing until she detects someone trying to harm me, then she can be quite ferocious,” Elizabeth explained to her cousin, well her brother but she was more comfortable thinking of the Bennet children as cousins, except for Jane.
“How old is she?” William asked as he joined James in rubbing behind one of Aggie’s ears. Seeing his other brothers not being eaten by the pony-sized dog, John approached her and started to pet her around the tail which Aggie liked, so she turned and gave him a slobbering lick on his face. The rest of the party laughed as John pulled a face and tried to dry it off.
“She is a little past seven years old,” Elizabeth answered once she had stopped laughing at her dog’s antics.
“We are about to view Perry’s townhouse to decide whether we should purchase it,” Bennet informed his second daughter/niece.“You are most welcome to join us as we look over the house.”
“I would like that,” Elizabeth answered. She beckoned to her companion, a Mrs Annesley, and requested that she inform the family at Matlock House where she was. She asked John to take Aggie home, but Biggs remained with her, even knowing she was surrounded by family.
The housekeeper and butler were waiting for his Grace at the top of the stairs. Perry performed the introductions to the relatively new housekeeper and butler, Mrs Kerry O’Grady and Mr Jacob Franklin, who had been hired less than a year before when their predecessors retired. He explained that there were three maids and the same number of footmen as part of the skeleton staff maintained at the house.
As they were about to enter, Elizabeth pointed out Matlock and Darcy Houses. She was, of course, aware that the Bennets had been to her house the day of the revelation, but she was not sure that they knew how close they would be if they purchased the house.
“That is one of the reasons that this address is attractive, Lizzy,” Bennet winked at her.“If we purchase it, then we will be able to keep an eye on you when we are all in town.”
“More so I can keep an eye on you as you are less familiar with the ways of town, Uncle Thomas?” Elizabeth huffed, smiling when her Bennet family laughed.
Without seeing her, she sensed Jane next to her and turned to claim one of the warm hugs that Jane gave her. When they all followed Perry and the senior staff into the house, Jane and Elizabeth had their arms intertwined.
There was nothing not to like about the townhouse. From the outside, it looked like most of the others around the perimeter of the square, and Perry informed them that most of the houses on the square also had similar floor plans inside, except for one or two whose owners had made extensive changes. There were five floors, many family and guest chambers, an oversized ballroom, all the public rooms one would expect, a family and a guest sitting room, and three dining parlours; one for breakfast, an informal family parlour, and a large formal parlour. The ballroom and the three dining parlours could become one larger room to accommodate additional space for a ball.
After showing them where the master’s and mistress’s studies were, which had a connecting door, Perry had kept the best for last—the library. It was on the floor above the ballroom and was almost as big. At the instant that he saw all the tomes that had been undisturbed for far too long. Bennet made a decision; unless Tammy had objections, he would make an offer of purchase for the house. He asked Tammy to join him in the family sitting room close to the entrance to the library.
