“You will pay for that impertinence later, Sprite!” Andrew warned playfully.“For now, I will take a moment to rest these old bones in a chair.” He teased her, gaining a laugh from many more than just their Lizzy and a smile from his wife that made him feel like the luckiest man in the world.
While the group was enjoying breaking their fast and communing with one another and nature, Franklin Lucas was being shown into a drawing room at Longbourn where the Bennet and Darcy parents were settled into conversation with Ladies Elaine and Rose. Bennet arched his eyebrow in question when he saw who walked into the room, and when Lady Elaine saw the way Bennet did so, she could not help but smile.‘So that is where my daughter inherited that arching of her eyebrow.’
“May I speak to you in your study, Mr Bennet?” Franklin requested quietly.
“There is nothing that you could have to say to me that you cannot say in front of everyone here,” Bennet returned sharply. He would forgive the Lucas heir openly, but he would not make things easy for him.
“I am seeking your advice on whether it is wise to approach the Earl to request that he allow me to offer my sincere apologies to Lady Elizabeth,” Franklin explained, his eyes downcast toward his feet.
“Elaine, you know your son much better than I,” Bennet deferred to Elizabeth’s mother.
“Andrew will hear you out, young man. Whether or not he will allow you to address his sister, I do not know. I can tell you that if he allows it, it will be before more than just he and her in the room. No matter how contrite you are, or seem to be, you will never be allowed alone with my daughter underanycircumstances!” Elaine told Franklin acerbically.
“I deserve no less, your Ladyship,” Franklin said as he lifted his head so that the people sitting and watching him could see the sincerity in his eyes.“My actions and what I planned were despicable, and I deserved much more than I received from your sons,” he looked from the Dowager Countess to the Darcys.“All I can do is to apologise as much as I am allowed and try to live a good and honourable life, never repeating the mistakes of the past.”
“As Christians, we place a high value on repentance and forgiveness, as long as the repentance is genuine,” Tammy Bennet stated to ease the way for those who had taken the deepest of exception after Frank’s actions and there were some nods of agreement in the room, though she knew it would take Elaine and Thomas longer.
“My son will expect you this afternoon, and he will be able to tell if your contrition is genuine or not,” Elaine told the young man in dismissal. Frank bowed to all and took his leave. At least he would be able to make his apology to the Earl, even if he were never personally allowed to deliver it to the lady in question.
Chapter9
When Andrew was informed that the man who had tried to hurt his sister wanted to meet with him, his first inclination was to refuse, until Marie had placed a calming hand on his arm as they listened to what those who had spoken to the man earlier had to say. Once he had calmed down and considered it logically, he allowed that he needed to hear the young man out. He would decide about him delivering an apology to Lizzy if he decided that the apology was sincere, andonlyif Lizzy agreed to it.
Rather than keep her in the dark, Andrew sought out his sister and asked her to join him in the large drawing room, where all except the youngest three were congregated. Bennet relayed the gist of the conversation that had been held with Franklin Lucas, with her mother and others giving their perspectives as well. When they were done relaying the information, she looked to Andrew.
“It seems that he has seen the error of his ways and is truly repentant. If you make the same judgement after you speak to him then I will listen to what he says, but who will be with me?” Elizabeth asked. Even though it sounded as if he were sincere, she would not feel comfortable having just Mrs Annesley with her if Andrew gave his permission for the apology.
“As many of us as you desire,” her mother answered emphatically.“That too is your decision, dearest. We can all be there or some of us; you can let us know.” Elizabeth considered her words carefully.
“I would like Andrew, Marie, Mama, Will, Uncle George, Aunt Anne, Anne, Aunt Tammy, and Father Bennet,” she imparted. The room went silent at the new appellation for Thomas Bennet, who was holding his breath, hoping that he had not misheard.
“As the true relationship is known, there is no purpose in calling my birth family anything except what they are,” Elizabeth informed all matter-of-factly.“Father Bennet is in fact my birth father, and his children are my sisters and brothers. Rather than losing my loving family, I have a larger one that I have only recently gotten to enjoy spending time with.”
Jane rose with tears in her eyes and enfolded her sister in a hug similar to the one she did the night that they were reunited.“Since we found you, I have been praying to be able to call you sister and to be called thus in return,” Jane said softly in her sister’s ear as the hug was returned in full measure. When Jane withdrew, she was replaced by a line of three brothers who all hugged their sister in turn;, next was Tammy.
“What am I to call you?” Elizabeth asked softly.
“Aunt Tammy or Tammy will be fine, Lizzy,” she answered.
Last was her father, with tears in his eyes as he heard the words that he had dreamed of hearing for nigh on fifteen years.“Please say it again,” he asked quietly as he hugged her.
“Father Bennet,” she responded just as softly.“I hope you are not disappointed that I am not able to call you Papa. I had the best of men as my papa, and I will never call another such, not even if, and when, I marry one day.”
“As I understood that, and I could never tear you from your Fitzwilliam family. I will happily be your‘Father Bennet’going forward,” Bennet told his daughter as tears freely streamed down his face.
Once they separated, the twins and Alex were brought down from the nursery as the new status was explained to them. Kitty and Tom were relieved that they did not have to remember to call Lizzy cousin rather than sister.
“I must write to Maddie,” Tammy remembered as she wiped her tears of joys from her eyes.“She predicted that this would happen before Lizzy left Longbourn.” The Gardiners had returned to London the previous day and would return on the three and twentieth and then remain until after the wedding.“I will also send a note to Hattie; she will be most pleased for us.”
The family soon migrated to the large dining parlour for the midday meal as the younger Bennets, especially, used‘sister’in front of Elizabeth’s name as much as possible. Bennet quietly called her daughter a few times, warming the heart of his daughter and himself when he did.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
At Netherfield Park the party was reduced to the Hursts, Grandmother Beckett, who could never have enough time with her first great-grandchild, Mary, Paul, and Henrietta Bingley, their two younger children, and of course Martha and Charles Bingley.
“I think of my husband all the time and see him everywhere in this house,” Martha shared as she blinked back the tears.
“That is but natural when you lose one that you love, daughter,” Gwendolyn Beckett comforted her oldest child,“it was like that after your father passed, Martha. Although it slowly becomes better, you never stop missing him nor should you try.”
