Page 5 of Sweet on Mr Darcy

“Lady Lucas is still being difficult, I take it?” Mr Gardiner asked.

Difficult was an understatement. It seemed to matter not that she still had an unmarried daughter at home who needed her. Lady Lucas would not be separated from her eldest for more than a day. She entered Longbourn through the kitchens each afternoon like she owned the place, harangued the cook about the menus, and went into fits every time she found her daughter out of bed.

The day she learned that the family was going away for the summer and that she was not invited was a scene Longbourn would not soon forget. Mr Bennet informed Sir William and Lady Lucas of the journey in his study, and after some disagreement, the young ladies in the drawing room heard and saw Lady Lucas leaving the house in a rage.

“You treated your first wife with shameful disrespect, Mr Bennet, and I will not abandon my daughter to the same! I will care for her and ensure her happiness! You cannot stop me from going to Sanditon! Indeed, Sir William and I can holiday anywhere we like!”

It was rather an awkward moment when it was realised that the couple had stormed out and left in their carriage without their daughter Maria.

“Sanditon, Papa?” Kitty asked curiously.

“Not another word unless you wish to remain in Meryton to mind your Gardiner cousins, Kitty Bennet.” Mr Bennet eyed Maria Lucas meaningfully before his daughters understood his intention. The Lucases would never disturb them on holiday, because they had no idea to where the Bennets were travelling. Indeed, Sir William and Lady Lucas were under the impression that the family was leaving the following Friday, instead of early Monday morning. By the time it was realised, the Bennets would have left the county entirely and would definitely not travel to Sanditon. Mr Bennet was determined that his wife should have a rest from her mother.

Mr and Mrs Gardiner learned all of this with kind and well meant humour, and listened to the plans of the Bennets for their journey for some minutes before finally Mr Gardiner eyed his wife and then cleared his throat.

“Bennet, I have a matter of business to discuss with you. It concerns the girls, so perhaps they should remain.”

“A matter of business with me and my girls? How curious.” Bennet encouraged Gardiner to continue.

“Well, the investment in question was not matured when Fanny passed, so there was little point in bringing up the matter then. The funds that she saved from her pin money during your marriage were invested at Fanny’s request before she died, and now the investment has borne fruit,” Gardiner attempted to explain.

“Her pin money?” Bennet exclaimed. “I have never heard of any such investment, Gardiner.”

“I mentioned it to you more than once several years ago, Thomas. When Fanny gave me quite a large sum and asked me to invest it for her.” Gardiner raised a brow. “Recall that Christmas when Lizzy fell out of the tree attempting to collect mistletoe? I brought it up thrice on that visit, and twice the year after as well.”

Mr Bennet frowned. “I thought you were trying to convince me to invest in something. We did not have the spare funds.”

“I am happy to hear you pay so much attention when I speak. I was properly straightforward with you.” Gardiner frowned.

“Of course you were, and Mr Bennet, this explains the difference in the household spending,” Charlotte spoke up. When everyone looked at her, she continued. “After I married Mr Bennet, I was determined to stop waste, for it is a detriment to my future. I expected to find a great deal of waste, for we know how Mrs Bennet always made it seem like she spent every penny she had. I did not even need to cut back on very much before we had a great deal of money left at the end of each quarter. So I asked Mr Bennet about it.”

“And of course, I had never audited Fanny’s household ledgers. Not once,” Bennet grumbled. “As Charlotte points out, Fanny was skilled in making it appear she had spent every available penny. I bought as many books and as much port as I wished, since she would not save, and the rest she spent on entertaining and lace, or so I thought. When we investigated the ledgers and household journals, we learned that my first wife was uncommonly shrewd with her income, though we never discovered where the unspent money went.”

“You really are terrible with money, Bennet,” Mr Gardiner tutted. “How could you not know what your wife was and was not spending?”

“It was not in her strongbox, and we spent months searching the house.” Charlotte shook her head. “So she gave it to you for saving?”

“It must have been quite a sum, Gardiner,” Bennet said.

“It was, which is why I attempted to speak to you about it several times, Bennet.” Gardiner rolled his eyes. “Since you married, until her death, Fanny saved close to five hundred pounds a year, nearly ten thousand pounds by her death. Obviously it could not all have been her pin money, but if she saved it from the household accounts that were her responsibility to manage, I could see little harm. I invested it, at her request, several times over. Her intentions, so I understand, were to use it in the same manner as her dowry, to live off of the interest after you died, and then to split it between the girls after her own death.”

“So, our mother left us money?” Jane asked.

“Could she even do that?” Mary said. “Could it even be legal, without Papa’s permission?”

“How much is there?” Elizabeth put forth the question they all really wanted to know.

“Lizzy, you will find this difficult to believe, but your mother was weak to investing just like some men are powerless when it comes to gambling at the tables. She made money a few fortunate times, and then she wanted to take enormous risks. She was very lucky she did not lose all several times over. I have no idea how she came to find some of the schemes she wished to invest in, but as I told you, your mother was shrewd. When she made her last investment, she had sixteen thousand from her previous ventures. I felt she had quite enough and ought to stop. But this last one, it made me nervous. It was quite risky, and eventually she was so insistent that I capitulated, and made a sizable investment of my own, because I feared that if the scheme did not have enough support, it would fail. If only I had invested as much as Fanny did, I would be a great deal richer, but I cannot complain. What I took in will provide a handsome dowry for Dorothy, and a sum to get Henry started when he leaves university. He will never have to enter the army, that is for certain.”

“How much is there, Gardiner?” Bennet insisted.

“Forty-three thousand pounds.” Mr Gardiner’s voice was suddenly very serious.

Jane slumped over the arm of her chair in disbelief.

Charlotte suddenly began to laugh and laugh, her chuckles gaining enthusiasm until she was giggling madly.

“I think, Jane,” Charlotte giggled girlishly. “That your worries about being a burden to your brother are behind you.”