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Jane shook her head. “It is possible he had other business.”
William pulled a face, and Elizabeth gently shook her head at him. “I did not prevaricate when I spoke to Miss Bingley, Miss Bennet,” he said.
“You have claimed me as your sister. You had better call me Jane.” There was a twinkle in Jane’s eye.
“My sister Georgiana calls me William,” William offered.
Jane nodded, pleased.
“How serious are Mr. Bingley’s debts?” Elizabeth asked.
William grimaced. “He has paid most of them, but he has squandered a significant portion of his fortune.”
“Then he was interested in me because he wanted Longbourn,” Jane said quietly.
“Precisely,” William said. “I ought to have waited to speak with your father about Bingley myself, rather than racing away to London like a scalded cat. If I had, none of this would have happened.”
“Including this,” Elizabeth replied, holding up the hand that bore his ring. “It is not your fault,” she assured him, “I told Papa what he needed to know, and Mama is well aware Jane is not an heiress. She simply refuses to accept it.”
“Much like Mr. Bingley,” Jane said quietly.
William lifted his eyebrows at Jane’s statement. Elizabeth smiled. He would grow used to Jane’s intelligence as well as her humor, which she only used in company where she felt safe.
“Grandfather Bennet was not fond of women,” Elizabeth explained to her husband. “He tied the estate up in such a way that it could never be inherited by one.”
“Then who is the heir now that Mr. Collins has passed?” Aunt Gardiner asked, turning to the door as Elizabeth’s father stepped inside.
“The attorneys have been searching all the branches of the Bennet tree since they first heard about Mr. Collins. Thomas does not yet know,” Uncle Gardiner informed them, before he realized Papa was in the room.
Her father moved a smaller chair to their group, placed it, and sat. “Well now,” he said drily. “As it turns out, we do. I simply did not wish to say before we exhausted all other possibilities.”
They all waited as Papa stood silently. Finally, Jane could wait no longer. “Papa!” she remonstrated. “It is unkind of you to sport with us.”
Papa stood and held out his hand to Uncle Gardiner. “Congratulations, Edward. My father must have seen something of greatness in you, for if our line failed, he named you as Longbourn’s heir.”
