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The law of friendship
(The Two Gentlemen of Verona 3.1.5-6)
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CHRISTMAS WAS NOW UPON them, and with it came the obligatory journey to Meryton, wherein lived Edward’s half-sisters, Louisa Phillips and Frances Bennet. Longbourn, the Bennets’ estate, was by far the larger of the two households, and that is where the Gardiner family was to stay for the duration of their visit. Matthew, of course, was invited to join the Gardiners, for he was both alone in the world and had become a de facto member of the family. Edward’s parents had grown quite fond of the boy and found his cheerful manner and helpfulness a great comfort and pleasure.
The carriage arrived at the house on the afternoon of the twentieth of December, spilling its four passengers into the wide gravel drive before the front doors. The Bennet family - mother, father and five daughters - were all in attendance, as were Mrs. Phillips and her oldest son, Paul. Whilst the family was invited inside for tea and to rest and wash for dinner, a small contingent of servants worked to remove the trunks from the back of the carriage and take the horses to be groomed and fed.
Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Phillips were, of course, most interested in the presence of their father and mother. They nattered happily and cheerfully, asking question after question, and sometimes even waiting to hear the response before nattering on some more. Edward was a welcome guest as well, if somewhat less doted-upon than his parents, the curiosity of a half-brother, the nuisance child of their youth now become the respectable businessman that he was.
“Are you now too fine for my simple house, Brother?” Frances Bennet asked, oblivious to her current status as wife to a gentleman when her brother was a mere tradesman. “You, who are used to the latest fashions of London and who goes gallivanting off to parts of the country for your business. Do you see anything here you like?” She gestured at the lavishly appointed, somewhat rococo sitting room in which they took their tea.
“And my daughters, my fine daughters, what think you of them, Brother? Are they not a handsome collection of girls? See how strong and big they are growing.”
Edward turned to admire his nieces with such adequate attention as to satisfy their mother. The elder two were, indeed, quite handsome. Jane, especially, had the promise of great beauty upon her. At eleven years of age, her prettiness had not yet begun to change into the loveliness of womanhood, but Edward could see a future in which her poor father might have to lock his doors against her suitors. She had her mother’s sweet and generous nature, but tempered with her father’s calm intelligence. Yes, she would be a prize for some lucky young man.
Elizabeth, his favourite of the girls, was not quite as beautiful as her older sister, but there was a sparkle to her eyes that would also stop hearts someday. Even as young as she was, her regard held a touch of irony and a tireless curiosity, and she scampered about the countryside with little regard to her mother’s nerves, always looking for a shady spot to collapse and read whatever tome she had absconded with from her father’s library. There were no secrets to be had from Lizzy, Edward realized. He would have to be careful about discussing Miss Grant over the course of this visit. Those young ears heard all and that mind, so keen and perceptive, understood far more than her mere nine years should allow.
The younger three girls were little more than babies. Mary, seven years old, was quiet and moody, most likely the result of being ignored in favour of her bright older sisters or her two active younger ones. Catherine and Lydia, aged five and nearly four, took all of their mother’s energy. They were pretty enough little girls, Edward supposed, all covered in lace and ribbons, but at such tender ages, he could hardly have an opinion of their character.
In this strange circle of grandparents, parents, uncles and daughters, sat one oddity: Matthew. Too old to play with the children, and too young to converse with the adults, he sat in awkward discomfort, holding his tea as if the glass might shatter in his hand. Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Bennet ignored him, aside from a brief word of welcome, as he was nothing more than their brother’s servant to them, a changeling child scooped up from the woods as a lost dog. He would be made comfortable, to be sure, but by his age and fortune, would not be the recipient of any special regard by either of Edward’s sisters.
His over-large jacket fit him ill, and his breeches were clean and new but shapeless on his thin frame. His hair, newly trimmed, was nonetheless untidy and wild, and he looked as if he had never been less comfortable in his life. It was little Elizabeth who came to his rescue. “I want a walk!” she announced as the adults took their tea.
“Now Lizzy, you know not to interrupt,” her mother admonished her sternly. Mr. Bennet merely gazed at his impertinent daughter as if agreeing with her assessment.
“I am sorry to interrupt, Mama,” she declaimed as she had been taught, “but I still want a walk! Who shall come with me? Come, Jane! And you, Matthew I think your name is, you shall come too. We shall explore the wilds of Araby, just through those trees. Papa, are there many trees and much snow in Araby?”
Matthew looked at Edward, tacitly asking his permission. “How is your ankle, lad? Are you up for scrambling over stiles and under shrubbery with these young monsters who are my nieces?” He smiled at the girls.
“I, Uncle Edward, am a lady,” pronounced Jane in clear tones, “and I do not scramble.” She looked serenely down her perfect nose. “I should enjoy a walk, though, Lizzy. I shall get my heavy coat, for it is cold.”
“Matt?” Edward asked his charge again.
“Aye, Mr. Gardiner, sir, I should like a walk, if Miss Jane and Miss Elizabeth will have me along.”
Lizzy looked curiously at Matt. “You talk strangely” she informed him, “not like a gentleman at all!”
“Elizabeth!” her father's voice was stern. “Matthew is from a different part of England, where it is quite proper to speak as he does. Mind your manners, young lady!”
“I shall mind them, and I am not bothered by it, but he does still talk strangely. But I think I shall like him anyway.”
Her father chuckled and her mother rolled her eyes. “Oh, how that child does vex my nerves,” she announced to the room. “Go, children, and get your coats. The sun is clear, but the air does look cold.”
The older girls hurried from the room with grateful looks in their eyes. “Meet us by the back door, Matt,” Lizzy smiled at him. “Mrs. Hill will get your heavy coat. Mind you wear stout boots. We’re tromping through deserts today.” And with a flash of those eyes, she was gone, Matthew scurrying along in her wake.
After the older children went on their adventure, the younger ones were collected by the nursemaid to return to their nursery for stories and their dinner, and the remaining adults settled back after tea to catch up on news and relate information. As the women talked amongst themselves, Mr. Bennet turned to Edward. “Well, Gardiner,” he began, “where did you find that strange boy? He looks like an odd one, but he comports himself well enough.”
“He is a bit of a mystery, I confess,” Edward replied. “He is my foundling child, although nearly a grown one. He seems to be fourteen years or so, but not a hair of a beard on him. Well, some of us start sooner and some later. But he is prodigiously smart, and has been a huge asset to my affairs. I should not like to make him do tricks like an organ-grinder’s monkey, but perhaps if he agrees, I can ask him to do some mathematical calculations for you later. I’ve heard stories of adding machines, but this lad can out-add them all. He works out percentages and fractions and multiplies large numbers without need of paper and pen, and all with complete accuracy. I do check him every so often, and I have yet to catch a single error.
“He reads and writes exceedingly well, and has a good command of literature, French and Italian. All learned with the master’s son in whatever estate he might call home.” He took a breath and shook his head.
“But any more than that, I cannot tell you. He speaks very little of himself and really keeps even his true personality private from all of us. I suspect he has escaped from a cruel master. From what he says, and from other information I have gathered,” not mentioning Miss Grant’s name, “his old master was a very good man who afforded the boy an education along with his own children. But now that master is dead, and the new master is less considerate of his charges. This boy, I believe, has fled. Whither the son and daughter, I know not.”
“So the little adding machine has flown the coop. How interesting. I wonder if he was useful to the gentleman.” Bennet mused, “And whether the current master of the house will come looking for his erstwhile servant. This son and daughter of the house - you know nothing of them?”
“That is the strange part. I know something of the daughter, for Matthew talks a small bit of her. It seems she sat in lessons with her brother, and was a great student. From what I know, she might be a good friend to your young Lizzy, if the two should ever chance to meet.”
“And the brother?”
“I have no notion at all. Matthew says nothing of him being dead, but I do not believe that he is the new master of the estate. Perhaps he is too young to take charge, or away at school, and an uncle manages affairs until he comes of age.” His brow furrowed in thought. “There is another possibility...”
“Yes?” Bennet asked.
“Matthew seems to be taking great care to keep his origins a secret to me. It could be that he is creating a story to obscure the truth, so I may not find where, exactly, he lived. There is some secret I do not understand. However, I am pleased enough with my young Matt, and jealous enough of keeping his good favour, that I am satisfied with not probing too deeply of these secrets.”
“Gardiner, I do insist you keep me apprised of any developments!”
“Indeed I will, Thomas. You can be certain of that.”
The men talked further of young Matthew, and then of Bennet’s accounts and the prospects of his land for the coming year. The previous harvest had been a good one, and there was both excess grain and money that might be put towards new lands to increase the size of the estate. The main part of Longbourn was entailed away from the female line, and Thomas Bennet hoped to see if any newly acquired lands might be passed on to his daughters, in the event that his wife never did produce the long-wished-for son. These discussions of estate law and the necessity for prudent handling of the matter went on for some considerable time, and it was only when the children arrived back into the house, dirty and wet and shivering, but with great smiles on their faces, did the conversation end.
Elizabeth was the first to speak, bursting into the room as she did. “We are back from our walk!” she announced, quite unnecessarily. “We had a grand time, and explored parts of Araby and China, and then we built a fort in the snow behind the barn and protected it from Red Indians in Nova Scotia. Were there Red Indians in Nova Scotia, Uncle Edward? I know you were there!”
Matthew looked up in surprise. “I didn’t know you was in Nova Scotia, Mr. Gardiner! I wondered how Miss Lizzy knew about it but...” his voice trailed off.
“Aye, lad, I went to university there. We can’t all be Oxford or Cambridge men. What do you know of Nova Scotia?”
“My... my old master’s son, the one who let me sit in on his lessons, he spoke of maybe going there.” Matthew looked upset at himself, as if he had inadvertently divulged more than he wished. Too late to retract his words, he stopped, as if thinking how to continue without releasing too much more information.
“Was he indeed? Has he gone to study? There is a new, but fine university there, full of men loyal to the king, who abandoned the American charge for independence and set up shop in British territory instead.”
“No, sir, he’s not gone to study. After m... Shortly before Old Mr. Grant died, one of his relatives thought the master’s son would do well in the colonial government. He was sent off to apprentice or som’at like that. I did not know at first if he was gone to Kingston or Bombay, but he was sent to Halifax. Was you in Halifax, sir? They say there’s a mighty fine harbour in Halifax.”
“A mighty fine harbour indeed. The university is in Windsor, but I sailed in and out of Halifax, and spent some time there between terms. It will be a grand city one day. Have you heard from young Mr. Grant at all? How does he fare in those cold colonial realms?”
“I have not heard from him in an age, sir, and I wish I might.”
“I am surprised that he does not return now, after his father’s demise. He is rightfully master of the estate now.”
“Rightfully....” Matthew murmured this last word, and Edward wondered what that meant. Was someone else trying to take the estate for himself? Matt’s story had all the makings of a juicy Gothic novel, and Edward was more than intrigued. This was become quite curious.
Lizzy was not about to be left out of this conversation, and turned it back to her desired direction, adding, “Next time we play, Matt, you must tell us more. You had so much information about Araby. Papa and Uncle Edward, did you know that there is no snow in Araby, even in the cold of winter! Matt knows so much.”
“And you, Jane, did you enjoy exploring parts unknown?” Her father asked with a quizzical eye.
“Yes, Papa. We had a grand time exploring and imagining regions we will never see. Matthew even told us about China and the fine silks to be had there.”
“Ah, young Matthew, what do you know about China?” Mr. Bennet asked.
“I like to read, sir, and I learn what I can from my books.”
“Would you like to travel there some day?”
“That would be more than I could ever imagine, sir.”
“Indeed.” Mr. Bennet turned to his brother-in-law now. “Come, Edward, I believe the women are almost ready to sit down to dine. Perhaps you and young Matthew would like to refresh yourselves and change before we eat.”
The younger men left the room, but not before Edward noticed a strange expression on Lizzy’s face. She was thinking about something in that inscrutable way of hers. He wondered what was going through that unusual little mind, so full of books and stories and tales of the imagination. He never knew what words would come out of that mouth, whether they were informed by fact or fantasy, but he knew they always were perceptive and very interesting.
She glanced away now, as if the notion had abandoned her, and began to talk to her father of what she had helped cook prepare for Christmas dinner. Edward turned towards the door and began to climb the stairs to his chambers. He turned back, however, having neglected to ask a question of his host. “Go along, Matt,” he told his assistant. “I shall knock on your door when we are ready to dine.” He walked back towards the salon, but paused at the door when he heard Thomas speaking.
“What think you, my Lizzy-bear? Did you enjoy young Matt’s company?”
“Papa, indeed I did, but he is a strange one. He talks so oddly, but there is something else in his manner that perplexes me.” Of course nine-year-old Elizabeth would have full command of a word like ‘perplex.’ Edward adored that child!
“Does he frighten you, Lizzy?” Bennet’s voice held a note of concern.
“No, not at all. I like him and I am happy to explore the world with him. He knows so much, much more than Jane knows. He told us stories about the Rajahs of India and the Mandarins of China. Did you know that there are whole lands in the East that are all sand and hot sun? And that they are even further away than France? There are places where they speak strange languages too, even stranger than what Matthew says they speak in Derbyshire. He talked to us normally as well as in his funny Derby voice. His normal voice sounds quite different. He said he was learning to speak like we do, from Uncle Edward and from his time in London, but it didn’t sound like he was just learning. I wonder, though...”
“What is it, my Lizzy?” Edward heard her father ask.
“I don’t quite know, Papa, although I do wonder.”
“You shan’t tell me, will you?”
“No, indeed I shall not!” She laughed her cheerful and knowing little girl laugh.
“Well then,” Mr. Bennet sighed, “I had also best go and prepare for dinner. Your mother has gone to great lengths to provide a grand table for our guests, and I shall be sitting with the livestock if I do not put in a suitably grand appearance. Up you go too, my dear, for you and Jane shall join us this evening.”
Edward ducked behind a curtain as he heard Mr. Bennet move toward the stairs. Still, he stood still, thinking over what he had heard. He had not moved when he heard Lizzy’s voice again as she said to herself, “There’s another secret, and I think I know what it is!”
And with that pronouncement, she skipped past her hidden uncle and up the stairs to dress for dinner.