The Avenger- Thomas Bennet and a Father's Lament Read online

  The Avenger:

  Thomas Bennet and a Father’s Lament

  By

  Don Jacobson

  A Pride and Prejudice Variation

  © 2018 by Donald P. Jacobson. All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced by any means—electronic or mechanical—without the expressed written consent of the holder of this copyright except for brief excerpts for review purposes. Published in the United States of America.

  Cover image: Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Fifth Avenue Nocturne (1895) Oil on canvas. Original is found in Cleveland Museum of Art. This is a faithful reproduction of a two-dimensional public domain work of art. The work of art is in the public domain itself because the author of the work died in 1935 in the country of its origin and in other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 80 years or less. Accessed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Childe_hassam,_notturno_sulla_fifth_avenue,_1895_ca.jpg

  Cover design by Janet Taylor. JT Originals.

  All characters, real or imaginary, are treated as fiction and may have been altered for literary purposes. The author apologizes in advance for any inconvenience or discomfort that may be caused by fictional characters’ resemblance to persons living or dead.

  Works by Don Jacobson

  The Bennet Wardrobe Stories

  Miss Bennet’s First Christmas

  The Bennet Wardrobe: Origins

  The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey

  Henry Fitzwilliam’s War

  The Exile (Pt. 1): Kitty Bennet and the Belle Époque

  Lizzy Bennet Meets the Countess

  The Exile (Pt. 2): The Countess Visits Longbourn

  The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father’s Lament

  Other Pride and Prejudice Variations

  Lessers and Betters Stories

  Of Fortune’s Reversal

  The Maid and The Footman

  Lessers and Betters

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Preface

  Cast of Characters

  Gibbons Rules of the Wardrobe

  Bennets of Longbourn

  Biographical Note

  Book One: Prelude

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Book Two: Pastorale

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter XI

  Chapter XII

  Chapter XIII

  Chapter XIV

  Chapter XV

  Chapter XVI

  Chapter XVII

  Chapter XVIII

  Chapter XIX

  Book Three: Adagio, Pas de Deux

  Chapter XX

  Chapter XXI

  Chapter XXII

  Chapter XXIII

  Chapter XXIV

  Chapter XXV

  Chapter XXVI

  Chapter XXVII

  Chapter XXVIII

  Book Four: Intermezzo

  Chapter XXIX

  Chapter XXX

  Chapter XXXI

  Chapter XXXII

  Chapter XXXIII

  Chapter XXXIV

  Chapter XXXV

  Chapter XXXVI

  Book Five: Denouement

  Chapter XXXVII

  Chapter XXXVIII

  Chapter XXXIX

  Chapter XL

  Chapter XLI

  Chapter XLII

  Chapter XLIII

  Chapter XLIV

  Chapter XLV

  Chapter XLVI

  Chapter XLVII

  Chapter XLVIII

  Chapter XLIX

  Chapter L

  Chapter LI

  Chapter LII

  Chapter LIII

  Book Six: Finale

  Chapter LIV

  Chapter LV

  Chapter LVI

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Other Works by the Author

  End Notes

  Dedication

  There has always been one force that has driven me to try to become the best version of myself. That is the woman who has shared my joys and sorrows for decades.

  I would be less than half a whole without you, Pam. Thank you for finding that wonderful goldfish pond in a hotel lobby all those years ago. You are the mermaid who lifts me above the waves.

  Preface

  The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father’s Lament explores the story of the pater familias of the Longbourn clan immortalized by Jane Austen in her magisterial work Pride and Prejudice. His Wardrobe-determined journey will pass through the timelines of all five of his daughters…sometimes more than once.

  While the structure of this novel is generally linear, readers will notice some scenes and allusions to other books in the Series which themselves explore the comings and goings of the Bennet users of the Wardrobe in different or similar timeframes. While these references are not intended to confuse first-time readers of a Bennet Wardrobe story, it is possible that a very normal “Wha….?” May be uttered from time-to-time.

  This is in no way intended to dissuade you from carrying on to the subsequent pages herein, however, a more rewarding experience may be found through reading the novels and novellas in the following sequence.

  The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey

  Henry Fitzwilliam’s War

  The Exile: Kitty Bennet and the Belle Époque

  Lizzy Bennet Meets the Countess

  The Exile: The Countess Visits Longbourn

  The Avenger: Thomas Bennet and a Father’s Lament

  I assure you that there is madness to the method employed. As a writer, I seek to bring you, dear reader, to a deeper understanding of the persons behind the plot. In many cases, characters reach crises offstage that will be discussed in a later offering. I only ask that you be patient. All will be revealed in due time.

  Dramatis Personae

  The Bennets of Longbourn

  Mr. Thomas Michael Bennet, Master of Longbourn Estate

  Mrs. Frances Lorinda Bennet, Mistress of Longbourn Estate

  The Fitzwilliams and Darcys of Matlock House and Pemberley

  Thomas Fitzwilliam, 12th Earl of Matlock and “M”

  Anne Reynolds Fitzwilliam, Countess (12th) of Matlock

  Richard Edward Fitzwilliam, Viscount of Matlock, “Preacher”

  Eileen Mary Nearne, MBE, Viscountess of Matlock, “Rose”

  Georgiana Catherine “Kitty” Cecil-Darcy, 4th Countess of Pemberley

  Lord David Cecil-Darcy, Lady Georgiana’s husband

  Elizabeth “Lizzy” Schiller, daughter of the 4th Countess of Pemberley

  Graf Alois von Schiller, Lady Elizabeth’s husband, Hauptmann von

  der Fernspäher (German Special Forces) (detached duty)

  Dr. Henry Wilson, physician, expert in infectious diseases

  Mrs. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, A Life Director of the Bennet Family

  Trust and her Daughter, Elizabeth, Woman’s Auxiliary

  Territorial Service Truck Mechanic #230873

  Edward Crawley, a barrister at Wilson and Hunters

  Michael Tomkins, retired chief mechanic of the Matlock properties

  The Beach House at Deauville

  Letitia (Letty) Villet Robard, Housekeeper of the Beach House

  Denis Robard, Letty’s husband, Capitaine de le 1RPMIa

  (1er Regiment Parachutiste D'Infanterie de Marine) (French

  Special Forces) (detached duty)

&n
bsp; Eloise Fitzwilliam Robard, the 12th Earl of Matlock’s sister

  Feldwebel (ret) Manfred Liebermann, a Schiller family retainer

  Madame Claudia Liebermann, formerly the Widow Villet

  Richard W. Leopold, PhD, American academic

  The Villain

  Freiherr Marius von Winterlich, a former Standartenführer of the SS

  The Crime Lord

  William “Billy” Hill, a gangster

  The Sword of Israel

  Isser Harel, Second Director of the Mossad (1953-63)

  C.S. Lewis in his 1958 lectures on the BBC

  identified four types of

  love governing positive human interactions:

  Storge: Empathy Bond

  Philia: Friend Bond

  Eros: Erotic Bond

  Agape: Unconditional Love.

  

  I have discovered that the Bennet Wardrobe

  operates in the service of a Fifth Love:

  Exagoras Agapis: Redemptive Love.

  This is the love which drives us to become better

  versions of ourselves.

  

  Yet, t’was Niebuhr who identified

  The ultimate and Sixth Love:

  That which forgives

  Such love makes all human life possible.

  May we all find

  Synchotikí agape

  Don Jacobson, 2018

  Gibbons’ Rules of The Wardrobe

  Only blood descendants of Christopher Bennet of Longbourn Estate, Meryton, Hertfordshire will be able to utilize the Cabinet to visit the future. No other person will be able to activate the forces channeled by the Wardrobe.

  Time transit will be accomplished from the Wardrobe in the present to the Wardrobe in the future. If the Wardrobe is altered, damaged or destroyed in the future, travel beyond that point in time will be impossible.

  Each time voyage is a cycle that must be completed. A cycle is one trip to the future accompanied by a return trip to moment of departure. The Bennet cannot use the Wardrobe to jump to one future and then jump to another future beyond.

  Time travel will only be undertaken based upon the expressed desire of the Bennet. However, the Wardrobe will interpret that desire and ascertain what is best for the Bennet, the Bennet family, and the Wardrobe itself.

  Travel forward in time does not stop the progression of time in the Universe. If the Bennet spends a year in the future and uses the Wardrobe to return, the Bennet will have aged one year.

  No travel to any past before the immediate present is possible.

  No male Bennet will be able to sire offspring in the future having travelled to that future through the Wardrobe in order to prevent improper relations. No female Bennet can increase in the future and then return to the past while awaiting confinement. Bennet children born in the future will not be able to return to the past with their parent.

  Other rules may be discovered that will modify these strictures.

  Destiny once composed cannot be undone (C. Bennet, 1697)

  9. Under no circumstances should an increasing woman, be she a Bennet or a non-Bennet carrying a Bennet babe, touch the wardrobe lest both be transported because of the closeness of their bond. (S. Bennet, 1760)

  10. All traveling Bennets must immediately contact the head offices of the Bennet Family Trust in London using whatever means fitting for the epoch. (T. Bennet, 1812)

  11. A non-Bennet may travel if in close contact with a Bennet when the Wardrobe is activated. However, that non-Bennet cannot complete the cycle without the assistance of the original Bennet. (T. Bennet, 1814)

  12. Upon arrival, traveling Bennets must ascertain the correct date and location prior to leaving the vicinity of the Wardrobe. Under no circumstances shall the Bennet leave the vicinity of the Wardrobe until personal security is established lest the Wardrobe be compromised. (M. Benton, E. Benton, 1816)

  13. The most senior Bennet Keeper in any timeframe may, at his or her individual discretion, determine to alter any Keeper-derived Rules of The Wardrobe that were created by men to govern the behavior of men. All changes will be made only with the advice and consent of the Life Directors of the Bennet Family Trust. (T. Bennet, 1947)

  14. The Wardrobe may determine that two Bennets, one already having traveled forward but not yet having completed the cycle, may both move forward if they are in skin-to-skin contact when the cabinet is activated by the untraveled Bennet. (M. Benton, 2009)

  The Bennets of Longbourn

  A Biographical Note

  Many readers of The Bennet Wardrobe audiobooks are by now familiar with my use of both fictional and historical characters in these stories. My intention is to create an interesting context for the characters and the plotlines.

  While many (Sherlock Holmes, Pierre Auguste and Aline Charigot Renoir, and Sigmund Freud) are familiar, I rise here to introduce you to an historic personage with whom you are, in all probability, thoroughly unfamiliar.

  Eileen Mary Nearne, MBE, Croix de Guerre (1921-2010) was a legendary British SOE field agent in the later years of WWII. She was inserted into Occupied France in early March 1944 in preparation for Operation Overlord. After sending well over 100 messages back to London, she was captured by the Germans in July 1944. She survived interrogation by the Gestapo and was later transferred first to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and then to a labor camp in Silesia.

  She escaped from the camp in April 1945 and was captured by the SS, only to convince the black helmets that she and her companions were harmless. They were hidden by a priest in Leipzig until liberated by American forces at the end of the war.

  While her life read like a work of highly imaginative fiction, scant notice was ever paid to Nearne and her role in the war. She lived out her life in relative anonymity, suffering the effects of what we now refer to as PTSD. Her war record and honors remained generally unknown until her flat in Torbay was searched after her death.[i]

  Her codename was “Rose.”

  O Röschen rot!

  Der Mensch liegt in größter Not!

  Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!

  Je lieber möcht' ich im Himmel sein.

  Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg:

  Da kam ein Engelein und wollt' mich abweisen.

  Ach nein! Ich ließ mich nicht abweisen!

  Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott!

  Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben,

  Wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig selig Leben!

  O little red rose!

  Man lies in greatest need!

  Man lies in greatest pain!

  How I would rather be in heaven.

  There came I upon a broad path

  when came a little angel and wanted to turn me away.

  Ah no! I would not let myself be turned away!

  I am from God and shall return to God!

  The loving God will grant me a little light,

  Which will light me into that eternal blissful life![ii]

  Gustav Mahler

  Book One

  Prelude

  (The Preacher and The Rose)

  accelerando

  (gradually increasing in speed)

  I am a rose of Sharon,

  a lily of the valleys

  Song of Solomon, 2:1

  Chapter I

  A concrete blockhouse in the Black Forest, Summer of 1945

  The bare bulb hung limply at the end of a long wire: the cable’s poorly made fabric insulation frayed by years of indifferently sealed gaskets unable to exclude the extremes of the trans-Alpine weather. The cord dropped down from a ceiling rimed with limey stalactites of varying lengths, leached from its surface; bearing silent testimony to the hurried and haphazard nature of the entire structure’s construction.

  Despite whatever long-forgotten reason for its erection—surely an odd word given that the only evidence of its existence was a poorly mortared casement protruding above the brush-covered hillside—the sub
terranean building served one remaining purpose. T’was a place of confinement; a last stop at the end of a long track across Central Europe which led from the catchments of now-leveled camps and Gestapo basements ever deeper into the bowels of a corpse that no longer was bloated, but rather subsiding into the final corruption of decomposition.

  That the blood supply so necessary for political movements —money, weapons, willing accomplices, and a compliant population—had long since ceased to flow through withered arteries since the Slavic hordes and the khaki-green wave had collided at the Elbe mattered little. The ideological blindness that had powered the multi-generational hatred still blinkered the soul of the one who held the key to the rust-rimed door that locked away a heart of singular nobility.

  That single lamp pitched her nakedness into a pastiche of light and dark planes; those inky patches relieved by a whiteness of skin, pale to near translucence, transected by a network of bluish blood vessels, gently throbbing, the only other evidence of life beyond the tortured movements of her ribcage as she raggedly inhaled and then released in a tremulous sigh.

  The stress position that had been her norm for days, if not weeks, had her crouched, kneeling, and barely able to support her withered haunches upon her heels. The bindings at her ankles prevented any attempt to stand. Her arms were manacled behind her back and hoisted to a near-impossible angle by a rope running through a pulley mounted on the ceiling and tied off on a cleat adjacent to an unseen and doorless portal. Her head hung between hunched shoulders, her once-blond hair draping toward the rough concrete floor, no less greasy with bodily waste than the ancient pavement upon which she knelt.