Love Among the Gifted - A Pride & Prejudice Alternative

Chapter Thirteen

Alan Dash sat in his small room, listening to the argument raging outside his door and wondered, not for the first time since the Frenchman had arrived with his cohorts, if the decisions that had led to this point were the best he could have made.

Six months ago, Alan's father, called by all and sundry Old Dash, had fallen ill. Over the course of the summer the old man had mostly recovered. But it had brought Alan the realization that when his father did pass on, the lease on Triple Creek Freehold would expire and Alan would find himself homeless. As freeholds were crown properties, granted to ungifted men that had performed some extraordinary task for the crown, but only for a set number of generations. Old Dash's death would be the end of the three-generation grant and the land would return to crown control.

The unfairness in the system was like a bitter draught to the man that had given his life to the farm. It was more than labor he had given. No woman of worth would marry him as he had no future prospects, save begging for a tenant farm on some landowner's estate. He had always despised the laws that limited good men who were born wholly human. For most of his adult life he had been active in the Ordinary movement, marching and protesting. But after his father's illness, he knew he had to do more.

He met the Frenchman, LaFontaine, at a rally in London. The young émigré had invited the disaffected farmer to stay at his house. It was there that he had met others that felt it was time to do more than march and sing. The Ordinaries had to act. And LaFontaine had a special weapon that would strike terror into the hearts of the English ruling class.

Alan could never afterwards say if it was the revolutionary furor, the comely lasses, or the potent brandy, all of which were in plentiful supply at the Frenchman's salon, that had most influenced his agreement to bring a band of what LaFontaine called ExtraOrdinaries to Triple Creek. Meryton seemed like a good place to start the revolution. So, as summer came to a close, LaFontaine and four fellow travelers arrived.

The Frenchman was the son of an aristocratic family who fled the French Revolution to come to Britain in 1792 when he was only seven years old. He dressed and acted the gentleman, and even had the gift necessary for him to bear the title legally, but was full of zeal against his own class both in France and in England. He saw the need for violence to effectively change the entrenched social system that punished or rewarded a man for the circumstances of his birth rather than the condition of his character. LaFontaine's very rare ability allowed him to temporarily instill gifts into those born without. This gift offered the opportunity to turn the tables on the entrenched establishment.

He brought with him Mansfield, Reilly, Jenny, and Fitz. All had been granted gifts in the past and were trained in their use, though they were without these abilities when they arrived. It was explained that they could only last for a few weeks and the group was not yet ready to act. The four ExtraOrdinaries were as different from each other as they were from Alan, or from LaFontaine. But each had their reason for wanting to bring down the giftocracy that repressed the working class.

Alan had spent weeks helping familiarize the group with the local area while informing them of the best targets to cause unrest. He pointed them particularly at the principle landowning families in the area – The Bennets, The Lucases, and The Gouldings. These were the families that had shunned his father and grandfather before them. They were the ones that had made him feel ashamed of his beloved home. And they were the ones who had spurned his interest in their precious daughters. Attacking these families would send a terrifying message to the gentry throughout the county and beyond. All men were equal. All men had rights. And gift or no gift, no man was above the judgement of his fellows.

A week into November, LaFontaine informed the team it was time to take action. He had specific intelligence on where and when two high value targets would be found alone and vulnerable. It was time for the team to receive their gifts and prepare for action. The transformation process was agonizing. It took a full day for Alan to recover. The Frenchman had agreed that the farmer would join the ExtraOrdinaries for this mission.