Apparently, the mask of good cheer that she had put on for the children was rather thin.
“I imagine you have a great many clothes you plan toorder, and that you will need to begin today.”
“Not so many.” The pretense of happiness frayed further. The memory of Papa’s words. “I don’t plan to spend much.”
“Aren’t you plump, plump, plump in pocket?” Emma asked. “That’s what Sarah said about Mr. Darcy.”
Elizabeth laughed. “That I have themoneyto spend on many fine clothes does not mean that Iintendto spend it.”
“Sensible?” Mrs. Gardiner asked.
“When have Ieverbeen sensible, Auntie,” Elizabeth said smiling. “Might you have liberty this morning to go shopping with me? — much as I hate the necessity, I need a few dresses that can be sent after me to Pemberley.”
“Can I come! Can I come!” That was the refrain of both Betsy and Emma. They were promised that they could — even though it would set their lessons behind where they ought to be.
And off they went, using Darcy’s carriage to go to the shops on Bond Street that Mrs. Gardiner preferred. Elizabeth had placed in her reticule the note with the names and addresses of the places that Darcy’s cousin had recommended for her. Every time she opened her bag and noticed the folded white paper still sitting in it, she felt a low simmering of resentment.
How dare he assume she could not dress herself.
She fully intended toneverkeep herself in fine clothes the way that Mr. Darcy seemed to expect her to. It was stupid, Papa would never admit he had misjudged her, but she wouldproveto herself that he was wrong, and that she had not married Darcy for the sake of the fine clothes and fine carriages. The carriages came with the position, and she could not refuse them, the clothes she could.
The whole time Elizabeth was at the dressmaker, she was keenly aware of the price of everything, and the budget she had set herself. Fifty pounds a year on clothes. That was in fact more than what she had usually spent in a year, but it was not agreat sum next to the needs of a whole new wardrobe for life in Derbyshire as Mrs. Darcy.
Mrs. Gardiner watched her bicker over prices, refuse all of the finer laces and jewelry, and her determination to mostly buy adjustable pieces that she would wear often, rather than the more ordinary habit of great ladies who sometimes disdained to be seen in the same clothes more than once in a season.
Each time she caught sight of her aunt’s worried frown Elizabeth felt as though she was being petty, and perhaps a fool. But she had told Papa that she would never spend more than fifty in a year on clothes, and so she wouldn’t.
When they returned to the house, Mrs. Gardiner put the children back into the care of their nurse and the maids, and she took Elizabeth to the side for tea and a more serious conversation.
“Because of your unhappiness about Mr. Bennet?” That was the first thing Mrs. Gardiner asked.
“I’m glad the rain waited until we got back,” Elizabeth replied. “Pouring now.”
“Do you have enough allowance? — I assumed that you would, even under these circumstances. The pride of the Darcy house made me anticipate that he would insist all the more on being seen as ensuring that his wife was provided up to the normal standard when she did not bring any fortune to the marriage.”
“You do not wish to discuss this lovely weather?”
“Neither do you,” Mrs. Gardiner replied tartly.
Elizabeth laughed. “I honestly do not know how much has been assigned for my personal funds. The negotiations over the settlement were handled between Papa and Mr. Darcy, I was neither invited, nor did I make an effort to force myself into the room. And neither of those unworthy gentlemen made any effort to inform me of their contents.”
“Lizzy,” Mrs. Gardiner said disapprovingly. “Money matters are always serious, and ought to be treated with an appropriate solemnity.”
“Lord! If you could have only heard the solemnity with which my mother greeted the discovery that a daughter of hers would marry a man with ten thousand a year. A most solemn reaction.”
“I am not speaking of your mother. As much as I love her, she is not always sensible.”
“Then why should you expect me to be sensible? I am her child. I want nothing to do with this ill-earned fortune. I married him to protect my sisters. It would… it would be…”
Elizabeth sighed.
“You are proud. You want to prove that you do not deserve the calumny of being a fortune hunter that has been thrown upon you. The whole thing was poorly managed. I think that if your father had been sensible, the marriage could have been avoided.”
“What, even after having been seen in an embrace with him in an empty room? Impossible to end anything with my character intact — these tea biscuits are quite perfect. I always say that to Mama, but our cook could never manage to get them quite the same.”
“Matters that seem wholly serious when you are young and in the midst of them often are forgotten by all parties after a time.”
“No, but would you not prefer to talk about the tea biscuits? Why is it so hard to get the texture quite right?”
