“Oh, how beautiful!All this for us?”Elizabeth whirled on Darcy and kissed him soundly as soon as they were introduced to the large entry hall, which took up both floors that they had let.The room was palatial and the floors were covered with thick rugs.There was statuary and paintings in every corner, and all of the ceilings fashionably high.Elizabeth wandered around, while Darcy kept her hand in his as she smiled and looked at every corner.
“Acomtemaintained this as his Paris residence prior to the revolution,” Darcy’s man of business said with pride in his voice at a job done well, “And a Prussian aristocrat of great rank vacated the previous week.We were lucky to find such a place.”
“Oh, so delightful!”Elizabeth exclaimed again.“I am almost afraid I shall break something by accident.”
“Don’t worry aboutthat,” Darcy said with a laugh, and he took her hand and spun her about like at a peasant dance before he kissed her again.
The cook which had been hired with the house came out to announce in French to Monsieur and Madame that he had prepared a fantastical welcome feast for them, and that they must sit to dine quickly, lest the food become cold, and unworthy of his name as a chef.
Chapter Fourteen
As Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy explored the ancient township of St.Denis, hundreds of miles to the north, in Meryton, Elizabeth’s mother received an extraordinary letter with the afternoon post.
She sat in the upstairs sitting room of her younger sister, Mrs.Phillips’s, house.Mrs.Bennet still often thought with unhappiness upon how far she had fallen from the days when she was the wife of one of the largest estates in the neighborhood.
If only Mr.Bennet had never become sick.If only, if only, if only…
If only she had borne a son.
A son who would have inherited the estate instead of letting it go to those scheming Lucases.
Despite the occasionally selfish and bitter tenor of Mrs.Bennet’s thoughts, she was usually cheerful and happy — she had after all not starved in the hedgerows, and the human mind can adjust to any circumstance and treat the new as normal.
Mrs.Bennet was in fact grateful to Mrs.Phillips and Mr.Phillips for taking her in.She was grateful also to Mr.Gardiner and the help he had provided.And she still enjoyed visits and gossip, as the consolations of a life which had not turned out as it ought have.
Two daughters married, but entirely wrong.
Jane could have done far better than a vicar whose living ran to maybe two hundred in a year, and that only if he aggressively made an effort to collect all the tithes owed him — which Mr.Chawson didnot.
Jane had nearly married Mr.Bingley and his four thousand a year, in that last year of Mrs.Bennet’s happiness with dear sweet Mr.Bennet.Mrs.Bennet would never be able to forget that Jane ought to be married to a man with such an estate.
Mrs.Bennet could never understand how such a promising attachment had fallen apart.At least, Jane was delightedly happy now in her poverty, and she had produced one lovely babe, a son, already.
And Lydia… Mrs.Bennet did not think often of Lydia.
She always blamed Lydia for what occurred to Mr.Bennet.And now that the war was over, and all hope of advancement through the French happily shooting inconvenient superiors was gone for him, she did not expect to see Captain Dilman everMajorDilman.
Any man willing to marry such a girl as Lydia, with such a past, and with such charms as Lydia had, could not be a man focused upon his own advancement.
At least Lydiahadmarried.That was better than Mrs.Bennet had ever expected.
Mrs.Bennet at least liked her granddaughter from Lydia, though she had only seen them twice, while Jane and her son were very happily settled within an easy travelling distance of Meryton.
Kitty still lived with Mrs.Bennet.She was the comfort of Mrs.Bennet’s desolation, though Mrs.Bennet would of course prefer that Kitty had married as well.
And Elizabeth and Mary… why had they gone off to become governesses?
Both wasted every chance to snag a husband.Mary… Mrs.Bennet accepted Mary’s choice.She’d never expected better fromthatdaughter, and Mary sounded in her stuffy letters as though she enjoyed her position.Even though her life sounded dreadfully boring.
Elizabeth had always been wild and ungovernable.It washerfault the scheming Lucases took Longbourn in the first place.
Mrs.Bennet could hardly comprehend how even Elizabeth had been involved in such a great scandal, and she hardly knew what to believe.There had beensoldiersandBow Street Runnershere to visit.And they accused Elizabeth of stealing from the earl who had employed her.And all she had was a single letter from Elizabeth written in a shaky hand, promising that she was well.
What nonsense.
What had her dear girl gotten herself into?
Mrs.Bennet always expected Elizabeth to get into some sort of problem, but never to behung.It would be such a scandal, and she would cry and weep, and be desolate at the shame of it.And then no one wouldevermarry Kitty or Mary, and Kitty was pretty enough that she might do well for herself if she ever had a proper chance.
