The next morning, just as Mary was finishing her breakfast, Elizabeth’s maid came to her asking her to go to Elizabeth’s room when she was done. Mary did so, wondering what her sister would be asking of her.
When Mary entered Elizabeth’s sitting room, Elizabeth was curled up comfortably on a chaise by the fire, still in her night gown, though she wore a house coat over it. Mary was pleased to see that she looked far better than she had the day before.
“Ah, Mary. Thank you for coming to see me,” said Elizabeth. “While I am doing much better, I did not quite feel up to joining everyone for breakfast. Besides, this room is always my favorite. It has all my favorite furniture as well as excellent lighting.”
Mary looked around the room, which was papered mostly in cream. The furniture was all lightly colored as well, which contributed to a general feeling of airiness. “I see what you mean,” said Mary. “It is a lovely room.”
Elizabeth gestured for Mary to sit down in a chair nearby. Once she was seated, Mary asked, “How can I help?”
“I will likely stay in this room most of the time until I can eat a full meal again,” said Elizabeth. “I want you to come keepme company for an hour or so each morning. While the room is quite pleasant, it could get rather lonely if I don’t see anyone all day. Also, there are a few tenants I need you to call on. There was some sickness in the neighborhood while we were gone, and I wish to ascertain that everyone has recovered.”
Elizabeth and Mary talked for an hour or more about which tenants might need the most help and what kind of help would be most suitable. Mary also asked whether Alex and Jane would need any help, but Elizabeth waved away her concern.
“I believe their nurse has them well in hand most of the time,” she said. “When she needs a break, she can bring them in here. As long as they are well-behaved, I can manage them on my own. If I need any help in that quarter, however, I will send for you.”
When their discussion was complete, Mary stood to leave but before she could, Elizabeth said, “Thank you for coming to stay with me, Mary. I truly am grateful for your assistance.”
“It is I who must thank you,” said Mary. “I am simply glad to be of use.”
Mary’s days at Pemberley easily fell into a pattern, though it was different from the one in London. After breakfast, she would spend some time with Elizabeth. They talked of what needed to be accomplished that day as well as just chatting about various little things.
Then, Mary would spend the rest of her morning in the library or practicing piano. Afternoon was for making and receiving calls, both with their neighbors and with the tenants. When no other occupation presented itself, she would sit and work on some little project while chatting with Georgiana.
As spring turned into summer, Mary and Georgiana spent more time outdoors where Georgiana would share all thedelightful little corners of wilderness on the vast Pemberley property. As they did so, Mary began carrying her sketchbook around with her once again, so she could catalog all the plants she had never seen before.
Her activity made Georgiana curious, and the two young ladies spent hours exploring, sketching, and searching the library for books which would help them identify what they had seen.
Other than the fact that Mary missed John Fitzwilliam’s company desperately, Mary was quite content.
~~~~~
Upon learning that Mary Bennet was no longer in London, John quickly realized that London was the most boring place on Earth. Yet, he knew that his estate wasn’t any better. As boring and flat as London might be without the intriguing young lady, at least there were entertainments and occupations in the city that could not be found in the country.
He managed to muddle through, spending most of his nights in various clubs, pubs, and gambling halls and most of his days asleep. It wasn’t ideal, but since the ideal would be to simply marry Miss Bennet and spend every night playing cards, or perhaps occupying themselves in even more pleasant activities, he put up with it.
He occasionally asked himself why he didn’t simply chase her down and make her love him, make her marry him. He could never manage to produce an adequate answer. Perhaps it was because he didn’t feel worthy of her regard, especially not after he had been so dishonest with her. Perhaps it was because heno longer believed that love was automatically the best basis for marriage.
Most likely, it had something to do with his period of mourning. He had nearly betrayed his wife while she was alive. He would not betray her memory now that she was gone.
At the beginning of May, John finally stopped wearing his black armband. As soon as word went around London that the Earl of Matlock was out of mourning, all hell broke loose. John thought he had been receiving a lot of invitations before. Now the number was simply ludicrous. There were at least half a dozen every single day.
Even if he wanted to, he would not have been able to accept them all.
After a week of this inundation of invitations, during which he refused every single one, the doorbell began to ring at all hours of the morning and afternoon, sometimes early enough to wake him from his sleep.
What made it all worse was that John’s butler couldn’t seem to comprehend that John did not wish to greet any lady. The old man seemed to be of the opinion that it was impossible to turn away any lady of equal or higher standing than John.
So, not only was his sleep disturbed by the ringing of the doorbell, but his peaceful breakfast and his time spent in his library were also interrupted when some dowager or other who did not have enough income to support the lavish lifestyle she wished for decided to plague him into marrying her.
None of them said so outright. In fact, every widow couched her advances in language that implied she simply missed the pleasure of the marriage bed, but John knew better. If all they wanted was a casual fling, there were literally hundreds ofgentlemen in London who would be happy to oblige. John was not on that list, and everyone knew it.
If they approached him, it could only be for the purpose of winning his wealth and his status for themselves.
While the widows who were forward enough to call on him directly were bad enough, the worst ladies were the maidens who just happened to be walking by as he was heading into his club, especially the ones who happened to trip in such a way as to force him to catch them. There was even one young lady who had pretended to faint right in front of his home in order to force his servants to bring her inside.
By mid-May, John had enough. Even the entertainment of London was not worth putting up with such nonsense for long. He packed his bags and headed back to Matlock for the summer.
He managed to make the journey in a single, very long day of travel, so it was quite late when he arrived home. However, his housekeeper greeted him with a candle and some soup and sandwiches before she retired.
