“I am,” she said, smiling brightly. “We will find a way, William. Whether Papa approves or not, we will find ways to exchange bits of news with each other. He will not leave his study often enough to monitor what happens in other parts of the house. If he were more diligent, he would have taken steps already to ensure I could not walk out or to ascertain if you had left the area.”
“Ignoring his strictures goes against what I know to be right, my dear. Unwarranted they may be, but he does have the right to forbid you from seeing me, and he has done so. It is not honourable of me to ignore him,” Darcy countered.
“It is not honourable of him to refuse you without explaining the reason,” she replied tartly. “I have suffered my father’s indifference to his family for years. Why, in this matter, has he decided to take such a ridiculous stance? I cannot understand it and do not want to be parted from you because he has decidedyou are a … whatever he thinks you are. He does not even have a reason to refuse you other than a complaint that you are wealthy. If Mama knew …” She stopped abruptly.
“If your mother knew…” he prodded.
“If Mama knew Papa had refused your suit, she would throw a tantrum the likes of which even I have never seen. I am uncertain if it would make matters better or worse at Longbourn.” She sighed heavily. “At the moment, I am unwilling to subject myself or the rest of my family to the chaos that might ensue. I think it could be successful, forcing my father to relent so he might gain a measure of peace, but it might only make him more stubborn in his resolve.”
He tightened his hold. “We will marry in six months no matter what, my dearest,” he whispered. “I would not like you to do anything that might make matters worse. For now, he has authority over you, and I would not want you to run afoul of him.”
She laughed, bitterness creeping into her voice as she leaned back to look at him. “He has never taken a stand on anything until now. Go to London, dearest, and deal with Wickham. Begin to put things in motion so we might marry in October. I will speak with my aunt and uncle when they come. Perhaps we might arrange matters so we might have more than a quick wedding. What would you think of marrying from my aunt and uncle’s church in town?”
“I will do whatever you like, Elizabeth. I will send a carriage to escort you to London on your birthday if you wish, and then we can make plans to marry after that. Whatever you desire, dearest.” He once again tightened his hold and dipped his face tokiss her again. “I must go, sweetheart. I will meet you here again in the morning.”
Later that afternoon,Elizabeth entered her father’s study and stood before him until he acknowledged her. “Well, daughter, have you come to your senses and intend to apologise for your attitude yesterday?”
She shook her head. “No, Father, I have come to ask you the same question. Will you explain your objection to Mr. Darcy? You allowed me to refuse Mr. Collins’s proposal because he would have never made me happy, but Mr. Darcy will. He is intelligent and kind, a diligent master of his estate, and he cares for me. Why would you not want me to marry such a man?”
“You scarcely know him,” he insisted. “How can you say such things about him? Just a few months ago, you claimed you would never dance with him after he insulted you without even being introduced to you.”
“An offence for which he has apologised, and I have forgiven him, sir,” she stated heatedly. “What else do you hold against him?”
He shrugged. “I am convinced he will not make you happy. He is wealthy, yes, but you hated him the entire time he stayed at Netherfield last autumn. I would never have dreamed you to be mercenary, though you have proven me wrong. Now that Bingley has returned, you have decided you wanted to marry better than your sister. You were right to refuse Collins—the man was a fool—however, you have allowed the words to convince you to marry the next man to offer for you.”
“Am I mercenary or desperate, sir? You have accused me of both, though I am the first to admit those are not mutually exclusive traits. Perhaps I am both.”
“Perhaps you are. Regardless, I will not allow you to throw your life away on such a stern and unfeeling man. You must know I am doing what is best for you by refusing him. You will not be happy with an arrogant and demanding husband.”
He paused for several minutes, waiting for her to acknowledge her error. When she did not speak, he continued on a different topic. “Now, my dear, I need you to balance the estate accounts. Your suggestion that we rotate the crops on the home farm seems to have paid off. Johnson reports that a few tenants would like to try it next year, having seen how much better the crops seem to be doing. You will have quite the task next spring of helping them, and Johnson has already ensured we have the additional seed required to implement your idea for all the tenant farms.”
He continued to speak about the steward’s plans for the spring planting and Elizabeth’s role at Longbourn. As she listened to him, Elizabeth had an epiphany: her father had denied her hand in marriage because he believed she should remain at Longbourn.
Chapter Fifteen
It was around her twelfth birthday that Elizabeth had begun to take an interest in the management of the estate, and her father and grandmother began training her. By her sixteenth birthday, she had taken it over entirely. She regularly consulted with the steward and read everything she could get her hands on about modernising the agricultural practices at Longbourn.
Initially, when Mr. Johnson realised it was not Mr. Bennet but his then-fourteen-year-old daughter who was behind the changes, he balked. It did not take him long to realise her input was sound and that she was far more interested than her father had ever been. He began to seek her out to tell her of any problems on the estate, and the two worked together to find more ways to increase the estate’s profits. Through these efforts, she and the steward, who appreciated the more hands-on approach, had been able to raise Longbourn’s overall profits to just over three thousand pounds.
Her mother was kept unaware of this, though she did encourage the eldest two girls to take over the responsibility of visiting the tenants since this left her with more time to visit and gossip.Jane was kind and good and did all she could to assist the tenants to improve their lives. Elizabeth, however, took a more active role and met not only with the ladies but also the men to acquaint them with the latest techniques. Like the steward, they initially were unsettled at such a young girl giving them advice on how to farm—something many had been doing long before the girl was born. But they quickly came to realise her ideas were sound. More importantly, she listened to them and adjusted her ideas as necessary when convinced that her initial idea had been wrong. Through these discussions with the farmers, they were able to come up with alternatives when appropriate. Now, after she had been nearly running the estate on her own for the better part of four years, they trusted her judgement and were much more willing to listen to her suggestions.
Elizabeth was proud of her accomplishments in this area. However, it occurred to her that her father had supported her refusal of Mr. Collins due more to his desire to keep her on the estate than his recognising how terrible a match it would have been. The same was true of Darcy’s request—her father simply wanted to keep her on his estate, running things so that he did not have to.
Suddenly, she realised her father had stopped speaking. Apparently, he had asked a question, though she had no idea what it was. “I apologise, my mind wandered. Can you repeat that?”
He looked at her for a moment before repeating his question. “How much have you set aside from the last few harvests, my dear? I thought I would like to expand my study, and the additional amount you have set aside should be enough to do so.”
“When I took over, you said I could invest any additional profits to give my sisters dowries,” she replied slowly. “Uncle Gardiner is in charge of those, and we cannot access them immediately, at least without a substantial loss.” This was not strictly true, but since her father had once told her any increase she made to the estate’s profits was for her to do as she wished, she had given the money to her uncle to invest. It was carefully tied up so that no one could easily access it and was entirely separate from the estate’s accounts.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “The profits from the estate are mine to do with as I wish.”
“No, they are not. We had an agreement, and I have used those funds to add to my and my sisters’ fortunes. Mama will still have her jointure, but now, we will also have funds to ensure we are cared for after your death.”
“I never agreed to that,” Mr. Bennet objected. “How did you even manage it?”
“Uncle Phillips wrote the agreement, and you and Uncle Gardiner signed it. Each quarter day, Uncle Phillips forwards the excess profits to London, and Uncle Gardiner invests it. I am uncertain how much is in the account now, and while I know it is not a substantial amount, it is enough to prevent my sisters and me from being destitute should you pass away before we are wed.”
“You must get that money back,” he insisted.
