I shall see Willoughby! I know everything shall be put right between us at last in London, though I fear the holiday will do little for Elinor. Lucy Steele is certain we shall see much of Edward, and I believe Elinor rather dreads meeting with him now that she knows of his engagement. Perhaps Edward shall come to his senses! And at least our sojourn in Meryton will offer some respite from the triumphant crowing of Lucy Steele, whom I know means to torment Elinor every chance she gets.
You and I shall spend a happy fortnight cajoling our poor, wounded sisters into better cheer. Mamma shall write once we have sorted out all the particulars of our journeynorth; Mrs. Jennings has already sent some inquiries about houses for let. I cannot wait to embrace you all!
Yours fondly,
Marianne Dashwood
Chapter One
Hertfordshire
Elizabeth and Jane embraced Elinor and Marianne warmly as the Bennet family greeted the Dashwoods in front of the house. It had been a year since they had last been together at Norland Park, the place the Dashwoods had once called home. The changes which the last year had wrought were written upon the Dashwood ladies’ faces.
Marianne was pale, Elinor had grown too thin, and Margaret skulked behind her mother, who still wore her widow’s black. Mrs. Bennet fussed over them all a great deal, though she said nothing of the family’s woes, for Mr. Bennet had warned his wife not to distress his sister.
Mrs. Dashwood bore the noisy effusions of the Bennets with numb tranquility, and gave a sad smile at Mrs. Gardiner, who shared her mourning garb. She and her children were ushered into her childhood home; Mrs. Bennet led them all into the parlor, which had been rearranged to accommodate a large bevy of ladies.
“But where is your friend Mrs. Jennings? I have a great hankering to meet her,” Mrs. Bennet cried. “She sounds like a most genteel and generous friend!”
“She is,” Mrs. Dashwood said with a soft smile. “She has been very good to my girls, inviting them to London. At present she is attending to some household matters at Purvis Lodge.”
“Purvis Lodge! Well, my goodness, the attics there are dreadful, and I daresay it is rather musty after being shut up for so long! Still, it was very clever of her to let the place for you all. With Madeline and Julia here, we should have been far too snug all together. Well, I should like to see the place, while you are here – it has been many years, though it is but half a mile from Longbourn. Girls, is it not wonderful that your cousins should be so near?”
Mrs. Dashwood had had a quarter of a century to acclimate herself to the ebullience of her brother’s wife’s manners, but she still recoiled a little at Mrs. Bennet’s volume. “Mrs. Jennings is very kind. She will be happy to hear your praise of her, Fanny, for I know she wishes you to take tea with her, once she has sorted out the servants.”
Mrs. Bennet was ready to go at once and meet the grand lady, and Mr. Bennet laughed heartily. “Now, Fanny, you promised not to deprive me of my favorite and only sister so swiftly! Did you not mean to take the girls shopping in the village?”
As Mrs. Bennet continued her effusions, Elizabeth smiled at Marianne and Elinor. “Jane and I decided upon a little plan with Papa, to get our mothers and younger sisters out of the house for a little while, so that we may speak privately together. I cannot promise we shall have an abundance of privacy in the coming weeks, so we must make the most of it.”
Jane smiled tightly at their cousins and whispered, “Wehave already been to the village and back. Lizzy and I took the cart and loaded it up with greenery; we have hidden it in the stables, and wish to surprise Mamma by decorating the house festively while she is in the village. It is a tradition Papa started many years ago.”
Marianne gave a wistful sigh. “We used to do the same thing to surprise our Papa.” She nodded her approbation at the plan.
“Unless you would prefer to see the village and visit the shops?” Jane looked doubtfully at Elinor.
“No, I know we all have much to say to one another,” Elinor murmured. She flinched at a shrill laugh from Mrs. Bennet as she compared the heights of young Julia Gardiner and Margaret Dashwood, who were about the same age. The two girls assessed one another curiously as Mrs. Bennet promised them such fine fripperies to be gotten in the village.
Mr. Bennet was ready to shoo all the ladies from the house, though as his wife and Mrs. Gardiner led the younger girls out, he detained his sister. “Brandy, Maggie?”
Marianne and Elinor watched their uncle lead their mother away with a comforting arm around her shoulders before they followed Jane and Elizabeth out to the stables to retrieve the Christmas greenery. “Poor Mamma,” Marianne sighed. “I know she worries for us, as much as for her own sorrows.”
“I daresay, she refrains from shouting her lamentations about the house at every hour,” Jane said with a sigh. Her eyes went wide and she raised her fingers to her lips. “Oh! That was so horrid; I do not know why I said such a thing.”
“I do,” Elizabeth said drily. “Aunt Maggie may suffer in silence, but Mamma has not passed a single hour without loudly lamenting the departure of Mr. Bingley, since we heard of it. It has been four weeks of her increasingly dire prognostications that we shall end in the hedgerows. It is hardly fair to Jane.”
Elizabeth roughly grabbed a hefty armful of greenery and began carrying it into the house, as her companions did the same. It was not lost on her that the efforts of decorating wereto be for the very woman she was complaining about, but she was determined that the activity would cheer them. They laid everything down in the foyer, and Jane retrieved a box of red and gold ribbons for them to hang the holly and fir boughs throughout the house.
Marianne pressed Jane’s hand in hers. “You poor thing, Jane! You look truly wretched. But Mamma is not as discreet as you imagine, and Margaret has no sense of decency at all in mentioning Edward constantly – she even told Mrs. Jennings of him – well, she told him of a Mr. F.”
Elinor looked away, fidgeting with a garland. “He made a favorable impression on all of us; it is her right to speak well of him if she chooses.”
Marianne rolled her eyes and looked to Elizabeth for support. “It is unpardonable! I am sorry if your mother is much the same, Jane.”
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at her younger cousin. “I expect you would be decrying the entire male species, if you had not been invited to London for a reunion with your Mr. Willoughby.”
“Probably,” Marianne admitted, smiling in spite of herself. “As it happens, I could punch Edward on the nose, and your Mr. Bingley, too, Jane.”
Though Jane and Elinor required a little coaxing before either would admit that they were in need of consolation, the four young ladies passed the next hour speaking of their recent heartaches. And though Marianne now looked forward to a happy reunion with her beau, she recounted every moment of despair she had felt since she had parted with him.
