“Quite,” was the terse reply. The Countess looked at each of the Bennet girls in turn, and then addressed Lydia. “Miss Lydia, I trust you are recovered?”
Lydia had huddled into a corner chair, hoping to avoid notice, but she had to reply. “I am, my lady, and very grateful to you.”
Mr. Bennet added, “Our entire family is grateful, my lady. It seems every family must endure a misstep of some kind, and we are glad that the Bennet misstep is over and done with.”
The Countess responded at once. “I do not think every family must have a misstep, Mr. Bennet. I think it speaks badly of the entire family’s character when such an event occurs.”
“Is that what you truly believe?” Mary jumped in. “You think that because Lydia was duped by a handsome man, that the Bennet family is lacking?”
“Mary!” Jane hissed.
“I fear it, yes; I am here hoping to learn that this is not the case,” the Countess said, coldly.
Mr. Darcy began to protest, but his aunt ignored him entirely.
Elizabeth took charge of the conversation. “My lady, none of the Bennet girls are particularly fashionable, and we are certainly not part of theton. My dowry amounts to very little.”
“That is my fault,” Mr. Bennet interjected.
“Which you have now begun to correct, Papa,” Elizabeth said. “But we are human, as is everyone in the fashionable world. Is it not well known that the Countess of Jersey has been rather indiscreet? And she a patroness at Almack’s! Did William Beckford not just emigrate to America for activities best not mentioned in polite society? Does not the Prince Regent disgrace himself and our entire nation on a daily basis? I could go on – and on and on! – but the point is that no one, no matter how highly placed, is immune from indiscretion.” She deliberately did not mention Georgiana’s own misstep.
Lydia surprised everyone by standing up and addressing the Countess directly. “My lady, I have had a good deal of time to consider our family situation and what led me to do something as terrible as running off with a man. I know that our family is far from perfect; but it stems from a very unfortunate situation. The estate is entailed to male heirs, and my mother, may she rest in heaven, only birthed girls. As a result, Longbourn, which has been held by the Bennets for two centuries, will pass to a distant relative.”
“A very unpleasant distant relative,” Mary added in a low voice.
Lydia continued, “As a result, my mother became intent on seeing us girls married.”
“Intent! More like obsessed,” Mary grumbled.
“She was no different from mothers in society in that regard,” Lydia said, ignoring Mary’s contribution. “But she had an added incentive, you see, for her own future depended on the success of her daughters. If my father died first, it was unlikely that she would be permitted to continue to live in her home; she would be forced to depend on a son-in-law. If there was no son-in-law, then her circumstances would be dire.”
“An unfortunate situation, indeed,” the Countess observed.
“My sisters are far better than I am,” Lydia went on. “They understood Mama’s motivations, while I did not. Mama thought me quite pretty, you see, and she complimented me often, telling me that my looks and my liveliness, as she put it, would find me a husband in short order. That liveliness was really bad manners, but she loved me too much to see it for what it was. So when Mr. Wickham told me that my loveliness and liveliness made him want to marry me, of course I believed it. It was what I always thought would happen, what Mama always told me would happen.”
“This is what happens when no one tells the truth!” Mary bit out, rising to her feet. “Mama did not tell Lydia the truth – likely she did not know what was true herself – and no one told us the truth about Mr. Wickham! So it was inevitable, was it not, that Lydia would make a misstep?”
Elizabeth stood up as well. “Everything my sisters have said is true. But what I must say, what I am compelled to say, is that I love Fitzwilliam Darcy with all my heart and soul, and I will be the best wife, the best companion, the best Mrs. Darcy that any woman could possibly be.”
“Hear, hear!” the Colonel cried out.
Mr. Darcy rose and went to Elizabeth’s side. Taking her hand, he said, “And I love Elizabeth Bennet with all my heart and soul, and I will be the best husband and companion that any man could possibly be.”
They turned to one another and gazed at each other so lovingly, so adoringly, so tenderly, that no one could doubt that they were designed and destined for one another, body and soul. The Countess, wise in the ways of society and equally wise in the ways of men and women, gave up the battle at once, saying, “Please sit beside me, Miss Elizabeth, so that I might come to know the lovely young lady who will soon be my niece.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
The Countess remained at Netherfield for another two days, spending as much time with Elizabeth as possible. As her son had predicted, she found Elizabeth utterly charming. She was lively without being rag-mannered; lovely but not in any way immodest; frank but never indelicate. She now understood completely how it was that Fitzwilliam Darcy, who had eluded the snares of every eligible young lady in London, had lost his heart to this unusual creature.
“I rather wish it was my son you were to marry,” she told Elizabeth on her final visit to Longbourn. “Not the Colonel, but my first son, the Viscount. He is not married; like Darcy, he finds the young ladies of thetontedious. You would be an excellent Viscountess and eventually an exceptional Countess.”
“I thank you, my lady, but I am content to be simply Mrs. Darcy,” Elizabeth replied.
“Remember that as ‘simply’ Mrs. Darcy, you shall need a good deal of clothing, Elizabeth. Once you are out of mourning, you must allow me to take you shopping.”
Elizabeth agreed at once, saying, “I know nothing of what Mrs. Darcy will need, so I accept your offer with gratitude. Perhaps Georgiana can accompany us?”
“She will have to, as she is reluctant to let you out of her sight,” the Countess said, wryly. “She was afraid that she would have Miss Bingley as a sister, so I can only imagine her relief and joy to have you instead.”
