When the militia finished their march through Meryton and went on to the field where they would be housed for the duration of their time in the area, Elizabeth walked her sisters home.
“Did you come with us just to spoil our fun, Lizzy?” Lydia was cross as they walked toward Longbourn.
“Spoil your fun! What would you have done had I not been here, Lydia?” Elizabeth asked.
“Why, dropped my handkerchief on the ground! One of those men would have picked it up and returned it to me!”
“None of them would break formation for your handkerchief, Lydia, but just so I understand your thinking, tell me – if that did happen, and the soldier returned it to you, then what?”
“He would immediately fall in love with me!”
“Really! And then what?” Elizabeth did not know whether to be amused or concerned by her sister’s fantastical imagination.
“He would ask my name, of course, and my direction, and he would call on me!”
“To what end?”
“To marry me, of course!”
“Oh, of course. And then, since he earns less than one hundred pounds per year, he would not have enough money to rent you lodgings, buy you clothes, or much of anything else, so tell me, Lydia, how you would enjoy living in the army camp, cooking your own food, and remaking all your old clothes until they fell apart?”
Kitty immediately said, “Oh, I would not do it, not for all the world! I do not care how handsome they are in their uniforms!”
Lydia’s lower lip was stuck out, a sure sign that she knew she was wrong, but could not admit it.
Elizabeth could not resist one last dig. “Perhaps Jane, when she becomes Mrs. Bingley, will be able to occasionally give her poor youngest sister a bit of coin to help her. You should be everything kind to Jane, Lydia, if it is your goal to marry a man from the militia.”
Lydia shook her head very hard and then ran ahead.
“I think she understands now,” Kitty said, turning to Elizabeth with a smile.
“I hope so.”
***
When Elizabeth, Kitty and Lydia arrived home, Mr. Bingley was in the parlour beside Jane, with Mrs. Bennet providing minimal chaperonage from a chair on the other side of the room. Elizabeth hoped to herd everyone upstairs so that they would not interrupt Mr. Bingley and Jane, but Jane saw her and wanted to know at once what they had seen while in town.
Lydia bounced into the room. “Oh, it was like a river of red!” she marveled. “I have never seen the like!”
“Where are they going to be headquartered?” Mr. Bingley asked.
“I heard they have taken Ryan’s Field,” Elizabeth replied. “They are setting up an encampment – tents and the like, I suppose. We saw the soldiers today, but I was told by a lady near me that yesterday a good many wagons went to the Field; presumably those wagons carried the tents and supplies for the militia.”
Mr. Bingley shook his head. “I should not like to live like that, constantly on the move from one place to another.”
Jane asked, quietly, “Do you prefer Town life or country life, Mr. Bingley?”
“Why, I always thought I would like to live in Town, but now that I am here, I cannot imagine being anywhere else! What is your preference, Miss Bennet?”
“I have never lived in Town, of course,” she said. “I have visited, as we have relatives in Cheapside, and I enjoy myself immensely while I am there, but I am always happy to come home.”
“That sounds perfect!” Mr. Bingley declared, fervently. “To visit Town and then come home to the country; what could be better?”
Lydia giggled at this very obvious bit of pre-proposal talk, and was promptly hushed by Mrs. Bennet.
Chapter Forty-Six
Netherfield Park
