Page 11 of Gold and Good Sense

“Well, I am certain you heard from your mother, since she is such good friends with mine, but my uncle recently passed away, leaving fortunes for each of my sisters and myself,” said Kitty. “Papa, Jane, and Elizabeth have all gone to London to take care of the legal matters associated with it, so Longbourn has been relatively quiet the last few days.”

“A fortune, you say,” said Alan. “This is the first time I am hearing of it.”

Kitty looked up at him in surprise. “Are you certain? I was sure everyone would know about it by now. Mama spent the first two days after we learned of it visiting everyone we knew, sharing the news of it.”

He shrugged. “I’m afraid I don’t listen to gossip much,” he said.

Kitty expected him to ask how much her fortune was, to at least be interested in the subject, but instead he said, “So tell me what you have been doing with your time.”

This question completely stunned Kitty. It was almost as if Alan didn’t care about her fortune at all, as if he truly was interested in her. It made her feel warm in a way she had never felt before. “Well, I have been working on this gown for the last three days,” she said, “though I admit to a little bit of shopping here and there. I found this new bracelet in the haberdashery.”

“Your hard work was well worth it, as I am certain every gentleman in the room would agree,” said Alan.

Kitty didn’t care about the other gentlemen’s opinions. She only cared about the man who stood before her. His obvious pleasure in her appearance made her three days of hard work well worth it.

~~~~~

Elizabeth, Jane, and Papa settled into an inn in Mayfair as soon as they arrived in London. Within half an hour, however, Papa left to call on an old friend, and the two sisters were left to themselves.

“I can’t believe we are staying in Mayfair,” said Jane once Papa was gone. “Did you see the size of the mansions we passed? They were easily seven or eight times the size of Uncle Gardiner’s home.”

“Some of them were,” said Elizabeth. “The smaller ones, however, were merely three times the size of his home. How poor those people must be.” She quirked a smile to show she was teasing.

“You should probably try to get used to such grandeur, Jane,” said Elizabeth a little more seriously. “If you ever manage to marry a man truly worthy of you, you will likely live in such a place.”

“You are not making any sense, Lizzy,” said Jane. “My value as a person, as a wife, does not change simply because I inherited a great deal of money.”

“That is true,” said Elizabeth. “However, your wealth will make it far easier for those who deserve you to find you.”

“You speak as if I am the only one to have inherited a fortune,” said Jane. “Does not the same thing hold true for you and for all our sisters?”

“As for myself, my new fortune has only hardened my resolve to never marry unless I can find a man I can love and respect with all my heart and mind,” said Elizabeth. “Such a man would have been impossible to find as we were, but I don’t know that an increase in wealth will make it any easier. As for our sisters, Mary’s studious and retiring nature will make her unlikely to wed even with a fortune.”

“What about Kitty?” asked Jane.

Elizabeth sighed. “She is the one I am most worried about, because she is particularly susceptible to flattery. I am only grateful that Papa did not tell her the true nature of her inheritance”

“So, what I am hearing is that Kitty and possibly Lydia will marry poor fortune hunters; you and Mary will remain wealthy spinsters; and I will still bear the burden of being required to marry a rich man,” said Jane. Her voice and expression sounded as though she were teasing, but Elizabeth detected a deep disappointment that she tried to hide.

“Not at all,” said Elizabeth. “If you don’t wish to be rich, by all means marry a farmer’s son. However, I genuinely believe you will be much happier in a quieter, more mannerly society than what is found in Meryton or among the lower classes in general.”

Jane sighed. “I suppose you are right,” she said reluctantly. “I am not overly fond of noise and chaos.”

The two sisters sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in her own thoughts. Eventually, Elizabeth said, “Well, there is no use moping or pondering. Neither of us really knows what our future will look like. Let’s unpack our trunks. Then we can at least look around the inn a bit. I’ve never seen such a large, elegant inn in my life.”

An hour later, the two sisters had put away their belongings and had explored the inn. Shortly after they returned to their room, Papa walked in.

“Well, my dears, we have an invitation to dinner tonight,” he said.

“We do?” asked Elizabeth. “I had thought this trip to London was for business, not for socializing.”

“Are we going to dine with Uncle Gardiner?” asked Jane.

“It is not with your uncle,” said Papa. “It is an old friend of mine, Judge Darcy.”

“A judge!” cried Jane.

“How do you know someone like that?” asked Elizabeth.