Page 65
Book 3 Chapter 2
"My dear Mr. Bennet, have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"
“I had not. How did you come upon this information? Is the source reliable?”
“From Mrs. Goulding who was just here. She heard it from her cook who is sister to the housekeeper at Netherfield Park.”
“A most reliable source!”
While Bennet was sardonic in his retort it did not devalue the information. The servant network was most efficient.
“Is this not a good thing for us.”
“For us, why so?”
“Oh Mr. Bennet, how can you be so tiresome! The tenant is a young man from the north with a large fortune. You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of our daughters."
Their oldest daughter had been married for 18 months, as a result there had been a thankful reduction in Mrs. Bennet’s voiced concerns about the hedgerows, or attacks of her ‘nerves’. They formerly had been a near daily occurrence but now were no more than once a week. But just because one daughter was well married did not mean that she was not fixated on getting the others married.
Mary and Kitty looked at each other. Elizabeth had only left the week before to spend time with Jane. Mrs. Bennet was not going to be stopped in her machinations, but if Elizabeth had been present then she could have acted as a buffer against their mother. Their father had long since given up trying.
Mrs. Bennet called for the carriage and was off to discuss this news with all her cronies, starting with her sister in Meryton. Once she had left Mary went upstairs to her room.
“Kitty, come and help me with my bonnet!”
“Your bonnet? Your lies and shouts might have convinced Mama but we both know the truth. And I will tell you again to keep out of my room.”
Without another word Kitty retreated upstairs leaving her brat of a sister in the parlour on her own. Kitty knocked upon Mary’s door and bade enter.
“Come in Kitty. Let me guess, Lydia?”
There was no need to detail the crime, her name covered them all. It was another issue with Elizabeth not being present. She was the only one Lydia feared, the black eye from five years earlier still a fresh memory.
“What do you think of the news?”
Mary pursed her lips and sat back in her chair.
“I do not know what to think to be honest Kitty. I am not comfortable in company, I never have been. It amazes me that both you and Lydia are so much better in society when you are two and three years younger. I dreaded my first Assembly whereas you are looking forward to it. And Lydia made such a fuss that she is being allowed out at 15 years of age. There is no end to the things father will agree to for a quiet life. I have my doubts that it is a sensible life.”
These were more Mary’s thoughts and concerns rather than any kind of answer to the news. Kitty knew her sister, and waited.
“I had read of people marrying, I had even seen it from a distance over the years. But then Sir David arrived and just exploded all my thoughts about courting. He was blunt, maybe not unexpected given his profession, and swept Jane off her feet. When you look back on their courtship it was short, direct and there were no games. Especially from either of our parents. There was not going to be a six month engagement so that Mama could milk it for every advantage. From betrothal to wedding was 26 days, there was barely time for the banns to be read three times.”
Kitty was fascinated and sat in silence listening to this stream of consciousness from her sister.
“We live in a house where we see daily proof of the old maxim, marry in haste repent at leisure. I did worry that Jane may have been too hasty in her marriage to Sir David. But she is blissfully happy, he was on half-pay for the whole of the first year of their marriage, they have a son and she is pregnant with their second, although Sir David had gone to sea before she felt the quickening. The estate is a touch smaller than Longbourn but well managed. Jane is thriving, young Edward is thriving and both Lizzie and I enjoy the calm of Itchenor.”
She looked at Kitty.
“You have changed and matured over the last 18 months as well. And both Lizzie and I have told Jane this. When Lizzie returns our hope is that Jane will ask you to visit.”
Kitty was out of her chair and hugging her sister before she knew it. A month or two away from Lydia would be wonderful. She settled back onto Mary’s bed and voiced a worry.
“Will Mama allow it?”
“Lady Carruthers will be blunt in her letter to Papa.”
They both smiled. Jane had embraced her ascension to a Ladyship. She no longer paid much heed to their mother and had learned some tricks from her husband for dealing with her father.
