Disclaimer: I am not Jane Austen, nor will I pretend to be.
Mary Bennet Departs for Pemberley
Mary Bennet was not a silly girl; no matter what her father seemed to believe.
Mr Bennet could hardly be deemed an expert on his two unwed daughters as, apart from mealtimes and his occasional venture into the drawing room of an evening, he stayed in his library. He had become more withdrawn since the marriages of his two eldest daughters to gentlemen of wealth and property, believing that the loss of his daughters there would result in a significant decline in intelligent conversation in the drawing room during the day. Even though this was not the case; Mr Bennet kept himself to himself and paid little or no attention to his wife or his two remaining unwed daughters.
In the three years since Jane and Elizabeth had quitted Longbourn in favour of their new homes, Mary Bennet underwent a considerable transformation, as did Kitty Bennet.
Although the transformation of Miss Catherine Bennet could be attributed to an absence of Lydia and an increase in the amount of time she spent with her married sisters, Miss Mary Bennet's transformation could be attributed to an entirely different cause. With three daughters married and only two left to pay for, Mr Bennet's funds increased considerably. So much so that when Kitty went to visit her sister Lizzy in Derbyshire, Mr Bennet was able to engage masters in music, drawing and dancing for his middle daughter at the suggestion of his wife. It was Mrs Bennet's hope that her middle daughter would be an accomplished woman, if never exceptionally pretty. In contrast to the other Bennet girls, Mary was very plain, but she was not unattractive and when she took time and care over her appearance could be deemed quite pretty. Her mother did not see it.
All the change in Mary was brought before company for the first time in November, when the whole family had been invited to Pemberley for the birth of Elizabeth's second child.
"Oh my Mr Bennet," said his lady to him a day before their departure, "our Lizzy, Mistress of Pemberley! I can scarce believe it!"
"Well," returned he, "You must believe it Mrs Bennet, otherwise I fear that if the Mistress of Pemberley were not our daughter we should not be going there at all!"
"Oh Mr Bennet!" she wailed; "have some compassion on my poor nerves; they shall be torn to pieces at your tormenting!"
At this, Mr Bennet sat down in his great armchair and said; "I hope they shall find Mary greatly improved; these masters have been costing me a small fortune you know."
"But my dear Mr Bennet," returned his Lady, "they shall be all worth it you know, for she is not handsome at all and will need some talents to recommend herself to the rich gentlemen we are sure to meet at Pemberley."
"Why do you abuse your daughter so? I dare say Mary may not be as handsome as Jane or my little Lizzy, but she is far comelier than any of Sir William Lucas' daughters." He said with a chuckle at his wife's expense.
"But we must get her wed Mr Bennet! Why must you vex me so? You know Mary must be wed soon, should she die an old maid!" exclaimed his wife.
"Then if she must be wed, it is well that she is so accomplished then; even if she is one of the silliest girls in Hertfordshire!" mocked Mr Bennet.
"Oh Mr Bennet!" cried she. Then, composing her self, she ventured the subject of her youngest and favourite daughter, Mrs Lydia Wickham; "I have written to my dear Lydia, begging that she be at Pemberley when we arrive..."
Mr Bennet raised his hand to halt his wife's speech; "I say you shall do no such thing!"
"But I have already done it!" cried his wife, angry at her husband's insistence that she should not see her favourite child.
"Mrs Bennet," replied her husband in a voice so eerily calm that Mrs Bennet was shocked into silence, "I can promise you that for as long as Mr Darcy remains master of Pemberley, Mr Wickham will never be permitted into that house!"
"But.. my Lydia.." sobbed Mrs Bennet.
"I do not mean to upset you my dear, but I daresay that if our daughter is invited to Pemberley, her husband will not be and you know she cannot bear to be parted from him."
"Oh Mr Bennet!" she cried, departing the room hastily to await the post. When it arrived, Lydia's reply was met with many emphatic exclamations of sorrow from her mother, as sighs of relief from her father.
