At Gardiner's...
Chapter fifty four: London Invitations (2)
London. Friday the eleventh September.
Duchess Waintree just smiled at the maid who had opened the door and who was now looking at her with a little too much awe in her eyes after having glanced at her card.
Gardiner's maids could read. At least those in charge of encountering the guests.
Quite a surprise there. Were they hired because of it or did the family provide the teaching? She would have to inquire a little more into this family's habits. After all the Master of this House would, very soon, be one of the most important people in England.
A very useful relation indeed!
"Please could you announce Duchess Waintree to Mrs. Gardiner? One of my people should have announced my call earlier in the day. I hope I don't disturb the household."
The maid curtsied and shook her head.
"Certainly not, your Highness. Your man came and you are awaited." She slipped herself behind the Duchess. "If I could take care of your belongings, the family is awaiting you in the blue parlor. Mr. Trend will show you the way…"
And, as on command, a very stylish butler appeared a few paces away from the door.
He bowed and invited her to enter the great hall.
"If Her Highness would allow me to show Her the way?"
"Please do," answered the Duchess. "I'll follow…"
Another bow and an invitation to walk toward the right.
She followed and soon he was opening a door where quite a few ladies, from very young to mature were taking tea.
They all stood up and curtsied to the incoming guest.
Duchess Waintree arched an eyebrow and smiled at everyone.
"Well, that's done, you have shown that you know your etiquette and that I'm one of those happy few whom you must show your respect even in your own House. Now, could we please just forget about my being a Duchess and consider me as a normal guest? Hearing everyone "Highnessing" me all day long is not, I swear, my favorite past time!"
And to underline her will she went straight to Lydia and hugged and kissed her.
"Lydia dear, I'm so happy to see you again… Without you I would probably still be in that awful building or would have died from cold…"
Lydia hesitated for a few seconds and then smiled back.
"It was August, my Lady I doubt cold would have stricken you…"
The Duchess puffed and denied vehemently.
"I'm no longer a young girl, dear. At my age a dump building can kill… And even if I would probably have survived without your help it would have been so much more difficult…"
Lydia curtsied once more.
"I'm glad I could be of service, Madam…"
Once more the Duchess arched an eyebrow.
"My, my, aren't we solemn today? What happened to lively and smiling Lydia Bennet? I'm not quite sure I'm able to recognize her under this serious and grey disguise…"
Lydia let a little smile appear on her lips.
"Times have changed, you Highness, I believe it's no longer possible for us," and she included the rest of the women and girls in this pronoun, "to act foolishly. We have responsibilities now and we have to act acc…"
"Bullshit," interrupted the Duchess in a very unladylike address. "You're still a young lively and lovable girl and it will take years before those 'responsibilities' will become unavoidable. Believe me, you don't need to become a boring opportunist to be of use for your family and yourself."
Lydia opened her mouth to protest but the Duchess was not someone you could stop when launched.
"No protest, Lydia dear. I'm speaking now and I hope that what I'm going to say will be followed by a certain young and lively lady of my acquaintance."
She walked toward the seat Mrs. Gardiner had designed and took place allowing everybody else to sit.
She immediately went on.
"I'm seeing exactly where this is carrying you! You've decided that you'll try to have a better match than your elder sisters and now you're probably roaming all the almanacs of European Aristocracies to find the best suited suitors…"
She saw Mary and Kitty's looks and nodded.
"Indeed I knew it…"
She sighed.
"That's an open door to disaster, Lydia dear. You can't prepare a common life with books and intelligence reports. There's nothing better than a good old face to face conversation between interested –and interesting– people." She frowned. "I should know, I did exactly what you are doing and the only thing I got out of my endeavor was a title…"
She stopped and made a face before shaking her head.
"No, I'm not telling the truth and I'm unjust with my late husband. I got a lot more. I got a title, I got riches and, what was even more important, I got my freedom. But I was never happy in the marital sense of the term. I was never ever besotted with my husband. We had a deal. He needed a son and I needed…" She stopped and shook her head once more just before chuckling.
"No, let me keep that last secret. Let's just say that I was not interested in anything passionate and I got what I was looking for and it did not give me happiness. Not the sort of happiness your sisters are just discovering. And they, please remember, prepared nothing. It just happened…"
Lydia took advantage of a little lull in the Duchess' discourse to take the floor.
"That's exactly the point, your Highness. They prepared nothing and they got fabulous husbands. They are both happy and have men who spend their time worshipping them. How high is the chance that something like that will occur a third time in the same family?"
She didn't let anybody answer for her.
"The chance is equal to nothing," said she a little shrilly. "I'm condemned to…."
The Duchess made a little hand gesture while frowning and Lydia stopped in the middle of her sentence.
"Nonsense," said the Duchess. "We are not speaking about an alchemical process! Mathematics has no place in matters of the heart. The only thing that counts is you and your confidence in yourself."
She looked Lydia in the eye.
"The girl who came to my help was perhaps a silly and savage young girl but she had an unshakable faith in herself and her future. Where and when did she lose it?"
"Sometime in Pemberley," answered Kitty. "One day she was as usual and the next day we got ourselves a scheming and serious sister who had only one thing in mind: find the best husband for every one of us…"
The Duchess let her smile blossom on her lips. And it was an extraordinary smile. A smile that could lighten a room better than an army of light bearers.
"I see…" said she while looking Lydia in the eyes.
She turned her eyes and she nodded toward the mistress of the House.
"Sorry about that, madam. I know it's untoward to take the floor without being invited to, but I'm rather disturbed by the new Lydia I'm discovering. If you don't mind my advice, there's a disaster in the making there…"
"Why a disaster?" shouted Lydia. "I'm just doing what whole generations of girls have done uncounted times. I'm just looking for a man worth of my attention."
A sign of the Mistress of the House gave her free reign and the Duchess went on.
"No you're not, dear. What you are doing is that you're trying to outdo your sisters in order to get at least an equal match. And that's the reason you're roaming those silly books and reading the papers to found intelligence about all prospective suitors. And, one day, out of despair, because this path will not bring you what you seek, you'll convince yourself that handsome, rich and titled is the answer to your quest. And you'll take the first best that responds to those criteria and do what is necessary to marry him. And since that is not the best way to build a sane relationship with a future husband you'll be unhappy and lonely for the rest of your life."
Lydia looked at her friend and there were unshed tears in her eyes.
"And what should I do?"
Another of the Duchess' smile lit up the parlor.
"Come back to yourself, dear. Be Lydia Bennet again. Forget your silly competition with your sisters. You need a man who shares your interests and your passions but you don't need a husband for quite a few years to come. Take your time, get the best education you can afford and hone yourself to be on the outside the perfect lady but don't lose that flame that gave you the strength to go on and to fear nothing…"
The Duchess took Lydia in her arms and soon there were tears running in her ample bosom.
"You'll see, you can have joy and take pleasure in every new experience without being a silly untoward girl," whispered she. "You have now the means to get everything you want! Don't spend your next years in an unlikely search for the perfect husband. Become the perfect Lydia and the man who will be the perfect match for her will appear one day to snatch her away and give her happiness and satisfaction. If you go on building a false Lydia the only thing you'll get is a man matching the falsity you yourself have built…" She forced Lydia to look her into the eyes. "And you won't like what you'll get, believe me! You won't like it at all!"
"I would never have believed that poverty could be this extreme…" whispered Jane. "Nobody lived like this in Meryton."
"We take care of our people," answered Lizzy. "Here it seems nobody takes care of them. They are just left alone…"
"To die or to become thieves…" said Jane more to herself than to her sister.
She turned and looked at the group of French doctors who were following her.
"What can we do to help these people?"
The head surgeon, a young and dedicated Syrian who had followed her husband for quite a few years bit his lips.
"We should raze this building and build a new one," said he. "This structure is rotten and it is a perfect environment to give illness and diseases the very best chance to survive. People will die in these walls, diseases will prosper…"
Jane made a face. She knew Geoffrey would not be happy with her to have been in that very place. Not with her being pregnant but then she wouldn't let her children stop her in what was clearly her new responsibilities.
"Janvier?"
Her "aide" was immediately at her side.
"Do we have something else to see this morning?"
"Nothing, madame. Not before lunch…"
"I thought so," answered Jane and looked at her sister. "Let's go see Uncle Gardiner. I want to know what he has in his files according to health and medical treatment…"
Uncle Gardiner was not present. It was Sunday after all and this was the day he wanted to spend with his family. But Charles Bingley was present and working and there was an unsure silence when they were introduced in his office.
It was Charles who spoke first.
"I'm glad you're here, madame d'Arcy…"
"Please call me Jane," interrupted Jane. "If you start to 'madame d'Arcy' me in every second sentence I'll be pushed into believing that you dislike me…"
"No risk for such a thing to ever happen… Jane. I do still have feelings for you but I'm hoping that someday I'll be able to look at our past almost relationship with less suffering…"
"I'm sorry, I was…"
He stopped her immediately.
"Don't, it's my entire fault and I'm coming out of it, really. It's not yet easy but it is much easier now that I have found that Catherine has feelings for me…"
Lizzy and Jane shared an amazed look.
"Catherine?"
"Yes, your sister Kitty… It seems that this very evening in Meryton I was able to enthrall two Bennet sisters at once and, as usual, I saw nothing…" He chuckled and there was genuine mirth in his laughter. "I'm probably the biggest fool roaming the English countryside…"
"And she…" asked Jane without daring pronounce the words.
"No, in fact it was Mary who gave her away… I believe she herself would have stayed mute on that question for a long time more." He smiled at the sisters. "Happily there is a real bond between the Bennet sisters and Mary gave me enough hints to open my eyes…"
"But did you spoke to Kitty?"
"I did indeed… And even if I'm still confused when I'm looking at my feelings I must say that, somewhere, my understanding with Kitty is much easier than it ever was with you dear Jane. You will soon laugh at me but you looked always so perfect. I know now that I was feeling rather unworthy of such an elevated creature as you…"
"Indeed you are a fool!" cried Lizzy. "Jane was, that very night, of the opinion that you were the perfect gentleman…"
"And I still am…" added Jane.
He looked at her with surprise in the eyes.
"I would have believed that you would have given that title to your husband…"
Those words made her laugh out merrily.
"Ohh, no, never! He's not a perfect gentleman, that's for sure and I'm not really sure he is a gentleman at all. He's the man I love but it seems that I needed a rogue at my side and not a real gentleman. It was his passion and his decidedness who won me over, Charles, not his perfection. He never gave me the littlest reason to believe he did not love me, want me or covet me… And even if it is untoward it ignited a bonfire in the elevated creature that pulled her to him much more efficiently than all your perfect manners…" She smiled at him. "It seems we Bennets like our men to be a little more straightforward than good manners ask for…"
He smiled at her.
"Could it be that you are giving me an advice there?"
"As you said, there's a bond between the Bennet sisters, dear Charles, and if an elevated creature like me could be won over by passion and decidedness, don't you think the same is even truer for a lively and passionate girl like Kitty?"
He shook his head and looked amazed.
"So you're not angry that I'm interested in your sister? I would have sworn that…"
"Stop believing you understand anything about women, Charles," interrupted Jane. "Of course I'm not angry. Quite the contrary! If you look at both of us, it's quite clear that you're much better suited to Kitty than to me. And, Charles, I would have married you gladly had you asked these days in Meryton. So it should be quite clear that I do appreciate you very much and having you as a brother would be a real pleasure and a great satisfaction… Kitty is a very lively young girl and she will be, one day, a perfect young Lady. It could be the perfect match…"
"It could?"
"Indeed, Charles, it could… You said yourself that you were not sure of your feelings. Don't persuade yourself that you are in love with her just to compensate the loss you seem to feel about me. She's worth more than just being a surrogate for me…"
He nodded.
"That's also my problem, dear Jane. I'm not really sure if I'm not transferring the love I still feel for you on your sister. That's why I'm unsure of my feelings. Do I start to love her for herself or because I still love you and she's the perfect substitute for you? I don't know now…"
Jane smiled at him and took his hand.
"I can't ask for more, Charles. Wonder long enough to be sure. I would be very upset –and guilty– if my sister's happiness should be destroyed because of me."
"She seems to be in love with you, doesn't she?" asked Lizzy.
Charles nodded and his smile was genuine even if a little shy.
"I don't understand much about women but I do believe she and Mary gave me enough hints to let me with a certainty there…"
Lizzy smiled at him and squeezed his arm.
"Well that means that she will probably be happy having you at her side even if your own love was only born out of a…" she hesitated, "…transfer."
She stopped Jane's remark with a frown.
"We both know that love can be borne under very different circumstances. And for both of us there was first the love of one toward the other and only afterwards did we come to share that love. Let Kitty's love for Charles ignite her own bonfire in Charles' heart. She's no longer Lydia's reckless accomplice. She has arguments in her favor and she's shown in Pemberley that she is a real kind girl. She should be able to win the man she wants the same way our husbands won their brides. Let's have faith in both their kindness and prepare for the arrival of another interesting brother."
Jane smiled and nodded.
"Indeed you are right. We had to be convinced, I'm not surprised that in Kitty and probably also in Lydia's case it will be her who do the convincing…" She winked at her sister. "And as you know they can be very convincing when they want to be…"
She smiled at Charles and took a deep breath. She felt delivered of a very heavy burden.
Charles would heal and he would probably find solace with Kitty who had shown that she could be a responsible and loving young woman.
Yes, she really felt freer!
"Thanks for your words Charles. They were important for me… But we did come to speak about another problem. Have you ever visited…"
