A/N: All right, all right, all right – if you insist. I need to make the text clearer in the last chapter. Darcy has been at Longbourn for a fortnight when he has the conversation with Mary (very popular chapter), so that means Elizabeth is…
Elizabeth dropped into the sofa in the blue parlor in exhaustion, and sighed in either satisfaction, exhaustion or more likely both. Four days of nonstop madness at Pemberley had left her fatigued but exhilarated. She had spent a lot of time thinking about Mr. Darcy, but only in between bouts of mad activity. Georgiana had come up with the term Triumvirate to describe their merry little band that made up what Elizabeth called one good sort of mistress. She had no idea why Lord and Lady Matlock had not appeared the next day, but the last time she had checked, Pemberley was still standing, so she could claim temporary victory.
The five days after the villagers had appeared were full of bustle, noise, confusion and activity. It turned out that if you stuffed a few dozen traumatized villagers into a ballroom, you got all kinds of both wonderful and atrociously bad behavior. It was almost as bad as if you stuck a few dozen gentry into the same room and told them to dance. There was all the one-upmanship and backstabbing you would see in a ball. There was all the fighting for territory or attention. There were the kindly and energetic people that made the whole thing work. There were the rough equivalents of everything from the vast majority who acted properly, to the strutting peacocks, to the drunkards, to the men who really should dance but did not want to. Of course, Elizabeth had never seen fisticuffs in a ball, but was assured they happened with some regularity in London. Georgiana had been horrified the first time Elizabeth broke up a scuffle between two boys of middling teen years by picking up a nearby blanket and throwing it over them, so Elizabeth decided to keep her out of the ballroom for another week. The vast majority of the villagers were everything you could ever wish in a visitor, but a few hotheads could spoil the atmosphere if you did not check them. Most of the time, the more sensible visitors too care of it, but they could not be everywhere at once. Thus far, she had not expelled anyone to the stables, but there were a few people an inch from the edge.
Each day, Elizabeth started with the same bath, and yet another new borrowed old dress. On the third day she asked if they were too busy to do laundry and got an evil eye from Stewart for her impertinence. On the fourth day, she suggested she just wear the dress from the second day, and got a rap on the knuckles, though it was done affectionately. On the fourth day, she just accepted the fact that she had god-like powers everywhere in the estate except her own dressing room. Margaret had abandoned her the very first night in favor of Georgiana's room, and Elizabeth was neutral about it.
Now, after five days of chaos, Elizabeth was rather proud that nothing bad had happened for several hours, no major decisions needed to be made, nobody was angry with the world at large and Elizabeth Bennet in particular. She thought to just sit down for an hour with some tea and biscuits.
The morning of bright sunshine right after she arrived lasted only half a day, and the villagers spend the rest of the time trying to get by in torrential rain. Many of the men went back to the village to try to get a start on rebuilding. Mr. Breton and Mr. Wythe went along with most of the outside staff, but they mainly found there was not a lot to be done. They managed some repairs on the parts of the village that had not burned, but it was essentially impossible to do anything other than measure or plan on the burnt part. She also assumed the torrential rains probably slowed her express riders to a crawl, and she hoped neither of them became injured or ill, though there was nothing she could do about that except show some patience.
One of the measles patients died on the second day, while three more maids and two footmen became sick. One of the older men brought in on the first coach likewise died, but everyone else in the family wing seemed to be recovering nicely. She had the apothecaries from both Lambton and Kympton visiting Pemberley regularly, and also arranged to pay them to visit Sudbury nearly every day.
Elizabeth had, quite boldly she thought, engaged blacksmiths, builders and a few tradesmen from the nearby villages, and some laborers from Pemberley's tenants, promising them payment from Pemberley's coffers. She had nearly panicked about the expense at first, until Georgiana dragged her into an anteroom and insisted that so far, Elizabeth had not even made a significant dent in Georgiana's pin money, so she needed to quite being so timid.
All in all, things were about as well as could be expected. Elizabeth was tired and disheveled, although she would not dare let anyone else see, lest Stewart appear inadequate in her duties. With that in mind, she made Georgiana handle the pouring of tea and the like. All she wanted was a few minutes relaxation, and perhaps a chance to go to bed before midnight, which all things considered, had about even odds.
She vaguely heard the door open behind her, and was somewhat startled by a strong announcement.
"Lady Matlock"
The introduction of Lady Matlock shook her out of her lethargy and brought about some new energy. She wondered when the traditional functions of the butler had been replaced by somebody else since the butler was still recovering in the guest wing, but since odds were that she herself had ordered the change and just forgotten, she did not worry overly much.
Elizabeth jumped up from the sofa, nearly spilling her tea, faced the door and hoped the lady would go easy on her.
A deep curtsy and bow of her head, accompanied her greeting, "Lady Matlock, what a pleasure to see you again."
Georgiana seemed a bit surprised by the greeting, since Elizabeth had never mentioned the visit to Matlock, but she forgot that in a moment and ran over to give her aunt a big hug. Elizabeth was not surprised by either the affection or the informality.
Lady Matlock squeezed her niece hard for a moment, almost as if she wanted to be certain she was in one piece, stepped back, grabbed her about the shoulders and gave her a good looking over. Elizabeth presumed she passed muster, as Lady Matlock stepped aside, and gave her reply, which was more by position in the circle than precedence, as if anyone could work out precedence in a situation like this.
"Miss Bennet, Miss Wythe, Mr. Wythe, Mrs. Wythe – what an absolute pleasure to see you all again."
She then gave her niece another squeeze, walked over to Elizabeth, and said, "Well met, Miss Bennet. Very well met, indeed. I told you we would meet again."
Elizabeth laughed, and said, "I imagine you did, my lady."
She was then completely surprised when Lady Matlock walked up to her, wrapped her in a very tight embrace, and whispered in her ear, "I am so very happy to see you, my dear."
Elizabeth would have been completely shocked, but four days of Pemberley madness, and a lifetime of Bennet lunacy had left her fairly resilient, so she just whispered back, "Probably not as happy as I am to see you."
"We shall see, Miss Bennet. May I call you Elizabeth?"
"Of course."
Lady Matlock stepped back, then walked over to Margaret who was looking a bit uncertain how to act. Lady Matlock gave Mrs. Wythe a wink, and then hugged Margaret much as she had Elizabeth. The Wythes were no more bothered by a countess hugging their daughter than they were by anything else. They thought the lady could very well make her own rules of decorum, so long as it was affectionate.
Elizabeth noticed Robert Breton had come in with the countess but stood quietly off to the side.
"Mr. Breton, well met, Sir! Will you join us for tea?"
She wondered if Lady Matlock would object, but the question was answered immediately.
"Come, Robert," said she, "I must have you sit. I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better sit and have some tea."
Quite to Elizabeth's surprise, Mr. Breton laughed uproariously, came over, gave the countess a kiss on the cheek and sat down. Elizabeth wondered if anybody in this family followed the usual rules of propriety.
Smiling hugely, Lady Matlock said, "Do not panic, Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth just nodded dumbly.
"I assume you are wondering if I even read the deportment manuals. We normally operate with the generally accepted rules of formality, at least when visitors are about, but after this week, I feel like you are family. Did you know that when young Robert here took his very first steps, it was toward me? I was visiting Pemberley, and he was outside with his mother. I have been teasing him about the fall he took ever since."
Shaking her head in confusion, Elizabeth saw Mr. Breton smile and say, "It was all your fault, my lady."
She just laughed as if they had been doing the same joke since he learned to talk.
The tea had gone cold, so Georgiana stacked the teacups aside, got new ones and poured again. For a few minutes, Elizabeth just sat back and watched the three who knew each other so well converse about the commonplaces. Lady Matlock did not drag her into the conversation, but Elizabeth suspected the lady was just allowing her a bit of respite.
Finally, after the polite talk had been exhausted and everyone finished their tea, Elizabeth decided to turn the conversation in the proper direction.
"Lady Matlock, I am so happy to see you here. I will be ever so happy to turn the management over to a proper mistress."
Georgiana and Margaret nodded eagerly, smiling hugely. They were both more exhausted and overwhelmed than Elizabeth was, not because they did more work, but because they were not accustomed to it.
Lady Matlock looked at her and said, "Why on Earth would I do that? Pemberley already has a 'proper mistress'."
Elizabeth just stared at her and had not the vaguest idea of what to say.
Lady Matlock sat forward in her sofa, reached over and took Elizabeth's hands, and said, "You need not worry about censure, Elizabeth. You have done well, very-very well indeed. There can be no too opinions on the subject."
Elizabeth just sputtered, "But… but… but…", and finally just gave up when she worked out that she had nothing but grunts to contribute.
Lady Matlock raised her voice, and said, "Robert, tell me what I should change in the management of the estate."
"Just stay out of Miss Bennet's way, my lady. Everything is being done just as it should."
Elizabeth continued to sputter, "But… but… but… I AM NOT QUALIFIED!"
Lady Matlock just patted her hands, and asked, "Be honest, Elizabeth. Do you hate the job? Would you like to go home? I assure you, I trust Robert implicitly. If he says we have the right mistress, I would stake my life on it, and so would Darcy."
Elizabeth shook her head a few more times, but Lady Matlock was implacable.
"Think about it, Miss Bennet. This estate is in no particular danger, but quite a lot of churn, consternation and confusion. Those villagers are traumatized and worried. Everyone in the house already trusts you. Everyone already knows you understand all that is happening. What would be improved by having me take the reins that you are already handling so well. If you have no objection, I would ask you to stay in the same capacity for a few more days until things settle a bit."
Elizabeth stared at the countess and decided this was one of the times where her courage must rise to the occasion. Of course, on a rational basis, all that meant was that she would go back to what she had been doing twenty minutes before.
"You will stay and at least help me, I hope?"
"Of course, but we need to make it clear that, how did my niece put it, your word is law."
Elizabeth laughed, and said, "You may have noticed that your niece is prone to fits of hyperbole."
"Yes, I have, but this time she is right."