Chapter Ten
Mr Bennet was putting on his overcoat as his eldest daughters returned to Longbourn. "My darling girls, it is good to have you home. I have heard not one word of sense these past few days without you." He said as he kissed them both on the cheek.
"Are you going into town, Papa?" Lizzie asked. She did her best to suppress her frustration that her father's greeting centred on the relief he felt at the ending of his own discomfort rather than an expression of joy at Jane's recovery from hers.
"I have business at the inn a few towns over. I shall be back after lunch and then maybe we could read together in my book room."
Mr Bennet walked into the private parlour he had reserved at The Jolly Goose Inn in a small town called Hillford, less than ten miles from Longbourn. Rising from the table before him was a military man he did not think he knew but who seemed familiar.
"Did Matlock not think this important enough to come himself? So he sent a lackey instead?" Grumbled the older gentleman.
"My father has been increasingly unwell over the past two years, sir. He sends his apologies but his physician fiercely advised against any travel."
"I see. Well given you are in uniform it is unlikely that you are his heir. His second born was Richard if I remember correctly."
"Yes, sir. Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam of the – regiment." Richard bowed to Mr Bennet as he spoke, "A pleasure to meet you, Mr Bennet."
"Aye, well that remains to be seen now, does it not." Bennet made a shallow bow in return and took a seat on the opposite side of the table to the Colonel.
Mr Bennet had thought he had put to bed the niggling doubt in his mind of Mr Darcy causing trouble in his household after his conversation with the gentleman at Lucas Lodge prior to Jane's illness. However it dawned on him the first evening of his daughter's stay at Netherfield that the man had shown a studied interest in Elizabeth and this reignited his concern. Promptly, for once, Bennet sent an express to a man he had not corresponded with in almost two decades. Becket Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl of Matlock. Fitzwilliam Darcy's uncle.
Bennet had asked to be reassured that the younger man's presence in the neighbourhood was not a sly attempt by the Walker family to inch their way back into his daughters' lives without his permission. To gain their sympathies by proxy, luring them away from him when they came of age and putting their lives in danger somehow. What the older gentleman had failed to realise was that over the years his actions (and inaction), fuelled by grief and misplaced bitterness, put his relationship with his daughters at greater risk than any influence their maternal family could have or had had on them.
Richard had been chosen to come in his father's place after a lengthy family discussion upon receipt of the letter. Lord Matlock had wished to take the opportunity to come clean, something which had been seconded by Richard's elder brother, Walker, who despised the falsehood. Lady Matlock, Richard and his sister Helena were all opposed to such a plan though. They believed their loyalty lay with Elizabeth and Jane, not Mr Bennet. It was the girls' wish to keep the relationship hidden from their father, so that was what they should do. They discussed and debated for hours. When Mrs Gardiner arrived the next day, she also believed they should maintain the ruse and the Earl and his eldest son conceded.
It was generally accepted and joked about within the family that Walker Fitzwilliam could not lie. It was first discovered when he was a small boy. He had snuck out of his nursery and down to the kitchens where he was found forty minutes later with his face and hands covered in a sticky red substance. Master Walker had tried to fib and claim he had not taken any of the strawberry jam tarts that had gone missing from the counter. As he protest his innocence his ears started to turn pink. As he continued his denials the blush spread until it covered his face and neck like a rash. The poor boy grew so warm in the face and flustered he could barely finish his sentences.
To that day, whenever Walker Fitzwilliam even so much as thought about lying his ears would start to change colour and his speech would stammer. As such, it was settled that Richard, who suffered no such affliction, would act as the family messenger and deliver the reassurances Mr Bennet had demanded.
When Richard lowered himself into the seat across from Mr Bennet he was confident in his resolve to continue to adhere to Jane and Elizabeth's wishes. Seeing them at Netherfield, whilst unexpected, had reinforced his understanding of their desire for secrecy and the freedom to choose who they had in their lives.
Richard waited for Mr Bennet to begin. He had called this meeting after all, it was for him to commence the discussion.
"I am not a man inclined to spend a great deal of time on business matters that can be easily concluded," opened Mr Bennet, "so let us get right to the point. What reason does Mr Darcy have for showing up in my neighbourhood and showing an interest in my daughters? Does he come here at the behest of your family?" As he spoke, Bennet started to lose some control over his voice and the volume began to rise.
"My cousin is here to assist his friend with some education in estate management. If you know of Darcy then you will likely have met Charles Bingley also, I presume?" Richard asked calmly. He did not wait for Bennet to reply before continuing with his monologue. "The man is an excellent and entertaining friend but he is a green boy in the ways of the life of a country gentleman. My cousin, being the dependable, loyal man that he is, agreed to assist Bingley with settling into his leased estate.
"Believe me, sir, the plan was made without my family's knowledge or involvement. When we pieced together the various items of information, my mother and I decided not to speak with Darcy about who he might meet in Hertfordshire. He so very rarely mentions his youth or recalls childhood memories; we did not know how much of that time period he remembered." Richard had not actually factored that into his thinking at the time he chose to hold his tongue around his cousin, but it felt like a plausible thought process he might have had – so was it really a lie?
"I cannot tell you if or what he remembers of our joint previous connection," Richard had to admit to himself that one was a lie, "but if he is showing an interest in one of your daughters, it is not our influence which has prompted it."
After going back and forth in a similar manner for the next half an hour, Mr Bennet conceded, "Very well. Now, will you also swear you shall maintain the distance previously agreed to and which I still insist upon?"
"As established, we will not seek out your daughters."
Bennet took a moment to think on what he had heard before replying, "I am satisfied. I can dissuade a connection between the gentleman and my dear girl easily enough" 'I am amazed my wife has not accomplished as much already with her vulgar manners and ill treatment of everybody she meets' he added to himself.
Richard was not comfortable with Mr Bennet's last declaration but was too well trained to give in to his impulse to protest.
The men parted in much the same fashion as they had greeted one another – awkwardly and borderline uncivil. Mr Bennet removed himself from the inn first, Richard waited long enough that he was unlikely to meet the gentleman's carriage on the road before setting of to return to Netherfield. If not for his plans to meet with the Bennet sister's he had just moments before vowed not to seek out, he would have headed straight back to London. As such a promise had been made, his debriefing to his family would have to wait a day.
That evening as Colonel Fitzwilliam updated Darcy on the meeting he had attended earlier, Mr Bennet sat in comfortable delusion in front of the fire. Elizabeth was reading to his from a tatty copy of a collection of Wordsworth poems and he was quite content that the world he had created for himself would not soon change. He would be able to chase off any and all suitors who came for his most sensible girls.
Within a day of their return the eldest Bennet sisters had once more settled into life at Longbourn. Unlike most days however, the next morning when they woke Jane and Elizabeth shared a hug and shed a few tears; that day marked the 18th anniversary of the carriage accident. As best as they could, they put their sorrow to one side and joined their family in the dining room to break their fast.
Mrs Bennet had been her typically tyrannical self since their return and had spent the first three quarters of an hour after they alighted from the carriage that brought them home haranguing them for being an imposition on the coveted Mr Bingley. This was followed by the demand for a moment by moment account of each interaction Jane had with the gentleman. She only became satisfied when she had heard for the seventh time how Jane had been confined to bed until the day before and so had few chances to be in company with Mr Bingley. The girls had chosen to downplay the length of time Mr Bingley and Jane had sat together in the garden, instead choosing to emphasise that the walk was a group activity which Mrs Bennet could not fully object to their partaking in.
Jane, who had still not fully recovered from the fatiguing effects of her illness but endured nonetheless, listened demurely as Mrs Bennet continued to criticise her for the hassle she had brought about through catching a cold. "All I mean to say, Jane, is that if you are well enough to sit at table now, you should have been able to return home sooner. You could have burdened your sister here rather than include My Bingley and his friends in your dramatics."
"Jane had little control over her illness or manner of recovery, Mama." Mary argued.
"Little control do you think? No, it was all very convenient if you - Lydia do not throw jam at your sister, or you shall be the one washing Kitty's hair." Mrs Bennet's empty threat distracted her enough that she forgot to continue her attack on Jane and proceeded to pile cheese scones onto her plate.
"I hope, my dear," said Mr Bennet to his wife a few moments later, "that you have ordered a good dinner today, because I have reason to expect an addition to our family party."
After a satisfactory amount of confusion and hysterics, the patriarch revealed their anticipated guest to be his cousin, Mr Collins, who was set to inherit the Longbourn estate, via entail, once Bennet had breathed his last.
"He means to arrive today, Papa?" Elizabeth asked.
"If he is punctual to the time stated in this rather entertaining missive, we should expect him at four o'clock, bearing an olive branch."
"But to arrive today! On the anniversary of the event which made it possible for him to be the one to inherit this estate! That is either a very cruel sort of olive branch, or the man is deficient in common sense." Elizabeth felt her frustration rising and knew she would require a long walk today if she was to be able to welcome this Mr Collins cordially.
Bennet patted his daughters hand as he replied, "The latter seems the more likely, my dear. From what I can make out through this letter the man is quite the oddity. Such a mixture of servility and self-importance; I am impatient to see him."
After breakfast most of the young ladies of the house sat together, at Mrs Bennet's insistence, to work on their various sewing projects. Once Mrs Bennet was suitably distracted by queries from the housekeeper, Lizzy took the chance to quickly pull on her sturdiest walking boots and escape out of the front door where Jane was already waiting for her.
A short while later Richard, Jane and Elizabeth stood together in a small clearing near the base of Oakham Mount. As promised, Richard was there waiting for them so that they could say their farewells before he returned to London.
"I had business with your father yesterday." He began slowly. At the look of alarm that appeared on both of the Bennet sister's faces he rushed on, "He wrote to my father, concerned of Darcy's motives for coming into the neighbourhood. He believed he could have been here at my family's request. I trust that I have reassured him, but you should remain cautious when in company with Darcy, especially if your father is present. It may reignite his suspicions." The last was said with a pointed look at Elizabeth.
"That shall not be a problem."
"Oh, well if you think it is for the best."
Before long, the gentleman, that both ladies thought so highly of, had mounted his horse and was riding away from them. Together, Jane and Lizzy walked back towards the churchyard as Lizzie gathered her customary wildflowers.
Jane rarely ventured to her mother's and brother's graveside as she found her comfort in other places, but knew that her sister required her support on their most difficult day of the year. Jane had not suffered as Lizzie had when they were growing up. To start with, she was the one Mrs Bennet preferred, she was considered classically beautiful and almost never splattered with mud and dirt, the matriarch had done her best to promote Jane until recently. Her serene nature and ability to see the good in others was often tested by her step-mother but Jane typically fared better than Elizabeth who had no such demeanour to begin with; their relationship had always been much more strained.
Consequently, Elizabeth always found these key dates more difficult to bear than her sister for it threw up so many questions of what could or might have been. But as the loving and supportive person that she was, Jane would not let Lizzie suffer alone; as much as Elizabeth permitted her to comfort her anyway.
As they approached the gate to the churchyard they saw a bay horse tied to a tree in a small grove off to the side. They would not be the only mourners present that day.