AN: A bit of a fluffy chapter today, but we have a few long and serious chapters coming up (and yes, another evil almost-cliffy as we shift between viewpoints in a later segment.) Whether I double post today and tomorrow depends on how much writing I feel I've accomplished today. Most of this week has been pretty scattered for writing due to some RL work emergencies. I thought writing while being kinda sorta on call would be easier, but it is hard to focus when you have to keep checking to see if the work has come in. Lesson learned and in the mean time...Just keep writing, writing, writing, what do we do? We write! (to paraphrase Dori)
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Lizzy knew the time had passed when she had to hide her embroidery skill from all others. Somehow, she still could not bring herself to join them as they worked on their parts of the dress downstairs. This meant she would miss the visit of Mr. Bingley and possibly Mr. Darcy as well. It was a shame, but she had too much to finish to take the time to enjoy the distraction of Mr. Darcy's company, much as she would have enjoyed it.
Once again, she was working on a decorated over-skirt, although the colors were far more pleasing than those of Miss Bingley's gown. This one would end just above the top of the flounce and would echo the scalloped edge that she had already embroidered there, with sprays and streamers of flowers climbing up the filmy fabric from selected scallop bases. She could have chosen a simpler pattern, but Lizzy wanted Mary to have a dress that was truly special. Miss Bingley would not be able to sneer at this gown, nor would any of the ladies in the Ton that Mary might come into contact with in future while wearing it.
Sitting in her chair at the dressing table, Lizzy worked quickly but with great care. While doing so, she lost all track of time. At the sound of the key turning in the door, she jumped in surprise but to her relief, it was Jane who walked in.
"I brought you some tea, Lizzy. You really should take a break." Jane carried in a tray with a small teapot and two cups on it as well as a few biscuits on a small plate. Lizzy set her work carefully aside on the table and pulled her chair to stand next to the bed. Both women sat on the edge of the bed with the tray placed on the chair seat in front of them.
"You missed the chance to meet Mr. Darcy's cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. We had a lively conversation with him while Mr. Bingley was taking care of the settlement and then again after the Colonel and Mr. Darcy went in to witness the signing. He was a very interesting man."
"Perhaps I will have another chance someday. Did you find out when the dress will be needed? I do have several hours work to go but I could definitely be done by Monday morning if I keep hard at it."
"You have time for tea and a little conversation, Lizzy. Mr. Bingley and Mary settled on Tuesday morning for the wedding, since I guessed you could be done by Monday."
Lizzy sighed in relief. "Well, then, tell me more about this Colonel whose last name is the same as Mr. Darcy's first name."
"Ah, Mary asked about that. I guess I had not heard Mr. Darcy's first name mentioned, but she had. They explained that it is a tradition in the Darcy family to name the first-born son after the mother's family name. Lady Anne Darcy was sister to Colonel Fitzwilliam's father."
"I recently remembered Aunt Madeline mentioning Lady Anne Darcy when she was telling us about some of the hardships her mother faced as a new widow who had been dispossessed of her home. I think Lady Anne was one of those who frequently purchased the lace that Aunt Madeline and her mother made to support themselves before Uncle Gardiner returned and married our aunt."
Jane's face lit up. "That is why the the Darcy name and hers sounded familiar. It was tickling at the back of my mind earlier, although I did not know why. Of course. Aunt has said more than once that they were saved by Lady Anne's kindness. She just did not always add the Darcy name when mentioning her."
"And what about the Colonel? Is he militia or regulars?"
"Oh, he is not one of those foolish boys in the militia. Colonel Fitzwilliam is a member of the ~~~ Cavalry unit and has served in the war on the Continent as recently as last May. He suffered an injury in that last battle that brought him back to England for a time. During his recovery he has been training new recruits at a camp near London. He took some leave to join Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley here for a short time."
"Impressive. Is he as handsome as his cousin?" Lizzy asked with a grin.
Jane smirked back at the implication that Lizzy found Mr. Darcy very handsome. "I suppose that is a matter of personal taste," she said. "I consider him very handsome. He does not have the dark coloring or the impression of elegance his cousin gives. Like Mr. Bingley, he appears jovial and open, but the Colonel has a sense of strength about him that marks him as a man to be depended on."
"My opinion of Mr. Bingley's character and resolution has improved a great deal over the last few days with the way he has stepped up to honor and support Mary." Lizzy took a bite of biscuit as she watched Jane's reaction
Jane nodded. "Mine as well. But, there is a difference between a boy who is just discovering the man he could be and someone who is well-settled in the role. Mr. Bingley will be a good man, but I am glad it is Mary who will be his wife and not me."
"Agreed. I do hope she will be happy."
"Watching them together earlier, I have every confidence they will," Jane said. "At the very least, he treats her with respect and appears to want her to be happy. That will count for a great deal."
"Did Mrs. Bennet return while the visitors were here?" Lizzy asked. She suspected the woman was avoiding the house out of fear for some kind of retaliation from Mr. Bingley.
"No, she and Lydia had still not returned from the village when I came up. She will have to face them at church day after tomorrow."
"Them and all the gossips of Meryton. I wonder if Sir William and his son have returned from their wild goose chase yet?"
"We will have to wait and see what news Lydia brings back from their visit. If the village is discussing Charlotte's disappearance, then she will tell us about it."
"Oh, Jane, it is a sad day when we must depend on Lydia for the latest news."
Both sisters giggled before returning to their tea. After a few minutes, Jane spoke again.
"Lizzy, a carter and his assistants were here earlier taking boxes of goods from Papa's study. However, they did not remove nearly enough boxes to have made a dent in the contents and I overheard them remind each other to be very cautious of how they carried the boxes. They even had the bottom of the wagon padded with straw. Do you have any idea of what that could mean?"
"That sounds very odd indeed. And they definitely came from the study?"
"Yes, but they acted like they were carrying crockery or glassware, and very fragile or expensive glassware from the care they took."
"How unusual. I thought they were supposed to be picking up Mr. Darcy's purchase. I am not aware of anything particularly fragile in the study. I shall have to ask Papa about it when I visit him tomorrow morning and see if he is in a mood to reveal anything."
"He will tell you if he is willing to tell anyone. He has never really appeared to care two straws about the rest of us."
"And he only cares one straw for me. Still, I may be able to get something out of him, depending on how much medication he has taken for the pain. Until then, though, I really should get back to my work. I thank you for the tea and conversation, dear sister."
"I will take the tea things down, then. We have almost entirely completed the rest of the gown. I just have some of the fancy work to do around the neckline. Once that is done, I will finish up the latest shift I have been working on, altering it to fit Mary and adding more than the usual decorative touches. Kitty is hemming a few handkerchiefs made from the excess fabric for the over-skirt. She wants to add some embroidery to one and has asked for my help in addition to what you showed her earlier."
"Have her keep one of the handkerchiefs aside. We will edge it with some of my lace. I do not want the finest lace Mary has ever owned to be the strips Mrs. Bennet used to help entrap Mr. Bingley."
"I was hoping you would say that," Jane said. "I expected you would give her some even if we still had to rely on the sale of your lace to keep us."
"Of course, I would," was Lizzy's reply as she placed her empty teacup on the tray and stood up.
Jane smiled as she did the same. Picking up the tray, she went through the door Lizzy opened for her and left her sister to her work.
~o~
"And what makes you think these books were the only things of value in this study, my Lizzy?" Mr. Bennet teased. "The carter today came to pick up Mary's dowry."
"I thought Mary's dowry was coming from the proceeds of Mr. Darcy's purchase," she said.
"And who told you that? I doubt it was Mr. Darcy."
"I have not spoken to the gentleman. I only assumed based on the news of the sale I heard from Mr. Phillips via Mrs. Hill."
"Putting your full belief in gossip, Lizzy? I thought I trained you better than that."
She could tell he was enjoying himself, so she decided to let him play a bit. "Ah, but what about when gossip is all we have to go on? No one saw fit to even tell Mary what or how much her dowry consisted of."
"Oh, you know that sorting out the dowry is the man's job. So long as you have one, you do not need to know how much it is."
"So, she is not to know whether she can take pride or shame in her purchase price, then?" Lizzy countered.
"Does it matter?"
"For a woman, yes, it does," Lizzy stated firmly. Even though her earlier comment had been said teasingly, she wanted him to know his secrecy was not right. "We are judged by what we bring to a marriage. You are sending Mary to battle the wolves without letting her know if the sack on her back contains a tiny willow wand or a cudgel."
"Definitely a cudgel," Mr. Bennet said. He tone was still teasing, but he had the grace to look ashamed as well.
"There were several boxes, but they were not books. You imply it was something of great value, yet I have seen nothing like that in this study.
The teasing man was back full force. "Perhaps you are not as observant as you think. Some of what was in those boxes has been here longer than you have been alive. Some was here longer than I have been alive."
"Jane said the carter and his assistants acted as if the boxes contained glassware or some other fragile items. They were being very careful."
"I should hope they did take care. Dropping one of those boxes could have been disastrous for them, and they would have been crying over more than spilled milk."
"That sounds like bottles of wine to me. Yet where did they come from? You stopped keeping any wine in the cabinet once Tony started watering it to cover his thefts."
"Oh, some of that water had no wine at all in it by the time he was done. No, the cabinet has been more useful for other things."
"And the only other bottle I have seen in this room is that decanter of brandy which is still sitting on the shelf right behind you. The internal dimensions of this room make no allowance for a secret cupboard large enough to contain sufficient bottles to fill as many boxes as left here."
"That is true, my Lizzy."
She got up and threaded her way through the piles of books. "There must be a trapdoor to the cellar then, but that makes no sense. Even a well-hidden trap door is likely to be seen when the carpets are cleaned. And the cellar can be accessed by way of the steps behind the kitchen. Anything in it, Tony would have found at some point because he used to sneak down there and hide things of his own."
"That would be true, if the cellar extended all the way under this room."
"Does it not?" she asked, trying to calculate how large the area below stairs actually was. It had been some time since she had last been down there.
"Does it?" he asked, enjoying watching her figure it out.
"If it does not, it is close to doing so. Any trapdoor would have to be along the edge of the room closest to the outside wall."
She began to walk along that line. One thing stood out – the table near the far corner that constituted the only horizontal surface in the room not covered in books. Not a single book sat on the table, although she remembered a small pile of them when she had looked in on Mr. Darcy. Moving the table towards the center of the room, she lifted the carpet that had been under it. Despite a careful examination, she could see no sign of a trapdoor.
Mr. Bennet coughed, laughed dryly and then coughed again. "No shame to you for not seeing it," he said. He then told her the secret to opening the trapdoor. She lifted it to find the ladder and the open panel behind which was an obvious wine cellar.
"Mary's dowry was wine?" she asked incredulously.
"Very expensive wine, along with a selection of brandy that would be extremely difficult to obtain legally now that the trade with much of the Continent has been cut. Most of it was laid down by my father and some by his. The worth of the collection, should Mr. Bingley choose to sell it, was substantial. Mary need not feel any shame over the value of her dowry."
"And you offered it before Mr. Darcy proposed to buy the books?"
"Yes. I knew she would make sure the rest of you were cared for."
"And a dowry like that obligated Mr. Bingley to help."
He shrugged. "I am what I am, Lizzy. I have not been a good husband or father. In fact I have not been good for much of anything in my lifetime. Perhaps my finest and most productive moments were providing Mary's dowry and saying yes when Mr. Darcy offered to buy these books. Let me go out with that much to my credit. Now, off with you, girl. I've enjoyed this little game, but I would like to finish this book before Mr. Darcy's men come to pack this all away. Go on, close the trap door and take yourself elsewhere." He made a shooing motion and then picked up the book.
"Yes, Papa," she said sadly. It was the work of only a few minutes to close the trapdoor, refasten it and cover the area with the carpet and table. She could feel him watching her over the top of his book as she worked, but neither of them said anything more. With a last look around at the volumes that had been her friends as well, she left the room.
As she went, she could hear her father start to cough again. It was not a pleasant sound, so rough that she could almost hear his life draining away with each rasping hack. If this was his penance for all the years of indolence and neglect towards others, it was a harsh punishment. While she did not approve of his past behavior, Lizzy would never have wished such a price on him or anyone else – not even Tony.
