Elizabeth, Mary, and Jane each received a letter from Lydia asking if they would like to come to visit her at their estate in Essex. The three sisters got together and decided they would like to go to see their sister's estate, so they decided that Elizabeth would reply for all of them to set the date for the visit. She asked Lydia if she had invited Kitty to come from London to join her sisters. By return mail, Lydia assured her that Kitty would come as well. They decided that a visit of two weeks would be all the time that they could spend away from Longbourn and Netherfield as the harvest of 1814 was just beginning.
When the day of the departure came, they used both the Longbourn and the Bingley carriages; one for the four of them and the other for the children, their nurses, and the lady's maids and Bingley's valet. The mounds of luggage were distributed between the two carriages. It was not too far to Essex and the Carters' estate, so they arrived after just one longish day of travelling. The children had not fussed much but slept some of the way and were entertained by the sights they saw on the way. They were coming to the age of being more aware of their surroundings.
The Carter estate house was about the same size as Longbourn, so they were all housed comfortably. Kitty was already there, so they had a great reunion. With all the noise from the sisters and the two children, Carter asked Bingley to join him in his office for a quiet drink. Lydia and Kitty barely let the children touch the floor, they were so pleased with how they had grown. Of course, the sisters asked Lydia if she might be producing an heir any time soon, but she would only say that she did not think so. Jane, being the only other married sister, decided to find an opportunity to talk to Lydia alone to discuss the signs that she might expect when this happened.
After a satisfying and jolly dinner, Lizzy and Mary entertained them for a short time on the piano, but they were tired from their trip and so did not stay up late.
The next morning, Elizabeth was up early, as was her wont. The morning was clear, so she went out to explore their gardens. When she saw Mr. Carter outside, she went up to him. "Good morning, Mr. Carter! I see that you are an early riser as well."
"Good morning, Miss Elizabeth. I do rise early, much earlier than Lydia. In my years with the militia, we always had reveille early, and now, I find that there is so much to do around the estate that I am glad to get going as early as possible. However, I am sure that you understand what I mean about having so many duties as I believe that you still have taken on the responsibility for the actual management of Longbourn."
"Yes, somehow that seems to have fallen to me. I did not want to take full responsibility for Longbourn, but there was no one else. I have been finding that my father did not spend as much time looking after things as he might have. In the past two years, the yield from Longbourn has increased quite a bit. If your estate suffered from neglect over the past few years, I am sure that you will be able to increase its productivity as well. If you would like to talk about any problems that you have been encountering, I will be glad to discuss them with you to see if I have had the same ones at Longbourn. That is, if you do not mind talking business with a lady?"
"Of course not! I know what you have undertaken and I respect you greatly for it. I am sure we will find time over the next few days to talk about some of the problems that I have encountered. My estate seems to be quite similar to Longbourn, so there are bound to be similarities. I am sure that you will be able to give me some sound advice."
"Mr. Carter, I must say that I am so pleased to have been invited here to see your estate and to see how Lydia is making out as the mistress. I am impressed by what I have seen so far."
"At first, she seemed lost and overwhelmed. I guess your mother did not involve her much in the running of Longbourn, but she is intelligent and a quick learner. I have encouraged her not to be discouraged but to learn from her mistakes and from the staff. Recently, she has become much more confident. I am very happy with her, both as my wife and as the mistress of my estate."
"That is wonderful to hear! I know that she has always been intelligent, but our mother did not try to rein in her behaviour, no matter what she did. I am pleased that you, as her husband, have been such a good influence on her.
"Mr. Carter, there is something else that I wanted to talk to you about with no one else around. I am still not clear on exactly what happened the night my father was killed. I have heard only the barest details. May I ask you if you were actually on the scene when it happened?"
"No, I was not. I went back to our encampment immediately after the ball that evening. During the night, Colonel Forster had me wakened and assigned me to look after Miss Lydia and her mother."
"You must have heard something about what happened. No one will tell me much. Did you talk to the officers who were first on the scene?"
"I did hear some things over the next several days. Basically, what I know is that there was some kind of altercation between Wickham and your father and that Wickham pushed your father down the stairs."
"I still have not heard why Wickham was at their rooming house or what the altercation was all about. Have you heard anything about that?"
"No. Nothing." Elizabeth noticed that Carter could not look her in the eyes when he made this denial. "Miss Elizabeth, I hope that you will let this matter drop. What is done is done. Please, just let it be."
She was then quite sure that her worst fears were true and that Mr. Carter suspected that there was more to the story than was apparent. Her mother and Wickham must have been together before her father began his fight with Mr. Wickham and her father must have become aware of what was going on. That seemed to be the most logical reason for the fight. While she was very happy that Longbourn had a Bennet heir, she could never raise her suspicions that Tommy might not actually be a Bennet. She just wished that her mother would not be so disinterested in her son. Did her mother not have a conscience after all? Or was her conscience making her less loving for her son?
"Thank you, Mr. Carter. I believe you are correct. It is just that I hate the feeling that I do not know all of the details about anything. I will not ask you about this again. Now, was there some work that you had been wanting to do this morning? Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I just want to talk to my tenants to make sure the harvest is going well. I will be glad for your company. I will be going on horseback to save time."
"Thank you, but I am not a good rider. I would just hold you up. I will stay here to enjoy your gardens and let you go on your way; I will see you later. If I see that Mr. Bingley is up and ready to go, I will send him to you if you let me know which farms you will be visiting. I believe that he might not be displeased to be able to escape from the five of us sisters for a while, even though I cannot understand why he would not want to discuss fashions and lace with us!" She smiled when she said this.
He chuckled at this and told her where he would be and left for the stables. Elizabeth walked in his gardens for a while, then went in to break her fast. She found that all of her sisters were there with the two children. She saw that Mr. Bingley seemed out of place among all the sisters and children, so she told him that Mr. Carter had invited him to go find him when he was ready. This he was certainly pleased to do.
When Carter and Bingley returned, both Jane and Elizabeth noticed that the brothers-in-law seemed to get along very well. They had obviously enjoyed their time together and talked about some of the problems they had encountered and the possible solutions for them. Mr. Carter seemed pleased to receive advice from someone who had so recently been in his position as a new landowner. Later, Elizabeth joined them to ask for their advice about some of the problems she had encountered at Longbourn. She did not really need their advice, but she knew that their fragile male egos would be boosted by her asking for their help.
The sisters had a great visit for the two weeks they were there. They made several trips to the nearest town to see what shops would be found there. Elizabeth had expected that her sisters would want to go shopping, so she had brought extra cash to make the trip even more exciting for them. Only Jane declined her offer of cash as she said that her husband gave her a generous amount of pin money so her sisters could share her portion. Mary, Kitty, and Lydia gladly shared this windfall without hesitation. Elizabeth was not surprised that Mary bought only books and music.
Near the end of their visit, they decided that they were having such a good time that they just had to get together again in the not-too-distant future. Jane suggested that they should all come to Netherfield for Christmas as she had the largest house. She also said that she would invite the Gardiners and their mother to come to join them as well. Everyone thought that this was a great idea, so they made their plans accordingly. Elizabeth wondered if their mother would come, but was quite sure that the Gardiners would as they had such good times in past Christmases when they had all been together. She said that she would want some of them to stay at Longbourn as there were empty rooms and she and Mary would like to have the company.
The day came when they were to leave. Mr. Gardiner sent his carriage for Kitty and the others left in the two carriages as they had come. They were quieter on their way home as the sisters knew they would miss Lydia and Kitty. However, they looked forward to getting together again at Christmas.