Madam and Missy — A Pride and Prejudice Variation
This is dedicated to all the writers both here and on KU who've released their stories for free! As I enjoy reading them so much, I thought that I'd have a go, and here it is.
[Note that I'm a Brit, so have written with British spelling, punctuation and terminology 😏]
In which Mr. Bennet instructs Jane and Elizabeth, and Lady Anne meets Miss E and Miss Y
Longbourn, Hertfordshire
Mr. Bennet
The following morning, Mr. Thomas Bennet was sitting at the desk in his book-room. Today will be interesting, he thought.
At first appearance, Mr. Bennet was a minor country gentleman and, in many respects, that was exactly what he was. His family had lived near the small market town of Meryton in Hertfordshire for over two hundred years, and his estate of Longbourn was known locally to bring in around £2000 a year.
He listened to the noise of his daughters waking and preparing for the day ahead. Walking through to the dining room, he found his two eldest daughters already sitting at the table.
"Good morning, Jane," he said, kissing his eldest daughter on the head.
"Good morning, Pappa," replied Jane.
"Good morning, Lizzy," he said, kissing his second daughter too.
Elizabeth swallowed her mouthful and replied, "Good morning, Pappa."
Mr. Bennet selected his breakfast and sat at the head of the table between Jane and Elizabeth. Taking a sip of tea, he addressed them.
"Though we usually take breakfast all together as a family, I have asked Mrs. Jameson to keep your sisters in the nursery this morning."
Jane and Elizabeth looked at him expectantly; Jane with calm patience, Elizabeth with barely concealed curiosity. They both knew that, when only the three of them ate breakfast together, their father would have something important to say to them.
Mr. Bennet looked at those two beloved faces and mustered a smile.
"I am taking you out this morning in the carriage. I would like you to dress especially prettily."
"Pappa, where—?" interrupted Elizabeth.
He put his hand on her arm to quell her and carried on, "We shall leave at a half past ten. Do not keep me waiting." Then, knowing that his dear Elizabeth would continue to query him, he opened his newspaper and hid behind it. She understood that that was the signal to stop inundating him with questions.
A few minutes later, Jane and Elizabeth excused themselves to find and don their prettiest dresses. As they were leaving the room, their father dipped his newspaper enough to look over it at them and added, "Mind that you keep this to yourselves."
Netherfield
Lady Anne Darcy
A few minutes before 11 o'clock, Lady Anne watched from the window of the front parlour as a carriage arrived at Netherfield. She drew back from the window so that she would not be observed by its passengers and saw, with great surprise, the footman hand out two girls — she had been expecting young women.
The taller of the two was fair haired and appeared quite composed. She held the hand of the smaller, dark-haired girl whose bonnet did not seem tied on firmly enough as it kept slipping backwards and forwards and from side to side. With a small laugh, Lady Anne realised that it was the head inside the bonnet that kept moving as its owner's eyes looked at everything around her.
Lady Anne was pleased to notice that both girls had thanked the footman for his assistance as she saw his nod of acknowledgment. She waited for Mrs. Reynolds to show in her young — very young — visitors.
There was a knock at the door. Expecting that the girls would be nervous, Lady Anne smiled kindly in readiness. As the door opened, she heard Mrs. Reynolds saying to them, "My mistress will introduce herself, and then will ask for your names."
And, holding hands, in they came.
At first, Lady Anne was taken aback at the beauty of the taller girl. A young Helen, here. Caught, as she was, in regarding the fair girl, it took a while for her to notice that, while the subject of her gaze was demurely looking down, the other visitor was studying her keenly in return.
"This is an unusual meeting as we have not been formally introduced. I do not know if your father explained that it is also a secret meeting."
The girls both nodded. Already Lady Anne could start to discern their characters as one nodded gently, looking at the rug beneath her feet, and the other met her eyes and nodded expectantly.
"As it is a secret, we shall have secret names."
Excitement filled one of the faces before her.
"The letter 'e' is the last letter of my name, so I shall be 'Lady E'."
"Oooh!"
"Shush, sister."
Lady Anne laughed hearing this exchange. Addressing the taller, blonde girl, she asked, "What is the last letter of your name?"
"It is also the letter 'e', my lady," replied the girl, still examining the rug.
Lady Anne thought that, if this child could not or would not meet a gentlewoman's eyes, she would be unlikely to suit William. "Then you will be 'Miss E'." Turning to the smaller girl, she asked, "And what is the last letter of your name?"
The girl did not answer. Lady Anne noticed that her sister squeezed her hand to encourage her to speak.
"Do you not know the letters in your name?"
"Oh, yes, I do." Her sister squeezed her hand again. "I do, my lady. I am trying to decide which name to tell you the last letter of."
"My! How many names do you have?" asked Lady Anne, amused.
"Mmm. I have a proper name and if I choose the last letter of that I should be 'Miss H' and I cannot but think that if I wrote that down — not that I know if I should have to write it down — it might look like 'missish' and I do like it not when Pappa calls me 'missish'." The words tumbled from her mouth and her long dark plait danced about as she shook her head. This girl had more spirit than her beautiful sister.
Concealing a laugh, Lady Anne replied, "I can see that you would not like that, so what about your other names?"
"My friend and her father call me by a name ending with the letter 'a'. As I do not care for this name, I should not care to be 'Miss A'."
By then thoroughly charmed, Lady Anne asked, "And have you any more names?"
"Yes, my lady. My favourite name ends in the letter 'y', so I shall be 'Miss Y'. And, and if I were to write that down, it would look like 'Missy', which is what Mamma called me before she died."
Lady Anne noticed that little Miss Y looked quite sad at that pronouncement, but said, "'Miss Y' it is then."
She studied Miss E and Miss Y for a moment and said, "It is my pleasure to meet you, Miss E and Miss Y."
The girls curtseyed, one more adeptly than the other, and Miss E said, "Thank you. It is our pleasure to meet you too, my lady."
"Let us sit and get to know each other over tea and refreshments."
The door opened to reveal Mrs. Reynolds with a tray of tea things and some cakes. Lady Anne poured tea for her guests and watched them with approval as they waited for her to serve herself and give permission before starting to sip from their own cups.
"Would you mind telling me your ages?"
"I am twelve years of age, my lady, and my sister is soon to be eleven." Miss E answered, eyes then focussed on her hostess' hem.
Lady Anne and her visitors talked until almost noon, she asking them many questions about Longbourn, their family, and their friends and neighbours in the surrounding area.
At noon, Mrs. Reynolds knocked on the door again and told her mistress that the visitors' carriage had arrived to collect them.
As the girls donned their outerwear and bonnets, Lady Anne quickly wrote a message, sealed it and passed it to the older sister. "Thank you for coming to see me; please give this to your father." The girls both thanked her for her hospitality and curtseyed politely before taking their leave.
Longbourn
Mr. Bennet
Knowing that he was to remain unseen, Mr. Bennet awaited his daughters inside the carriage rather than dismounting to hand them in. As soon as they had joined him, he examined their faces. Even though his beautiful Jane was as calm and composed as usual, he could see that she shared Lizzy's excitement. It was obvious that they were both eager to tell him of their visit to Netherfield.
"Well, Jane. Well, Lizzy. I can see that you both wish to recount your morning, but you must wait." He told them sternly. "When we return home, change into your walking dresses then, after luncheon, we three shall walk out to Oakham Mount where we can talk alone."
Their demeanours showed that they felt thwarted, but they nodded and Jane passed him the note from their hostess.
Arriving at Longbourn, he alighted first and caught each daughter in his arms in turn and spun her down squealing from the carriage. As they ran in ahead of him into the house, he opened the note and read:
'If it would suit you, I should like to meet Miss Y again tomorrow morning.'
He felt a little disquiet. 'Miss Y'? Does this refer to my Lizzy?
His housekeeper, Mrs. Hill, met him at the front door and indicated that a parcel of books had arrived for him. Thanking her, he took it into his book-room to open it later that afternoon after he had spoken with Jane and Elizabeth.
The thumping of feet on the stairs alerted him to his youngest daughters' arrival for luncheon. He knew that it was unusual to have such young children to take their meals with their parents, but felt that he should eat with them all at least once a day. How would he know how they were behaving and what they were learning if he did not spend time with them to find out? As they all sat around the dining table ready to say grace, he took a moment to study each of them in turn.
On either side of him sat his two youngest daughters, Kitty and Lydia, aged seven and five respectively. He had deliberately chosen those seats for them so that he could ask about their time with their nanny, Mrs. Jameson, and governess, Mrs. Annesley. Next to Kitty sat Mary, who Mr. Bennet thought was a little too serious for a young girl of but nine years of age. She also appeared to think herself less attractive than her sisters and he did not understand why, as he was certain that it was not just paternal pride to consider her quite as lovely as her sisters.
Mrs. Jameson and Mrs. Annesley took turns eating with the family, taking the chair between Lydia and Elizabeth. That day, Mrs. Annesley was quietly encouraging Lydia to sit still to say grace with the others, and Jane, sitting opposite Elizabeth, was helping Mary with her napkin.
Such moments gave him such joy.
Please don't copy, but please do let me have comments/corrections 😏