A/N: Thanks you for reading and for commenting, and especially those who comment on every chapter. I really appreciate your letting me know what you think of the story. I will reply to your comments in the review thread as much as possible. Please be assured that what I learn from you on this story will play a part in how I write the next story (I do not post WIP stories because I make too many changes during the course of the writing.) Is this good enough incentive for you to review?
Again two chapters for this week's posting.
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"There you are! I am so sorry for keeping you out for such va long time with Miss de Bourgh. I hope it was not too unbearable. She could not have been very good company," said Charlotte when she greeted Elizabeth with an apologetic smile.
"No need to apologize, Charlotte. Miss de Bourgh has some interesting personality traits. Besides, she took me for a delightful drive in her phaeton," replied Elizabeth light-heartedly.
Charlotte scrutinized Elizabeth for a few moments, making Elizabeth squirm, fearing that perhaps she might have betrayed Miss de Bourgh's confidence somehow.
"Eliza, you look like you are back to your old saucy, witty self. Pray tell, is your present bright mood due to the pleasant drive you had or the scintillating conversation with our usually uh…hmm… as you used to say, sickly and cross heiress of Rosings?" Charlotte asked archly.
Elizabeth looked away for a moment to hide her discomfort, for she did not wish to lie to her best friend. However, concealing the truth for now was imperative.
"Charlotte, you know me so well. There is no melancholy a warm breeze and bright sunrays cannot chase away. Miss de Bourgh's phaeton was indeed delightful especially on such a fine spring day in Kent, which must be one of the most sublime among Creation in all Christendom!" gushed Elizabeth.
Charlotte suspected that there was more to the story, but she did not want to pursue the subject as Eliza always came to her when she was ready to share her confidence. She was just glad that Eliza was no longer feeling so out of sorts.
Elizabeth, putting on more cheerfulness than she actually felt, asked Charlotte about her time spent with Mrs. Jenkinson in hopes of finding out whether the companion could be made an ally of their scheme, as an ally close to Miss de Bourgh should greatly enhance their prospect of success.
Charlotte smiled and said, "Mrs. Jenkinson's heart was not in teaching me how to wax furniture. In fact, I doubt that she had learned anything from Lady Catherine. I dread the time when her ladyship comes by to inspect the handiwork. I will just blame it on my not learning directly from her ladyship and may ask her ladyship for a personal demonstration."
The friends laughed heartily at the picture of Lady Catherine sitting on the floor with a rag, applying wax just so, and rubbing with the rag just so. Charlotte continued, "She spent the entire time here knitting booties for her expected grandchild and lamenting that she would not be able to go visit her daughter at the birth, as Lady Catherine would not hear of it. She said she would do anything in order to be with her only daughter during that difficult time as her daughter's pregnancy has been wrought with complications. She fears that she might not see her daughter again. What travails must a mother endure!" Charlotte ended feelingly, as after four months of marriage, she had not felt any symptoms of being with child.
"For both of them!" Elizabeth concurred, while an idea to recruit Mrs. Jenkinson to her cause sprang into her head.
By teatime, Elizabeth had formulated a plan. Miss de Bourgh had been very clever in handing her the letter addressed to 'Uncle William', but there was no direction written on the letter. Who was her uncle? After thinking over the conversation in the phaeton for a moment, she decided that her uncle had to be Lord William Fitzwilliam. "Parliament is in session, and Lord Fitzwilliam should be residing in his London townhouse. But where is it?" Elizabeth thought.
Since the Earl was a prominent peer, his residence in town should not be difficult to locate, and she would go there personally to deliver the letter. She would leave for London two days hence, and that should give her one day to locate the Earl and leave one day for the Earl to make arrangements for Miss de Bourgh to regain her rightful inheritance. Time was short, but she could not come up with anything better.
Because the Lady's nephews had left abruptly, and Lady Catherine was again in need of quality company, Rosings' invitation to dinner arrived shortly after tea. Elizabeth would announce during the evening that she had decided to go home in two days to help with her father's estate management issues. Miss de Bourgh, who was far more intelligent than she had first estimated, would probably be able to deduce the rest of the plan.
First, she needed to inform Charlotte of the shortening of her stay, and to make travel arrangements.
Charlotte was understandably surprised, and inquired, "Why, Eliza, this is very sudden. Is there anything amiss?"
Elizabeth answered, "No, Charlotte, nothing is wrong. In her last letter to me, Jane seemed unusually dejected. I am leaving a few days earlier so that I could be of use cheering her up. The excuse I am giving Lady Catherine will be that my father needs me as I do not want to reveal anything about Jane to her. You know the inquisition that would surely follow if I did. I shall write to my uncle now so that he will send a manservant to Bromley to meet me. May I borrow a maid from you for the first leg of the journey?"
"Of course, if it is indeed your wish. Jane's disappointment must have been profound if she is still so much affected after so long. Your presence there will be a comfort to her. However, your presence here will be sorely missed especially now that you have started to form a friendship with Miss de Bourgh."
"My acquaintance with Miss de Bourgh is yet slight. However, she did speak more than ten words to me during the whole drive!" Elizabeth said with some exaggerated mirth to hide her uneasy feeling of accidentally revealing too much.
"Whatever you say, Eliza. I am pleased that Miss de Bourgh received you with some amity. She seems so cold and uninterested in anything, and I wager her mother interferes with her life far more than ours. I cannot fathom…. anyhow, I heard that she is the actual mistress of Rosings and not Lady Catherine. Her mother is to assist her in managing the estate until Miss de Bourgh reaches a certain age. Until then, I suppose Miss de Bourgh must put up with whatever treatment is dealt her. Just think, Eliza, you could have become the mistress of an estate even grander than Rosings if you had accepted Mr. Darcy."
Elizabeth grimaced when she was reminded of her angry refusal of Mr. Darcy's exceptionally
discourteous proposal, and said, "Oh well, 'What's done, is done', as the Bard said," Elizabeth paused, and said softly as if to herself, "Oh, that is quite a tragedy, 'Macbeth', is it not?" Then she looked at Charlotte again and continued, "And then he said later, 'What's done cannot be undone.' What a sage we have in Shakespeare! Well, let us heed the Bard's wisdom and never discuss it again. Tell me, Charlotte, do you truly think that regaining the control of her inheritance should materially alter Miss de Bourgh's outlook in life and make her happy as a consequence?"
Charlotte thought for a moment, and said, "Not necessarily. It depends on the person, I believe; and I hardly know Miss de Bourgh at all. For example, in your case, the access to immense wealth obviously did not move you- forgive me for alluding to the forbidden topic again…. You remember in 'Sense and Sensibility', Edward Ferrars could pursue Elinor after his mother has taken away the inheritance that has been dangled over him. In this case, Edward attains his happiness by losing his inheritance because his mother has lost her influence on him. In Miss de Bourgh's case, it would be depriving her mother of wealth that should make life a lot easier for her. I do not think Lady Catherine would believe herself entitled to order people about nearly as much without the great wealth of Rosings at her fingertips."
"Yet, Lady Catherine without Rosings would still be a daughter of an earl!" countered Elizabeth.
"True, but the daughter of an earl living in the dower house does not command as much obedience as the mistress living in the grand manor house."
"In other words, you would refuse the demand of Lady Catherine of the dower house to personally polish chair legs according to her ladyship's instructions?"
"If she were no longer the mistress of Rosings, I would definitely have politely refused. Without the great wealth behind her, she would not be able to do much to make my life or my husband's life difficult if she did not get her way."
"I see. I have never looked at things that way. I always just do what I think is right without much thought on the consequence."
"That is a great privilege of youth, beauty, wit and adequate means. I certainly hope that you will not need to ever regulate your own behavior according to someone else's whims, except your mother's occasionally, perhaps. If you had accepted Mr. Darcy's offer of marriage, you would have only one person who could even attempt to regulate your behavior, although I think when you do accept him, it must be because you are so in love with him that pleasing him will be your life goal!"
"Charlotte! Please do not harp on Mr. Darcy's refused proposal anymore! It is unlikely that I shall ever see him again," Elizabeth paused here, surprised by a dark feeling that seemed to come out from nowhere. "Is this regret?"
She shook her head to suppress such unhelpful thoughts and continued, "Given a chance to help Miss de Bourgh regain her fortune, would you take that chance?" Elizabeth asked tentatively.
"Eliza, that is an odd question. I cannot imagine what I could ever offer to Miss de Bourgh in an endeavor like that."
"But assuming that the scenario did come up?" Elizabeth pressed on. "Would you consider defying Lady Catherine's wish, which I am certain would be to keep Rosings to herself?"
Charlotte looked at Elizabeth penetratingly then, and said carefully, "I would help Miss de Bourgh to receive what is lawfully hers, of course, because it would be morally the right thing to do. However, it is a moot point since Miss de Bourgh will not obtain sole control of her fortune until she is of a certain age, which may be years from now."
"But that is only five days away! Oh…" Elizabeth swallowed the words, covered her mouth and looked at Charlotte with a startled expression when the secret blurted out of her mouth unbidden. At the same time, she felt a great relief that there would be no more secret between them.
"Eliza, was that what you and Miss de Bourgh talked about during the drive – to help her take control from her mother in a few days? If you think I can discreetly help in any way, I would be happy to," said Charlotte gently.
"Of course, Charlotte. I do not wish you to openly defy Lady Catherine in case the plan does not work. To be honest, the plan I have formulated seems exceedingly simple. All I need to do is deliver a letter to her uncle the Earl at least two days before the 20th of April, her twenty-seventh birthday, and her uncle will know what to do. However, if her uncle does not get the letter in time, then her mother will forever be managing Rosings with her, and we all know what her ladyship's management entails."
"Do you have the letter?" Charlotte asked.
"Yes. Instead of posting the letter, I intend to deliver it in person to the Earl. Miss de Bourgh inconveniently neglected to write the direction on the letter. Her plan had been to ask Mr. Darcy to deliver the letter if he had not left suddenly," said Elizabeth with some chagrin. She continued, "Speaking of posting a letter, I should write the one to my aunt now to have it sent out as early as possible."
Elizabeth rose to go to her room, but Charlotte stopped her, saying, "Eliza, how can I help in your plan?"
Elizabeth placed a finger at her lower lip, thought for a moment, and said, "A secret shared is a burden halved in my case, Charlotte. You cannot know half of the agony I suffered through before I blurted out the truth. You are always so dependable that, with you on my side, I already feel much more assured that my plan will work. For now, just be a friend to Miss de Bourgh especially when I am away. She is actually quite a delightful lady, full of passion and wit…"
Charlotte interjected, "Eliza! We are talking about Miss de Bourgh, not you! As for your philosophy on sharing secrets, it is true only with the right person."
Elizabeth laughed and answered, "Thank you, Charlotte, for your generous compliment, and I have to learn to be a little less impetuous so as not to shout out my deepest thoughts so unguardedly. I must tell you that the reason I did not tell you earlier was because Anne is a little wary of you for your doing Lady Catherine's bidding unquestioningly. Explain to her what you just explained to me about the power of wealth on people who need patronage using the Ferrars as an example. She very much identifies with the characters of the novels she loves, and I think she will comprehend it faster that way as she is reading 'Sense and Sensibility' as well. I have lent her my copy. Phew! I do feel so much better now that everything is off my chest. The uncertainty and suspense of having to keep secrets from you were burning me up from the inside!"
"Eliza, I hope you know you can always trust me. Remember how I refused to tell anyone how you got your dress all muddy by climbing into the pigpen to pet 'darling' little Oinky? I was punished in your stead for not minding you properly," Charlotte looked at Elizabeth in fond rebuke, remembering an episode when she was twelve and Elizabeth was five years old.
"Oh Charlotte, please forgive me for ever doubting your faith and love for me," Elizabeth said feelingly while giving her friend's cheek a peck.
Charlotte continued with the railleries at which they both excelled, "Ah, to part with your precious book! I think the only reason you told me about your pact with Miss de Bourgh is to make sure I get your book back from her!"
"Well, that is certainly an important consideration…. I have not enjoyed a novel so much for a long time. The story about the trials and tribulations of poor gentlewomen like us really resonates with me, to the degree that I do not mind too much the many coincidences in the plot. The characters are so well carved that they pop out of the pages as real people, the prose is simple yet elegant, and the feelings true and refreshing. If we are successful, Miss de Bourgh will buy her own copy anytime she fancies, and may even make a present of A Lady's future books to me!"
Charlotte had one more question, "Does that mean that Jane is not unusually dejected? Your leaving here early is entirely in service to Miss de Bourgh?"
Elizabeth said thoughtfully, "Jane is indeed still in low spirits. I do hope that my going to her will cheer her up."
The letter to Gracechurch Street for her aunt was readily dispatched, and the occupants of the parsonage made their way to the grand house soon after.