AN: Thanks for all the support ! I was so into it yesterday I wrote all this ! May not post quite as regularly as I have up to now, but will try to do so at least once a week. I apologize for any typos or anything, I haven't taken the time to be super thourough in my editing, but hopefully you'll like this :)
Chapter 3
Okay, things have officially gone from the "oh this is strange why is this happening" phase to the "it's not funny please please please let me out" one.
I've been here for a month. A month.
That's over four weeks. Thirty days. Whatever. Why the heck am I still here?
I've walked all over Longbourn, I've gone to Meryton, I've even seen Oakham Mount – even though I haven't gone up it yet.
I've learnt to embroider, to sew, and I've even tried my hand at painting. I'm at the starting phases of them all, but it's fun and it helps my six year old motor skills.
I've crept to the nursery to see Kitty and Lydia and I honestly think I would have gone bonkers if I had landed there. A few hours every now and then with those two is more than enough, believe me. They are cute as pie but keeping up with them is exhausting.
I have officially progressed from primers to actual books. Thank god it's only Lizzie and Jane who are teaching me to read – they just think they're really good teachers.
Lizzie has also tried to teach me the piano. I had tried it in my previous life, and I hadn't been great. I just got bored with it, and didn't practice. But this time, I really enjoyed it. I could feel my six year old brain learning things much faster than when I was 23. This is all in my head anyway. I'm giving myself a headache.
Mrs Bennet is still taking care of us during the afternoons. She's taught us mostly about household management, with a few lectures on religion.
Mr Bennet, I only see at meal times. He doesn't seem interested in his kids at all. I suspect Lizzie may do something to attract his attention at one point, otherwise, how would she become his favourite?
Today is somewhat special. It's the Christmas season, and Mrs Bennet's brother, Mr Gardiner, is coming, along with his new wife!
Everyone is appropriately excited, including Mrs Bennet. I'm starting to see some of her silliness – right now she is running around the house, going in every room and moaning that there is something or other which is wrong about it.
Jane, thankfully, is much calmer, and I stand by her side while "Mama" is doing her rounds.
"Are you looking forward to meeting our new Aunt, Jane?" I ask her. Urgh, my voice is still terribly high pitched. I hate it.
"Yes I am, Mary. By all accounts, she sounds like a lovely lady," Jane's voice is beautiful. I'll have to ask her to sing along while I play the piano sometime.
"I hope she brings us presents," I hear from my left. Little Lydia is adorable, holding on to my hand with her own, slightly sticky, one. No, I do not want to think about why her hand is sticky and that it is touching my own.
Instead, I answer her with "The important part is not about what she brings us, but the substance of her character, Lydia." Okay, sue me. I sound like Mary. Well, believe it or not, I do think that those two ragamuffins could learn from me a bit. Lydia especially becomes spoiled rotten in the story, but if I manage to get my claws in her early enough, Mrs Bennet won't do so much damage. I hope.
In any case, so long as I am actually here. I hope I'm not causing the real Mary some sort of brain damage by occupying her body for so long.
I have been actively avoiding thinking about why and how I'm here. I tend to get a sort of glassy – eyed, absent look, which inevitably prompts the question "Are you all right, Mary?" and snickers from Lizzie. I've always been an active sort of person, and to be honest you can easily get bored here, and when I get bored my mind rambles. Thank god I'm still young and learning all my "accomplishments". I think I would be going spare if I had too much time to myself.
Instead, I have decided to just assume this is some sort of cosmic mistake that will soon be righted. Please. In the meantime, I plan on trying to make Mary's life here as easy as possible. I have started a diary writing down everything that has happened, so that she will be able to pick up right where I left off. I may have included some helpful advice on singing – or rather, avoiding it as much as possible. This voice was not made for music.
My thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Elisabeth, hair slightly disheveled and bonnet askew.
"They haven't arrived yet, have they?" She asks breathlessly.
"No, but hurry up, they should arrive any minute now," Sally chides gently. Sally is an interesting character. From what I remember in the books, she wasn't mentioned, but she's the one pretty much supervising Jane, Lizzie and I. She's really sweet, in a mother hen kind of way, even though she's literally swamped with things to do. I think it's thanks to her we have such an unsupervised schedule in the mornings. It helps that Jane is an angel, Lizzie is good if a bit high energy, and I am pretty much an adult.
Lizzie promptly falls in line on the other side of Lydia from me. Jane is holding Kitty's hand. Always best to separate the terrible duo in times like these.
We hear a carriage in the driveway, and Mrs Bennet finally arrives, all aflutter. You can't fault her for her enthusiasm, she throws the door open and rushes to her brother, hugging him fiercely, and exclaiming all over his bride.
It's heartwarming, really. Mrs Bennet is a truly genuine person.
We politely stay in line, and Mr Bennet eventually joins us, staying on Kitty's other side.
The introductions are made, and after making my clumsy curtsy I watch Mr and the new Mrs Gardiner carefully.
Mr Gardiner is in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, and Mrs Gardiner looks like she's about my age. Um, she's not six, I mean that she's closer to twenty-three.
And boy, is Mr Gardiner just as good looking as Mrs Bennet. That family got the best of the gene pool, looks-wise. Mrs Bennet is blond, with large blue eyes and soft curls. Mr Gardiner is tall, athletic, and his hair is slightly darker. And oh, those sideburns. My six year old body doesn't register it, but I am definitely in danger of crushing hard on my… uncle. Ewww!
I focus instead on Mrs Gardiner. She's pretty, too, in a less overt way, but she has a soft smile for all of us as we introduce ourselves to her. She looks a bit shy with the adults.
As the company moves to the dinner table, I worm my way over to be next to her. Maybe it's silly, but I really would like to have someone my age to talk to. Of course, she'll see me as a six year old, but maybe if I'm sneaky we can have some intelligent conversation.
I am thwarted by Lydia, who claims all my attention over dinner, and we are sent to bed not long after. But the Gardiners stay for two weeks, I'll have time to ask my questions in time.
Christmas was an understated thing in the Bennet household. We went to church, and Mrs Bennet had organized a special dinner where she invited the entire neighbourhood, but of course little girls weren't allowed to those, so Lizzie and I had to make do with trying to catch glimpses of whatever was happening downstairs from the top of the stairs. Jane was too dignified for those shenanigans, and was safely in bed, but Lizzie and I were curious.
Jane and Lizzie were surprisingly welcoming of me in their little group. I had expected them to be somewhat closed off, but they weren't. I did get a few remarks that I was too young to do something or other, but I generally got away with whatever I wanted to do. It helped that I hadn't thrown any tantrums or otherwise antagonized them since my arrival in their sphere.
This was both a good and a bad thing; on one hand, chances were Mary wouldn't grow up so lonely if she connected more with her elder sisters. Once I leave her body. I will.
Anyway, on the other hand, I couldn't get my hands on any good reading material with Jane and Lizzie around. Upgrading me to short novels was already a stretch; but what I really wanted was books on the latest inventions. We were at the brink of the industrial revolution, and I wanted to know just how close we were!
I had briefly strayed into the worlds of mathematics, physics and mechanics in my studies, and I kinda missed learning actual new things. Not that embroidery is boring, exactly… it's just something you could just as easily do in front of the TV.
Plus, investing now in the industry could bring home a pretty penny. I don't remember any of the details of that period, but I know that one day the returns will be good. I hope.
Why am I thinking of investments and the industrial revolution, you may be wondering? Well, not too long ago, I heard the whisper of the word "entail" between my dear "parents". (It feels unnatural to call them that, they will stay "Mr and Mrs Bennet, fictional characters," to me, thank you very much.)
And that reminded me; much as life right now is pretty good, if I mess up the story somehow (say, by being here in the first place), then bye bye Bingley and Darcy riches. The Bennets will be poor once more. And there is no way I'm going for Collins. Ew. I may have vomited in my mouth a little.
So, I need a safety net. Mr and Mrs Bennet may think they could have a boy in the future, but I know that they won't. Might as well start investing, I think.
And the perfect opportunity has just come up.
You see, this morning Jane, Lizzie and I got some money from Mrs Bennet. "Here's your allowance for the next three months, girls. Now, be careful how you use this, for a little goes a long way."
Jane and Lizzie were excitedly discussing ribbons, but I knew exactly how I was going to spend that money.
The Gardiners are leaving Longbourn in a few days, and Mrs Gardiner quite likes me, I think. I've tried to show childish enthusiasm, without being annoying, and Mrs Bennet even commented that "Mary seems quite taken with you, Madeline," the other day.
So, when she goes up the stairs to refresh herself in her room a bit during the party, I pounce.
"Mrs Gardiner!" I cry, and go for a hug. She ruffled my hair this afternoon – this is my revenge.
"Oh, Mary! And Lizzie too! What are you two doing up here? You should be in bed, some on, let's tuck you in," Mrs Gardiner exclaims.
Lizzie is quite bored with the party already, so she follows without much protest. She and I had been yawning for a while now.
"Lizzie first!" I cry, jumping into her room. From what I can tell, it's quite similar to mine, but she doesn't have a window seat. Ha! I love that place. She doesn't know what she's missing.
Lizzie changes and gets tucked in quickly, and when we leave I already hear her soft snores.
I grab Madeline's hand (it feels weird calling a girl I think could have been my friend in the twenty first century "Mrs Gardiner") and we go to my room.
"Now, Miss Mary, time to get ready for bed," she coaxes me gently through putting on my pyjamas.
"May I ask you a question?" I ask her politely as I tuck myself into bed. Oooh, Sally put a hot water bottle in there, great.
"Of course, darling," Madeline assures me, stroking my hair again. I shoot her a mild glare, and she grins at me.
"What's 'investing'?" I ask.
Madeline looks a bit taken aback at my question. She was probably expecting me to ask if the tooth fairy was real or something. That ship has sailed, I'm afraid.
"Well… It's something adults do, when they have some extra money, and they want it to grow," she explains hesitantly.
"Like Uncle Gardiner?" I ask her eagerly.
"Yes, people can invest in Uncle Gardiner's business, if they want."
"How does he make the money grow?" I'm genuinely curious. I forgot what line of work Mr Gardiner used to work in, and I want to make sure my money is in good hands.
"He works in the textile business. He makes the fabric which will then become your dresses and coats," Madeline explains gently, getting used to the subject.
Good. That's exactly the sort of business I expect would boom with the industrial revolution. Plus, at my age, the only people I can trust not to swindle me is my family, so…
"Can I invest, too?" I ask, with my sweetest angelic look. I grab the money pouch Mrs Bennet had given me this morning, fish out a few pennies, and give the rest to Madeline.
She looks even more bemused by my reaction than before, then laughs shortly.
"I'll talk to your uncle about it," she promises. "But you should hold on to your money for now." She hands me the money pouch back. "And it's really quite late, you should be sleeping, Miss Mary! I'm going back to the party now, good night my dear."
Madeline leaves the room, and I grin. Hopefully Mr Gardiner will accept.
I fall asleep with dreams of piles of gold surrounding me.
The next morning, at breakfast, I'm invited to join the adults at their own breakfast.
For the first time since my stay here, my father speaks to me.
"Miss Mary, I hear you wish to invest the money your mother gave you for Christmas."
He seems quite stern, but I've had worse math teachers who would yell when we said something false. And I really want to do this. So I bravely pipe up.
"Yes, sir. I do. Mrs Gardiner said maybe I could, if Mr Gardiner would accept?"
"I think it a fine idea, Bennet. The girl is very reasonable; and since she had the idea, I shall round up her investment to a pound!" Mr Gardiner chimes in, beaming at me.
Mrs Bennet starts crowing at my good sense. "Oh, how generous, dear brother. Mary is a good girl, if a bit shy, I think this a very good idea indeed."
"You understand, child, that you won't be able to buy yourself the fripperies and ribbons and whatnot your sisters will buy themselves with their money? I will not hear any complaints from you about it, will I?" He asks solemnly.
"I understand, Sir," I nod slowly.
"Good girl," he congratulates me. "Now run along to play with your sisters."
I do, with a big smile on my face. A pound! That's not bad at all for a first start. By the time Mary will be twenty, I wonder how much it will have grown? Hopefully Mr Gardiner is as good a businessman as he is good looking.
The Gardiner Christmas Visit, as I have started calling it in my diary, ends with a small concert Jane, Lizzie and I give for their departure. Jane and Lizzie song while I fudge my way through the scores, promising myself to practice more in the new year – I really sound terrible right now.
