Mr. Bingley had caught them just as they were about to step up inside their conveyance and Jane could not believe her eyes. He looked the same as ever, handsome and cheerful and she thought her heart would burst.
Mrs. Gardiner regarded him with open curiosity. She had heard enough from both her sister Bennet and her niece Elizabeth that she could barely disguise her interest in meeting the gentleman.
Mr. Bingley bowed to Jane "So good to see you again, Miss Bennet! Will you introduce me to your companion?"
"Of course. Aunt, allow me to introduce to you Mr. Bingley. Mr. Bingley leased the neighbouring estate last Autumn. Mr. Bingley, this is my aunt, Mrs. Gardiner. Mr. Gardiner is my mother's brother and they live in London."
The observation of merely an instant showed Mrs. Gardiner that Elizabeth had been right: nobody could see them together and doubt his regard for Jane.
"Did you visit Caroline and Louisa?"
"Ah, no, Mr. Bingley," Mrs. Gardiner replied when Jane would not speak, "we've met your sisters just when they were about to leave."
"I see." Miss Bennet looked pained at the mention of his sisters and Mrs. Gardiner displeased. "Miss Bennet, I still have a few meetings today, but nothing would please me more than to renew our acquaintance. If you have nothing against it, Mrs. Gardiner?"
"But of course, Mr. Bingley. My husband would be happy to see you the day after tomorrow, sir, in the afternoon."
"About three o'clock?"
"That would be fine, yes, he should be back from the warehouse."
-`o´-
Mr. Bingley arrived promptly at three o'clock and had a short interview with Mr. Gardiner. He was then invited in the parlour to pay his respects to the ladies and was very surprised to see Miss Lydia as well.
Mr. Gardiner then said something of still having some documents to review and a few minutes after they exchanged pleasantries Mrs. Gardiner left too to see to the children.
Now that there were only his Jane and Miss Lydia, Bingley did not know what to do. He still felt unsettled by the talk with her uncle. A more different man from Mr. Bennet he could hardly imagine!
"... and I am being courted by Lt. Denny!"
He needed to pay attention, as it seemed Miss Lydia was trying to make some conversation.
Denny? Ah, a militia officer!
"My congratulations, Miss Lydia, he is a fine fellow."
She waved the compliment "oh, yes, though not the tallest. In any case, I wanted you to know that. If you come back to Jane you will have one less sister to support. I've been told this is why you left last year."
He wanted the ground to open up and swallow him! Stars above, what had he done?
"Lydia!"
"Oh, let me be, Jane! Or are you courting Miss Darcy?"
For a moment he felt dumbstruck.
"Lydia, please!"
"What about Miss Darcy? She is but a child, not even out! Where did you hear such a thing, Miss Lydia?" Why were they even talking about Miss Darcy, he could not begin to imagine.
"How do you even know about it, Lydia?"
"I found your letter," Lydia said like it was nothing.
"You are corresponding with Miss Darcy?" Bingley asked, not really able to follow.
"Miss Darcy? No, silly, it was from your sister Miss Bingley," Lydia replied in Jane's stead.
"Let me understand this right, Miss Lydia," Bingley held his hand to stop her from speaking until he could formulate his question. "Miss Bennet, you have received a letter from my sister Caroline in which she said I am courting Miss Darcy?"
"No," Jane responded.
"Yes," Miss Lydia said decidedly.
"I don't - what do you mean?"
"She implied that you were spending all of your time together and it was her dearest wish that you would..." Jane could not continue.
"She is a spiteful shrew," Miss Lydia said, taking Jane's hand. "Lizzy said so."
Miss Bennet let out a shocked laugh. "You should not talk so, Lydia."
"Aren't you happy now that you know it's not true?"
She was, if Bingley was any judge, and he could not imagine the pain she was put through by his sisters. "No, not by them, by me," he thought to himself. He squared his shoulders and prepared to make any and all amends needed to gain her heart and her hand.
-`o´-
Mr. Bennet of Longbourn had had a very tranquil existence until a few months prior. His troubles started with the arrival of a Mr. Bingley in the neighbourhood. He was a young dandy from the city who leased Netherfield Hall to try his hand at playing the country squire.
As Mr. Bennet fully expected, nothing had come of it. The country life did not suit him, his sisters, and his friend. His eldest daughter, Jane, maybe had a tendre for the man, but nothing came from that either. Again, this was not an unexpected occurrence for Mr. Bennet.
Jane was a good girl and beautiful, but hardly someone who would make a lasting impression on anybody. Had the man shown some sense and attached himself to his Lizzy, he was sure they would have been married already.
What he did not expect and could have never predicted was the upheaval it would cause in his life. His wife had been most put out by the loss of such a rich suitor and his daughter, though he expected better from her, was content to mop about with a sad demeanor that provoked her mother even more.
More than once had Mrs. Bennet demanded he go to London and press Mr. Bigley on his courtship with Jane. He laughed at the thought! The courtship only existed in his wife's imagination.
Then came that fateful night when Lt. Wickham gave his frank opinion of his girls for the benefit of his friend. Wickham was now gone and his friend Lt. Denny proved to be as much of a fool as any young man in the throes of passion.
He asked for his blessing and permission to court his youngest and that was all Mr. Bennet needed to know to mark him as a man of no substance, for how else could it be when he declared himself seriously considering marriage to Lydia, once his income was sufficient to support a family.
That was all well and good, but somebody and he had a suspicion he knew who, put it in Mrs. Bennet's head that Lydia could not marry without a dowry. There was some truth in this, he supposed, as most girls came to their husbands with some money, but he could not see why they would importune him.
There was no money. They hoped for a son that would take care of his mother and sisters, but the son never came. Neither one of them was inclined to save or deny themselves, so nothing was ever saved.
He resented Elizabeth, whom he was sure had worked on her mother and planted the idea of setting money aside and economizing, he resented Mary who declared she cared nothing for dresses and books because her useless sermons said she shouldn't, and he resented Kitty for reminding him every day that if he was to die that year they would be as good as beggars, always at the mercy of their relatives.
He resented the Gardiners too, for their insistence on schooling the girls and finding husbands for them. He himself married a silly woman, what better proof that learning mattered but little?
Now he was in a pickle, for he did not know what to do. He had agreed with his wife's terms and her plans to let her brother invest for no other reason than to escape her harping about Lydia's portion.
Then of course the scheme expanded to include each girl's portion. Except that Longbourn did not always produce over two thousand a year. Some years were good, some were not. There had been a few where they were lucky to have been left with something from one year to the next. Working the land did not come with any warranty for a good income come harvest time.
His wife was not likely to understand such calculations, nor was she likely to care. She would demand the money for the girls and he would have no peace if he would not be able to make good on his agreement with Gardiner.
The simplest thing would be to give up what he set aside for his personal expenses, but he would do that only as a last resort. The second would be to not exactly give up his two hundred, but maybe not spend everything all at once, have a little something set aside to save himself the trouble of having to deal with Mrs. Bennet.
He could also keep a tighter lid on the household expenses. The nine hundred set aside for the running of Longbourn were surely too much. He had long suspected the servants padded their income at his expense, but he never took the time to find out. He could not even blame them, as he had done nothing for them in the way of a pension or even a cottage on the estate. They had to shift for themselves. He was sure he could wrestle at least one hundred back and very likely more, but it was going to be tedious work, overseeing the servants, reviewing the books and so on.
He could also start to put into practice all those newfangled farming methods and see if they were any good. He had always been curious, but never saw the need to bother himself. It looked like the time came to finally make a decision.
-`o´-
"Welcome to Longbourn, Mrs. Croft," Mrs. Bennet greeted the new governess and companion. Of all the changes enacted since they've learnt of Mr. Wickham's treachery, the need for a governess had been the hardest to accept for Mrs. Bennet.
Had she known how little her husband wanted to hire one, they would have found reasons to do away with the scheme altogether. She never spoke much to him, however, or even listened to him when he spoke to her, so she never came to be in possession of such knowledge. Now she had to make this woman welcome and she did not like it.
"Thank you, Mrs. Bennet, I hope you will have every reason to be happy with my services," the woman replied graciously.
"You come highly recommended by my brother and sister Gardiner," Mrs. Bennet replied and then said nothing. In truth she felt a bit intimidated by the companion. She must have been her senior by quite a few years, yet she was still rather good looking, in a stern sort of fashion and had an air of purpose around her.
For a woman as lazy as Mrs. Bennet, doing something with her days other than visiting and planning the week's menu, seemed a task impossible to overcome.
She went on to introduce her daughters and asked Mrs. Croft when she thought she would start her work.
"Right away, madam," came the answer and Mrs. Bennet sighed deeply. She then bade her daughters mind their governess and declared she would visit her sister Philips to give her the good news. Nobody quite knew, or cared, which bit of good news she was talking about.
-`o´-
Author note:
Thank you all for the comments, they are wonderful!
I still have some problems with the formatting, but I think I got the hang of it now.
Guest who said the Gardiners were pretty rich:
They were. To have a carriage and horses in London would be some 400 per year. It probably cost as much as all the rest of their household put together.
The Bennets were probably richer still.
Guest M:
Thank you for leaving a message! I hope you'll find this next chapter just as Aw! :)
Guest who said Mr. Bennet must know that Mr. Gardiner could have influenced Mrs. Bennet as well:
Absolutely, Mr. Gardiner could have and Mr. Bennet should have thought about it.
However, the situation is such that Mr. Gardiner does not. An understanding if you will, that he won't interfere in the Bennet household.
It's modeled on the original Mr. Gardiner, who, even in the wake of Lydia's disastrous marriage, when he should have pushed the Bennets to save something at least for Kitty and Mary, does absolutely nothing at all.
Guest who said Kitty was cheated of love not money:
She was cheated of both. In that period of time when a poor woman's only way to support herself would have been to become a wife, a servant, or a prostitute, I would have been mad too.
Guest who said the chapter was wonderful:
Why, thank you! I hope you'll find the rest just as good :)
Guest who made the point that Caroline and Charlotte are somewhat alike:
I haven't thought about it before, but yes, we can look at them like that. It's a valid comparison and it's definitely worth exploring. Maybe as a short story in the same universe. It is intriguing to think about it.
We'll see what Lydia can do or wants to do. She'll still be stubborn :)
Guest Lisa:
600 pounds a year was indeed a fortune. And of course Mrs. Bennet won't trust her husband with the money. My thinking was that she would feel better asking for updates from her brother rather than having to bring up the matter with her husband. Because we all know he would tell her it's none of her business.
She's worried right now because of Lydia and needs to keep an eye on things.