"Are you well, Jane?"
"Of course, aunt."
"You never said what you and Mr. Bingley talked about; or if we'll see him again," Mrs. Gardiner said with a smile. A bit of levity would not go amiss right now.
"He did not say when he will visit again."
"But he did say that he will?"
"No, he did not," Jane replied and both women frowned. "He said we will see each other again."
"Hm."
"What do you think it means, aunt? I can scarcely credit that he came at all!"
"I do not know for sure, Jane and would do us no good to speculate."
"Oh. I do not know what to think."
"So why do you not ask him, next time you see him?"
"Ask him? Surely not, aunt, that would be most improper," Jane blushed to even think she could be so forward with Mr. Bingley.
"Why would you think so, my dear?"
"Is it not?"
"No, I do not believe it would be. You are not strangers, you are acquaintances of some duration and, if I am to believe Lizzy, he showed you marked attentions last November."
"And then he left."
"He did and this is why you should perhaps talk to him. Think about it, will you?
Now I must come to the purpose of this talk. I do not have much to say, so please listen to it all before asking any questions."
Jane nodded her assent, so Mrs. Gardiner continued thusly: "I have told you that you should be careful in accepting Mr. Bingley. If you cannot envision a good life with him, then perhaps it would be better to not encourage him; at all. For all my and your uncle's insistence that you should remain with us until you find a husband, you must know that we would never force you to accept someone.
Perhaps we were not very careful in setting our expectations, but we wish for your girls to marry men you can respect and even admire. Do you understand me, Jane?"
Jane laughed with no humor.
"You know aunt, Lydia upbraided me."
"She did? Whatever for?"
"For being so tiresome. Oh, no, aunt, I am not upset. Lydia is right; I know that she is. For weeks now I have been pining after Mr. Bingley. I have tried to put him out of my heart and my mind, but I could not. And now that he's here, I do not know what to do. I should be pleased, shouldn't I?"
"Were you truly attached to him, Jane?"
"Yes. I believe I was and I do not know why he left and how I can trust him not to leave again."
"This is why I believe you should talk to him. Truly talk to him, do not let misunderstandings come between you."
"I will try to. I must do so, otherwise I feel I should go mad with worry."
"Maybe it would be better to keep Lydia away from him for a while," Mrs. Gardiner mused, "if she's being difficult."
"Oh, no! She is not! I do not know where we would even be without her help, aunt!"
"What help?"
"She asked him directly if he was courting Miss Darcy."
"She did not! Oh, that girl. I will have a word with her!"
"I wish you would not. She did it for me, because I was too afraid. Besides, I am the eldest, I should know better. She said that after weeks of moping about because of him, now I finally have a chance to catch him and I should just do so."
"Now, Jane, remember what we have talked about earlier."
"Lydia will have to wait some years yet to marry a man who will not be able to provide for her in the style she was accustomed to at Longbourn. She will not have enough servants and their living accommodations will probably be cramped. Do you truly believe I could ever say nay to Mr. Bingley? Unless there would be something very objectionable about him. Yet here I am, wringing my hands, as my sister would say, because I do not know what will happen in twenty years from now. Will he still love me and respect me? Even if I bring nothing but a houseful of sisters?"
-`o´-
"Darcy! Darcy, over here, old man!"
"Good day to you, Bingley. I hope you are well."
"As well as ever, my friend, though I'm thinking of spending all of my time here. Maybe I could get a chamber. Don't look at me like this, Darcy, I am perfectly serious."
"Is Hurst not willing to host you anymore?" Darcy sounded genuinely surprised.
"Oh, no, nothing like that. You know he doesn't care."
Darcy nodded; he knew Hurst only cared about having his food and drink and maybe some entertainment at cards.
"No, no, it's Caroline," Bingley continued with a grimace.
"Oh?"
"Ever since I've mentioned going back to Netherfield she has been pestering me about it. I told her she is welcome to remain in town. She did not like the house and she did not like the society and with you gone to Pemberley - is it certain you are returning to Derbyshire?"
"Yes, we will probably leave next week. I still have some business in town, but then I will have quite a lot to do at Pemberley as well. Then in a month I should be back in this part of the country, I'll be visiting my aunt at Rosings."
"Good, good. Well, without you as my guest I don't see Caroline wishing to accompany me."
"Are you sure of what you are doing Bingley?"
"You think I am still in danger from Miss Bennet."
"I would not say so, no."
"No?"
"You will give rise to speculation if you return so soon."
"Maybe she is not even there, Darcy!"
"What?"
No, Bingley did not miss the surprised expression that crossed his friend's features.
"She might be married and gone by now," he replied with a somewhat forced laugh.
"I suppose it is possible," Darcy conceded, "but not very likely. Their portion was very small and with a family such as theirs there would not be too many chances to marry; or at least marry well."
"I never understood why you disliked their family so much."
"They have relations in trade."
"I have a father in trade, Darcy," Bingley said somewhat forcefully. "At least I had and I miss him still. I wouldn't care about her relations in trade, you know that."
"You said so, yes."
"Would it have been so bad?"
"You already know my opinion of Miss Bennet, Charles. I do not believe her heart was touched by you."
"Yes, and I've been thinking about it. How can you be sure?"
"She smiled at everybody! There was nothing marked in her attentions to you."
"Well, what would you have her do? Scowl like you?"
"I do not scowl!"
"You do," Bingley said as if it was a well known fact. "But what else? I find it I prefer a woman who smiles at everybody to Caroline who sneers at everybody. Everybody but you, that is."
"I did not see any symptom of particular regard."
"She talked to me all the time!"
"She talked to everybody, Charles," Darcy added somewhat testily. He was beginning to tire of rehashing the same story.
"Did she talk to you? What did you two talk about?"
"Excuse me?"
"You said she talked to everybody. What did you and Jane talk about?"
"I… I do not remember."
"But you remember if you talked to her, don't you?"
"No?"
"Come, Darcy, you said she -"
"I know what I said!"
"So who else did she talk to as much as she did with me? Because I seem to remember we were always talking all the times we happened to meet."
"I do not know! Bingley, to what does all this tend?"
"You said you observed her carefully, did you not?"
"I did say this."
"But you don't remember ever talking to her. You don't remember anyone else she talked to either."
"What do you want, Bingley? I'm tired of this, so speak plainly."
"Did you know she is in London?"
"Blast it!"
"So you knew. I was not sure, although I suspected you did."
"See here, Bingley -"
"Did you see her? Or did you know from talking to my sister?"
"Miss Bingley received a note or two from Miss Bennet."
"You conspired with my sister to keep me from Jane."
"You imply that I would -"
"I do not imply anything, Darcy. I know it to be so. No, do not say anything else. I really did hope that you would not play me false, that you were my friend and would not lie to me. I am afraid I will not be able to accompany my family to your dinner party, Darcy, but I'm sure Caroline will be delighted to help you reset the table. You two are so well matched you'll have no need of me."
-`o´-
Author note:
Thank you all for your comments, they are wonderful!
I got a message in my fanfiction dot net Inbox, with the most wonderful story idea that I've heard of and I intend to beg and pester the sender to write that story. You have been warned! :D
Guest who commented on children being continuously disappointed by their parents:
Very true. It almost always leads to bitterness. It can take years to get yourself to just move on.
Guest Lascaris:
My answer is not the result of serious research, so please take it with a large spoonful of salt.
From what I can figure, the money were spent by Mr. Bennet.
The girls were not very well dressed and there were simply not enough dinner parties being held at Longbourn.
On the other hand, we are told they didn't exceed their income because Mr. Bennet's love of independence. The obvious implication being that Mrs. Bennet would have exceeded their income.
The less obvious implication is that only Mr. Bennet approved of how the money was spent.
Guest who doesn't know why Jane often ends up a countess:
I don't know why either :) but we all like a good Cinderella story.
There's possibly another side, less nice to it: a sort of reverse revenge on smart-ass Elizabeth.
In any case, no Bennet girl will end up in peerage in this story, because you really needed serious money and pedigree. Not to mention that, unlike what we read in fanfiction, the ton was full to overflowing with women who were exceptionally well learned or were very talented artists.
Guest Otto:
Thank you! I hope you'll be along for the ride and that you'll find it interesting :)
Guest Seingat:
It's complicated, isn't it?
Both of them are in the worst possible situation, relative to their respective dispositions and sensibilities. It would be funny, if it wasn't so sad, but neither of them are in a position to refuse a decent man.
The contrast between Jane and Lydia really helps illuminate the Bennet family.
Which is the reason that I had Lydia accompany Jane in London. That and because I'm a mean semi-old lady.
Hmm, I wonder what Elizabeth will do when Darcy will strut into the parsonage and say his piece ;)
Guest who was surprised by Lady Lucas' being wise:
Lady Lucas, Mrs. Phillips, and Mrs. Goulding are modeled after my grandmother's friends - what I remember of them anyway.
They were all gossipy busybodies and a couple of them were throwing around wise words every now and again; and the rest would nod their heads sagely.
All good questions about the Bennets. This is why we have so many stories, because there's just too much there that could go very wrong very fast. You only have to scratch the surface and the family literally unravels.
I'm basically afraid to write more of an answer because I do not want to spoil the story, but know that I really appreciate the time you took to write :)