Chapter 3
Darcy was shocked. Did she just said that she would know the unborn child's sex? Sex?
"I am not foretelling, Mr. Darcy; it is science. I will be able to see the child's gender."
Darcy had not realised he had voiced that thought out loud.
Lizzy could see the curiosity in Mr. Darcy's face, as he seemed eager to discover what she was about to demonstrate. The requirements of the procedure were considered highly improper for these societal norms. She decided to ask the mother and father-to-be if it was acceptable to them to make same arrangements so their friend could join the exam and see for himself.
"Why, if you say that I will not feel uncomfortable, of course, Mr. Darcy can stay with us. He does dearly love science, you know." Emma was the loveliest and happiest person Lizzy had ever met in any world, for the matter. Although a delightful person, she did have some matchmaking tendencies, always trying to arrange wonderful marriages like her own. She wanted everyone to be happy. Emma tried her techniques with Lizzy, but Emma never considered anyone good enough for her now dear friend.
Lizzy felt blessed and lucky for having been discovered by such wonderful family. She had convinced them that Fass and herself were not fugitives from Bedlam. It was not a difficult task after all, the couple was open minded, and showing them Fass's true nature and her ship had sealed the deal. But, what had really touched Lizzy's heart was the way they protected her. Both of them knew that divulging her fantastical story would not do, she would never be believed and was at risk of being persecuted by the authorities and outcast from society. Lizzy was very adamant about trying to use her knowledge to improve everyone's lives, for, as she said, it was impossible to let this world make the same mistakes her did.
The first evidence that she would indeed change people's lives was when Fass was sent to find some specific items so she could add on to her laboratory. She had revealed that she was an apothecary and had studied to be a doctor at home and that she was going to produce some medicine to help with a dysentery break among the tenants. Meryton's doctor had passed away two months before the travelers' arriving and Bingley was looking for someone to fill the position but was having a hard time with the task. Doctors were gentlemen and therefore not wont to reside in a village such as theirs. Learning this particularity, Emma convinced her husband that Lizzy was the perfect solution for their problem. It was decided then that the vacant cottage at Netherfield would be giving to Lizzy and Fass so that they could work as they pleased. After two weeks, all the affected population had returned to good health, with no one passing, an occurrence never seen before. Lizzy was considered a heaven-sent person. No one cared if she was a lady or about her manner of dress. After a fortnight, she was trusted and loved by all the residents. After a couple of months, life was never like before for Meryton and the residents were glad.
"I am happy to learn of your interest in science, Mr. Darcy. Do you have a particular area of interest?" Lizzy had not yet had an opportunity to discuss the basis of where science stood in this universe. Her work at Meryton had become known already among London society, this she was aware of. She was now waiting for an invitation to join the educated gentlemen [1] to go ahead with her goals, but being able to learn something new was always exciting.
"My most researched areas are those related to agriculture. The knowledge helps with my lands, and I enjoy new ways of improving it, looking to the future. But I find every field of science fascinating, chemistry and physics are my favorites."
"That is terrific, Mr. Darcy!" Lizzy could not help but to be happy to find another science enthusiast. "Maybe we could discuss science, so I can understand your world better."
What does she mean when she says 'my world'? Darcy was not very sure about what that particular statement meant, but let it be for now.
Fass was preparing the room for the exam. He improvised a privacy screen so that Emma and the gentlemen would be separated. The ultrasound screen was placed so everyone present could see, and all the other apparatuses were displayed so Lizzy could get started.
"Emma, are you ready, darling?"
"Yes, but I am quite nervous. What should I do?"
"I will help you out of your dress; I need be able to see your stomach if that is all right?"
"Yes, certainly." As they proceeded, Emma asked Lizzy. "How is everything at the village? I miss visiting with the residents; I miss the tenants also. It would be so nice to be able to walk long distances again."
Lizzy chuckled. "Soon enough you will be doing all of this again, and with your child! You will be an amazing mother, Emma." Emma lay back, and Lizzy prepared her stomach. Meanwhile Fass turned the screen on, he then explained what was happening to Mr. Darcy, who had some questions.
"I will get started. Look at that white mark and follow me. Here we have your child's head. Look, it is sucking its thumb."
Emma was already sobbing, Charles was about to faint and Darcy could not breathe. The image was so clear; it was indeed possible to somehow see the child.
"I will idenitify the gender first. Is that all right, Mr. Bingley?" Charles agreed, his voice almost a whisper. "So here we go. . . Hey, Baby, Mom and Dad want to know you. . . Are we not showing ourselves today?"
Emma couldn't stop crying, hearing Lizzy talk to her child like that.
"And, I already know. . . Say hi to Master Bingley."
"A boy, it's a boy!" Charles screamed and went to his wife's side. Propriety be damned!
"I will see if this big boy is healthy now, we are going to . . ."
"How do you know it is a boy?" Darcy suddenly felt his power of speech coming back.
"Oh, Mr. Darcy, I almost forgot you were with us. Look here. . ." Lizzy circled an area. "This little appendage is his manhood. A girl would be flat in this position."
"I see it."
Lizzy proceeded with the evaluation of the child and was soon happy to inform the parents that Master Bingley was a big, healthy baby and that the delivery seemed likely to be a very smooth affair.
Emma was helped to wash and re-dress. She decided to stay in bed as her emotions had overcome her and she felt exhausted. Lizzy kissed her good-bye although Emma was begging for her to stay for dinner.
"I cannot, Emma, I have some obligations at the cottage that cannot be delayed. I promise to visit one day during the next week. I do love to spend time with you."
"I understand, Lizzy, be well then."
As the party descended the stairs, Lizzy could see Mr. Darcy staring at her with so much disdain that she was almost afraid. "What a shame. . ." she thought "I really wanted to talk to him about this world' s knowledge of science."
Fass was behind them, for he had gone to retrieve the test results they had previously been given to the Darcys. Lizzy was very pleased to see that the siblings were not in danger. Variola [2] was still an incurable disease even at home.
"You and your sister need not worry about smallpox, Mr. Darcy. Maybe the next time I pay the Blingleys a visit, I could bring along a medication that will prevent both of you from ever catching such a horrific infirmity."
"It is indispensable, Darcy! All Meryton used this medicine and we had no cases of smallpox, even among those who faced the illness while travelling." Darcy could see how serious Bingley was about the subject.
"I accept the offer then. Thank you, Miss Bennet."
"Call me Lizzy please, I do not like formalities."
"I certainly cannot. . ."
Lizzy saw the disgusted look again; she decided not to fight a lost battle and hastily interupted, "Do not concern yourself, Mr. Darcy, I understand. After all, calling me so indeed shows a lack of propriety within your society."
A servant opened the front door allowing Darcy to take a look at the carriage used by the doctor. He looked puzzled as the pair opened the doors without assistance. "Were you not leaving? Where are the horses?"
"There are no horses, Mr. Darcy" Fass replied, with his usual emotionless voice.
"So how is it propelled?
"It moves through electricity."
With that reply, Darcy heard a noise impossible to explain as Miss Bennet did something inside and so they left, with extraordinary speed and a befuddled Darcy looking on.
After a pleasant dinner, the gentlemen retired to the library for a serious conversation. Darcy needed to know more about those people with whom he had been introduced to earlier.
"Bingley, where did you meet those people? Are they from the colonies, for their accent is indeed very much as I have heard other Americans speak."
Bingley gave his friend a brief explanation about the circumstances of their meeting. He felt it was not his secret to divulge to Darcy of their real origin. "When you see each other again, you may ask them the particulars for yourself. It is not my story to tell, and it is quite unbelievable. I am pretty certain that she will trust you with her life story, but I warn you. . . Keep an open mind, and do not doubt about what will be disclosed."
Darcy decided to see his sister before retiring for the night. Georgiana was much better than she had been earlier, he felt grateful for their intervention. Lying in bed, Darcy tried to clear his thoughts and rationally analyse the day's events.
He recalled a book [3] one of his professors at Cambridge had once lent him. It was about a noble lady travelling through worlds by a passage found at the North Pole. The story was dated from the seventeenth-century and had indeed been written by a woman. Maybe that tale was not so far from reality; maybe this Miss Bennet was just like the heroine of that book.
Then Darcy also recalled an interesting conversation he had the last time he attended his club while in town. The literate gentlemen were discussing a rumour about a person who had a vast knowledge in every field of modern science. This person had new approaches in both engineering and biology, which were novel but quite useful. What was more alarming, Darcy now remembered, was that some members were absolutely sure that this person was a woman.
Darcy concluded that he should learn more about Miss Bennet, despite all the evident social differences and her total disregard of propriey. She was facinating, to be sure. He also decided to send an express to his friend, Mr. Tilney, who taught science at Cambridge, about his concerns regarding this new acquaintance.
(A/N): In the next chapter, we will probably have more characters popping up. We will have appearances from characters in all the main Jane Austen's novels except Persuasion. (I have not read this one yet so . . . )
Footnotes:
[1] Lizzy is thinking of the 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge'. The very first 'learned society' meeting on 28 November 1660, following a lecture by Christopher Wren. The group soon received royal approval, and from 1663 and been called the Royal Society for short ever since.
The Royal Society has published Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, and Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment demonstrating the electrical nature of lightning. They backed James Cook's journey to Tahiti, reaching Australia and New Zealand, to track the Transit of Venus. They published the first report in English of inoculation against disease, documented the eruption of Krakatoa and published Chadwick's detection of the neutron that would lead to the unleashing of the atom.
The leading scientific lights of the past four centuries can all be found among the 8,000 Fellows elected to the Society to date. From Newton to Darwin to Einstein and beyond. Current Fellows include Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and Tim Berners-Lee.
[2] Smallpox is also known by the Latin nameVariola, originally known in English as the "pox or "red plague." The term "smallpox" was first used in Britain in the 15th century to distinguish variola from the "great pox" (syphilis).
[3] The book is the Duchess of Newcastle ,Margaret Cavendish'sThe Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World (1666) one of the first prolific female science writers. As the author of approximately 14 scientific or quasi-scientific books, she helped to popularize some of the most important ideas of the scientific revolution. A flamboyant and eccentric woman, Cavendish was the most visible of the "scientific ladies" of the seventeenth century.
Prior to this, at the age of eighteen, she became Maid of Honor to Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, accompanying the queen into exile in France following the defeat of the royalists in the civil war. There she married William Cavendish, the Duke of Newcastle, joining other exiled royalists in Antwerp, rented the mansion of the artist Rubens. They formed an informal salon society, "The Newcastle Circle," which included René Descartes and Pierre Gassendi.
It was at this time that Cavendish first gained her reputation for extravagant dress and manners, as well as for her beauty and her bizarre poetry.
Cavendish and her husband returned to England with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and she began to study the works of other scientists. Finding herself in disagreement with most of them, she wrote Philosophical Letters: or, Modest Reflections upon some Opinions in Natural Philosophy, maintained by several Famous and Learned Authors of this Age, Expressed by way of Letters in 1664. Cavendish sent copies by special messenger to the most famous scientists and celebrities of the day
More than anything else, Cavendish yearned for the recognition of the scientific community. She presented the universities of Oxford and Cambridge with each of her publications and she ordered a Latin index to accompany the writings she presented to the University of Leyden, hoping thereby that her work would be utilized by European scholars.
In 1666, she published The Blazing World was a semi-scientific utopian romance, in which Cavendish declared herself "Margaret the First."
After much debate among the membership of the Royal Society of London, the same one Lizzy hopes to join in this chapter, Cavendish became the first woman invited to visit the prestigious institution, although the controversy had more to due with her notoriety than with her sex.
Her most enduring work, a biography of her husband. first published in 1656 , is regarded as the first major secular autobiography written by a woman.
The Duchess of Newcastle was quite a woman ahead of her time, but then so is Lizzy. Or is she behind her time? What do you think about Darcy's reaction to such a non-traditional lady? Let your comments and Royal Society applications!