Mr. Bennet arrives in Hunsford.

Chapter 21: Hunsford reunion

London, Saturday the eighth

"Mr. Bennet?" William Collins asked open mouthed and surprise stricken while opening the door to the parsonage.

He had seen a large troop of cavalry coming up the road and he had hushed his wife and their guests away to their rooms.

In such dreadful times, one never knew.

"In flesh and blood and hurting rump, Mr. Collins." answered his cousin. "Sorry for the disappointment but if you were awaiting my ghost with good news, it will be for another time, hopefully in a far away future."

William Collins stood back and invited his cousin to walk in.

"Who are these gentlemen?" asked he while looking at the cavalrymen who still stood in front of his house.

"My escort" answered Mr. Bennet. "One of your patroness' guests has sent for me and has felt free to provide an escort for the dangerous journey... I do believe they would like to stay in the general vicinity. Could you please see with them how they could store horses and equipment?"

Mr. Collins' face lost all trace of color.

"Must I?"

Mr Bennet looked at him with a knowing smile.

"I'm quite sure they won't take 'no' for an answer, Mr. Collins. But I'm also quite sure they would be perfectly happy with your barn, stable and shed. They prefer being outside the main house. They said it's a matter of security."

His cousin gulped loudly and took a deep breath while nodding nervously his head.

"Then, I'll better hurry. They won't like it if I make them lose more time..."

He slipped out of the parsonage and soon closed the door behind him.

As soon as Mr. Collins was outside, Mr. Bennet went to the stairs and called out loud: "Where's my womenfolk? Where are they hiding?"

He knew that they would be listening through slits and ajar doors...

"Papa?" said a well known voice. "Is that you?"

He answered with a smile in the voice.

"If you are Jane Bennet, as I suspect, than you're right in your supposition..."

Ten seconds later he was catching his flying daughter in his arms and suffocating under her heartfelt hugs.

"Dear, dear" said he between kisses. "Could there be a slight possibility that you were missing me..."

"Of course we were missing you," said Mary joining them and taking the place of her sister in the arms of their father. "We could have died if Jane's d'Arcy hadn't saved us all..."

"He is not my d'Arcy" countered Jane.

"Of course he is," interrupted Mary. "Papa, he is courting her like mad..."

"He's not..."

"Yes, he is!"

"He did not court me! We spoke!"

"He carried you all the way to..."

"It's none of your bus..."

Mr. Bennet raised both hands.

"Girls, please! I'm very grateful for this reunion but your squabbling was not a part of what I missed most about you! Please, do me the favor of giving me a few minutes peace before you go on bickering..."

They stopped immediately and he was quite satisfied with the opportunity to hug them in silence.

"I had the hope to find my third missing daughter at this address. Could it be that some of the information I got was false?"

"She's at in town with Lady Anne," answered Mary. "She couldn't stand my frocks, so they went shopping for a new wardrobe. Lydia does always criticize my dresses, papa. She says they are ugly..."

"Perhaps not ugly but rather plain, dear. I'm sure you would be blossoming in better outfits than those you choose usually. I'm sure you would be as beautiful as your sisters if you would choose to give your appearance a few thoughts..."

"Vanity is a sin, papa!"

"Lying is a worst one, dear, and I truly believe that showing you as plain as possible and hiding all your beauty behind plain dresses is a greater sin than vanity..."

He took hold of his daughter's hand and smiled at her.

"And now that your sister is going to marry this Darcy guy, I'm sure you..."

"I'm not marrying him!" interrupted Jane. "I don't know who slandered me, it's all false..."

Mr. Bennet, not really accustomed to such outbursts from his eldest, looked at her, a smile on his lips and mischief in his eyes.

"Of course you're not, dear. It's Lizzie who's going to marry Mr. Darcy!"

Surprise took hold of Jane. Lizzie? With Darcy? What wonderful news! So he had found the strength to repeat his proposal? That shew courage and real love! She was...

Her father's smile vanished.

"God, Jane, don't tell me you were hoping to marry Mr. Darcy?"

The last sentence uttered by her father finally stroke home.

Darcy and her?

"Of course not, papa..."

He didn't let her speak to the end of her sentence.

"It would be terrible if the happiness of one of my daughters was the reason for the sadness of the other..."

Mary burst out a laugh.

"She doesn't mean the Derby Darcy, papa! She means the other one! The French d'Arcy! The one who saved our life..."

Jane tried to shut her sister up with a dark ugly glance, but Mary was not willing to let go.

"He lives at Rosings Manor and at the second Jane walks out of the parsonage he is at her side..."

"That's not true, papa..."

Mr Bennet decided that his little teasing had to come to an end.

He went to Jane and hugged her.

"Don't fret, dear," whispered he. "I'm ready to hear you out the moment you choose to."

He looked at Mary.

"For the moment, please do not go on as you were. I'm willing to listen to everyone but I want it to be in good order and at a time where I have had the possibility to have a few minutes rest..."

These words were the line Charlotte Collins needed to come out of her concealment.

Mr. Collins saw her looking at him from the top of the stairs.

He kissed Jane a last time and stepped back before bowing.

"Mrs. Collins, sorry for coming without being invited. I hope I do not intrude?"

"Of course not, Mr. Bennet. After having been your guest for so many years, I'm quite happy to be able, at last, to greet you as my guest in my humble abode."

She curtsied and they exchanged smiles.

He could see that Charlotte had that inner glowing featuring a woman in her own environment. Marriage, even to a fool, was surely becoming her.

"I could not but overhear some of your comments... You spoke about Lizzie and Mr. Darcy? Do we really speak of the same Mr. Darcy who spoke so harshly about Lizzie?"

Mr. Bennet nodded.

"We do, dear Charlotte, we do! I don't know what really happened but it seems that Mr. Darcy after a first failed attempt to secure her hand is about to give my daughter another chance to rebuke him. He wrote me, not really to ask for my permission but to let me know that he was willing to give it another try."

Charlotte could only laugh.

"I doubt he would have asked you if he had had any doubt about the answer... I do believe he must be quite sure of his chances to get a favorable answer..."

"So do I, dear Charlotte and I'm quite impatient to learn the details of my daughter's shift in opinion."

He risked a glance at his eldest daughter and smiled.

"But I do believe there are a few problems I have to solve before having the opportunity to speak with Elizabeth."

"I would not speak of problems Mr. Bennet. Some decisions are harder to take as others even if you know quite well that you have, all things considered, no choice..."

Jane made a face. She would have to speak with her father and soon.

Before everybody else gave him her opinion.

Lydia was back and had been delighted to see their father.

All had the opportunity to speak about everything but --at Mr. Bennet's express requirement-- Jane's 'affair' with the French invader.

Finally, after lunch, Mr. Bennet took the opportunity to go with his eldest daughter for a walk out of the parsonage.

"Well, dear, I know you were never as lively as Lizzie, Lydia or Kittie but now you seem to me more than sedated. Wouldn't it be better to let me know what's bothering you?"

She looked at her father, tried a shy little smile and took a deep breath.

"I don't know, papa! I really don't know! He has taken a real place in my life and I'm unable t decide if I like or hate the prospect."

He smothered a smile. She would not understand why he found it so amusing. He had not asked about 'him' but it was 'him' she spoke of. More than revealing...

She shook her head.

"Of course he's having an impact on me. If I close my eyes, he's there and the more I try to repel his image, the more I'm thinking of him. And the result is evident, I'm unable not to think about him!"

He let his arm pull her towards him and, as in far away times, when she was younger and not at all aware of the role she would have to play for the family, her head found his shoulder.

"Dear, how could it be different? You are a but a child! Your mother and I tried our best to prepare you and your sisters to just such situations but it is plain that we failed..."

He took his daughter's head with both his hands and looked her in the eyes.

"I know that I've not been the best of fathers..."

With a finger on her lips, he smashed her chance to protest.

"Don't say a word in my defense. You know it's true and it is especially true for you..."

She tried, once more, to protest but he prevented her.

"Don't take me wrong. I never did anything to harm you or your sisters. But neither did I what I should have done to give you and them a chance to find a suitable husband. I was too lazy or too deluded to notice that I was destroying your future happiness. I preferred my little studies and pleasures and so I did not save enough money for you to become a suitable party..."

He breathed out.

"And, I must confess it, that your character was, for me, more of an inducement not to take my share of the burden the entail put on our all heads. You were so willing to accept the role of the sacrificial lamb, to offer yourself up in order to give your sisters so much more freedom."

He smiled at her. She knew he was saying the truth. She knew that she had accepted, a long time ago, the role of the daughter who would have to sacrifice herself in order to save the rest of the family.

"And it seems God is not going to punish me for being an egoistic old hedonist. It seems that Lizzie has taken up the burden I dropped so long ago. She's the one who will save our family and with her marriage she frees you also from that same charge."

He smiled at his daughter who looked at him with sad eyes.

"You're free, Jane! You're, for the first time in your life, free. Free to choose the man you prefer, free to forget us... And if you are not convinced yet, I'm going to force you to be free. Think of yourself, dear, think of what you desire and no longer take into account what could have reverse effects on me, your mother or your sisters..."

He could not help but let a teasing smile appear on his lips.

"And do not hesitate to ask for advice. I really do have a great experience in egoistic and self centered behavior."

That got him a smile and he could not help but hug his daughter and let her put her head against his chest. It was the first time in years and he felt as if, deep within him, something healed.

"I give you the right to do as you please, Jane. The right to be happy and the right to forget about us. And, even if it's sure that there will be bickering, cries and howls, in the end, they will all support your choice!"

He could not help but kiss her on that wonderful hair of hers. She had it the first day he could hold her in his arms. And he remembered that extraordinary fragrance she had as a tiny little baby. Somewhere under the rose and lilac water she used as a perfume he could still smell it.

Twenty two years had passed but still she was the same, still she was that perfect little creature whose blue eyes were so full of love and wisdom that he could forget old grudges and recent failures.

She was so wonderful, so perfect... How could so imperfect a couple give life to such a marvel?

For the first time in months he had been able to look at his relationship with his wife with detachment. And he was, finally, able to forgive her...

And the second he found in himself the strength to forgive, he knew that there was nothing to forgive.

That the fault was all his!

His wife was no more responsible than him for what they had done. She was even less responsible than him. He could have fled but his so called honor forced him to marry her.

But he married her with a loathsome hatred in his heart and he had made her the scape goat for all that went bad in his life.

Until she gifted him with the most marvelous creature in the world.

The next months were the happiest months of his life and now he realized that he had all but forgotten them!

He could not believe that he had it within himself to be such a selfish person!

Tears run down his cheeks wetting her hair...

She looked up and was surprised to see her father crying.

Never had she seen him cry.

Never had she seen a grown man cry...

Grown men don't cry!

They looked at each other for a long moment.

"You gave me happiness and I let you down, dear. Always you have looked up at me with trust in your eyes, and I have let you down, not once but every time... Every time..."

He went on for minutes and she said nothing to deny what he was saying.

She believed in his guilt but she knew that he had never let her down. He was there for her and for the rest of the family. In his strange and ironical ways but he never was indifferent. Even behind his sarcasms and teasing they could feel his love and his thoughtfulness.

And so she had taken the decisions that needed to be taken.

Her family was in need! Some one would have to save her family.

Very early she had known that her mother couldn't and her father wouldn't.

What else could she have done? Stay away and pray?

No she had taken her responsibilities and she had never regretted following that particular road.

Her father came out of his sorrow.

"Bingley would have been a perfect mate for you. You could have helped him as you have always helped everybody else. This d'Arcy, for all I can judge, would, on the other hand, probably be much better for you than Charles. He could be one of those few who could be able to help you, dear. And, if I have grasped all the allusions of your sisters and Maria, he already saved your life. A good beginning for a relationship if you do not confuse your feelings for him. Letting gratitude blur your understanding would be dangerous..."

She shook her head.

"He never let it come up," said she. "He immediately shew me that he was... that he had feelings towards me. He never played the cord of gratitude. Not with our rescue and not with Mr. Collins or Lydia's release. He shocked me into such a defensive state that I was unable to let gratitude overpower my feelings. I'm yet unable to accept what I fear I feel for him, but, what ever it is, I'm sure it was not triggered by gratitude."

Edward Bennet smiled at her. His Jane had never lied to anybody --not in any believable manner-- and he was very happy that she didn't try to hide the truth from herself.

"How are your feelings toward Mr. Bingley, dear?"

Jane could not help but pout.

"I don't know anymore. When I try to get rid of d'Arcy's image, it's him I summon and he is the only one who stands a chance to resist to His overwhelming presence. But it's not his image who comes spontaneously to my mind. It's d'Arcy's!"

Mr. Bennet reminded himself of the conversation he have had with Mrs. Charlotte Collins. She, no doubt on that point, was a restless supporter of a relationship between Jane and this Frenchman. Her arguments were sound but could, probably, not be understood by his eldest.

"Would you be so reluctant if he would be anything else but the leader of the invading army?"

She looked at him and forced herself to look at her father's question with honesty.

What would have happened if he had 'only' been Lady Catherine's guest? What if he had not, during this awful dinner, bantered about his army, his victory, his deportation policy?

What would she have done the day after his rescue if she had only encountered him as the enthusiastic suitor he was?

She would have been pleased...

She would have been flattered!

She would have welcomed his courting with a real pleasure.

Because, she couldn't deny it anymore, he was a dashing man with undeniable features which put him apart from everybody else she knew.

Even Lizzie's Darcy, tall and handsome and haughty Darcy, had not been as striking in his behavior as he. And he certainly had not had that effect on her.

But his speech that awful evening, what looked to her like his boasting, had changed everything.

If he had played the charming host he could have won her over...

The truth hit her like a wall.

He had done it on purpose.

To ascertain that she knew everything about him, that there could never be any bad surprise that could destroy their mutual trust and their relations.

He had preferred risking her refusal rather than building a relation on false...

There's no relation!

She saw surprise in her father's eyes. Her reaction must have been stronger than she thought.

"I cannot speak of a relationship between us, papa. He looks after me, comes to see me and speaks to me. He gave me no false pretense about his feelings. We did know each other for less than five minutes he was already displaying his feelings for me in a rather unseemly manner..."

A smile blossomed on her face.

"I cannot deny I liked it, then. Here was a man who had just saved my life in a most effective manner and this same man was courting me with admiring eyes and a passion I never ever have encountered before. Yes, I liked it then and each time he came toward me to..." She could no longer deny the truth of the word... "Court me, I was quite satisfied to be the object of his courting..."

Edward Bennet came nearer and took, once more, his marvelous little girl in his arms.

"Nothing and nobody will force a choice on you, dear. Please do not think about us or England or the Crown when the moment of your choice comes upon you. Think only of you and of what you need. What you feel you need!"

He kissed her and bend back to be able to look in her eyes.

"And do not forget that our silly British society sees women as perfectly dumb tools. If you choose to marry d'Arcy, I will be the first to announce to the whole world that I pushed you into his arms!"

Once more he smiled at her and kissed her.

"And I'm sure, they would find my reckless move a most intelligent one... You could make me the most admired man of whole Great Britain, dear. For the first time in all my life, I could be seen as having done something useful for my family. My daughters could, at last, be proud of me!"

That got him a hug and a kiss.

And he knew it had been worth it.

Next chapter: Hunsford Parrish

Sunday