October 29, 2014 – Hold on, because here we go. It's that "hunsford moment" for Anne ... and for Jane.
Chapter 33
The Darcy party arrived at Netherfield in the early afternoon. As predicted, Miss Bingley was all smiles and charm, eagerly welcoming her returning guests. Her brother was his normal amiable self. Understandably, he was happy to see his friends and full of joy over his impending marriage. Yet there was a difference in the man. He seemed more… settled than Darcy had ever seen his friend before. Anne commented on the change as well.
After a good night's rest, all four Darcys made their way to Longbourn. Anne knew her mother Bennet would want to see her granddaughter and Georgiana preferred to spend the morning with young women closer to her age than Miss Bingley. If anyone was surprised that Bingley declined to visit, no one said so. Sir John had left for Surrey several days before.
~~~/~~~
At the end of the first half hour of the visit, Mr. Bennet asked Anne and Darcy to join him in his study. Jane was summoned a few minutes later.
"Thank you for coming," Mr. Bennet said to his eldest child. "We were discussing the wedding plans. I just told your sister that you and your mother are going to Town next week to shop for your trousseau." Jane sat in the chair immediately to the right of her father.
"I remember when Mama and I went to London after Fitzwilliam and I became engaged," Anne reminisced. "I thought preparing for my Season and presentation at court was a chore. Mama spared no expense."
"My purchases will be nothing in comparison to yours," Jane said with a hint of defiance in her voice.
"I was not comparing our situations, Jane. I am sorry if it sounded that way to you." Anne tried to smooth over her now-obvious faux pas and then added, "Where will you stay?"
"My brother Gardiner has agreed to host Jane and Mrs. Bennet," Mr. Bennet answered. "His house is in Gracechurch Street and very convenient to the warehouses in Cheapside. His contacts with the other tradesmen will be very beneficial to the enterprise." He smiled and patted Jane's hand. "As much as I wish I could lavish Jane with finery as Lady Catherine evidently did with El… Anne, I cannot afford the high prices of Bond Street if I intend to give my daughter to Mr. Bingley with sufficient wedding clothes to placate my wife."
"A very prudent course of action, Mr. Bennet," Darcy agreed, amused. "No use spending Jane's dowry on her clothes when Bingley will provide for everything after they are wed. Knowing how quickly women's fashions change, in the future Mrs. Bingley will never stop shopping for her wardrobe."
Mr. Bennet laughed at Darcy's retort as Anne slapped his arm in mock outrage. Jane took advantage of the lull in conversation to bring up the subject she wanted resolved.
"Speaking of Mr. Bingley," Jane turned to face her sister, "I have a request to make of you, Anne."
"Yes?"
"I would like your permission to tell Charles you are my sister. I do not like keeping this secret from my betrothed."
"Hmmm, yes. Eventually he should be told," Anne mused. "He will be my brother, after all. But can this not wait?"
"Why? What reason is there to wait?"
"I am not ready for him to know," Anne stated simply.
Jane – quiet, kind Jane – was incensed. She stared at Anne for a few moments, willing her anger to calm. "Father, Mr. Darcy, I would like a few moments alone with my sister."
Mr. Bennet immediately stood to go. Darcy simply asked, "Anne?"
"We will be fine," she answered her husband. He nodded and then followed his father-in-law out of the room.
Several moments passed in silence after the door clicked shut. Anne waited for Jane to speak.
"It is just you and I – no parents or spouses to appease. Anne Darcy, I want a truthful answer from you. I need a truthful answer. Why do you want me to wait to tell my fiancé you are my true sister?"
Anne sighed. "Charles Bingley has always had a difficult time keeping anything from his sister. While he may promise to keep my secret, I honestly fear that without your constant presence to strengthen him, he will unthinkingly let it slip to Miss Bingley."
Jane thought for a minute about Anne's response. She knew Charles was not perfect. "While I admit you are correct in your estimation of Charles and Caroline's relationship, that does not explain why you fear Caroline knowing the truth about your Bennet heritage."
Anne tried to explain. "Caroline Bingley is going to London after your marriage to find a husband, you do know that?"
Jane nodded. "I do."
"She will, naturally, want every advantage in finding a good match. Every connection she can claim, either through friendship or family, which will elevate her standing as a worthy bride, will be exploited. Fitzwilliam and I are prepared, for Charles' sake, to allow her to use our name, as her brother's close friend and new cousin, in this mating game. If she knew she could claim to be a sister to me and my husband through her brother's marriage, instead of just a cousin, she would do so in a heartbeat. I know I would, if our situations were reversed. That is how things are done in our circle."
"I understand that," Jane said patiently. "What I do not understand is why you would be opposed to the truth being known." Jane closed her eyes, put her hands over her face and exhaled. Her shoulders slumped as if she had come to a decision as she dropped her hands back into her lap.
"I know you and I do not know each other well; I have been very guarded in revealing myself and that is my fault. I probably confuse you. I know my behavior to you has confused me. I am a person who looks for the good in people. I always have. My natural tendency is to give someone the benefit of the doubt, and I have tried to do that with you, but something deep inside me stops me from believing it is all a misunderstanding."
Jane stood up and paced back and forth for a little while. Eventually she stood looking out the window.
"I do not remember when you were born. I was too young. However, my earliest memories are of my mother weeping and my father holding her and telling her she must not give up the hope 'that one day we will find her and be whole again.' It took me several years to fit all the pieces in place. Of course he was talking about you. They tried to hide what happened from all of us but we each found out sooner or later. Too many people in the neighborhood knew to keep it from coming back to us."
Jane put her hand on the window. It was cool to her touch. "At first I thought you had just gone away, but as I grew older I came to understand that you had been kidnapped. That was when I learned there were evil people in the world as well as the good. You might say I lost my faith in the inherent goodness of every person.
"There were times I tried to justify your being taken as some couple needing a child of their own and you were to be that to them; it is my nature to do so. But then when I learned of such things as orphans and foundlings, I knew I could no longer live in the fantasy I had tried to create. If this mysterious childless couple wanted a child of their own, they did not have to take another's without permission.
"I still struggle with attempting to make the actions of others good, even when I know full well that no good was intended. As I said, it is my nature to believe the best." Jane turned back to look at her sister. Anne sat there in rapt attention, her finely made clothes in contrast to Jane's more provincial gown.
"Anne, I value my privacy just as much as you do and so I understand why you would be so hesitant to lay your concerns out for the world to see. But I cannot understand why you do not claim your birthright. That memory of Mama crying keeps coming back and I fear I know the real reason you do not want anyone else to know.
"If you are afraid there may be complications with your inheritance and your family if it is discovered you were born Elizabeth Bennet, I will be happy to keep your secret for as long as needed. However," and here Jane's countenance became hard as if it were carved from stone, "if you are ashamed of who you are, of your true family, I do not want you to come to my wedding. I cannot live with the hypocrisy of calling you cousin on the most important day of my life."
When she finished speaking the room was silent except for the ticking of their father's clock. Neither woman moved. Jane just stood with the window at her back, watching Anne's face. She had nothing left to say and Anne had no words in response. Anne was too shocked at what she had heard to form any thought worth voicing. She dropped her head; she could not even look at Jane.
Anne sat in deep contemplation, staring blindly at the floor. She had no sense of time; she did not even hear Jane leave or her husband come into the room to find her. It was his voice that brought her back.
"Anne?"
"What?"
"Are you unwell?"
Anne blinked several times as she regained her wits. "Forgive me, I am well." Concerned, Darcy kneeled in front of her and placed his hand on her knee.
"Dearest," he said tenderly, "what happened? Has Jane said something to offend you?"
"What? NO!... No. She just gave me something on which to meditate."
"Obviously, it worked. You were lost in your thoughts when I entered the room."
Anne leaned her head back and sighed. "I find I am suddenly fatigued. Will you have the carriage brought around and return me to Netherfield to rest?"
"I will do so at once." Before Darcy opened the door, he asked once more, "Are you certain Jane did not say something to upset you?"
"No, she was very kind – in her own unique way, I believe." Darcy frowned at her cryptic remark, but he had loved Anne long enough to know she would talk to him about what had happened only when she was ready. Until then, he would see to her comfort.
~~~/~~~
Charles Bingley was late coming to Longbourn. He had waited to see the Darcys off to London that morning. Anne surprised him by pressing a note into his hands and asking that he deliver it to Jane as soon as he could. He was happy to oblige. He hoped that its contents would lift Jane's spirits; she had not been her normal cheerful self the last few days. He contrived a way to have some privacy with her.
"Mrs. Darcy charged me to deliver this to you the moment we were alone. She said you should read it right away," he told Jane. Her hands trembled as she broke the seal. The letter consisted of three words.
Tell him everything.
AD
Something burst deep inside Jane Bennet. She fell against Charles Bingley sobbing.
~~~/~~~
Anne still had not confided with her husband when they arrived at Darcy House. Darcy knew she would not speak about it with Georgiana present in the carriage, but in the privacy of their rooms, he would ask. He was running out of patience; he wanted his lively wife back. He waited until they had gone to bed for the night. He pulled her body against his, thinking it might be easier to talk if she did not have to look at him.
"Will you now tell me what is bothering you?"
Anne sighed and gave his arms a small squeeze. "I have not been myself the last few days. My poor dear, no one has teased you." She tried to make light of it but she was not successful.
"I have been worried about you."
"I know, and I appreciate your forbearance." Anne hesitated a moment. "When Jane and I were alone, she asked me about my motivations for keeping my heritage hidden. She asked me if I was ashamed. Do you think I am? Answer me honestly."
Darcy weighed his response carefully. "I think you have had a very difficult time coming to terms with the knowledge of your past. You had no reason to doubt your position in society and now you do. I also think you are struggling with the fact that the people you considered to be your parents lied to you, and may have even done something illegal to make you their daughter."
"You have not answered the question," Anne said quietly.
"No, I have not," he replied fervently. "There is more to what you are experiencing than just being ashamed of your real family and I am trying to show you that. However, I do think Jane has touched on the heart of the matter. Ultimately, you cannot continue to explain the Bennets away as cousins. You do not dissemble well enough and you are asking too many people to do something they will come to see as outright lying, simply to protect your pride."
"Then you do think I am ashamed to be a Bennet?"
He would not spare her feelings, not after she asked him for honesty. "If you were not, it would only remain a matter of timing to announce it to the world."
Anne sighed, and not in anger as he feared she might. As she relaxed against him, Fitzwilliam realized how tense Anne had been throughout their discussion. "That is essentially what I had determined," she confessed. "I do not like this attitude in me, Fitzwilliam, but I cannot pretend to change it overnight."
"Acceptance is the first step to overcoming anything." He held her tightly to him. "What do you want me to do?"
"Remind me that they are my family when I forget. And we need to be in Town after Bingley weds Jane."
"Why do I have the feeling that this will involve public displays?"
"How else am I to introduce my sister to the ton?"
"A notice in the papers will not do?" he said without hope of a positive reply.
"No."
"What plans have you for us?" He was resigned to do her bidding if it would help her through this maze in which they found themselves.
"I am happy that you asked. We have much to arrange before we go to see Mama…"
~~~/~~~
Mrs. Gardiner informed her niece, Jane Bennet, that the carriage was ready for them. Jane and her mother had come to London to shop for her wedding clothes the week previous. They had purchased most of the items Mrs. Bennet deemed necessary for her eldest daughter's trousseau and Jane was ready to return to Longbourn to finish the preparations for her wedding – it was less than three weeks away now.
When Jane asked her mother if she was ready to go, Mrs. Bennet surprised her by saying that she had other errands to attend to that day and that Mrs. Gardiner would be more than enough of a chaperone for their outing. Jane, ever compliant, did not question the arrangement.
However, when the conveyance took them in a different direction than Jane had become accustomed to traveling during her time in Town, she asked where they were headed.
"Bond Street," the older lady replied with the hint of mischievousness.
"But Mama told me there was no need to go to Bond Street on this visit, that once I was safely married I could shop there, but not before. There is simply not enough money to do so. She was adamant on the point of knowing where the best warehouses were situated to supply the family's needs."
Mrs. Gardiner laughed. "My husband tells me that there was a time when she was not so watchful of how she spent her pin money. How times have changed all of us.
"To answer your question, I must tell you first that I had a visitor before you arrived."
"Yes?"
"Your sister came to see me, Jane."
"My sisters are at Longbourn… oh! You mean Anne Darcy."
"Yes, Mrs. Darcy. She is quite a formidable woman, Jane, and not one to be gainsaid."
"She came to see you… why? What could she want with you?"
"She is my niece, too."
"Of course."
Aunt Gardiner wondered what had occurred between Jane and Anne, but knew Jane would not offer an explanation. Mrs. Darcy had hinted only at an 'illuminating discussion' but that was all. It was clear, however, that the two sisters were not getting on as well as Mrs. Gardiner would have thought. Jane was never at odds with anyone.
"She came to ask my advice and to seek my assistance on an important matter." Mrs. Gardiner let Jane think on that statement for a moment before she continued. "She wished to know if you would accept a gift from her. She had correctly deduced that, while your parents have the best intentions, they could not afford to buy you everything you will need immediately after your marriage. Before she left Hertfordshire, she spoke to your father and asked if she could supplement your trousseau. He agreed, of course. Your father is not completely out of his wits. So today we will visit Mrs. Darcy's personal modiste."
"Oh…"
"And here we are!" Mrs. Gardiner announced several minutes later. The sign proclaimed they had arrived at the shop of Mrs. Langley, Modiste.
Once inside the establishment, Mrs. Gardiner gave her name and the two were immediately shown into a finely appointed private room. Moments later a woman slightly older than Jane's aunt came into the room and dismissed the attending servants.
"Good morning ladies, I am Mrs. Langley. Mrs. Gardiner, I presume?" The lady in question smiled and nodded. "And you must be Miss Bennet. Your sister told me you were a beautiful woman, but I am afraid her effusions did you an injustice, as you are even more lovely than I could have imagined."
At this Jane turned a becoming shade of pink, and then realized what the woman had said.
"Mrs. Darcy told you I was her sister?"
"Yes, of course. You might say that it is because she is your sister that I am here today. Lady Catherine was very… helpful in establishing me in my business. I have clothed the de Bourgh ladies since just before Mrs. Darcy was born."
Jane might not have grasped what the woman had revealed but Mrs. Gardiner did. A surprised look was answered by a subtle nod and both the older women understood the situation.
A knock at the door revealed a woman Jane did not recognize. She handed the proprietress a small box and then left the three women alone once again.
Mrs. Langley handed Jane a note. "Mrs. Darcy asked me to give you this when you arrived."
Jane,
Our father has agreed that you are in need of three special gowns and has granted my wish that you purchase them from Mrs. Langley. The bill will be sent to me.
When you and Mr. Bingley come to London for the Season, Fitzwilliam and I would like to hold a dinner party in your honor. One of your dresses will be for this occasion. We also anticipate an evening at the theatre and you must choose another for that outing. Your Mr. Bingley already knows about these two events. He would have told you but my husband asked him to allow me to reveal the surprise. The final gown is for a ball that will be held at Darcy House. Fitzwilliam has already told me he wants to secure the supper dance from you, but I informed him he shall have to apply for that himself. Our aunt has agreed to help you make the selections with assistance from Mrs. Langley. She has served our family well for one and twenty years. Finally, my housekeeper, Mrs. Thomas, will be delivering several pieces of jewelry to help aid you in the selection of your gowns. I ask only that you wear the pearls to the ball. The remaining necklaces are from the Darcy and de Bourgh collections and you may wear whichever ones you choose for the other evenings. Simply inform Mrs. Thomas of your selections so that I do not unknowingly pick those for myself.
I have given much thought to your words at Longbourn and I hope you take this gift in the respectful spirit in which it was intended.
AD
Jane was pleased, yet confused. Mrs. Langley brought out the pieces Anne had sent.
"Ah yes, very appropriate for your coloring. Your sister has a wonderful eye for these things." She then cleared her throat. "Before I call my assistants in, I must tell you that in this shop, only I know Mrs. Darcy is your sister. The others have been told you are her cousin. Mrs. Darcy specifically asked me to tell them such."
Jane frowned. "Miss Bennet, your sister was very adamant on this point. Trust her judgment. When news of your connection becomes known, the curiosity about you will be extreme. Delay that until after your wedding."
"Listen to her, dear," Mrs. Gardiner urged. "London is not Meryton." Jane slowly nodded her acquiescence. Her aunt smiled and urged Jane to examine the jewels Anne had sent. They were exquisite. Jane tried not to think about the enormous wealth they represented.
Mrs. Langley called in her helpers. There was work to be done and the owner would personally oversee the entire process. Only the best was acceptable for the family of her best clients.
Let the healing begin.
Thoughts?