Author's note: Apologies for the unusual delay in posting this update. This story started as a one-shot and then a two-shot, and only turned into a longer story in response to reader demand. As a result, I have set out without a firm story line in mind from the outset. The out of character Mr Bennet has taken me down an unexpected path, and it has taken a while to work out where to go next. Thank you for all the reviews and encouragement to continue. I will definitely finish this story, and hope you will stick with it. We are definitely in the home stretch now. elag
Chapter 24
News of Jane's engagement to Charles Bingley was greeted with joy by her sisters, and with delirious delight by her mother. Mrs Bennet's effusions could not be restrained for nigh on an hour: she had much to say on the merits of Mr Bingley, how she had always known it would be so, that her Jane was not so beautiful for nothing, and how delightful it would be to have her eldest daughter settled at Netherfield Park.
Eventually, Jane managed to calm her sufficiently to break the second half of her news - that she and Bingley intended to marry the following week, in a joint ceremony with Elizabeth and Lydia. Mrs Bennet was at first horrified to be deprived of yet another opportunity to revel in all the glory of a long engagement period, but between Jane's serene insistence on her plans, Bingley's flattery about his future mother's fame as a hostess, and how he could trust no-one else with such a task but was confident she would rise to the challenge, and Lydia's excited observation that a triple wedding would be quite the most exciting thing that had ever happened in Meryton, she was at last reconciled to the idea.
Her mind turned to the necessary plans, and she realised that while she could accomplish the invitations, decorations, wedding breakfasts and provision of accommodation for visiting relatives in time, she needed Mr Bennet to release some funds to ensure the necessary purchases could be made. As well as engaging Meryton's dressmaker to provide Jane with her wedding clothes and refresh gowns for Mary, Kitty and herself, she would have to lay out considerable expenditure with a variety of merchants to ensure sufficient provisions at such short notice for an event which was sure to be talked of for years to come. While some could be done on credit, she would feel more comfortable with her husband's authority for the expense. She quickly penned a note to Mr Bennet, informing him that there were now to be three of his daughters married the following week, and insisting on his prompt return from town.
That gentleman was shocked to receive such a missive. He had blessed Lydia's engagement, but washed his hands of the ungrateful Elizabeth, bundling her off to Longbourn to give her time to reconsider her future. The return to her own place should have reminded her of the gap between herself and the high and mighty Mr Darcy, and of the simple pleasures of a quiet life at home. He had no idea that she would proceed with her foolish plan to marry. Now to learn that she was not only unrepentant, but planned to marry within a fortnight, horrified him. He determined to rush home, not to satisfy his wife's foolish enthusiasm for weddings, but to discover how he could act to prevent Elizabeth's marriage. Surely there was something that could be done. He would speak to his brother Phillips, the solicitor. He would speak to the vicar. Someone would know how to stop this travesty of a marriage. Thomas Bennet informed Mr Gardiner that he was returning to Longbourn, and despite his usually indolent manner, was packed and on the road in less than an hour. His hosts were not sorry to see the back of him.
By the same mail, Mr and Mrs Gardiner had received a letter from Lizzy, sharing Jane's good news and inviting them to attend the wedding, now planned for Saturday week. Having seen the thundercloud on Mr Bennet's face, they sent an answer by express, both accepting the invitation with pleasure, and alerting Lizzy to the imminent arrival of her father.
Thus the evening of her second day at home saw the arrival of Mr Bennet. Never a good traveller he was most seriously put out to have had to travel in haste due to his daughter's stubborn refusal to understand what was best for her, only to find that instead of waiting for him at home, his family were dining at Lucas Lodge, and would not be home until late.
Indeed, the invitation had been very much a last-minute affair: on receiving the Gardiners' message, Elizabeth had persuaded Maria Lucas to suggest to her mother that a few extra guests to a family dinner would be just the thing - after all, there would be so few opportunities to get the full story of their engagements directly from the Bennet girls since they would be married so very soon... Lady Lucas had seen the merit of being the first in the neighbourhood to host all three engaged sisters to dinner - it would surely provide enough inside information to keep her in social engagements for many weeks to come.
Although she would normally shy away from being the topic of gossip, Elizabeth was happy enough to please Lady Lucas, for it was inevitable that the concurrent engagement of three sisters must give rise to endless speculation and it would be better to manage the rumours through a friendly neighbour than to wait and see how outrageously inventive the good folk of Meryton could be without any actual facts to build their theories upon. More importantly, however, she wanted to avoid her father. Let him come home to an empty house. He would only cause trouble, and the less time he had in which to do so, the better.
So to Lucas Lodge they had gone. The addition of Mr Bingley to the party ensured everyone had a pleasant evening. Between Sir William Lucas's irrepressible tendency to compliment everyone in his company and Charles Bingley's cheerful demeanour, conversation was lively and Lydia, Elizabeth and Jane's explanations for their respective fiancés wishing a short engagement were accepted without even a raised eyebrow. After dinner, the ladies agreed to exhibit, and it was very late before the Bennet's eventually made their way home, Mrs Bennet remembering at nearly midnight that she had a great deal to accomplish in the next few days, and could not indulge in late evenings!
By the time they arrived home, Mr Bennet had given up waiting and had retired to his chambers. The unpleasantness he was sure to visit upon his second daughter was delayed until morning.
Elizabeth rose early, determined to take at least a short walk before having to deal with either her father's hostility or her mother's enthusiasm. She tiptoed past her mother's bedroom door and chose a way out of the house that avoided her father's book room entirely. She sighed a little to think of her past enjoyment of his company in that room: how many times she had called in on him on her way out of the house to exchange some witty observation or bask in his praise that she was so unlike her mother; how often she had sought the peaceful solitude of his domain in preference to spending time with her sisters; how innocently she had believed his affection for her was true, and if not exactly selfless, at least based on more than her utility as a companion to him.
Well, she assured herself, she would not pine for her lost illusions. It was better to know the truth, however unpleasant it was. She would regret the father she had thought she knew, but she would not waste more emotion on the man she had discovered in the past week. He did not choose to act the father, so she would not own him as one.
No sooner had Elizabeth formed this resolution than she found tears springing to her eyes. She walked briskly to a sheltered part of the garden where she was sure she could not be seen from her father's windows before she gave free rein to the grief that welled up within her, and for near half an hour she wept bitterly. She had loved and trusted Thomas Bennet. She had grown to womanhood under his guidance and direction. Her education had been at his hand. Her understanding of her family, her neighbours, Meryton's merchants and tradesfolk, and everyone else she encountered in her first twenty years of life, was shaped by his jaundiced view. If Thomas Bennet was a fraud, what did that make Elizabeth Bennet?
She had learned through bitter experience that she was not the infallible judge of character that she had thought herself. She had misjudged Darcy and Wickham so badly that she had trusted the rogue and spurned the honourable man. It was only though wild chance that her path had crossed again with Darcy's, and that he had accepted her apology and they had been able to start again. All this had happened far from her father's notice, and she wondered, had Thomas Bennet known of the events at Hunsford and Pemberley at the time, would his humorous reflections on the matter have continued to guide her towards mistrust and misjudgement? It was only when she began to keep secrets from her father that Elizabeth had been able to think things through thoroughly and reach her own conclusions. And those conclusions had caused her to question her own attitude towards others - to begin to truly know herself.
Thinking about this, Elizabeth realised that she had already begun to grow beyond the role her father had designed her for before ever she set off on her journey with the Gardiners. Her break with Thomas Bennet would have happened sooner or later whether or not she had met Darcy again: she could no longer remain her father's acolyte once she began to think badly of the way he made sport of every situation.
Giving herself a shake and a few deep breaths, she turned back to the house. A triple wedding was a lot to ask of any mother, and that it was to be held so quickly only made matters worse. However much she might prefer to ignore her mother's demands, it was only fair that she carry her share of the load. She entered the breakfast room to find she and Mary were the only ones present, ate a quick and pleasant breakfast in her sister's company, and repaired to the front parlour where a pile of invitation letters awaited copying.
Elizabeth set to work, attempting to avoid ink stains and not to worry about what her father would say when he eventually entered the room.
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