A Plethora of Peers

by sysa22

Mr Bennet married the daughter of an Earl with whom he had 3 children – twins James and Elizabeth, as well as Mary. His wife and her only brother die. Soon after, Bennet's older brother marries Fanny Gardiner just before his death. When Fanny delivers twin girls, Kitty and Lydia, Bennet inherits Longbourn. To keep James safe from Collins, Bennet's son is raised by his grandparents.

10. Chapter 10 - Visit to Longbourn

~~PoP~~

Visit to Longbourn

As the atmosphere was strained at Netherfield, Bingley and Darcy spent much of their time inspecting the estate, while Mrs Hurst started to explain the realities of being the mistress of an estate to her sister.

Within two days, Miss Bingley lost a quarter of her next quarter's allowance. Not to be thwarted, she announced to her brother, 'I do not need my allowance. I shall simply charge all my purchases to you.'

Bingley gave her a pitying look. 'I will simply return your purchases and if that is not possible, I will sell as much of your belongings as necessary to cover my outlays. Heed me well, Caroline, you will learn not only how to perform the duties of the mistress of an estate, but you will also learn to live within your means… not mine.'

While Caroline seethed, she was forced to do so quietly, and she made at least a show of paying attention to her sister.

A few days later, the gentlemen sought escape and decided to take Mr Bennet up on his offer to visit Longbourn.

As it happened, Elizabeth and Mary were at home, practicing a duet on the pianoforte. Mr and Mrs Bennet were enjoying a quiet conversation, so as not to disturb the performers, whom they could see through the open door of the adjoining music room.

When the visitors were shown into the parlour, Bennet introduced his mother and the gentlemen, and after they exchanged the customary greetings the gentlemen gladly accepted the offered refreshments.

Mary grimaced when she heard Bingley's voice, but on seeing Elizabeth's answering smirk, the sisters stopped playing and politely joined the party.

Bingley, predictably, chose a chair near Mary and immediately engaged her in conversation.

Darcy was pleased to sit between Bennet and Elizabeth.

'I hope that you have had a chance to rest and recover from your strenuous labours, Mr Darcy,' Elizabeth asked in a half teasing voice.

'Indeed, Miss Bennet. You will find me much improved today. While I have spent some time instructing my friend on his duties, we also took time to ride the estate. That is an occupation which always restores my spirits.'

'I gather that you enjoy the outdoors?'

'Indeed. It is always a pleasure to breathe the clean air of the country rather than the miasma of town,' Darcy replied with a smile. He turned to Bennet. 'While we were out riding, I did notice that your estate is looking exceptionally well run. Do you employ a steward to assist with the work?'

Bennet hesitated for a moment but decided he would see how Darcy would react when he said, 'I do employ a steward, but most of the credit goes to Lizzy. She gives the orders around here. At least as far as the estate is concerned.'

'Your daughter?' Darcy asked with a confounded expression, glancing between father and daughter. 'How? Why?'

Since Darcy did not immediately object to the idea, only asking for clarification, Bennet grinned and explained. 'I was a second son who had no interest in estate management. When I inherited, I learnt the job, but I always hated it. Lizzy on the other hand loves it and is very good at it. I confess that I trained her from an early age to take over.'

Darcy nodded thoughtfully. 'While that is unconventional, I can see that it worked very well for you.' He turned to Elizabeth. 'Miss Bennet, I have no wish to sound patronising, but I hope you will allow me to compliment you on your achievement.'

'Thank you, Mr Darcy. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking after Longbourn,' Elizabeth replied with a gracious inclination of her head. She was pleased with the compliment and the ready acceptance… after the first shock had worn off.

Seeing that he was in knowledgeable company, Darcy enjoyed a few minutes discussion of estate matters as they pertained to Hertfordshire.

When he finished his coffee, he turned to Bennet and changed the subject. 'I confess that our visit today had an ulterior motive on my part. Apart from the pleasant company,' he bowed his head towards Elizabeth, 'I was hoping to peruse your library, Mr Bennet.'

Bennet chuckled. 'I confess that I was wondering how long it would be before you could no longer resist the lure of books.'

~PoP~

Bennet invited Darcy to come to the library and asked Elizabeth to join them, leaving Mrs Bennet to chaperone Bingley and Mary.

Darcy was impressed when he stepped into the room where all the walls were covered with bookcases. The only gaps were the door, the window and the fireplace. Most cases had open shelves which were filled to capacity, but there was one breakfront case where the glass doors protected the contents.

Bennet offered, 'Feel free to peruse to your heart's content and do not worry about being polite to your host. Lizzy will keep me amused with a game of chess.'

After learning that Elizabeth was running the estate, Darcy was no longer surprised that she knew how to play chess. Bennet obviously had no son and must have made up for that lack by teaching his daughter. It was not an unheard-of situation.

Taking Bennet at his word, Darcy indulged in a leisurely perusal of the shelves.

After a while he asked, 'Are you particularly religious, Mr Bennet? I notice that you have more than one bible.'

Bennet looked up from the chess board and answered, 'Not exceptionally, no. I simply love books and this particular bible is a favourite of mine.'

Bennet rose to open the glass doors of the cabinet and he carefully lifted out the book, which he placed on his desk. Darcy noticed a bookmark, and curious in which passage his host would be so interested that he had marked it, he indicated the bible and asked, 'May I?'

Bennet smirked and nodded, 'Go ahead.' He stood aside and watched as Darcy carefully opened the book at the marked page. Darcy became even more curious why Bennet would have marked the ten commandments which every Christian must know by heart.

Bennet perceived the puzzled expression and with a wide grin prompted, 'Go ahead and read…'

Darcy did so in a perfunctory fashion, until something struck him as wrong. He read the commandments again, this time more carefully and gasped. When he did so, Bennet chuckled.

The sound caught Darcy's attention and he raised his eyes to his host. 'How did you get this bible. I have heard of them, but I thought the church had destroyed them.'

'They tried, but they missed about a dozen or so. This one was bequeathed to me by my professor at Oxford who knew that I would keep it safe.' Bennet grinned at Darcy and elaborated. 'This is indeed one of the King James' bibles from 1631 which is commonly referred to as the adulterer's bible because of the misprint which omitted the word not from Thou shalt not commit adultery.'

Darcy returned the grin as he shook his head in wonder. 'You have a rare treasure which any bibliophile would envy. I certainly am envious. While I disagree with the misprint… it is amusing.'

Darcy looked back at the bible and said, 'If you ever wish to sell this book, I would be happy to purchase it, and keep it safe in my collection.'

'I will keep that in mind. But for the moment, I prefer to enjoy it myself.'

Darcy glanced towards the table where the chess board was set up. 'My apologies for interrupting your game.'

Bennet gave him a rueful smile, 'No matter. I was about to be defeated. You saved me from that embarrassment.'

'I am pleased to have been of service,' Darcy said with a bow and an almost smile.

Bennet and Elizabeth abandoned their game for a discussion of books with Darcy. Their enjoyable occupation was cut short when they remembered their companions in the parlour.

Darcy happened to glance up at the chime of the mantle clock and exclaimed, 'Heavens, where has the time gone? I am afraid the others must feel that we have abandoned them.'

'By all means, let us rescue Mary,' quipped Elizabeth with a grin which quickly turned to embarrassment.

When she coloured at her thoughtless remark, Darcy considered her words more seriously. 'Pardon me for asking, I know this is most improper, but should I try to curb my friend's attention to Miss Mary?'

Bennet and Elizabeth exchanged glances. 'I believe that my sister would be most grateful,' Elizabeth confessed.

'I did mention to your friend that my daughters consider themselves to be too young to marry,' Bennet added in explanation.

'I shall see to it that my friend remembers,' Darcy answered. He thought that the Bingley siblings had more in common with each other than they might expect. He remembered that Bingley had mentioned that last snippet of information, but he was ignoring it in the same way as Miss Bingley had always ignored Darcy's disinterest.

~PoP~

In the parlour Bingley was exerting all his charm on Miss Mary, oblivious to the fact that after the first quarter hour she was only tolerating his company.

The problem was not that Mary disliked Bingley as a person, but she disliked his focused attention. Unfortunately, her upbringing had conditioned her to be polite. She therefore listened to him enthusing about all those wonderful people he had met at various functions in London, none of whom Mary knew. She did not care that Miss Carter was quite charming and an expert at netting purses, nor was she interest that Mr Martel was a crack-shot and could bag more birds than anyone else.

Instead of shooting birds or Mr Bingley, Mary shot desperate glances at Mrs Bennet, but her grandmother seemed to have determined that Mary needed to learn how to get herself out of such uncomfortable situations.

In an effort to at least change the conversation to something to which she could contribute, Mary asked, 'How do like living at Netherfield?'

'Oh, I like Netherfield a great deal. I am most grateful to Darcy who recommended that I should lease an estate to discover whether I like the life of a landed gentleman before I committed to a purchase.'

'Do you find the work required to administer an estate to your liking then?'

'I hardly consider it work to ride around the estate to look for potential problems and then advising the steward to fix it,' Bingley enthused.

'You are fortunate that the harvest had already been brought in just before your arrival, otherwise you would have discovered yourself pitching in to finish it before the storm hit,' Mary said with some asperity as she remembered that day when everyone at Netherfield and Longbourn lent a hand to ensure the last loads of grain were undercover before the rain started.

'What do you mean? Is it not the definition of a gentleman that he never does anything to dirty his hands? I was given the impression that all a landowner does is to collect rents and his tenants and servants do all the work.'

'While that is true the majority of the time, a good landowner must be prepared to help out in an emergency,' Mary explained in a gentler tone of voice since it was obvious that Mr Bingley was completely unaware of country matters.

'I guess that Darcy has not yet had time to go into that kind of detail,' Bingley replied thoughtfully. 'You seem to be very knowledgeable about those matters.'

'I grew up on an estate and we have had the benefit of our grandmother to teach us.'

For the first time in their conversation Bingley realised that he had ignored Mrs Bennet and his ears turned an interesting shade of scarlet. My apologies, Mrs Bennet, I should have paid more attention…'

'Rest easy, Mr Bingley. I quite understand that young men prefer to converse with young women and it gave me the opportunity to work on this dress for one of our tenant children,' Mrs Bennet replied with a smile and held up the mentioned garment.

'You sew for tenant children?'

'Yes, Mr Bingley, it is one of the duties of the mistress of an estate. Fortunately for me, my granddaughters have taken on many of the more active duties, such as visiting the tenants, which allows me the leisure to indulge in the tasks I enjoy.'

Bingley looked thoughtfully between the ladies. 'My older sister is currently teaching my younger sister the duties of the estate mistress. But I have the feeling that even she is not completely familiar with the complete range of duties.' He hesitated a moment. 'Perhaps you ladies would be prepared to advise my sisters…'

Mrs Bennet smiled at Bingley's hesitation. 'If your sisters wish to learn about how things are done in the country, or at least in our community, I, or perhaps my granddaughters, would be pleased to assist.'

Bingley gave her a relieved smile. 'I will pass on your generous offer.'

They continued discussing life in the country, but it was not too long before the others returned from the library.

~PoP~

After another round of tea and coffee, the gentlemen from Netherfield made their departure.

As soon as they were out of earshot of Longbourn, Bingley regaled Darcy with the many excellent qualities of Miss Mary, finishing with, 'She is all that is charming, and I believe that Mrs Bennet approves of my interest.'

'What gives you that idea?'

'When I mentioned that Louisa is attempting to teach Caroline about the duties of the mistress of an estate, she offered the services of Miss Mary.'

Because of Elizabeth's unwitting comment, Darcy was dubious and asked, 'Are you quite certain? What exactly did Mrs Bennet say?'

Bingley scrunched up his face as he recalled the exact words which he repeated to Darcy.

'So, Mrs Bennet said granddaughters but did not specify Miss Mary. She could just as easily have meant Miss Bennet and she even mentioned herself as a potential teacher.'

'I suppose that she did not want to be too obvious.'

'Or perhaps you are reading too much into a neighbourly offer.' Bingley looked like he wanted to object, so Darcy added, 'Mr Bennet mentioned to me that both of his daughters consider themselves too young to marry. Perhaps it would be better if you looked elsewhere for your next angel.'

'But she is perfect for me!'

'Perhaps, but are you perfect for her?'

That quiet statement at last made an impact on Bingley. 'Do you think that she is not interested in me?'

'Not all women are, you know.'

For the rest of the ride back to Netherfield, Bingley was lost in thought.

~PoP~

~~PoP~~

A Plethora of Peers (working title) by Sydney Salier, Copyright © 2023