The Gardiners' House
Gracechurch Street
Cheapside
Two Days Later
The sitting room was peaceful; silent save for the crackling fire, the clicking of knitting needles, and the occasional sounds from the street outside. Jane bent closer to the candle for a moment in order to see her stitches better before lifting her head to ease her neck and looked around. Her Aunt Gardiner sat nearby, a scarf intended for Mr. Gardiner pooling in her lap.
It was a calming room, with its dark blue carpets and oak furniture and green cushions and clean lines. The children often came into this room with their parents, and so there were no knickknacks sitting around to clutter up the place. Several candlesticks lined the mantel, and a couple of low heavy brass ones sat on the table nearby.
A knock on the door drew the attention of both women, and a maid stepped inside, one hand pressed to her crisp white apron.
"A Lady Diana Appleby has called," the maid announced.
Mrs. Gardiner started in surprise, rose to her feet, and looked around. The room was tidy enough and she said, "Please show her in, Sally."
Sally retreated and a minute later, a small, elderly lady entered the room, dressed in dark blue wool, with a simple but attractive straw bonnet on her head, and with her faded blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. She took off her bonnet and handed it to the maid along with her pelisse before turning back, the smart cut of her frock now unobscured. Her hair, delicate white, was pulled into an elegant style that accentuated her face, which was lined with myriad fine wrinkles but still bright and lively as a girl's. The lines around her mouth and eyes spoke of laughter coming often.
"Mrs. Gardiner," the lady said, "I am not certain if you remember me?"
"I do indeed, my lady," Madeline replied. "You were a friend of my Great-aunt Simpson, and we met three times at the house in Half Moon Street. If memory serves me, you and my great-aunt were dear friends for literally decades."
"What a wonderful memory you have," the woman exclaimed and turned her attention on Jane. "Would you kindly introduce me to your companion?"
"Of course. This is my niece, Miss Bennet. Niece, Lady Appleby."
Jane curtsied, and when she had finished, found herself blushing at the intent gaze of the older woman, who had her head tilted with the mien of a curious robin.
"Miss Elizabeth Bennet, perchance?" Lady Appleby asked.
"No, Madame," Mrs. Gardiner said, "Jane is my eldest niece, and Elizabeth is her next younger sister. But please, do sit down by the fire, and I will call for tea."
Lady Appleby took the best chair, as befitted both her rank and her age, and when Jane had seated herself, the older woman said, "Annabelle told me that Madeline's eldest niece was a beauty, and she did not overstate the case. My dear Miss Bennet, you are quite exquisite!"
Jane blushed even more at these words and ducked her head. "You are too kind, my lady."
"Is your sister Elizabeth equally handsome?"
Jane hesitated and was relieved when her aunt, who had stepped out into the corridor to order tea, returned in time to say, "Jane is the acknowledged beauty of the family, but Elizabeth is lovely as well, though she has very different coloring with dark eyes and hair. But yes, Mrs. Bennet, herself a beauty in her youth, produced a coterie of handsome daughters."
"Well, that does make it easier," Lady Appleby said, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.
Jane and her aunt exchanged uneasy glances, and Jane asked, rather faintly, "Easier to do what?"
"Why, to introduce you and your sister to London society!" their visitor replied.
/
Drawing Room
Longbourn
Elizabeth curled up further in her chair, running one hand across the crisp page of the book on her lap as she lifted her eyes to look briefly out the window. Gray jagged clouds scudded across the sky, occasionally spitting out showers of slushy snow. There was a frosty nip to the air but not strong enough to harden the churned up mud of the ground where man and beast frequently walked.
Inside the drawing room was delightfully warm, with the fire built high and crackling industriously in the fireplace. Mrs. Bennet and all of Elizabeth's younger sisters sat around the room with their own pursuits, books and sewing and sketching. Elizabeth took a deep breath of contentment, happy to have a day with her family and no visitors, then returned to her book.
The door to the drawing room opened, and the butler stepped in and intoned, "Captain Denny, Lieutenant Pratt, and Lieutenant Wickham."
Lydia and Kitty, who had been fretfully complaining about the showers which prevented them from walking to Meryton, leaped to their feet and hurried forward to greet the officers, whose red coats were a trifle damp, and whose black boots were wet and streaked with mud.
"Oh, how wonderful!" Lydia exclaimed boisterously. "We had no idea that you would visit today!"
Wickham, whose eyes gleamed at the sight of Elizabeth, positioned next to her sister Mary on a small settee, bowed over Lydia's hand in a fulsome way and said, "A little snow could not keep us away from the delights of Longbourn, Miss Lydia."
Naturally, this provoked giggles from both Lydia and Kitty, and Mrs. Bennet, who had been giving instructions to a maid for tea, bustled up and said, "Indeed, we are most grateful that you came out to visit us today, gentlemen! Tea will be here shortly. Would you care to sit down?"
Not surprisingly, all three gentlemen marched toward Elizabeth like a needle toward true north, and Wickham gracefully managed to finagle his way into a seat across from the new heiress, while the other two gentlemen found their places on a couch set closer to Mary.
"Miss Elizabeth," Wickham said, and his lips stretched wide to show his gleaming teeth, "I hope you are doing well today?"
Elizabeth smiled in return, enchanted, as usual, by Mr. Wickham's good looks and cheerful demeanor. "I am very well, thank you."
"I know that it is dangerous to listen to gossip," he continued with a quirk of one eyebrow, "but if the rumors are correct, I understand that you are to be congratulated."
Elizabeth, aware that all three officers were staring at her intensely, turned pink and said, a little breathlessly, "Yes, quite. I have indeed been blessed to receive a substantial inheritance."
"Your great-aunt, I believe?" Pratt said, trying, and failing badly, at sounding nonchalant.
"My aunt's great-aunt, actually," Elizabeth said and firmly turned the subject. "So, gentlemen, I hope you can tell us all that Colonel Forster is finally planning to host a ball?"
This had the desirable effect of pulling Lydia and Kitty into the conversation, and by the time that Mrs. Bennet was serving tea, the conversation had shifted from the potential upcoming ball to the various delights of London. Elizabeth sipped her tea and more or less enjoyed the conversation, though she continued to feel uncomfortable at the fact that all three visitors spent more than three quarters of the time looking at her.
Fifteen minutes into the visit, a maid appeared at the door and summoned Elizabeth to the library where her father was waiting for her. She rose with alacrity and bestowed a general smile on the officers before hurrying out the door, down the hall of the east wing, and into the library, where she scuttled in, pushed the door behind her, and then leaned dramatically against it.
Her father, who was tenderly poring over a copy of the English translation of Dante's Inferno, looked up in surprise and then smiled. "Are you escaping today's visitors, Lizzy?"
Elizabeth drifted over to drop dramatically into a chair across from her father and released a pent up groan of frustration.
"It is absolutely awful, Father," she moaned. "All of our neighbors have visited in the last few days, and many of the militia officers, and the neighbors are congratulating me, except for the few single men in their number, who all are suddenly very interested in my charm and looks. It is exasperating, and rude to my sisters, and I have no doubt that Lydia, at least, will soon start whining at the lack of attention to her person."
"Do today's visitors include your favorite, Mr. Wickham?" her father inquired.
"Yes, he is here," Elizabeth said, "Not, of course, that he has any intentions towards me. He is courting Miss King, and is far too honorable a gentleman to transfer his attentions back to me now that I am a great heiress."
This provoked a bark of laughter from her father, and when she turned an indignant eye on him, the master of Longbourn declared, "I have no doubt that Mr. Wickham has already turned his attentions back on you, Lizzy. I would think very poorly of the man if he was unwilling to set aside a plain girl with a modest fortune given that you are beautiful, clever, and now, rich."
"But that is hardly fair to Mary King!" Elizabeth protested. "Surely he would not!"
"My dear, I know you admire Lieutenant Wickham, but he is a man like any other man, and he wishes for wealth and beauty in his partner."
Elizabeth frowned and said, "Do you … would you be pleased if I married him, Father?"
"No," Mr. Bennet said promptly. "Indeed, if you were so foolish as to accept an offer of marriage from him in the near future, I would deny my blessing. You know very little about the man, and I dislike the idea of you wedding a destitute man whose primary interest in you must be your money."
"He would not be destitute if Mr. Darcy had given him the living in Derbyshire," his daughter said indignantly.
"If he had done so, then you would never have met Mr. Wickham."
"True," Elizabeth admitted, though the familiar fury rose in her breast again at Mr. Darcy's cruelty toward the handsome lieutenant. She shook her head, blew out a breath, and said, "Why did you summon me here?"
"Oh, I have a letter from your uncle with more details about your inheritance," he said, gesturing toward the desk. "I think it best if you have full awareness of the situation."
"Thank you, Father," she said and walked over to the desk and sat down. She picked up the folded letter and spread it open, and then she took a moment to glance around her.
The library had always been her haven. She had spent countless afternoons here, curled up by the window or the fireplace with a book, in deep discussion with her father over some philosophy or tome, or at one of the two game boards set up beneath the southern windows – chess nearer, and backgammon beyond that.
Now more than ever was it a refuge. She had come to dread the pealing of the bell, the parade of visitors through the drawing room. But up here, with the sun-lit wood floors and the curtains always pulled back to maximize light, with smell of ink and paper and leather, she felt safe.
She knew she could not hide in her father's library forever. She must go out and live her life, however oddly the people around her behaved – neighbors nosy and eager to hear everything, men who looked at her and saw only an opportunity to ensure their own ease and comfort. She would meet the challenges of her new life with her chin up, as she ever had.
/
The Drawing Room
"You could have knocked me over with a feather, gentlemen!" Mrs. Bennet said impressively. "Seventy thousand pounds! I declare I was ready to faint when I heard…"
"Mamma," Mary said worriedly, "perhaps it is not wise to boast about Elizabeth's inheritance?"
"Oh, I am not boasting, Mary!" her mother said indignantly. "It is not as if it is my money, as your father made very clear! But oh, it is such a wonderful feeling to know that one of my daughters is wealthy now. When Mr. Bennet dies and Mr. Collins throws us out of Longbourn, my Lizzy will take care of us, even if none of the girls are married!"
This plain speaking caused Mary to flush with embarrassment, and Pratt and Denny to exchange speaking glances, but Wickham merely smiled and said, "Miss Elizabeth is a very generous lady, and I am certain she will take care of you very well, Mrs. Bennet, and her sisters too."
"Oh yes!" Lydia said, who had been holding her tongue with difficulty. "Elizabeth does not have control of the money yet, you know – she is not one and twenty until August! But then, oh, we are so happy that she will be very rich! Perhaps this autumn she will pay for us to travel to London and hire lodgings there!"
"I am certain that you enjoy the delights of Town, Miss Lydia," Wickham remarked, "but I would not have thought that Miss Elizabeth would be equally enthusiastic. I know her to be a very vigorous lady who loves to take long walks, though perhaps not in the winter?"
"Oh, Lizzy walks almost every day regardless of the weather," Mrs. Bennet said, casting her eyes heavenward. "I think it quite absurd, and she often comes back windblown, but her father refuses to restrain her. In any case, she has spent many months in London with my brother and his family and always enjoys herself. But you are correct, Lydia; with Elizabeth's newfound wealth, we will be able to hire a house in the very best part of Town! And if she wishes to walk – well, she can walk in Hyde Park!"
/
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Author Note: Thank you for all of your comments and encouragement! We are experiencing a cool spell, and the weather has been lovely (after being quite hot). What is the weather like where you live?
