Chapter 9
Several days later, while Mrs. Bennet was still aggrieved and refusing to speak with Jane, Mary and Kitty arrived on foot and begged Jane to allow them to spend the day with her.
Their mother, they said, was on a tear over Lydia’s latest complaints and they could not stand to hear another word about the matter.
Jane assured them that they were always welcome, so long as they were willing to assist her in the packing and all three threw themselves into the work with a will.
Jane asked Kitty to oversee the packing of the silver and pulled Mary aside.
“You must allow me to apologize, Mary. I ought to have been a better sister to you, but I was so wrapped up in my own life and my friendship with Elizabeth that I did not see the neglect. Please, come with us to Ivy Well? I wish to know you better and I could use your help as we get the house up to scratch. Please say you will?”
Mary blushed and looked away. “Are you sure you do not wish to invite Kitty? Mama says she is much more entertaining than my usual sermons and—”
“Do you think me unaware of my own wishes?” Jane demanded teasingly, arms akimbo.
“No, but we all know how kind you are and I am certain it is not beyond you to put yourself out in order to make me feel wanted.”
Jane winced, acknowledging the truth of her observation.
“I do not know how to give you the invitation in a manner which will convince you of my sincerity in making it. But truly, I wish to strengthen our relationship, and I feel offended on your behalf that our mother has reduced you to your favorite reading material.”
“I do not actually enjoy reading sermons,” Mary admitted softly. “I prefer scientific papers.”
“But why do you then?”
“I hoped to convince my younger sisters, or at least my parents, that changes were needed to protect the respectability of the family. No matter what I said, though, nothing worked and now we are barely acceptable here. Mama does not speak of it but there are several families who no longer invite us to their entertainments, though they will not cut us at other’s homes. ”
“I had no idea, Mary!” Jane exclaimed, pulling her into a tight embrace. The girl was stiff as a board, but Jane refused to pull away until she had relaxed into her affection. When she stepped back, there were tears in Mary’s eyes. “I am sorry, dear sister.”
“No, it was not you, it is only—” she choked on her tears, “I do not remember ever having an embrace before. I did not realize it was something that I needed so badly.”
Jane threw her arms around her once more and burst into tears. “Do not mind me, Mary, this child makes me weep at the drop of a hat! I saw a bird on the table at dinner last evening and burst into tears that it had likely had babies of its own who were now orphans.”
Mary giggled thickly and hugged her back. After they had both dried their tears, Jane stepped back and placed her hands on the younger woman’s shoulders, looking her over with minute interest.
“Do you know, I have always excused my mother’s asides and insults to my sisters as just her way, but that does no one any good, and by allowing her statements to stand undisputed, likely made me just as culpable for your hurt.
” Jane leaned close, forcing her to look her in the eye.
“You are not plain, Mary. My mother is either blind, or in all likelihood, bitter that you did not take after her blonde looks. Unlike Mama, there are any number of people who prefer different looks to mine and Lydia’s and it is silly to berate you and Lizzy and Kitty over something that you can hardly help-- and which matters not at all. ”
Mary snorted intelligently.
“I am serious. Mr. Darcy is by far the wealthiest man of our acquaintance, do you not agree?”
Mary allowed that it was so.
“And yet he took one look at all of the ladies in Town, nay in most of England, he does travel quite a lot and chose the second, ‘willful’, and ‘brown as a nut’ daughter of an unimportant and nearly impecunious squire. I too was in the assembly hall that night, as well as Lydia, and neither of us received so much as a single glance from the gentleman.”
“I can hardly blame him in Lydia’s case,” Mary rolled her eyes. “But in yours, perhaps he did the gentlemanly thing and left the field for his friend.”
“Perhaps,” Jane agreed, though she did not sound at all convinced.
“I know Lizzy claims that I am never aware of the looks I receive from gentlemen, and in many cases she is likely correct. But I heard the whispers that night as well. ￡10,000 a year is an unimaginable sum, and I looked his way just as often as any other unattached maiden in the room and never once was that look returned, except when Mr. Bingley approached him and they spoke of me specifically and he pushed him back in my direction. No, you shall see if you come with me and we visit Pemberley. Mr. Darcy could have had any woman in the world, merely for the asking. He adores Lizzy and treats her like a queen and when they are in a room together, he cannot take his eyes off her. No, he definitely prefers women with chocolate curls and laughing eyes. You too, should you care to, will find the perfect gentleman for you, who prefers thick, light brown hair and startling green eyes.”
“What do you mean if I care to?” Mary asked, avoiding the compliments and her discomfort.
“I mean, should you care to. You have two very wealthy sisters who will always ensure that you are well taken care of and have a home. If you wish to marry, you may need to make yourself more approachable; you can be rather prickly in mixed company, but it is hardly the imperative that it was even a year past.”
Mary was silent for a time and Jane kindly allowed her the time she needed to cogitate on all she had said as she methodically folded the linen napkins into a crate.
Jane smiled softly, allowing her mind to wander, wondering what her own child would look like.
Perhaps blond like his parents, or darker like one of her aunts; one never knew how it would go after all.
“I would like to go with you, Jane,” Mary said at last, her sudden speech loud in the quiet of the room.
“I think I might need to leave the place where I am comfortable if I am to make any lasting changes, for my attitudes are so well known in the area that I do not believe that any gentlemen here would give me a second chance to make a first impression. And I do believe that I wish to marry. I have often felt that I would love to have a babe of my own someday when I visit the tenants after a birth. And of course, that is only properly possible if I am wed.”
“Wonderful!” Jane exclaimed, squeezing her hand for a moment. “When we arrive at Ivy Well you may help me to add all of the scientific treaties you wish to our sadly neglected library and we shall visit Lizzy and you may see what a truly grand library ought to be.”
Mary’s eyes lit with pleasure. “I have wished to see the library at Pemberley since Elizabeth first wrote of it. It sounds too fantastical to be real!”
“It is overwhelming in its grandeur and sheer size, certainly; though I am not the bibliophile which you and Papa and Lizzy are.”
Kitty joined them then with a frown on her face. “I have finished the silver, well, Mr. Nichols has finished the silver while I checked off the lists.”
“Thank you, Kitty. You are very helpful.” Jane smiled warmly.
Kitty lit up at the recognition. “I am pleased to help you, though I wish that you were not moving so very far away. Lydia wrote to invite me to Newcastle—”
“Papa would never!” Mary gasped in horror.
“Of course he refused,” Kitty pouted, pulling at a loose thread on her sleeve.
“She wrote to Mama that she should send me and that Lydia would help me to catch a husband amongst the officers as she had done and Papa barked that the good Lord Jesus would return before he allowed one of us to rely on the questionable auspices of Mrs. Wickham and her shiftless spouse.”
“Oh dear, that is very definite, is it not?”
“Yes,” Kitty sighed lustily. “And when I wrote to Lizzy, hoping that she might change his mind, she declared that she did not much like Lydia’s way of catching husbands and urged that I attend to my lessons and she would have me to her in London sometime.
With the twins so small it will be at least a year, don’t you think, before that will ever come to pass? ”
“In all likelihood, yes,” Jane comforted her with a pat on her arm. “And I shall not be going to London this year either, but perhaps when Mary and I have everything prepared, I shall invite you to join us in the North.”
“Oh! Is Mary going with you? Would you invite me, truly?” Kitty squealed. “That would be ever so grand! Though Lydia claims that Derbyshire is the most boring of all the shires in England according to Mr. Wickham.”
“I do not believe that Mr. Wickham’s word should be believed in this instance,” Jane replied.
“Or any instance,” Mary muttered soto voice.
“The man does seem to have only a passing acquaintance with the truth,” Jane forced herself to admit, surprising both of her sisters.
Mary looked pleased, while Kitty looked confused.
“Mr. Wickham and Lydia have a very good income thanks partially to Papa and to a much greater extent, Mr. Darcy. But to hear them, you should think that they were within moments of starving away entirely.”
“Lydia likes to claim that she is constantly having to move because of bad owners and hiring new servants who have left and needs funds,” Mary exclaimed in surprise.
Jane shook her head. “Both the house and the servants are covered by our brother Darcy.”
“She has never mentioned that to me,” Kitty’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “She just tells me that she needs my allowance more than I do as she is so much more beautiful than I am and it is not as if Papa will allow me to go without.”