Chapter 11
It took four long days of travel before they reached Ivy Well at last. There had been a torrential rainstorm over the night of the first day and the roads had been mired in mud until evening, trapping them at a thankfully comfortable inn for the day.
It had been a blessing for Kitty as it allowed her stomach to settle before they carried on once more.
Elizabeth had met them at the turn off to retrieve Kitty and they had finally arrived at Ivy Well once more.
Jane stepped down from the carriage, thanking the footman for his assistance as once again Caroline had drug Bingley away to greet the servants as if she were mistress.
“Does he not realize that he is undermining you with the servants when he allows his sister to play lady of the manor?” Mary asked softly as she stepped down beside her.
“I honestly do not know, Mary,” Jane admitted sadly. “Though I do hope that it is merely lack of thought rather than purposeful neglect.”
Mary snorted. “Is that supposed to be better?”
“Jane!” Bingley called, nearly buzzing with energy. “Jane, come greet everyone!”
Jane pasted a smile on her face and joined them at the top of the staircase, trailed by her sister who was looking about with interest.
“Hello everyone, I am glad to see so much has been accomplished. It is obvious that you have all been devoting many hours to the work of shoring up the windows.”
“I am the new housekeeper,” a stern-faced woman announced with a sniff. “Mrs. Ghent.”
Jane looked at the superior woman and nodded a greeting. “I am Mrs. Bingley. Please make time in your schedule in the morning to speak with me. There will be many changes happening in the coming days and we will need to keep abreast of things.”
The woman made it very obvious that she was looking to Caroline for approval before she gave a negligent wave of her hand in acquiescence.
Jane felt that now familiar burn of anger beginning to bubble up but she tamped it down for the time being and instead walked past the woman to greet the rest of the gathered servants.
As she had feared, Caroline had also hired a chef, a new butler, several footmen, and two upper maids from London, but she could only be relieved that it was not more, for Caroline had not seen the house and had not understood the scope of servants they would need.
She was especially warm when she greeted Mrs. Toole and the woman squeezed her hand in solidarity when she whispered that she would speak with her soon.
Once she had greeted everyone, she released them to their duties before Caroline could think to do so and asked her husband for his arm up the stairs.
Caroline wore a look of glee as they approached the master and mistress’s chambers and she jumped ahead to swing open the door and see Jane’s face at the same time.
Jane froze in the doorway, stunned speechless.
Caroline had taken everything she had ever mentioned disliking and swamped the room in it.
It was the gaudiest, and most uncomfortable style imaginable and covered from floor to ceiling in the most hideous orange.
Jane looked ill in very few colors but she had specifically mentioned the color as one that made her look bilious.
“Is it not the height of fashion!” Caroline crowed. “Lady Georgette Darling did her sitting room in a similar manner, and I just had to do it up similarly.”
Jane continued to stare.
“You do not like it!” she pouted, “I can see from your face that you are not happy with all of my work. If you had more refined taste you would understand.”
“I specifically asked that you avoid this color, Caroline,” Jane spoke at last, voice calm and level. “I also asked you not to touch my rooms as I had plans already in place and you have ignored every request I made.”
“How dare you show so little gratitude!” Caroline screeched. “If you dislike it so much, I shall take the room for myself and you can install your decor in an empty room!”
Bingley hurried in when he heard his sister’s voice raised and looked about in shock. “Are you ill, my dear?” he asked Jane, eyeing her with confusion.
“No! It is this color that your sister purposefully chose against my wishes!”
“Surely she must have misunderstood. She was doing so much work on our behalf, perhaps she—”
“And are you pleased with my rooms, Charles?” Jane demanded, tears welling.
“Er, well, it is certainly very fine.”
“It is gaudy and uncomfortable and gauche!” Jane declared, bursting into tears. “The neighbors will think that we are nouveau riche! This is unacceptable to those who have been landed for generations. We will be a laughingstock!”
“You ungrateful cow!” Caroline bellowed. “This is all the first stare of fashion! You would have us live in squalor like your horrid parents on their speck of an estate! I have already said that you may begin again in some other room!”
“I find it strange that you are so insistent upon sharing the master’s suite with your brother.
” Mary observed, fire in her eyes. “There was talk in Meryton of course, but most people did not believe it, I hoped, but now that I see for myself your unnatural attachment to the arrangement I have to wonder.”
Caroline screamed and stomped her foot in outrage. “I will not be spoken to in such a manner! Come Charles, you must escort me back to London until Jane learns to see sense!”
She stomped away, screaming for her maid to fetch her and her brother’s trunks while Bingley looked so uncomfortable and lost that his wife would make such a scene over something so easily changed.
“Charles, you cannot leave!” Jane sobbed. “The estate needs your oversight, and the babe will come so soon!”
“You know that we shall never hear the end of it if I do not do as she asks,” he replied, wrapping her up in his arms and placing a platonic kiss upon her brow.
“Perhaps it is best this way. You shall be able to get things just how you like and then when Caroline returns home, things will already be done and perhaps she shall settle.”
“But the babe, I am due in as soon as three weeks!” Jane began to cry harder. “Please, you must be here to support me. I need you, Charles.”
“Of course, of course,” he murmured absently, tightening his arms about her.
Jane was not comforted as it seemed he was already a hundred miles away enjoying London.
An hour later, Caroline was again screeching in discontent as apparently, she had demanded the new carriage be prepared but it had been discovered that there was some damage to the wheel which needed repair before it could be taken out again.
She was livid, but eager to be away with her brother in tow, and so finally settled into their original carriage with only minimal fuss.
Jane did not join them on the steps as she was still teary and did not wish to cause talk amongst the servants, though Caroline’s frenetic departure and Jane’s orders that all work stop until she had a chance to review the plans, gave little chance of that.
∞∞∞
The next morning, after breaking her fast, Jane rang for a maid and requested that Mrs. Ghent join her in the mistress’ study on the ground floor.
It was nearly an hour later before the woman wandered in, obviously not in any hurry to comply.
Jane remained seated and looked the woman over without rancor.
Finally, when the woman began to squirm, Jane welcomed her and invited her to sit.
“I appreciate that my sister-in-law brought you all from town in an effort to assist me, but it is obvious that some of you suit better than others.” The lady stiffened her back.
“I shall spend the next several days interviewing each of the servants and will make my selections within the week.”
The woman’s face was pinched in displeasure, but she did not complain when Jane began the interview, asking about her experience, her former employers, and her origins.
None of her answers were even remotely believable, but Jane did not press and asked that she have Mr. Granger join them.
His interview went nearly identically, though he was a slightly better liar than Mrs. Ghent and she dismissed them after asking for Mrs. Toole to be sent for.
Her interview went just as well as Jane had hoped and they spent a pleasant hour getting to know one another interspersed with information on the others below stairs which would make Jane’s interviews go more smoothly.
After speaking with the workers from Pemberley and getting them started on removing their previous work in the public rooms first and her own room second, she spent the rest of the day interviewing the upper servants, planning to begin on the lower servants the next day.
She searched out Mary in the library and found her with a morose look on her face as she inspected the pristine shelves and leather-bound tomes.
“This is even worse than I was expecting, Jane,” she sighed. “How could anyone ignore their library to this extent?”
“Oh, dear,” Jane gasped. “Is it all a loss?”
“No, everything has been well taken care of,” Mary replied. “But there is almost nothing written in the last fifty years! Papa would be pleased; there are first editions of all the classics he so enjoys.”
“My poor sister,” Jane smiled at her pout, very reminiscent of Lydia, though she would never tell her so.
“We shall make a trip to the bookseller as soon as we possibly can. Are you ready for dinner? I ordered it to be served in my sitting room upstairs to save work for everyone and we will not need to dress.”
Mary agreed and they retired to her rooms to relax before the fireplace where Jane could put up her feet, which had begun to swell.
The next morning, she had just begun her interviews when she was interrupted by Mrs. Ghent with two frowning gentlemen with their hats in hand. Jane greeted them pleasantly and asked their business, ignoring Mrs. Ghent’s look of suppressed satisfaction.