Chapter 14
“Good morning, papa,” Elizabeth greeted her father in the breakfast parlor. As always, father and daughter were the first to arrive to share the first meal
“Keeping country hours, Lizzy?” asked the Duke jovially. “Ready to face the life of Lady Elizabeth?”
“Taking a hot bath by a bright fire on a frosty morning without having to outwit four sisters is a luxury that I never dreamed of. Papa, you must fight for the Dukedom. I will not give up my very own copper bathtub!”
Her father chuckled. “You must share your enthusiasm in embracing your new position with your mother. Her nerves are the worst I have ever seen. Carrying out the duties of a duchess may be too daunting for her.”
“Oh, mamma! She just needs to be convinced that a duchess can do no wrong.”
“Ah, being convinced—therein lies the crux of the matter. I delegate to you the task of convincing your mother that a duchess can do whatever she wants in whatever way she likes.”
“Truth be told, we are still in awe of our new status and this impossibly grand house. With time and guidance, we shall become the jewels of high society, just as we were the ‘jewels of Hertfordshire!’ Oh, speaking of guidance, when will our instructors in impeccable decorum arrive?”
The Duke raised his eyebrows in question. “Why the sudden eagerness to see Mr. Darcy?”
“Papa, please stop insinuating that Mr. Darcy was anything to me but an indifferent acquaintance. Do remember he is a married man! I asked about him because my maid, Jenny, is a treasure, but she is on loan to us from Darcy House. I would love to have her join our household permanently.”
“What has this paragon of a retainer done to deserve such high praise after just one morning?”
“Well… she told me the truth about Mr. Wickham—a blackguard of the first order. She almost fell victim to his licentiousness, but she beat him back with a stick. Not only can she read, but she also likes to read and is well -spoken. I quite like her.”
“Hmm, I thought the most important qualification for a lady’s maid is the ability to arrange her mistress’s hair in the latest fashion, but you prefer a literate woman warrior!”
As if on cue, Jane, with her hair casually but elegantly piled on her head, entered the breakfast parlor. As soon as she sat down, a footman came over with decanters of coffee and chocolate. Jane looked sheepish when she asked for tea instead. She was reluctant to trouble the footman with requests.
“Good morning, Jane. Do you admire your maid’s handiwork with your coiffure? Or would you also prefer a maid who can yield a stick in self-defense?” asked the Duke with a mischievous glint.
Jane looked puzzled but returned to her serene self in a moment.
“Good morning, papa, Lizzy. My lady’s maid is French, like Mamma’s, but she can speak English very well and with a pleasant lilt; and I do think she is talented.
She pinned my hair up before I could finish suggesting I do it myself.
She also made the bed without my noticing her doing so.
I shall suggest to mamma that perhaps she should have Marie instead of Margarite.
If she can converse with her maid, her life should be more tranquil. ”
Jane then looked at the food piled on the sideboard. “Before long, I shall become lazy and plump. I should make all my new dresses larger… oh, what was the talk about maids who could wield a stick?”
“Lizzy likes hers because she used a stick to beat off a scoundrel.”
“Yes, I do like her. I am also grateful that she opened my eyes to how despicable some men could be, even though they might appear amiable and honest on the outside. My life in Hertfordshire must have been too sheltered to discern the debauchery of one like Mr. Wickham.”
“Is Mr. Wickham so bad? He is mercenary, I agree, but to be beaten with a stick? Could there be a misunderstanding?” Jane was visibly perturbed at having a person of ill-repute in her acquaintance.
“I shall ask Jenny to share her experience with all of my sisters. This is a timely lesson for us, now that we find ourselves suddenly well-dowered and among men who could even be more unscrupulous than Mr. Wickham.”
“Well, Mr. Darcy and his uncle will be here around one o’clock. You have a few hours to gather your sisters to introduce them to your brave warrior maid, lest Mr. Darcy call her back for exposing the dastardly acts of his dependent.”
The ducal clan soon dispersed to engage in their own activities. The Duke made straight for his new library, which was not as large as the one at Kennington Castle, but equally delightful.
Jane and Elizabeth walked arm in arm to explore the ground floor, now that they had nothing but leisure time.
Their maids had taken over the mending, which might not even be necessary considering they would have completely new wardrobes.
Their father had warned them that the family would be presented at Court in April to establish themselves as a ducal family.
“Dearest Jane, it seemed ages since we were the Miss Bennets of Longbourn. Do you feel more at ease with our new station?”
Jane contemplated for a long moment and said, “All this grandeur,” she paused to sweep her arm about, “may someday become commonplace, but the feeling of being superior to everybody simply because my papa is Duke is impossible to accept. Looking down on those in trade seems especially unfair.”
“Jane, forgive me, but I have meant to ask you this since I received your last letter to me. You seemed deeply attached to Mr. Bingley, which I had also observed even before you left for London. If Mr. Bingley came back and asked you to marry him, would you accept him, the son of a tradesman?”
Jane was taken aback by this question. She had been melancholy about Mr. Bingley’s desertion and his sisters returning her visit only two weeks earlier, but now it seemed a lifetime away. She had to think to remember the Bingley family.
She answered, “In my letter to you, I dared not describe fully the Bingley sisters’ attitude when they visited me at Gracechurch Street lest you get angry for my sake.
I care not how they treated me, but they were disrespectful toward Aunt.
Miss Bingley's making an insulting remark about my connection to trade in front of Aunt affirms for me that I will always choose my dear uncle and aunt over anyone unconnected to me. I have, for these two weeks, tried to forget him.”
“Dearest, for Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst to have aroused such… strong and adversarial feelings in you, who have never thought ill of anybody, they must have behaved abominably. But they are not Mr. Bingley. He seemed amiable and a gentleman. Do you think you might have done him an injustice by blaming him for his sisters’ misdeeds? ” asked Elizabeth.
“I do not know where Mr. Bingley is in all this, but it matters not. According to his sisters, he is destined for Miss Darcy. They left no doubt that they wanted to end our acquaintance. It is possible I have wronged Mr. Bingley. However, I feel no unease in doing so—I must be a small-minded person! But to me, this indicates my attachment to him was not as strong as you and I had assumed. Well, I now have a large dowry, and as mamma always boasts, ‘Jane is not so beautiful for nothing!’ I shall find a man who will love me for my dowry so long as he does not have sisters who may unwittingly disclose his true mercenary intentions. I am almost on the shelf!”
“Jane, that smacks of bitterness, and is uncharacteristic of you. Because they induced this unsavory sentiment in my kindest sister, the Bingleys are dead to me. You can count on those superior sisters being among the first callers to Northampton House as soon as our ascension becomes known. When papa told me about his inheritance, my first thought was that Miss Bingley had lost her chance to enter the first circles through you. Now that Mr. Darcy has married another, her chances are diminished further. As for you finding true love, I have no doubt! Our society is so much wider now, here and in Oxfordshire. Perhaps my future brother will be an Oxford don. Papa will certainly be delighted.”
“An Oxford don would suit you far better than he would suit me. But let us not worry about whom we shall marry. With our fortune, we do not need to marry if we choose. This option, to me, is an entirely new kind of freedom.”
Just then, they passed by a room from whence the notes of a pianoforte emanated. They could tell from the somewhat discordant sound that Mary was playing. When they entered the room, Mary looked up and said, “There are two other pianofortes in the house. There is no need to wait.”
“Mary, have you broken your fast? We did not see you in the breakfast parlor,” inquired Lizzy.
“Oh, my maid brought me a tray. It was very pleasant to have someone at my beck and call.”
Then they heard their youngest sister’s loud voice echoing through the central staircase of the house.
“Jane, Lizzy, Mary! Come up here and see!”
The eldest two sisters looked at each other and sighed. Since they had planned to speak with all of their sisters, this was as good a time as any, even though the method of calling the meeting was a trifle unseemly.
Out of nowhere, Mrs. Moffitt appeared.
“M’ladies, would you like to continue the tour of your ladyships’ new home?”
Elizabeth figured that Lydia’s unladylike yelling was what brought Mrs. Moffit thither. The housekeeper might as well get used to the brash manners of the youngest Bennet-Fitzstuart, at least while she was in her own home.
Mrs. Moffitt led the five sisters around the first-floor state rooms, which they had viewed the previous evening.
In daylight, they were so extraordinarily sumptuous that the downstairs family quarters appeared almost provincial.
What excited Lydia was the impossibly lavish bedroom, with the gilded posts of the four-poster bed as large as tree-trunks.
The girls’ royal great-great-great- grandfather had acquired the house for his favorite mistress, who, when she fell out of favor, lost the house to the Monarch’s newfound son.
The ducal ladies’ jaws dropped when they heard this part of their family history. This house had been a royal dwelling!
“These rooms have never been occupied by a duke or his family. They are kept ready for a royal visit,” explained Mrs. Moffitt.
Elizabeth looked around at the ridiculously rich decorations of the chambers and sighed. “What a waste of money to have all this just to maintain and clean. Surely no monarch would cross the street from their own palace just to stay here.”
On the way to tea, they again passed by the long gallery. Lydia clasped her hands together and exclaimed, “We must have a ball here soon and fill it with two hundred couples. Mamma will agree to that!”
Elizabeth muttered to herself, “I doubt you will be out for a ball, if there is one.”
Once the tea arrived, Elizabeth dismissed the servants to talk to her sisters privately about Wickham’s misdeeds, and how they should all be extremely careful about scoundrels like him.
All of the young ladies were astounded at how evil a person could become. After a moment of thinking, Jane said, “This also means what Mr. Wickham said about Mr. Darcy is not true.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth uttered softly. Jenny had spoken of how wonderful her master was to his servants and tenants, and Elizabeth’s papa approved of him, but the proud man could still have been vindictive, selfish, and cruel to his childhood friend. Could he not? Now she was not sure.
“Well, Mr. Wickham is nothing to me. I do not want to waste my time thinking about a lowly lieutenant in the militia,” said Lydia offhandedly.
“Lydia, we are bound to encounter many men with evil intentions. Some may even be from the peerage. We must be alert and on guard now that we know such evils exist.”
“I guess you are right, Lizzy. But I am uninterested in any young man not heir to a dukedom. If such a gentleman compromises me, I shall marry him promptly. Surely such a one would not be dishonorable?” Lydia laughed almost maniacally, amused by her own presumed insight.
Kitty, even though she had been trying to exert her independence from Lydia, laughed with her.
Mary did not seem attentive at all, immersed in her thoughts of being a virtuoso of the pianoforte.
“Let us talk about our maids. I like your Jenny. My Daisy is not nearly as interesting,” said Lydia, having tired of the topic of evil men.
The experience of having their own maids was so novel that soon, they were enthusiastically comparing these women whose lives were dedicated to catering to their every whim. However, Elizabeth was concerned that, aside from Jane, her sisters had not taken her warning seriously.