Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
WEDNESDAY 9 OCTOBER 1811
LONGBOURN
T homas Bennet was livid. His oldest daughter, Jane, had just brought him a note that wrecked all his carefully laid plans.
Four years ago, just before his favourite daughter, Elizabeth, was scheduled to return home, a messenger had arrived at Longbourn with a rather odd letter. Bennet had not fully understood what it was asking, but was pleased by what it offered in return. The letter writer insisted that Bennet refuse any offers of marriage made to his second daughter for the foreseeable future and even encouraged the man to arrange a marriage for her to someone he considered “suitable.”
In return for agreeing to this, Bennet would receive six thousand pounds. When his daughter married the man of his choosing, as long as it was not the man who made the first request, he would receive an additional six thousand pounds. While the request was odd, none of it raised any serious alarms—until he reached the final line of the letter which carried a far more disquieting tone.
The letter ominously concluded with a warning: should he fail to comply with the terms, there would be "consequences for all concerned," though it gave no hint as to the nature of these consequences. Troubled but tempted by the sum, Bennet had put the matter aside, thinking perhaps it was some sort of jest or a bluff from a scheming relative.
Though he read Elizabeth’s letters from Derbyshire and had noted frequent mentions of a Mr. and Miss Darcy, he had not thought much of their inclusion in her letters. He expected her to return home unattached and easily agreed to the stipulations of the letter writer. With his signature on the document, the messenger handed him a bank draft for six thousand pounds and departed.
A few days later, his daughter returned home, speaking excitedly of her intention to marry this Mr. Darcy. When his sister-by-marriage spoke to him first of this man who wanted to take Elizabeth away, Bennet’s mind immediately turned to ways of discouraging the match. He resolved, first, to simply not reply to the man’s letter she brought. Surely, if he ignored it, the gentleman would lose interest, thinking it not worth his time to come in person. Should the man indeed come to Longbourn, Bennet was confident he could find some excuse to turn him away. He also recalled the agreement he had signed, promising to deny any requests made for Elizabeth’s hand for the foreseeable future.
Not long after her return, a letter arrived from his cousin, Patrick Collins, who was on his deathbed. In the letter, Collins expressed his desire to see peace between their families and suggested that his son, William Collins, be engaged to one of the Bennet daughters as a way to repair the rift. The younger Collins was studying to take orders and would soon become a respectable husband. Such a union, Collins reasoned, would ensure that the Bennet women could remain at Longbourn, given that Mr. Bennet had been unable to produce a male heir.
This, Bennet decided, was the perfect solution and presumably was not the offer of marriage the anonymous letter writer indicated. Not only did it provide him with a legitimate reason to refuse Mr. Darcy’s request, but it also solved the issue of the contract he had signed. If she were already engaged to the heir of Longbourn, no one could dispute his rejection of Darcy’s suit. Furthermore, the engagement would mean Elizabeth would remain at Longbourn for the rest of her life. She could marry William Collins, live in the dower house, and continue assisting her father in managing the estate until his dying day. To Bennet, it seemed an ideal resolution to every dilemma he faced.
In Mr. Bennet’s mind, the matter was settled: Elizabeth would simply have to accept his decision. At sixteen, she was too young to truly understand what she wanted, and as her father—and a man—he believed he was far more suited to make such an important choice for her. This other young man was merely a case of youthful infatuation, and Elizabeth could easily be persuaded to see reason. The promise of a secure home at Longbourn for the rest of her life would surely convince her.
By marrying Elizabeth to a man of his choosing, he believed he was sparing her the inevitable heartbreak when the young man in question either failed to come for her or changed his mind. Darcy’s letter had mentioned waiting until Elizabeth was of a more proper age to wed, but Bennet remained convinced the attachment was fleeting. In his view, the relationship was unlikely to survive the passage of time, and by intervening, he was preventing her from being seen as a "jilt” when the engagement ended.
With this in mind, he wrote a reply to Patrick Collins offering his second daughter as a suitable match for his son. Worried his brother Philips would refuse to write the marriage contract, he contracted with a solicitor in St. Albans to write it instead. To the Gardiners, he wrote a letter informing him that he intended to deny Darcy’s suit, refusing to explain matters any further other than stating there was a previous engagement. This led to a break in the family, as Mr. Bennet continued to refuse to explain his reasoning despite repeated requests for additional information. All he said was that Elizabeth was already engaged, and it was none of their business to whom she was engaged.
From that point on, Mr. Bennet monitored all the mail that came into or left the house, ensuring no letters were sent between Longbourn and London or Pemberley. Mr. Bennet explained his reasoning to no one, allowing everyone to believe that their letters were going unanswered. Any letters that arrived, he burned without reading. Eventually, he persuaded his brother Philips of the merit of the plan and encouraged his brother to write to London confirming the marriage had taken place.
Therefore, when Jane handed him Elizabeth’s note the afternoon after the assembly, he stared at it in shock for several minutes, his anger rising as he considered what had occurred under his nose. Somehow, that Darcy fellow had circumvented his wishes and absconded with Elizabeth, flying away with her to the border intending to marry her there without his permission.
Bennet was further annoyed when he realised how close he had come to the day his own plans were to have been fulfilled. Mr. William Collins was to come to Longbourn next month to meet his intended bride, for he was finally in a position to marry although the wedding would not take place until the following summer.
Over the last four years, Bennet had repeatedly requested that Collins come to Longbourn and claim his bride. However, Collins had been insistent that he was not ready for marriage, and the wedding would need to wait. First, Collins had been insistent that he finish his schooling because he wanted to achieve his dream of becoming a rector, thus fulfilling his promise to his departed mother on her deathbed.
Bennet had asked him once again to come when his schooling was finished, but Collins then needed to spend some time as a curate. Just this past Easter, he had been ordained and gained a living in Kent. He had been there nearly half a year, and finally, his patroness had agreed to allow him to visit Longbourn to meet his future bride. They would formalise the engagement and begin planning for the wedding to occur that summer, after which they would return to Kent.
This was not what Bennet wished for. He still had hopes that Elizabeth would somehow manage to convince Collins to remain at Longbourn after they were wed, claiming his inheritance sooner than the man would have had thought possible. The two would have been able to manage the estate, even before they were wed, and Elizabeth could train the young man to take over the role of master.
Yet now, those plans lay in shambles, leaving Bennet uncertain about what to do next.
Attempting to halt the eloping couple seemed futile, especially since it seemed they would have a significant head start. From what Bennet knew of Darcy, the man was quite wealthy, meaning he could afford to change horses frequently along their route. Bennet himself was neither capable of riding far nor fast enough to catch up with them, and the effort required to try would be beyond what he was willing to expend. No, it was best to allow this travesty to unfold.
The looming issue of the additional six thousand pounds promised by his anonymous benefactor weighed heavily on his mind, along with the six thousand he had received four years ago. Would the benefactor insist on repayment after forbidding the marriage before? The money was long gone; it had vanished almost as soon as it had arrived. His wife had spent a portion of it on clothing for their daughters and other frivolities, but most had gone towards expanding his beloved library.
He had at least earmarked a portion of the money for improving the dower cottage intended for Collins and Elizabeth, but he had done only enough to make it livable. He had assumed that once Elizabeth moved in, she would find the funds from the estate to make it a true home. That, he had thought, would be a problem for another time. Bennet had not wanted to squander his unexpected windfall on anything beyond ensuring the cottage was habitable. Now, as Elizabeth was wreaking havoc on all his carefully laid plans, he felt the weight of all these concerns pressing upon him, a knot of anxiety tightening in his chest.
After spending the remainder of the afternoon in his study considering his dilemma from every angle, he emerged from his room to join the family for supper. He might have wished to ignore the subject of Elizabeth all together, but her three younger sisters and mother would not let the matter lie.
“Mr. Bennet, where is Lizzy? I thought perhaps she was out on the estate somewhere, but it seems that no one has seen her all day. She returned early from the dance last night, but I have checked in her room, and she is not there,” Mrs. Bennet cried when she saw her husband enter the room. “Has she not been with you all day?”
Bennet sighed heavily, still unsure of how to break the news to his wife. His gaze shifted to Jane, who was glaring at him fiercely—something that reminded him strongly of Elizabeth. Realising he could not lie, he resigned himself to the truth.
"She is gone, Mrs. Bennet," he said, his voice thick with irony and resignation. "She absconded in the night with one of our neighbours and is, as we speak, headed towards Gretna Green."
“One of our neighbours?” she cried noisily. “Why would she elope? Certainly any of the gentlemen from our neighbourhood would have presented himself to you and asked for her hand. What cause could she have had for eloping? Oh, our poor girls, what will this do to them?”
“The gentleman is only temporarily in our neighbourhood—it was Mr. Darcy, whom I believe you all met last night. The two of them decided to forgo the formalities and simply break out on their own. Why Mr. Darcy did not approach me directly today I do not know,” Bennet said.
Jane huffed. “Lizzy wrote to me, as well as to you, Father. She and Mr. Darcy did not wish to give you the chance to separate them—yet again.”
“Again?” Mrs. Bennet cried. “What do you mean, Jane? Had Lizzy and Mr. Darcy met before? He was rather cold last night, but he seemed to think that one of my daughters had been married already. Did he know something I did not?”
“Lizzy and Mr. Darcy met four years ago when she was in Derbyshire. I do not know all the details, but they became engaged then, but when Mr. Darcy came to ask for her hand, Father refused his request. I do not know all the particulars, but Lizzy was determined that she would not be separated from the man she loves ever again, so they decided eloping was the only solution,” Jane informed her mother and younger sister.
“How do you know all of this, Jane?” Mr. Bennet asked coldly.
“As I mentioned, Lizzy wrote to me too. I knew she was upset last night, but I did not learn the reason until I found her note at noon. For hours, I debated whether to give it to you or let you suffer, wondering where she had gone. But considering how indifferent you are towards your family, I doubted whether you would have even noticed her absence."
Bennet was surprised by the harsh rebuke from his eldest daughter. He had never before heard her speak so forcibly to anyone and was surprised to be on the receiving end of it. Standing abruptly from the table, he walked away from his family and back into his bookroom where he considered what his daughter had said.
NETHERFIELD, SAME DAY
Caroline Bingley was thoroughly displeased with how the previous evening had concluded. A month earlier, when her brother had informed her that Fitzwilliam Darcy would be staying at his leased estate, Netherfield, she had seen it as her chance to win him over. Although she hoped he would be inclined to marry her, she was not willing to leave anything to chance; thus, she devised a plan to ensure that she could press the issue if necessary.
However, Mr. Darcy had arrived only hours before the assembly that her brother had obliged them to attend. She took extra time in dressing for the evening, wearing a gown that would put these country bumpkins to shame. Though she had not met any of the locals yet, she knew enough from what she heard in town to expect little from her new neighbours. They always complained about the so-called gentry who lived in these small villages throughout England, and Caroline had firmly formed an idea of what they would be in her head and was certain there would be no competition for Mr. Darcy’s attention while they were there.
Instead of being entranced by her beauty as she expected, Mr. Darcy had scarcely paid attention to her new gown and appeared aggravated at their delayed departure for the assembly. She could not understand why he cared about making a good impression by arriving on time or why the opinions of these country mushrooms even mattered.
That evening, Caroline had closely observed her target as he fixated on another young lady. She overheard his pointed inquiries to Mrs. Bennet about the daughters’ marital statuses and watched his private conversation with the young woman in the ballroom. When both left the room separately, Caroline attempted to follow but lost track of them. Her frustration mounted as neither Mr. Darcy nor the young lady returned to the gathering, leaving her stewing over their absence for the remainder of the evening.
When they arrived back at Netherfield, the servants reported that Darcy had returned earlier, but said little else. Caroline thought to sneak into his room and put her plan into action, but she wanted more information first. After Mr. Darcy’s set down earlier that evening, she was not sure he was in the best of mindsets for her plan to work either, so she knew she would have to wait.
To her greater frustration, when she arrived to break her fast at noon the following day, it was to the news that Mr. Darcy had departed. According to the note he left her brother, he received word from Pemberley requiring his immediate presence there, and he left early that morning. While Caroline had her suspicions that all was not as it seemed, her brother believed his friend’s story and, though he was disappointed to lose his company, could not begrudge his friend’s sudden need to return home.
Convinced that Elizabeth Bennet was behind Mr. Darcy’s sudden departure, Caroline Bingley decided to gather more information. At the assembly the previous evening, she learned Elizabeth’s name and gained insight into the Bennet family by ingratiating herself with Jane Bennet, Elizabeth’s elder sister. This strategy served a dual purpose: understanding her perceived competition while also uncovering details about the Bennet household.
It was obvious her brother, Charles Bingley, was infatuated with Miss Bennet. Charles was prone to falling in love quickly and often, but these infatuations rarely lasted long—his attention span was no better than that of a puppy. Still, Caroline worried that if they remained in the area too long, without the presence of other suitable women to distract him, he might do something truly catastrophic, like propose to the girl.
She peppered her brother with additional questions about his friend’s intentions, rarely leaving him enough time to answer, not that he would have been able to. Bingley repeated that Darcy had said only that “urgent business” called him away and he would write when he could. Regardless of how many times she asked, the few lines Darcy wrote did not give Caroline the information she sought.
Finally, Bingley had had enough and retreated to his study. Although he was new to estate management, he was familiar with business and had already begun to review the books for Netherfield. He would write to his friend with any additional questions, as well as speak to the steward, and perhaps a few of the other estate owners nearby, when he needed help.