Chapter 12. A Job for Henry Jones
At the parsonage that first morning, Elizabeth broke her fast with Mr and Mrs Collins. After the quick meal, Mr Collins ordered the maid to bring him his hat and coat.
“My dear, I shall walk to the church and then into Ashton this morning. I wish to look for new titles at the book seller. And I believe I shall seek luncheon at the Roaring Lion.”
“Certainly, Mr Collins. Enjoy your walk and your search. Speak with the gentlemen, tradesmen and farmers you meet,” Charlotte encouraged as she escorted him to the door. “We shall await your return in time for supper.”
Once Mr Collins had left the house, Charlotte relaxed and introduced Elizabeth to the cook and maids.
They strolled through the gardens where Charlotte explained, “Mr Collins does much of the work himself but young men from the farm next door come with fertilizer and turn the garden for us with a shovels and hoes.”
“Does Mr Collins walk out often?”
“Almost every day,” Charlotte replied. “Many mornings he walks up to Rosings and spends the entire day listening to Lady Catherine explain how Parliament has got the war all wrong. She declares that Britain should ally with Bonaparte!”
Late in the morning, a post rider came to the door with letter for Miss Elizabeth Bennet; when Elizabeth saw that the letter was from Georgiana Darcy, she insisted Charlotte accept some funds for franking.
“There will be a letter every second day,” Elizabeth revealed.
“Who is this Darcy girl?” Charlotte asked, pleased that her friend was increasing her circle of friends
“The sister of one of Uncle Gardiner’s clients,” Elizabeth replied. “We became acquainted last summer and have corresponded since then. We have visited in each other’s homes as well.”
After reading her letter, with the emphasis on the beauty of the walks and meadows, Elizabeth asked about the paths through Rosings Park.
“I believe I shall walk in the morning,” Elizabeth stated as she folded the letter and slid it into a pocket.
“Before breaking your fast?” inquired Charlotte with an understanding look on her face; Elizabeth Bennet remained much the same despite the loss of Jane.
Immediately following the conversation, Charlotte led Elizabeth out of the house and down a different path to a large farmhouse nestled at the bottom of hill with barns and fences about and many fields laid out in all directions.
“This is Running Lamb Farm, and it is part of the glebe supporting the parsonage,” Charlotte explained as the farmer’s wife emerged from her house.
“Good day, Mrs Collins,” greeted the worn woman with some true cheer. Apparently, Charlotte was proving to be a good parson’s wife with the tenants.
“Good day, Mrs Jones. I have come to hire Henry for many days in the coming month.”
“The boy is following his da and brothers in the field this afternoon. My Tim thought to cut more hay this month.”
“Oh, is Henry able to handle the scythe now?” asked Charlotte. The boy’s worth to his father’s farming labours might be too important to allow him to follow a gentle lady on her walks.
“No, no,” Mrs Jones explained. “But Henry pulls back the hay that falls away from the cutting with a rake.”
Elizabeth remembered the cycle of life at Longbourn; cutting and gathering hay determined how many cows they were able to keep through the winter.
“My friend is visiting for the month of August, and I need Henry to act as her escort when she walks every morning. I fear she will become lost in the great woods or meadows.”
“Send him over as the sun rises and he will remain at the parsonage until after he has lunch and I shall pay him a penny every day we walk,” Elizabeth promised per the agreement she made with Charlotte during the walk to the farm.
“A whole penny?” declared the daughter. “I wish I could walk with ye and get paid a penny!”
++++
At Rosings Park, Richard Fitzwilliam walked away from his latest conversation with Lady Catherine; she asked many questions about the dramatic reduction in the number of suitors.
Upon seeing the names struck thru, Lady Catherine voiced her objections, “Mr Shaw used the most expensive paper and good inks.”
“Which proves he knows paper and ink, but that does not fill his purse with coin.
“I would rather have them come…” she replied.
“It would be a waste of your time to interview and feed gentlemen who cannot father a child or refill the purse for Rosings Park,” Richard argued. Then he asked, “Did you make any promises to any of these gentlemen?”
“No, of course not,” Catherine replied automatically.
“Did you keep copies of the letters that you sent to them?”
The lady frowned and peevishly asked, “Why would I have kept copies of such letters?”
In the library, where Colonel Fitzwilliam and his cousin established their office, Darcy laughed aloud after hearing his cousin repeat much of the conversation with Lady Catherine.
As the afternoon progressed, Colonel Fitzwilliam received a letter from Georgiana that he read immediately sharing it with his cousin.
“Darcy, why is Georgiana concerned about your physical activity? She writes that you must walk each morning around Rosings Park… the meadows… she specified that you must view the meadows in the early morning.”
“What?” Darcy asked as he held out his hand for the letter that Richard handed for his cousin to read.
“She worries that I spent too much time indoors last month. I suppose she did not see that I brought horses to ride while at Rosings Park.”
“But walking will add to your physical well-being,” his cousin insisted with a teasing tone. “When next I write to my sweetest cousin, I must be able to report you are taking walks every day.”
Smirking, Darcy said, “Very well. And since I am to rise so early in the morning, you will make my excuses to Lady Catherine when I do not join the after-dinner discussions with the ladies and our visitors.
“Darcy…why would you leave me alone with the lioness and her jackals?” complained Richard.
++++
With the windows of his room facing east, the rising sun woke William Darcy before anyone else above stairs. His valet stumbled into the room to help Mr Darcy dress though the man declined to be shaved.
“We shall wait until you are full awake before bringing your razor close to my throat,” he joked lightly with the sleepy servant. He walked down the stairs lightly, attempting to be silent but still found the butler coming toward the door as he reached the bottom stair.
“I shall walk this morning,” he told the man before he slipped through the front door.
The sun was well above the horizon as Darcy took a well-known path that led him in the direction of Hunsford, the pleasant church that served the community around Rosings Park.
He turned into the park and noted the fog rising from the fields.
After twenty minutes of walking, he saw a pair of figures ahead of him in the mists.
A farm boy of about eight or nine with a floppy hat walked beside a woman wrapped in a shawl and wearing a straw bonnet held in place by a long ribbon; some gentlewoman was also walking in the park this morning with an escort from a nearby farm.
He followed without intention of catching them when she stopped to watch as the boy frightened ducks on a pond and the flock rose in the morning air, a thunderous cacophony of quacking and beating wings.
Laughing at the boy’s antics, she turned in profile and Darcy felt his breath catch.
++++
Henry Jones proved to be an active, curious farm boy when he arrived at the parsonage just after the sun rose above the horizon. Elizabeth slipped from the house with a warm bun for each of them to eat and with the gift of bread, she made a friend for life.
“Miss Eliza where would ye like to walk?” he asked after chewing and swallowing the bread.
Eating her bun more slowly, Elizabeth pointed toward the park and said, “I have been told the meadows are particularly beautiful in the mornings.”
“I don’t know ‘bout beautiful, but we got meadows where th’ sheeps and cows keep down th’ grass. Come, I’ll show ye,” Henry insisted.
The paths were laid out well and wide enough for a pony cart to traverse with ease. The trees appeared to be naturally planted but Elizabeth noted where careful logging had opened vistas and views. They came to a large pond with a stream and a large flock of ducks floating toward them.
Henry whispered, “Wanna see ‘em fly?”
The boy bent over, slipped closer to the pond and then rose with shout while flinging his arms upwards. Startled, the entire flock of ducks rose from the water, filling the morning air with their raucous calls and the sound of beating wings.
Elizabeth turned to watch the ducks fly off.
++++
Then a familiar voice called out, “Miss Elizabeth? Miss Bennet, what are you doing in Kent?”
Turning toward the sound, Elizabeth froze, thinking she imaged Mr Darcy’s tall figure here, but then seeing he was truly standing on the path before her, she smiled and beckoned him closer with her open hand.
The man’s steps lengthened until he stood in front of her for a moment, then he lifted her hand to his lips for a kiss on the back of her glove.
His eyes raised to search her face for a moment and all he could see find was joy and happiness in her eyes.
“Mr Darcy…I…what are you doing in Kent?” she stuttered in surprize.
“Mr Darcy come down from Londontown to help the colonel find Miss de Bourgh a husband,” Henry announced. “Everyone hears Lady Catherine gave up marrying her daughter t’ Mr Darcy and now she’ll pick a name from a hat and marry her daughter to money.”
“What?” Elizabeth asked horrified by the boy’s tale. “Is this true?”
Darcy stared at the farm boy for a moment before he turned to Elizabeth and explained, “My cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, is here to interview and select a gentleman to marry our cousin, Anne. He asked me to come and aid with interviewing the gentlemen.”