Pride and Sloth (Pride and Other Sins #2)

Prologue

Mr Bennet loved for life to follow expected patterns, and he had set up his life’s patterns to be those of ease in the peace and quiet of solitude in his library.

His library was set up for pleasure. Volume after volume of plays and poetry, classical literature of all kinds, biographies and histories, politics and the sciences.

He had a desk in the room, of course, and a shelf full of ledgers.

That corner of the library was also where the volumes on agricultural techniques, animal husbandry, and tenant relations could be found.

Currently there was one open ledger on the desk, and a pile of correspondence teetered on top of its splayed pages.

But his eyes were very adept at avoiding that particular corner of the room.

His usual seat was an extremely comfortable chair, with its leather upholstery depressed slightly, perfectly formed to his body.

On a table to his left rested a lamp whose shade offered the perfect height and angle to light the pages of a newspaper or book, and on a table to his right was a bottle of brandy and a single glass.

The chair was positioned in front of the fireplace, but the early-morning fire that had taken the damp out of the room had been extinguished several hours ago, and the fireplace was now hidden with a decorative fireboard.

A hassock provided the comfort of stretching out his legs and elevating his feet, and a bell-pull was ready to hand in case he required tea or food.

The room was practically soundproof, and Mr Bennet was enjoying his usual quiet perusal of the newspaper that had arrived with the post. Suddenly, a knock at the door interrupted his amusement over Parliament’s usual antics, before it adjourned for the summer.

“Who is there?” he asked in a slightly petulant voice.

“Papa, it is Jane.”

Mr Bennet registered surprise to hear the voice of his eldest daughter. When Lizzy was home, she came to the library at least once a day, but it was rare for any of the other girls to do so.

“Come in,” he said.

Jane did not just walk in, as he had expected; she bustled in and swept about the room, shelving books that were strewn about on tables, straightening the fireboard, and checking on the water in the pitcher and brandy in its bottle.

She sounded the bell and asked Hill, who promptly responded, to bring in two fresh glasses.

Then she sat at Mr Bennet’s desk and began to sort the hillock of letters into neat piles.

Mr Bennet regarded all of this activity with raised eyebrows.

Jane had never acted thusly before, and he could not for the life of him imagine his daughter’s motivation to do so that day.

He considered requesting an explanation, but then he would have to listen as she mouthed all the polite nothings that she always expressed, and he realised that, if she wished to straighten up his library beyond what the maid had done that morning, that was well and good.

He turned his attention back to his newspaper.

Astonishingly, Jane interrupted him a second time, saying, “Papa? I think you should read these two letters.”

Mr Bennet looked up at her, feeling a bit irritated with the interruptions but also amused to see her act so counter to her nature.

He did not say a word.

She said exactly one more word: “Now.”

Mr Bennet reached to take the letters from her hand.

Glancing at the handwriting, he recognised that one letter was from his Elizabeth, and the other was from his brother, Gardiner.

Each was only a single piece of paper. Although he was inclined to put off reading them to a later time, with Jane looking so very un-Jane-like before him, he went ahead and opened the message from Lizzy.

London, 18th of July

Dear Papa,

I will be coming home next week, and the man who is courting me (as Uncle Edward let you know by letter in May) is coming to the Meryton area with his sister and a friend who has leased Netherfield Park.

My suitor, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, wishes to speak with you, hopefully the day that we all first arrive, July 24.

This is a very serious relationship that I am convinced will conclude with marriage.

Uncle highly respects and approves of Mr Darcy, who is more than capable of supporting me and any children we may be blessed with.

I know you will consider the benefits to me of this match, and in addition I wish to assure you that each of us holds a tender regard for the other.

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Your loving daughter,

Lizzy

“I know nothing about a suitor! And a very serious relationship? Lizzy is merely eighteen years old—what can she and your uncle be thinking?”

“Perhaps, if you had opened and read your mail, you would have known about her suitor,” Jane said as she tapped the other letter, still in his hand.

Her voice was surprisingly firm, but then she reverted to being her characteristic self, and she blathered on about being sorry, and not meaning to be harsh, and she loved her papa, and she wished she could be a better daughter… .

Mr Bennet ignored Jane's chatter and opened the letter from Gardiner.

Dated the 17th of May, his brother spelled out the particulars of a man who had been calling on Lizzy and now wished to escort her publicly to events.

Gardiner included many details in his description, but it all boiled down to a man with wealth, an ancient name, connexions to nobility, and an excellent reputation.

What on earth was a man like that doing courting his daughter? She had almost no dowry, no inheritance, few connexions….

Just a minute! Today is….

Mr Bennet’s stomach clenched as he consulted his newspaper—and found that, yes, as he thought, today was the 24th of July. They were coming today—his favourite daughter and her apparently perfect suitor.

Mr Bennet’s face paled and his stomach sank as he contemplated the fact that his precious peace and quiet would be seriously disrupted, possibly for days rather than minutes or hours.