Chapter Three
The sun was bright as Elizabeth emerged from Longbourn late in the morning to find the wagons waiting with baskets and gifts for the tenants. Jane followed her as two open carriages turned into the drive, with Mr Bingley, Mr Darcy, Lady Priscilla, and Miss Darcy.
“Good day to you all!” Mr Bingley greeted them as he stepped down. “What a splendid day we have for our outing. The weather is almost unseasonable!”
He turned to Mrs Bennet, who had joined the others by the door, as a servant approached with a crate that was handed off to Mr Hill. “Mrs Bennet, in the spirit of Michaelmas and in gratitude for your family’s warm welcome to Meryton, please accept this crate of claret for your table.”
“Oh, Mr Bingley, what a lovely addition your charming household will make to Hertfordshire!” Mrs Bennet giggled.
“Now, Jane, do you have your parasol? Girls, do you all have your parasols and bonnets? Most of my girls are so good about their bonnets, Mr Bingley. Unlike Lizzy, who is always coarse and brown. Is not dear Jane’s porcelain beauty radiant? ”
“I think that Miss Elizabeth appears to be in the glow of healthful and vibrant vitality,” Mr Darcy interrupted suddenly, then reddened. Elizabeth looked at him curiously, her cheeks also turning pink.
Lady Priscilla noticed Mrs Bennet eyeing Elizabeth and Darcy with suspicion, and spoke up to distract her. “Indeed! After the loss of our cousin, who was always weak and unwell after scarlet fever, I think our family quite appreciates the bloom of health and vigour.”
“Miss Bennet, would you and any of your sisters that you prefer like to join me in my carriage?” asked Mr Bingley.
“Yes, thank you, Mr Bingley,” Jane answered, blushing in pleasure. She turned to her sisters.
“Oh! Miss Elizabeth and Miss Mary, do come with us in our carriage!” Georgiana cried before the two Bennet sisters that she had spoken with the night before were claimed.
“We can budge up and make room for two more! Miss Elizabeth is so slight she will hardly take up any room. We will be quite snug!”
“If you are certain it is no trouble.” Elizabeth eyed Mr Darcy hesitantly as he quickly stepped down from the carriage to hand the two young ladies in.
As he handed her up, Elizabeth was keenly aware of the strong, masculine hand beneath his glove, even through her own.
She hesitated again, her eyes meeting his in shared surprise at the unexpected moment.
“Very well, Kitty, Lydia, join me and Mr Bingley.” Jane accepted Mr Bingley’s hand up into the carriage. “Kitty, mind your bonnet strings, dear.”
Jane turned to Mr Bingley when they were all settled. “Your sisters will not join us?”
“Caroline and Louisa are rather more fond of town events than anything that can be enjoyed in the country,” Mr Bingley answered affably.
“I hope to be fonder of town events than the country one day,” Kitty observed. “Perhaps if Aunt Gardiner would ever invite us younger sisters to visit.”
“Oh, Kitty, do hush! How you do go on!” Mrs Bennet tutted, then waved the wagons and carriages away as she followed the servants back into the house.
“Miss Darcy, tell me about the Michaelmas traditions your tenants enjoy in Derbyshire,” Elizabeth gave the younger girl something to speak of without awkwardness.
“Oh, I insist you both call me Georgiana, or Georgie!” the younger lady exclaimed.
“Only if your guardian approves,” Elizabeth turned towards Darcy, who nodded his permission. “And if you agree to call me Lizzy.”
“I should like it very much if you called me Mary. I have never had a friend with whom I went by first names with, at least no one who I do not already know well from growing up with them in the village,” Miss Mary was quick to supply.
Darcy exchanged a glance with his cousin.
Priscilla raised a brow. When ladies befriended Georgiana and asked her about Pemberley in order to get close to him, they did not begin by asking about the tenants.
This alteration intrigued him. Priscilla informed him after the assembly the night before that Miss Elizabeth was an interesting young lady, and that she and Georgiana both anticipated the opportunity to befriend her.
This was high praise, indeed. Priscilla was cordial enough among other women her age, but Darcy had never heard her enthuse about the company of other young ladies before. Miss Elizabeth must be a singular individual.
After listening to Georgiana explain in detail the customs of Pemberley, Miss Elizabeth shared a little with the others about what was often done differently in Hertfordshire, then encouraged her sister to tell Miss Darcy what music she was practising at home.
In less than twenty minutes, the wagons and carriages had travelled into a small village of Longbourn’s tenant cottages.
There was a green nearby with a tremendous sycamore in the centre.
Women, children, and a few men bustled about, carrying pies, tankards, large platters, and crockery filled with food to and from.
Because the feast day fell upon the day of rest, the women were all busy doing as much of the preparation as possible today.
The men and young people were out working, or attending the hiring fair, where they would seek new contracts for work in the upcoming year.
The next day after church the estate village and farmers would celebrate the feast day together.
A boy ran up to Miss Elizabeth with a basket and cried, “Miss Lizzy, see ‘ere ‘ow many blackberries I picked!”
“The best harvest I have ever seen, Henry!” she exclaimed in reply. “Did you win the picking contest?”
“Yes, ma’am, I din’t leave a single berry for Ol’ Nick ta piss on.1” The boy sped back to his mother as Elizabeth clapped a hand over her mouth to hold in her laughter.
The Bennet daughters gave a basket to each tenant, which, as Elizabeth predicted, was easy work, due to someone from nearly every family being present on the green.
Darcy and Bingley, in a show of gratitude for the Bennet’s care of their Netherfield neighbours, gave each family a token gift of money.
The Bennets and their new friends cried out their farewells as they boarded their carriages and made their way to Netherfield’s village.
The scene they found there was much the same.
Darcy noted that Netherfield’s people were nearly as well cared for as those of Longbourn.
Not as prosperous as the tenants of Pemberley, but few gentlemen were as good to their people as Darcy.
He was impressed by the good gentlefolk of Meryton, who looked after the tenants of their negligent neighbours with such kindness.
In Netherfield’s tenant village, Darcy and Bingley handed out small purses of money, twice as much as they had given to the tenants at Longbourn, in a show of goodwill.
Darcy noted Elizabeth encouraging exchanges of crops and vegetables between tenants, giving every family a generous share of a variety of foods that would take them through the winter.
Darcy observed as Miss Bennet introduced Bingley to some of his tenants with the serene self-assurance of one speaking with those she had known well all her life.
Bingley was watching the young lady chat with the tenants about their harvests or their families as if she was a royal princess.
The young lady blushed in quiet pleasure when she noticed, and though she gave no other indication of her feelings, she was obviously not entirely immune to Darcy’s friend.
He thought that if she was all that she appeared, Miss Bennet was a remarkably lady-like woman who could be an asset to Bingley.
There may not be any obvious connections to make the match desirable, but from whispers he had overheard at the assembly, there was some dowry.
Bingley rarely remained interested in a lady for very long, but perhaps now he would be different.
He was in the country to learn if he would be any good at managing an estate; he was considering his future with great seriousness, and contemplating whether he would fulfill his father’s desire that he become a gentleman landowner.
This new gravity might very well lead him to a lady who would be an advantage to that endeavour.
Darcy turned back to find his sister making corn dollies with Miss Elizabeth and Miss Mary. Suddenly, Miss Elizabeth’s head snapped up as someone walked by. She reached behind her and pulled her youngest sister’s elbow.
“Lydia!” Elizabeth handed the girl a small purse and nodded to a woman in her sixties. “There is Queenie.”
“What was that about, Miss Elizabeth?” Darcy asked curiously, as Miss Lydia raced after the woman.
“Oh! That is Meryton’s finest midwife, Queenie. Her husband twisted his leg terribly in a farming accident two months ago. He is nearly mended, but Queenie did not have money for the rent today.”
Miss Lydia pressed the purse into the woman’s hand, and the woman embraced the youngest Bennet with tears in her eyes, then approached Netherfield’s steward who was walking and talking with a farmer.
“You paid her rent?” Darcy said in surprise.
“It was only fifteen shillings.” Elizabeth blushed, and bowed her head modestly.
“We all contributed. Since we were small girls, our Grandmother Bennet always required us to perform an act of generosity at Michaelmas. Since we are older and have our own pin money now, we put it together, to perform a greater act of giving than any of us could manage on our own. There are five of us, so it was only three shillings each, and we have saved for it all summer. We only wished we could pay their next quarter as well, to give them some further assistance, for by the time Mr Turritt is able to return to work, there will be little labour to sustain them, and they saved nothing for the winter due to his fall.”
“I should like to be of assistance!” Georgiana cried. “Please, allow me to contribute!”