Chapter Fourteen
When Elizabeth returned downstairs the following day, having taken a tray in her room and retiring early the previous afternoon, she was grateful that not only were Jane and Mr Bingley not present in the drawing room, but that the two households avoided each other for at least a sennight.
Elizabeth waited each day for a reply from Georgiana, but none came.
She wondered if Mr Darcy had returned to Pemberley immediately after Mrs Wickham’s wedding.
Was he, as she had fretted in her letter to his sister, now disgusted by Lydia and her new husband?
The gentleman had every right to shield himself and his family from theirs now, if he found it necessary.
Mr Bennet had not wasted any time during said sennight.
Elizabeth noted him coming and going from the soldier’s camp, as well as sending and receiving mail from their cousin in Hunsford.
However, he did not speak on either matter until a letter arrived from Hunsford a week after Jane’s call, presumably in answer to one or more Mr Bennet had sent earlier that week.
“Mary, Kitty, I wish to speak with you.” Mr Bennet folded his newspaper one morning and laid it by his plate as his two middle daughters straightened at his attention.
“I have given what Jane said to us all a great deal of thought, and I have come to the conclusion that I will have no peace whatsoever until I do as she bids and take steps. We have waited for your mother to bring you all up to scratch, but it is my responsibility to see you married, and so I have made inquiries.”
“Papa?” Kitty whispered in horror. “I wish to be married, but always thought I would do my own choosing, like Jane and Lydia.”
“If you are thinking of choosing like Lydia, it is best that I step in,” Mr Bennet said.
“I have decided that as Lizzy said, this fortune has been nothing but a curse. It has turned you all against one another, and caused far too much hardship. If I am not supporting all of you girls any longer, then the income of Longbourn will suit my need for books and port well enough. I would rather use the remaining funds from the investment to acquire my own peace and tranquility.”
“So you will give all the girls a dowry?” Mrs Bennet asked from her place across from him.
“It rather sounds like he plans to pay men to marry us. I do hope I am incorrect,” Elizabeth observed.
“And I am not certain if it was the actual fortune that turned the family against one another, or rather our parents setting us up against one another in competition for the money. Jane, Kitty, and Lydia might have been drawn in, but I want no part of it.”
“Not you, Lizzy, I do not have enough to pay a man to tolerate your impertinence by half,” Mr Bennet raised a brow at his daughter.
“You are no trouble to have in the house, and you are helpful enough with the tenants to merit the cost of feeding you and giving you pin money, that is if you even remain in Meryton and do not go running off to your uncle. I cannot see any evil in you remaining unwed, in any case. Just because Jane has turned against you does not mean she could possibly suggest that you would expose us to ridicule like Lydia has.”
“I hope you do not suggest that I am as likely to cause trouble as Lydia or Kitty!” Mary cried in mortification.
“No, but you are tedious, and Jane has made it plain that no matter how comfortable her circumstances, you cannot expect her support.” Mr Bennet was impassive as he answered his third daughter.
“Lizzy apparently has an invitation to Gracechurch Street. Since my brother has made it, I will let him concern himself with her. You, Mary, you and your mother do not get on. Even with her income doubled, she might not consent to keep you. So I have written to my Cousin Collins and asked him to consider you. There is ten thousand of the investment left. If he takes you to wife, half of it will be yours and the other half will be for Kitty.”
“Why Mary, that is providential!” Mrs Bennet became immediately excited. “If you marry your cousin, we will have this house. Mr Collins will gain an appropriate wife for a clergyman, and he will also have a wife who will know Longbourn and Meryton! What an excellent situation!”
“If you do not mind, I might have preferred Mr Collins to propose to me on my own merits.” Mary’s face darkened.
“Perhaps I do not wish to marry a clergyman at all! Perhaps I want to go to London with Lizzy. And why would I invite a mother who might not keep me if my father was dead to live in my home once I did marry?”
“You have not been invited to London with Lizzy.” Mr Bennet answered sardonically before turning to Kitty.
“I will not be expected to consider Mr Collins if he does not want Mary, will I?” Kitty whimpered, obviously terrified.
“No Kitty,” her father replied. “That will not be your fate. Believe it or not, I have taken a care for each of your temperaments, or at least I thought I had. I have spoken to Colonel Forster about a suitable man from the regiment. He suggested Captain Denny, and after speaking with the young man, I agree that he is an ideal candidate. He is the only surviving son of a gentleman from Derbyshire who was sent into the militia to keep him busy while he awaits his inheritance, which I understand should happen rather soon. He has recently had word that his father is dying. Captain Denny must sell his commission and return to his family estate soon. I understand that the place needs repairs, which is where your dowry will come in.”
“Poor Captain Denny!” Kitty said anxiously. “To be losing his father and be facing such troubles on his own! But Papa, if he spends my dowry on his estate, and then I am widowed, how will I live? Even Lydia’s dowry was protected for her. Mr Bingley said so! And Mama’s!”
“That will be a matter between you and Captain Denny, though I understand that his estate at least boasts a dower house.” Mr Bennet was obviously unconcerned.
Elizabeth wanted to spill his coffee into his lap.
Kitty was correct. It was Papa’s responsibility to protect Kitty’s dowry for her widowhood, but it was obvious he just wanted her gone.
“Mr Collins has written that he will arrive tomorrow, and stay as Jane and Bingley’s guests at Netherfield.
Both of you girls are to receive calls from these young men.
If they propose marriage, I expect you to accept. ”
“Papa, to expect them to just accept these proposals without any courtship or preparation at all is extreme!” Elizabeth cried. “How could you just pay a man to marry Mary and Kitty and take them away! ‘Tis barbaric!”
“‘Tis the way of the world, Lizzy.” Her father shook his head at her patronisingly.
“We pay men to marry our daughters and take them away. I did it with Jane. Bingley did it with Lydia, and if he is lucky he will pay some man to take Miss Bingley away too. As I say, the only reason I cannot pay anyone to marry you is because I have never earned enough in all my days to accomplish such a feat.”
He turned back to Mary and Kitty. “Besides, nothing is certain, not even the young men. Even Mr Collins and Captain Denny are undecided. They have only agreed to visit and speak with you, but I have made my wishes plain to you both. Make yourselves agreeable. Accept if you are asked.”
“Of course they will accept, Mr Bennet. Neither of them are stupid girls, and they are very good matches too.” Mrs Bennet had her say in the matter.
“I only wish you had taken such an interest years ago. You have managed the matter remarkably well, even if it is a terrible shame that all the money had to be given away to get them married, and that we shall be saddled with Lizzy until we are old and grey.”
“Do not forget, there is still your additional portion, Mrs Bennet.” Mr Bennet took up his paper again. “The interest will provide for me generously in books and port until my death, but then you will have the security you have always wanted.”
Mrs Bennet giggled as Elizabeth quivered with outrage. “Too true, you have been properly generous, Mr Bennet. I am gratified indeed.”
The following afternoon, Elizabeth paced back and forth across the bedroom she still shared with Mary.
She was outraged with her father, not only for having arranged this farce and for making Mary and Kitty feel that they had no choice but to comply, but also for forbidding her below stairs until the gentlemen left, not wishing for her demeanour to affect the choices of the men or her sisters.
She watched as the two couples accompanied each other into the garden, and later up the lane.
They returned perhaps an hour later. It had been a long walk for Mary and Kitty, who ventured out often to the village or the homes of their neighbours, but did not often take such long rambles without any other purpose.
Elizabeth was appalled when the two couples returned quite companionably from the lane, obviously much more comfortable together than when they departed the gardens.
It was obvious to her that the proposals had been made and her sisters had accepted.
How could they? How could they let their father and mother browbeat them into loveless marriages just because Jane did not want to find herself responsible for them?
She sat at the end of the bed she shared with Mary for nearly two hours, waiting for her sisters to return as they had promised to do.
While she waited, she had nothing to do besides worry that she had still heard nothing from Georgiana since Lydia’s marriage, and she was rather overdue for a letter from Priscilla too.
Her friends would not turn against her because of who her sister wed, would they?