Chapter Fifteen
Longbourn
Meryton, Hertfordshire
Dear Priscilla,
I write with news. My father has arranged marriages for Mary and Kitty.
I admit I objected strenuously, because I wish for my sisters to choose for love, but the men my father chose for them have negotiated their terms with my sisters kindly, and they are both truly hopeful that they will find happiness in their new situations.
There is very good news as well. Kitty will marry Captain Denny, who is the heir to an estate perhaps an hour’s drive from Lambton, and Mary will marry Mr Collins, who is amenable to living at the rectory in Lambton so that Mary and Kitty might be close to one another.
And I am to travel to the north and live with them, either by turns, or perhaps just with one or the other once their households are settled.
I am very happy that we shall all be so close to Miss Darcy, and I understand that Matlock is not a terrible journey.
That is, if Mr and Miss Darcy do not object to my friendship since my sister has wed.
I understand that the name Wickham is not well-regarded in Derbyshire.
It has been some time since I last heard from Georgie.
If your cousins would prefer not to recognise the friendship further due to the undesirable connection, I must of course accept it, for I rather wish I was not connected to Mr Wickham either.
Is the season all that you expected? Have you any suitors? I know that you speak of most men with contempt, but surely one must sweep you off of your feet eventually. Did you see King Lear? Was the performance a good one? I must hope to see it myself, perhaps when I visit my aunt and uncle again.
I regret that we will not enjoy the spring together in London, as we planned.
Though as you know I planned to go to my uncle once I reach my majority, Mary and Kitty insist they cannot travel north without me to advise them, so I look forward to seeing you in the summer, my friend, when your family travels to Matlock.
The wedding is on the sixteenth of March, only four days before my birthday.
After that, we travel north, and I shall be at Lambton Parsonage, or Captain Denny’s estate, which I believe is known as Hawthorne Vale, near Kympton. I look forward to your next letter.
Lizzy
Monday 9 March
Newcastle
Dear Kitty,
I promised Mama that though married women never have time for writing, I would write as soon as we arrived in Newcastle and I have very nearly kept my promise, for we arrived Saturday, and I could hardly be expected to correspond on a Sunday.
Mama’s letter arrived ahead of us and was waiting when we arrived, George’s colonel kept it safe for us.
How fun it is that you are to be married!
You have my congratulations on finding your own officer, even if George is thrice as handsome as Denny.
But how dull that if you were to marry Captain Denny in a double wedding, you must do it with boring Mary and Mr Collins.
You ought to have been married with George and me in London!
Think of how exciting it would have been with both our husbands together in their regimentals!
And how dull it is that you must go live in Derbyshire on some dreary estate with no one for miles to talk to, even if boring Mary and Mr Collins are to live nearby.
Who cares about them? It seems I must give Mary my congratulations as well.
I suppose one of us ought to have caught Papa’s heir.
Now Mama may never complain again, for all I care.
But I still say you and Denny ought to have gotten another commission and joined us in Newcastle.
But you have been very sly, Kitty, for you never said a word about Denny, not before I left for London, nor when I returned with my husband. You shall have to write to me and tell me everything.
It is very cold here in Newcastle. My clothes shall not be sufficient, and I fear I shall freeze to death.
I hope Mama and Papa will forward funds for my wedding clothes soon.
Our rooms are small but clean but there are no linens or dishes, and I have no way to make it comfortable.
George says I was supposed to bring those items with me, that a bride ought to have a trunk of such items, but no one told me.
I am sure none of that will matter when we begin to make friends.
There are so many handsome officers here, and I am sure we will dine with the colonel and dance in the assembly rooms every night.
It really is too bad that you and Denny must go to Derbyshire.
You may write to me if it is too dull, though I cannot promise to reply, I am sure I will be very busy.
Lydia
The fortnight following the engagement was an exercise in persuading Jane to stop objecting to Mary and Kitty’s wedding on every possible merit.
Mrs Bennet was at first overjoyed at the idea of a double wedding, there had never been one in Meryton in her memory, and she was determined to make a good show of the affair.
Then Jane began to worry. Oh how Jane could worry, Elizabeth mused. No one did it quite so cunningly.
“A double wedding!” Mrs Bennet danced about the drawing room. “Two daughters married in one day, why the whole county will speak of nothing else for a year!”
“The whole county?” Jane looked up from a list that she was helping with. “Are we certain we want the whole county to be speaking of Mary and Kitty?”
“You had your day, Jane, now your sisters will have theirs. If only one of these young men were as rich as Mr Bingley, then we might have all the flowers we wanted, but-”
Jane interrupted her mother. “Oh, Mama, are you quite certain that is wise?”
“Whyever would it not be wise, Jane Bingley?” Mrs Bennet huffed.
“Of course, if Mary and Kitty insist upon a very public wedding, then they should have it. I had the wedding of my dreams, but I only wonder if people will wonder why they are marrying at the same time.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Elizabeth was, as usual, outraged each time Jane opened her mouth.
Now that she had made up her mind to accompany her sisters north, she could not wait to leave Meryton, Jane, and her parents behind.
But first, Elizabeth had to get Mary and Kitty married, and she was determined to see the deed done without so much of Jane’s interference.
“Kitty is so very young. And after the recent scandal with Lydia, it might be wondered if Mary were marrying at the same time to take attention away from Kitty marrying in such haste,” Jane pointed out sensibly.
“And then when Kitty does not give birth in four months, because she is not in trouble, Jane, people will forget all about it.” Elizabeth frowned at her sister.
She had prayed that Jane would be content after her wedding, but it seemed like the attention she received from Mr Bingley and society had gone to her head, and she was determined not to share any of it.
“Lizzy you can be so naive sometimes,” Jane tutted. “It will not matter when her first child is born. The fact that people spoke of the matter is enough.”
“Jane, we cannot spend every second giving you the world while denying every good thing to your sisters just because you worry endlessly about what people will say if the county notices we exist.” Elizabeth could not help but sound irritable.
“Elizabeth Bennet, if you wish to stay in this house until your sisters’ wedding, you had better speak to Jane with the respect her position is entitled to.” Mrs Bennet chided.
“As the wife of a tradesman, Mrs Bingley is beneath me in society, I am afraid, at least until I marry, then we will know what my status will be…but I assure you that will not prevent me from treating my sister with the civility she deserves,” Elizabeth’s barb was sharp and unapologetic.
“I do not care what Mrs Bingley worries about. She has had her way, and her sisters are being sent away into marriage so they will plague her no more. There is no earthly reason why Kitty and Mary’s wedding ought to be hidden like a filthy chamberpot. That will cause unnecessary talk.”
Jane drew back as if slapped, then her eyes welled up. “I never meant to suggest that Kitty had done something wrong! I would never say that!”
“Of course you would not.” Elizabeth snipped a thread from her needlework and began rummaging in her bag for another colour of thread.
“I also fear that while their gentlemen are respectable, of course, I thought perhaps a quieter affair might bring them less embarrassment.” Jane attempted next.
“Heavens, Mrs Bingley! Captain Denny is the son of a gentleman with the expectation of an impending inheritance, and Mr Collins is a clergyman, a man with three livings in an honourable profession, also with the expectation of an inherited estate. If your husband could mitigate his mortification, I am certain these gentlemen will manage.” Elizabeth was putting up with no more of Jane Bingley’s barbs.
She might not be so ill bred as to make scenes in public, but in the privacy of Longbourn whenever Jane called, which was often, Elizabeth finally replied to her elder sister with the same venom that Jane presented to her.
Her parents seemed to view Elizabeth as resentful and cruel, but Elizabeth saw them as resentful and cruel, and could not wait to leave them all, and Longbourn, behind.
It was not the investment fortune that had torn the family apart.
It had been Mr Bennet and Mrs Bennet, and Jane had embraced the change with too much acceptance–no, enthusiasm–for Elizabeth to tolerate her company with equanimity.
“Elizabeth Bennet, how dare you say such things to your sister! She is married, and above you!” Mrs Bennet shrieked.
“If you say so, Mrs Bennet.” Elizabeth grinned at Mary. “Sister, do you still have that book of etiquette we used to study? Perhaps we should check just to be sure.”