Chapter Twenty
Lambton Parsonage
Dear Kitty,
Charles and I have been in Lambton for nearly a week, and I am shocked by how little effort you have made to acknowledge me and Mr Bingley.
As you saw, no matter how I felt about Mr and Mrs Wickham, I held a dinner in their honour when they passed through Meryton.
Come to think of it, I would do it for anyone who had recently married and was visiting relations, let alone a sister, but perhaps I am more sentimental than you.
Mary had a small dinner for us at the parsonage last night, though her social circle is small.
Mr Darcy attended, though his cousins and sister did not.
The dinner was also attended by a Dr Morgan and a Mrs James.
Obviously, our sister, being married into the clergy, has few impressive connections, but she did her best.
It is not that I feel entitled to your attention, dearest, but I do worry for your standing in your neighbourhood.
I understand that your estate is in difficulties.
Having your neighbours whispering about you because you snubbed your own relations openly will not help your welcome in your new society.
I regret that I am too ill to pay a morning or afternoon call, although I am always better in the evening. I do hope I will see you and view your home before we continue north.
Jane
“I know I oughtn’t allow her to worry me, but I wish Jane had not come to Derbyshire.” Kitty passed the letter to her husband, who then passed it to Elizabeth after skimming it.
Elizabeth read Jane’s drivel, her eyebrows furrowed.
“What you oughtn’t do is capitulate. No matter how you try, she will make anything seem like an intentional attempt to hurt her.
At least if you do not receive her, you give her no opportunity to mortify you.
Imagine, demanding that you host a dinner for her…
and with Mr Denny upstairs, so ill…Jane ought to be ashamed. ”
“You know she is not wrong. Someone is certain to say something,” Kitty fretted.
“People will be more likely to talk if you attempted to entertain, considering Mr Denny’s condition. Worse, Jane might feel that her status was not considered if it was not grand…but then if it was grand, she would ruin something and make a scene anyway.”
“But perhaps just a small dinner,” Kitty said.
“It seems mad without a housekeeper, but the cook is competent, and the butcher has now been paid. Perhaps just two courses. And with only the Bingleys and the Collinses, and perhaps Mr Darcy, Jane might have less to make a fuss about, and she need not complain of me when she returns to Meryton.”
“I think that you will need to invite at least one or two of your close neighbours for Jane to be content.” Elizabeth thought about who they might ask.
“The curate and his wife, Mr and Mrs Beaumont seem like a good choice. And the other lady Mrs Beaumont called with and introduced you to on Saturday. Mrs Gordenson? I believe they said her husband is an officer, I am certain they will be undemanding guests.”
“Matthew, do you think it is a bad idea?” Kitty asked worriedly. “I do not like to humour Mrs Bingley, but lately it seems best to give her what she demands and hope she moves along. I should hate for her to impose herself upon Mary for weeks waiting for me to acknowledge her.”
“It is a sound idea, Kitty. There will be no entertaining for months once my father is dead, and that will be a relief, for it will give us an excuse not to waste money,” Matthew observed.
“But if you do something small now, even if only a few people are invited, at least there will be some local couple or two who can claim to have been your guest and attest to your fine table and gracious hospitality during the months of our mourning. You learned enough from your mother to set a fine table. There are fewer delicacies here that can be had from London before they perish on the long journey north, so there should be little temptation to overspend.”
He cleared his throat and continued. “You can, however, count upon enough game and local fish to make an impressive show of it, even in the colder months. Most northern landowner tables boast an extensive variety of game. Send a note to these two tenants, and ask them to procure you what is available from the river and the woods. They are the best hunters on the estate, and they keep my father stocked, sharing the position of gamekeeper. Promise them a share of what they catch or shoot for their families, and they will ensure that our table is so well stocked that you will not even require a roast of beef from the butcher. In addition, one of our widowed tenants raises fowl to sell the eggs to gamekeepers who stock estates each year for sport, and as a result, our woods are among the best stocked in the county.”
“We had better plan something immediately then, Lizzy.” Kitty went to a drawer to take out paper and begin making lists.
Kitty did not bother writing back to Jane.
She felt that she would only say something vicious.
Instead, she sent Mary a note inviting Mr and Mrs Collins and their guests to dinner on Thursday.
Then she went to speak to the cook, the head housemaid, and James, who was fast becoming Kitty’s most reliable servant besides the cook, and whom she planned to raise to first footman when the new housekeeper started if he continued to please her.
James assured her that she could count upon him to organise the footmen, and the head housemaid promised one of the downstairs maids to the cook that day and the day before it in order to help her prepare.
The following morning, Elizabeth and Kitty stood in the kitchen speaking to the cook and surveying the fish and hunted game that the two tenants had delivered. Even Kitty realised it was too much, though a share must still be given to the men who obtained it.
“Heavens, I expected a much smaller meal. Mrs Mrs Philpot, are you certain you can manage?”
“Mrs Denny, you are new to these parts, but if I might compliment my own skills, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised. Now, there are more than twice as many eels than we need here, let the game catchers take half, and although we have this lovely brown trout and a pike here, let them take those as well, for stewed eels and this grayling will be more than enough for two courses of fish, I am certain you will agree, ma’am. I am particularly good with grayling.”
“I do agree, but let us be certain to order at least one dish from the butcher. It is lovely that we can do so much from our own resources, but the shopkeepers must make something if we are to entertain,” Kitty said.
The cook continued on as she sorted their alternatives. “That’s a good Christian sentiment, ma’am. I can get tongue from the butcher. The first course will be grand enough that we do not need a roast of beef.”
“Will it?” Kitty asked.
“Oh certainly, Mrs Denny, for we have duck in abundance, and when I make duck, we will have foie gras.”
“Oh,” Kitty was impressed. “That does sound grand.”
“Your skills must be impressive indeed,” Elizabeth complimented the cook. “I thought one must import foie gras from France."
“I have learned a thing or two, miss. Mrs Larkin, who raises the game birds, keeps a flock of ducks specially prepared for me to make foie gras on my half day, though we have not done so in some time. And, Mrs Denny, I sent a boy out looking, and we have some lovely mushrooms, enough for a proper creamed soup that you will approve of very much ma’am. ”
“I am sure I will.” Kitty looked over everything with raised eyebrows. Even her mother would be impressed.
“Now, Mrs Denny, you and Captain Denny are proper run off yer feet looking after Mr Denny and everything else you must manage. Why do you not leave the menu in my hands? We won’t be needing these hares, let the game catchers take ‘em, and half of the venison. That lot an’ the fish will feed their homes well.
I know just what to do with our local game and stored crops, your sister will wish to poach me when she leaves your table. ”
“Of course, that is kind of you. You and I will have many dinners and menus ahead of us to plan another time, and I look forward to it.” Kitty looked down at the household book she had brought from Longbourn, copied from her mother’s household journals, filled with generations of receipts for family dishes from both sides, as well as home remedies, stillroom instructions, and lists of tradesmen from London and Hertfordshire from which one could order goods with confidence.
“I suppose you will not need my old receipts from home,” she faltered, but the cook took it from her with interest.
“Now Mrs Denny, I am confident that you will be excessively pleased by the menu I will create for your first dinner, but I am never so confident that I have nothing left to learn. I would like very much to see your receipts and household secrets from your mother’s house.
I am certain we will use many of them once things have settled down and you inform me of your favourites.
But leave this dinner with me. I heard how your sister has imposed upon you, if you don’t mind my saying.
You know how we hear everything downstairs.
Allow me to manage this while you manage your other business with Captain Denny, and I promise, your sister will not leave with anything unkind to say about your table. ”
“Thank you, Mrs Philpot.” Kitty looked like she would like to hug the lady. “You have taken a great worry from my mind. What will you need to order besides the tongue?”
“I will need a few lemons and perhaps some curry, but most of what we need, we already have or the lord has provided. Off with you now, you ladies must have something more important than menus to attend to.”