Chapter 18 #2
“Where are you two going?” Lady Elaine asked, although she was sure she knew. Andrew and William had arrived barely an hour ago on horseback ahead of the carriage, sprinted upstairs to bathe, and after a perfunctory greeting to her and her husband, they were calling for their horses again.
“Do not tease the boys, Elaine; you know full well where they are off to and why,” Lord Reggie grinned at his son and nephew. “If your purpose is to secure a Bennet daughter, then you have our hearty approval and all I can say is it’s about time.”
Without another word, the two made for the entrance, and were soon riding toward Longbourn. After the ride from London, they did not push their horses. Soon enough, they were handing their reins to a Longbourn groom.
“Viscount Hilldale and Mr. Darcy,” Hill announced. Although it was good to see Gigi, the two were disappointed the three older Bennet sisters were absent, especially the eldest two.
After he greeted Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Andrew was about to ask where the other sisters were when the youngest Bennet exclaimed, “MARY!” When the two men turned, to their delight, they spied the two sisters they desired to see, but they were astounded, for between them was Miss Mary Bennet.
She was not wearing spectacles. her hair was styled in a becoming coiffure, and she wore a yellow day dress.
“Mary, you look so much like Jane, but with dark hair like Lizzy. You are beautiful!” Kitty said in wonder.
She had heard Charlotte’s words; she had not believed it would be so, but her eyes could not lie to her.
The two men were speechless, as though they had watched a butterfly emerge from its cocoon.
“I think I know why my Mary hid herself from the world, and I must beg your forgiveness, my beautiful daughter. I will not speak ill of the dead, but you know to what I refer. Rather than protect you. I laughed. Please forgive me, Mary,” Bennet beseeched his middle daughter.
“Of course, I forgive you, Papa,” Mary granted gently, feeling like a princess, and relieved she would never need to hide herself away again.
“It was my fault, Mary,” Lydia said softly, head down.
“Of what do you speak, Lyddie?” Mary asked as she walked further into the room.
“You know how Mama used to dote on me?” Mary and the other girls all nodded. “When I was about five, I was jealous as you were so pretty, so I started making comments to Mama. It was not long after that she started to call you plain and denigrate your looks. I am so sorry, Mary,” Lydia admitted.
“I remember now, I was eight or nine when Mama started to say those things to me,” Mary recalled.
“It was not your fault, Lydia,” Charlotte stated.
“No matter what you said, you were but a small child who reacted as a small child would. You did not make your late mother do or say anything. She was the adult, and she made her decisions, not you. You have heard the saying: you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink?”
“I have,” Lydia sniffled, as the weight of her perceived guilt had caused her to cry.
“What does it mean, Lydia?” Charlotte pressed.
“It means…” Lydia went silent as Charlotte’s meaning hit her. “I should not have said what I did, but it was Mama’s choice to say what she did.”
“Charlotte is correct, Lydia,” Bennet told his daughter as he pulled her into a hug. “If each of us had to apologise for every silly thing we did when we were young children, we would never do anything but apologise.
“I agree with Papa and Charlotte; Lyddie, I forgive you, and I do not hold you responsible for Mama’s actions. She said those things to me until she left this world, and no one besides herself was forcing her to do so,” Mary relieved Lydia’s guilty feeling.
“Once our neighbours see you, Mary, they will not know who you are; they will think Jane suddenly has a twin sister with darker hair,” Mariah observed. “What a proud aunt I am,” she jested.
“I have an idea,” Elizabeth said, “the December assembly will be the first Friday of the month; that is where most of our neighbours can see Mary looking as she always could have, for the first time.”
“I will make sure Richard will arrive before the assembly,” Andrew said quietly to Darcy. “He liked her as she was before, but I want to see his face when he sees Miss Mary now.” Darcy nodded in agreement.
Just then Hill announced the Earl and Countess of Matlock.
“Hello everyone…” Lady Elaine stopped midsentence as her eyes rested on Mary.
“Mary, is that you?” Mary nodded, her smile spreading as she saw the approval of her efforts in Lady Matlock’s eyes.
“Richard said you were hiding your light, but my goodness, you are gorgeous, Mary!”
It made Mary warm all over to think that Richard Fitzwilliam had seen past the severe facade she presented to the world and detected that there was more to her. “Bennet, before any other surprises reveal themselves, may I speak to Miss Bennet in private?” Andrew requested.
“And may I have a private interview with Miss Elizabeth?” Darcy managed; his eyes riveted to Elizabeth.
Charlotte gave both named Bennet sisters an ‘I told you so’ look, and both looked anywhere but at their sometimes-too-perceptive stepmother.