Chapter Sixteen
T he fire still burned in the drawing room. Mr. Gardiner had been dozing before the hearth in a well-placed armchair when they returned to Gracechurch Street. Upon their entrance and seeing Jane and Mr. Bingley carefully assisting his wife into the room with Elizabeth trailing behind, he was roused to instant alertness and stood .
“Here, take my chair. You have over-exerted yourself, my dear — I wondered if I ought to protest at so many evenings out for you all. It is one thing for Jane and Lizzy…”
Mrs. Gardiner smiled reassuringly at him, seeking to ease the worried frown from his brow. “Mr. Gardiner, if you are about to make reference to my comparatively advanced years I advise against it. When you hear the happenings of the night you will wonder that I can be so collected as I am!”
He regarded her tenderly for a moment and then smiled. “Well, now I am all anticipation for a recounting.” He looked to Mr. Bingley, who had occupied himself by staring at his blushing eldest niece, and offered his hand. “Forgive me, sir — I gather that I am indebted to you for assisting my wife and nieces home. May I know to whom I owe my gratitude?”
Mr. Bingley shook his hand, smiling. “I beg you would not mention it, sir; it is a small thing to bring my carriage this way and had I known of Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth being in London I should have intruded through your door before this.”
“This is Mr. Bingley, my dear,” offered Mrs. Gardiner with a smile, accepting a small glass of wine from Elizabeth who had been busy pouring it. “Thank you, Lizzy; you will pour one for yourself?”
“Indeed I will not, Aunt, for my head feels as though I have already had twenty glasses of wine at the very least.” She turned a neat pirouette and laughed before bending to stir up the fire. “I will always remember how crisp and cold this night is — only a step from the carriage to the front door and how ready I was to warm up indoors.”
Jane laughed and Mr. Bingley rejoiced to hear it. “A chilly night indeed, Miss Elizabeth — I can only hope my housekeeper has had the forethought of yours, madam. I beg you will excuse me — I am sure after tonight that you will wish to be alone. But,” and here he reached to bow over Jane's hand, “I will give myself the immense pleasure of seeing you tomorrow, if I may be permitted to call after all. No, pray do not rise, Mrs. Gardiner; I would not disturb you for the world.”
“I will see you out, Mr. Bingley. It is a pleasure for me to be able to meet you as well as having merely heard your name, sir.” Mr. Gardiner bade a civil farewell to their unexpected guest and returned to the warmth of the drawing room. Jane had drawn up a chair and sat near her aunt. Elizabeth seemed to be in some agitation of spirits, for in the space of a minute she perched in one chair, rose to readjust the window curtains, pirouetted once more, and finally drew up another chair to the hearth and sat.
“Well now, here is a mystery. Mr. Bingley seems a pleasant and agreeable gentleman, but my good wife has met any number of amiable young men and not one of them has caused an early return in such a manner as this. Shall you tell me, Jane? Or must I tie Elizabeth to her chair in order to hear what has occurred?”
Jane held up a hand. “I feel a little strange, sir. Now that we are here my mind is terribly distracted. Look — my fingers will not obey me and cease their trembling. Lizzy,” she urged her sister, “will you tell our uncle?”
Elizabeth demurred. “I had thought our aunt might like the privilege. I only heard the happenings from Mr. Fitzroy. I had been dancing with Mr. Darcy, you see, and was thus not present.”
Mrs. Gardiner shook her head. “I entered the card room at the worst moment — when Mr. Sutton made that shocking suggestion. Mrs. Houghton hinted that I might wish to see how well you were doing. Before that I had been occupied in watching you , Elizabeth — with Mr. Darcy of Pemberley of all men. You say your hand trembles now, Jane, but when I saw you nod to the man my knees were shaking far more vigorously, I assure you!”
“Did you lose, my niece? Is that what has your aunt so uncharacteristically in a state of disquiet?”
“I did not lose, sir. I won,” answered Jane, rather breathlessly. “I had been counting as carefully as I could, you see, but there were two packs in play, and then Mr. Bingley came, so it was harder. I am sorry to say that I was somewhat distracted.”
“Well, we will leave the subject of that young gentleman alone for now. If you won, what matter? What cause for shaking and trembling?” He paused. “Mrs. Gardiner said she would not be astounded if you won a few hundred guineas one of these evenings, the way you predict cards so accurately. Did you do so?”
Jane could not answer that and again shook her head. In answer to her uncle's expressive look requesting more information, Elizabeth reached to open her reticule and, kneeling down on the rug, tipped the collection of papers on to it.
“For goodness sake, Elizabeth,” exclaimed Mrs. Gardiner, in stricken tones. “At the very least withdraw a little way from the fire!”
“Perhaps you would like to assist with finding the amount, Uncle,” Lizzy said, her eyes dancing now. “I have no head for numbers, as you well know.”
Mr. Gardiner stooped, and with the ease of long practice, began methodically to arrange the papers before him. A few moments later he looked up sharply. “What on earth have you been about, Jane? To have won so much you must have staked thousands of pounds! Elizabeth, have you encouraged this recklessness?”
“No, Uncle, no.” Jane sounded pained by this. “Do not think me reckless. It…it is true that tonight I took a risk I ought not have, but it was not the risk that won this money, sir. By the time Mr. Sutton proposed that we play for the total of the winnings thus far and Mr. Bingley…well, by then I was as confident as I could be that I should turn favourable cards — I was to Mr. Sutton's right, you see.”
“I do not see at all, but I know your honesty, Jane, and if you tell me you were not reckless I believe you. Forgive me, my dear — you will understand this is something of a shock. Your father would quite rightly reproach me for the seeming risk. Indeed, he may well do so. I had thought you were undertaking a fairly harmless scheme amounting to a very handsome personal allowance for yourselves, not…not an entire fortune.”
“An entire dowry, Jane,” said Mrs. Gardiner, now in better command of herself. “Have you thought of that, Jane? That here, spread upon my grandmother's favourite rug, is enough money to make you acceptable to a duke if you were inclined to have one.”
“I want it for my sisters, Aunt, not for myself. It must be shared, and it must be made so that Mama will not worry any longer that we will be destitute when our dear papa is no longer with us.”
“Time enough to think of that tomorrow, or in the days after that even. Fifty thousand pounds in promises! I do not know how I will sleep tonight. Shall I have every housebreaker in London queuing at my windows? Here, Elizabeth, I will see it put in the safe. No, for that is the first place the criminal mind would think to look! Then where ought we put it?”
Elizabeth's response was lighter than her uncle might have desired. Her astonishment was beginning to diminish. “Perhaps the family Bible, sir. If a robber were to open that, he would be suddenly afflicted with a very strong qualm of conscience, repent of his sins, and leave Jane's fortune where he found it.”
“Lizzy,” said her aunt reprovingly, “you must not allow your high spirits to lead you into mockery of your uncle — it is quite fitting that he should be thinking of our security.”
“I beg your pardon, sir — I had not meant it in that way. Very few people in London know where we are staying. Mrs. Houghton made the suggestion that we keep an air of mystery about us and at the time I thought it an amusement. When we are asked where we live, I have usually made a quip that ghosts do not live and neither do they require a place to rest outside of a graveyard. They call us the ghosts, you know, on account of the white dresses.”
“Mr. Bingley knows now, obviously, but his knowing need not worry you, sir.” Jane's manner was one of confidence. “I own that I do not think I will sleep well either. My conscience is troubling me greatly that our aunt has been so overcome, and that I ought not to have remained at that table when Mr. Bingley came.”
“Jane, how can you say so, dearest?” Elizabeth rested a hand on her shoulder. “You prevailed! I have boasted to so many that you always win and indeed I was right.”
“No, Lizzy, it was wrong of me to play. When Mr. Bingley sat beside me, I…I played two rounds with very little thought, as though I played blindly. It was only the veriest chance that I won one of those rounds, and of all things I mistrust it is that!”
“I am sure that you are too hard on yourself.” Mr. Gardiner was a kind man, and did not like to see his niece distressed. “By the time morning comes, you will likely think differently on it. Do not take my words to heart — they were said in a moment of surprise, nothing more.”
“Mama often says all will seem brighter in the morning.”
He nodded. “An expression often uttered by your grandmother. She was not a clever woman but very sweet natured — if any of her three children came to her with tears in an evening we would be sent to bed with the promise that the morrow is much brighter.”
Elizabeth took her sister's hand. “Perhaps we will understand what you mean rather better in the morning as well. I have the strangest feeling that we ought to be jubilant but instead you are regretful and I am…well, I do not know what I am. Happy and bewildered by turns. In my mind I know that this money will make a vast difference — how can it not, given how enormous the amount is? Yet in my heart I do not feel so joyful as this seems to merit! Perhaps,” she said with a smile, “we finally have all the evidence we need that I am not of a mercenary nature. When presented with a fortune I now discover that my happiness does not depend upon one.”
“If I do not miss my guess, Jane, that young man will be knocking on our door very promptly in the morning. Will he even wait for the correct moment for morning calls? That is the question. You would like us to receive him, I suppose.”
Jane's expression was unusually unguarded for her, and her aunt laughed. “I will not make you say it. Now. I find myself excessively hungry — shall we all eat together before we make an attempt to sleep? We will go down to the kitchen ourselves and see what the cook has in the pantry. She will have gone to bed long ago so we are quite safe.”
Mr. Gardiner rubbed his hands. “I have not crept downstairs to the pantry since I was a boy, my dear — what a splendid idea. It will make me feel as though I have had my own adventure along with you all. I wonder if there is a meat pie? When I was eight years old I once ate half of a game pie I had climbed to the top shelf to reach. Such are the spoils of war to an eight-year-old!”
It was testament to the weary state of her mind and the extraordinary circumstances that Elizabeth's thoughts strayed to Mr. Darcy. Had he done similarly as a boy? He was so stiff and proud that it seemed an impossibility. No doubt the thought of setting foot into the servants' domain would have been sufficient to abate any boyish hunger immediately. She could more easily envisage Mr. Wickham helping himself to a pudding in the dead of night than Mr. Darcy so doing. She shook her head at herself as she followed her aunt and uncle downstairs.
Mrs. Gardiner firmly drew the line at eating their secret meal under the kitchen table as her husband jovially suggested, and instead they took the laden tray back upstairs to the drawing room. Jane carried a cake to the little table beside a curtained window, and Elizabeth trailed behind her with the teapot. Mr. Gardiner laid a little more coal on the fire and they sat in cosy comfort .
It was easier then to speak of the happenings of the night and to wonder idly what would be the sensible course of action. Jane remained adamant that she certainly should not keep it all for herself, but would rather see it do some good to the whole family if it could be arranged. At their uncle's request, she gave a less garbled account of that seemingly short time in Mrs. Lambeth's card room. Eventually they spoke less seriously and devoted themselves to the eating of their feast.
“It is a curious thing, but I do not know that I have enjoyed a meal more — not even at Mrs. Lambeth's or Mrs. Houghton's and I am sure they have only the finest French cooks. Might I have a little more ham for my bread, Aunt, and…and perhaps some butter also? How strange, Jane! We could eat every meal as grandly as this and not even think of it. Do you remember when Sir William told us of his time at St James' Court? That he saw a pineapple on display on one of the tables there? We could afford to purchase a pineapple and even eat it.”
Jane sighed. “We might send one home to Longbourn as proof. You were worried, were you not, that a simple letter might not be believed? How much would a pineapple cost us, Uncle?”
He laughed and considered the matter. “Less, now that we have successfully grown some in this country. I think you might purchase one for sixty or seventy pounds.”
Elizabeth fortified herself with a sip of tea. “Not precisely a pittance. Mama would be in transports but Papa would think it excessively vulgar.” She hesitated. “It would be conclusive evidence, though. I doubt he would even question the accompanying letter and instead read us a lecture against waste and parvenus. ”
“Do you think you will be able to sleep yet, Lizzy? It is almost four o'clock.”
Her sister drained her cup and nodded. “I am replete. It seems I ought to convince myself to lie down. Perhaps if we do, sleep will come to us while we are unawares? Dear Aunt Gardiner, you look as though you are resisting closing your eyes.”
“I own it. I have not had such an enjoyable time for years — there has never been a night like it for me. My amazement had not abated by any means, but your talking of pineapples has my head whirling again. Will you lend me your arm, Mr. Gardiner?”
“With the greatest pleasure on earth, my dear. I will see you up and then ensure the doors and windows are fastened shut for the night. We may well get a few hours repose before the maid comes to light the fires in the morning.” He looked about him with satisfaction. “What a surprise she will have when she comes in here. Will she think us quite mad, do you suppose?”
“Likely it will be Freyton. She is a practical-minded girl and will only worry that it will be she who must break the news to Cook that most of a loaf of bread, a quantity of ham, half a pot of strawberry jam, and a vast amount of butter have been purloined from the pantry.”
“Fortunately there is no longer any evidence of the cake. ”
Mrs. Gardiner laughed. “What an extravagant night! Well, I find I do not mind. It was a fine celebration, even if my cook will leave in outrage at the empty spaces on her ordered shelves.”
“Come now, Jane. Off to bed with us both, even if we will not sleep. We must rise eagerly in the morning. Impossible to believe it could be any brighter, as our grandmama apparently used to say. Mr. Bingley will certainly come and I must have my wits about me in case Mr. Darcy insists on accompanying him. It is quite possible that he will come, if only to properly finish our argument.”