Chapter Four
London
In the space of a week, Mrs. Jennings and Mrs. Bennet had arranged everything, and the day after the new year it was the two eldest Bennets, rather than the Dashwood sisters, who travelled to London.
The solicitous Mrs. Jennings had generously offered to bring all four of the girls to her home in Berkeley Square, and Elizabeth pressed her cousins to consider it, but it was Jane who insisted that Marianne and Elinor be permitted to demur.
It pricked at Elizabeth’s conscience, that she and her sister should discover they possessed a secret fortune, and then were treated to a week of rigorous shopping before being conveyed to a fashionable neighborhood in London, while their cousins remained so dejected.
Elinor had done what she could to ease Elizabeth’s conscience, promising that the invitation to remain at Longbourn had been all the kindness she and Marianne needed at such a time.
Marianne agreed that the prospect of meeting with their treacherous beaux was daunting enough to completely diminish the allure of the trip, no matter the affection they held for Jane and Elizabeth.
All four of the Dashwoods promised to make merry with the three younger Bennet girls, for the youngest were very vocal in their vexation at being excluded from the London scheme, even if their mother made up for it with new frocks and fripperies to beguile the officers.
As they refreshed themselves from their travels, Jane assured Elizabeth that all would be well.
“We shall have the satisfaction of knowing that Mary will be a great proficient at her instrument when we return, for all the time Marianne has promised to spend hours playing duets with her and coaxing her to read novels.”
Elizabeth returned her sister’s playful look. “And if we are unsuccessful in the mission Mamma had tasked us with – catching husbands with our new fortunes – we shall be amply consoled, for the tunes Mary learns are all sure to be terribly melancholy.”
“They will not be so morose with Kitty and Lydia about,” Jane said sweetly. “I think it will do them good to distract themselves from their sorrows by tearing apart hideous bonnets, and imagining half the regiment to be in love with them.”
“And perhaps they shall be,” Elizabeth drawled, waggling her brows. “The new colonel arrives in a few days, and I believe Mr. Wickham is perfectly willing to charm Marianne. Of course, Mamma may not be pleased to see her daughters forced to share the admiration of the officers with their cousins.”
“Aunt Maggie knows well enough, as Mamma perhaps forgets, that the officers cannot be real prospects for any of us, even with our fortune – especially because of that. Papa is sensible of it, I am sure. Elinor and Marianne only want a little reminder that they are lovely, and worth flirting with.”
“I hope your rosy view of things is near the truth,” Elizabeth said. “Are you as optimistic about us?”
“Of course,” Jane said, giving Elizabeth a cheeky wink.
“We are in fine looks, we have purchased new clothes and cannot possibly hope to escape more shopping with Mrs. Jennings, and in a few days’ time our Aunt Madeline will join us.
Really, Lizzy! You are the only one of the four of us who has not had their heart broken – I cannot think why you should be so churlish. ”
Jane so seldom criticized her that Elizabeth’s jaw actually fell open. “I suppose you are right. If I am churlish, it is only because I am cross with those who have wounded my beloved sister and cousins. And….” Elizabeth sighed and shook her head.
“And what?”
Elizabeth chewed her lip, wondering how to explain herself. “Oh, I am not formed for ill humor, but my mind has dwelt the last week on whether perhaps this fortune of ours may be an ill thing.”
“Lizzy! Of course it is not. I am so very grateful to our poor uncle.”
“And I am, as well. But when I saw how Mr. Wickham behaved…. I was far too willing to forgive his pursuit of Mary King, at first, though I knew the reason for it. Then, when Mamma inevitably disobeyed Papa and spread word of our having twenty thousand pounds apiece, I began to resent him for coming back to town and resuming his attentions to me as if nothing had happened – as if nothing had changed. I fear we shall see more of the same if the truth is made known here in London.”
Jane’s look turned pensive. “But is that not the way of things? Why give us a fortune at all if not for the advantage of making a good match?”
“Perhaps,” Elizabeth sighed. “But surely you must have seen the looks that Mr. Bingley’s sisters exchanged whenever Mamma crowed over Mr. Bingley’s fortune. They, too, were repelled by the blatantly mercenary inanities of our mother.”
“Lizzy, that is unkind! I will own it is a conundrum, that one must consider such things, and yet one must not speak of them, but after having always feared ending in the hedgerows, I refuse to now think it an ill thing that we shall be more fortunate and have a way to avoid that fate.”
“I am grateful for that, to be sure, but Mamma shall not be satisfied that we should live off the interest of our combined fortunes, which would be greater even than the income of Longbourn. She is perfectly serious in expecting us to return with husbands we have caught by flaunting our… charms.”
Jane gave a tight smile, her gaze drifting as she presumably thought of Mr. Bingley; their mother was certain they would see much of him in London.
Elizabeth knew her sister would not wish to win him back merely by possessing a large dowry – certainly she wanted better for Jane.
She did not think it likely that the man who had abandoned Jane could ever deserve her, nor did she believe Jane could recover her spirits enough to form any new attachment during the month of their visit.
As for herself, Elizabeth had no wish to form an attachment that might very well end in the same heartbreak her sister and cousins had endured.
She had always been resolved to marry only for the deepest love and affection, and now that she possessed such a great sum, she was doomed to doubt the sincerity of anybody who formed any serious designs on her.
Happily, Mrs. Jennings did not notice Elizabeth’s pensive mood as she roused them from their bedrooms and demanded to know if they were pleased by their accommodations, which had once belonged to her own daughters.
She promised them a proper tour of the house in the afternoon, but they had arrived in town at an early enough hour to make a few morning calls, and she intended to waste no time in squiring her two charges about London, for she was vastly fond of them already.
Before they could embark on any late morning calls, they were visited by Mrs. Jennings’s daughter, Mrs. Palmer, who was accompanied by Miss Lucy Steele. Mrs. Jennings offered them tea in a very cozy, elegant parlor.
Mrs. Palmer was even sillier than her mother, lacking that lady’s acuity to compliment her often vulgar effusions of nonsense. Still, she was a kind woman who was ready to approve of the Bennet sisters and praise them excessively.
“You are twice as lovely as your cousins the Miss Dashwoods, I am sure! I knew I had to see you both at once, after Mamma wrote to me of the change in her plans. Oh! But you will never believe what Mr. Palmer said! I told him that you are bringing two beautiful heiresses to London with you, Mamma, and that you have promised their mother to return them betrothed. And he scarcely looked away from his paper as he said that he pities them most profoundly! Is my husband not terribly droll, Miss Bennet?”
Jane looked too bewildered to answer, but Elizabeth was ready with a wry smile as she replied, “We must take care not to find my sister such a man, madam.”
“Quite right! Oh, but you are both so lovely, you shall have suitors queuing at the door in a fortnight! Lucy, are they not the most beautiful girls you have ever seen?”
Miss Steele smiled at them. “Oh, yes! But I had heard the same said of your cousins, even before I met them. How interesting that they have chosen to remain in Hertfordshire. I know they have acquaintance in town.”
Elizabeth felt a wave of vexation at the simpering creature, who was the very reason Elinor had not come to London – she could well imagine Miss Steele was quite aware of the fact, and proud of it.
Marianne had not exaggerated in speaking of Miss Steele’s beady eyes, for she had a calculating look about her.
Jane was able to make a serene reply. “Were you not also to travel with your sister, Miss Steele?”
“La! You will never guess!” Mrs. Palmer clapped her hands. “Sir John’s cousin, a lately widowed barrister from Bath, has come to stay at Barton Park, and my sister means to make a match between him and Anne!”
Miss Steele wavered between looking envious of her sister and privately triumphant at her own secret understanding, and Elizabeth despised her for Elinor’s misery.
Mrs. Jennings was delighted by the gossip, and hastily assured Miss Steele that she would encounter as many fine beaux in London as Jane and Elizabeth.
Miss Steele was positively smug. “I have only my charms to recommend me, but I am not without some little confidence in making the right connections. And I do hope we shall be friends, Miss Bennet, Miss Elizabeth.”
“Of course you shall, my dear,” Mrs. Jennings agreed. “I daresay you will find the Miss Bennets just as agreeable as the Miss Dashwoods.”
Jane nodded her agreement, though Elizabeth could read the trepidation in her eyes. “Our cousins have told us much of you.”
“Good things, I hope,” Miss Steele said with a simpering smile.
“I am sure you would think so,” Elizabeth replied. “I feel as though I know you already.”
Miss Steele’s smile faltered for a moment, and she turned from Elizabeth to Jane. “Have you any acquaintance in London, other than your Dashwood cousins?”