Chapter 11 A Merry Chase
As soon as the coach was in motion, Elizabeth handed the fifteen pounds Mr Baker reckoned could be omitted without her father accusing him of negligence to her new friend.
“Molly, you are too polite to say it, but you probably guessed I am being returned to my father’s authority after an attempted escape. I would like you to have this.”
Molly gasped in surprise, never having seen such a large sum in one place. “It is too much, ma’am. That is so much I… I… I…”
She ran out of words, so Elizabeth tried to explain.
“It is not so much as you think. It is about as much as a scullery makes in a year, or my pin money for a quarter. I will lose it regardless, but I choose to do something admirable with it, instead of just handing it over to my father. I depend on you to make good use of it.”
“I cannot take it, ma’am.”
“Yes, my dear, you can and you will. I insist. There are only a few conditions I will attach.”
Molly just stared with her mouth open and nodded, so Elizabeth continued.
“First off, this is your money, to do as you will. You must keep it secret. It is most definitely not your guardian’s, not your brothers’, not your employer’s, not even your future husband’s, unless you wish it so, for your own reasons.
My life’s choices are being stripped away from me one by one, but I should like you to salvage something.
“If you ask Mr Bartlet in the bookstore to help you, I am certain he will keep it safe for you and guide you. Use it to pay for reading, sewing, or other lessons; better clothing; or anything else to make your life better.
“If you have a sweetheart, or you manage to acquire one you would like to marry, you might make it part of a dowry, but only if it suits you.”
Molly just kept shaking her head, but Elizabeth did not have all day to convince her, so she just wrapped the money up in a small bag and forced it into the young girl’s hand.
As the area was becoming familiar, Elizabeth knew she would be in Meryton in a few minutes, so she decided to try one more tack.
“I feel I can trust you. Is my trust misplaced?”
“Of course, not, ma’am. I cannot read, or write, or dress a lady, or do anything fancy, but I know right from wrong.”
“That is good, though I can tell you from bitter experience it is not always easy to tell right from wrong. Sometimes there is no right or wrong, but only more right or less wrong; but I take your meaning.”
Molly looked confused, not having encountered any true ambiguity in her life, but Elizabeth thought it was not necessary to explain herself.
Elizabeth finally said, “Are you still set on entering service?”
“Yes, ma’am. Do you think this money will help?”
“Do not make a scene with it. If you suddenly start spending wildly, people will think you stole it or got it through improper means.”
“Yes, ma’am. Everyone knows that much if they have any sense.”
“What do you think of working at Pemberley?”
“It would be wonderful. The master is a generous, and liberal man, and he does not let his guests or his men trifle with the maids. That is as good as it gets for girls like me.”
“If you can get on there, it would be a good thing,” Elizabeth began, but then thought a few more minutes. “I would give you a recommendation, but I suspect it might hurt more than help.”
Molly startled. “Do you know Mrs Reynolds?”
“No.”
“Mrs Mason or Sanderson?”
Elizabeth laughed. “No, I do not know a single member of the staff at Pemberley, and I do not know that they would esteem me if I did.”
Looking confused, Molly asked, “So how are you connected?”
“I am not presently, but,” she paused a moment and eventually continued, “if I cannot work out a way to avoid my fate, I will return shortly as its mistress.”
“You mean I have been travelling all this way with Mrs Darcy?” Molly asked, eyes like saucers.
Elizabeth gave a grim chuckle. “Not Mrs Darcy yet, and ideally, never; but yes, I am engaged to Mr Darcy, due to be wed on the twenty-third.”
“Well! I never.”
The young girl thought about it a moment, then stared. “I take it running away by yourself before your wedding is not something the quality usually does?”
Elizabeth laughed. “I always hated that phrase, ‘the quality.’ We are not that, or at least I am not. I am marginally acceptable goods at best; but you are correct, it is not part of the usual engagement ritual.”
Molly tried to imagine what would make someone not want to be the mistress of Pemberley, but the idea was too foreign for her to even contemplate, let alone think about in depth.
“So, if I mention that I know Mrs Darcy, you do not know if it will help or hurt?”
“Correct.”
Molly thought about it a moment. “I will try to get a position there without mentioning you.”
“If you do not get it, pray let Mr Bartlet know how I can find you. I suggest you let him take charge of your education. He cannot teach you himself, of course, but he can hire you a tutor. There are always girls who know how to read that want to earn a little coin. He can find and pay them for you.”
“I will do that. If you come back to Derbyshire, I will pretend I do not know you until you show me otherwise.”
“Probably for the best. We need to say our goodbyes now.”
With a quick hug, and a couple of tears hastily wiped away, the two separated and soon looked to all the world like lady and maid.
As Elizabeth rode through Meryton, she turned her head to avoid being recognised when she saw her mother with all her sisters entering her Aunt Philips’ home.
Mr Baker had not bothered sending an express rider all the way from Lambton since his coach was just as fast, but he had engaged one that morning so Mr Bennet would have advance notice to, as he put it, clear the decks.
Elizabeth asked what that meant, but he just shrugged.
As expected, when they pulled into the drive at Longbourn, Mr Bennet was standing on the front porch quite alone.
Mr Baker dismounted and walked over to open the door and offer Elizabeth a hand down.
The maid was not to spend any time at Longbourn or even exit the carriage, as he reckoned the less time she had to acquire or distribute gossip, the better.
He had his horse, so the coachman was to turn around and return to Lambton straightaway, stopping to spend the night back in Hatfield.
Bennet said, “I thank you, sir. Was she any trouble?”
“No, sir. Quiet as a mouse.”
Bennet snorted in response, but handed Baker a small leather bag, which Elizabeth assumed held his fee.
Baker touched his hat politely and said, “Good day, Miss Bennet. I wish you good fortune,” before mounting and driving off to Meryton.
He planned to stay a day or two in the inn.
His work was sporadic, and he would have to notify the people that brokered many of his jobs where he was, but there was no particular hurry.
A town like this offered amusements enough so there was little reason to rush off to some other indistinguishable village.
“Lizzy, you led us a merry chase. Are you proud of yourself?” Bennet said with the smirking haughtiness he used when ridiculing their neighbours.
He did not expect his daughter to take part, but the attitude was such an engrained part of his personality he did not even notice.
Even if he had, he would have felt no remorse.
“No, Father, I am not proud of myself. Had I escaped—then I would be proud of myself. At the moment, I have no room for any emotions besides frustration and hatred.”
“Come, come, now, Lizzy. You are overreacting.”
“Elizabeth!”
“I beg your pardon.”
“You really should beg my pardon literally, instead of the hackneyed phrase you bandy about, but I know you will not. I meant, that I will no longer answer to Lizzy. Call me Elizabeth or better yet Miss Elizabeth if you expect an answer.”
Bennet moved closer and stared at his offspring with what he hoped was a menacing expression. “I am master and shall address any member of this household as I choose.”
“I understand perfectly! You have laid down how you intend to behave, and I have laid down how I shall. We now understand each other. If you wish a response, you know how to get it.”
Bennet snapped, “Miss High and Mighty Bennet, since your elder and more sensible sister is not present, you will attend me in my library.”
Elizabeth shrugged and nodded, annoyed by his failing to offer time to refresh herself after a coach ride, even though she did not need it since it had only been an hour.
She preceded him into the library and sat down in a chair facing his desk to prepare for the assault that was sure to come. She idly wondered how much time she would have to sit in that chair and be yelled at.
She assumed that day’s assault would be unpleasant and imagined another intense session when her letter arrived in a week from Lambton. That should be fun!
“Miss Elizabeth, if you are not proud of your success, at least you can boast of enormous expense and frustration. Our family’s reputation was already suspect, and it has been nearly impossible to keep a lid on this debacle.
You cost me well over one hundred pounds and several sleepless nights, so I suppose you can be proud of that. ”
“Let us dispense with any discussion of my pride, as I see little point, and one hundred pounds is slightly less than Jane and Lydia alone overspend their allowances every year. It will hardly cripple Longbourn.”
Losing his temper, Bennet slammed his hand down on his desk. “Well then, shall we move onto selfishness? Do you have any idea what effect your actions would have on your sisters’ lives if you succeeded?”
Not to be out-angered, Elizabeth slapped her own hand down, and yelled, “It would have not the slightest effect, other than causing you some minor inconvenience!”
“You really think they will find good husbands with a fallen sister?”
Elizabeth gasped, and yelled, “Fallen!” then sat with fists curled hard enough for her nails to dig into her palm. “Fallen? I cannot believe you would use such a term even in private. Do you want to know your real issue?”
Bennet matched her shout for shout. “At the moment, it is a stubborn and selfish daughter!”
Leaning forward in her chair, Elizabeth snapped angrily, “You just love your adjectives. Well, you are welcome to use any or all of selfish, stubborn, wilful, obstinate, disobedient, pig-headed or any of the other terms you like for any female who does not share enough attributes with a sheep—but I would kindly request you refrain from insinuating that I am stupid, or that I have no understanding of the world. I understand it perfectly. Once again—”
Feeling a need for motion, she jumped up from her chair, grabbed a pencil that was laying on the desk, and marched over to a large map of England on the wall. The map was expensive but otherwise not much to look at, and she needed something to burn her anger out on.
While Bennet stared in horror, she drew a small circle the size of her hand, and then rapidly drew another about a foot and a half in diameter.
“What are you doing?” Bennet yelled, then started to get up from his chair, but Elizabeth spun around, dropped the pencil on the floor, and replied with her finger on the smaller circle.
“The problem, sir, is that you are lazy. This is the circle where you allow your daughters to look for husbands.”
The small circle went around Meryton, including Netherfield and the outlying estates, but stopped well short of Hatfield and the other villages within a dozen miles.
She pointed at the larger circle that went through Cambridge, Oxford, Brighton, and Kent, with London near its centre. Somewhat satisfied with the result, she continued relentlessly.
“This is the area you could afford to search but are too lazy. You have connexions from Cambridge you could have kept, through Uncle Gardiner to dozens or hundreds of tradesmen in town, through Uncle Philips’ business to men in Brighton and even some in town.
You know, or could if you were not so lazy, all the tradesmen in Meryton, and you could easily have them point out their own connexions.
“There are a hundred ways you could be promoting your children that would be more effective than sitting around waiting to see if the only vacant estate in the neighbourhood gets leased by a suitable man who happens to be single, likes one of your daughters, is rich enough to eschew a dowry, and complaisant enough to ignore the raging improprieties of your family.”
She pounded the wall for emphasis. “There are millions of people in this area, and it is all within a one-day carriage ride. My reputation would be forgotten within the year, and if not, it would not extend even to Hatfield, let alone London.”
“You forget that your reputation will be tied to Mr Darcy’s, which has a much longer reach than your own.”
“Mr Darcy dug his own grave.”
By that point, the two were shouting at each other like angry bulls.
“None of this changes the material fact that both of you are compromised, whether you deserve to be or not. I can assure you, if there was a way to wiggle out of it, he would not have offered for you. Why do you think it took him a week to return?”
“That is not my problem!”
By then, Bennet had exhausted his meagre store of patience.
“Go to your room until you can be reasonable, Miss Bennet. You will not leave the house unless accompanied by Nathaniel or myself. We may be old, but you will not escape either of us. I should also mention that your room will be locked at night.”
Elizabeth turned without a word and stomped out, up the stairs and into her bedchamber. She saw Jane’s bed and decided she just could not stand another night in her sister’s company, since she hardly recognised her anyway.
With a huff, she took the valise she already had, got a slightly bigger trunk, threw the rest of her clothing into it, and moved it all down the hall into the guest room, most recently occupied by Mr Collins.
It was only right that the room was reserved for the stupidest people in the house, which she seemed to be.