Chapter 3
Louisa sighed with relief as the carriage jerked into motion. “That was an ordeal, to be sure. There was nothing of fashion in the whole of the place, save what we brought to it!”
“Perhaps no one we met tonight has been seen shopping in Bond Street,” Charles retorted with an uncharacteristic note of impatience, “but they were very welcoming, and very agreeable.”
Hurst was already asleep, cheek mashed against the carriage wall, but Caroline caught Mr Darcy’s dubious expression in the light of a passing carriage-lamp.
Louisa ignored her brother’s statement and said, “We shall have to find some means of occupying ourselves at Netherfield, Caroline. The society hereabouts will offer no diversion.”
She had hoped to speak with her sister privately, but since the subject had arisen, she would not shy from it. “I cannot prevent you from confining yourself to Netherfield, I suppose, but for my part, I met several people tonight whom I liked very well and hope to know better.”
Resolutely, she ignored Mr Darcy’s start of surprise.
“And really, Louisa, as Charles’ sisters, is it not our duty to be a credit to him before his neighbours?
If he will give me use of the carriage the day after tomorrow, I plan to begin with a few morning calls, and I hope you shall come with me and make yourself agreeable, for our brother’s sake if you cannot find any pleasure in it for yourself. ”
“You may have the carriage with my blessing!” Charles cried. “Indeed, I believe I shall join you if you do not mind. I, too, am eager to become better acquainted with our neighbours.”
Louisa offered no objection then, but when they had returned to the house and separated for the night, she barged into Caroline’s chamber without so much as a by-your-leave, startling Danson, Caroline’s lady’s maid, into dropping the hairbrush.
“Caroline, what are you about, encouraging us to associate with the locals? They are not our sort of people!”
Caroline dismissed Danson and, when they were alone, replied reasonably, “They are not the sort of people with whom we associate in London, that is true, but we are in the country now. If Charles is to establish himself as master of an estate, he will need to be accepted by the local society.”
Louisa waved dismissively. “He is merely leasing. He may establish himself wherever he purchases.”
“That may be here,” Caroline informed her sister.
“He says that the leasing agent mentioned the owner might be open to an offer. Regardless, this venture is as much an opportunity to learn what it is to live in the country as how to manage an estate. He may purchase in Surrey or Nottinghamshire in the end, but understanding country ways and manners will assist him anywhere. It will assist me, if I am so fortunate as to marry a landed gentleman. It will assist you, when Hurst inherits. The people near Fellbrook cannot be so very different from those we met tonight. We would each of us do well to adapt ourselves to our present circumstance.”
She and Charles had discussed their hopes for their residence here on the journey from London.
His talk of wishing to experience a country gentleman’s life as fully as possible before sinking the bulk of his fortune into an estate had led her to consider her own future, and how it might place her in the countryside for some portion of each year.
She was rather pleased with herself for thinking to extend this understanding to her sister’s situation.
Self-interest would always direct Louisa’s actions.
“Hurst will not wish to spend much time at Fellbrook when it is his,” Louisa countered, though Caroline could hear the doubt in it. “He also prefers town.”
“If nothing else, nearly everyone with an estate spends the summer months there,” she pointed out.
“Do you wish to be entirely without companionship or society for three or four months of every year? Hurst will no longer be able to spend his summers flitting from one house party to the next when he is master of his own estate.” She allowed Louisa to consider that, frowning, for a moment before she added lightly, “And Charles shall no doubt marry and set up his own establishment in time. Hurst may not like living in town quite so much when my brother is no longer in residence.”
Her sister’s frown deepened. Caroline had come perilously close to voicing the unspoken truth that Hurst could not keep his family’s London townhouse open for more than two or three months a year without Charles’s contributions, which amounted to the wages for all the staff and much of the household’s food.
When he became master of Fellbrook, he would have access to greater funds, but likely not sufficient to spend more than half the year in London unless he bestirred himself to make significant improvements to the estate.
Louisa would certainly be spending much of her time in a small country neighbourhood in future.
It was a circumstance she apparently had not considered heretofore, but Caroline could not fault her—it had not formed a part of her own thinking until they had come here and she had realised that the sort of man she had always imagined marrying would have as much of a presence in the country as in town.
Perhaps more. Was that truly what she wanted from her future?
She did not know, but she meant to discover it here in Hertfordshire, if she could.
“I am certain that Hurst will think of some way to keep us almost constantly in town even after Charles marries, which ought not be for some years yet. Still, perhaps you have something of a point. It might be best to keep my brother happy by offering some small assistance in this venture.” Her pursed lips indicated her dislike of the notion, but Caroline was satisfied for the present that she had agreed.
“The eldest Bennet girls may not be fashionable, but their comportment is perfectly genteel,” she offered by way of encouragement.
“You will not feel ill at ease in their company, I promise you. Their friend Miss Lucas is also very pleasant. I intend to call upon Longbourn and Lucas Lodge on Thursday, and if you will come with me, I hope you may enjoy yourself.”
“We shall see,” Louisa replied dubiously. “I may attend, but I am not so confident of taking pleasure in it as you are.”
Caroline refrained from rolling her eyes, thanked her sister for being willing to assist Charles in becoming established in the neighbourhood, and gently ushered her back to her own chamber.
Alone at last, she reflected that she could not be angry with Louisa, for a matter of weeks earlier, she would have agreed with every word and added many of her own to the complaints about this place and its people.
She could not help but compare in her mind the last two balls she had attended: the one full of elegance and people whose good opinion she had assiduously courted for years only to learn that she was an object of their contempt, the other a rather shabby affair to which she had been welcomed with open arms merely because she was staying nearby and had greeted them civilly.
It was a hard lesson—hard enough to set her to weeping for a few moments—but one she would never forget.
She had wasted years of her life twisting herself into knots to impress those who would never accept her as an equal, while ignoring those who might have liked her just as she was.
At two and twenty, she was essentially friendless and left with a choice between beginning all over again or descending into bitterness while clinging to what shreds of acceptance she had gained among the elite.
Battered as it was, her pride would not allow her to beg for crumbs from another’s table. She wiped her eyes and soothed herself to sleep with the knowledge that tonight she had behaved exactly as she ought and enjoyed herself more than she would have thought possible.