Chapter Seven
London is miserable in the summer,” Mrs. Hurst lamented. “So very hot! Such foul odours!”
“We could remove to the country,” Mr. Bingley suggested.
Miss Bingley immediately rejected her brother’s idea. “There is no amusement to be found in the country, and it is quite dirty; as unpleasant as London is just now, it is still better than being away from Society.”
Mr. Hurst was silent on the subject, as he was on most subjects.
The discussion put Mr. Bingley in mind of a certain matter that he had long neglected. Going to his study, Mr. Bingley took his father’s final letter from the top drawer of his desk and read it for perhaps the hundredth time.
Mr. Henry Bingley had left the letter in the study for his son to discover. A dutiful son, Mr. Charles Bingley had vowed to himself to fulfill his father’s final wishes when he had first read it. Yet three years had passed and he had not yet done so.
My dear Charles,
I have been ill for some time now, and the doctor shakes his head and mutters something about going the way of all flesh, so I assume the end is not far off.
I have done my best to leave you and your sisters well-provided for. You will know that money is not enough to remove the taint of trade from our family name, but money can pave the way to do so, and it is for you to take that step.
You must buy an estate, Charles. Do not be foolish in doing so, of course; when all is said and done, it is a business decision, and I believe I have taught you how to make good business decisions. Lease an estate first; learn on someone else’s property.
You are now the head of the household, and your sisters are in your charge. I need not tell you that your younger sister is strong-willed, nonetheless, you must be the one to guide her, and not the other way around.
I am at peace, my son, as I know I may rely on your good sense, your good nature, and your good heart to safeguard our family.
Remember your loving father,
Henry Bingley
Mr. Bingley had delayed implementing his father’s wish for a variety of reasons; first, Louisa got herself betrothed, and there was a good deal of fuss and bother about the wedding. Then Caroline left school and came to London, and there was even more fuss and bother about her wardrobe.
These seemed like excellent reasons indeed, but he knew himself well enough to know that he had been deliberately delaying when it came to acting on his father’s wishes.
In truth, anything to do with an estate was unknown territory, and life was going on quite pleasantly without venturing into strange lands.
But now, he felt, it was time to begin, and with any luck at all, he would do so with the help of a friend.
Darcy,
I am certain I have told you that it was my father’s wish that I buy an estate.
His advice was to first lease an estate in order to, as he put it, learn on someone else’s property.
I am eager to do so, but I scarce know how to begin!
I have looked in the papers, but have not seen anything even remotely like a suitable estate. Might you advise me in this matter?
Your rather stupid friend,
Bingley
***
Mr. Darcy’s reply came just a few days later.
Bingley,
Not stupid at all! The truth of the matter is that the better estates are not advertised in the papers. Owners do not lease out their properties unless finances require them to do so, and no one wishes this information to be known to the public at large.
However, my man of business keeps his ear to the ground for such things. I have written to him to ask him to send me a list of available estates that might meet your needs; something relatively modest, but with a good number of tenant farms that require managing.
I will make a recommendation from this list to you as soon as I receive it.
Your perhaps somewhat more clever friend,
Darcy
Mr. Bingley laughed aloud when he came to the end.
Somewhat more clever was something of a joke, he thought.
Darcy was the most clever, best educated…
well, enough of that. Feeling a good deal lighter now that his problem was in the hands of his good and very clever friend, he called for his carriage and went out to his club.