Chapter 4
Mary sniffed back her tears as she stood outside the room where the gentlemen were gathered.
Was no one aware of how small Longbourne was and how voices carried in the corridors?
They were once again belittling and laughing at her.
He was laughing at her. She hurried away and slipped into the sitting room, knowing that her mother would not leave her in peace much longer and that it was better that she was nearby.
“Stupid girl,” she scoffed in mangled Italian. “Do you not know that eavesdroppers rarely hear good of themselves?”
“Did you say something, Mary?” Miss Maria Lucas asked in carrying tones.
“Mary?” Mrs. Bennet screeched, popping up from her reclined position on the settee before the fireplace.
“I have been asking for you for a quarter hour at least! Lazy girl! What good are you to me? What comfort could you offer when my dearest Jane has abandoned me? You leave me to struggle with such flutterings! I shall soon die, I am certain, and you will be relieved to be shot of me!”
“No, Mama—”
“You will! You will!” she cried, bursting into theatrical sobs.
“No one cares what I suffer! No one knows the pain of a mother when her children leave her! And who will I be left with, I ask you! The plain, spinster daughter who cares more for the sermons of some long dead man that her own mother! Why, oh why, could not Jane stay to comfort me?”
“She has her own family now, Mama,” Kitty cried, completely ignoring the tears as she giggled away beside Miss Lucas. “When I marry, I shall not spend my wedding night at Longbourne! Can you imagine the horror? OOOOOh!”
Miss Lucas burst into guffaws of laughter.
“But Mary will never marry, and it is her responsibility to care for your father and I!” Mrs. Bennet snarled. “Even Mr. Collins did not want her after that disobedient child turned him down. He took one look at Mary and ran to Lucas Lodge to throw himself on the mercy of that grasping Charlotte!”
“Mama!” Mary gasped, mortified as she exposed herself before all their neighbors. The Lucases would never forgive them!
“Do not mama me, Mary-Hannah! Everyone knows that she was all for what she could get! To think that I shall have to give way to her when your father dies! It is a travesty!”
Mary had had enough. She could not stand there another moment, as her mother condemned them all to the derision of their neighbors once again. She turned to dash from the room only to find herself wrapped in the arms of a gentleman as she ran full force into the front of him.
“I beg your pardon, Miss Bennet,” Lingley murmured as he set her back from his person, keeping hold of her hands to steady her.
“No, it was my fau—“ she began as she burned with humiliation.
When she realized who she had nearly run down, unaccustomed anger nearly exploded from the pit of her stomach, and her voice turned into a snarl.
“Have you not seen enough, my lord? Why must you continue to remain in a home where you are so obviously out of place? You bet a thousand pounds that I shall marry! Look about you? My mother has declared that I shall remain as her drudge for the remainder of her life! I should be grateful that she would keep one such as I! Even if there were a gentleman, likely deaf, who could ignore the feather-brained, witless prattle of my mother and sister, who would accept this” she threw out her arms “in the bargain? You, sir? Shall you marry me to salvage your thousand pounds?”
He could tell by her tone that she hoped to shock him, or perhaps send him screaming from the house, and a slow smile spread across his face as her rapid breaths brought color to her cheeks and accentuated her assets which she tried so hard to hide.
“Why, yes, thank you. You do me great honor to pledge your troth with mine. Shall we speak to your father?”
Mrs. Bennet screamed and collapsed back into a faint, though no one paid her any attention as their eyes were glued to the farce taking place at the other end of the room. Mary attempted to rip away from the viscount, but he held firm and tsked at her.
“You are entirely too slippery, my dear,” he grinned, lifting her hand to place a kiss on the back of it.
“I believe that I shall keep custody of these until your father has given us his blessing. Perhaps one of these good people might fetch him from wherever he has concealed himself to avoid your mother’s histrionics. ”
Calls for the patriarch rang through the house as they waited, and it was not a minute later when the man was physically pushed into the room by his brother, Mr. Gardiner, who had come from London with his wife to witness the weddings.
The man still wore his reading glasses and held an entire decanter of port in his hand, though his shoes appeared to be missing as he stood there in his socks.
“What is this all about!” he demanded with a frown. “Surely my wife’s celebrated nerves are not cause for all of this ruckus! Give her the cursed salts and be done with it!”
“Your daughter Mary has done me the great honor of agreeing to marry me, sir,” Lord Lingley declared, loudly enough to carry throughout the house. “We seek your blessing and permission.”
“What?” the man cried as his decanter of port crashed to the ground in a spray of liquor and glass.
“He likely wants a woman to mend his shirts and fix his supper and does not want to pay more than a three-legged cow for her!” someone called from the hall, causing a wave of sniggering through the room.
Mr. Gardiner glared at them all and stepped close to his brother, whispering heatedly in his ear.
“Yes, yes! I have heard it before!” Mr. Bennet snapped. “You do not know what it is to have silly daughters! I am ready to give him a cow just to take her!”
The laughter grew, and Mary felt that she would die if she did not leave the room in the next moment. “Please!” she whispered, “Please, no more. I cannot bear another moment!”
“Are you refusing to allow it, Mr. Bennet?” Lingley demanded in his best lord-of-the-manor voice, silencing them all. He drew her closer to put an arm about her waist.
“Fine, fine!” Mr. Bennet grumbled, pulling away from his still whispering relative. “I shall meet with you in the morning in Meryton to discuss terms. We shall barter.”
A great cheer went up, and Lingley leaned forward to place a kiss on Mary’s ghostly pale cheek. “I shall see you on the morrow, my dear,” he whispered and released her to run from the room.
She passed a frowning Colonel Fitzwilliam in the hall, and he stomped into the room. “Not sporting to win a wager that way, Lingley! Not sporting at all! I’ve a good mind to call you out!”
Ligley started in surprise, having not given the wager any thought at all. “You placed no restrictions on the bet,” he replied, flicking an invisible speck of lint from his shoulder. “It is not my fault that you were so narrowminded.”
“Never thought you would sacrifice yourself for that antidote!” Fitzwilliam snarled. “I will not pay until you have actually married her! It would be just like you to sneak off in the night!”
“That is my honor and my future wife you are speaking of,” Lingley growled, stepping close. “Watch your words.”
They glared at one-another until the Colonel finally stepped back and turned to stomp from the room, calling for his horse.
Lingley bowed to the room in a general farewell and did the same.
Hopefully Fitzwilliam would calm down on his ride back to Netherfield.
It would be an uncomfortable stay otherwise.
They had planned to be in Hertfordshire for two weeks entirely to enjoy the shooting.
Bingley was pleased to offer his hospitality, despite the estate belonging to the earldom.
Darcy had recommended his friend to Lingley, who had done the same to his father, allowing the younger man to lease the estate and practice his management skills.
At least the Hursts were to leave the next morning— Mrs. Hursts and Miss Bingley were determined to return to London.
No one was about when he arrived and Nichols informed him that the others had all requested trays for dinner so he did the same, almost giddy with relief that he would not have to spend an interminable time listening to the self-absorbed monologues of Miss Bingley and her equally tedious sister.
He was surprised that he did not feel any apprehension over his actions.
If anything, he would say that he was all anticipation to take his May and leave all the dreadful neighbors and ghastly family members to crush some other person’s soul.
Should she have ever wished to remain close to her family, that day’s contretemps put paid to any chance that he would have allowed it.
Likely he would never even allow her to exchange correspondence with them; he could not imagine Mrs. Bennet would be any kinder in her letters than she was in person.
How his darling May survived such an upbringing he did not wish to contemplate.
Her wellbeing would be his responsibility in the future, and he was determined to teach her that her worth was not limited to her parent’s derogatory opinions.
It would begin tomorrow. He had plans to shock the gossiping hell-wives silent.
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