Chapter 5 #2
Mrs. Bennet pouted but held her peace as her husband smirked at them all.
They stepped out into the green, where a stone table with two seats had been erected around the time of the Conqueror, at least according to local legend.
There was a whispering in the crowd, and people began to point and titter amongst themselves, drawing the attention of the Bennets and their family.
“MARY-HANNAH, YOU UGLY GIRL! WHAT ARE YOU HIDING UP THERE FOR?” Mrs. Bennet yelled at the top of her lungs as her daughter quickly hid herself behind the curtain of the Phillips’ sitting-room window, which faced the green. “COME DOWN HERE AT ONCE! AT ONCE, I SAY! MR. BENNET, MAKE HER OBEY ME!”
“Mary,” Mr. Bennet called above the laughing crowd. “You are a fortunate girl to have caught the eye of such a man. Come join us. All the girls in the village envy you.”
“They mock me!” Mary cried, just loud enough to be heard.
“They would change places with you, every one of them.”
The crowd was distracted from the mortifying scene by the arrival of the two gentlemen from Netherfield and especially the quick-stepping dance of the Viscount’s horse, which caused gasps and clapping as he drew close.
With a click of his teeth, the mount reared back and held a rampant pose and bugled a battle cry, while the sun glinted off his shimmering coat.
The crowd roared its approval as he came back to earth, and the Viscount swung down to the ground where they both bowed to the Bennets.
The cries of amazement were deafening, but the flash of movement at a window above them drew the Viscount’s eye and he fought a grin as he spotted the deep brown eyes of his little runaway.
“Such an entrance!” Mrs. Bennet squawked, holding her handkerchief to her breast. “Such a handsome man! Our dear Mary would have been here, sir, but she is such a hard worker that we could not convince her away from her tasks! She is determined to—”
“That industrious girl is likely gathering thatch to fix the roofs of her father’s cottages!” One of the neighbors called out.
“I believe she was teaching the maids about milking their new cows!” Another cried.
“I swear that I saw her washing the windows of her aunt’s apartments,” a snide voice added.
“Enough,” Lingley demanded, silencing the crowd for a moment. “Shall we begin?”
Mr. Bennet nodded in agreement, his enjoyment of the production obvious for all to see. He settled onto one stone bench and waved the younger man to the one opposite. Lingley took the seat and rested his clasped hands on the table before him.
“I come to barter for the hand of Miss Mary Bennet,” Lingley began at the whispered instructions of Mr. Gardiner. “We have become engaged and wish to marry forthwith. Do we have your blessing?”
Mr. Bennet crossed his hands over his knees and raised his voice to carry. “It is hard for a man to give his daughter to another. I just lost her sisters, surely it is too soon to lose another.”
Mrs. Bennet gasped in horror.
“I am willing to pay,” Mr. Gardiner urged.
“I am willing to pay,” Lingley parroted. “What do you ask?”
“One cow!” several in the crowd cried. “One cow is all that he can ask! One cow!”
“If he asks two cows, Lord Lingley will settle for one,” the Colonel spoke to those standing near him. “If he asks for one, good old Johnny will settle for the horns and the tail! He is the sharpest bargainer in all the land!”
Mrs. Bennet was nearly faint as she whispered to her husband. Her demands were not nearly as quiet as she thought and made the crowd explode into laughter.
“Five!”
“She said five!”
“The Bennets have grown greedy!”
Mr. Bennet held up his hands for quiet. “Mary was to be our comfort in our old age. We cannot accept less than three cows for her.”
The crowd roared. Several young men dropped to the ground and rolled about in mirth while their mothers scolded them for such a display. Lingley watched them all with a twitch in his eye. When he held out a hand as Bennet had done, Fitzwilliam elbowed the man beside him.
“Three. Three cows is many…” Lingley began
“Here we go! Watch a master at work!” the Colonel crowed.
“Surely you wish more for your comfort…”
Mr. Bennet flushed and looked away, unable to hold his gaze as Lingley’s was burning with righteous fury.
“Three is many, but not enough for Mary. I will pay eight cows.” The silence was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.
“I will bring 8 Andalusians in a fortnight, as well as a special license from the Archbishop. We shall marry that afternoon and travel immediately on our wedding trip. I will expect that you have all ready by then.”
Mrs. Bennet suddenly collapsed, landing in a pile of dung when no one thought to catch her.
Pandemonium broke out as people scattered to spread the gossip to those few who had not appeared.
Mr. Bennet stared down at his wife and began to laugh uproariously while his brother and sister saw to rousing her.
Lingley ignored them all, watching the window to see how Mary might have taken his words.
She was no longer visible near the window, but he caught a glance of a small brown shadow scurrying through the back of the crowd.
That is it, Little Runaway, enjoy your retreat, for soon I shall never let you go.
“Good L—,” Fitzwilliam cried. “What on earth were you thinking, Lingley? Eight cows?”
“Do you think it too little?” he asked teasingly as he accepted the reins of his horse.
“All of London will be abuzz with the news! You shall be the talk of every party and tea! What will they think when they meet the girl? They will say you are insane or you have lost your eyesight!”
“So, they will know all about the 8 cows.” He shrugged and threw himself up into the saddle. “Well, then from now until forever, when they speak of marriage settlements, they shall say that John Lingley paid 8 cows for Mary Hannah Bennet.”
So that’s it. He is neither mad nor blind; he is just vain. Poor vain fool. Fitzwilliam scoffed to himself.