Chapter 12
Twelve
“Jane, I understand that you wish to remain at Longbourn to help your mother, but I cannot understand why you have seemed so upset with Lizzy since we arrived,” Mrs Gardiner said a short time later, when she found her oldest niece in her bedroom, seated at the vanity and staring into nothing.
“I would have thought you would be delighted at her match.”
For a moment, Jane said nothing. Then, quite suddenly, she stood and turned upon her aunt, her eyes flashing with accusation and anger.
“How could you let her embarrass the family in this way? You were there—why did you not prevent her from compromising Mr Darcy? Or whatever it is she has done? Why is he even here?”
“What are you speaking of, Jane?” Mrs Gardiner asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“Two days ago I received a letter from Caroline Bingley,” Jane said, her tone sharper than Mrs Gardiner had ever heard it.
“She wrote that Lizzy had forced herself upon Mr Darcy’s notice once again, to the point that the Bingleys had been obliged to leave the neighbourhood of Pemberley, as Mr Darcy himself intended to depart in order to distance himself from whatever had taken place there. ”
Jane hesitated for a moment, as though weighing what she had read against what she had observed.
“Frankly, I am astonished that a man such as Mr Darcy would arrive here as he has done, acting as though nothing untoward has occurred and even pretending that he and Lizzy are to marry. I cannot imagine Papa is truly resigned to the match, and I feel certain that one or the other of them will break it before the marriage settlements can be signed and readied—especially since Papa must be told whatever it is Elizabeth is supposed to have done.”
When Jane fell silent again, Mrs Gardiner drew breath to speak; but before she could do so, Jane continued, no longer troubling herself to conceal her bitterness.
“If he does leave without marrying her, it would serve Elizabeth right for her behaviour, even if it would ruin the family even more than Lydia has done.”
“Elizabeth did no such thing,” Mrs Gardiner said, more sharply than she intended, for she could scarcely credit what she was hearing.
“She and Mr Darcy met at Pemberley, yes; but he encouraged her to visit again by first calling upon us at the inn. He invited my husband to fish, and Miss Darcy invited Lizzy and me to spend the day with her while the gentlemen engaged in sport. Nothing untoward occurred, and when Mr Darcy visited the inn on the day your letter arrived, Lizzy and he went for a walk during which he proposed marriage.”
For a moment, Jane faltered, blinking as though she were uncertain how to respond to such a clear statement.
That lady allowed her words to settle for only a moment before she continued.
“And how do you not remember how insincere Miss Bingley has been in the past, and how little she appeared to wish to see you during her brief call in January? She was scarcely civil, and you have not heard from her in the months since that visit, effectively cutting that connexion. Why would you believe her now, and why would you question your sister’s behaviour, which has always been entirely proper? ”
With a deep sigh, she finished, “Jane, what could you have been thinking, to believe so ill of your sister?”
To her surprise, Jane dissolved into tears.
Not the quiet weeping Mrs Gardiner had seen from her before, but deep, wrenching sobs that seemed torn from her very chest. Until this moment, she had stood slightly apart from her niece, but at this, she moved nearer, drawing the young lady into her arms.
It was several minutes before Jane could speak, but when she did, what she said astonished Mrs Gardiner.
“I was the one who was supposed to marry to save the family,” she said, her voice muffled against her aunt’s shoulder.
“Since I was young, Mama has insisted that I was the beauty of the family and encouraged me to behave demurely, to rely upon my appearance to entice a suitor. Yet I am three and twenty and still unmarried. I have never even been proposed to, while Elizabeth has been proposed to three times in a twelvemonth—and twice by the same man. And now she is engaged to that same man, the one who declared her only ‘tolerable’ scarcely six months before proposing the first time.”
The tears had mostly ceased by this point, and Jane drew a slow breath in an effort to compose herself. Mrs Gardiner, feeling the change in her, eased her hold and drew back just enough to look into her niece’s face, choosing to remain silent as Jane continued to reflect.
At last, the silence had its effect, and Jane drew back further, composing herself, before she spoke again.
“I know that Mama pushed Lizzy towards Mr Collins—or rather, directed Mr Collins towards her—and I know just as certainly that Lizzy would never have married him willingly. To be completely honest, I am not certain that any of us, other than perhaps Mary, would have willingly tied ourselves to that man—and I am not entirely sure of Mary. It would have been a terrible match, and in the end, Charlotte was the perfect wife for him.”
Jane fell silent again, at last raising her handkerchief to wipe away the remaining traces of tears from her face.
Mrs Gardiner studied her niece, watching the play of emotions as they crossed her usually placid countenance.
Jane had rarely shown such feeling, and never with such force.
She found herself wondering, almost absently, at the depths that must lie beneath that habitual composure, and what might emerge if Jane were ever to unburden herself more fully.
Matters must be very serious indeed for her to have been so affected.
“When Papa received Colonel Forster’s letter about Lydia, I was so certain she had ruined herself. I was angry—at Lydia, at Papa, at Mama—” Here she stopped again, as though only just recognising it, “—even at Lizzy.”
She gave a small, restless motion with the hand that held the handkerchief, then frowned at it, as though realising how closely she resembled her mother in that moment.
Mrs Gardiner had to shake her head at the reaction that was obviously learnt through long observation of Mrs Bennet and wondered if Jane realised that she had begun to adopt her mother’s habits.
“Lizzy was not here, and I was angry with her for that. But I was also angry that she had not persuaded Papa to keep our youngest sister at home. I knew she had tried, and that Papa had dismissed her concerns, yet I still felt she ought to have done more.”
Jane drew in another breath, steadier now.
“Then it occurred to me that, as the eldest, I ought to have done more. I ought to have been a better example to my sisters and encouraged my parents to act. I ought to have done something about my youngest sisters.”
Mrs Gardiner laid her hand on her niece’s arm.
“No, Jane, that was not your role. No one who knows you can suggest that you could have done more to set an example for your sisters, but your parents did little to encourage them to follow it. They could have chosen to follow Lizzy’s example as well, but regardless, you and your sisters were given very little guidance; their failings are not yours, Jane.
Lizzy did attempt to persuade your father to keep Lydia at home, but he would not agree, and what else could she have done? ”
When Jane looked up at her aunt, the astonishment was clear upon her face. It seemed that, while she recognised that what her aunt said was true, the emotions of the previous days were not so easily set aside.
For a time, she did not speak; but when she did, the words seemed to pour out of her as though she could not control them.
“I needed her here,” Jane cried petulantly.
Mrs Gardiner shook her head, noticing how much her niece sounded like her youngest daughter in that instant.
“For what?” Mrs Gardiner asked, her patience with her niece nearly gone.
“What could Lizzy have done or said that you could not? She was in Derbyshire, having been invited to accompany your uncle and me on our trip many weeks ago. It is not as though she ignored your letters for days; as soon as she read them, we immediately began to make preparations to depart.”
“She still managed to become engaged,” Jane complained.
“Yes, and she nearly broke the engagement when she read your letter, because she did not want to entangle Mr Darcy in her family’s difficulties.
She would have sacrificed her happiness, but fortunately Mr Darcy would not allow her to do so.
He is determined to remain by her side regardless of what we had learnt when we arrived here. ”
Again, this caused Jane to stare at her aunt in amazement.
“Truly, Aunt?” she asked.
“Yes, Jane. Do you truly believe that a man like Mr Darcy could be coerced into marriage? Would not your friend Miss Bingley have succeeded in entrapping him already, if he were so easily led?”
Mrs Gardiner watched her niece closely as she said this, and saw her start at the words. Jane’s face flushed at the obvious implication, and at last she began to question what Miss Bingley had written.
“Why would she have written what she did if it were not true?”
“Perhaps because she was angry at being required to leave Pemberley,” Mrs Gardiner said, raising her voice slightly as she sought to make her point.
“I can assure you that she was far from pleased to discover that any of us were there, and she was decidedly rude to your sister on several occasions. If she believed that we had anything to do with the Darcys’ departure, she would naturally have been offended, and it is not unlikely that she hoped to create some disagreement between you and your sister. ”
Jane did not answer at once, but stood in thoughtful silence, as though weighing her aunt’s words. A flicker of uncertainty crossed her face, the first sign that her conviction had begun to falter.