Chapter 4
Chapter Four
The circulating library in Ramsgate was neither empty nor crowded, having just enough visitors to give it consequence.
Shelves of histories, classics, novels, and travel guides beckoned to the dedicated reader.
Poetry, sermons, and periodicals were displayed upon tables.
Gentlemen and ladies alike sat in comfortable chairs reading newspapers.
Elizabeth Bennet was turning over in her hands a volume of essays in curiosity when she heard her sister Kitty’s voice from the other side of the bookcase.
“Oh! I beg your pardon, were you about to take Sense and Sensibility?”
“I was, but I can wait and return for it next week if you came out especially for it.” Elizabeth heard a second young lady reply.
“Oh, I could not possibly! You reached for it first!” Kitty exclaimed.
“But you came looking for it with obvious intent, whereas I have been deliberating here, unable to decide for some minutes. Surely you have the greater claim. I have only just this moment made up my mind to borrow it.”
“Lizzy!” Kitty called to Elizabeth as she followed their voices and approached them on the other side of the shelf. “Come and help us settle who is to borrow this novel.”
Elizabeth smiled in a friendly manner at an exceedingly elegant young lady and a woman who appeared to be her companion or governess. She turned and caught the attention of the passing librarian.
“Mr Alton?” Elizabeth addressed the man, who was carrying a stack of books to a nearby shelf. “Would you do us the honour?”
The Bennets had been in Ramsgate for over a week, and Mr Alton had performed more introductions than anyone else in town. He was a kind man, and acquainted with nearly every visitor, for everyone wandered into the library to fulfil one need or another upon arriving in the seaside resort.
“Of course!” Mr Alton settled the stack he carried onto a table and hurried over to them, deferring to Miss Darcy as the obviously higher-ranked party. “With your permission, miss?”
“Yes, please.” The younger lady inclined her head.
“Miss Darcy, perhaps you should wait for your father.” The young lady’s companion spoke before she was corrected by her charge.
“This is why my father brought us here.” The younger lady turned back to Mr Alton with a pleasant smile.
“Miss Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire, may I introduce Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn in Hertfordshire, and one of her sisters, Miss Kitty Bennet.” Mr Alton did the honours. Elizabeth marvelled over how easily he remembered every visitor, every name, even the names of their homes.
“Thank you, Mr Alton. And this is my companion, Mrs Younge,” Miss Darcy said as the young ladies all curtsied properly to one another and Mr Alton withdrew.
“Miss Darcy has lately come to Ramsgate for some society, and for her father’s health,” Mrs Younge informed the young ladies.
“We are here while our stepmother recovers from her recent confinement," Kitty told Georgiana.
“Your father is very brave to supply you with a stepmother,” Georgiana ventured. “I always wondered what it might be like to have a new mother and younger siblings.”
“Miss Darcy is still discovering all of the merits of Ramsgate.” Mrs Younge’s smile did not reach her eyes. “She has yet to form a circle of proper acquaintances.”
“Then she has made an excellent beginning,” Elizabeth returned. “The circulating library is the best introduction to any new place.”
“And certainly the most instructive,” Georgiana said pleasantly.
“Miss Kitty, perhaps you would like to read this novel by A Lady together. There are any number of charming places we could meet a few times a week, even here at the library, to read and discuss our observations. We can even begin today and meet again on Friday.”
“I would like that above anything!” Kitty enthused. “Lizzy, say you will accompany me on Friday. You know Papa and Charlotte will never let me out alone.”
“Of course not, and quite right too,” Elizabeth replied. “I have an appointment to go and read to Lady Barry on Friday, but I am certain that Jane or Mary will accompany you.”
Kitty frowned in displeasure. “But Mary will lecture us upon the evils of novels the entire time.”
“I will not be moved from my plan.” Elizabeth was firm, but she smiled at Miss Darcy and explained.
“There is a fine estate that shares a border with ours in Hertfordshire, but the owner closed it up some years ago and moved to Ramsgate. Her health prevents her from going out very often, but I am so pleased to be in her vicinity again that I made plans to visit her often as soon as we arrived. I will speak to Mary, Sister. She helps you with your studies at Charlotte’s request, but she is not your governess and ought not scold you for what you read for pleasure.
Even Papa does not do that. It would do Mary good to read a novel or two by the seaside. ”
“How many siblings are you?” Miss Darcy asked curiously.
“We are five sisters. The eldest is Jane at twenty-three, and the youngest is Lydia at sixteen. I am eighteen. Our brother Lucas is but seven months of age,” Kitty answered.
“Five daughters unwed and out at once?” Mrs Younge sounded shocked.
“Perhaps a few of us might have married sometime in the last few years, but we spent a year mourning for our mother, and then so much changed at home since our father married and Lucas was born that there has been little opportunity to visit new places and meet new people.” Elizabeth was unruffled by Mrs Younge’s disbelief.
“Kitty and Lydia are out in our village, but they are not out properly here in Ramsgate. Like Miss Darcy, they are here to make new friends their own age.”
“Please accept my condolences on the loss of your dear mother.” Georgiana was sober. “I lost mine when I was quite young.”
“Thank you, Miss Darcy, and we return our sympathies in full measure. I am certain that it must be equally difficult when the sad occasion happens early in one’s youth,” Elizabeth said gratefully.
Miss Darcy seemed to be about to reply when a warm and animated masculine baritone rose from some distance across the room, in the manner that men often did when speaking of some interest with great enthusiasm.
“My dear sir, you cannot mean to tell me that you would turn up your nose to all of the new works in this room in favour of a text whose primary virtue lies in its antiquity. There are new writers every day who bring edification, levity, and improvement to society.”
“You may enjoy them all with my blessing.” Elizabeth heard her father reply. “Time will show us all, in the end, what works deserve to endure and which should fade into insignificance.”
The ladies all approached the end of the bookshelf and peered around to see Mr Bennet deep in conversation with a tall man with a handsome, dignified countenance and a serious expression. The two men moved towards a table with two chairs, and continued their discussion.
“Papa has made a new friend,” Kitty whispered.
“Or a new scholarly adversary,” Elizabeth murmured. “Though to Mr Bennet it is nearly the same thing. Miss Darcy, I think that gentleman can only be your father. I see a strong feminine resemblance to his features in you.”
Miss Darcy smiled at the sight of her father settling into his chair to debate some academic point thoroughly.
“My father is fond of such discussions, and only my brother indulges him. I believe he will be fixed there for some time, Miss Kitty. Would you like to begin reading Sense and Sensibility?”
The two gentlemen continued their debate as their two daughters found a corner to sit and read to one another. Elizabeth took a small book of poetry she had been hoping to read from a shelf and smiled as Kitty began to converse and construct a friendship with their new acquaintance.
“Miss Elizabeth!” A feminine young voice rose over the crash of the waves and the wind of the coast.
Elizabeth, accompanied by Jane, turned and smiled at Miss Darcy, who was approaching with another young lady of perhaps Elizabeth’s age and of a similar elegance to Miss Darcy. They were followed by Mrs Younge and a footman.
“Good morning, Miss Darcy. I see that you appreciate a bracing walk on a fine English morning.” Elizabeth nodded to the young lady’s companions and introduced her elder sister when invited by the other lady to do so.
The new young lady was introduced as Lady Priscilla Fitzwilliam, the only daughter of the Earl of Matlock, and Miss Darcy’s cousin.
“Papa tells me that Mr Bennet intends to call at Darcy Cottage today for a game of chess,” Miss Darcy informed her. “Please implore him to bring your sister, for Kitty and I could read another chapter of our novel.”
“Jane and I will tell them as soon as we return for breakfast,” Elizabeth promised. “Are you intending to walk in this direction? Please join us.”
Lady Priscilla and Miss Darcy fell in with them quickly. Lady Priscilla turned and fixed Mrs Younge with a glare until the companion fell back and gave the young ladies some privacy.
“Is it not Mrs Younge’s responsibility to look after Miss Darcy?” Jane asked as they turned and walked on.
“It is, but it is not her task to discourage her from making friends, which she has been attempting to do since we arrived,” Lady Priscilla grumbled. “I will not be listened in upon and then later scolded like a school-room miss who knows not how to converse.”
“Protecting Miss Darcy must be a heavy responsibility,” Jane said thoughtfully.
“I agree, but we are here so that my cousin can become comfortable with making new friends and connexions in society before she debuts. She had recently fallen into a reticence that we ought to chase away before it causes her anxiety later. I do not know why my uncle hired Mrs Younge. Her inclinations run completely opposite to those of her charge, and she expects her charge to make compromises to her plans and activities to suit her.”