Chapter Fifteen Letters and Judgements #2
My mother’s account of your engagement has left me convinced that you have courage, determination, and a resistance to intimidation which my cousin has long required in a wife.
I wish you both every happiness. You have also secured me several peaceful hours each day, since my mother cannot discuss your marriage and supervise me at the same time.
Anne de Bourgh.
Elizabeth folded the note before Mrs Bennet could demand its contents.
“Miss de Bourgh sends her congratulations.”
“Very proper of her, considering the disappointment.” Mrs Bennet gathered Lady Catherine’s pages, left them on the bedside table in a neat pile, and rose.
“Hill, the gown must be pressed once more. Jane, do not permit Lizzy to touch the veil. Her hands have never understood lace. I must inspect the cold meats before your aunt Philips arrives and eats the arrangement under the pretence of tasting.”
Hill followed her mistress out, the gown in her hands. At the threshold, Mrs Bennet turned back to her daughters. Excitement had kept her moving since dawn, but now her eyes settled on Elizabeth in unguarded emotion.
“You will be very far away.”
The lament was quieter than any praise she had offered to Derbyshire.
“Not always.” Elizabeth rose and kissed her cheek. “We shall visit, and Jane will still be here until spring.”
“Jane will be at Netherfield every day, which is hardly the same as being at home.” Mrs Bennet caught Elizabeth’s face between both hands.
“You must write. Mr Darcy may have ten thousand a year, but Longbourn can afford the postage just as well. You must also eat before you dress. Brides who faint during the service are remembered for the fainting rather than the gown.”
Mrs Bennet embraced her with fierce haste, released her, and resumed shouting for Hill, who was standing two steps behind her.
Jane watched the empty doorway and closed the door. “She is happy.”
“She is bereaved, triumphant, and concerned about cold meats. Mamma has never permitted one state to interfere with another.”
A knock followed, and Mr Bennet entered carrying a narrow packet sealed in red wax. He inspected the travelling trunks, the stockings on the bed, and Lady Catherine’s abandoned letter.
“I see that marriage has begun as it means to continue. Your possessions have multiplied, your relations are outraged, and your mother has taken control of everything.”
“Have you come to rescue me?”
“I have come to borrow you. Rescue would require a carriage.”
He offered his arm and led her downstairs to the study. The shelves had been rearranged according to her father’s system since her investigations into vampires. Calmet stood on the highest shelf again, safely beyond Mr Collins’s reach.
On the desk lay a document bearing a broken black seal. The writing belonged to the same ancient language Elizabeth had seen burning around the punch bowl.
“The judgement arrived yesterday.” Mr Bennet lifted it between two fingers. “Mr Collins carried it here this morning and requested my opinion on the translation.”
“Did you give him one?”
“I informed him that I could not read it.”
“That has never prevented Mr Collins from forming an opinion, Papa.”
“He believes it records a formal commendation of his courage. Darcy tells me it confirms that Wickham’s extinction was lawful and that no charge may be brought against Collins, yourself, or any member of Netherfield’s household.”
Elizabeth traced the edge of the paper. “Does it mention Mr Wickham’s other victims?”
“The evidence Darcy collected has been accepted. Whatever property or influence Wickham possessed among his own kind has been seized for the benefit of those he converted or injured. Mr Hurst’s former valet is named among them.”
Johnson. Elizabeth had never known him, but she remembered the change in Mr Hurst whenever the name was spoken. Mr Wickham had converted the man without consent, and Johnson had ended his unwanted immortality by walking into daylight.
“Mr Collins intends to hang the judgement in the parsonage,” Mr Bennet continued. “Charlotte has discovered that he has been holding it upside down but has decided not to correct him until after the wedding.”
“He earned the right to display it in any direction he chooses.”
Mr Bennet chuckled. “I suggested the same.”
He returned the judgement to the desk and regarded the rows of books.
The morning after the ball, Mr Darcy, Mr Bingley, and Mr Hurst had stood in this room while Mr Collins guarded the door with a new walking stick.
Mr Bennet had listened to their account without interruption, then demanded proof of a kind his education had not prepared him to receive.
“You never told me precisely what happened when Mr Darcy explained everything.”
“I wished to spare you the knowledge that your father has examined the heartbeat of Mr Bingley.”
Elizabeth’s lips parted.
“It required patience. Bingley apologised throughout.” Mr Bennet rested one hip against the desk. “Hurst stood before the mirror and failed to appear. Darcy held his breath for seven minutes while Collins counted aloud. Miss Bingley arrived later and put her hand into the fire.”
“She did what?”
“Only briefly. The burn was real, but she withdrew her hand as though she had touched a piece of warm toast rather than a fire. She appeared more distressed by the glove.”
“That sounds so characteristic of her.”
“By the end, I had either five vampires in my neighbourhood or a family of dedicated circus performers. I chose the explanation which required fewer rehearsals.”
Elizabeth moved closer to him. “Were you very angry?”
“I intended to remove them from the house, bar Longbourn’s doors to every member of that party and send you to your aunt Gardiner until good sense returned.
” Mr Bennet folded his arms. “Then I remembered that you already knew, that you had entered their plan willingly and Collins had killed a creature in your defence. It is difficult for a father to assert authority after every decision has been made, though your mother continues to practise.”
“I am sorry, Papa.”
“I know. Darcy was sorrier, and he had three centuries from which to draw examples.”
Mr Bennet had required assurances before allowing either courtship to continue.
No Bennet could be compelled, no member of Netherfield could feed from the family and Jane must learn the truth before Mr Bingley spoke to her again as a suitor.
Mr Darcy had accepted each condition without argument, then added several harsher restrictions of his own.
“I would not have permitted this marriage if the ritual placed you in danger of conversion,” Mr Bennet continued.
“Darcy’s determination to become human reassures me less than his refusal to obtain humanity by sacrificing you.
A man’s conduct when offered his greatest desire reveals more than his conduct when denied it. ”
“He still attempted to refuse me after the bowl revealed the real prophecy.”