A Match for Mary Bennet (31 page)

Some weeks after the Olivers returned to Kympton, Elizabeth received a letter from Charlotte Collins which recounted her pleasure at seeing Mary again. She enthusiastically acclaimed Mary's choice of husband.

I believe Miss de Bourgh has profited greatly from their visit. So many Hunsford townsfolk admit, with some surprise, that they now enjoy her visits. We never heard such remarks in Lady Catherine's day, but that poor lady was not in the best health. Miss de Bourgh let slip at dinner one day that she seriously intended using her influence as Sir Lewis de Bourgh's daughter to request from the regent the selection of a bishop sometime in the future. I fear Mr. Collins took this as a reference to himself, and he has begun bowing and calling Anne ‘my grand lady,' which seems to amuse her. However, my guess is that she has Mr. Oliver in mind, though I do not say so. I would not wish to detract from Mr. Collins's obeisance nor from Miss de Bourgh's amusement at it.

Lizzy laughed heartily at the letter, both in picturing portly Mr. Collins performing such courtesies and in imagining Mary, who was the last to look for honours, one day outranking Lady Caroline.

In spring, when Georgiana became Mrs. Exbridge, Elizabeth observed to her husband that his sister would inherit a title one day that would rival Lady Caroline's. Darcy nodded. “But I assure you, she thinks of it not as honour but as heavy obligation. Georgiana told me how gladly she joined the household at Foxbridge, delighted to be close to us. And she admitted that she wished to have some years of observing Martha before taking on duties of mistress. From you and Mary, she said she learned the joy of having sisters, and having lacked a mother's guidance, she thought that Mrs. Exbridge is just the model she needs.”

Elizabeth admitted that she would miss Georgiana. “But how Mary and Steven Oliver rejoiced that so illustrious a couple had chosen to be wed at Kympton Saint Giles!”

At Pemberley, young Charles accepted baby Bennet as enthusiastically as Beth did her brother William, but Charles had to be reminded daily that he could not expect his little brother to run with him for a while. Charles steadfastly refused to believe that he himself had ever been too young to run.

The young girls of Kympton followed Emmaline Langley's lead and resigned themselves to a married rector. They joined the elderly, the sick, and the poor of the parish in their wholehearted support of his ministry, and the living of Kympton grew in value yearly. By autumn of their first year together, Mr. Oliver had forbidden the creaky choir stairway to Mary, and Emmaline became organist. Though the almost-nineteen-year-old had some problems keeping the girls from their antics at practises, she did well for so young a girl. Parishioners did not think of the new Mrs. Oliver as plain, although she kept to her simple clothing and unbraided hair. Her burgeoning self-confidence and frequent easy smiles rendered her lovely in the eyes of her beloved villagers.

The Bennets, often including Lydia, visited the North frequently, spending a fortnight at Pemberley, a fortnight at the Kympton manse, and a fortnight at Otherfield. Having three daughters in the area lured them often from Longbourn, though Kitty sometimes requested inviting Mr. Grantley lest she miss Hertfordshire. It was a full five years before that gentleman overcame his fear of remarrying, and Kitty, who had certainly exercised patience, became the second Bennet daughter to live at Netherfield.

Mr. Wickham finally took Mr. Bennet's suggestion and apprenticed himself to Mr. Philips as clerk. His education sufficed for the duty of writing documents, and his ready charm brought clients into the office. Meryton had forgiven him for leaving debts, which had been subsequently paid, and merchants carefully warned their daughters about his insubstantial virtue. Consequently, he managed to live longer in the same flat at Meryton than he had done at any previous residence. By Mr. Bennet's strictures laid down in advance, Lydia stayed with Wickham only as long as he did not take from her the pin money she should have. If Mrs. Phillips observed that Lydia was without it, and her observation remained astute, her immediate report to Bennet sent him for Lydia as he had promised. Then Lydia remained with her parents until Wickham again swore he would honour his word. Thus Lydia lived at Longbourn almost as many months as she lived at Meryton, and she grew to accept the arrangement, especially while Kitty lived at Longbourn. When she later lived there with her parents alone—much as Mrs. Bennet doted on her—the lack of need for husband-hunting had drained so much pleasure from Mrs. Bennet's social life that she looked to travel for excitement. This kept Lydia often far from her husband, but she grew to accept that as well.

A few years after Kitty's marriage, Henry Fitzwilliam succeeded to the earldom, and the holiday season included quite a round of balls: Pemberley's, one at Norwich Mills, and one reinstated at Foxbridge. Miss de Bourgh chose Michaelmas for a ball at Rosings Park, delighting the gentlefolk at Hunsford, who were unused to such doings. When Kitty became mistress of Netherfield, she started a midsummer ball, and by then Beth knew the dances and taught her younger siblings and cousins as soon as they wished to join in. Bennet Darcy, however, sneered at such a waste of time; he preferred a book. Lizzy teased that the child must have seen Mary first at birth and so took on her propensities.

One day, shortly after Miss Langley had married Fred Hooks and moved to Saint Albans, where the young man had found a position, Darcy reported to Elizabeth that the cottage would soon be occupied again. “It amazed me that Oliver insisted on paying rent all this time only because one day it would be needed. But apparently, he has found a choir master who needs a residence nearby. Let us hope we will enjoy our new neighbour.”

Elizabeth teased, “I thought to give it to Bennet for his hermitage. He finds his little sisters too much company, you know. They talk too much.”

Darcy rejoined, “And I thought Oliver kept it for the overflow of children from the manse! But actually, it is to house a musical gentleman from Nottingham whose father has tired of his running horses to death and has forced him to procure a paying post.”

“Surely you must speak of a gentleman we know?”

“Indeed, I do.”

“Perhaps the post will increase his self-discipline.” After a pause, Elizabeth added, “But if the spurned Miss Johnstone should change parishes to be near him that might send him off again.”

“Yes,” Darcy said as he laughed. “As far as the farthest colonies.”

My sincere thanks to my friend, Margaret Cain, and her friends, the D'Arcys of Derbyshire, for their substantial assistance in providing information regarding all things British.

Eucharista Ward was born in Minneapolis and is a member of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Sylvania, Ohio. She is a retired high school English teacher with an M.A. in English. After retiring from teaching, she became a licensed nurse's aid and worked as a home health aide, and then as an assisted living aide in Sylvania, caring for the retired sisters of the Sisters of Saint Francis. She currently works in an assisted living residence at night. To pass the time and keep herself awake through the night, she writes sequels to the Jane Austen novels of which she is so fond.