Pemberley (2 page)

‘My dear Lizzy,' said Jane when she had heard her out, ‘nothing will stop you from conceiving a child more than the worrying about it. And if you do not invite Mother and Mary for Christmas, your own lack of charity will make you worry all the more. You are hardly known for your meanness of spirit – remember that.'

Eliza thought long on her sister's words when she returned to Pemberley. It was true, her holding back from giving her mother the pleasure and excitement she so needed after the loss of her husband had come to seem exceedingly parsimonious. She was not known for this quality. It was as if the great-heartedness and generosity of Mr Darcy had taken away any spirit of giving in herself – or so she reflected. And it occurred to her that Mr Darcy himself might also consider Elizabeth's failure to invite her closest relatives less than he had expected in the warm and open nature for which, as he had so often lovingly said, he had married her.
Had she become close and ungiving since she had entered the paradise that marriage to Mr Darcy and the beauties of Pemberley so undoubtedly were? The thought made her colour up, even when alone; and a tap on the door followed by a visit from Mrs Reynolds the housekeeper, with a request as to foodstuffs and game to be prepared for Christmas, finally jolted her into going downstairs to find Mr Darcy before giving any orders for kitchen or larder.

Mr Darcy, as she had known he would be, was geniality itself. Of course Mrs Bennet should come – and stay as long as she pleased. Mary should have the run of the library, which was second to none in the country. Kitty should come, to make up the party: it was a long time since she had been reunited with her mother and sister.

Elizabeth went into Mr Darcy's arms and nearly wept at the ease with which all this had been accomplished. She did not feel an obligation to Mr Darcy – rather that he had looked forward to her request, and had been too delicate to mention the matter of her mother's visit by himself. Both husband and wife were smiling and close together when Georgiana Darcy came into the room and stopped, seeing them there.

Elizabeth was overjoyed to see her sister-in-law and came to meet her in the long gallery with words of welcome. Friendship with Georgiana was the one way, so Elizabeth felt, in which she could repay Mr Darcy for his good heart and kindness to her. The girl, older than Elizabeth's sister Mary, and taller than Elizabeth herself, had nevertheless been nervous at her brother's marriage and difficult to coax out of her shell. She had spent all her childhood at Pemberley; and Elizabeth's first task was to tell her that she should spend all the time there that she wished. Georgiana, who had suffered the intolerable humiliation of a near-abduction by a fortune-hunter when she had been only fifteen years old, was also shy at her prospects of finding anyone to marry. Her aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh had frightened her with parties and
balls at Rosings, which had produced nothing but a dread in the girl of meeting anyone socially.

Elizabeth took Georgiana's arm and led her over to Mr Darcy. She told her gently that there would be a family party at Pemberley at Christmas; and that Mary looked forward to meeting Lizzy's new sister. Mr Darcy beamed; Mrs Reynolds was given her orders; and Elizabeth wondered why she had delayed for so long in issuing this simple invitation.

Mrs Bennet lost no time informing her acquaintances of her important news. She went first to Meryton, to call on Lady Lucas; and issued a list of orders to her daughter Mary as she went out of the door.

‘You are just like your father, Mary, always in the library! Are you aware of how many days remain before we leave for Pemberley? Your dresses are creased; you should pack the yellow and the blue, but the red does not become you at all!

‘There will be a large staff at Pemberley, I have no doubt; but it is better to arrive with a dress that is creased, yet shows sign of having seen the iron, than a merely creased one.

‘Pack your music, Mary. In such an establishment as Pemberley there may well be a music master or something of the kind in residence. The assembled company will wish to hear you sing.

‘Make sure to pack your paints. I have heard that Miss Georgiana Darcy is extremely proficient with her sketches and water-colours, and you may visit Matlock, if not the Peaks!

‘Hurry, Mary, there is so much to do here before we leave!'

As none of these injunctions and instructions received any reply, Mrs Bennet hastened to Meryton to receive the compliments that must be due to her. She was disturbed, therefore, to find Lady Lucas a great deal more caught up in her own affairs than receptive to Mrs Bennet's.

‘Dear Mrs Bennet, you must forgive me! But I have heard such momentous news just this minute that I hardly know whether I am on my head or my heels!' cried Lady Lucas once Mrs Bennet had taken her place in a chair by the fire.

Mrs Bennet was disagreeably surprised; but tried to conceal it.
‘It is not a matter concerning the health of your dear husband, I trust? I find since the sad loss of Mr Bennet that wives turn to widows under my very eyes; if there has been one there have been ten husbands taken ill suddenly in the past year. I have found it hard to call anywhere.'

‘No, no, indeed.' Lady Lucas was smiling, excessively in the opinion of Mrs Bennet. ‘It could be said to affect the health, certainly. But in a way that is joyful in the extreme.'

If Mrs Bennet suspected the truth of Lady Lucas's happy tidings, she gave no sign of it.

‘I came to tell you of my plans,' she said stiffly. ‘They are also the plans of my dear Mary; and I anticipated that you would be glad for us.'

‘I'm sure I shall be,' cried Lady Lucas, coming over and taking her friend's hand. ‘Clearly, we all have reason to rejoice today. But you must be the first to know – there are many reasons for you to be the first to rejoice with us. In short,' said Lady Lucas, biting her lip at the embarrassment that was to follow and which in her excitement she had not fully accounted for, ‘my dear Charlotte has told us today that she expects a child in the summer!'

Mrs Bennet's stillness, for a woman known for constant and frequently agitated movement, was remarkable. Finally, she inclined her head and gave her compliments. ‘You must understand, my dear Lady Lucas, that this has come as a considerable shock to me. I reared five daughters at Longbourn. We spent twenty-three of the happiest years in the house. I married three of my daughters – two most advantageously, I may say – from Longbourn House. Then …' – and here Mrs Bennet's lip quivered and she brushed a tear from her eye – ‘then Mr Bennet died and I was thrown out,
evicted
with my two unmarried daughters.'

Lady Lucas replied calmly that the facts of the male entail on Longbourn had been known to all of them for the duration of those years.

‘A distant cousin, Mr Collins!' cried Mrs Bennet, as if this were
news and not the other. ‘Mr Collins inherits Longbourn and is in there before poor dear Mr Bennet is cold in his grave!'

‘Mrs Bennet!' said Lady Lucas. But her pleading was to no avail.

‘I know that this is not the fault of your daughter Charlotte,' said Mrs Bennet magnanimously. ‘My Lizzy refused Mr Collins's proposal of marriage and dear Charlotte was lucky indeed to find a husband.'

‘Thank you for your compliments,' replied Lady Lucas coldly. ‘The strong possibility of Charlotte's pregnancy has perhaps made us late in extending an invitation to you to visit Longbourn.'

‘And what if Charlotte has nothing but daughters!' cried Mrs Bennet, whose thoughts had run far ahead of her. ‘Then she will know the mortification of expulsion from her home when still in the prime of life!'

The maid came in with tea at this point, which made a welcome interruption. Mrs Bennet had to wipe the tears from her eyes, and arrange her face to give an impression of extreme joy at the prospects of an heir to Longbourn.

‘We all wish to invite you to Longbourn for Christmas,' said Lady Lucas when the maid had gone. ‘And Mary must come too. Even if there are painful memories, there will also be joyful ones. Charlotte is to write to you today; but her news, as I say, has made her late in extending the invitation.'

Mrs Bennet set down her cup the better to enjoy her advantage. ‘I must decline your and Mrs Collins's kind invitation,' she said slowly and clearly.

‘Mrs Bennet – do reconsider!' cried Lady Lucas, who was much disturbed by the strange manner of her friend.

‘We go to Pemberley,' Mrs Bennet said after a long pause during which the tea things were cleared and the maid went out again. ‘So it is with great regret that Mary and I will be unable to accept.'

‘Goodness,' said Lady Lucas warmly, for she wished to make amends to Mrs Bennet and saw how deeply she had offended her. ‘This is momentous news indeed! You will stay with Elizabeth and Mr Darcy,' she added, though there was no necessity for her to do so.

‘I am accustomed to having my family round me at Christmas,' Mrs Bennet said, ‘Pemberley will be on a grander scale that Longbourn I don't doubt; but the company is what matters, don't you agree?'

‘I do,' said Lady Lucas, eager not to show her relief at the prospect of a quiet Christmas with her daughter. ‘So who will be assembled at Pemberley when you go?'

‘I have written to my daughter Jane Bingley,' Mrs Bennet replied in a lofty tone, ‘telling her I expect her to be at Pemberley at Christmas. With all her family, it goes without saying. Mr Bingley has bought a fine estate at Barlow; but I should find it sadly inconvenient to go between one daughter and another. Jane expects a child in the New Year and she will be more comfortable at Pemberley.'

‘You did not tell me that Jane expected another child so soon!' cried Lady Lucas, who now felt thoroughly uncomfortable at her lack of delicacy in her conversation with Mrs Bennet. ‘I am too caught up in dear Charlotte, I expect.'

‘It is not of great consequence,' said Mrs Bennet coldly. She rose to take her leave and Lady Lucas accompanied her into the hall.

‘I was on my way to Longbourn,' Mrs Bennet said, ‘to offer the compliments of the season to dear Charlotte, as I shall sadly not be able to invite you all over to Meryton Lodge for an evening, as I had anticipated.'

Lady Lucas, glad to see the breach mended, said she would accompany Mrs Bennet to Longbourn, and they walked down the lane together.

Mrs Bennet was warmly received in the house that had been her home for close on a quarter of a century; and after she had expressed surprise and concern at the furnishings installed by the new owners she allowed herself to be led into the sitting-room and seated in her favourite chair.

Charlotte, daughter of Lady Lucas and wife of Mr Collins, was in a high flutter to find the mother of her great friend Elizabeth Bennet on her first visit to Longbourn since the death of Mr Bennet; and her chief concern, after receiving compliments on the child to be born the following year, was to hear of her friend's health and well-being.

‘Lizzy is very well,' said Mrs Bennet. ‘She has her hands full at present, so she assures me, with a new kitchen garden and a model dairy, not to mention plans for further enlarging the stream in the park into a semblance of moving water staircases. Or that is how she wrote it to me,' Mrs Bennet added doubtfully.

‘Ah, so she is well occupied indeed,' cried Mr Collins, who had seated his mother-in-law Lady Lucas on the far side of the fire and sat in a devout and conjugal pose with Charlotte on a sofa. ‘I hope Mrs Darcy has also the welfare of the men and their wives and children at Pemberley under consideration. According to Mr Darcy's aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh,' Mr Collins went on before Mrs Bennet could find the opportunity to emphasise the care given to the workers at Pemberley by her daughter, ‘Mr Darcy has always shown extraordinary kindness to the poor.'

‘I am sure Elizabeth will not deflect him from this,' said Mrs Bennet.

‘My dear lady, please do not imagine that I imply anything
other than the most meticulous attentions to the villagers on the part of Mrs Darcy. It is simply a matter of upbringing: Elizabeth has not grown up in such a stations as Mr Darcy's and the scale of bounty which Mr Darcy's dear mother Lady Anne was accustomed to distribute may be unfamiliar to her.'

Silence greeted this, and Lady Lucas asked Mrs Bennet where her youngest married daughter Lydia would be spending Christmas.

‘Ah, I am glad to hear of dear Lydia,' cried Mr Collins. ‘She is well, I hope?'

Mrs Bennet said her daughter Lydia was certainly well.

‘Whenever I hear of another birth in the Wickham family I feel the loss of my position as parson at Hunsford,' Mr Collins exclaimed. ‘I used to find the baptism of infants the most rewarding aspect of my calling. To take a pagan soul – to bring the first touch of God to a child – why, it is a most affecting thing!' As Mrs Bennet nodded coldly, Mr Collins pressed his point. ‘Mr and Mrs Wickham must have a growing number of children by now, Mrs Bennet. How many are there?'

Mrs Bennet replied that her youngest daughter and her husband had four children under four years old.

‘They are blessed indeed!' said Lady Lucas quietly, for she wished to arrest Mr Collins in his path.

‘You have a quantity of grandchildren then,' cried Mr Collins, ‘for Mr and Mrs Bingley also have brought forth, have they not?'

Mrs Bennet said that her daughter Jane expected a second child in the New Year.

‘Six grandchildren!' said Charlotte with a sweet smile, for her own condition prevented her from seeing the annoyance in Mrs Bennet's face. ‘How fortunate you are!'

As Mrs Bennet agreed to this, Mr Collins pressed home. ‘I dare say you await the birth of one more, to bring your cup to overflowing,' he said in a tone that caused even Lady Lucas, grateful as she was to have her daughter settled at Longbourn, to rise
and remark it was growing dark already and they must be on their way back to Meryton.