Page 45

Guthrie McDougal descended the stairs of her coach with regal dignity.

Looking at her nephew, who waited on the stairs, she smiled at the boy.

Her nephew was very dear to her. When she received his note, she had quickly put things in order to come and help him.

After her brother passed, she had promised herself she would be there for his children. So here she was.

“Aunt Guthrie, I am so glad to have you here. Please come in. How was the journey from London?” Bingley jogged up to his aunt and hugged her, relishing the contact with someone he had always looked up to. After a moment, he stepped back and escorted her into the house, his arm around her shoulders.

Walking with him at her side, she was curious about how things were progressing. “I am happy to be here for you and your sisters. I have missed you all. How are things with Caroline? Is Louisa feeling any better?”

Bingley gazed at his aunt lovingly. Her strawberry blonde hair had a few streaks of gray, but her Bingley blue eyes still twinkled with the same life.

Her beauty was still as undeniable. Guthrie was always practical.

Her traveling clothes were subdued, but close inspection spoke of expensive fabrics and a tailored cut that was flattering.

“I think Caroline is realizing that the world is not as she always thought it was. Louisa seems better; Miss Bennet has encouraged her to drink a special ginger tea regularly, and she has seemed much improved.”

Guthrie smiled, happy to learn that Louisa was not truly sick per se. She would have to have a talk with the child. “I am glad that she found some relief. Did you say that there were guests in the home?”

Bingley could not wait to introduce the Bennet sisters to his aunt.

He just knew that she would love them both.

They had a similar zest for life. “Yes, Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth are here. There is an entire tale that I am sure you will be eager to hear and comment on, but first I would like to introduce you to Mrs. Nichols, the housekeeper.” They had come into the highly polished entryway where Mrs. Nichols stood waiting, an inviting smile on her face.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Nichols. I can tell by the state of the entryway you are doing a marvelous job.”

A few pretty wisps of graying brown hair peeked out of Mrs. Nichols’s crisp white cap, and her intelligent brown eyes were smiling.

“You are too kind, ma’am. I know London is not that far of a journey, but I was thinking you may enjoy freshening up before you join everyone.

Would you like me to show you to your room?

” Mrs. Nichols liked the no-nonsense look about the woman before her.

“You have read my mind! What time is luncheon? Perhaps I can join everyone then?” Guthrie yearned to remove the dust and sweat from her travels and slip into something refreshingly clean.

“That should be in about two hours, ma’am,” Mrs. Nichols answered.

“I will look forward to introducing you to everyone, Aunt, but do not feel the need to rush by any means.” Bingley kissed her cheek. He watched her follow the housekeeper up the grand staircase, relieved that she was here to help.

Guthrie followed the housekeeper through the house, glancing around as she went so she could find her way later on. “Splendid; show my maid to my room. I will leave my trunks to be stored at your discretion. I will not be staying long and will only need what I packed into my satchel.”

Guthrie spoke to the lovely blonde her nephew was mooning over. Though she seemed to be very self-possessed for someone her age, she had a ready smile and keen blue eyes. “And when will you be returning to Longbourn?”

“The apothecary will come tomorrow to check on her progress. If his assessment is that her arm has healed enough for travel, she will depart for home the next day.” Jane glanced at her sister playing chess with Mr. Darcy across the room.

The bruise on her face had improved some but still looked horrendous.

Her arm was still in the sling she would most likely be using until the new year.

Despite both things, she had never seen Elizabeth’s smile brighter.

“You are a wonderful older sister to care for her so. Do you have any other siblings?” Guthrie noticed how she checked on her sister. There was affection between the two, and she was happy to see it.

Jane found the lady she sat with very sweet, though she had a lot of questions. “I am the oldest of five sisters, Mrs. McDougal.”

“You must have a jolly time together,” Guthrie laughed.

“I only had one brother, but I would not have traded my time with him for anything. I would like to thank you for helping Louisa. Charles said that you had gotten her some ginger tea, and that she is feeling much improved. Thank you for being kind to her when you had your own sister to care for.” Looking across the room, she smiled to see Louisa chatting with her husband.

She was glad that things might be improving.

Guthrie had been concerned for her niece, for the last few letters she had received had been troublesome.

“I must admit that I cannot stand to see people suffer if I can help them. She was so miserable, and it was a simple solution to offer ginger tea to help her.” On the settee near the fire, Jane noted Louisa’s coloring had improved over the last few days and was glad of it.

“Has she confided in you?” Guthrie whispered, not wanting to draw undue attention to their discussion.

Jane shared a conspiratorial smile. “No, though I recognize the signs. I make various teas for all of our expectant mothers at Longbourn. Though it is my mother who attends the births if the midwife needs extra help. She seems to have improved, though she has not regained all her weight yet.”

“I am reassured that she will have you and your mother near, as I cannot stay to aid her. It is possible I could be here for her confinement.” Guthrie smiled back before turning her attention to Charles, who had been speaking with Theodore on the other side of Jane.

“Has Caroline kept to her room for long?” Guthrie questioned her nephew.

“She stayed in her room for two days and after destroying nearly everything in the room, she came out yesterday. I think her reception surprised her,” Bingley related.

“How was she received?”

“She made a very critical comment that was incorrect in its essentials,” Jane explained.

“Mrs. Ansley corrected her misconceptions and then, when Caroline asked Louisa to support her, Louisa refused and told her she did not agree with her views. She returned to her room with a headache shortly thereafter.”

Guthrie decided it was time to go check in on her other niece. “I hate to leave this enjoyable interlude, but I am going to check in on Caroline. I will hopefully return soon enough.”

“I understand, Aunt.” Bingley gave his aunt a polite smile, but his gaze was irresistibly pulled towards Miss Bennet.

“Mr. Bingley, how has your review of the tenant homes going?” Jane prompted a change of a topic while Mrs. Guthrie McDougal left.

“Caroline, it is Aunt Guthrie. I am coming in.” Guthrie looked around the room.

She had heard from Mrs. Nichols that the maids had been told to stop cleaning up after tantrums. Entering the room, she glanced around with a critical eye, trying to gauge how things would proceed.

At first, she did not see her niece, but then saw just the tip of her head on the far side of the bed.

She had scattered the blankets and left them in disarray.

Feathers were everywhere, evidence of at least one destroyed pillow.

She had thrown clothes haphazardly around the room.

Stepping into the room, Guthrie was startled to hear crunching; examining the floor revealed broken pieces of what once might have been beautiful figurines.

Moving carefully, she came around the bed and crouched near where her niece sat on the floor in the corner.

“Hello dear, are you ready to come out and talk? I find myself rather too old to sit on the floor.”

Caroline did not even know where to begin. She was being told that everything she had set her foundations upon was wrong. She was unsteady and did not know what to do and where to turn. “I am so confused, Aunt.”

“Well, you can be just as easily overwhelmed by confusion while sitting on the bed as on the floor. Up you go.” Grabbing her niece’s hands, she pulled her to her feet and shepherded her to the bed.

She lovingly began pulling stray bits of down out of her curls.

The poor child really had found her way into a smashing tangle.

“The way I act, the way I talk and walk, what I choose to wear and what I eat, I do so because they taught me to do it that way at school. The teachers and the other students showed me that life was a competition and that acting as I did was the only way to win. I always figured winning would mean finally finding happiness. But now I am unsure if that is what I am going to find.” Running an unsteady hand through her hair, she came away with feathers.

Groaning, she covered her face with both hands.

Guthrie hated to see her niece so lost, but thought it was encouraging to see her think. Putting her arm around Caroline, she drew her close. “What do you think your behavior right now will lead you to?”

“Probably more of the same. Not even Louisa agrees with me. I had thought that she was on my side and that she supported my opinions and actions. I realize now she just did not want to fight. But what can I do? I do not know how else to behave. Cutting down others to rise to the top is all I ever learned.” Resting her head on her aunt, she let herself take solace. She had felt so alone for so long.

“You are not too old to learn new things—no one is ever too old to learn new things. The question is, do you want to learn a new way and, in my opinion, a better way?” Guthrie hoped she would make the right choice.

Even admitting that she might need to change went against all that Caroline held dear.

Until this point, one guideline that she lived by was that you never admitted you were wrong.

This smacked of admitting she was wrong.

“I do not think changing that much of myself will be easy,” Caroline mumbled in a small voice.

“Nothing of any worth is ever easy. Will it be any harder than always fighting? Of always striving after something you will never reach?” Rubbing Caroline’s back, Guthrie tried to get her to come to the correct conclusion.

“I am embarrassed, Aunt. How can I tell everyone that I have been wrong all this time? How can I hold my head up while I learn a new way to be?”

“I would like you to come home with me. Stay with me until I come back in the spring to help your sister. It will give you a good start down your fresh path and you will not have to face those you know while you are learning your way.” Guthrie held her breath.

“But there is not any society where you live, no entertainments.” Caroline’s instinct to complain was strong.

“All the better. You will not need distractions of that sort if you are learning a new way to be. It will give you a chance to discover who you really are without feeling the need to conform to others’ ideas about who you should be,” Guthrie reassured her niece.

“All right. It has to be better than the way I am struggling here. Is there a plan on how we go about all this?” Caroline asked with a disheartened air.

Guthrie felt like she had stepped back in time to when her sons were little, and she had to convince them to eat their vegetables.

Some people never wanted to do what was right for them without prodding.

“We are going to pack you up and make sure you have the clothes you might need for winter in Scotland. But before that, we take care of this room. It appears you have been very energetic in your fury.” Guthrie braced for what she knew was coming.

“Well, do not try pulling the cord. No one comes. I swear the staff here are a disgrace.” A disgruntled huff punctuated Caroline’s complaint.

“The staff is not coming because it is not their job to clean up after a full-grown woman throwing a tantrum like a two-year-old. This will be your first lesson. If you break something intentionally, you will be the one fixing it. I will find a broom and some other necessary supplies for you so that you can get to work right away. You should have enough time to finish before dinner. I think it is time you rejoined your family at meals.” Standing up, she brushed off her dress, trying to free it of the feathers that seemed determined to cling to the fabric.

“But that is their job—to do what I want them to,” Caroline whined.

“No, it is not, and you are simply proving how very much you have to learn. I will return to show you how to do what needs to be done.” Leaving the room and shutting the door behind her, Guthrie heard a shriek as she walked away. It was going to be a long year.