Page 9 of Ever After End

CHAPTER 8

T he following morning, which was Saturday, Mr Collins sat rather sullenly at the breakfast table. He and Mr Bennet had been up very late the night before, discussing the matter in Bennet’s study, and they had both agreed that there was nothing else to be done, Mr Collins must offer for Charlotte, or be called out by John Lucas. Mr Bennet assured Collins that he had never suspected the Lucas family of being capable of such machinations. It was true that Charlotte was ageing, and likely desperate, but chances were, she would not make him a terrible wife.

“Is she at least an intelligent woman? Would she be of any use at helping to run an estate?” he whined rather pathetically, but no one could blame him.

“Charlotte is a sensible woman who can make a little go a long way. It is true that the Lucases have only held land since she was fourteen, and their estate is much smaller than ours, only having two tenants, but she knows the area, and she knows enough to be a helpmeet,” admitted Elizabeth.

“We are all dreadfully sorry, Cousin,” said Kitty, surprising everyone. “Though it might have been nice if you had decided on Mary and been our brother, we would wish you the joy of making your own choice.”

This was echoed by everyone at the table, including Mrs Bennet. “Even if you had not selected one of my girls, we will be well enough looked after by our own dear Lizzy. Those Lucases are out for whatever they can get!” she cried.

“And you all would have been and still will be welcome to remain at Longbourn, Mrs Bennet, regardless of my choice or lack thereof,” promised Collins. “You have all been exceedingly kind to me.”

“Come on, Collins, let us go to them, before they pretend they had to come to us,” said Bennet, rising from his place and leaving the dining room.

“What will Lady Catherine say?” Mr Collins muttered to himself as he picked at his plate for another long moment. At length, he threw down his napkin and left for Lucas Lodge with Bennet.

Some hours later, he returned an engaged man, though he seemed to be putting a braver face on it. “She is a very genteel woman, which Lady Catherine will appreciate, and does seem to have a great deal of sense, at least in household matters,” he said, attempting to convince himself that it was not that bad. “She was in the kitchens when we arrived, and I visited her there. It looks as if she makes an appetising pie. That is good, since, living in a parsonage, she will find herself helping in the kitchens. I think she will be properly respectful of Lady Catherine’s rank, that is important. That will be very important. Do you believe that she will be appropriately deferential to Lady Catherine, Cousin Elizabeth?”

“I think that Charlotte can be counted upon to always do whatever is in her own best interests, Cousin Collins,” promised Elizabeth truthfully. “And as her husband, what is best for her will also be good for you.”

“It is hard to consider such self-interest to be good for me, but I shall have to take what I can get,” answered her cousin.

The following day, the banns were called in church for Mr Collins and Charlotte Lucas. The Lucases were all as triumphant as Charlotte had been in the hall at Netherfield. Mama is right, the Lucases really are out for whatever they can get . thought Elizabeth. Who would have guessed that Mama would be such an astute judge of character?

A week after the first banns were called, the marriage settlement was signed, though Mr Collins had little to promise to Charlotte until he inherited something. The marriage settlement only stated that anything Mr Collins owned that was not entailed would become Charlotte’s upon his death.

Lady Lucas held a dinner in honour of her daughter’s engagement, and invited the entire neighbourhood. Though relations between the Bennets and the Lucases were currently rather hostile, they could not exclude them, considering that Mr Collins was related to them and residing in their house.

Dinner was tolerable, though Elizabeth could see that the neighbours were strained from pretending that all was well between the two families. It was after dinner that everything suddenly became markedly awkward. Charlotte was standing near her mother, assisting to pass out cups of tea, as she chatted on the side with Mary King and the Long sisters.

“Of course that ghastly blue wallpaper with the birds in the drawing room will have to go,” Charlotte said to her friends. “The current mistress will have to go before it, but I assure you that once she is gone, Meryton will learn what it is like to see Longbourn done in style. I can hardly wait!” The other young ladies, who had developed a strong dislike for Elizabeth after her good fortune, all tittered unkindly.

“You can hardly wait for my cousin to die?” asked her betrothed in as much disbelief as everyone else except the young ladies his betrothed was speaking to.

Charlotte glanced over at him and gave him a small shrug, and then went on talking to Miss King. “After the drawing room, I shall naturally attack the dining room next. Those chair cushions!”

Elizabeth grasped her indignant mother’s elbow and dragged her away. “I have known that girl since she was born. I have worried about her prospects quite as much as your own,” said Mrs Bennet sadly. “I cannot believe she could be so cruel.”

“You have always been right about those Lucases, Mama,” Elizabeth comforted her. “But remember, though leaving Longbourn might be hurtful when the moment arrives, we have nothing to fear from it.”

“You are right Lizzy. Forgive me for being so difficult? I know you are not stingy. You are only trying to protect us all,” said her mother.

“I shall remind you of that the next time you pester me to give you funds to decorate the drawing room,” said Elizabeth. “Why ought we to waste money on Charlotte Lucas?”

Thankfully, many of the older guests took offence at Miss Lucas’s manner, and took their leave early, allowing the Bennets to do so as well.

“I am so sorry to connect you all to that woman!” exclaimed their cousin the following morning.

“It is not your fault, cousin,” Jane assured him. “We do not blame you.”

Mr Collins moped around quietly for several more days. When he was asked if anything else was wrong besides the obvious, he only answered, “I have a great deal to consider.”

Three days before his wedding, he approached Bennet and asked him to accompany him to the office of Mr Phillips.

“Whatever for, Collins? You made your will when you created the marriage settlement.” asked Bennet in surprise.

“I have to sign some documents that I have asked Phillips to prepare for us,” answered Collins. When they were sitting later in the law office, Collins said to Bennet, “Bennet, we are here to sign documents that I have asked Mr Phillips to prepare that will break the entail.”

“Good God,” said Bennet. “Why on earth would you do that?”

“I was considering it when I arrived in Meryton,” answered Collins. “You must have noticed, cousin, that intellect is not my strong suit.”

“Collins, we cannot all be scholars, but you graduated from Oxford!” said Bennet. “It is true, I have noticed that you have some difficulty with numbers, but-”

“ Some difficulty ?” interrupted Collins. “Bennet, I cannot make heads or tails of numbers at all. It is like they will not lay down for me. They swim all over the page! I am not clever. My father could barely read, and I feel like a scholar compared to him, but I am not you. I do not even write my own sermons. My patroness helps me, or I use another’s from a book. I cannot manage the ledgers. Perhaps I could have a clever wife to help me with them, but I am not much more proficient at anything else, and I cannot expect a wife to run the entire concern.”

“I hate to admit this, Collins, But Charlotte Lucas might be perfectly able to manage the whole concern,” admitted Bennet.

“Bennet, while I would never intentionally ruin a gentlewoman, neither can I, in good faith, reward Miss Lucas’s recent behaviour. Her cruelty to your wife and daughters and her shocking behaviour towards myself is beyond the pale. I cannot reward her by making her the mistress of the estate, especially when it is an estate I desperately do not want.”

“You truly have no wish to inherit Longbourn?” asked Bennet uncertainly. By all rights, he ought not argue with the man, but he had lived in a man’s world all of his life, and he had not been raised to care about his female relations over the livelihood of another man, even a stranger. Such was not the way of the world. Longbourn belonged to the men of his family. If the women wished to live well after the death of the men, then the wives ought to have born sons, or come to their unions with larger dowries. He had never considered it his concern.

“Bennet, I enjoy my life. I am proud of my little parsonage, I tend my flock, and I enjoy the notice of my patroness, a great lady of noble birth. I already enjoy precisely as much importance as I wish for. In a few days, Miss Lucas will be Mrs Collins, she will return to Hunsford with me, and we will stay there all of our days; she will never want for anything. My patroness will see to any deficiencies in her character, and we will learn to get along well enough, I am certain. She will have her own establishment, which is more than Miss Lucas deserves after her shocking behaviour. ”

With all of that said, Mr Collins took the pen offered by Mr Phillips, and signed the documents quickly, then handed the pen off to Mr Bennet, who signed his name as well. Mr Phillips’s clerk witnessed it, and another document which Collins signed, attesting that he had not been coerced nor even solicited to sign away his inheritance, and that it had been entirely at his own behest. Mr Phillips said that it would go that very day to the Court of Chancery, and that if it was passed through, they would receive notification by express from his colleague. The notice would be in the newspapers in about a month or perhaps a little more. Collins and Bennet chose not to complicate the rest of his time in Meryton by spreading the news. The wedding would proceed as scheduled, and the Lucases and Bennet ladies, along with the rest of Meryton, could find out later from the papers.

Three days later, Charlotte Lucas was married. Mr Collins had declined a wedding breakfast, stating that his patroness was coming for a few hours only to attend his nuptials. She would divert her return on her way home from visiting her brother, and that they must leave immediately after the ceremony to share her ladyship’s carriage back to Hunsford. There was little fuss or finery. Lady Lucas would have held a modest wedding breakfast, but the Lucases had to be careful with their income, and Sir William would not waste funds decorating the church. Charlotte married in her best day dress, which was a year old, and her one vanity was a lovely bouquet sent from Mrs Lockhart from the conservatory at Netherfield. Abigail Lockhart did not care for Charlotte Lucas, but she had always made such small gestures for new brides.

Immediately after the ceremony, Charlotte Collins was hurried into the carriage of her husband’s patroness, and the highlight of her day was a stern lecture from her ladyship all the way to Bromley.