Page 4 of Five Gentlemen at Netherfield (Pride and Prejudice Variations)
It was a chill she would gladly brave to have a few minutes alone with her elder sister.
She was eager to hear Jane’s honest perspective on the visit to Netherfield that morning, and thus far all conversations on that topic had been entirely dominated by Mrs. Bennet.
The mistress of Longbourn was universally pleased with their reception at Netherfield Hall, not having detected the contempt from Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst that Elizabeth had thought so palpable.
When Mrs. Bennet had finally fallen silent at dinner, Kitty and Lydia, all a-giggle, had spoken loudly and at length of their venture to Meryton earlier that day.
Meryton, they claimed, was far more diverting than stuffy Netherfield with its plain, ugly lords and dandies.
Meryton was filled with the officers of a militia regiment, which was settled in the town for the winter, and the red-coated men had proven all too willing to make themselves agreeable to a pair of very pretty and lively young ladies.
Elizabeth had listened to her younger sisters with disquiet, but there was little enough she could do.
Mr. Bennet would not bestir himself to have his foolish youngest daughters supervised, and Mrs. Bennet saw no need.
Thus, Kitty and Lydia were allowed to wander around town amongst strange men with no oversight and not a morsel of common sense to share between them.
All Elizabeth could do was pray for her sisters’ safety and that the officers were honorable men.
Jane looked up at the soft click of the door and smiled as she tied the ribbons of her nightcap under her chin. She too had her robe snugly about her shoulders with only a peek of white woolen nightgown showing from beneath.
“Come sit down next to me, Lizzy,” Jane said. “It is chilly tonight.”
Elizabeth obeyed with alacrity. “The fire does feel wonderful.”
“Yes,” Jane agreed simply.
“What do you think of the gentlemen at Netherfield, particularly Mr. Bingley?” Elizabeth asked.
Jane hesitated, her lovely face grave, and then said, “Why, I cannot pretend to know them well, but they seem a pleasant set. As for Mr. Bingley, he is certainly congenial and courteous.”
Elizabeth frowned. The words were flattering, but Jane’s tone was not at all enthusiastic.
“But you do not really like him, even though he obviously admires you?” she ventured.
Jane wrinkled her nose and said, “I do not dislike him, Lizzy, but neither am I ready to marry him and…”
She trailed off, and Elizabeth reached out to take her sister’s hand in her own.
“Well, of course you would not marry him now. As you said, you hardly know him. But it seems he will be here for some months, so you will have the opportunity to know him better, and clearly he also needs to learn more about you.”
“Mamma will expect me to marry Mr. Bingley if he makes me an offer.”
“Yes, I suppose she will,” Elizabeth agreed, “but that hardly matters. That is to say, you do not need to marry a man you do not like, even if Mamma fusses a bit.”
Jane gulped, and her eyes suddenly were bright in the soft light of the fire. “You have always been strong, more than I am, and I do not like to disappoint our mother.”
“Jane! Please promise me that you will never give in to our mother’s pressure…”
“I will not,” Jane interrupted, turning abruptly to stare into Elizabeth’s face. “I promise I will not. But the truth is that I … that is, well, I am not certain I will ever marry at all.”
Elizabeth blinked. “Truly? You are so good with our cousins, the little Gardiners. I thought you longed to be a wife and mother.”
“I would enjoy both, if I genuinely love and respect and trust my husband. But that is not a definite thing, especially since I am very beautiful. How can I be certain that a gentleman will marry me because he truly cares about me as opposed to my looks? “
Elizabeth compressed her lips and then said, “You are thinking of our father and mother.”
“I am,” Jane agreed and turned to stare into the undulating flames of the fireplace. “You know Mamma was incredibly handsome in her youth, and Father undoubtedly chose her because of her beauty. Theirs has not been a happy marriage.”
“No, but…,” Elizabeth began, and fell silent for a few seconds before she continued. “It is not quite the same, Jane. Mamma is the daughter of a solicitor, and not … well, I do not wish to be unkind, but she is not as clever as you are.”
“Or she is, but she was never taught properly. Do you remember Grandmother Gardiner?”
“A very little. She died when I was six, I believe.”
“Yes, and I was eight, and Mother took me to visit her in Meryton almost every week for the two years before her death.”
“Just you?”
“Yes, because I was blonde and blue-eyed like our mother, and Grandmother Gardiner was proud of my looks. She had no particular use for you or Mary, because you are dark-haired like our father.”
“Did she actually say that?”
Jane sighed and said, “No, but she did say, frequently, how proud she was that Mamma had managed to capture Father as a husband, and she said that our aunts Amelia and Emma were only able to wed tradesmen because they were plain.”
Elizabeth grimaced and shook her head. “That was unkind and quite foolish as well. I know Aunt Emma is happy with our uncle Phillips, and Aunt Amelia was obviously very wealthy indeed given that she bestowed substantial dowries on all of us.”
“Yes, it was foolish,” Jane agreed and then straightened her back, her lovely countenance suddenly determined.
“Lizzy, until three months ago, I would have accepted any reasonable offer from a gentleman, but now … now I am mistress of five thousand pounds, which produces two hundred pounds a year in the four percents. That is enough to live on if I am willing to be frugal. I no longer am forced to marry, and I am resolved not to wed unless I truly love and respect the man who offers for me.”
“I never considered any other course of action!” Elizabeth declared in surprise.
“I know,” Jane said and reached over to pull her into an embrace.
“It is one of the things I love about you, that you refuse to give way to fears of the future. The truth, undoubtedly, is that without Aunt Amelia’s kindness, we would have been in terrible trouble when Father died.
We formerly had no dowry, and no brothers, and … ”
Elizabeth could not help but shiver. She had always refused to think a great deal about the Bennet ladies’ poverty apart from Longbourn, since she could do nothing about it, but it was true enough that life would have been grim indeed if not for her aunt’s kindness.
“I am very grateful too,” she said.