Page 3 of Longbourn’s Son (Pride and Prejudice Variation #22)
The Bennet family carriage rattled toward home, and Elizabeth leaned back against the squabs with Luke at her side. She was pleasantly fatigued after an evening of dancing, and the music still echoed in her mind.
Across from Luke and Elizabeth sat Jane, Mary, and Kitty, all of whom were comfortably silent after a busy evening at the assembly.
It occurred to Elizabeth that when her youngest sister Lydia came out in a year, the carriage would be very full indeed, especially since Lydia was the tallest of the Bennet daughters.
“Are you entirely certain you are well, Lizzy?” her brother asked worriedly, placing one large hand over her petite one.
“My dear Luke,” Elizabeth Bennet responded with amusement, “I truly am entirely unaffected by Mr. Darcy’s insult. I am pleased enough with my looks and well aware that Jane is five times prettier than any of the rest of us.”
Jane Bennet made a sound of protest, but her only brother spoke quickly, “I am well aware that you were not greatly disturbed, Lizzy, but what kind of gentleman says such a thing in company? You have a more robust character than Kitty. If he had said such a thing about her…”
“I would have been devastated,” Kitty admitted.
“If Darcy had said such a thing about you, I would have punched him in the face.”
“Does not the Scriptures say that we must turn the other cheek in the face of insults?” Mary inquired seriously. She was the third Bennet daughter and the only one who was not particularly beautiful.
“I believe that part of loving others is sometimes showing individuals the errors of their ways,” Elizabeth suggested.
“Luke, we are grateful for your protection of us, and I believe we handled the situation perfectly. If Mr. Darcy is any kind of gentleman, our subtle denigration of his remarks should spark some embarrassment.”
“I suspect that your remarks were not particularly subtle, Lizzy,” Jane commented in amusement. Her next younger sister was well known for her satirical and sly wit.
“Perhaps not,” Elizabeth agreed cheerfully. “Let that be a lesson to him to mind his manners in strange villages. I suppose in London everyone truckles to his poor behavior due to his wealth and connections, but not here.”
“I daresay Mother would have been outraged at Mr. Darcy’s remarks,” Kitty mused aloud, which provoked a communal sigh from the five Bennet siblings.
“Indeed, she would have been,” Elizabeth agreed and turned to gaze out at the full moon, which reigned over the skies of Meryton tonight. “She would never tolerate an outsider insulting the beauty of any of her daughters.”
/
“Really, Charles, you must give up Netherfield immediately,” Caroline Bingley fumed as the Bingley coach carried its three passengers back to the mansion. “It is bad enough that these people are rural bumpkins, but for a snip of a girl to insult Mr. Darcy? It is not to be borne!”
“I believe Darcy deserved it,” Charles Bingley replied calmly.
“Deserved it?” Miss Bingley squealed in outrage. “Charles, how can you say such a ridiculous thing!?”
“He says it because it is true,” Darcy confessed unhappily.
He had been taken entirely aback when a mere stripling had challenged him at the assembly, but young Mr. Bennet was correct; it had been grossly discourteous for Darcy to denigrate the looks of the boy’s sister within the hearing of others.
“That is absurd, Mr. Darcy. No one in this backwards town is worthy of either your attention or your courtesy.”
“No, Miss Bingley, that is not true in the least. Indeed, the mark of a gentleman is that he treats all with civility, regardless of their social status. I was entirely at fault in insulting the lady in order to fend off Bingley’s request that I dance.”
“I apologize,” Bingley answered. His face was hidden in the darkness, but his tone was remorseful. “I ought to have left you alone to skulk in the corners of the assembly hall. It was kind of you to come with me at all, and I should not have importuned you.”
“No, you should not,” Caroline Bingley declared. “Indeed, it is entirely your fault, Charles, all of it! You should have taken a better estate, and we all should avoid the local company, who are not worthy of any of us.”
Darcy gritted his teeth but kept silent.
He had journeyed to Netherfield with the laudable intention of helping his closest friend learn to be a good manager of an estate, and in one short evening, he had managed to insult a local girl and give Miss Bingley the idea that being rude to social inferiors was the mark of a gentleman.
It was not, he realized unhappily, his finest hour.
/
“Checkmate,” Mr. Bennet said triumphantly.
Mr. Allen, the rector of the church in Meryton, sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I am afraid that the loss of my bishop doomed me.”
“Indeed it did,” his host said cheerfully. “I confess to great delight given that I rarely defeat you.”
“I believe that in our last six games you won two, I won three, and the last was a draw. I would say that we are quite evenly matched.”
“It is kind of you to say so,” Mr. Bennet contended, “since every time we sit down, I feel like David fighting Goliath. But I have been studying chess books of late and have improved.”
“You have,” Mr. Allen agreed, “which I find a great pleasure. There are few in the environs of Meryton who can give me a good game.”
There was the sudden sound of feminine voices mixed in with a deeper one, and the parson turned slightly toward the door. “It appears your older children have returned from the assembly.”
“They have, but do not feel you must depart, Mr. Allen. The girls will be full of talk of lace and dancing, and Luke will corner me to talk about cows and sheep. I would far rather play another game with you.”
“I believe I must depart soon, as I have a christening tomorrow morning. But before I depart, how are your children doing?”
Bennet leaned back and stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“I believe they are well enough,” he said slowly.
“It has been four years since my wife was taken from us, and Jane and Elizabeth are both far better suited to manage the house than my wife ever was.” He lifted up a hand in response to the rector’s disapproving look.
“I am not denigrating Mrs. Bennet; she was a daughter of trade and never trained to look after a gentleman’s estate.
She was devoted to the well-being of our children, even if she did not entirely understand some of them. ”
“I postulate that most parents of many children struggle to understand at least one of their progeny. My wife finds our second son’s temperament difficult to fathom, and I find our youngest daughter puzzling.”
“Yes, it is no great surprise,” Bennet agreed.
“She adored Jane, of course, for her beauty and gentle character, and valued Luke above all her daughters, for he saved her and the girls from the entail with his birth. I am not entirely certain how much the younger girls miss their mother; Jane has always mothered them to a degree, even before Mrs. Bennet passed on.”
Mr. Allen tightened his lips but did not comment. He valued Mr. Bennet for his scholarship and intelligence, but the man was not a diligent father to his children.
“I confess I do think of remarrying at times,” Bennet remarked, startling his guest.
“Do you have a particular candidate in mind?” Mr. Allen asked curiously.
His host rose to his feet, grasped a bottle of brandy, and proceeded to pour a little more into the two glasses sitting by the chess board.
“No, I do not have any prospects in mind. My marriage to Mrs. Bennet was not a particularly successful one except that she blessed me with six healthy children. We were not well matched; I was drawn in by her youth and beauty and the appearance of good humor which youth and beauty bestowed upon her. All too soon, I discovered that her understanding was weak and that we had very little in common. I have no doubt she found me a difficult husband, as I am prone to hide in my library when irritated by noise and fuss. I am thankful indeed that Luke was born when Jane was five; my wife was already growing increasingly shrill about the entail of Longbourn to a male heir, and if she had borne five daughters and no sons, I shudder to think how very nervous she would have been.”
“So you are concerned that you will make the same mistake if you choose another wife?” the parson asked. “Surely you have learned something from your experience.”
“I have, of course. I do not think I will make the same mistake of valuing beauty over character. But we live in a restricted society, and most women in the area are not well suited to my temperament, nor would it be easy to assume the role of stepmother to my children, especially since the elder three girls are used to running the household.”
Mr. Allen stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I suppose Charlotte Lucas is too young for you? She is an eminently sensible young woman.”
Mr. Bennet smirked. “Our minds do indeed run along the same lines; I think Miss Lucas would be the best suited of all our acquaintances. She is only fifteen years younger than I am and that is not too great a disparity, but she is my Lizzy’s best friend.
It would be exceptionally awkward to make her my children’s stepmother. ”
“You have obviously thought about this seriously.”
The master of Longbourn nodded ruefully.
“I have, I confess. My older daughters may well marry in the next year or two, and Longbourn would benefit from an appropriate mistress when they are gone. In addition – well, parson, I daresay you are familiar with the seventh chapter of First Corinthians?”
Mr. Allen was a devoted student of the Word of God and he was able to remember the text within a few seconds. He bent a sympathetic gaze on his friend. “Yes, I am. You are not yet five and forty, and it is natural that you would wish to enjoy the intimacy of marriage.”
“Yes, but I will not marry unless I find a truly suitable candidate. I daresay I am not a particularly devoted father to my children, but I will not inflict a bad stepmother on my son and daughters.”