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During the first week of her marriage, Charlotte Collins was too busy during waking hours to dwell on the superciliousness of her husband.

The parsonage at Hunsford required a thorough cleaning even though it was late December.

Each morning, Mr Collins left shortly after breakfast and only returned in the late afternoons.

She learned quickly that he spent each day with Lady Catherine de Bourgh, seated before her in a parlour in Rosings Place.

In the evenings, Mr Collins worked on his next sermon in his small office and then retired to his chamber, the room next to hers, but did not visit her bed.

Raised in a country village, Charlotte had been aware of the act of procreation from an early age and hoped her husband would get her with a child in the first months of their marriage.

Finally, on Friday night, Mr Collins visited her bed briefly, leaving her sore and unfulfilled. He never spoke of his visit.

On Sunday night, as they climbed the stairs, Mrs Collins invited her husband to join her again that evening.

Mr Collins immediately replied, “No, my dear. We shall not succumb to the temptations of the flesh. My visits will be limited to Friday nights. I am certain the Lord will bless us with children in time.”

In the second week of her marriage, Mrs Collins despaired of the bare pantry; there was little flour and no tea or sugar.

When she spoke to Mr Collins, he informed her that in the spring, when Mr Wickham paid his shareholders the profits of the next ship returning from the Americas, they would have a surplus of the missing items.

“But, sir, spring is many weeks from now. What are we to eat and drink this winter?”

“Mrs Collins, I am certain there are sufficient items in the pantry for meals. Perhaps we shall eat small meals, but this will prove to me that you are a knowledgeable woman to manage my household.”

~~~

On following evenings, the couple would sit by the fire in the parlour for a time after supper. Mr Collins would provide instruction to his wife on her prayers for the evening and remind her of Lady Catherine’s suggestions for the schedule for cleaning the house.

Charlotte listened carefully and verbally agreed with each of her husband’s directions from the first night in the parsonage.

However, as the weeks passed, she found herself questioning his advice.

She did structure her prayers to include her parents and siblings, the families she’d met here in Hunsford, but there were few mentions of Lady Catherine or Miss de Bourgh in her prayers.

And contrary to her husband’s directions, she found reasons to perform household tasks following the schedule her experiences suggested.

One night in winter, Mr Collins left the parlour for a few minutes and returned with a leather case that contained the many pieces of paper he had received from Mr Wickham when he purchased stock in the New World Tea Company.

He removed the papers and counted them carefully, speaking to his wife about the future wealth they would enjoy once the tea ships returned from the Americas.

~~~

As the first weeks of her marriage passed in the parsonage at Hunsford, Charlotte Collins found herself remembering her mother’s advice more frequently.

Once the house was set to rights and cleaned, she had time to sew new draperies and think.

She knew her father was an intelligent man with a mediocre education.

But his successful mercantile and remarkable speech before King George allowed him to elevate his family into the gentry.

The partnership of Sir William and Lady Lucas made Lucas Lodge successful.

For her whole marriage, Lady Lucas modelled faithful obedience to her husband’s commands and wishes for all her children to see.

But in the kitchen in the days before her wedding, Charlotte listened to Lady Lucas also counsel her daughter to keep her eyes open and learn how to guide and direct her husband’s decisions.

‘But Mr Collins is not intelligent, and I do not see any sign of a successful education beyond a mean understanding of the commandments in the Bible and the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer,’ Charlotte concluded.

The rumbling of her stomach for the second day in a row helped the young woman resolve to search for information.

With Charlotte’s permission, the chambermaid visited her nearby family to receive a decent meal since the parsonage’s pantry was almost bare.

One day, with the girl absent, Charlotte investigated her husband’s study, found the papers from his father, the almost empty purse, the bottle of port hidden in a drawer, and his correspondence.

Among the folded papers were letters from the bishop for Kent, her father, Thomas Bennet, and George Wickham.

Very carefully, Charlotte opened and read the letters from her father before returning everything in the same order to the desk drawer.

On subsequent days, with the maid fed and sent to nap in the afternoon, Charlotte returned to her husbands’ study and read the letters from Mr Bennet and Mr Wickham.

‘Mr Bennet refuses to consider any investments in the New World Tea Company but does not list his objections, ’ Charlotte realized. She sought older letters and after reading the listed reasons in three letters, she decided the gentleman refused to continue attempting to educate his cousin.

‘And Mr Wickham makes endless promises of dividends this spring or summer,’ she remembered from the pages of neat writing. ‘ He writes of spending time with Miss Bingley this winter while some Scottish lord keeps her company. Eliza has not written of such.’

Charlotte snorted in a very unladylike manner. ‘Eliza would not pay attention to news of Miss Bingley and would not gossip in her letters to me in any case.’

Once all the letters were read, Charlotte found time to read the newspapers Mr Collins collected; her husband left the papers opened and folded to the articles on trade and lists of ships scheduled to leave the port of London, Liverpool, and Southampton.

“I do not understand the faith Mr Collins places in Mr Wickham,” she told to herself.

Rising from the chair, Charlotte carefully restored each paper in order, and made certain to polish his desk and rearrange his quills and ink pots so he would know she had cleaned his study today.

As she left the room, pulling the door shut behind her, she thought, ‘I have read the same information as Mr Collins, but I do not think my husband has reached the correct conclusions.’

~~~

The third morning without tea of any sort, Mr Collins fussed at his wife’s inability to manage his household properly.

Charlotte’s reaction was to grab her husband by the ear and drag him into the pantry to show him the empty tins and bare shelves.

With some reluctance, Mr Collins gave his wife the minimum funds to purchase the items they would need for the winter.

When she discovered that Mr Collins was served tea every afternoon–fresh tea with biscuits, cakes, and sandwiches at Rosings Park, she curtailed the food he was provided at breakfast and supper. Her husband quickly complained, “But Mrs Collins, this is not sufficient supper.”

“Then I suggest you eat more at Lady Catherine’s tea in the afternoon,” Charlotte hissed. “You are fed while the maid and I receive barely enough food.”

~~~

When Lady Catherine called on Charlotte at the parsonage, the woman was impressed with the cleanliness of the windows, floors, and rugs.

The lady did instruct Charlotte to bake bread on Wednesdays only and, when she was told there was none in the house, marched into the kitchen.

Lady Catherine threw open the door to the pantry and inspected the tins and boxes.

The lady fussed that there were insufficient amounts of food present.

Turning to the parson, the formidable dowager asked, “Mr Collins, why have you not provided Mrs Collins with funds to stock this pantry appropriately? You consume prodigious portions each afternoon during tea, but you deny your wife and servant food.”

“I…There were investments at Christmas that…” the man stumbled about.

The formidable woman frowned and left the parsonage, muttering about tradesmen and money.

The next afternoon when he returned from Rosings, Mr Collins carried a sack across his shoulder that contained used tea leaves in a folded paper, some flour and sugar, as well as a crock of butter.

Charlotte cried with relief and this display of emotion confused her husband.

~~~

Following Sunday services, while Mr Collins listened to Lady Catherine’s opinion of his sermon outside the chapel, Charlotte spoke with the wives of the farmers around Rosings.

One morning, she learned four families planned to butcher a pig at Pear Orchard Farm the following Wednesday.

While the choicest pieces would be sent up to the manor house, the four families would share the rest of the pig’s carcass.

When Mrs Tanglewood mentioned a shortage of oatmeal needed to make Black Sausage, Charlotte offered to bring the necessary oatmeal and help with the work in return for a share of the sausage, lard, and meat.

“What do you know about slaughtering a pig, Mrs Collins?” one farmwife asked.

“My parents work the home farm on their small estate. I helped to butcher pigs, sheep, and chickens.”

“No beefs?” asked one farmer, listening to the wives talk.

Charlotte replied, “My father always sold his cattle for the coin to pay the taxes.”

“As do most folks,” Mr Tanglewood admitted.

That Wednesday morning, Charlotte worked diligently in the cold with the other wives outside the farmhouse.

First, they washed the intestines of a steer butchered in Hunsford the previous day.

The long tubes of the intestine served as sleeves for the Black Sausage.

The women took the oats and mixed them with hot water, salt and as much pepper as they had.

Then they added fresh lard and two buckets of blood from the pig.

Once everything was well mixed, the women packed the mixture into the intestines.

Knowing she was being watched, Charlotte worked diligently to earn her share of the sausage and some fresh pork.

Even when her lower arms were covered in oatmeal, spices, and blood, she kept packing the mixture into the casings.

One farmer provided a spool of strong twine that his wife cut in lengths to tie the casings off.

Holding up an equal length of the sausages, Mrs Tanglewood asked, “Now, what will you do with this when you get it back to your kitchen, Mrs Collins?”

“I shall hang it in the kitchen close to the hearth so the smoke and heat from the fire will age it properly. In two weeks, I shall slice the first sausage and fry it for breakfast, lunch, or supper.

“Add a chopped potato to the pan, and after time on the fire, you’ve got a meal for a cold night,” the farmer’s wife added, nodding in approval of the answer.

With honest thanks for her help from the farmers and their wives, Charlotte removed her soiled apron, cleaned her hands, and walked back to the parsonage with the string of sausages over her shoulder and a decent piece of pork.

Upon reaching the house, she checked on the chambermaid, hung the sausage from an iron hook in the kitchen, and cleaned her hands again.

With a fresh apron, Charlotte placed the pork in her cold pantry until the morning when she would roast it over the fire.

Then she made a small tea for herself and the maid while anticipating cutting the first sausage in two weeks’ time.

~~~