Page 17 of Old Boots (Pride and Prejudice Variations #3)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

M r Gardiner, the Bennets’ tradesman relation, was a perfectly acceptable acquaintance.

Upon meeting me, he did not display a trace of wonder.

Apparently, he was on speaking terms with any number of gentlemen of means, and I was just another such man.

Mrs Gardiner, too, was a pleasant surprise.

She grew up not five miles from Pemberley, and her manners were far more elegant for their sincerity alone than those of Miss Bingley or Mrs Hurst. I would not hesitate to bring my sister to her house should I be invited to do so.

As I sat eating tea sandwiches in the parlour of their house in Cheapside, I reflected that I had eaten more helpings of humility in those few weeks since making the acquaintance of Miss Elizabeth Bennet than had been served to me in my lifetime .

Mr Bennet, meanwhile, had discovered a lecture to be given in the open forum of the Royal Society by Mr Poole, just returned from Java, an emerging expert on tropical birds.

He regretted to Mr Gardiner that he could not stay for that, as it was in two days, and asked whether his brother-in-law would go.

“There is no reason we cannot stay a few days longer, is there, sir?” I asked.

Mr Bennet beamed his pleasure, convinced Mr Gardiner that there would not be anything more interesting to be heard, and promised we would see stuffed specimens and coloured drawings of birds we could not imagine coming from the mere Garden of Eden until we were all convinced.

“Are ladies allowed in the open meetings?” he asked me.

“I believe so, though they are not commonly in attendance.”

“I only ask because Mrs Annesley would enjoy this lecture. Natural sciences and birds in general are of interest to her.”

“Should she agree to go, I may go with her so she does not feel ill at ease,” Mrs Gardiner said.

Predictably, when this plan was later presented to Mrs Annesley, she was aglow with excitement when she learnt of the lecture, and the plan to attend was set into motion .

Seeing as though my guest was only too happy to avoid returning to Longbourn just yet, I suggested we stay in London until the following Monday.

“That would be best, Darcy,” he said agreeably. “I have not yet gone to the shops for my daughters. Mrs Annesley and Miss Darcy have committed to go with me and to help with suggestions as to what to buy.”

“Have they? When do you go?”

“In half an hour,” he said.

How this schedule could justify staying until the following week we left unsaid, and having nothing else to do, I soon found myself tacked on the back of their expedition. Thankfully, I was not superfluous to the job at hand.

“What colouring is your daughter Mary?” Mrs Annesley asked as she looked over the selection in the window of a draper’s shop.

“Ordinary,” Mr Bennet said with a shrug.

“She has light brown hair and brown eyes,” I hastily interjected.

“Would she look better in ivory or white?”

“Ivory,” I said with confidence. Unbelievably, I was then forced to describe the girl’s height and general construction, since her father could not conjure a single word on the subject. Mrs Annesley thought she saw just the thing and took Mr Bennet inside the shop. I waited outside with Georgiana .

“Do all the Miss Bennets look alike?” my sister asked in a rare opener.

“Oddly enough, they are all different. Miss Jane Bennet, the eldest, is tall and blonde. Miss Elizabeth is the shortest in stature and dark-haired.”

“Are they pretty?”

Gracious! Was this an inquisition? “I suppose they could be called pretty.”

“Are they accomplished?”

I turned away from the street, which I had been watching to pass the time, and looked down at my sister. “To what end are these questions, sprite?”

“I am only curious.”

“Miss Bennet is mistress of a household, which means she has many accomplishments of that nature. Miss Elizabeth has read almost every book in Mr Bennet’s library, and Miss Mary is diligent at practicing her pianoforte, though she could use a master.

” There was so much left unsaid in this reply that I felt the need to fidget with my watch chain.

“If I ever have the opportunity, I would like to meet them,” Georgiana said.

I was spared the task of conjuring a reply when Mr Bennet came out of the shop with a box and three bundles wrapped in brown paper.

We went next to a sweetshop and the adjacent tea shop, where Mr Bennet bought delicacies and imported teas for his daughters. He then declared himself bankrupt and exhausted, and we went back to my townhouse.

The lecture, which fell on the following evening, was interesting, I admit.

Mr Bennet and Mrs Annesley paid profound attention to the lecturer.

Meanwhile, Mr Gardiner, his wife, and I were less fascinated by the birds than by the various characters who flock to a meeting of the Royal Society.

We finished the evening with glasses of wine at Mr Gardiner’s house and stayed in convivial conversation far longer than I would have suspected possible.

Having discovered my guest was perfectly capable of making plans for all of us, I was not required to think of what we would do the following day. This was just as well, because whatever I would have decided would have been interrupted.

To my surprise, a friend arrived to visit me. “Bingley?” I called out when he came into my study after breakfast.

“I would wager you did not expect to see me today,” he said happily. “I too had some business requiring that I come to town. I wonder if you would have time to look it over? That is unless I interrupt?—”

“I have no plans at all. Give me a moment to tell my sister you are here. ”

After the ritual of greeting Bingley, Mr Bennet took my sister and her companion to see the Elgin marbles, and I gratefully declined to see them for the tenth time, citing business.

Bingley laid before me a mundane proposal with little likelihood of return. “I have doubts about this fellow,” I said carefully. “Perhaps we should visit my man of business for his opinion?”

This was the gentlest approach I had at my disposal.

Drummond was able to tell a man he was an idiot and make him feel clever all at once.

The meeting took longer than I would have liked because we had no fixed appointment and had to wait our turn.

But the outcome was satisfying, as the money that was burning a hole in Bingley’s pocket got put to better, more secure use, and my friend’s pride remained intact.

Bingley invited me for dinner at his club, so I sent a note home for my sister and obliged him.

I had, after all, not been the best companion to him in Hertfordshire.

Though he was curious as to my purpose in London with Miss Bennet’s father, I had no inclination to discuss the matter.

Instead, we talked of other subjects and of Netherfield Park, which he informed me he liked a great deal but had not yet decided upon for a long-term commitment.

After dining, we spent several hours at the card table. Since we had taken my coach, I then took Bingley to his house in town, and at his urging, went inside for a glass of brandy.

No sooner had the butler opened the door than a figure appeared on the landing above us.

“Caroline? What are you doing in London?”

“I could not bear it another minute, Charles. Really, that place was beyond endurance! I do not care where you send me. I closed the house and?—”

“You closed the house? You cannot have done so! Our guest was set to return to us on Monday.”

“Well, I am very sorry if I have offended Mr Darcy,” she said, as though I were not standing beside her brother, “but he is capable of changing his plans.”

“Where is Hurst? And Louisa?”

“They brought me here, of course, and then Hurst took Louisa to visit his brother. Why they cannot be content to live in a house of their own is?—”

“We shall speak of this later. I say, Darcy?—”

“I am not incommoded in the least. I suppose my trunks are waiting for me to send someone for them, Miss Bingley?”

“I suppose they are,” she said, turning on her heel and going back up the stairs.

“I believe I must stay with—I am very sorry,” Bingley said to me. He was as close to angry as I have ever seen him.

“Do not regard it in the least. When I take Mr Bennet home, I shall stay the night at Longbourn. There is nothing easier.”

I spent five minutes assuring him I had not taken offence, that he really must stay in London and see to his family, and I left without having imbibed any brandy, which was just as well.

I had a great deal of thinking to do, and I may have even indulged in it unwillingly had I sat late into the night nursing a bottle of strong spirits.

One thing that I could not put off thinking about, was the arrival of Christmas, which was bearing down on us.

I would have to take Georgiana to Pemberley.

We never spent the festive season anywhere else, and our people would think it unlucky for us to break with tradition.

In fact, I was usually home by now and had put it off far longer than I should have.

My sister might have wanted to inquire why we lingered, but she was still too in awe of me to do so.

“I must take my sister to Pemberley,” I told Mr Bennet that evening after I explained that I would have to beg for room and board on Monday night.

“Do you plan to bring her and go north from Hertfordshire?”

“Only if our visit would not be an imposition.”

He insisted it would not, but then he said, “Describe to me your library at Pemberley. Is this,” he waved his hand around the room in which we sat, “as your sister tells me, a miniature in replica? ”

I then understood he had no wish to spend the season at Longbourn, and why would he? His wife had died shortly before the holiday only a year prior. “You would be very welcome to decide that for yourself, sir.”

“Am I so easily read?”

Politeness required I ignore that question. “If you must have it, sir, my library in Derbyshire is the ninth or tenth wonder of the world—well, perhaps it is the eleventh. In any case, you should see it. I insist.”

“I hope Jane will not be too disappointed if I do not spend Christmas at home. I shall make it up to her, however. I may impose upon Mrs Annesley and Miss Darcy again in the morning to take me to the shops to buy a few more presents for my daughters.”

The following morning, I tapped on my sister’s door and went in. Georgiana was propped up in bed with her cup of chocolate, forcibly reminding me of my mother who spent every morning in that same way.

“If you are in earnest about meeting Mr Bennet’s daughters, I believe you may have the opportunity, Georgie.”

She looked up at me in surprise, and I told her of our plan.

She seemed more startled than frightened and agreed to be ready to remove to the country on Monday.

I then sought out my butler and my housekeeper and made all the necessary plans.

I asked Carsten to visit Hoby and pay him whatever ransom was required to have my boots ready to go before I left London, and sent my private secretary to a rare book dealer to scout out something, preferably with engravings, that I did not already own, and have it sent to Pemberley.

If Mr Bennet was to be my guest at Christmas, I meant to be prepared with a gift for him.

Finally, I wrote to Mrs Reynolds, my housekeeper in Derbyshire, and bespoke the best selection from my hothouse be delivered in quantity to the Miss Bennets of Longbourn, Hertfordshire, as close to Christmas Day as could reasonably be arranged.

I asked my butler to have a hideously expensive case of port to be delivered to my cousin in Belgium, where his brigade was temporarily stationed, and then I went to the family vault at my principal bank.

Georgiana was now old enough to begin receiving jewellery, of which I had more than I could ever want to own. I selected a delicate headband with a few diamond clusters. She would care very little for such a trinket once she discovered the yearling mare newly arrived at Pemberley’s stables.