Page 10 of The Fire at Longbourn (Pride and Prejudice Variation)

Lucas Lodge

Voices drifted through the open door of the back sitting room at Lucas Lodge. It was a small room, tucked away in the back of the house away from the main thoroughfares, and afforded the inhabitants a reasonable amount of privacy. Inside, Charlotte Lucas was entertaining Mr. Collins.

She had dressed with special care upon hearing that the rector would be lodging with them, in the delicate cornflower blue gown, augmented with green accents, which best flattered her coloring.

Maria had kindly agreed to braid up her hair, although there was nothing either sister could do about the mousy hue of Charlotte’s locks.

But Charlotte had dabbed on just a little bit of the precious zinc oxide and nibbled her lips pink before going into the sitting room.

Now she took a demure sip of tea, regarding the gentleman thoughtfully as she lowered her cup to her saucer.

His cravat was just a bit crumpled, his clothes clean but unpressed, and he still smelled very faintly of smoke.

He sat and held himself stiffly, as though favoring sore muscles, as he drank his tea.

“I realize, of course, that Longbourn is not yet my home,” Mr. Collins declared, “but it still grieves me exceedingly that it is so badly damaged. I cannot imagine how such a thing could happen! Lady Catherine de Bourgh, my eminent patroness, would never permit Rosings to burn down!”

“It is a great tragedy, Mr. Collins,” Charlotte replied in a soothing tone, “but at least thanks to your hard work, and the work of the other men, only one section of the manse was destroyed, and the oldest section at that. Will you not take more tea, sir?”

“Thank you, Miss Lucas, yes, that would be most agreeable. I do hope that I will not catch cold. I was chilled through yesterday after fighting the fire, you know!”

“You were very courageous,” Charlotte said, and while she did not bat her eyes at the gentleman, she came perilously close to it.

As Elizabeth’s closest friend, Charlotte knew that her younger, prettier friend would refuse to marry Mr. Collins, though the man held a valuable living and was heir to Longbourn.

Charlotte, who was not a romantic, was far less fastidious than Elizabeth.

If she could entice Mr. Collins into making her an offer, she would be delighted.

Her situation at Lucas Lodge was an unsettling one, as she was seven and twenty years old, plain, and with a small dowry.

Mr. Collins was neither handsome nor sensible, but he would be a good husband because he would be able to provide her with a home, a hearth, and she hoped, children.

Not that there was any certainty that she could obtain an offer from the parson, of course. But she would try her best.

“I am confident that I did what I could,” Collins preened, and then his brow lowered disconsolately.

“It is truly a relief that no one died, but it is a great tragedy to have lost the library, kitchen, and four bedchambers. At least my guest room was in the west wing of the house, and thus I did not lose my trunk of clothes!”

“That is a blessing,” Charlotte agreed solemnly.

/

The Phillips’ Home

Longbourn

“How very kind of Mr. Bingley!” Mrs. Bennet cried out. “I have never been to the hunting lodge, but I have no doubt it will be comfortable. Oh, Jane, this is the only good thing to happen in the last days. I am certain Mr. Bingley would not be so generous were he not in love with you!”

“It is very generous, Mamma,” Elizabeth agreed.

“Now the lodge is not large, and Father and I will need to oversee the work at Longbourn, so we think that you, Mary, Kitty, Mrs. Hill, and a few of the servants should move to the lodge on the morrow, and the rest of us will move into the west wing of Longbourn.”

Mrs. Bennet stared at her second daughter in confusion. “Stay at Longbourn? Is it not burned?”

“Only the east wing is burned,” Mr. Bennet said patiently.

“But the kitchen is destroyed, is it not?” Kitty asked, obviously bewildered.

“Yes, it is,” her father agreed, “but the summer kitchen is still intact. Our food will not be nearly as elaborate as usual, but we will not starve.”

Lydia, who had been sitting in unaccustomed silence near the fireplace, now burst out indignantly.

“Live in a damaged house, without a kitchen, without my bedchamber, which was destroyed by fire? I refuse! If someone else is to stay at Longbourn, why cannot it be Mary? She is older and still has her room and clothing and…”

“You will do as your father says,” Mrs. Bennet interrupted, her face twisted in anger. “It is your fault that Mary and I nearly died, Lydia!”

The youngest Miss Bennet gasped and glared at Kitty, who shook her head in mute dismay.

“Kitty told me nothing about it,” Mrs. Bennet snapped.

“No, it was one of the maids who overheard your conversation yesterday and told the other maids, and thus it came to my ears. How could you be so careless, Lydia? The entire wing destroyed, my clothing, my jewelry, my precious trinkets lost, and all because you could not take the time to blow out a candle!”

Lydia promptly burst into noisy tears, which caused Jane to rush to her side and Elizabeth to say, “Mamma, we cannot be certain that Lydia is at fault. It could have been a spark from one of the fireplaces, after all!”

“No one has ever burned down Longbourn before,” her mother said illogically.

“No, it was Lydia’s carelessness! And now I do not know what we are to do, with Longbourn uninhabitable, and it will take a great deal of money to fix it, and we will go into debt, and Mr. Bennet will be thrown into Marshalsea and die, and then what shall we do?

Mr. Collins will throw us out before Mr. Bennet is cold in his grave, though at least he will not get all of Longbourn.

That is one small comfort in this disaster! ”

Mrs. Hill, who had been fetched earlier from Lucas Lodge, now hurried forward along with Elizabeth, and together they chivied Mrs. Bennet upstairs and into her temporary bedchamber.

Jane was left behind to comfort Lydia, and Mr. Bennet decided that the sooner his wife was settled in the lodge at Netherfield, the better.

/

Drawing Room

Netherfield Hall

“Really, Charles, that is utterly absurd!” Caroline Bingley fumed. “The Bennets are not your responsibility, and to offer them the lodge on Netherfield land is ridiculous. I hope, at least, that you will require some sort of rent!”

Bingley bent a stern look on his sister and said, “I did not, of course. The lodge is standing empty, Caroline. Given the catastrophe at Longbourn, it is a small enough thing to provide space for Mrs. Bennet and Miss Mary to recover.”

“How are they doing?” Louisa asked in concern, looking from her brother to Mr. Darcy, who was standing at the window looking out toward the pinks and oranges which surrounded the setting sun.

“Well enough, I believe,” Bingley said. “Miss Mary has a broken arm, but her injuries are not life threatening.”

“She will not be able to play the pianoforte for some time,” Mrs. Hurst mused sympathetically.

“Not that it matters,” Caroline commented snidely. “It is a demonstration of the backwards nature of Meryton that Miss Mary Bennet is considered the most accomplished woman in the area! Her timing on the pianoforte is terrible, and her singing is worse…”

“Enough!” Mr. Bingley snapped, which caused everyone to jump in surprise. “Really, Caroline, this is too much! I realize you do not like most of the Bennets, but they lost part of their home and came dangerously close to losing family members. You will kindly cease your complaining in my hearing!”

Caroline flushed red at this rebuke and rose to her feet, being careful not to look at Darcy. “Very well, Charles, as you wish. I only hope that you do not regret your generosity. Come along, Louisa.”

Mrs. Hurst straightened her back and said, “I will be along in a while. I wish to finish this bit of work.”

Caroline narrowed her eyes and glared at her before sweeping out of the room, and Louisa found her heart thumping rapidly.

While she was five years older than her sister, she possessed a meeker spirit, and thus she had followed in Caroline’s footsteps for many years.

Charles, too, had long been in the habit of allowing his younger sister to do what she wanted and say what she pleased, not because he was afraid of Caroline, but because he disliked fusses.

In her brother’s direct rebuke, Louisa sensed a shifting in power at Netherfield.

Without a doubt, Charles admired Miss Jane Bennet.

Mrs. Hurst did not think that the lady was any great catch as a bride, but she did feel sympathetic toward Miss Bennet and her family.

When Louisa had been but seventeen years of age and in finishing school, she had formed a close friendship with a Miss Lucy Bligh, who, during the Long Vacation, had lost her mother and her home to a fire.

Louisa well remembered the change in the formerly cheerful girl – where there had once been joy and vivacity, there was instead deep sorrow and melancholy.

No, Louisa Hurst did not think that Jane Bennet was a good match for her brother, but she hoped that she was too much of a Christian to be cruel to a family who had experienced such loss.

/

The Pig in the Poke Tavern

“I regret that you will not have the opportunity to meet Mrs. Phillips and her nieces tonight, Wickham,” Lieutenant Pratt said in a jovial tone.

“Mrs. Phillips sets a very good table, and her nieces are the most beautiful in the area, but it is natural enough that the dinner was canceled given the recent fire.”

“Wickham has already been fortunate enough to meet most of the Bennet ladies,” Denny said with a grin.

“Indeed, I believe they were much struck with his gentlemanly air and charming speech, though naturally there was not much time for conversation because a few moments after they formally met, the news came that Longbourn was on fire.”

This provoked a few groans from the assembled officers, and Pratt said, “A great pity, that, for both the Bennets and me. I am aching all over from hauling buckets of water to and fro yesterday. It is hardly the sort of task I expected when I joined the militia!”

There were murmurs of agreement from the other officers in attendance, and George Wickham said casually, “It is indeed most regrettable. Are the Bennets the principal family in the area?”

“The wealthiest, yes,” Lieutenant Chamberlayne said. “Longbourn is quite a nice estate with an income of nearly two thousand pounds, I think.”

“But Bennet has no son,” Pratt said gloomily, “and the estate is entailed away from the female line. Miss Bennet would be the perfect bride if she were heiress to the estate; she is quite the loveliest lady I have ever beheld, though three of her sisters are handsome as well!”

“Hear, hear!” Chamberlayne agreed, raising up his cup. “To the Bennet ladies!”

The other officers clinked their glasses together and quaffed their drinks, and Denny called for another round from the barmaid.

Wickham took part with easy cheer, though inwardly he was a trifle disappointed; he thoroughly appreciated feminine beauty, and his greatest desire was to wed a handsome lady with a large dowry.

He had come tantalizingly close to running away with his godfather’s daughter, Miss Georgiana Darcy, who was wealthy and, if not a beauty, at least pretty.

It seemed that the Bennet ladies were no solution for his monetary woes, but perhaps there was another heiress in the district.

It was a backwards part of the world compared to London, and he was quite the most handsome man in the militia.

He would find a wealthy wife in time, and until then, had every intention of enjoying himself as much as possible through fleecing merchants and encouraging young women into his bed.