Page 52 of The Last House in Lambton (Pride and Prejudice Variations #6)
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
W hen the decisions with regard to the contents of my trunk had finally been made, I turned my attention to those I would leave behind.
Mary looked slightly appalled, no doubt mourning on my behalf the inevitable loss of my maidenhood, since I apparently did not have the modesty to do so myself.
Meanwhile, Lydia was burnt to charcoal by her jealousy.
Even worse for her than the fact I would marry first, was the grim realisation I had ascended to the position of first daughter in our mother’s esteem, and if I so much as asked her to lower her voice, she was sent to her room in disgrace by a woman who had, until very recently, caressed her liberally for such high spirits.
“I have half a notion to run away with Captain Carter,” she said between clenched teeth on Sunday after church, where I had been swarmed by our neighbours and had mopped up the entirety of everyone’s attention.
We had met by accident in the second-storey hall after Lydia had been forced to the onerous duty of bringing me a lace fichu sent over as a gift from our aunt Philips .
I felt a jolt of alarm, for such was Lydia’s nature that she was capable of any mischief in order to regain Mama’s attention and earn the notoriety she so longed to possess.
Rather than allow her to blight our happiness under a cloud of ruin, I made the instantaneous decision to enact a drastic measure.
I took her arm, gently pulled her into my room, and said, “I know this must be miserable for you, Lyddie. But consider that I have lately been thinking I shall ask Mr Darcy to find you a horse and have you taught to ride. You must have something to do or else you will go mad. What will it be? A chestnut or a dapple grey?”
She was disinclined to like anything I said to her.
“A horse?” She snorted in disgust. But her posture of resistance suddenly became quite limp as she considered the implications.
I could almost see the pictures that flashed through her mind.
She would be freer than she was, she could make a spectacle of herself, she would have a riding costume and a plumed hat, she would have some poor groom trailing behind her, and she would be notorious in Meryton.
What admiring stares she would earn from the young men she met!
“Yes, a horse. Unless you do not like the?—”
“I would prefer a black one,” she said with her vision still turned inward.
“Unless a white one would better show off my costume. Oh Lizzy, I knew you could not be so lucky for no reason! Wait until I tell Kitty! She will die of—” She came to an abrupt halt in her effusions, her face contorting into a scowl.
“Mr Darcy would not get her a horse as well, would he? Say he will not!”
“No, of course he would not, particularly when I tell him riding would not suit her in the least. Trust me, I shall do something very dull for Kitty.”
Had I not been to Pemberley and seen for myself the depth of Mr Darcy’s fortune, I would not have dared to spend so much of it before it was rightfully mine to share.
However, I felt little compunction about promising my youngest sister a horse, the funding of its keeping, the employment of a groom for her, riding lessons, and even, if need be, a modest enlargement of the stables at Longbourn.
Once again, I trusted Mr Darcy, not only to listen to my motivation for such an extravagance, but to support my reasoning and provide for this pre-emptive remedy against Lydia’s wilder impulses.
Naturally, Kitty was much aggrieved by the news and little mollified when I pulled her aside and said, “Hush, Kitty. I have plans for you as well, only I shall wait to tell you what I have in mind. Let it suffice that you will be well-pleased, I think.”
My mother, never patient with her complaining, told Kitty to take her sulks upstairs if she could not be pleasant and went back to looking at riding costumes in one of last year’s pattern books with Lydia.
Seeing Mary sitting alone and pouring over references to chastity, I went to her.
“When you are in London, I wonder if you would enjoy the services of a music master, Mary. Mr Darcy employs such a man for his sister, and he is reputed to be quite good. Well, do not say no just yet, but perhaps when you have heard what wonders he has done for Miss Darcy’s playing, you may yet change your mind. ”
“But the expense, Lizzy,” she said despairingly.
“My dear sister, I shall marry a rich man, and we must make use of our fortune somehow, lest it go to waste.” I kissed her reluctant cheek, adding, “You must do your part and suffer my charity, though you will not like it.”
“Oh Lizzy, I shall miss you so much!” she said, almost on a sob.
This shocked me almost to tears. We had never been close in my estimation, but to her, I must have been more than I knew— a friend, perhaps. I gave her a crushing embrace and poured warm assurances into her ear.
“And I shall miss you, but we shall be closer than ever, I promise. Forgive me for neglecting you as I have? Mrs Gardiner is kind as can be and you may find you quite enjoy being away from home.”
I spent half an hour in the kitchen with Mr and Mrs Hill, talking of creamed soups and the proper storage of roots, and even crossed the line of proper distance by giving them both light embraces, using for my excuse the unlikelihood Mama would give me a moment to say goodbye after my wedding.
There were many such farewells as I ritualised the separation of going to Brighton for a few days as a preparation for my actual final departure, and it was a period ripe with the strange admixture of melancholy and joy.
Monday morning dawned fair and breezy, and by midday, a coach and four was spotted on the gravel lane that led towards Longbourn, with Mr Darcy atop a tall hunter trotting behind.
How he had arranged for such a feat momentarily rendered me speechless, since the coach did not show so much as a speck of dust, and the horses were clearly so fresh they would take us to London as soon as our trunks were strapped into place.
My father, standing behind me, solved the mystery by grumbling, “What a compliment to my daughters that the gentleman would send a coach and horses up the road to rest overnight at Palmer’s Green and bring with him a maid, no less.”
My mother clucked irritably at Papa and said, “And so he should, Mr Bennet!” before brushing past him to welcome Mr Darcy on behalf of my family.
I felt slightly vindicated for the embarrassment the gentleman had so recently caused me, since he then suffered through a quarter of an hour of her effusions with regard to his excellence, his superb manners, his elegant carriage, the cut of his coat and the like.
I was disinclined to intervene, though he threw me many a pleading look during what was, in effect, a purely symbolic service of refreshments.
No one but Lydia wished to drink tea, much less eat, and throughout, I sat at my ease with one eyebrow lightly raised, smiling blandly upon him after offering him only a light shrug, as though to say I, too, was helpless.
Jane, however, finally put herself to the trouble of rescuing Mr Darcy after Mama demanded he tell her the date of our wedding.
When he stammered a slightly inchoate reply that he must first determine my preferences, Jane interrupted to enquire after Georgiana.
While he explained she had stayed behind to finish the last of her preparations for her presentation under the auspices of his aunt, the Countess of Matlock, Jane effortlessly rose to her feet, and expressed her anxiousness to see Miss Darcy again while leading us almost by the hand to the front door.
In no time, the man I trusted most in the world helped me once again into the darkened interior of his carriage, and we were away.