Page 91 of The Cheapside Runners
Once the general outlines were laid out, they decided to get on with it. Elizabeth had sent a note the previous day asking to meet before noon, so they got up in the morning and all three headed to Longbourn.
~~~~~
The meeting at Longbourn turned out to be both anticlimactic and disappointing.
Trying her best to be conciliatory but only just, she said,“Mama, Papa, Mr Darcy and I are engaged and will be wed on my birthday. We are here to ask for your blessings.”
Mrs Bennet’s effusions about Elizabeth’s engagement were exactly as predicted, and to be honest, she would have been somewhat disappointed with anything else. There was a great deal to be said about carriages, jewels, connexions, and pin money, which gave her the opening she had been waiting for.
“Yes, yes, that is all well and good, Mrs Bennet, but I have not offered my consent yet.”
Darcy said, “You need not trouble yourself, sir. I have no need of any dowry or other support from you, and Elizabeth will reach her majority on her wedding day, so the point is moot.”
They had discussed whether to just say it outright and see what happened or beat around the bush and eventually decided to just get on with it. After five years, Elizabeth was tired of tiptoeing around her father, and while she had some fears that he might deny her sisters, she had no doubt her mother could make his life miserable if he did.
“I suppose so,” he said. “It is not as if you have been around much anyway,” he added dismissively.
Darcy squeezed her hand twice which was their prearranged signal to follow Napoleon’s maxim,never interrupt an enemy when they are making a mistake.
Instead of taking her father’s bait, Elizabeth turned her attention.
“Mama, your suggestion of connexions brings up a subject we should like to discuss. You know that eligible men in this town are practically nonexistent. Fitzwilliam and I would like our sisters to live with us, at least during the season—and all the time if they like.”
She felt slightly guilty about that particular prevarication, but not very. For all she knew, the girls might want to winter or summer in Longbourn.
Darcy said, “I have a younger sister due to come out next season. She is more than a dozen years my junior and has been raised more like an only child than not. She would like company when she comes into society, and you know they will have far more suitors under the Darcy name than in a small town like this… no offence.”
“No offence!”Mrs Bennet squeaked. “How could I take offence?”
While she was not the most sensible woman in the world, she had never been deficient in sniffing out advantage. Whether she could use it profitably was another story entirely, but she could certainly recognise it when she saw it.
Mr Bennet said, “Whatexactlyare you proposing, Mr Darcy?”
Darcy hated the smirk on the man’s face, and the way it was clear he was enjoying having the whip hand.
“My wife shall be responsible for deciding who stays in our homes, and she has invited her sisters. I should like to have your consent for them to live under my sponsorship and protection until they wed.”
“That sounds expensive,” Bennet said, and Elizabeth hated that she could not decide if her father was trying to act responsibly for once, or if he was just dragging out the discussion for his own amusement.
“Not to a man of my wealth. I can assure you that they would not be a burden. I understand you spend around £150 per annum for each on their upkeep now. If you would send me that, I would be quite satisfied.”
They did not care if Mr Bennet contributed or not, since Elizabeth could have sponsored the girls even without Darcy’s wealth, but they had decided offering the man a sop to his pride would not be amiss. At the very least, it left them one negotiating point they could give up on with great reluctance if the patriarchbecame recalcitrant.
“Youdoknow, I assume, they do not have dowries sufficient for your circle,” Bennet said.
There was no way he would tell the father thatElizabeth alonehad enough to give reasonable dowries to all her sisters, even if he did not contribute a farthing. There was no need to either rub the Bennets nose in it, get the patriarch’s back up, or make Mrs Bennet even greedier than she might otherwise be.
Elizabeth said, “Fitzwilliam is being quite generous. I can also say that I have been saving some money the last five years, and I have sufficient to ensure Mama lives in comfort after your demise.”
Bennet looked like he was about to drag things in a direction she did not want, so Elizabeth helpfully added, “Or not!”
Mrs Bennet looked like she was about to give her husband a piece of her mind, and Elizabeth was surprised to see her father capitulate immediately—though later, she would wonder why she was at all surprised he took the path of least resistance.
“I suppose I shall have access to your libraries, then?” he asked hopefully, apparently ready to reluctantly accept a deal that was entirely to his benefit.
“Of course,” Darcy said gently. It was easy to be magnanimous in victory when it cost nothing.
“I suppose you have papers to sign?”
