Page 65 of The Cheapside Runners
Mrs Black looked around at her charges for a few minutes, and then said, “Very well. I suppose rules are to be broken occasionally. We will want Miss Elizabeth in the discussion, and since I dragged Mr Darcy into this imbroglio, I suppose he may as well know. He is standing on the other side of this door, and I suspect his curiosity might lead him to do something typical for a man.”
“Is ‘typical for a man’ your synonym for ‘foolish’?” Mary asked impertinently, which earned her a laugh and shaken finger from Mrs Black.
She just turned to the ogre and whispered some instructions, then turned back to her charges.
“We will need Mr Darcy and Miss Elizabeth for this, and I have other business to attend first. Miss Bennet, can you get this rabble back to the house and fed? I will fetch the other parties and meet you back in the drawing room at precisely ten.”
“Of course, Mrs Black,” Jane replied.
They returned to the entrance, where they found the two carriages they’d arrived in, and a very smart looking chaise withroom only for one. While Jane ushered the ladies into the other two, Mrs Black took the chaise and left without looking back.
22.Fifth Impressions
Jane noticed that dinner was a nice simple meal with all the signs of having been made on short notice by a qualified cook. She made the assessment automatically and without thought, but then she wondered if she was doing her job as the eldest sister. She could recognize, based on the meal and a hundred other indications, that this was an efficient house, but she knew for certain Lydia and Kitty would have no hope of working that out and had no idea about Mary. Was she deficient in her duties to her sisters?
Mrs Bennet had always considered her most beautiful daughter as her best chance at salvation from the hedgerows. Before she became quite so nervous about the entail, she had made a real effort to train Jane. Conversely, her mother had found her second child little more than a trial, starting with the disappointment that she was not the son she was expecting, then continuing with the fact that she was an energetic and curious child, and culminating with her abandonment of the field not long after she came out for reasons nobody knew.
Jane had the sinking realisation that Mrs Bennet had expended all the maternal instruction she possessed on herself, and made no real effort with the three youngest, blithely and unwisely assuming Jane would save them all.
It was a disconcerting realisation. Coupled with the discussion a few days earlier about the fisherman casting the same old bait into the same old stream even though he never caught anything, she had the sinking feeling that she had not done anywhere near what she should. Was she entirely dependent on a Mr Bingley to save her? For that matter, did she evenwanta man who allowed his sisters to abuse everyone around them?
Those thoughts consumed her for much of the meal, eventhough she automatically kept reasonable conversation going without any effort. At the end of the meal, that made her feel even worse, because she was certain that, with the possible exception of Elizabeth, who she had never seen tested, Jane was theonlysister who could boast such skills.
Since the cat was out of the bag regarding Miss Darcy, and the rest of the ladies were freed from the prohibition of speaking to each other or even acknowledging they knew one another, there was a great deal to speak about. Mrs Black had been running them ragged with something happening from morning to night the entire time, so there was a great deal of pent-up discussion to be enjoyed.
Jane was somewhat astonished to learn that, even without severe chastisement, Kitty’s and Lydia’s manners had improved considerably. Gone was the giggling, whispering, and all the other thing she had found annoying just about since the dawn of time. She wondered if their characters had been changed, or if they were only on their best behaviour and would revert. She suspected the answer to that would depend on how much exposure they had to their mother over the next year or two. She tried to disapprove of herself for making such an uncharitable assessment, but in the end, she did not have it in her. Facts were facts.
Miss Darcy had earlier exhibited fairly wide mood swings, but she had settled down to a level of shyness somewhere between Kitty and Jane, and a level of haughtiness about half of what it probably had been. Jane guessed she was about Kitty’s age and confirmed it with a question. She wondered if any of the younger girls could be friends amongst themselves. It certainly seemed possible between all the Meryton ladies, as there was nothing like being tossed around by ogres together to forge a sense of camaraderie. As for Miss Darcy, perhaps if her brother returned to Netherfield they might meet occasionally, but shedoubted very much that their social circles would overlap much in the future.
When the single large course was finished, and the maid produced both Lemmon Posset and Whim-Wham for dessert, even though they were not even expected for dinner for several hours, if at all—she knew that she was in the midst of a well-run house.
They refreshed themselves and appeared in the drawing room a quarter-hour early and just chatted quietly. Jane spent most of the time talking to Mary, and got the impression Mary knew something she was not telling but had no idea what it was.
~~~~~
The ladies all looked up excitedly when Elizabeth entered beside Mr Darcy.
Georgiana excitedly exclaimed, “Brother!” and ran across to give him a hug and kiss on the cheek.
“Ladies, I apologise for interrupting your course. I hope am not disrupting Mrs Black’s schedule too terribly.”
“I believe it was already in some distress,” Miss Elizabeth said. “Considering that this course tries to teach ladies how to be safe in a hostile world, I hardly think seeing her guardian a few days early will cripple Miss Darcy.”
The ladies all sat down again with Jane moving aside to allow Darcy to sit beside his sister.
Darcy asked, “Speaking of Mrs Black, I am anxious to properly meet her.”
“I am dying to find out who she smote on the dance floor. I assume he deserved it,” Lydia said excitedly.
Darcy looked nervous, and Elizabeth said, “He is a scoundrel of the worst sort and a deserter from the Navy. That is all any of you need to know.”
Jane asked, “That still begs the question of where Mrs Blackis.”
Mary laughed a bit, which just made the rest of the ladies eye her suspiciously.
“You find the situation amusing, Miss Red,” Elizabeth said with her own quiet chuckle.
“Hilarious.”
