Page 104 of Miss Bennet's Dragon
A FATHER’S BLESSING
In Mamma’s room,I read aloud from my father’s letter:
“I have, in remarkably expedited fashion, completed my business in Derbyshire. Your sister Lydia is found, and with her Mr. Wickham, who admirably fulfills all my recollections of his superficiality and arrogance, and whom I will be obligated henceforth to refer to as my son.”
“Oh! Oh! They will marry!” cried Mamma, bouncing in her bed while Kitty stared at me with a stunned expression.
Mary listened also but had already read the letter. I gave it to her after I read it, and we had both rejoiced. But on this second hearing, Mary was impassive, her brown eyes, framed by her long, straight hair, narrowing with each sentence.
My mother clapped her hands. “Married at sixteen! What a clever girl! Have my clothes set out at once! I will go to town and share the news. And I shall certainly call on the Lucases. Oh, your father must raise marriage gold! He foolishly insists we can afford only ten guineas for the lot of you, but with Lydia marrying such a handsome officer wemustdo more. I am sure he can raise five guineas for her while the banns are called.”
“Mamma,” I interrupted. “They are already wed.”
“Already?” Her face puckered. “But she was not at home. Without her marriage gold…”
“You should be thankful they are married at all,” I said. “Listen.” I resumed reading, trying not to worry at the shakiness of Papa’s hand:
“Prior even to my or Colonel Forster’s arrival, Lydia and Wickham were discovered, and through reliable authority I know that Wickham had no intent to marry. We have been beneficiaries of a most galling negotiation, which has left me with an unpayable debt and no merit. If it were not for some sacrifice of health, I would call the entire trip a deplorable bargain, for it has cost no more than an outing to London.”
“How can it be deplorable when I have a daughter married!” exclaimed Mamma.
“I dislike his mention of health,” Mary said. “And what is an unpayable debt?” I shook my head, although I had a wild suspicion. I read on:
“As they have bound a ferretworm—”
“Bound!” my mother shrieked. She jumped from her bed in her crumpled nightgown. “Bound!Oh, my darling Lydia!”
She subsided into excited peeping noises, so I resumed:
“As they have bound a ferretworm, Wickham has secured a married officer’s commission in Newcastle, where they will travel directly. They will not be received at Longbourn. Although further affairs remain to be settled, I am forced to return. Expect me a day after this letter.
“Your loving father, James Bennet.”
My mother’s expression had collapsed like a fallen loaf. “Not received here? Why ever not?”
“Papa is angry with Lydia, Mamma,” I said.
“Angry? Whatever for?”
I exchanged incredulous expressions with Mary while mother enlisted Kitty and a maid to prepare her clothes.
Papa’s coacharrived the next morning, but he was not alone. A doctor traveled with him.
“Doctor Culpepper,” he introduced himself as I helped Papa from the coach. “I hoped to speak with Mrs. Bennet?”
“She is away until luncheon,” I said. Mamma was making an extensive series of social calls.
My father’s weight fell on my arm. In a windy voice, he said to the doctor, “You should speak to Lizzy.” Then he nodded toward his library, and we settled him in his chair with a blanket and a cup of tea.
In the hall outside the library, the doctor addressed me. I listened with my arms wound around myself, as if our house had chilled.
“Your father’s health took a sudden and severe turn,” the doctor said. “His circulation remains poor, which will shorten his breath and greatly limit his activity.”
“For how long? What is the cause?”
“The cause is disease of the heart, which is prone to sudden attacks. Your father has had a long and productive life. The best care is quiet rest and love from his family.”
My chill was growing. I had been steeling myself since reading the letter, but not this much. “You are considerate, but our circumstances require forthright advice. You said nothing of recovery.”
