Page 38 of Miss Bennet's Dragon
“I’m not for books, ma’am. I know only what any good Scot would know.”
“But even that is so interesting. You say that draca are Scottish. I was told they were Chinese.”
Her eyebrows rose. “They do na’ look Chinese to me, ma’am. All Scots know draca hail from Scotland.” She pointed, not to the journal but to the rubbing. “?’Tis in front of your nose, as well.”
I looked where she pointed. “Longbourn?”
She laughed. “It does not say‘Longbourn,’lassie. Can you na’ read?” She traced the first part,Long, before the space that Jane had noted. “That isLoch, notLong.”
“Lochbourn?” I said in disbelief, trying to copy her Scottish pronunciation.
“Lochbairn, it says.” She pointed to theou, which, as if by magic, shifted in my eyes to an intertwinedai.
She was right. The elaborate, stylizedginLong, which rose both high and low, was anhpreceded by ac.
“Is that Scottish?” I asked in a stunned tone.
“Aye, lassie. Loch bairn. It means,Child of the lake.”
“It cannot be Scottish!” Scottish was… well, foreign.
“Bennet is a Scottish name, lassie. We’re awash in Bennets in the north.”
“You mean, both Bennetsanddraca are Scottish? Next, Mary will tell me Bennets are Chinese as well!”
She cackled with delight. “And what’s wrong with being a Scot? I can show ye to dance proper, without all that silly clapping of the English dances.”
“But we areEnglish!”
My tone was sharp, and her gaze dropped—a servant disciplinedby her better. “Yes, ma’am.”
“No… I am sorry. You have been a tremendous help. It is just… unexpected.” This had been a day for surprises.
“It is charming we have Scottish ancestors,” Jane said. “What a delightful discovery.”
“I must get back to washing, ma’am.” The maid seemed eager to go. I hoped it was not because of my reaction.
“Of course, if you must. I would like to speak again. Wait, I have something…”
I went to my dressing table, where I had wrapped a little package in velvet and tied it with ribbon, as ladies wrap the gifts they exchange for amusement.
I pressed it into her hand. “I know you helped from your own goodness, but please accept my gift. I feel inadequate offering so little when what you provided was priceless.”
“All right, ma’am,” she said and left with a hasty curtsy.
I hoped I had made the right choice. Even though money would be unthinkably gauche within society, gentlemen did give farthings or pennies to servants on occasion. Money must be more helpful than an embroidered scarf or hand-painted saucer, which would be ridiculous. So, I had wrapped up four pounds, or more exactly, sixteen crown coins—four months’ wages for a laundry maid, as I knew from assisting with my father’s books. It was most of the money I had saved from my allowance, and all I could provide without asking Papa, which would have been difficult to explain.
“Loch bairn,” Jane said. “Child of the lake. Could that be the original name of our estate? Or is it the ancestral name of an older estate? We have no lakes, after all.”
Preoccupied,I wandered, ending in our drawing room. The longcase clock, granite chimneypiece, and birch-framed mirror sketched an elegant triangle around me and the graceful furniture.
Charlotte and Mr. Collins would take all this. Presumably, they would remain at Mr. Collins’s parish; the entailment was satisfied by a short stay at Longbourn. Would they lease the manor? It made no difference to my family’s prospects. Without the income provided by the estate, we could never afford it.
I was not sure we could affordanything. For all that I scorned Mamma’s pursuit of husbands for her daughters, she might be the most sensible of any ofus. There was no other way for a gentlewoman to support herself. A governess was closest to a respectable position, and even that was little more than servantry.
I imagined applying with lowered eyes and great deference for the privilege of educating the Hursts’ children. I could boast of my expertise in the exotic study of draca, explaining they were both Chinese and Scottish, and promise to keep my petticoats clean.
“You are being excessively morbid, Lizzy Bennet,” I said out loud.
