Page 47 of New World Tea Company
This statement pleased Miss Bingley, who crowed that she handled servants differently. Darcy ignored Caroline and avoided conversation with everyone else for fifteen minutes until it was time to depart for Netherfield.
Miss Elizabeth had not reappeared when the visitors left.
~~~
Chapter 18.Carriages and Partridges
At the window that overlooked the road into Meryton, Kitty and Lydia stood, hopeful of spying any traveller on the road. When the weather was nice, they would run down the drive to the road and question farmers, carriages, and men on horseback as to their destination and business hereabouts.
This morning, the voices in the parlour grew louder as the two youngest Bennet sisters exclaimed, “That is Mr Bingley’s carriage! And there are trunks atop the carriage! He is leaving for London!”
Rising from her seat and hurrying to the window, Mrs Bennet did not catch a glance of the carriage. She heard her daughters speaking of the fine carriage Mr Bingley had ridden around the neighbourhood on many occasions since he arrived in September. Pressing her daughters for more information, Mrs Bennet asked, “Are you certain it was Mr Bingley?”
Kitty replied, “Bingley’s coachman wears that top hat with feathers. He is the only coachman to wear feathers in his hat around Meryton.”
“Are they turkey or goose feathers?” asked Lydia, thinking of the feathers she had seen on various hats that autumn.
“Mr Hill said the man told him they were eagle feathers from Scotland,” revealed Kitty.
Leaving her two youngest daughters behind, Frances Bennet went in search of her eldest daughter. She found Jane with Elizabeth and Mary in the dining room sewing a quilt as a wedding gift for Charlotte Lucas. The sisters worked on a quilting frame to stitch the two pieces of cloth and battingtogether. Mrs Bennet’s frown deepened to be reminded that Charlotte Lucas would shortly be married to Mr Collins and someday replace her as the mistress of Longbourn.
“Everywhere I look, there are disappointments today!” she declared.
“What do you mean, Mamma?” asked Mary, only glancing up from her stitching. “What disappointments?”
Elizabeth’s hands paused for a moment as she could not deny her own disappointment with Mr Darcy’s refusal to speak about Mr Wickham and his business with the gentlemen in the neighbourhood. She thought,‘But I shall not dwell on it. He may be correct, and Mr Wickham’s business practices are beyond my understanding, but he was wrong not to speak…I dread the next time we meet.’
“First, Mr Bingley leaves Meryton, and then I see you working on the gift for Charlotte Lucas, the wanton woman who will sleep in my bed someday!” Mrs Bennet declared.
“Charlotte Lucas? You believe Charlotte to be wanton?” asked Elizabeth, moved to defend her friend from such characterisation.
“What do you mean? When did Charles leave Meryton?” Jane asked, the surprise evident in her tone of voice.
The surprise in both daughters’ tone did not make Mrs Bennet rein in her temper, “That old maid lured Mr Collins into an engagement that will make her mistress of Longbourn when your father dies. And just now Mr Bingley has fled back to London, no doubt taking Mr Darcy with him.”
The matron pulled out a chair and sat at the table in a huff of breath. “Three eligible…no, four eligible gentlemen appear in Meryton this autumn, and Charlotte Lucas is the only woman to be engaged to one of them before they vanish.”
The look of confusion on Jane’s face faded, and she remained silent. However, Elizabeth spoke up, “Mamma, I remember we discussed mythical rich men, and I said they do not exist in Meryton.”
Mary asked, “Who is the fourth gentleman, Mamma?”
“Mr Wickham was the fourth bachelor! He is undoubtedly as wealthy as my brother Gardiner and would make one of you a good husband!”
Elizabeth fell silent and determined not to participate in any discussion concerning Mr Darcy, Mr Wickham, or Mr Collins. Gently, Jane contradicted her mother, “Mamma, I do not believe Mr Bingley has left. Charles would have said something or sent a message.”
“A message? A note?” Mrs Bennet asked while ignoring her daughter’s use of the man’s given name. Rising from the chair, she hurried from the room, saying, “Yes, I shall speak with your father and see if he received a letter from Mr Bingley.”
Mary and Jane resumed sewing while Elizabeth stared out the window momentarily as she wrestled with memories of Mr Darcy and attempted to bury her feelings. Then she said, “Jane, you are not affected by Mamma’s claim that Mr Bingley has left the neighbourhood.”
“I understand Mr Bingley is to shoot partridges with Papa today,” Jane replied. “And I trust Mr Bingley’s word.”
A few minutes passed before the sisters heard indistinct voices coming from the front of the house. Then the sisters heard their mother greet Mr Bingley coming through the front door of Longbourn. The smile on Jane’s face proved infectious, making her sisters smile. Through the open door, they heard snippets of conversation as their father and the gentleman exchanged a few words with Mrs Bennet about coaches and departures. Then thefront door closed, and silence reigned in Longbourn for a brief moment.
“Hill! Hill! We shall be one more for lunch today!” Mrs Bennet declared as she swept down the hallway from the front of Longbourn toward the kitchen. “Mr Bingley will dine with us.”
After her conference with the housekeeper in the kitchen, Mrs Bennet returned to the dining room and once again sat while her daughters continued sewing. Kitty and Lydia wandered into the room, and while Kitty joined her sisters at the quilting frame for a time, Lydia played with a spool of thread and pulled off a length to tie into knots.
Taking the spool from her youngest and straightening the thread once again, Mrs Bennet explained, “Mr Bingley cleared away the confusion at the door before leaving to shoot birds with your father, girls. His carriage did appear in front of our house on the road to Meryton this morning, but it carried his sisters and Mr Hurst to London. They are to open the Hurst home on Olive Street and spend the winter there.”
