Page 9 of Master of Netherfield
“Miss Elizabeth, I hope you will forgive the Lucas family for this scene,” Mr Lucas said.
The young woman only smiled. “Mr Lucas, you have always been kind to me. Remember when I knocked over the basket of apples in front of your store and horses ate half of them before I could get them back into the basket, last year? You were most understanding of my clumsiness.”
“Everyone has difficulty growing up,” Charlotte reminded her father and friend. “I just hope my brother will grow out of the bullying.”
“I must see to an apprenticeship in town for Charlie soon,” Mr Lucas said. “He has no interest in running the shop or in farming. Something in trade in town will be to his liking.”
“Lizzy!” called Mrs Bennet. “Lizzy, come look at this muslin!”
As Mrs Bennet and her second daughter looked at the blue and yellow muslin, Jane and Mary arrived at the Lucas Emporium.
**++**
“Mr Bennet! Mr Bennet!” exclaimed Mrs Bennet as she rushed into her husband’s study. “Netherfield Park has been let at last. I just heard the news from Mrs Lucas at her husband’s shop in Meryton. As the mayor, he knows all the goings-on in each of the great houses of Hertfordshire!”
“Is Netherfield Park a great house, my dear?” Mr Bennet asked indulgently. “The estate barely makes three thousand a year, where we manage to squeeze out two thousand a year at Longbourn.”
“My dear, do not speak of income and monies with me,” his wife complained. “Numbers give me a headache and affect my nerves.”
Mr Bennet rose from his desk and directed his wife to a nearby chair and then poured her a small glass of sherry. “Now here my dear, sip this and tell me all that Mrs Lucas shared with you.”
Taking a small sip and noting the glimmer in her husband’s eye that had first attracted Francis Gardiner to Thomas Bennet over seventeen years before, Mrs Bennet smiled prettily and repeated her tale.
“Mrs Lucas had it from Mr Taylor that a rich gentleman from the north has leased Netherfield. He intends to improve the estate while moving back and forth between Hertfordshire and London,” Mrs Bennet told her husband. “It will mean more carriages on the roads and more visitors! There will be more parties and elegant suppers!”
Mr Bennet smiled indulgently and nodded his head before taking the empty glass and setting it on the table and then grasping hold of both of his wife’s hands. “And would you care to have the whole story so that tomorrow you can correct Mrs Lucas’s gossip?”
“What do you mean, Mr Bennet?” asked his wife as he drew her to her feet.
“Our brother Phillips–husband of your unfortunate sister–is the solicitor for the sale of Netherfield to a rich gentleman from the north. The estate has been sold and I understand that a young man will take possession of the estate.”
“Does he have a wife?”
“I do not know his marriage state, but I did understand that he has only just this spring completed his studies at university, so I imagine that he is unattached.”
“Single and in possession of a good estate... Did you hear if he is handsome?”
The gentleman grinned and said, “When I call on him and invite him to dinner, you will have to determine that for yourself.”
Throwing her arms around her husband’s neck, Mrs Bennet kissed his cheek. “You are a good husband, Thomas Bennet! Thank you!”
“Now Fannie, listen to me well. When the gentleman comes to visit, you will not throw Jane at him. She is only coming out this fall and she is entirely too young to be courted! You will have to entertain the young man and keep him close for at least the next two years before you betroth our eldest daughter to him.”
Pretending to be affronted while caressing the hand of her playful husband, Mrs Bennet agreed, “Oh, very well. But if he takes a notion to court our Jane, I shall not stop it!”
“That is the father’s business, my dear,” Mr Bennet assured his wife. “Now tell me the other news from Meryton.”
“Well, it seems that...”
**++**
“Papa! Papa!” called a loud, young girl’s voice as someone ran through the house.
“Elizabeth Bennet! Do not run in the house! You knock over the furniture or your sisters like a pony!” scolded Mrs Bennet of her second daughter. “You must walk like Jane who could pass through a cloud without disturbing the wisps around her.”
“Why would I want to walk through a cloud, Mamma?” asked the fourteen-year-old girl. “Jane can run just as fast as me when she wants to.”
“Lizzy!” called Mr Bennet. “Come into my library.”
