Page 41 of Miss Gardiner
The undertaker spoke up, “You are blessed with a large family, sir.”
The men climbed two more flights of stairs to a third floor where they passed through a door in the wall and into the third floor of the next house.
The undertaker led the two gentlemen into a large bedroom where a sheet covered a figure on the bed. Solemnly, the undertaker pulled the sheet from the head; first Mr Gardiner and then Mr Darcy viewed thepale face of the body.
“Well, sir?” asked the undertaker.
“Yes, this is Jane Bennet…was Jane Bennet whom I knew for four months last year in…”
“My niece has lived in my house since December. Gracechurch Street is her residence,” Mr Gardiner interrupted Darcy to prevent mention of any other location.
“Yes,” Darcy agreed as the undertaker lowered the sheet to cover Jane Bennet’s face.
“And how should the name be listed in the newspapers, sir?”
“Jane Gardiner, of Gracechurch Street, died 15 June 1815,” Mr Gardiner stated.
“Last night sir?”
“Yes, late last night,”
The undertaker and his workers opened the coffin, then carefully moved the body, still wrapped in sheets, and placed it in the body of the coffin. They returned the lid on top of the coffin and fastened it with nails quickly hammered through the lid.
The undertakers and his workers began the trip down the stairs by first passing through the door on the third floor. The house was unnaturally quiet as Darcy and Gardiner followed the coffin bearing the body of Jane Bennet down three flights of stairs.
On the landing of the first floor, Darcy mentioned he would go and make certain the door to the parlour was closed. Gardiner nodded his agreement but said nothing; his eyes were bright with unshed tears. As he came down the last flight of stairs, Fitzwilliam noted the chambermaid standing vigil outside the parlour with the closed door.
“You do good service for Mr and Mrs Gardiner,” he told the girl as the men came down the stairs with the closed coffin. They moved through the front door carefully and Mr Gardiner followed to the entry way but there he stopped. Once the coffin was loaded onto the hearse, the undertaker returned to the house and spoke to Mr Gardiner.
“Reverend Alder will conduct the service at ten of the clock tomorrow,” the man confirmed with Mr Gardiner.
“And the grave?”
“Will be ready, Mr Gardiner.”
“Thank you,” Gardiner said as he handed over a purse.
The door closed, Mr Gardiner turned to the chambermaid and asked her to bring tea for Miss Elizabeth and her guest. Then he turned to Darcy and said, “It is early, but would you care for a finger of brandy?”
Darcy replied, “Yes, thank you.”
The two men walked down the hallway to a small room that held a sideboard with decanters as well as many boxes of books.
“Forgive the appearance of the room,” Gardiner said. “This was my office until the end of the past year, and we have not completed transforming it into a school room.”
The man poured brandy into two tumblers and then handed one glass to Darcy and took the second for himself.
“I forgot how quickly the undertakers move through a house,” Mr Gardiner said before he took the first sip of the brandy.
“It is almost summer…” Darcy said as an explanation.
“And we must bury the dead quickly,” Gardiner said. “Yesterday, Jane was smiling…”
“I have never known anyone who died so young,” Darcy said. “When my father died, we were at Pemberley and for three days, men came to the house to view the body and verify that the body in the coffin was my father’s.”
Gardiner stared at the brandy in his glass.
“May I attend the service with you tomorrow?” Darcy asked. Even in London, only gentlemen attended the funeral services.
