Page 50 of Saving Jane
When Mr Collins made an appearance at his parsonage, he found the entire household in an uproar with Elizabeth and a maid moving the carpets from the parlour to the garden for beating, and the furniture in the parlour all moved to one side of the room as Mrs Gardiner directed the housekeeper and two young girls on their knees in scrubbing the floor. He fled to the kitchen for a pot of tea only to discover Miss Bennet–his fiancé–assisting a maid and another girl scrubbing every surface with lye soap amid stacks of clean dishes on the tables and sinks.
“Mr Collins, I hope you are well this afternoon,” Jane said, and Mr Collins was aghast to find his fiancée–a lady–helping to clean the kitchen.
“Miss Bennet, what is the meaning of this?”
Jane looked surprised but addressed Mr Collins calmly, “Sir, I am setting this house to rights! If I am to be mistress here, it will be clean and orderly. That way when you come home, I can offer you hot tea with fresh biscuits, good meals and an orderly house.”
Standing in the doorway of the kitchen, Mrs Gardiner remained silent, but she was pleased with her niece’s statement. Mr Collins fumbled about for a moment before Mrs Gardiner took him in hand and sent him to his study with the promise of tea in a short while.
“I brought that tin of biscuits from London,” she reminded Jane when the tea tray was prepared.
“Shall I take it to him?”
“No Jane,” Aunt Gardiner answered gently. “Send the housekeeper to deliver this tray.”
Supper that evening was a little fresh meat, cheese and bread. Everyone retired early withlittle conversation.
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Chapter 22.Lady Catherine Calls
On the third morning of their visit to Hunsford, Edward and Emily sat in the dining room with their Nanny tending to their lessons while the housekeeper directed two maids in spreading yet another load of laundry on the shrubbery to dry in the spring sunshine.
Inside the parsonage, the stairs were blocked with the ticking for all the beds being tumbled down the stairs to spend the day in the sunshine outside.
“You must stuff the mattresses with the driest hay you can find this summer Jane. We should speak to the tenants now to have them save a goodly amount for the parsonage.” Mrs Gardiner was embarrassed by the state of the bedrooms in the parsonage. “I do not think these mattresses have been changed in years!”
“I shall have a new mattress for my bed,” Jane assured her aunt and sister. “Mamma insisted that the mattresses be changed every other year at Longbourn.”
Mr Collins appreciated the immediate improvement in the meal served when he broke his fast, but he donned his coat and hat to flee from the parsonage immediately following the last cup of tea.
“I must call upon some of my parishioners,” he explained to Jane who had hoped for his assistance with the mattresses. The morning was still much too young for callers when a carriage stopped in front of the house, and a footman approached to request the presence of Miss Bennet.
“Who would call at such an hour?” Elizabeth asked as Jane and Aunt Gardiner quickly checked their hair before leaving the house and approaching the carriage.
Elizabeth turned to continue with the cleaning only to find the housekeeper, cook, maids and hired girls all standing at the window watching the two ladies approach the carriage.
“Watch ‘em curtsey,” one maid told the others. “Like old Lady Catherine will notice them being polite.”
“She’d notice if’n they didn’t curtsey!” the cook insisted. “There’s no pleasing that woman.”
“Perhaps we should continue with the cleaning,” Elizabeth prompted the servants. “Miss Bennet and Mrs Gardinerwill tell us everything when they return.”
The housekeeper shook her head, “Begging your pardon miss, but Miss Bennet is getting told how to cut her bread, what knife to use to slice ham, which herbs to harvest in June, how to fold her bedding, and when to conceive a child. Miss Bennet will not be able to repeat all Lady Catherine’s advice under an hour.”
Elizabeth glanced back at the carriage where her sister and aunt were attempting to converse with a lady with grey hair under an overly large hat, who sat very stiffly and appeared to only move her lips and her eyes. And it appeared that her mouth never stopped moving.
“This is Mr Darcy’s aunt? I do not wish to meet her for the first time dressed in a dirty gown.”Her attention returned to the servants once again and Elizabeth insisted that they return to their tasks.
“Come ladies, these mattresses must be in the garden before long!”
At just that moment, Aunt Gardiner returned to the house with the footmen from the carriage and these strong men made quick work of getting the mattresses from the house into the garden.
Only after almost an hour did Lady Catherine decide that she had imparted enough wisdom to Miss Bennet for their first meeting. Jane watched the carriage drive away before returning to the house.
“We must wash the windows across the front of the house this afternoon,” she told her aunt. “Lady Catherine is insistent that they be cleaned before we go further with our work.”
“What other instructions did her ladyship share with you?” Elizabeth asked her sister.
