The road up to the parsonage allowed fine rural views: Cows, fences, stiles, and growing wheat. Through an orchard, past a brief look at the manor house sitting across a closely mowed field, and then up to a stop in front of what must be the parsonage.
Upon seeing Jane, Elizabeth leapt out of the post carriage the moment it had come to a stop, not waiting at all for Mary to follow her. “My dear Jane!”
Her sister smiled widely. Jane was full of bloom and glowing with radiance and health. Her belly bulged out hugely, though Jane’s frame allowed her to look elegant and beautiful even when heavy with a child.
The two embraced, and Elizabeth was careful not to squeeze her sister. Jane whispered to her, “I missed you so much! My dear, dear Lizzy.”
“I am here with you.”
“Oh,” Jane exclaimed, and Elizabeth could feel the kick of the baby through Jane’s clothes and stomach where she had held her sister.
“A strong one,” Jane said. “Your nephew is happy that you are here.”
“Or niece,” Elizabeth replied smiling.
“Cousin Elizabeth, greetings.” Mr. Collins interrupted the sisters’ greeting, and Elizabeth a little reluctantly gave Mary her chance to embrace Jane.
After they bowed to each other Mr. Collins said, “Lady Catherine informed me that the child is most likely to be a boy. In cases where only girl children were born in one generation, the generative aspects particularly wish to produce a son.”
“Truly, I had not known that Lady Catherine was such an expert on matters scientific and obstetric.”
“She is an expert in all matters that fall under her domain, you shall see. We dine with her twice every week, and she sends us home in her carriage, or I should say in one of her carriages, for she has several. You can see from this how truly blessed your sister is to live with me.”
“I never doubted that.”
“Your friend Mr. Sykes has recently married a woman from Norfolk, and he is visiting her family.” Mr. Collins said with pique, “So you shall not have an opportunity to renew the acquaintance.”
Elizabeth put an expression of frowning disappointment on her face. “He is taken already?”
“I fear that he has. Despite his deficiencies, it would have been a good thing to be settled, and so near your sister, would it not have? I see you begin to mourn that opportunity which has been lost, and that can never return. This shows the truth of that old adage, ‘better one in the hand than two in the bush’?”
“Unless this wife also dies, what shall I ever do?”
“There are other men, but unless you promise not to be so difficult in the next case, I shall proffer none of my aid,” Mr. Collins replied. “But I beg you to tell Lady Catherine nothing of your presumptions towards the hand of her nephew. I assure you, I have not spoken of it to her, nor has Mrs. Collins. Lady Catherine would be profoundly enraged were she to hear of it.”
Elizabeth theatrically pinched her lips shut, and then the group went inside, as Jane wished to sit down once more.
“It is quite peculiar beingenceinte,” Jane said laughing to Elizabeth as she sat down. “Soon as one becomes well used to some necessary unpleasantness, there is another. I am quite as heavy as a carriage.”
“You are not, dear,” Mr. Collins contradicted her. “A carriage is larger by far. You still can fit into Lady Catherine’s carriage easily.”
For a moment Elizabeth thought that Mr. Collins had made a joke, and perhaps even that she had all along thought worse of the gentleman than she ought to have. The silence following that statement slowly disabused Elizabeth of that notion. Jane was blushing, but she smiled at her husband and patted his hand. “You have the right of it, dear. Might you show Mary and Elizabeth about the house? I must sit for a few minutes.”
The whole of the place was snug and tidy. It was not very large, but everything was excellently furnished, and Mr. Collins had had a much larger kitchen built to the side, he’d expanded the gardening shed and constructed a carriage house and small stables. Despite all of this, it was clear that their expenses were not particularly great, and Elizabeth guessed that the couple could put more than a thousand pounds aside each year. This was promising for the wellbeing of her future nieces and nephews, even if it showed a highly unfashionable tightness that Elizabeth could not wholly approve of.
Jane walked around the grounds with them, saying that she always needed to walk, as Lady Catherine insisted that it was essential to the health of any woman with child.
Elizabeth was torn between resentment upon the behalf of her sister — it was not the place of Lady Catherine, or even her husband, to dictate how Jane behaved — and Elizabeth’sown belief that more frequent walks than Jane had ever been accustomed to were salutary for her sister.
Mr. Collins spoke a great deal, and his pride in the land was very clear. While much smaller than Longbourn, it was managed more intensively, and with a better use of the terrain. When Mr. Collins said something particularly foolish — which was frequent — Jane did blush, and she looked towards Elizabeth with an awareness of the fact that her husband was not a man her sister could either like or respect.
Her poor sister.
It was particularly easy for Elizabeth to pity her, as Elizabeth herself had never since her father’s death beenlessdeserving of pity. She had delighted in her time with her aunt and uncle. She’d had ample opportunities for conversation, to exercise her capabilities, and she had spent the last months in close contact with friends who understood her, and who she understood in turn. There was little missing for Elizabeth, except perhaps the gentleman who would complete her and make her the happiest creature in the world.
When the tour was completed, Mr. Collins went to his study to work upon his sermon, so that he could submit it to Lady Catherine for approval before he delivered it the Sunday following. Mary sat reading and writing out extracts in the drawing room, delighted by the selection of improving texts in Mr. Collins’s possession — many of the books had been suggested by Lady Catherine, and he had added in a non-inconsiderable way to the library.
Elizabeth went with Jane to the small breakfast room that Jane said she often used as a sitting room as well.
