“Did she tell you about that?” Bingley said with some surprise. “I did not even know that she remembered.”
“What details I know were given by your wife.”
“Ah.” Bingley nodded. “I do suppose…Hmmmm. I have never thought how Lizzy…”
Bingley trailed off.
Darcy turned to Lord Hartley. “Accompany us when we go to Rosings for Easter. It is close enough to your family seat, and the company will always be welcome. And if you delay the extra day, you will be able to attend that dinner you owe to Mrs. Bingley.”
Lord Hatley laughed. “I can delayoneday—but only if such a day will be convenient for your wife.”
“Without doubt,” Bingley replied. “We already have a dinner planned for that day, but with guests of such a sort as I feel no compunction about adding additional persons.However,I have not been married so long as to forget that one ought to ask one’s wife before thrusting a guest of such magnificence as the heir to an earldom onto her table. I reserve the right to send you my apologies if Jane should demur. And with that said, I think I ought to return home now.”
He gave them a smile which suggested to all of them that Bingley was very eager to return to Mrs. Bingley. Given her beauty he should be.
As Bingley left the room, he turned at the door and said, “Speaking of Lizzy, Miss Elizabeth will be staying with Mrs. Collins while you are there. You must say hello to her for me, since that shall be more direct than a letter.”
Chapter Eleven
“Oh, I am so very happy to see you!” Mary glowed as she embraced Elizabeth the moment she stepped from the carriage. “I have been so eager. Mr. Collins can confirm. I have checked my watch a dozen times this morning, to see when you might arrive.”
Mr. Collins added his agreement and his confirmation of his wife’s claim. While he spoke in his ordinary slow manner, Elizabeth could see from his manner that he was at least pleased to see his fair one in good spirits.
Elizabeth looked around in delight.
Convincing Mr. Bennet to let her travel to visit Mary had been a matter of some difficulty. It likely was simply that he would miss her very much, but Mr. Bennet hated to see her travel outside of the neighborhood.
In the end, he could not stand the disappointment of both Elizabeth and Mary at his refusal. But when Mr. Bennet relented and allowed Elizabeth to travel, he several times insisted that she must bring her pistol and keep it with her.
“You look so very well!” Mary also exclaimed.
This Elizabeth was conscious of doing.
Her travelling dress was not one of the ones that she had purchased with the money that Mr. Bennet gave her. It was a dress that she had modified to make it so that the bosom mostly disappeared, and to keep the waist particularly wide.
Last night she had snipped the threading she’d put in to pull fabric in together in a subtly ill-fitting manner and then done some simple adjustments to partly bring the waist in.
The whole time she’d done this by candlelight Elizabeth had felt odd.
This was what Mary wished her to do.
But…why had she ever tried so hard to dress badly? Why had she spent years strategizing what small changes to make to her dresses that could make her look her worst? Why had she never ever allowed herself to wear the rouge that other gentlewomen, even poor ones, even women who were not gentlewomen at all freely used?
She could not let herself think too much about that.
Upon being led into the house and up to her room—the best guest room, and a larger one than what she had at Longbourn—Elizabeth was scarcely given ten minutes to refresh herself and wash the dirt off before she was ordered back into her walking boots by Mary and then given a thorough tour of the whole farm.
Both Mary and Mr. Collins made her pay especial attention, of course, to those parts of the rectory house that had been improved by the kindnesses of Lady Catherine. But the whole proved to be a fine place, and the happiness which Mary had expressed in her letters was justified by the reality.
Elizabeth had greater curiosity to see how the couple fared in their married life than she did to see the home farm, the sheds, the chicken house or the kitchen.
Theywere all as was to be expected. But was Mary happy?
Mr. Bennet had charged her, in his oblique way, to make effort to discover this for him. Whenever Mary and Mr. Collins were spoken of, Elizabeth perceived thathisconcerns about his daughter’s choice had by no means been fully assuaged by the increasing show of tenderness between them that the last visits of Mr. Collins to the house before Mr. Bennet authorized the wedding.
“I do hope that you shall be invited to dine at Lady Catherine’s soon.” Mary said, “Usually she has us there each week, sometimes twice in a week. But with Mr. Darcy and another of her nephews visiting this next week her habits may bechanged. Likely she shall have a great round of guests from the highest echelons of the neighborhood during the time they are here.”
“Mr. Darcy visiting!” Elizabeth exclaimed with some surprise. “I had no notion that he would be in the country.”
