“Mr Hurst, I beg your pardon!” exclaimed his wife.
“No point waiting for my parents to die to begin learning, Mrs Hurst,” her husband insisted. “It is damned good of Mrs Bennet to offer. Mrs Bennet, my wife will be very happy to visit you on a Tuesday or Thursday, just as soon as Miss Bennet has recovered and returned to Longbourn. I am certain Louisa is very interested in meeting the tenants here at Netherfield, Miss Elizabeth.”
Mrs Hurst glared at her husband while Miss Bingley glared at her brother. Mrs Bennet and her youngest three daughters took their leave, and departed, and Elizabeth returned upstairs.
Jane recovered swiftlyafter her fever broke. Two days later, she was able to come downstairs after dinner to spend a pleasant hour in the drawing room. Elizabeth saw her into a comfortable chair by the fire, where she was attended solicitously by Mr Bingley, then retreated to a quiet corner with a book. Mr Darcy was writing a letter, while Miss Bingley and Mr and Mrs Hurst played cards. They invited Elizabeth to join them, but she thanked them and declined.
“Do you prefer reading to cards? How singular,” observed Mr Hurst.
“Eliza Bennet despises cards,” said Miss Bingley. “She is a great reader, and has no pleasure in anything else.”
“I deserve no such praise, nor such censure,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “While I do greatly enjoy the written word, I must admit that I take pleasure in many things.”
“What else do you take pleasure in, besides reading and early morning walks?” asked Darcy with interest.
“I enjoy helping my father with estate matters, and visiting our tenants. I also like assisting the rector with church activities, and I do enjoy society. I have been greatly amused at my share of card parties in the village. Tonight, I believe I am too tired for cards,” Elizabeth said, stifling a yawn. “Jane is restless when she’s ill. I have slept little of late.”
“How quaint,” mocked Caroline. “To be satisfied by such simple pleasures.”
Elizabeth had the wit to know when she was being insulted. “Simple though my pleasures may be, having been born a gentleman’s daughter, I suppose one might say I was raised to them, so I am satisfied.Gently bredladies are content with such pursuits.”
Jane was scandalised by her sister’s cheek, but Miss Bingley hadnotthe wit to know when she was insulted. The rest of the room did, and Charles was fit to burst in his effort not to laugh. Mr Hurst was smirking, and even Darcy was hard put to fight the turn at the edge of his lips.
“We shall have to assign a maid to sit with your sister tonight, Eliza. We want you to have your strength so you may return directly to these charming endeavours as soon as may be,” sneered Miss Bingley
“Do not trouble yourself,Caro,” Elizabeth replied. “I expect that my sister and I should return home to our father’s estate quite soon. A night in my own bed shall soon set me to rights.”
“Caro?” Miss Bingley echoed.
“Oh, had we not reverted to given names, Miss Bingley?” Elizabeth said, impishly. “Of course I do notrecallhaving invited you to use mine, but I must have done at some point, or I am certain you never would have presumed.”
“I do not preferCaro,” Miss Bingley snapped, irritated to be reminded that as the higher rank as a gentleman’s daughter, Elizabeth must be the one to extend such an invitation.
“I do apologise,” replied Elizabeth with a smile, “I do not prefer to be called Eliza, so perhaps we have that in common.”
“I have heard Miss Lucas call you Eliza,” interjected Mrs Hurst.
“Ah, the privileges of lifelong friendship cannot be set aside,” Elizabeth quipped. “But since neither of us cares for such familiarity amongst those we do not know as well, I believe we should continue on with our surnames, do not you, Miss Bingley?”
“Indeed,” sniffed Miss Bingley.
At this, Elizabeth noticed that her sister looked weary, and Mr Bingley noticed as well, just at the same moment. Though Jane objected weakly, Elizabeth bundled her back up to her room, where they remained for the rest of the evening. Jane came downstairs for slightly longer periods each day for the rest of the week, and then requested the use of Mr Bingley’s carriage to return home, for, in direct opposition to her recent promise, Mrs Bennet was finding excuses not to send her husband's carriage.
CHAPTER 6
“Ihope, my dear, that you have ordered a good dinner today,” said Mr Bennet at the breakfast table a few days after Jane and Elizabeth’s return to Longbourn. “For I have reason to expect an addition to our family party.”
“Whoever can you mean, Mr Bennet?” inquired his wife. “I know of no one who is expected unless Charlotte Lucas drops in, and I do hope my dinners are good enough forher.She certainly does not see such fine fare at her mother’s table. Or perhaps Mr Bingley! What dreadful luck! There will not be a bit of fish to be had. Ring the bell, Mary; I must speak with Hill.”
Mr Bennet smiled wickedly. “It is not Charlotte, nor Mr Bingley, though I give you leave to invite them both as often as you please. No, it is a person I have never seen once in the whole of my life.” This naturally roused a great clamour of interest by his wife and all five of his daughters, and so, well pleased to have their undivided attention for once, he settled back into his chair with his coffee to relate the information to them. “I received this letter about a month ago, and about a fortnight ago, I sent a reply, considering it a matter of some delicacy, and requiring prompt attention. It is from my cousin, Mr Collins, who, if yourecall, when I am dead, may turn you all out of this house as soon as he pleases,” he finished mischievously.
“Mr Bennet pray do not talk of that odious man coming here! I cannot bear to hear such a person mentioned. It is the hardest thing in the world that your estate should be entailed away from your own girls! Lady Lucas quite agrees, you should have done something about it!” Fanny Bennet wailed.
Thomas Bennet agreed with his wife that it was an abominable situation, but advised her to hear the letter, for perhaps her opinion might change upon meeting the man. Mrs Bennet declared that this was hogwash, and decried the man as a villain for existing at all. Mr Bennet, however, insisted upon reading the letter aloud.
Hunsford,
Near Westerham, Kent,
