Netherfield Park
My friend, Miss Jane Bennet:
I do not pretend to regret anything I shall leave in Hertfordshire, except your society, my dearest friend; but we will hope, at some future period, to enjoy many returns of that delightful intercourse we have known, and in the meanwhile may lessen the pain of separation by a very frequent and most unreserved correspondence. I depend on you for that.
When my brother left us this morning, he imagined the business which took him to London might be concluded in three or four days; but as we are certain it cannot be so, and at the same time convinced when Charles gets to Town he will be in no hurry to leave it again, we have determined on following him thither, that he may not be obliged to spend his vacant hours in his home on his own without our warm company.
Many of my acquaintances are already there for the winter; I wish I could hear that you, my dearest friend, had any intention of making one of the crowd—but of that, I despair. I sincerely hope your Christmas in Hertfordshire may abound in the gaieties which that season generally brings, and your beaux will be so numerous as to prevent you feeling the loss of those of whom we shall deprive you.
“Jane dear,” a calm Fanny called, “am I to assume your Mr. Bingley did not inform the other residents of Netherfield Park of his engagement to you?”
“No, Mama, he did not. They were to be told when the public announcement was made,” Jane responded.
“Miss Bingley, and I wager Mrs. Hurst, are in for rather a shock when they read the announcement in the papers,” Bennet stated with a sardonic smile. “The impudence of that woman to try and order her brother’s life as she sees fit.”
“You already suspect she is not a true friend, now you have absolute proof,” Elizabeth pointed out.
“It has been some time since that woman was able to fool me. Allow me to finish reading, if you thought that was fiction, just wait,” Jane asserted and her family all nodded for her to continue.
Mr. Darcy is impatient to see his sister; and, to confess the truth, we are scarcely less eager to meet her again. I really do not think Georgiana Darcy has her equal for beauty, elegance, and accomplishments; and the affection she inspires in Louisa and myself is heightened into something still more interesting, from the hope we dare entertain of her being hereafter our sister.
I do not know whether I ever before mentioned to you my feelings on this subject, but I will not leave the country without confiding them, and I trust you will not esteem them unreasonable.
My brother admires her greatly already and has been unofficially courting her, with her brother’s full-throated approbation, for some months before we arrived in your neighbourhood. While in London he will have frequent opportunity now of seeing her on the most intimate footing. Her relations all wish the connection as much as his own and a sister’s partiality is not misleading me, I think, when I call Charles most capable of engaging any woman’s heart.
With all these circumstances to favour an attachment, and nothing to prevent it, am I wrong, my dearest Jane, in indulging the hope of an event which will secure the happiness of so many?
Please do write to me, I will await your letters with great anticipation.
Your friend,
Caroline M. Bingley
“Anticipation of consigning them to the fire,” Lydia chirped.
No one disagreed with her.
“How can she fabricate that nonsense about Miss Darcy while intimating her brother was only trifling with you? Is not Miss Darcy around Lyddie’s age and not yet out?” Elizabeth huffed angrily. Elizabeth turned to her father. “Papa, you have Mr. Bingley’s direction in London do you not?”
“Yes, Papa, Lizzy has the right of it, we need to send this work of fiction to Charles,” Jane agreed wholeheartedly. She turned to Elizabeth. “Charles has told me more than once how he sees Miss Darcy as a younger sister. The supposed match is made up of whole cloth and is another of Miss Bingley’s delusions.”
Bennet stood and took the disgusting missive. He wrote a cover and then sealed Miss Bingley’s lies within. A groom was sent to the Red Lion Inn and an express rider engaged.
The express had been on its way to London for well over an hour before the remainder of the Netherfield Park party was on the road. The letter arrived at Curzon Street before they had reached the halfway stop.
Chapter 24
Fanny was grateful Jane was so confident in her fiancé and the letter of lies Miss Bingley had sent out of spite in an obvious attempt to hurt her daughter had not had its intended effect.
Without having to worry about Jane’s equanimity, Fanny turned her attention to the wedding of her middle daughter in less than a fortnight. Mary had been rather insistent about not wanting a showy event. Before the changes at Longbourn began, Fanny knew she would have imposed her will and planned the wedding she wanted while ignoring her daughter’s wishes.
She had reconciled herself to the fact it would be family, including the Philipses and Gardiners, and one or two local families—the Lucases and the Longs—with whom Mary had a close connection.
Also accepted was the fact the couple would depart for Hunsford almost right after the ceremony with the briefest of appearances at their wedding breakfast. Her future son-in-law had insisted on an early departure due to his extended absence from his parish, and of course, he wanted to be able to present his wife to Lady Catherine de Bourgh on the same day as the wedding.
All Fanny could hope for was Jane and her Charles would desire a more lavish wedding. However, as she had with Mary, Fanny would defer to Jane’s wishes.
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