There was no missing the way Uncle Henry’s eyebrows shot up at the news. “Now that is a surprise, but a pleasant one. I am happy to see any of my great-nieces, although‘seeing’is a rather loose term these days. Welcome, Jane.” Henry paused. “Excuse me if I am blunt, but at the age of two and seventy, I do not always have time for the niceties of polite discourse. Do notthink I am not pleased you have come to visit me; I am, but why now, after so many years of not wanting to be in my company more than absolutely necessary?”
“This morning Mama…” Jane related the orders she had received from her mother. “I realised that no matter what the fifth commandment says, I could never behave in the way Mama was demanding, as it goes against everything in which I believe. Though I did not attend my lessons as I should have, I remember everything Mrs Bellamy taught us about propriety. The scales fell from my eyes, and I can see that following Mama has not been the best way.”
“As you surmise, your mother will never be thrown into thosehedgerowsshe loves to whinge about. At the veryworst, she will live in this house. From what you have seen, is this thehovelyour mother claims it is?” Henry responded.
Jane shook her head. She started when Lizzy touched her arm and pointed to her eyes. She forgot that Lizzy had told her Uncle Henry could no longer see very much at all. “No, Uncle Henry, from what I have seen, this house is more comfortable than the house Mama resides in now.” Jane paused as some tears began to fall. “I was such a silly goose that I did not listen to Lizzy and lost so many years in which I would have come to know you.” Jane cogitated for a few moments. “Wait, does Papa know the truth that Mama will always have a very comfortable home to live in?”
“Yes, he does,” Elizabeth replied succinctly. “Papa prefers to have Mama upset about her future for his own entertainment. In truth he has not seen the house himself, but he knows it was renovated. The few things he has told her; he only did because Uncle Henry forced his hand. It would have been very easy for Papa to bring Mama here and command her to tour the house. He did not because it would have calmed Mama down. However, even if she saw this house, Mama would still lament that she would no longer be the mistress of Longbourn one day.”
“I am sure part of Fanny’s calculus in ordering you to marry my great-nephew is that she thinks when you become mistress, you will be tractable, leaving her to run the house. She forgets that my nephew’s wife will be the one in charge when the day comes that your father is called home,” Henry opined.
Thinking back to their conversation, Jane remembered at least twice when Mama had said ‘me’ and remembered herself and changed it to ‘us’. How had she been so blind for so many years? Jane knew the answer. She always wanted to see the best, so questioning Mama’s words and opinions would have made Jane think about things she was not ready to consider.
“Lizzy, take your sister to see the rest of the house. I will be here when you return,” Henry suggested.
“Thank you. I would like to see everything I may.” Lizzy led her to the kitchens. Jane noticed that water was being drawn directly from a faucet in the kitchen and scullery both; no buckets were involved. “How is it that the water flows like that, and why are there two faucets in the scullery?”
“You were not aware, but Uncle Henry had the builders add pipes for hot and cold water. They are in the bathing rooms on the first and second floors as well. There is no carrying buckets to fill tubs here,” Elizabeth explained.
“Lizzy, as Uncle Henry rebuilt this house the way he did, I surmise that he is not poor like Mama and Papa claim, is he?” Jane enquired.
“No, he is not.” Elizabeth did not elaborate. After all, it was not her place to do so; if and when Uncle Henry decided to tell Jane more, that was up to him. After they saw the rooms on the ground floor, she led Jane up the stairs to the first floor. “When I sleep here, I use the second bedchamber in the master suite.” Elizabeth inclined her head to a door. “Mary uses that chamber, and Kitty the one next to it. If you ever want to stayovernight here, the one next to Kitty’s is available.”
When Lizzy led Jane into the chamber she had indicated was the one she used, Jane’s breath caught. It was twice the size of Mama’s. The sitting room between the two chambers was more than double the size of the mistress’s sitting room in Longbourn’s manor house.
Next, the two eldest Bennet sisters made their way up to the second floor, where Jane was shown the suite and the four bedchambers. Lastly, Elizabeth led Jane up to the attics where the latter saw the places for the female servants to live.
“You noticed the stables when we arrived?” Elizabeth verified.
“I did,” Jane confirmed.
“Rooms were built above for the manservants to sleep. Next to the stables is a nice-sized carriage house,” Elizabeth explained.
While they returned to where Uncle Henry sat, Jane could not help but think of how much nicer the house was than she had thought when she arrived. She also could not stop berating herself for her mistakes over such a long period of time.
“Uncle Henry, please allow me to apologise for the way I treated you over the years,” Jane stated contritely as soon as she sat in the drawing room on the return from the tour. “It was one thing when I was a little girl who did not know better, but there is no excuse for when I got older and should have been able to see past Mama’s pronouncements to the truth. I used to think that Lizzy, Mary, and Kitty were wrong, but it was me who had the wrong of it, not them.”
“I always hoped you would wake up and see things like this, and now you have done so on your own. Of course, I forgive you. You have been inculcated against me by your mother for as far back as we both can remember. Even were I not inclined to pardon you, you are my great-niece,” Henryallowed.
“Before you say you should have known sooner, because Mary, Kitty, and I did not believe Mama’s nonsensical pronouncements, do not forget for the first six years of my life I never knew Mama, and when I moved back, she did not have time for the three of us, so we were never under her influence,” Elizabeth pointed out. “Also, you had the strength of character to ignore Mama about how to behave with men or how you dressed.”
“I was so jealous that you were allowed to wait to come out. What I would have given to be able to delay entering society,” Jane revealed.
“Jane, why did you never tell Fanny how you felt?” Henry queried.
“I thought she would take it as disobedience, and I wanted to honour her as the commandment orders,” Jane averred.
“Do you know that Mary likes to study the Bible and religious texts of other religions as well?” Elizabeth asked. The reply was a shaken head. “One day, we debated the Ten Commandments. On the fifth one, Mary opined that honour does not mean blind obedience even when you know something is wrong.” Elizabeth raised her hand as Jane was about to protest. “Before you say it, you allowed your morals to override Mama’s orders when you knew what she told you was wrong. You did not do so in everything, but enough to maintain your integrity and not go against your character.”
“Uncle Henry, I thank you for your forgiveness. I do have a question, if it is not too impertinent,” Jane said.
“Ask it, but I may choose not to answer,” Henry responded.
“You are obviously far better off than Mama and Papa believe. Why do you allow them to believe that?”
“Because I have chosen not to correct them. I wantpeople to like me for who I am, not for what I may or may not have in the way of wealth. With all due respect to your parents, you know your mother is both mercenary and a spendthrift. Your father is indolent and would want to do even less if he thought I had the wherewithal to pay for his life.”
“What do you know of your sister’s family, who, I assume, are on their way to England?” Jane enquired.
