“Well, Jane,” said Mr Bennet with a twinkle in his eye as the door of the house closed behind their guest. “It seems that your young man’s affections were not the work of shallow infatuation. I am impressed by him, and shall gladly hear him if he should one day insist upon asking to take you away.”
Jane blushed, but replied with tolerable composure. “He has said that he wishes to court me when it is proper to do so, and will be my friend until then.”
“Then I shall expect him very shortly after you choose to enter half-mourning.” Rising from his chair, he smiled fondly at all three of his daughters there, and retreated once more to his book room.
“Jane!” exclaimed Kitty when he had gone. “Is Mr Bingley to be our brother after all?”
“I hope it may be so,” her eldest sister answered. “I shall certainly not refuse him if he asks. I had not the smallest hope that his attentions would continue when we met again,” she confided, one hand unconsciously coming up to a scarred cheek. “But indeed, he was just as amiable and attentive as ever. He told me plainly that my altered appearance has no effect on him.”
Kitty clasped her hands to her breast and let out a dreamy sigh. “How romantic. I should be happy to be loved half so well.”
“It is best that you and I, Kitty, keep our hopes just so modest. Half the love granted to such a perfect creature as Jane is indeed a worthy goal for us mere mortals!” Elizabeth interjected, and she and her younger sister laughed while Jane blushed and protested.
* * *
Dearest Georgiana,
I am happy to relate to you that Mr Jones believes he shall be able to declare the epidemic ended within days. We are very quiet at Netherfield now, with Mrs Hurst in deepest mourning and the Bennet sisters returned to their own home.
I thank you for your efforts to contact Miss Bingley. My friend has now had word of her, for she at last answered one of his own communications. She is well.
Mr Bingley and Mrs Hurst have determined to pass the Christmas season here, and have invited us to join them. What think you, dearest? It will be a quiet celebration due to their mourning, but I daresay no quieter than our own last year, alone at Pemberley. Here, you might make friends with some of the young ladies of the area. The Bennets, I have mentioned previously; they have lost their mother to the smallpox and will also spend the season quiet and retired. I am certain you would like at least two of the five daughters of that family. But if you had rather be in town or even go to Pemberley, that is what we shall do. I shall not demand that you perform for strangers.
Please advise me of your decision by express, for time grows short to make the necessary plans in either case.
Your fond brother,
Fitzwilliam
* * *
Elizabeth’s resolution to spend more time assisting her younger sisters when they were reunited was rather stymied by the revelations of their improvement in her absence, but it did not take long for her to determine that while their behaviour and even their understanding were greatly improved, their confidence was not. Kitty was making decisions for the household and then asking the nearest person if she had done right; she remained on the whole rather too obliging—perhaps a desirable trait in a sister, but one which would not serve her well in the greater world. In Mary’s conversation it seemed that wry self-deprecation had replaced arrogant piety; she acknowledged to Elizabeth that her faith had been strengthened by her recent experiences. Elizabeth conjectured that with greater certainty came less need to speak of it, and to quote Proverbs.
Impressed by the fortitude of her younger sisters, Elizabeth wondered how, and even if, she had changed. Her own challenges seemed less than those faced by Jane and Lydia—who had fought illness—and Mary and Kitty, who had worked to nurse their sister, managed Longbourn’s household, and mourned their mother in the midst of it. What had she, herself, done? She had nursed Jane, but she had been privileged to have Netherfield’s servants and Mrs Hurst to assist her. That she had taken on the bulk of Jane’s care was true, but she had known at every moment that she could have done less, had she wished or needed to. She had done so much partly out of a desperate desire to spend every possible moment with her dearest sister while she lived.
Could I have laboured so for anyone other than Jane or my father?Mary had certainly not enjoyed a good relationship with Lydia prior to these events, nor Kitty with her mother.Could I have endured the illness with half of Jane’s patience, had it struck me?Even Lydia seemed to have learnt to esteem and respect her sisters, and to bear with a certain patience her present trials, which Elizabeth would not have expected of her.
Elizabeth realised she had not understood the depths of anyone around her prior to the epidemic. In this she included also Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley, whom she had perceived as little but prideful and amiable, respectively, and Mrs Hurst, of whom she had hardly thought at all. Had the best traits of those around her truly been so well-hidden, or had she been so blind?
She felt deeply thankful that she had seen these things, that she had come to know her younger sisters better and had been granted the friendship of the Netherfield party. Self-recrimination and concern over the depth and nobility of her own character remained, however, dogging her thoughts and even her dreams during those first days of her return to Longbourn, no matter how often she told herself that at least she had not thrown off all responsibility as had Miss Bingley and some of her neighbours.
Feeling that she could not answer herself, she sought the advice of one she trusted to always tell her the truth, and to either console or reprimand as the occasion demanded. She shut herself up in her chamber for two hours, and at the end of it sent four full pages of all her hopes and doubts, her questions and thoughts, to London. As she stepped away from the post-counter and turned her feet back towards Longbourn, she did so with a lighter heart. If anything in her required correction, her aunt Gardiner would show her the way.
* * *
Dear Brother,
I should be delighted to pass Christmas at Netherfield Park with Mr Bingley and Mrs Hurst, and to meet these ladies of whom you approve. I wish you would believe that I am very much recovered from my disappointment of a few months ago, and would dearly like to be of use to Mr Bingley and Mrs Hurst in their grief.
I hope I may be allowed to bring Mrs Annesley, for I have come to depend upon her good counsel, and she has no family to go to in any case—I should dislike to leave her alone during the festive season.
With love,
Georgiana
Postscript: Please do let me know if you should like us to retrieve anything for you by way of holiday tokens while we are yet in town.
* * *
