Then, with a faint spark of hope, she added, “And if Mr. Bingley purchases the estate he and my brother viewed, he will invite my brother to assist him for Mr. Bingley knows nothing of running an estate… and then I shall visit you as well.”
Elizabeth laughed at this. “Yes. We shall see each other again. And in the meantime, we will write.” Elizabeth’s pulse quickened. If Mr. Bingley should indeed purchase Netherfield Park, she would see Mr. Darcy again. Upon that slender eventuality, she fixed all her hopes.
She rose. “Will you come with me while I pack my things?”
Together they walked to Elizabeth’s room, chatting amiably all the while as Elizabeth packed her trunk.
Chapter 22: Nursing Mr. Bennet
It was almost seven o'clock in the morning, and Mr. Gardiner stood with Elizabeth upon the cobblestones outside The Blossoms Inn, located on Cheapside, awaiting the stagecoach bound for the north.
“Lizzy,” he said, “the coach will take you as far as St. Albans, and from there you will take a different coach to continue on to Harpenden. Mr. Hill will meet you there and bring you on to Longbourn. Here are your tickets.”
Then, recalling himself, he added, “By the by, my girl, I have not yet had the opportunity to tell you, but I have found a school for Lydia. I shall drive her there myself and see her properly matriculated next week.”
“Indeed? Where is it, Uncle?”
“It is called Miss Homer’s Seminary, and it is located at Ryde, on the north east coast of the Isle of Wight.”
“The Isle of Wight?” Elizabeth repeated, curiously. “I have never heard of it. Where exactly is it?”
“It lies some eighty-five miles to the south of London, and is a most remote situation. Miss Homer guarantees that no males provide instruction to her students. She assures me that she employs sufficient teachers to keep the girls out of mischief, but most importantly, it is so remote a situation that your sister will have nowhere to run off to.”
Then, chuckling, he added, “Lizzy, Miss Homer assures me they teach both useful and ornamental needlework.”
Elizabeth’s eyes lit with amusement.
He continued. “I confess, I was almost afraid to ask what precisely she meant by ornamental. But she also promises that reading, writing, and arithmetic are well attended to, along with geography, the use of the globes, history, and botany.”
“Uncle, if Miss Homer can get Lydia to behave like a proper young woman, then she has my admiration.”
“What impressed me most and the reason I selected her school is that each student is expected to work off part of her tuition,” he added. “It is the seminary’s way of teaching responsibility and the arts of household management.”
He paused. “She provided me with the names of several parents whose daughters she has taught. I wrote to them, and their replies were entirely satisfactory.”
Mr. Gardiner sobered.
“Since it is so far from London, I shall not see Lydia more than once a year, unless business takes me again into Kent. Lizzy, I trust you will write to your sister, and keep an eye upon her in that way.”
Elizabeth agreed at once. “Yes, sir, I will write. I only pray she will stay out of trouble, and not encounter a man who will tempt her to run off as Mr. Wickham did.”
Mr. Gardiner grimaced.
“I discussed that very concern with the headmistress. She assures me there are no men permitted on the school grounds, not even delivery boys. Their cook goes to market herself in a gig and brings back all provisions without assistance.”
He rubbed his jaw. “I do not know what more can be done to keep a young girl safe, and her virtue intact, when she herself feels not the slightest regard for it, nor understands the value of such an accomplishment.”
Elizabeth sighed. “Uncle, I could pull my hair out when I think of Lydia. She is such a trying child. But I thank you for taking her in hand. I only pray this school will be the making of her.”
“And you, Lizzy? What do you think of your father’s illness?”
Elizabeth hesitated.
“Oh, Uncle… I am still so very angry with my father for neglecting the care of his five daughters. Yet I will not hold it against him now. I shall give him the best care possible, and hope he survives this illness, for otherwise we shall be six women without a home, and almost penniless.”
Just then, the stagecoach arrived.
Elizabeth embraced her uncle and bade him goodbye, and then he handed her into the coach. She drew out a book, intending to read, but she could not fix her mind upon it.
