10 November 1810
Longbourn, near Meryton, Hertfordshire
Miss Bingley,
As we share a common dislike for my former sister, I thought you would be interested in what happened today. As I expected, Elizabeth refused my cousin.
My mother and father ordered her to comply, but unfortunately there is an inconvenient rule in the church that a bride may not be married if she refuses to recite the vows.
I helped direct my mother, and Elizabeth was banished from Longbourn. If she had the funds to do so, I am sure she will run to my tradesman uncle in Cheapside.
Mayhap you will be lucky enough to run into her, as I am sure she will go to work in their store, Gardiner Emporium on Gracechurch Street.
Enjoy the season,
Miss Jane Bennet
Miss Bingley almost jumped up and down with glee. Thanks to Miss Bennet’s intelligence, all she had to do now was find a way to ensure Mr. Darcy visited Gardiner Emporium and saw the newest shopgirl.
She had not missed the look of anguish Mr. Darcy displayed when she shared the news of Eliza’s imminent betrothal. She would destroy any feelings Mr. Darcy had for the chit before she took her rightful place as mistress of all of the Darcy properties.
How she would relish dropping items on the floor so Eliza would have to pick them up! It was the best news she had heard in quite some time.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Mr. Collins demanded a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and Jane. They met in the study. “You requested this meeting, Mr. Collins,” Bennet opened.
“Yes. Mrs. Bennet, when I told you I had decided to bestow the honour of being my future wife and offering the connection with the noble house of de Bourgh to Miss Bennet, you told me she was about to receive an offer, did you not?”
“It was true at the time,” Fanny replied sullenly.
“And now, if what I heard in Meryton today is to be believed, none of you are being received in society any longer.” Collins pointed out.
Jane and Fanny looked down, but Bennet confirmed it was nothing but the truth. “It is all a misunderstanding, Mr. Collins,” Fanny prevaricated. “Lizzy will be called home in days and everyone will see there is no substance to what is being maliciously spread abroad.”
“I am afraid that is quite impossible, Mrs. Bennet,” Bennet said evenly.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” Fanny yelled.
“Following your instructions, I sent a document to your brother Edward renouncing any parental right to, and giving him irrevocable authority over, Elizabeth. The only way she will return to Longbourn is if your brother allows it and she desires it,” Bennet explained.
“This is not to be borne! How can you do such a thing?” Fanny screeched.
“Mrs. Bennet, are you not the one who demanded Lizzy be banished and said that she was no longer part of our family? What I did was comply with your wishes,” Bennet stated with a deadpan expression.
Fanny Bennet was speechless, not for the first time this day. “As I was saying,” Collins brought the conversation back to his desired topic. “My patroness ordered me to marry one of my cousins, and one of my cousins I will marry. If not, then on the day you go to your eternal reward, your wife and any unmarried daughters, which will be all of them left at Longbourn, will be evicted. It has come to my notice your options have been severely restricted,” Collins crowed.
“Mary would make an ideal…” Fanny tried to offer but was cut off.
“No. It is Miss Bennet or no one. I am an honoured clergyman and the beneficiary of the beneficence of the Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh and, as such, I deserve the best.” Collins preened as he puffed up his corpulent chest.
As Jane sat there listening to her future being discussed, her father’s words from the day before aboutreaping what we sowwere brought home to her in stark relief. “I will not marry this man. I am of age and do not have to marry where I am not inclined.”
“What you say is nothing less than the truth; you are of age,” Bennet agreed as Jane felt a little better, momentarily. “Remind me, Jane, what was the penalty you suggested to your mother for Lizzy’s refusal to marry this man? Before you speak again, remember that, unlike Lizzy, you have nowhere to go as you have burnt every bridge.”
“We cannot do that to Jane,” Mrs. Bennet added weakly.
“But, Mrs. Bennet, is this not the consequence you decided when Lizzy disobeyed your command to marry Mr. Collins? Didn’t Jane make the suggestion to you?” Bennet asked sardonically. “Or would you prefer to live in the hedgerows with your unmarriageable daughters?”
