~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Lizzy, Father and I have been talking. When we are at Netherfield Park, we want you to promise never to walk or ride out on your own,” Madeline told her eldest daughter. “We know you used to enjoy such freedoms when you resided at Longbourn, but everything has changed now.”
“I would not put it past my sister to attempt to harm you. I believe she may be unstable,” Gardiner continued. “We received a note from Elaine. Richard, Tiffany, and Giana will travel with us when we move to Netherfield Park. Richard wants to remain close to Charlotte, who will be returning home, and the other two want to remain with you.”
“You have my word, Mother and Father,” Elizabeth promised. “I am more than willing to forgo my solitude since my friends will be with us. I think we should invite Maria to join us as she is close with Tiffany and Giana as well.”
“We will discuss it with Lady Lucas on Saturday after family dinner with the Fitzwilliams,” Madeline agreed.
“Mother and Father, there is one more subject I need to broach,” Elizabeth informed her parents. She was told to proceed. “Mary and Kitty. If they are agreeable, would you approach Mr. Bennet and see if he will give up his rights to them as he did with me?”
“What makes you think they would desire that?” Gardiner asked.
“They have always been ignored, and I doubt that has changed,” Elizabeth stated. “When Jane was living at home, Mrs. Bennet divided her attentions between Jane and Lydia. To try and garner attention, Kitty emulated Lydia’s behaviour and Mary worked on her accomplishments and hid her light from the world.
“Now, with Jane gone, I wager all of Mrs. Bennet’s attentions are directed at Lydia. I did not suggest Lydia as she will never accept any situation which places demands on her or imposes discipline and standards of behaviour. Like Mrs. Bennet, Lydia only sees the here and now; she is unable to see consequences, or benefits, in the future.”
“Let us assess the situation once we are residents of the area. If Maddie and I feel intervention is warranted, we will contact your birthfather,” Gardiner allowed. “Another option for them may be to live with the Phillipses. They would have loved children. Unlike my younger sister, they would value Mary and Kitty if they had their guardianship.”
“Your idea has merit, Father. I should have thought of Aunt and Uncle Phillips before,” Elizabeth said contritely. “Come to think of it, Aunt Phillips is one of the few who can curb Lydia’s ways. If it came down to it, that might be an option for Lydia.”
“Lizzy dear, you have no reason to be sorry,” Madeline assured her. “The fact you are still thinking about Mary and Kitty, and even Lydia, after everything you had to endure while you were a Bennet is to your credit. For now, let us concentrate on enjoying time with our friends. I am sure you are looking forward to seeing the rest of the Lucases.”
“Very much so,” Elizabeth owned.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Jane had endured a little more than a month of being wife to Mr. Collins and subservient to Lady Catherine. Working with the parishioners, she had slowly but surely begun to earn their trust; they noted nothing they told Mrs. Collins made its way back to Mr. Collins and, through him, to the interfering and officious Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
One positive thing she had achieved with her husband was to convince him to spend as much time on his own as possible. Either working on his sermon—actually Lady Catherine’s sermon, tending his bees, or his favourite, paying court to Lady Catherine.
Jane had begun a friendship with Miss Anne de Bourgh. Occasionally that lady would ride in a pony-pulled phaeton around the park. After three of four meetings, with encouragement by her companion, Mrs. Jenkinson, Miss de Bourgh had become more open to Jane.
She had a dry wit and was very observant. She told Jane how her mother was doing everything she could to try and steal her cousin Richard’s inheritance and about the non-existent betrothal to her cousin, Darcy.
At the mention of his name, Jane burned with shame over her attempted compromise of the man. She had shared the truth of who she used to be with Miss de Bourgh. Anne had agreed Jane’s past actions were in some cases despicable. Rather than abandon the friendship, Anne told Jane she respected her willingness to acknowledge her faults and take action to be better. As far as she was concerned, she was interested in who Jane was today, not who she used to be.
Where before she had been selfish, vapid, and mercenary, now the greatest pleasure she found was in helping others and being accepted for who she was. Jane found without her mother’s constant harping about her looks, the last thing she thought about was her physical attributes.
It was through this service to others that Jane began to understand her former sister. Lizzy had always found pleasure in helping the tenants and anyone else who she was able to in the neighbourhood.
With shame, Jane remembered how she, and her mother, used to make fun of what they termed Lizzy’s masculine ways of walking hither and yon to visit and help others whose station was decidedly below theirs. She at last, understood the source of Lizzy’s popularity in the area of Meryton. Even though Lizzy recognised she was thought highly of, nothing she did was to garner a reward or others’ approbation.
Most of Lizzy’s actions went unseen by the majority in the neighbourhood. Jane now realised it was only as people spoke to one another that the depths of Lizzy’s charity were revealed. The more Jane understood, the more she saw the magnitude of her betrayal of a woman who was a thousand times the person she herself was.
The more she gave of herself, the more satisfaction and happiness Jane felt. Once the parishioners became comfortable they started to take Jane completely into their confidences.
It was in this way Jane discovered just how poor a clergyman her husband was. He had taken liberties with some of the tenants’ daughters. They knew complaining was futile as Lady Catherine would believe the pastor over them because he was her eyes and ears in the area.
Jane did the most selfless thing she had ever done in her life; she wrote a letter to the Bishop of Kent in which she enumerated the many cases where Mr. Collins had contravened canon law. She also informed him that Lady Catherine wrote his sermons; not one she had heard since moving to the area was based on the gospels, or indeed any part of the Holy Bible.
She knew full well if the Bishop investigated and found what she wrote to be true that her husband would be defrocked, making her life significantly worse; she cared not. She could not allow the parishioners to suffer her husband without taking some sort of action.
The irony was not lost on Jane. First, she had received the punishment she had tried to force on Lizzy, and now she was following her example. Jane considered writing to Elizabeth, but she decided against it as she was sure she had no credibility with Lizzy after everything she had done; starting with having Lizzy evicted from her bedchamber and onward.
She did not know if she would ever see her former sister again. She prayed she would before she left the mortal coil so she could beg Lizzy’s pardon, whether or not it was granted.
For the first time she could remember since before she started to feel jealousy for Lizzy, Jane Collins,néeBennet, felt a sense of inner peace she could not remember feeling since she was a little girl.
