“I understand that Bingley. Do you give me leave to write to my parents and canvass an invitation, as long as they have no conflicting plans?” he asked, praying that mayhap they would not be able to accommodate guests at that time even as Bingley nodded his head.
Four days later an affirmative reply was received from Lady Anne. Bingley then wrote to his father with the invitation, and two days later an express arrived accepting. Both young men had been hoping against hope that Mr Bingley would demure, but it was not to be. Mrs Bingley and her two daughters would be coming to Pemberley.
William was snapped out of his reverie as Douglas knocked on the drawing room door to inform the Darcys that a carriage had passed the gatehouse. The Fitzwilliams would arrive on the morrow, so at least they would only have three days with the objectionable Bingley ladies. William took a walk in the house to work off some of his nervous energy, but when he heard the carriages in the courtyard,he returned to the drawing room where his parents waited.
As the Bingley equipage passed the gatehouse, Caroline, who felt that she knew all exclaimed,“You should sack the driver father; he is taking us into a forest. I thought this was a grand estate.”
“Did you not notice the arch above the gates, Caroline?” her brother asked, already exasperated by the inane chatter of his sisters.
“Why would I care about an arch?” Caroline said with her nose in the air.
“Because it said‘Pemberley’, meaning that we are nowonthe estate!” Mr Bingley was regretting the trip with each mile that they travelled.
“From what Darcy told me, it is more than two miles to the manor house,” Charles informed his family.
“Of all this, I will be mistress one day,” Caroline said aloud while she imagined the jewels, carriages, and pin money that she would have, astonished when her father and brother erupted in loud guffaws.
“Even were Darcy to lower himself to marry a tradesman’s daughter, it would never be you, Caroline,” Charles said more amused than angry, his sister’s pretentions seemed to tend toward delusions in this case.
“Why would my Caroline not make a good wife for Mr Darcy one day?” Asked an indignant Martha Bingley.
“Because Mother,” Charles said as respectfully as he was able,“after my sister’s performance when Darcy visited Netherfield, he can barely stand the sight of yourthirteen-year-olddaughter.”
“You are just jealous, Charles…” Caroline was cut off by her father.
“If you doanythingto upset our hosts, and that includes trying to hang on Master Darcy as he does his best to escape you, we will leave immediately no matter the time of day or night,” Mr Bingley said in a tone that brooked no opposition.
“But Mr Bingley…” Martha tried to interject.
“One more word from any of you,” he skewered the three females with a thunderous look,“and I will have this carriage turned around and we will leave. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!” Mother and daughter nodded mutely while one daughter mutinously planned to impress the Darcys with her poise and superior knowledge, regardless of what her father said.
As the carriage reached the crest of the hill and started to descend, the three Bingley women gasped audibly as they saw the magnificence of Pemberley for the first time. It was so much more than any of them had ever imagined, but it did have the effect of silencing mother and daughters as they drew nearer to the edifice. None of the three saw the true natural beauty of Pemberley; all they saw was wealth and social standing. They entered through a portal in the building that had columns of marble on either side.
“Why is no one waiting to welcome us?” asked an indignant Martha, while her daughters had pinched looks of disapproval.
“It is not done in the first circles,” Charles informed his mother. What he did not add was‘unless the hosts were particularly close to their guests.’The carriages halted and footmen sporting the Darcy livery placed the steps then opened the door. The butler was standing next to the massive double doors that led into the interior. The five Bingleys followed him to the drawing room. Caroline could not understand why, like the Bennets, the Darcys did not display more of their wealth.
‘When I am mistress here,’she promised herself,‘there will be many changes.’
A few minutes later, Douglas announced the visitors, and if the looks on the three women had not been so gauche, the Darcys would have found the open mouths entertaining. On Mr Darcy’s request, Charles Bingley performed the introductions of his family, starting just before Caroline made the gaff of trying to speak before the introductions were completed. Lady Anne pulled a bell and Mrs Reynolds, the housekeeper, materialised as if from thin air to ask that the Bingleys follow her to their chambers which were up on the fourth floor in the far east wing.“Are we in the family wing?” Caroline intoned in her most haughty voice, as if it were her right to stay there.
“No, Miss Caroline, this is a guest wing,” Mrs Reynold curtsied, denying the seething miss the information of where the family wing was situated. The Bingleys’personal servants were waiting for them to help them wash and change from their traveling attire. It still galled Caroline that she and Louisa had to share a maid.
Before Mrs Reynolds left, she told them that once they had rested, the footman on duty in the hall would direct them to the drawing room where the family met before dinner. With that, she was gone before the youngest Bingley could ask any more questions or issue orders like she so wanted to do to prove she deserved the same treatment as the Darcys.
Watching his youngest, Mr Bingley could only shake his head. Nothing he or Charles said to her got through to her at all. He had decided that Caroline would not be going to the seminary that Louisa had attended nor to the finishing school programme she had attended in September.
He had received a letter from the Dark Hollow School for Girls. It was situated on an old estate in Wiltshire and specialised in problematic girls. The headmistress, Mrs Hesperia Gilbert, had written to him a few days before they departed for Derbyshire to inform Mr Bingley that she had an opening from the middle of July onward for Caroline.
Mr Bingley would not say anything to his wife, Louisa, or Caroline until they made a stop at the school on their return from Yorkshire. He was not proud of prevaricating to his wife when he told her that they were to look at some potential estates in Wiltshire before returning to Netherfield Park. She had responded with glee at the prospect of them owning one, forgetting that her husband had told her when they moved into the leased estate that it would be many years before he was able to purchase.
It was sad that he had to employ subterfuge, but he felt that he had no choice. He could not allow Caroline to run rampant as she had. She was not yet fourteen! What would she be like when she came out? He had told no one, not even Charles who would return to Pemberley on their return from Scarborough. That was another nugget of information that he had not mentioned to his wife and daughters yet. They would break for a few hours and leave without spending a night with the Darcys.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Longbourn was a merry place that summer. Jane was ten and becoming more beautiful by the day. Bennet could not but be proud of his compassionate and caring daughter. James was an ardent rider on his new pony that had been presented to him when he turned five. If he had been allowed, he would have slept in the stall with his pony, but his parents had to draw the line somewhere. Both William, almost eleven, and John, on his way to being nine, were very proficient riders of the cobs their father had presented them.
The twins were not happy that they did not have their own ponies yet, but they would always forget that particular grievance when their papa would allow them to sit in front of him when he rode Jupiter. Tammy Bennet was always there on her mare Callisto to make sure that her husband would never exceed a trot. Invariably, the twin not sitting with her husband was being led on one of the ponies by a groom.
