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Darcy had been close to suggesting the same thing to his sister so Georgiana was pushing against an open door.

“I think that is an excellent idea. Just this week I was praising your playing and Miss Bennet said she looked forward to hearing you play.”

“I will send a note to Aunt Susan and ask her to host a lunch. Lady Maria and Miss Bennet will be invited and you will have the comfort of a familiar venue to meet her.”

“That is very thoughtful of you William, thank you.”

Darcy smiled as Georgiana gently hugged him.

--

“Elizabeth are you well? Is there something troubling you?”

Elizabeth started at the questions, lost in her own thoughts until then.

“Did you not enjoy meeting Miss Darcy? You seemed to be getting on well.”

Lady Maria’s first indication was the long sigh. There was definitely something troubling her protégé.

“No, Miss Darcy was delightful. But meeting her has my mind off on a long ramble into the jungle that is my family.”

Lady Maria parsed that sentence but made no comment, at least to Elizabeth. She did order fresh tea, this was not going to be a short conversation.

“As you know I have been corresponding with Jane once again. Her letter of apology was heartfelt and she bared her soul, talking about her jealousy. I now regularly write to both Mary and Jane, although the letters back and forth are still routed through my Aunt Philips. Jane and Mary have taken it upon themselves to try and protect Kitty and Lydia, even from themselves. What struck me today when meeting Miss Darcy is that she was a young woman, hardly more than a girl, who lost her mother at a very young age and her father when only 10. She had no parents yet is a charming young lady. Now I understand that she has wanted for nothing; nursery maids, governesses, tutors, they have all played a role in moulding the young lady. But she did not organise those herself, she had an extended family who made her upbringing a priority.

“It is this aspect that troubles me. Kitty and Lydia have two parents alive and healthy, where they live in a Manor House on our estate. Longbourn is only a modest estate, I updated the ledgers for 10 years, I know this better than anyone. But their pin money is still more than the wages of even the senior servants. Neither of them realise how lucky they are, how fortunate their circumstances, and they are being allowed to throw it all away. It should not be Mary trying to separate them so that she, Jane and myself can get to know the ‘real’ Kitty. And it should not be Jane that has to constantly chaperone the two of them when they leave the house, or Lydia when she and Mary are successful in separating them.

“When I add these latest revelations on top of my own experiences both here in London and in the three months I was back in Hertfordshire, I find myself trapped in the jungle I mentioned at the start. And I do not have a machete to aid my escape.”

Lady Maria internally shook her head. She could just imagine Elizabeth swinging a machete severing the vines in her path. Best not to give her any more ideas!

“I have come to realise that I need to be busy, busier than most people. I trained myself to be this way during the four years I lived with the Gardiners on Gracechurch Street. It does not suit, it would not suit, most people but for me it is something I take comfort in. But what this need for industry means, there too I am unsure.”

Elizabeth’s sigh was softer, less frustration, more a sense of defeat.

“As usual, when it comes to my family it is all a big muddle.”

Lady Maria waited but she appeared to be done, at least for the moment.

“Do you think of yourself as the mother, or at least the mother figure, to Sir Edward’s children?”

This apparent non-sequitur had Elizabeth looking at Lady Maria in confusion.

“Why do you ask?”

“You see your cousins Angela, Rebecca and Michael every week. I wondered how you felt about them?”

Elizabeth Bennet was not a stupid young woman, she saw the issue Lady Maria was raising.

“Not maternal, but proud of them; their behaviour, their learning, their newly gained accomplishments. Spending time with them is reinforcing the disparity with my own sisters?”

Lady Maria nodded. Elizabeth thought back to the end of the summer of ’07, the first birthday since the death of their mother. It happened to be the youngest, Michael, who was turning four.

“Uncle Gardiner had no thoughts of remarrying, in the summer of ’07 it was less than two months since the death of his wife. He and I talked about how I would act with the children. If they had all been under five then maybe the situation would have been different, but Edward was already 13 and the two girls seven and six. I was always Lizzie, or cousin Lizzie, with them. On Michael’s birthday, the first to fall after their mother’s death I took all three children that were at home to the graveyard at St. Magnus. They each put flowers on their mother’s grave and I told her how each of the children, including Edward who was away at school, were doing. Just a couple of sentences for each of them. Their father was able to take them in the December when it was Angela’s birthday but he too talked to Aunt Madeline about how each of the children were doing. Ever since then each birthday all the family present go to the grave and talk to their mother about their life. Between their four birthdays, the birthdays of both their parents as well as the date of their wedding they visit the graveyard seven times, in addition to Easter and Christmas.”

If ever a sigh could be described as happy, Elizabeth breathed a happy sigh.

“Aunt Madeline is still in their hearts, even although it is close to five years since her passing. My longwinded way of saying, no I never thought of myself as their mother, nor do they think that of me.”