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Lady Maria inwardly smiled. Just for a moment she thought there may be an indication but like Lady Susan that afternoon she was to be denied.

“The announcement of our engagement will be in the newspaper by the end of the week. My parents will learn of it, and if they miss the news I am sure the gossips and busybodies of Meryton will inform them at the first opportunity.”

She abruptly changed the conversational direction.

“Do you know that my mother has been pestering my uncle to visit ever since the announcement of his Baronetcy? She came for two days once he had been released from hospital but then no interest for four years. All of a sudden, she is desperate to visit. Neither of us know how to deal with this. As her younger brother, he accepted that he would need to support my mother as well as any unmarried daughters. Yet that attitude has changed. She and my father are living an indolent, almost frivolous, life while he works very hard in London, despite his injuries. And I spent four years helping the man my mother expects to ‘save her from the hedgerows’ but as soon as I returned to Longbourn I was to be sold off to an obsequious idiot masquerading as a parson.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes and took several deep purging breaths. She looked up and ruefully smiled at her mentor.

“As you tell it vexes me ever so slightly.”

They both laughed, to break the tension and let Elizabeth relax.

“I really to wish there was some brilliant solution that you had overlooked but I am afraid there is not. At least as far as I can discern. I do not wish to sadden you, although what I am about to say will do so. If you wish your sisters Jane and Mary to attend your wedding then you are going to have to invite the other members of your family. Knowing Darcy I imagine he has no desire for a large and lavish wedding, he can save that for his sister. An intimate wedding with little more than 20 guests is possible. You have to ask yourself what do you want. From the way you have described it, if you invite your family you will not enjoy the day. There is no way to please everyone and if you try the most disappointed person will be yourself.”

Elizabeth nodded with resignation on her face. She was trying to fix the unfixable.

“All of the problems come back to your father Elizabeth.”

“All of them?”

“I presume there is a dower house on the estate?”

“There is.”

“Why is your mother concerned about the hedgerows when she will be in the dower house? It should be readied so that if something unexpected happens to your father she will be protected.”

“It has never been discussed, at least within my hearing. It has sat empty.”

Elizabeth stopped and thought.

“For longer than Papa has been the master of the estate. The scarlet fever outbreak in 1790 killed my grandparents, both my uncles and all of their families. It was devastating to the whole county. But I do not know if my great-grandmother was still alive and living in the dower house. It has never been discussed. The outbreak of scarlet fever is never talked about at Longbourn. Jane learned the bare essentials from our neighbours. It has sat empty for at least 22 years, possibly longer.”

“The estate should be able to provide for the widow and unmarried daughters. Part of the issue is that your father has not explained any of this to your mother.”

All Elizabeth could hear was the sardonic mocking tone of her father whenever he had to deal with his wife. A wave of shame rolled over her.

“I know that Mr. Bennet has not, and will not, do any such thing. He is basically ignoring the estate, and any kind of planning, leaving it for my uncles to deal with after his death.”

“Do you wish to discuss your sisters; the youngest two I mean? You referenced the latest letter from Miss Mary.”

“Despite my apparent disdain for them, I am firmly of the belief that they are capable of being taught genteel and modest behaviour. I look at the example of my oldest cousin.”

“I do not follow.”

“Young Edward has just turned 18 and has been apprenticing with his father since last June. He has taken over as the eyes, ears and legs of my uncle, the role I used to perform. In July of ’07 I hugged Eddie on the night of his mother’s death. I was the very first person to call him Edward, given that he had to grow up so quickly. We are cousins and I raised his siblings. But four years of schooling taught young Edward the ways of society. And in this example I mean that he does not believe women should have anything to do with business. We are not. Well you can finish that sentence with any number of words; capable, competent, we are too hysterical, you know all the usual balderdash that infuriates me. But four years of schooling have left that attitude ingrained in him. Despite everything that the business has achieved over the last four years, and the total lack of that attitude in his own father. So I have seen how education can change a person, although in young Edward’s case I am unsure if it is for the better.”

“You think if you can get Miss Catherine and Miss Lydia into school or at least with a governess then they will change?”

“I have to hold onto that hope. Despite my mother encouraging less than appropriate behaviour and my father’s utter indifference.”

“Are you and Mr. Darcy going to intervene, take over the responsibility?”

“Another of my tangled thoughts about family. Why should we? Of course I will not let anyone starve in the hedgerows but I am not the parent. And the counter to my own counter, is the worry that either one or both of them might ruin the family.”

“You worry that Mr. Darcy will withdraw his suit?”

“No. I have faith in his consistency. It would be just more unnecessary drama when there is too much already.”