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Elizabeth absorbed her husband’s words and slowly nodded.
“The Army believe they are married and so there must be.”
She stopped.
“I see what you mean about deceit. The parson must have been hoodwinked somehow.”
She shook her head, trying to shake the thoughts from her memory.
“We have told my father to return, they couple are long gone from Brighton. He will return hopefully less than 12 hours after our arrival. That leaves my mother.”
“Do you wish me to engage a doctor to accompany us?”
“Let us see what we find when we get to Longbourn. Mr. Jones is only an apothecary but he knows my mother well, having dealt with her ‘nerves’ all my life.
--
Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy arrived at Longbourn before lunchtime as predicted. Mr. Bennet was in no rush to return to his estate and so rested at an inn in London before arriving at lunchtime on the Monday. He was met with a black wreath on the door.
Elizabeth did not rush out the front door when his carriage pulled up, she left that task to Jane. She had to help her shocked father out of the carriage and into the house. But then the situation got even worse. Mr. Bennet thought his youngest daughter had died. Neither Mary’s nor Elizabeth’s letters had made reference to Mrs. Bennet’s collapse. They just demanded that he return home immediately. It was only sitting in the parlour that Mr. Bennet found out that it was his wife of 23 years that had died the previous day. If he had been more diligent in travelling on the Saturday he would have been with her at the end.
Once told he sat in catatonic silence for many minutes.
“I hate this cursed estate. Another death.”
And with that he stood up and retreated to his study. The door being closed in such a manner that all knew to leave him alone. Eventually Darcy broke the silence with his question.
“Cursed? Another death?”
It was Jane that explained the scarlet fever epidemic that had wiped out three generations of Bennets resulting in their father unexpectedly becoming the Master. Silence reigned once again, everyone afraid to break the sepulchral atmosphere. Suddenly Elizabeth almost jumped to her feet and walked to the study. She knocked on the door but did not wait for an answer, she just walked in. Less than a minute later she returned with the ledgers for the estate.
“Lizzie? What are you doing? I know the ledgers need updating but this is hardly the time.”
“I know Mary. I am reviewing them for another purpose.”
She leafed back over several years looking at quarterly and year end figures.
“William, will you accompany me to the garden for a moment. Excuse me, I will be back shortly.”
This last was said to her sisters before the Darcys left.
“Elizabeth are you well? Has the shock of your mother’s death affected you?”
“I am well as can be expected as this time. That my mother is dead is a shock but I do not know how to deal with my feelings. I keep thinking that I need to act more upset, like Jane and Catherine. But the truth is I do not have those feelings. She wanted to sell me off to Mr. Collins and was happy to banish me to London. She treated me poorly for years, ignored me when I was in London and then discarded me when I refused to do her bidding. It will take me weeks and months to sort out how I feel about Mrs. Bennet. I did not wish her dead, everything else is a tangled web in my mind.
“I did not ask you to accompany me outside to discuss her. We are married and I want your honest opinion on an idea that came to mind less than 30 minutes ago. I wish to deal with my family once and for all. I would like you to agree that Mary and Catherine accompany us to Pemberley when we finally depart, in a week’s time I would guess. I will suggest to Jane that she permanently reside with Uncle Gardiner in his new townhouse. I think Mary will be very happy at Pemberley but do not know Catherine well enough to make a final determination. She may want to stay with us or join Jane in London.
“I was reviewing the ledgers to remind myself what my father spent on himself, both books and port. That amount is approximately £750 a year. I propose to lease Longbourn from him for £1,000 per annum and set him up in a small house in Cambridge. He has never been happy here, and based on his only comment this morning, he has no good memories of the estate. I cannot buy Longbourn but we can lease it for as long as he lives.”
Elizabeth looked expectantly at her husband, worrying her bottom lip.
“It is not appropriate at this time to remind you of my promise to kiss you senseless whenever you were brilliant. You have my mark to redeem at some point in the future. That is truly brilliant Elizabeth. And do you know what will make it even better? I own a small house, only three or four rooms, in Cambridge from when I attended the University. It has sat empty for several years but is in the centre of the town and within easy walking distance of the Colleges.
“Come, let me accompany you while you make the offer to your father and then discuss the future with your sisters, my sisters now that we are married.”
--
Mrs. Bennet was laid to rest in the Bennet plot of Longbourn Chapel with most of Meryton in attendance. Young Edward Gardiner came in place of his father but found the whole experience to be extremely trying. The heir to Sir Edward Gardiner, Bt. was a prize, and the solemnity of a funeral was not going to stop some of the local mothers and their daughters from making his acquaintance. He escaped back to London as soon as was polite.
