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“No, but we have a relation who does.”

“Who?”

“Believe it or not, Aunt Gardiner grew up five miles from this man’s estate. I broke my journey with them and explained why I was returning to Longbourn unexpectedly early and she recognised the name. Assuming it is the same gentleman. Do you remember the estate or indeed his first name?”

“His given name is Fitzwilliam and the estate is called Pember-something.”

“Pemberley?”

“Yes, that is it.”

“It is the same man. And Aunt Gardiner was unstinting in her praise of the family and of this gentleman. Although based on his appalling behaviour I wonder to call him gentleman.”

“What did Aunt Gardiner tell you?”

“It is a huge estate and has been in the family for centuries. His parents were well respected and both died young, the mother close to 15 years ago. She said he was a quiet child, there was speculation in the neighbourhood that he was shy, but that he was regarded as an excellent Master. And she used the word excellent not just good. How she described him, and your description of his behaviour, they do not add up. Neither of you are lying but there is something missing.”

“Is there an issue on his estate maybe?”

“Why would he be here if that was the case? He is assisting his friend, hardly a pressing task. Given the way you described him as looking like he would rather be anywhere else, if there was an excuse then he would have been off in a flash.”

“You do not believe he is as bad as he appears?”

“I do not know. I apologise if this analogy makes you uncomfortable but think about the four of us daughters. We all suffer our monthly courses yet it is a different experience for all of us. It is Kitty that suffers the worst, and you that seem to barely notice. Lydia and I are somewhere in between. And you take after Jane, she never knew what all the fuss was about.”

Despite the subject they both smiled. Kitty’s indignation at Jane’s attitude was legendary.

“Now we know gentlemen do not suffer the same as us but I wonder if there was something troubling him. Another gentleman, a proper gentleman, would present a benign front, even if he was internally fretting. This Mr. Darcy has laid his grumpy heart on his sleeve.”

“That is quite the picture. You think he was having a bad night and I was the lucky recipient of his ire?”

“The analogy only goes so far. He could have used intemperate words to send this Mr. Bingley off with a flea in his ear. There was no need to drag you into the situation. It is this deliberate act of cruelty that cannot be excused.”

“What are we going to do?”

“We? Nothing. You are going to leave this to your big sister.”

Mary had to laugh.

“I have not been Miss Bennet for long and I have not had the chance to channel my inner Sir David yet. He will not lend me his cutlass or sword, so I will have to use my tongue to cut Mr. Darcy down to size.”

--

As they arrived at Lucas Lodge on the Friday night, Mary did not know if she was trembling with fear or excitement, a little of both she suspected.

Elizabeth had spent the last two days talking with the family, as well as visiting Charlotte Lucas, her good friend. All of the family had learned from their new brother-in-law, but Elizabeth had learned the most. Even more than her sister who was married to the man! The best way Mary could describe it was Elizabeth managed her parents now. She still had respect and listened to them, but it was not blind obedience. What she was also very good at doing was writing to her sister. Who shared Elizabeth’s thoughts with Sir David who then promptly wrote back to Mr. Bennet expressing Elizabeth’s thoughts as his own.

For more than 20 years, Mr. Bennet had indolently ignored his wife and children, but he was forced into action by the ‘suggestions’ of Sir David. They would be phrased as suggestions but Bennet knew that they were all but demands. At first he had been mortally offended at Elizabeth but he had thawed as he came to realise that one suggestion solved most of his problems. Longbourn finally had a steward, carefully selected by Sir David rather than Mr. Bennet. And Mr. Hughes, the new steward, was not so precious as to refuse to take ‘suggestions’ from the new Miss Bennet, Miss Elizabeth as was. He also came to realise that telling her of issues on the estate would lead to a quick resolution.

Mr. Bennet was still the Master of the Longbourn Estate, but his oldest unmarried daughter, with help from Mary and Kitty, was better at dealing with the Steward. It was all typically English, all unsaid and never to be spoken of, but the estate’s long gradual decline had been arrested and the income was starting to rise. To Jane and Elizabeth it was nothing short of a miracle. Which had led to the second ‘suggestion’.

Sir David had requested permission from Bennet to write to Paul Philips and for that gentleman to send a copy of Bennet’s marriage settlement down to him. It was more than 20 years old and Bennet saw no harm in his son-in-law reviewing the document. Most marriage settlements were based off a standard template. There were paragraphs that were common to most settlements. And the settlement between Thomas Bennet and Francis Gardiner had been no different.

The widow, upon the death of her husband, had a lifetime tenancy to the dower house of the estate. It was considerably more luck than judgement that this clause was still in the settlement because the Longbourn estate did not have a dower house. Mr. Bennet himself had no idea if his father, still alive when he married Mrs. Bennet, Miss Gardiner as she had been at the time, had intended to build such a dwelling on the estate but regardless of the reason the clause had been left in the settlement.

And now the Longbourn estate was building a dower house. It was not going to be lavish, far from it, but there would be room for Mrs. Bennet with four additional bedrooms for the currently unmarried daughters of the estate. Mrs. Bennet’s oft quoted worry of being abandoned in the hedgerows was being put to rest.

Which made managing Mrs. Bennet much easier as well. She had even seen the necessity, and agreed to it, of economising so that funds were available for the dower house. This, as well as the need for a steward, had been obvious to all for years. But neither Mr. Bennet, nor his wife, had ever bothered to act upon them. Yet as soon as their new and imposing son-in-law ‘suggested’ these improvements they had been actioned with little fuss. It annoyed Elizabeth and Kitty immensely that it had taken a man suggesting the improvements for their parents to agree, and without a deal of fuss. Elizabeth especially had been vocal in the need for a steward for years.