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It was the most absurd news. Once she had finished the letter she handed it back to Mary.

“Lydia is engaged to the heir to the estate. And is loudly not happy about this situation. Your mother tried to get Elizabeth back so that she could be sacrificed but Jane needs her. Very convenient.”

Aunt and niece smirked at each other.

“Then your mother all but forced him to offer for Kitty, but she was not to his taste. When I stop and think about it, I am not sure taste is the appropriate word. Kitty being, let us say more slender, than Lydia did not attract his eye. Instead a couple of things caught his attention.”

“Aunt Madeline!”

“Let us not be coy Mary. Mr. Collins might be an ordained minister of the Church of England but his is also a man. And it was that part of his character that chose his betrothed. Lydia did not want to marry the man, he is 13 years her senior after all. But she was bullied into this engagement by your parents, mainly your mother.

“And the only reason Lydia was available to sacrifice is because Lydia did not catch the eye of the tenant of Netherfield Park. Are you not glad to be staying in London away from all this chaos?”

Madeline Gardiner saw that her niece was not reacting as she expected.

“Mary?”

When she looked up her face was sad.

“I am glad Aunt Madeline, I really am. But a contrary part of me wishes that my mother at least thought of me, even if only briefly.”

Her aunt had no idea what to say but she had to try.

“Mary, I am sorry.”

She got no further.

“It is fine, Aunt Madeline. I think I just needed to make the comment, say it out loud. If he chose Lydia because of her bosom then he was not going to pick me. Enough, it is done. It will be a very different dynamic at Longbourn in the new year, with just Lizzie, myself and Kitty. And Mrs. Bennet.”