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CHAPTER 1

A Mother's Last Gift

Summer, 1799

Elizabeth Bennet was in the kitchen attempting to persuade Cook that the German word for goose sounded more amusing than the English one when her father returned home.

"Gans," Elizabeth pronounced with great gravity, holding up a finger. "It is the proper name for the creature, Mrs. Hale."

"Then the Germans may keep it," Cook answered, lifting a pie from the oven. "I've quite enough geese in this country without importing others."

"But if you shout it loudly enough, it sounds exactly as a goose might object to being roasted."

"Miss Elizabeth," her mother called from the doorway, "I believe you have been instructed to leave Mrs. Hale to her work."

Elizabeth turned with an expression of perfect innocence. "I was helping her improve her German, Mama."

"Mrs. Hale has cooked very successfully for twenty years without it." Minna's mouth twitched. "Come. Your father has returned."

Elizabeth dropped her lesson at once. She was through the passage and halfway to the front door before her mother could remind her not to run.

Henry Bennet had only just surrendered his hat to the maid when his daughter collided with him. He caught her beneath the arms, lifted her briefly off the floor, and laughed at her indignation when he set her down again.

"Eight years old, and still determined to knock me over in my own hall," he said. "One day you will succeed, and then what shall become of us?"

"Mama will make me apologize," Elizabeth answered. "And then she will have the surgeon look at you."

"A most orderly plan. I commend your foresight."

Minna came forward more slowly. Henry took her hands and kissed her cheek, lingering long enough for Elizabeth to turn away with a theatrical sigh.

"Papa, you are embarrassing your daughter."

"A father's sacred privilege. I should never surrender it."

He had brought her a little book of natural history, purchased on the journey home. Elizabeth opened it at once, exclaiming over a coloured drawing of an owl. Minna watched her husband and daughter with the fond, almost astonished expression that occasionally came over her when the house was especially happy.

Their life was modest by the standards of some of Henry's relations. His naval pay was uncertain when he was not actively employed, and there were economies to be observed. But the rooms were cheerful, the books plentiful, and a great deal of laughter came from the little parlour in the evenings. Elizabeth understood without anyone telling her that her parents were happy together.

She also knew her mother had once lived elsewhere. There were German songs that Minna sang while sewing, fairy tales different from those in Elizabeth's English books, and rules of politeness that seemed unusually elaborate for a family with no more than two regular servants. At dinner Minna would sometimes remind her to straighten her shoulders, then laugh at herself for treating an ordinary meal as though they dined with an ambassador.

"Your mother was taught excellent manners," Henry told Elizabeth one evening. "I believe she has never quite forgiven me for being taught such indifferent ones."

"I married you despite them," Minna replied.

"And I have been striving to justify your generosity ever since."

When Elizabeth asked where those lessons had been given, her mother could only say she had learned them long ago. Certain recollections remained clear; others ended as suddenly as a road disappearing into fog. Elizabeth had grown accustomed to those silences. They were no more remarkable to her than her father's old scar, which he could trace to a shipboard accident but preferred to explain as the consequence of wrestling a sea monster.

One Sunday, before illness had entered the house, Elizabeth's parents had devoted the afternoon to a game invented by Henry and conducted in two languages. He placed three objects upon the drawing-room table—a brass compass, a lemon, and an absurdly small china shepherdess—and required each member of the family to tell a story connecting them. Minna's story involved a princess rescued from a storm by a sea captain who believed himself exceedingly clever. Henry protested that the captain sounded suspiciously unlike him.

"No, my dear," Minna said. "My captain in the story admits when he is wrong. It is a most important distinction."

"And what becomes of the princess?" Elizabeth asked in German.

"She discovers that the captain is kind even when he is ridiculous," Minna answered in the same language, her smile lingering on Henry. "They make a home, and the home is better than any palace she might have dreamed of."

Elizabeth wanted the princess to acquire a dog and defeat a pirate before the story ended. Henry agreed enthusiastically, though he objected to the dog's being more useful than the captain. When his turn came, his story had a cook who mistook the compass for an instrument designed to measure the proper direction in which a lemon ought to roll. Minna laughed until she had to set down her sewing.