Saving Jane

by Martin Hunnicutt

  ++**++

  As the last days before Christmas slipped by, Elizabeth found that Jane was often to be found staring out the windows of Longbourn. She said little and seldom smiled unless it was with their young cousins and their games. Worried for her sister, Elizabeth ventured into her father’s study one morning after the family rose from breaking their fast.

  “Yes, Lizzy?” Mr. Bennet asked. “Do you need a new book today?”

  “No sir,” she answered. “I came to speak of Jane and her engagement to Mr. Collins.”

  “There is nothing to speak of – the arrangements are complete.”

  “But can we not improve Mr. Collins, Father? He must be made to listen to sense.”

  Mr. Bennet paused to consider his daughter’s words before shaking his head. “Men in their majority answer to no one but the law. He is deaf to all my words. And it is a suitable arrangement for your mother’s future.”

  “But perhaps...”

  “Perhaps what Lizzy? Will Mr. Darcy ask for your hand and save your sister from becoming Mrs. Collins? He is very intelligent but he is dour and according to your uncle, he has a hot temper. Will that make you a good husband?”

  Elizabeth was silent considering the implications. “I like Mr. Darcy very much Father, but it is not fair to rush our attachment for financial security.”

  The door to Mr. Bennet’s study opened and Mrs. Bennet swept into the room. From the frown on her face, it was obvious she had been listening at the door and decided to voice her opinion. Mr. Bennet grinned at the coming confrontation.

  “You are arguing with your father again – I tell you what Elizabeth Rose Bennet – I will not have it. You will not cause problems for Jane and Mr. Collins – they will marry next summer and secure the future for your sisters and widowed mother.”

  “But Papa is not dead yet Mamma. I would say that he looks perfectly healthy.”

  “I believe that your mother looks forward to my demise Lizzy.”

  “Mamma have you considered that Mr. Collins may move you and your unmarried daughters into the dower cottage when he inherits?” Elizabeth asked. “If he and Jane have several children in the first years of marriage, Longbourn will not have enough room for everyone.”

  Under the close scrutiny of her husband, Mrs. Bennet sat in a chair as her mind considered this possibility. Elizabeth continued, “You had five children in just seven years – what if Jane is as fruitful?”

  “You make my head spin! Be quiet!” Mrs. Bennet glanced at her husband who returned to his books and then at her second daughter.

  “You shall remain here after Christmas – the Gardiners have had your expense for two months this fall.”

  “I agree,” Mr. Bennet said inserting his opinion into the conversation. “And I believe that Jane should be in charge of the house from now until her wedding next summer. She must learn how to manage the household and the estate. Mrs. Bennet, you are relieved of all of your duties and the household purse. You shall have your allowance and nothing else!”

  “But Mr. Bennet!”

  “Out, both of you. I shall have my peace and quiet until supper.”

  Outside in hall, Mrs. Bennet sighed and took her daughter’s hand, “Elizabeth, you must hear me and understand my meaning. Women have nothing without their husband’s permission – my own dowry is not mine but your father’s to do with as he wants. He grants me the allowance he deems deserving but buys books, port and horses as he pleases. There is yet another horse in the stable since you were home last and he rides less and less.”

  “Is Papa ill?”

  “No but he is growing older,” Mrs. Bennet replied. “He is ten years older and I expect to be a widow for a long time.”

  “But there is no reason why Papa cannot live to be an old man.”

  Ignoring Elizabeth’s comment, Mrs. Bennet asked, “Will your Mr. Darcy be in town this winter?”

  “He is not my Mr. Darcy and I believe Miss Darcy said they plan to remain in Derbyshire the entire winter. It will be spring before we meet again.”

  “Your aunt believes the man will make an offer for you in the spring...” Mrs. Bennet turned to her daughter and reached out to finger the material of her gown. “We shall select the best gowns for you to save until spring and convince your father to send you to the Gardiners in spring. My sister Gardiner and her maid are talented at altering gowns to the latest fashion. Perhaps you can make the match.”

  Unable to speak for a moment, Elizabeth stared after her mother as she left to speak to Mrs. Hill in the kitchens.

  ++**++

  In an afternoon with the Bennets distributed about the house, Elizabeth found a moment to speak with her uncle and aunt privately.

  “Uncle, I am even more concerned for Jane’s future after meeting Mr. Collins,” she told them. “I do know how Jane will find the strength to endure this marriage. He will ruin Longbourn.”

  “Have you said such to her?” asked Aunt Gardiner quickly.

  Frowning and looking away, Elizabeth said, “No I would not speak thus to my sister.”

  “Lizzy, it is not our place to criticize your father for making this engagement. We may advise him but unless something happens to break the entailment, Jane must marry Mr. Collins next summer.”

  “What would break the Longbourn entailment?”

  “If your mother bears a son or Mr. Collins dies, that would break the entailment.” Elizabeth frowned; her mother had gone for almost 15 years without bearing another child and she was not willing to murder Mr. Collins.

  “How could we break Jane’s engagement?” she asked after this moment of thought.

  “There is a formal agreement in place already,” Mr. Gardiner told his niece. “Jane cannot break the engagement without costing your family Longbourn. If Mr. Collins breaks the engagement, he would default on the entailment.”

  “And how would he break the engagement?”

  Mr. Gardiner shook his head, “If Mr. Collins died or married another lady; that would break the engagement and save Jane.”

  “But who would want to marry Mr. Collins?” Elizabeth asked.

  ++**++

  Chapter 20.

  Mr. Bennet’s Letters

  The Gardiners departed for London before the arrival of the New Year; as the atmosphere at Longbourn grew contentious as letter followed letter from Mr. Collins with suggestions and demands for changes to the marriage settlement. Each such demand left Mr. Bennet in a dark mood for two or more days. To deal with the tension, Elizabeth joined with Jane in placating their mother’s nerves and their father’s mood.

  The courtship between Mary and John Lucas proceeded appropriately with calls and occasional suppers; Kitty remained above stairs whenever Mr. Lucas called while Elizabeth or Jane distracted Mrs. Bennet with the assistance of Mrs. Hill to address matters of menus, sewing, poultry and the pantry.

  In the middle of January, the weather signs all predicted the imminent arrival of snow and so the Bennet family and servants prepared. The coachman secured the stable and horses. Tenants carried extra wood into their small houses and checked their supplies of coal, food and drink. Within Longbourn, the maids carried extra buckets of coal into the parlours, Mr. Bennet’s study, and the dining room. Despite arguments from Jane, Elizabeth and Mary, Mrs. Bennet refused to consider allowing her daughters to sleep with the doors to their rooms open.

  “But Mama, the heat from the parlour rises all the way to the attics. If our doors were open, the heat could come into our rooms,” Elizabeth argued.

  “Proper folk sleep with their bedroom doors shut Lizzy,” Mrs. Bennet retorted. “Now be silent on the matter. I wonder that when you were younger you did as I bid rather than argue with me as Kitty and Lydia...”

  Elizabeth and her mother both fell silent thinking of the missing sister – there had been no word from Lydia in the months since her marriage.

  The parlour door opened and Mr. Bennet entered, another letter in his hand and Elizabeth noticed
her mother fall silent.

  “Well, Mrs. Bennet, your future son has just made another ridiculous demand for a change in the marriage settlement,” he announced. “The day I allowed you to talk me into this engagement is the day you proved that women are not fit to manage any affairs!”

  Elizabeth glanced at Jane and Mary who only tightened their lips and focused on their sewing. Kitty in a corner of the room fell silent to not attract her father’s notice.

  “I knew the man’s father to be a fool,” Mr. Bennet continued. “Now I believe I have proof that Mr. Collins is a fool without manhood! His patroness, Lady Catherine High and Mighty de Bourgh has suggested that I disinherit my other daughters in favour of leaving your entire dowry to my eldest daughter. Listen to what he writes...”

  ++**++

  It is with great beneficence that Lady Catherine de Bourgh advises me regarding my future matrimonial felicity and in Her Ladyship’s highly favoured opinion, Mrs. Bennet’s dowry of five thousand pounds should remain consolidated in a single sum and pass to Miss Bennet (or Mrs. Collins as she will be in June) upon the passing of yourself and your amiable lady. Since I am to have the expense of supporting the widow Bennet and her other daughters, it seems only appropriate that I should have the full amount of Mrs. Bennet’s legacy.

  ++**++

  “I do not wonder that Lady Catherine will advise him how to conduct himself in the marriage bed!”

  Kitty managed to giggle at that statement through Mr. Bennet realized he had shocked his wife and three eldest daughters.

  “I shall not even bother to reply to this message from the fool from Hunsford!” Mr. Bennet wadded up the paper and threw it toward the fireplace though he missed the flames and the pages landed on the carpets. He stormed out of the parlour and the family heard the door to the study slam.

  The ladies sat in silence for a few minutes before Elizabeth asked, “Mary, was Mr. Lucas to call today?”

  “I do not believe that he will visit Lizzy. If a snow storm is coming, he will remain at Lucas Lodge and check on his tenants.”

  “Like our steward is doing today,” Jane said confidently. Elizabeth wondered that her father had already lapsed back to allowing the steward to perform all of the master’s tasks.

  Mrs. Bennet picked at a few threads in a towel she was mending but said nothing as the first snowflakes began to fall. Elizabeth waited until Jane was comforting their mother and Mary was attempting to teach Kitty a new stitch before she walked toward the fireplace and retrieved the crumpled letter where her father had thrown it. She had remained ignorant of the particulars of the correspondence between Mr. Collins and her father – Mr. Bennet did not share any of the letters before he consigned them to the flames. So she slipped the letter into her pocket and returned to her seat.

  ++**++

  The next morning, with snow falling in earnest since sometime in the night, Elizabeth sat before the window in the parlour watching the storm paint a winter scene from a fairy tale. The grass and shrubbery were covered by white frosting. The distant woods and fences were dressed in top hats of white and the roads and fields vanished under the blanket of snow.

  With no one else in the room, she drew the crumpled letter from her pocket and read a sermon on the greatness of Lady Catherine and the same lady’s interest in the details of Mr. Collins and Jane’s engagement. She read and re-read the painfully long sentences that Mr. Collins committed to paper in an attempt to parse and understand his meaning.

  ‘Are his Sunday sermons this verbose?’ she wondered and shuddered to think she might be subjected to them in the future. Surely she would be allowed to visit Jane at Hunsford.

  After careful consideration, Elizabeth decided to enlist the aid of her uncle in London by writing to her aunt and including the letter from Mr. Collins. Aunt Gardiner would share the information with her husband and perhaps they could calm Mr. Bennet and restrain Mr. Collins before further harm was done to relations within the family.

  As she watched the snowfall, Elizabeth quietly composed the letter in her head, not putting any words on paper to be found and read by her sisters or mother until she was quite ready to put the complete letter to paper. When finished, she allowed the ink to dry and sprinkled it with fine sand before pouring off the excess and capturing it in a bowl to return to the sifter once again.

  Then she added the folded letter from Mr. Collins between the pages of her letter to her aunt and sealed the letter with wax. Once the wax was cooled, she slipped the letter into the pocket of her day dress rather than take it to the foyer where the out-going mail waited on a silver tray.

  The snow was deep and the English countryside slumbered under the white blanket for two more days before postal riders ventured forth on slow but sturdy horses to make the rounds of houses for letters. Elizabeth rose from the dining table to venture into the hall when she saw Mrs. Hill approaching the doorway with the small purse of coins for franking letters.

  A letter to Georgiana lay alongside the heavier letter to Aunt Gardiner in her pocket but neither of her parents paid her any attention as she drew them from the pocket and added them to the several letters waiting.

  ++**++

  When February arrived, grey and cold in Hertfordshire, Mr. Bennet called Jane and Elizabeth into his office before tea. When his daughters were seated, Mr. Bennet sighed.

  “My correspondence with Mr. Collins has reached an impasse. The man’s demands increase with every letter and his patron has interfered so severely that I am prepared to break with the man completely. Unfortunately to do so would imperil our ability to continue here at Longbourn even while I am alive.”

  Jane and Elizabeth remained silent and Mr. Bennet explained, “My brother Phillips is an excellent attorney – Jane and Mr. Collins must marry in June. But as my brother has explained to me several times and I have finally heard him; I cannot make changes to the marriage settlement or the engagement – but neither can Mr. Collins. If he demands changes, he breaks the engagement, loses the entailment and since Jane is the aggrieved party, she then becomes the heiress of the entailment.”

  Jane schooled her features to betray no emotion at her father’s words but Elizabeth noticed the slight tap of her sister’s toe against the carpets.

  “Mr. Gardiner has kindly offered his services and the services of his own attorney to speak with Mr. Collins – my correspondence with Mr. Gardiner has spoken of nothing but Mr. Collins since Christmas. After some negotiations, Mr. Collins is coming to London to speak with Lady Catherine’s nephew – Mr. Darcy of all people – and your Uncle Gardiner regarding the settlement. I have decided to go to London for the meeting and I desire the two of you to attend me.”

  “London?” Jane asked.

  “Mr. Darcy is in London?” Elizabeth asked and both her father and sister smiled. “Miss Darcy has said nothing of her brother’s travels this winter.”

  “Lizzy, have you made Miss Darcy aware of my problems with Mr. Collins?”

  “No Papa, I would not write of such things to Georgiana. And I cannot write to Mr. Darcy.”

  “Your uncle tells me that he wrote to Mr. Darcy and asked for his help because of Lady Catherine’s interference.”

  Mr. Bennet frowned. “It is seldom that the gentry get the better of the aristocrats and I would prefer to deal with the devil than a pack of attorneys and lords.” Now their father smiled and joked, “Perhaps the French have the right of it, and we should chop off the heads of our nobles!”

  “When do we journey to London, Papa?” asked Jane.

  “Tomorrow, if the sky is clear. We leave by nine sharp – with the cold I am not certain how long the journey will take but we must be at Grace Church Street before nightfall.”

  ++**++

  During the ride to London, Jane and Elizabeth sat close together huddled under blankets and pillows. Mr. Bennet shivered occasionally but his daughters piled more blankets around him to keep him warm. The city had almost as many people on the streets as in the fa
ll but Elizabeth saw the parks and public places were deserted.

  Upon arrival at Grace Church Street, Mrs. Gardiner made certain that her nieces were wrapped in warm blankets for an hour and that Mr. Bennet was provided with warm drinks. It was just before tea time and they joined the family for a pleasant repast that grew noisier when Mr. Gardiner returned home to determine if the Bennets had arrived.

  Mrs. Gardiner asked questions concerning Mary and Mr. Lucas, Elizabeth’s correspondence with Miss Darcy and any news of Mr. Darcy. Their aunt became distressed when she learned that Jane had not received any word from Mr. Collins since his departure before Christmas.

  “Mr. Bennet, in all the letters you received from Mr. Collins did he never mention Jane or ask for any message to be conveyed to his fiancé?” she asked privately when her nieces were above stairs.

  “Mrs. Gardiner, I am sorry to report that Mr. Collins has not mentioned Jane by name in a single line of any of his letters. He only speaks of Lady Catherine and her suggestions for bettering the settlement arrangements.”

  He thought for a moment and added, “I believe that Jane wrote to him twice but never received a reply so she ceased writing.”

  The following afternoon, the interested parties began to assemble at Grace Church Street immediately following the hours for social calls.

  First Mr. Darcy and his attorney arrived to speak with Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner. Promptly on the hour, Mr Collins arrived with all the gravity of a lord’s procession into Parliament. He bowed to each of the gentlemen and spent ten minutes reporting in detail to Mr. Darcy on the particular health of Lady Catherine and her daughter, Miss Anne de Bourgh.

  “Mr. Collins, would you care to greet Miss Bennet?” Mr. Gardiner inquired when the parson finally realized that Mr. Darcy was not listening to him but was speaking with Mr. Bennet instead.

  The parson smiled briefly, bowed and intoned a single, “How very nice to see you again Miss Bennet.” Then he turned to his host and suggested, “Perhaps the ladies can retire so that we can begin.”