“We named our pony Friar Tuck because he is so fat,” Kitty informed Georgiana. “But he can run all day with us taking turns riding.”
“We shall have great fun riding ponies!” Mary insisted.
The six girls raced with hoops up and down the meadow and in the archery tournament, Elizabeth took first prize. William smiled as his sister laughed, holding court from the centre of the table as the ‘princess’ of the day. It was a most successful birthday party and Miss Darcy had a great many tales to tell Nanny Brice, Mrs. Hobbes and the maid that attended her that evening.
**++**
Chapter 11
Lady Catherine Visits Hertfordshire
In late summer, before the final harvests were to begin, Mr. Darcy received a letter from his father requesting his presence at the Darcy home in London to review matters of business regarding shipping and trade. William’s correspondence with Mr. Clemmons, the secretary at Pemberley kept him abreast of all business correspondence and he noticed that more letters came directly to him rather than to his father for directions from factors and agents.
While anticipating his journey into town, William consulted with Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Hobbes and Nanny Brice, who unanimously suggested that Mr. Darcy take his sister to town as a reward for her attention to her lessons.
“Should I make any purchases for her wardrobe for the coming winter?” Mr. Darcy asked Mrs. Bennet when the lady brought her daughters to practice their lessons on the pianoforte with Georgiana.
“I daresay Nanny Brice could better answer that question. She will certainly need a new coat this winter and bonnets. The child has already grown in the months she has been here. The seamstress in town – Mrs. Claire could use patronage. I should have her make gowns for my girls but there are five of them and we must economize where possible.”
“Would you be kind enough to introduce Mrs. Claire to me at the next gathering? I should like for Georgiana to have a suitable wardrobe.”
**++**
There was a royal proclamation that elevated Mr. William Lucas to the knighthood for a magnificent speech before the king. On the day following the reading of the royal proclamation, the neighbours gathered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Phillips to congratulate ‘Sir William” and “Lady Lucas” at a tea.
Mr. and Mrs. Phillips kept a modest home in Meryton that limited the size of engagements they could host. Consequently only Mr. and Mrs. Bennet attended the congratulatory event and the five Bennet daughters remained at home with their sewing and lessons.
In the afternoon, Elizabeth worked among her mother’s roses in the garden beside Longbourn while her sisters were still in the parlour sewing.
“Miss Elizabeth, your mother will be displeased if you catch too much sun and turn brown!” warned Mrs. Hill.
With a sigh only a girl of now fifteen years could deliver, Elizabeth replied, “Yes, Hill. I shall come inside shortly.”
Gathering her basket and shears, the young woman watched with surprise as an extraordinarily large coach and four entered her father’s drive and approached the house. Elizabeth noticed the four horses were blowing as though they had not had enough rest and water between portions of their journey.
Immediately upon the carriage’s coming to a stop, Elizabeth told the driver, “You are welcome to water the horses in our shade.”
“Girl, attend me!” commanded the harsh voice of a woman from inside the carriage.
“Yes, madam,” Elizabeth replied as she approached the carriage although the door was not opened and the lady did not lean forward but remained hidden in the shadows of the carriage’s interior.
“You will address me as ‘Your Ladyship.’ I am Lady Catherine de Bourgh,” the voice announced.
Elizabeth’s eyes twinkled as she curtseyed, “Very well ‘Your Ladyship Lady Catherine de Bourgh’, I am...
“I have no care for who you are. You are of no consequence.”
Elizabeth frowned but remained silent.
“I am searching for my nephew, Fitzwilliam Darcy, the Master of Netherfield Park. Give me directions to his house immediately.”
“Mr. Darcy is known in my father’s...
“Nonsense!” the woman’s voice declared from the depths of the carriage. “How could it be possible for a wild creature of the forests such as you to know my nephew?”
“But madam is not Mr. Darcy a gentleman?”
“Of course, he is a gentleman!”
“And my father is a gentleman; thus, they are equals and able to speak with some equanimity on all stressful subjects both current and past,” Elizabeth replied with a great deal of mirth in her tone.
“Horrible child! Now tell me where I may find Netherfield Park!”
With another exaggerated curtsey, Elizabeth explained, “Your Ladyship, Lady Catherine de Bourgh will find Netherfield Park is three miles back along the road you just journeyed. But I fear that...”
“Nonsense. I have already been around Meryton twice!”
“Then you missed the entrance to the park, Your Ladyship, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Allow me to speak to your coachman and tell him where to find it.”
“I...” the voice began to make another command but Elizabeth had stepped back to the front of the carriage and spoke to the driver.
“Sir, when you cross the stream, the entrance is one mile further on the right in a grove of oaks. The turn is hard to see coming from the north as you did previously.”
From inside the carriage, the imperious voice shouted, “Did you understand the directions you lout?”
“Yes, Your Ladyship,” the coachman replies.
Now Elizabeth walked back to the side of the carriage and attempted to speak of the Darcy absence once again but the lady would hear nothing the young girl had to say.
“Your Ladyship, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I believe...”
“I have no interest in what you believe.”
Shifting her shoulders and trying once more, Elizabeth asked, “Your Ladyship, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, would you care to refresh yourself? I should be glad to offer you tea if you are tired and desired to rest. Your horses appear distressed and have need of water and rest.”
The face of the woman finally appeared in the carriage window – an unhappy face with red-rimmed eyes and a permanent frown. No doubt the red eyes were the result of the dusty road but the frown came from somewhere deep inside.
“Certainly not! This is a farm house and it is hardly suitable for the presence of a lady!” the older woman said with a sneer on her face before she banged her cane on the roof of the carriage and shouted to the coachman, “Drive on!”
Elizabeth stood and watched the carriage travel down the drive and turn north, as the coachman searched for Netherfield Park once again. As she stood watching the dust settle once more, Jane came from the house and asked, “Who was that? Did you offer to let them take tea? Are her horses in need of water?”
“That was ‘Her Ladyship Lady Catherine de Bourgh’, aunt of Mr. and Miss Darcy. Her horses were in need of water but I fear the horses were not her care. She is searching for Netherfield Park.”
“But why did you not tell her that Mr. Darcy was absent from home?”
“She would not allow me the opportunity to speak.”
“How very odd,” Jane decided.
“Will you go riding with me?” Elizabeth asked as the stable boy came from the back of the house with Juliet and a second horse for himself.
“I cannot go riding this afternoon. I must finish Lydia’s new dress and Mary promised to help me with the hems.”
“Then I shall be home before dark,” Elizabeth said before hugging her sister and then taking Mr. Hill’s hand to use the block to mount her horse. Jane watched her younger sister guide her mare across the yard and through the first pasture gate before returning to the house.
**++**
It was late in the afternoon but well before dark when Mr. and Mrs. Bennet returned to Longbourn. Their carriage ride into Meryt
on had been short and they were in good spirits – Sir William Lucas had been a most jovial host that afternoon.
“Mrs. Lucas is now ‘Lady Lucas’,” sighed Mrs. Bennet in much the same manner as her elder daughters were ought to do.
Mr. Bennet just smiled. “Perhaps my dear, I shall make such a speech one day and then you will be ‘Lady Bennet’.”
Mrs. Bennet shook her head. “Much as I should like to be called so, I do not think our finances would allow us to move to a larger house.”
“A larger house? Of what do you speak Mrs. Bennet?”
“After tea, Lady Lucas mentioned that Sir William has made inquiries to purchase the old Markham estate. He will sell the stores he owns in Meryton and become a gentleman farmer. He plans to change the name of the estate to Lucas Lodge.”
“He will need a good steward to teach him how to manage the farms,” Mr. Bennet told his wife. “He has never lived as a farmer.”
“Will you help him Mr. Bennet?”
Nodding his head, Bennet replied, “Of course. Darcy and I will help him – all the landowners will help him – we do not want an estate to struggle and fail. The tenants become homeless and we have to support them in such cases.”
“But Mr. Bennet, there is sad news as well,” his wife said and when he tilted his head forward, she continued. “Lady Lucas says that they have broken the engagement of their daughter Charlotte to Mr. Finch, the young attorney in Mr. Phillip’s office.”
“Oh no!” he replied. “But why?”
“Sir William feels that his daughter could do better now,” Mrs. Bennet replied.
“But I thought she was very fond of Mr. Finch,” Mr. Bennet observed.
As they stepped into the foyer of their home, with Mr. Hill taking their wraps, Jane and Elizabeth came out of the parlour with news.
“Papa, we must tell you that a very strange personage paused outside our house today,” Jane began.
Following an exaggerated curtsey, Elizabeth continued, “Her Ladyship, Lady Catherine de Bourgh condescended to grace us with her presence for a moment in her mighty carriage to inquire as to the directions to her nephew’s domicile, Netherfield Park. You have heard of the grand place, have you not?”
The imitation was very entertaining and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet both chuckled before the man asked for the true details of the encounter.
“The lady hardly allowed me to speak Papa,” Elizabeth explained. “She certainly would not hear me when I attempted to tell her that Mr. Darcy and his sister were not at home.”
“Elizabeth mentioned that the horses pulling the carriage were distressed,” Jane said. “I worry that the lady’s travels have exhausted her steeds.”
Before the family could move into their parlour to rest before supper, they heard a carriage approaching the house again. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, followed by Jane and Elizabeth, stepped outside as the Goulding family carriage pulled to a stop in front of Longbourn.
Mr. and Mrs. Goulding quickly exited the carriage and everyone heard the most unpleasant voice of an angry woman from inside the carriage.
“This is intolerable! Are there no decent houses in the whole of Hertfordshire?”
Mrs. Goulding was ushered into the house by Mrs. Bennet while Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth and Jane waited with Mr. Goulding at the door.
The neighbour appeared wide-eyed beside the master of Longbourn when he begged, “Bennet, you must assist me! I have tried to reason with the woman but she is a candidate for Bedlam if I have ever seen one!”
“What is the matter Goulding?”
“I found a carriage broken down just beside the stream that separates your lands from Netherfield Park. Mrs. Goulding and I stopped to offer our assistance to the passengers and that woman began making demands. I should carry her to Netherfield; I should walk rather than contaminate her presence. She struck her coachman and left him and the horses beside the stream. The man was bleeding...”
“What happened at Netherfield?”
“I went to the door to explain the situation to Mrs. Hobbes but the lady – she’s a tall, fearsome woman – came out of my carriage and pushed her way into the house, followed by two footmen. She was yelling for Mr. Darcy and I heard several crashes as furniture was thrown about...”
Mr. Bennet glanced at the carriage with the two footmen standing at the door and he whispered into Elizabeth’s ear. “Go into the house with Jane and have Mr. Hill lock all of the doors and send for all the stable boys as well as Mr. Jones and his sons.”
When Elizabeth appeared to want to ask some questions, he frowned and said, “Immediately and without question.”
Frightened by her father’s voice and look, Elizabeth ran with Jane back inside the doors of Longbourn. While Mr. Hill set to work with the locks, Elizabeth ran through the house to the stables. Their coachman and stable boys stepped around the house while another boy rode bareback across the fields to the nearest tenant farm to rouse Mr. Jones and his three sons.
Once his house as secure and he saw his men waiting at the side of the house, Mr. Bennet stepped forward to greet the lady.
“Madam,” he said respectfully as he bowed.
“I am Lady Catherine de Bourgh of Rosings Park in Kent.”
“Welcome to Hertfordshire, Your Ladyship. I am Thomas Bennet, esquire. How may we be of assistance this evening?”
“I am searching for my nephew, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy,” came her reply.
Mr. Bennet glanced back to Mr. Goulding as though surprised by the woman’s words before he said, “I must report unpleasant news madam; my understanding is that Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is away from Netherfield for at least a fortnight on matters of business with his father, Mr. George Darcy.”
“I know who my brother-in-law is; you do not have to name him for me!”
“Of course, Your Ladyship. It would never cross my mind to be anything but solicitous to Your Ladyship’s needs.”
There was silence for a moment from the carriage as the woman said, “I must return to London immediately but this wagon is hardly suitable for my person or the person of my daughter.”
Mr. Bennet attempted to offer refreshment and rest for the woman, her daughter and her footmen though she would have none of it.
“Then perhaps I could offer Your Ladyship the use of my carriage and team to return to town now. There will be a full moon tonight to light the roads and you and your daughter can be in town in only a few hours,”
“What kind of carriage do you have?”
“Nothing so fine as the carriages Your Ladyship is familiar with, I am certain but it is reliable and my coachman and team will deliver you safely to your destination.”
“Very well,” decided the voice. “But hurry!”
Mr. Bennet walked to the side of the house and dispatched the coachman and stable boys to once again harness the team to his carriage.
When it pulled into the drive next to the first carriage, Lady Catherine and her daughter and the daughter’s maid all silently stepped from the Goulding’s carriage to the Bennet’s carriage.
“This is totally unsupportable! I cannot be seen in such a wagon!” declared the tall woman who appeared wilted from the confinement of carriages for the entire day.
“Certainly, Your Ladyship! Certainly!” agreed Mr. Bennet. “All that is necessary is for you to lower the curtains and no one will see you in London.”
“Very well....”
“And what shall I do with your carriage, coachman and team along the highway madam?” Mr. Bennet asked.
“Send for the magistrate. He will care for them and return them to me when I am able to recover them.”
The footmen quickly lowered the curtains and took their places on the carriage – one at the back and the other up top with the Bennet coachman.
“I shall expect you back by luncheon tomorrow Tolliver,” told the coachman letting the footmen and the passengers hear his order.
“Very good sir,” Tolliver replied.
**++
**
As the Bennet coach pulled away, Mr. Goulding stepped closer and asked, “But Bennet, you are the magistrate are you not?”
“Indeed, I am,” Mr. Bennet replied. He turned as Mr. Hill opened the front door to allow Elizabeth and Jane to return to his side, while Mr. Jones and his three sons with farm implements in their hands came around the corner of the house.
“Send for a wagon and another team,” he told Mr. Jones. “There’s an injured man to recover as well as horses down the road.”
He glanced at his two daughters and nodded, “Yes you may come. Few people have as good a hand with horses as you two have proven this summer.”
**++**
Chapter 12
Lady Catherine’s Horses Flounder
Despite the late hour, Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth and Mary followed Mr. Bennet from the house to the stable.
“Papa, are the horses going to die?” asked Mary nervously holding her mother’s hand.
“I hope not,” Mr. Bennet told his youngest. “I sent Mr. Hill to Mr. Taylor with Jane’s diagnosis of a floundered team of horses to fetch him back.”
“Thomas, why have you sent for the blacksmith?” asked his wife.
Mr. Bennet replied quickly, “He has a reputation for saving horses when they flounder but Jane has said that the treatment must begin quickly.”
The family entered the Longbourn stable where the darkness was held at bay by several lanterns hung from the rafters. Turning to his steward, Mr. Bennet ordered, “Observe extra care with those lanterns. We do not need fire on top of the trouble with horses.”
Jane emerged from the stall where the two bays stood quietly, stamping their feet occasionally, and indicated the stall to her father. “I am certain both of these horses have floundered and require treatment.” Pointing to another stall where the second pair of bays stood as the stable boys brushed their coats she said, “The second pair are in poor shape but they are not floundered.”
“How do you know Jane?” asked Elizabeth.
“I have checked their feet myself but Mr. Jones agrees with me. I always pay attention to our horses and visit the blacksmith when we walk into Meryton,” Jane replied. “Mr. Taylor will need four buckets and all the ice we have.”
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