Page 4 of A Quiet Affection

Of course, Jane was to be the wife of a prosperous country cleric, and not the master of one of the greatest estates in the land. She had no need for any great store of accomplishments. But, by George, she should at least play the piano and draw a little.

Despite this burden upon her time, Jane Bennet returned from London delighted to have spent four months in town. After this it became a settled thing that she would spend a significant part of the year with Mr. Darcy. Sometimes this happened in London during the season, and sometimes at Pemberley.

The death of Lady Anne along with the child when she was brought to bed with a third child in the year 1801 left Mr.Darcy grief stricken for months, in a way that surprised him. He had not truly known how much he had delighted in his wife’s presence and calm manner until she was gone. On this account he determined to never remarry, because he did not wish to risk feeling such grief again. But it also made him the more insistent in having those he already cared for near him.

So it was that Jane was at Pemberley when the awful tragedy befell the rest of her family.

When Mr. Darcy received the news of the death of Mr. Bennet’s family, he was deeply struck.

He stared at the letter for a full ten minutes without moving. It was a matter such that he could hardly know what to think, and wholly unexpected. In a state much like a trance, he wrote a note to his housekeeper ordering her to make a thorough inspection of the household for possible fire risks, and to strictly enjoin all of the servants to follow proper practices to avoid any such possibility.

He pushed the paper away from himself and stared out the window, and he possibly would have stayed in that state for a great duration of time if he did not recall that he needed to inform Jane about the tragedy.

That interview was one of the most painful conversations of Mr. Darcy’s life. It was made worse by how Jane attempted to remain calm and collected as she absorbed the knowledge that her entire life had changed in such a way, and yet the girl could not, and she broke into sobs.

Mr. Darcy had been chosen by his friend as the principal guardian for his children in the case of his untimely decease.

At the time that Jane was born, the closest male relations were a cousin of Mr. Bennet’s upon whom his estate was entailed—Mr. Bennet and this man shared a mutual feeling of profound dislike—Mrs. Bennet’s brother who at the time was not yet twenty, and who had not yet begun to build what would eventually become a substantial fortune from trade, and finally Mrs. Bennet’s father who was named as the second guardian with Mr. Darcy. A few years after their marriage, Mr. Bennet’s father-in-law died, and when this happened, Mr. Bennet neglected to make any changes in his will to add a second guardian.

In the first letter that Mr. Darcy received from Meryton after the disaster at Longbourn, he was told that the entire family had died, except little Elizabeth who would die within a few days, long before he could arrive.

While Mr. Darcy felt a great deal of grief, the notion crossed his mind as he went to sleep that in the long run this might prove beneficial for Jane. Five thousand pounds was an almost respectable fortune for a woman (and far, far preferable to one thousand to be inherited on an uncertain and possibly distant date).

This calculation proved fallacious, as a following letter a few days later informed Mr. Darcy that there was a small chance that Elizabeth would live, and then a letter a week after that one informed him that the crisis was past, and that the doctors thought there was little current reason to fear for her. Unfortunately, it would have been, as already noted, better for her if she had died, as Elizabeth had been left horribly disfigured and utterly blind.

Mr. Darcy felt a slight twinge of disappointment at hearing of the girl’s survival—he was amongst themadding [GB1]crowd who held to the notion that a life bereft of sight, a life in which the person would be an useless burden upon their friends, their family, and society in general, and a life without many of the principle joys, such as watching a sunset and the circling birds,looking at the face of a loved one, and freely riding a horse, could not be a life worth living.

Beyond that consideration, Mr. Darcy’s chiefaffectionandstrongestsense of duty towards the Bennet daughters went towards his goddaughter, and not towards Mr. Bennet’s second child.

It would have been far preferable for Jane to not have the burden of such a sister, and if she’d inherited the full fortune of her mother, that would have almost been a respectable sum, but half that was certainly not.

This notion though had no importance: Mr. Darcy knew his duty. He must raise Elizabeth along with Jane. He would do so, and he would do so properly. He was now their guardian.

Thus, now that her survival was assured, having Elizabeth speedily brought to Pemberley was a matter of some importance. Initially Mr. Darcy had intended to journey south himself to retrieve her, after completing business of some urgency the next day. However, it transpired that the dispute between his tenants and one of his neighbors was not so easily resolved, and it would have been injudicious and impolitic to absent himself from the neighborhood immediately. For a full week he continuously hoped to be at sufficient liberty to travel south the following day, but at last he decided that the uncertainty of the matter was such that it would be irresponsible to continue waiting.

While the term had not yet begun, Fitzwilliam’s enthusiasm for his studies had already drawn him back early to Cambridge to receive private tutoring from some of the dons. This placed him close to Hertfordshire. Mr. Darcy felt no compunctions about sending his carriage to his son, with the order to go to Meryton and retrieve Miss Elizabeth.

Naturally, the day after Mr. Darcy sent off his carriage, the matter of business resolved itself sufficiently that henowcould have gone, but as the arrangement had already been made, Mr. Darcy instead focused on preparing the house for the arrival of a blind girl, and the many other matters which could benefit from his attention.

Chapter Two

Even during the worst grief and pain, Miss Elizabeth Bennet exhibited those flaws that were central to her character and that would come to be most dearly loved by those who loved her best: stubbornness, love of life, and, if I may be excused for using the term, blindness towards certain considerations that others would see as paramount.

Shenever agreed with those who thought that she would have been more fortunate if she had died.

That Elizabeth ought to regret her own survival was an opinion that sheheardfrequently while she was resident at the house of her Aunt and Uncle Phillips, before Fitzwilliam Darcy arrived at the ruins of the only home she had ever known to take her to a distant northern land that she would never see.

The first time Elizabeth overheard this notion was after the doctor announced to Mr. and Mrs. Phillips that she was not going to die, probably, and that it was certain that she would not regain her sight.

Mrs. Phillips exclaimed, “A terrible pity! She would have been a beauty. And look at her now. It would have been better for her if she had died!”

The doctor murmured in reply.

“Better if she had died! My poor sister’s child. Useless and scarred. She’ll never ever marry!”

This consideration did not have the effect on Elizabeth that it ought to have.

At eleven years of age—almost twelve—Elizabeth Bennet had no enthusiasm for the state of Holy Matrimony. Instead of sighing over gentlemen with fine comportment, she dedicated her considerable capacity to reading books, listening to her father talk, running about outside, climbing trees, getting twigs and leaves in her hair, acquiring grass and dirt stains for her dresses, and ignoring her mother’s lectures upon the deficiencies of her behavior.