Page 33 of Resilience

“Not you, Lizzy, I do not have enough to pay a man to tolerate your impertinence by half,” Mr Bennet raised a brow at his daughter. “You are no trouble to have in the house, and you are helpful enough with the tenants to merit the cost of feeding you and giving you pin money, that is if you even remain in Meryton and do not go running off to your uncle. I cannot see any evil in you remaining unwed, in any case. Just because Jane has turned against you does not mean she could possibly suggest that you would expose us to ridicule like Lydia has.”

“I hope you do not suggest that I am as likely to cause trouble as Lydia or Kitty!” Mary cried in mortification.

“No, but you are tedious, and Jane has made it plain that no matter how comfortable her circumstances, you cannot expect her support.” Mr Bennet was impassive as he answered his third daughter. “Lizzy apparently has an invitation to Gracechurch Street. Since my brother has made it, I will let him concern himself with her. You, Mary, you and your mother do not get on. Even with her income doubled, she might not consent to keep you. So I have written to my Cousin Collins and asked him to consider you. There is ten thousand of the investment left. If he takes you to wife, half of it will be yours and the other half will be for Kitty.”

“Why Mary, that is providential!” Mrs Bennet became immediately excited. “If you marry your cousin, we will have this house. Mr Collins will gain an appropriate wife for a clergyman, and he will also have a wife who will know Longbourn and Meryton! What an excellent situation!”

“If you do not mind, I might have preferred Mr Collins to propose to me on my own merits.” Mary’s face darkened. “Perhaps I do not wish to marry a clergyman at all! Perhaps I want to go to London with Lizzy. And why would I invite a mother who might not keep me if my father was dead to live in my home once I did marry?”

“You have not been invited to London with Lizzy.” Mr Bennet answered sardonically before turning to Kitty.

“I will not be expected to consider Mr Collins if he does not want Mary, will I?” Kitty whimpered, obviously terrified.

“No Kitty,” her father replied. “That will not be your fate. Believe it or not, I have taken a care for each of your temperaments, or at least I thought I had. I have spoken to Colonel Forster about a suitable man from the regiment. He suggested Captain Denny, and after speaking with the young man, I agree that he is an ideal candidate. He is the only surviving son of a gentleman from Derbyshire who was sent into the militia to keep him busy while he awaits his inheritance, which I understand should happen rather soon. He has recently had word that his father is dying. Captain Denny must sell his commission and return to his family estate soon. I understand that the place needs repairs, which is where your dowry will come in.”

“Poor Captain Denny!” Kitty said anxiously. “To be losing his father and be facing such troubles on his own! But Papa, if he spends my dowry on his estate, and then I am widowed, how will I live? Even Lydia’s dowry was protected for her. Mr Bingley said so! And Mama’s!”

“That will be a matter between you and Captain Denny, though I understand that his estate at least boasts a dower house.” Mr Bennet was obviously unconcerned. Elizabeth wanted to spill his coffee into his lap. Kitty was correct. It was Papa’s responsibility to protect Kitty’s dowry for her widowhood, but it was obvious he just wanted her gone. “Mr Collins has written that he will arrive tomorrow, and stay as Jane and Bingley’s guests at Netherfield. Both of you girls are to receive calls from these young men. If they propose marriage, I expect you to accept.”

“Papa, to expect them to just accept these proposals without any courtship or preparation at all is extreme!” Elizabeth cried. “How could you just pay a man to marry Mary and Kitty and take them away! ‘Tis barbaric!”

“‘Tis the way of the world, Lizzy.” Her father shook his head at her patronisingly. “We pay men to marry our daughters and take them away. I did it with Jane. Bingley did it with Lydia, and if he is lucky he will pay some man to take Miss Bingley away too. As I say, the only reason I cannot pay anyone to marry you is because I have never earned enough in all my days to accomplish such a feat.”

He turned back to Mary and Kitty. “Besides, nothing is certain, not even the young men. Even Mr Collins and Captain Denny are undecided. They have only agreed to visit and speak with you, but I have made my wishes plain to you both. Make yourselves agreeable. Accept if you are asked.”

“Of course they will accept, Mr Bennet. Neither of them are stupid girls, and they are very good matches too.” Mrs Bennet had her say in the matter. “I only wish you had taken such an interest years ago. You have managed the matter remarkably well, even if it is a terrible shame that all the money had to be given away to get them married, and that we shall be saddled with Lizzy until we are old and grey.”

“Do not forget, there is still your additional portion, Mrs Bennet.” Mr Bennet took up his paper again. “The interest will provide for me generously in books and port until my death, but then you will have the security you have always wanted.”

Mrs Bennet giggled as Elizabeth quivered with outrage. “Too true, you have been properly generous, Mr Bennet. I am gratified indeed.”

The following afternoon, Elizabeth paced back and forth across the bedroom she still shared with Mary. She was outraged with her father, not only for having arranged this farce and for making Mary and Kitty feel that they had no choice but to comply, but also for forbidding her below stairs until the gentlemen left, not wishing for her demeanour to affect the choices of the men or her sisters.

She watched as the two couples accompanied each other into the garden, and later up the lane. They returned perhaps an hour later. It had been a long walk for Mary and Kitty, who ventured out often to the village or the homes of their neighbours, but did not often take such long rambles without any other purpose.

Elizabeth was appalled when the two couples returned quite companionably from the lane, obviously much more comfortable together than when they departed the gardens. It was obvious to her that the proposals had been made and her sisters had accepted. How could they? How could they let their father and mother browbeat them into loveless marriages just because Jane did not want to find herself responsible for them?

She sat at the end of the bed she shared with Mary for nearly two hours, waiting for her sisters to return as they had promised to do. While she waited, she had nothing to do besides worry that she had still heard nothing from Georgiana since Lydia’s marriage, and she was rather overdue for a letter from Priscilla too. Her friends would not turn against her because of who her sister wed, would they?

You have already acknowledged to yourself that you would not blame Mr Darcy for being disgusted by your being related to Mr Wickham. Miss Darcy’s letter said that all of Derbyshire was mortified by his reputation. If they never write again, you must accept it.

Elizabeth was in tears with worry by the time her two younger sisters entered the room. “I cannot believe you both accepted. Just like that! How could you! You ought to have resisted! When Kitty did not return to her old behaviours in Lydia’s absence, Jane would have calmed eventually. Instead you have promised yourselves to men you do not love!”

“Lizzy hush, you must stop this at once.” Mary’s voice was sharp and firm. She sat beside Elizabeth and took her hand. “We know that you are worried for us, and that is why you object so, but we have talked about it, between ourselves, and with the men, and we are hopeful. We are not unhappy.”

“Mary–” Elizabeth protested.

Kitty interrupted her. “Lizzy, we spoke with our suitors, both separately and together. Do you know that though Mr Collins mostly resides in Hunsford, that he has a rectory in Lambton as well? And it is close enough to Hawthorne Vale, Captain Denny’s estate. Only an hour’s carriage ride, near Mr Collins’s other living in Kympton.”

“The rectory at Kympton is small for his liking, but Mr Collins is willing to reside in Lambton and send a curate to Hunsford if being closer to Kitty will please me,” Mary enthused. “There is much to be thankful for.”

“Mary Bennet, if you insist upon being obtuse and allowing a smooth tongue to sway you from the fact that he is marrying you because our father offered him five thousand pounds, I swear I shall go mad!” Elizabeth shrieked. “The two of you are doing this because our father has lately been cruel, and Jane has also been cruel, and Lydia has gone away, and none of us feel safe anymore, but will it make you happy?”

“I believe it will, Lizzy. Will you listen?” Mary asked softly. When Elizabeth nodded miserably, she continued. “I think you are exaggerating Mr Collins’s smooth tongued abilities a bit, dear. He is hardly Mr Wickham.”

Elizabeth shrugged. Mr Collins seemed harmless enough. Elizabeth did not feel she could be happy as his wife. She was relieved when he had appeared to suddenly change his mind about her on his previous visit, even though he had first singled her out for attention when they met.

“It is true that Mr Collins did not approach me when he visited before. He has admitted that the most pressing reason that he considered my father’s request at all is because he has been intelligent enough to worry about who else my father might approach if he refused. This was something even I had not considered, but it is worth thinking about. Our father could choose someone dreadful. Though Mr Collins was not instantly drawn to pursue me as his wife when we met, he has enough familial affection and concern to speak to me and learn if I am amenable to the match, for it would weigh heavily upon his conscience to think that I had been married to a brute or worse, and he did not at least attempt to find out if we might suit.”