Page 52 of Resilience

“Oh my! My father has such an odd sense of humour! He is positively the worst correspondent! He never wrote to say he was travelling north!” Kitty exclaimed, not a little nervously.

“He certainly did not.” Mary frowned. “It is just the sort of thing he would do. Would you like me to take him back to the parsonage?”

“Of course not, you have Mr and Mrs Bingley as your guests already. It is no trouble to spare my father a room.” Kitty turned and spoke to the footman as her guests looked on with interest. “James, my father is very likely tired from his long journey, he must have been in his carriage for days. Mrs Hawes had a few rooms made up in the guest wing in case anyone travelled to pay their respects to Mr Denny. Please show my father to a room, have the fires lit, send him hot water for bathing. Then please return and make a tray from the refreshments to send up to him. And a pot of tea, please. Tell my father I will not tire him with my guests just now, and that he may join us later for dinner.”

“Yes, Mrs Denny.” James bowed and left them.

“Is it not odd for Mr Bennet to arrive unannounced?” Miss Jenks asked curiously.

“I fear it is not unlike him at all.” Elizabeth did her best to think of a polite way to describe her father. “Mr Bennet is more comfortable in a library than a drawing room. Like many scholars, he is a terrible correspondent, and he might board his carriage and travel anywhere and arrive without warning. He raised us all to endure the unexpected whims of men with fortitude.”

Elizabeth looked to Mary with an impish smile. “Remember the time he forgot to inform Mama that Mr Collins was coming to visit until the morning the gentleman arrived in the village?”

“It was lucky for Mama that Mr Collins stayed as Miss Bingley’s guest while in Meryton or she would have been quite backwards in her preparations at Longbourn,” Mary answered with a grin.

“Ah, scholars often have such peculiar humour.” Miss Jenks nodded in comprehension.

“Personally, I find the humour of all men to be quite foolish,” Miss Poole said. “My father was a man…I believe I understand their gender quite well enough.”

It was a half hour before the men returned from the churchyard, and by then, Elizabeth caught Mrs Hawes and instructed her to take a particular volume of Mr Darcy’s from her bedroom and to deliver it to her father, in the hopes of keeping him from wandering the house in boredom and finding some way to mortify Kitty.

“I am told that your father is here,” Mr Darcy said to Elizabeth quietly by the window as she watched Kitty and Mary having the same conversation from across the room, but with their husbands.

“Yes, and it cannot mean anything good.” Elizabeth shook her head. “I am certain he only means to amuse himself at Kitty’s expense.”

“Would he truly travel so far for such a trivial purpose?” Darcy asked.

“Amusing himself would be the only reason I can think of that would draw him from his bookroom.” Elizabeth was wry. “I hope you do not mind, but I sent your copy of John Dalton’s book on Chemical Philosophy to his room. He has spoken of it since last year, it is certain to keep him upstairs and away from Kitty’s guests, at least for a little while.”

“By no means would I suspend any method of yours. If there are any other texts I can send to interest him, I will gladly have them delivered.” Darcy inclined his head.

“With the assistance of your library, I could keep him in his room forever, but then Kitty would be obliged to keep him fed, and that is my mother’s task. I can only be grateful that Mrs Bennet refuses to travel.” Elizabeth tutted.

The guests stayed and condoled with the Dennys and took refreshment, then departed within two hours, including the Darcys and their family.

“Lizzy, if Papa has decided to nap, I hate to disturb him just to say hello, but there are two hours before we must dress for dinner, and I simply must rest.” Kitty’s eyes were shadowed. Elizabeth and Mr Walters had sat with Mr Denny as much as possible over the last three days to give Kitty some respite, but she was still quite obviously exhausted.

“Retire for the night with your husband, Kitty, I will dine with Papa,” Elizabeth urged. “I sent him a book, hopefully he is resting or reading.”

“Lizzy, I could never do such a thing,” Kitty objected.

“If Papa wanted attentive civility, he ought to have sent word ahead of his coming.” Elizabeth was grim. Her father, mother, and Jane had all lost all of her devotion. Jane had turned against all of her sisters, her father had set them all against one another, and solicited men to take Kitty and Mary away. It did not matter that both of them seemed happy with their husbands, their father ought to have done better for them. And while Mrs Bennet had perhaps been the least malicious since the entire issue of the money began–other than the time she had gladly sent Lizzy away for a headache–she still was not reasonable, nor–Elizabeth mused–had she ever been.

“Was Mr Bennet aware of my father’s death when he set out?” Matthew asked.

“How could he have been?” Elizabeth asked. “I certainly have not written to him, and it has only been three days. There has been no time for a message and his journey.”

“Of course,” Matthew agreed. “Then why is he here?”

“I have not written to him either. I declare, I have not thought of him once since the day we left Longbourn.” Though Kitty would marry Matthew again in an instant, she still felt much the same as Elizabeth about her father. “But still, I am certain he has come to jeer at my efforts to run a house, and I will not avoid him at my own table. We will be down for dinner, Lizzy. Though we planned nothing with Mrs Hawes or Philpot. Oh dear. We all planned to take trays in our rooms tonight, did we not?”

“We did, and you and I are both aware that our father is not above a cold collation, particularly one of the quality that Mrs Philpot will lay. We will not inconvenience the house for him. He saw the black wreath when he presented himself at the door and he is aware that he interrupted a funeral.” Elizabeth insisted. “Allow me to speak to Mrs Hawes and James about the table. Rest, Kitty. Both of you. You have both done nothing but work since we arrived in Derbyshire.”

“Lizzy, you are no less tired, you must rest as well,” Kitty objected.

“But I do not have a handsome husband waiting to rush me upstairs.” Elizabeth grinned as the couple blushed simultaneously. “I shall go up quite soon, I promise.”

The couple obeyed, and chased one another up the stairs in a rather undignified fashion. At least they like each other. And they are blessed to have each other’s comfort today.