Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

JANE WAS EFFERVESCENT . She hummed to herself as she moved about the house over the coming days, her gaze going unfocused often, as if she were lost in thought.

Mr. Bingley called daily and never with Caroline in tow.

One night, after dinner, Jane whispered in a shy voice, “He is going to marry me, I know it,” as they were sitting together on a couch in the sitting room.

Mary was playing the piano, but she was painstaking about it. Every time she made a mistake, she would start over at the beginning of the piece. Elizabeth suspected it was having the opposite effect than Mary thought it would, making her sister make more mistakes than if she had allowed herself a bit of grace. It was also very annoying never to hear an entire song.

Elizabeth turned to Jane and whispered, “What has he said?”

“Oh, any number of things,” said Jane. “He speaks of our future together, offhandedly, of things we shall do together for Christmas or in the spring, and it is as if I shall be with him, living with him, traveling with him.”

“That’s a good sign,” said Elizabeth, smiling. “I think that is a very good sign.”

Jane sighed happily. “I’m so happy you did this for me, Lizzy. I should have followed Mama and the others and be off in the country, even now, miserable and alone. Instead, here I am on the brink of my own happy ending, and I could not be more pleased. You should be proud of what you’ve accomplished.”

It warmed Elizabeth to hear this. It was just exactly what she needed to hear, for she had been wondering if she were meddling overmuch in affairs that had no need of meddling.

Was all this worth it, all her scheming and her planning?

It seemed that perhaps it was.

So, the following morning, when Mr. Danning appeared, quite pleased with himself and fawning for her gratitude, she gave it to him easily, playing the part he wished her to play, and she barely felt soiled.

Together with Mr. Danning, she and Charlotte set off for Lady Benlolk’s sister’s house in town.

There, they were received in the hallway, just at the door, and not asked in to a sitting room, not given any offer of refreshment, nothing of the sort.

Elizabeth’s heart pounded against her chest as she took in Lady Benlolk and her sister, Mrs. Adams, standing tall and proud just in front of the stairs, as if barring entry to the house. She tried to greet them politely, but her voice faltered and sounded too high and too thin.

Lady Benlolk was cold. “Yes, we have now met, Miss Bennet, though I cannot quite say it is a pleasure.”

Elizabeth swallowed hard. Well, what she really expected of this woman? She must hate them all. It was Charlotte who had made it seem as though it might be otherwise. Why had she allowed herself to believe that Lady Benlolk would be pleased to speak to her? Perhaps she’d wanted it to be true so badly that she’d convinced herself of it. She composed herself. “I can certainly see why you would say that, my lady. I realize you must feel as if we are imposing ourselves upon you, and I wish to extend my sincere apologies for any discomfort it causes you.”

“Oh, discomfort?” Lady Benlolk shook her head and her lower lip trembled. “You are living in my house. If you cared one jot for my discomfort, you would have refused whatever my idiot husband tried to give you.”

Elizabeth bowed her head. What to say? Best not to contradict the woman, even though it had not been her own choice. She might have wished to refuse it all, she thought. It had brought so much complication to their lives. “I can well understand why you would say this as well.”

Lady Benlolk scoffed. “Oh, never mind this. You’ve come for some reason, and I wish to know what it is. Out with it, then.”

So, no one had apprised Lady Benlolk of their intentions. Elizabeth glanced at Mr. Danning, but he was studiously examining the buttons on his jacket. Elizabeth hated him afresh. She focused on Lady Benlolk. “I thought we might find the rumors being spread about your late husband equally odious, my lady.”

Lady Benlolk straightened. “What rumors?”

“Well, there is some idea being put out that your husband conducted a decades-long affair with my mother, and that is simply not true.”

“Oh, and how would you know?” said Lady Benlolk.

“One would notice a mother’s absence,” said Elizabeth. “She was never absent. It is quite impossible for it to have ever occurred.”

Lady Benlolk took a step backward, as if this was news to her. “She was never absent?”

“No, my lady.”

“Never at all?”

“My father is not one for travel,” said Elizabeth. “There were very few occasions where we went anywhere as a family. Sometimes, she would take a few of us girls to visit aunts or uncles, but we didn’t have family that lived very far away, so these were not long visits. I suppose I can’t say she never was away from my father, ever, but so rarely as for it not to matter.”

Lady Benlolk furrowed her brow.

“I had hoped,” said Elizabeth, “that you could quite say the same of your husband. Together, we could then tell the world that this affair they think happened never did. We could repair the damage being done to both of our reputations.”

Lady Benlolk gave Elizabeth a wry smile. “I’m afraid I rarely saw him. He married me out of obligation and then left me to my own devices. When he did see me, he would berate me for not having conceived an heir, but he did not do his part in the making of a child. You may not take my meaning, as you are an unmarried woman, but I assure you, I could not say anything about what that man did during the whole of our marriage.”

Elizabeth’s heart sank. “Oh.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Actually, I truly am. What’s more, I believe you in regards to your mother. I had heard rumors you looked like my husband. You look nothing like him. Preposterous thing to say, truly, especially when everyone knows that my husband had a very conspicuous and fecund mistress.”

Elizabeth was stunned. “Oh?”

“Oh, yes,” said Lady Benlolk. “None of our property was entailed, you see. He and his father broke the entail together, in fact.” It was something that could be done between the current holder of the property and the heir. They could draw up papers so that the property was not tied up in that manner, which gave a man more flexibility when he bequeathed his wealth. “So, he divided it up piecemeal. We had no heirs, but he left me quite enough to live on. I am comfortable. I cannot say he did not take care of me. But he left rather a lot to his bastards, of which there are three, all with that woman, who he lived with , essentially.”

“Oh,” said Elizabeth in a different voice.

“Why your mother, I couldn’t say,” said Lady Benlolk. “He didn’t talk to me about anything, certainly not his youthful infatuations. He was a sentimental sort, though, seemingly quite connected to that mistress of his. I daresay I thought it was odd he would have been conducting something with your mother, not when to be with me, his wife, was somehow infidelity to her.”

“Will you tell me the name of his mistress?” said Elizabeth.

“Why not?” said Lady Benlolk, with a careless laugh. “Widebottom, if you can believe that. What an apt last name for a woman like her. She has never married, but most address her as Mrs. Yes, Mrs. Widebottom, living in that house he built for her with her youngest boy still at home, as I understand. Their youngest boy. She lives in Surrey.”

“Thank you,” said Elizabeth. “I am so very sorry for having taken up your time, madam. And I am ever so sorry for your husband’s treatment of you.”

Lady Benlolk laughed. “Keep your apologies, girl. That’s everything, then?”

“Quite,” said Elizabeth.

“I trust you can see yourselves out.” Lady Benlolk gestured at the door, just behind them.

“Perfectly well, madam,” said Mr. Danning. “Thank you for seeing us.”

But Lady Benlolk had already turned away and was walking off into the depths of the house.

“LIZZY,” SAID CHARLOTTE , “we can not go and call upon some woman who is essentially a courtesan. We certainly can’t take her word for anything. It will mean nothing to anyone in society, the word of a woman like that!”

Elizabeth had waited until after Mr. Danning left to broach this subject. Mr. Danning had stayed quite some time, unfortunately. He seemed to sense that it was all bad news, and he spent all his time protesting that he could not have known it would go that way and that he had fulfilled his part of the bargain and insisting that Elizabeth should not punish him for Lady Benlolk’s behavior.

Elizabeth had no intention of punishing the man, but she also did not like him, so it was very difficult to placate him without letting him see her annoyance with him. She tried her best, but she could not say she succeeded. Anyway, now he was gone, and good riddance to him.

“Well,” said Elizabeth, “no one has to know.”

“People would know,” said Charlotte. “How do you propose to get there?”

“We have a carriage,” said Elizabeth. “We have horses. The distance is not so far that we could not do it in a day if we needed to.”

“And who will drive this carriage?” said Charlotte.

“We have a driver,” said Elizabeth.

“A driver who will know,” said Charlotte.

Elizabeth let out a breath. “Yes, all right, I take your meaning.”

“This is to say nothing of the fact that to do it in one day, you must change horses out for the return trip, and then whoever sees you doing so will likely know that the Misses Bennets were out and about in Surrey, and—”

“I take your meaning,” said Elizabeth.

“If your father discovered it,” said Charlotte, “I don’t think he’d be pleased.”

“Charlotte, yes,” said Elizabeth. “Forget I mentioned it.” She sighed heavily. Dash it all.

The rest of the day continued in heavy gloom.

Elizabeth retired early, directly after dinner, claiming she would read in bed, but she could not concentrate on her book and was just about to extinguish her oil lamp when there was a knock at the door.

Elizabeth sat up on the bed in her room and called out, “Yes?”

“It’s me,” came Mary’s voice.

“Come in.”

Mary did so. She shut the door and came over to sit down at the foot of Elizabeth’s bed. “You and I shall go to see Mrs. Widebottom.”

“But you heard what Charlotte said just as I did,” said Elizabeth.

“David will take us,” said Mary. “We must dress in our old shabby clothes and make no production of it. We shall need to give out some story, likely that we are both ill, but we can do it two days hence, he says. If no one knows who we are, no one can carry tales.”

“You trust this David person.”

“Oh, immensely,” said Mary, nodding.

An awful thought occurred to her. Elizabeth grimaced. “Mary, you are not doing untoward things with a stable hand, are you?”

“No,” said Mary, squaring her shoulders. “No, of course not.”

Elizabeth eyed her sister, unsure how to take that response, because it did not have the ring of truth.

“Here is what we shall do,” said Mary. “We shall get from Mrs. Widebottom the proof that there was no time for Benlolk to have an affair with our mother, and we shall publish her account in the gossip rag that I am making.”

“Mary, I told you that you cannot have a gossip rag!” But Elizabeth had already sort of conceded that it was the best way.

“Yes, and I listen to everything you say,” said Mary, rolling her eyes.

Elizabeth gave her sister a withering look. “I am not saying it to you on a whim, nor because I wish to control you. I am thinking of a vast array of consequences that may occur if you undertake this endeavor.”

“You don’t have a better idea, do you?”

Elizabeth did not. She sighed.

“Then, until you do, this is the best way of managing the situation,” Mary said firmly.

Elizabeth did not protest further. She could think of nothing else to say.