Chapter Four

Mother's thoughtful hum, as she read her latest letter from Mrs. Bennet, did not bode well for Sir Jasper's hopes of a quiet evening.

Snowsdale consisted of a manor house surrounded by fields; home farm on one side, stables and stud paddocks on the other, the whole of it encircled by wooded hills. They were connected to the main road into Scarborough by a long and winding road that discouraged all but the most determined visitors. That was a feature Sir Jasper appreciated, but Mother complained of whenever she was minded to host a dinner.

It was nice for her to have a friend, of course, but all four Longbottom brothers wished for a friendship that caused the gleam in their mother's eye to appear with less frequency. Still, there was no other way for Sir Jasper to receive news from Hertfordshire without multiple breaches of propriety, so he endured. One did not propose marriage just to be able to exchange letters with an interesting young lady.

Well, if Sir Jasper did not ask, someone else would. "What has Mrs. Bennet to say, mother?"

Mother's smile was reassurance that all was well in Hertfordshire, but unsettling in a number of other ways. Likely there would be another conversation about wanting grandchildren before she was too old to enjoy them in the near future. "Oh, the usual updates about life in the south of the Kingdom. Miss Catherine appears to be exploring a new direction for her artistic talents, and Mrs. Bennet included a sketch."

She handed over a folded piece of paper, which Sir Jasper dutifully unfolded. His eyes lingered on the familiar signature of C Bennet , ending in a flourish that put one a little in mind of a cat in repose, without actually being one. Then he looked more closely at the sketch.

It was very clearly amateur work, but not unskilled, and the intent was clear. A wheel gear would work better than the cog Miss Catherine had sketched, but the principle was sound. Sir Jasper looked over at his youngest brother, Henry, who was the best of them with model making. "Come tell me what you think of this."

Miss Catherine had also included a small satirical sketch, of her device and a cart, anthropomorphised as the Biblical figures of David and Goliath, the Cart-Goliath being hoisted into the air. That was a far more expert drawing, and Sir Jasper could envision them walking through an Art Gallery together, discussing the works on display. He could practically feel her hand in the crook of his arm, her excited voice in his ear.

Seven years was not so very great of an age gap, was it?

Henry looked over the sketch, then left the room just slowly enough to avoid a lecture on decorum from Mother, returning with the large box that he kept his model parts in. Their other brothers looked up from their own pursuits as Henry pieced together something functional from Miss Catherine's design. John handed over a small wooden carving, heedless of Mother's pointedly raised eyebrow, to test it. "Hey, Michael, bring the financials out here, will you?"

Michael, sixteen months younger than Sir Jasper and nominally in charge of the Longbottom family's business ventures, was reading a book by the fire. He looked up from its pages with an expression that clearly stated John had better have a reason behind the request. "Why?"

John was clever, but it was the kind of clever that rarely waited to think through the possible outcomes, or write down a hypothesis before he rushed off to try it. Becoming a Baronet and taking control of the purse- strings not connected to the family business had gone a long way to restraining his wilder ideas, but Sir Jasper doubted that anything short of death would actually stop him. If John was asking about financing, it couldn't be too hare-brained... "I want to know if I can afford to marry this woman, if Jasper doesn't!"

Never mind. Sir Jasper glared at his second-youngest brother. "First of all, John, I made sure that all of us can marry without consideration of money, should you ever find someone willing to put up with you. Second of all - which probably should have been first - don't you dare!"

Michael did a very bad job of hiding his amusement. Sir Jasper resisted the urge to kick him as though they were still schoolboys together. Michael had been annoying enough when the Bingleys and Miss Lydia visited them. "Might be coming on a little strong there, anyway; we don't want to scare the young lady off entirely."

Mother cleared her throat, and the younger three were abruptly reminded that they were discussing marriage in front of the county's premier matchmaker. Mother might very well take their sudden interest in the married state as permission to begin searching on their behalf, and for all John's interest in Miss Catherine's designs, Jasper was quite sure that his younger siblings had no desire to settle down just yet. They hastily fell quiet, and Sir Jasper took the opportunity to inject some practical considerations. "I'm hoping to wrangle an invitation to visit out of Bingley when he returns from his wedding tour, since we don't have any convenient sisters to invite her to visit."

It was a heavy hint, but perhaps Mother already had designs in such a direction. "I did hint at our upcoming visit to London in my last letter, and Mrs. Bennet mentioned that they will be making plans to shop for Miss Mary Bennet's wedding clothes soon."

A few days of primarily shopping, and perhaps a dinner or evening entertainment of some kind was far less than Sir Jasper had hoped for. His disappointment must have shown, because Mother smiled. "I wish to meet her properly, and one can hardly expect parents to entrust their daughter to someone unknown to them. We will meet the Bennets in London, and if her parents approve, I will invite Miss Catherine to remain with us when they depart."

As a mother of unmarried daughters, Mrs. Bennet was unlikely to object. Sir Jasper's interactions with Mr. Bennet had been few, but between two determined matrons and the prospect of a titled son-in-law, hopefully he could be persuaded. Miss Catherine had often spoken of wanting to explore the art galleries and perhaps attend a seminar on artistic technique, if Sir Jasper's presence wasn't a convincing enough argument.

He sat down to sketch Henry's prototype in action. Writing Miss Catherine a letter would be inappropriate, but apparently sketches were permissible.

One sketch in the corner of a page turned into several, forming a kind of border around the parchment, and leaving less room for Mother to write her letter. She was fondly exasperated, however, rather than truly annoyed, so it was probably all right. The framework of a half-finished sleigh, the horses trotting through the paddock, Mother in her chair by the fire, the line where field met forested hills…

Perhaps one day he would be able to show her in person.