6. Those Bennet Girls

Our Lady of Longbourn

Chapter Six – Those Bennet Girls

In the year of our Lord, 1810

Toliver pulled the horse to a quick halt in front of the apothecary and doctor's office. Before he could step down to assist Mary, she was out of the trap. "Bosun, both Lizzy and I have told you to take care of that leg. I'm perfectly capable of stepping down. I'll be back in a moment."

The huge sailor shook his head ruefully, These Bennet girls…

Mary stepped up to the doctor's office and used the knocker. There was a commotion in the foyer and then the housekeeper, Mrs. Anson, opened the door. "Hello, Miss Mary. Is this a social call?"

Mary blushed slightly, but responded, "Is Doctor Jones in? Mrs. Hervey's baby is coming early and the midwife is out of town helping someone else."

"I'll get Doctor Jones, Miss. Don't you worry." While Mrs. Anson disappeared into the house, Mary climbed back into the trap. She took the back seat so that the doctor could ride in the front. When he stepped out with his bags, however, he climbed in beside her. Before she could say anything, Toliver slapped the reins and they were off.

Mary wasn't precisely upset that Doctor Jones was sitting next to her. Truth to be told, she never knew exactly what she felt when she was close to him. She had never even been interested in any man before he arrived, but now her feelings were so conflicted the she couldn't understand them. When he was near, she pushed him away, but if he smiled at any other young lady, her chest hurt and she felt like crying. The whole matter was rather annoying.

"What can you tell me about Mrs. Hervey?" One thing that Mary did like about Mr. Jones is that he didn't treat her like an ignorant decoration. He talked about serious issues with her, even when they bordered on the inappropriate for a single young lady. Is that because he respects me or because he doesn't see me as a lady?

"She has been having discomfort for several hours. Her water broke about thirty minutes ago when I first arrived for a visit. I'm sorry that it took so long, but I had to run all of the way back to Longbourn."

The doctor grinned and Mary felt both pleasure and annoyance. The annoyance was because she never knew when he was laughing at her. The pleasure was because he had such a handsome grin. Where did that come from. I sound like Lydia! Arrrggh!

"Thirty minutes isn't too bad. Are there any women with her?"

"No, she was all alone. Mr. Hervey's off doing repair work at the grist mill. I decided to get you first and then go for Mr. Hervey."

"No! Miss Mary, I need you there with me. Mr. Toliver, would you be willing to fetch Mr. Hervey after you take us to Mrs. Hervey?"

Toliver glanced back. He would be leaving Mary alone with the man and a pregnant woman. He trusted the doctor, but there might be some talk. He made a decision, "I'll swing by Longbourn and see if Miss Bennet or Miss Kitty is available, then I'll drive to the mill."

The doctor nodded, understanding the unspoken issue, "Fair enough. Here we are."

Doctor Jones stepped down and quickly reached to help Miss Mary. She shook her head in resignation and accepted his assistance. The trap was already pulling away as they stepped in and heard Mrs. Hervey's screams.

The next several hours were a mixture of terror, industry, and wonder. Doctor Jones used Mary as his nurse, boiling water, changing rags, mopping the patient's brow and holding her hand. Normally a single young gentlewoman was banned from the scene of a delivery, whether to protect her innocence or to avoid scaring her off of childbirth, nobody would say. Mr. Jones, however, found the idea ludicrous. There was no more capable young woman than Mary Bennet, and he needed her.

At some point in her numerous trips in and out of the room, she realized that Kitty was there talking to Mr. Hervey who looked quite distressed. Then she was back in the room, Mrs. Hervey screamed, and all else was forgotten. And then the baby was there in her arms, adding his own tiny little cry. She continued to hold the tiny baby boy as the doctor cut the umbilical cord. Then, almost automatically, she cleaned the little boy and wrapped him in a blanket.

Doctor Jones watched Mary holding the baby and was momentarily mesmerized. Exhausted, hair out of place, with something smeared on one cheek, Mary had never looked more beautiful. He had to force himself to look away and focus on the patient.

Mary held the tiny new life as Doctor Jones coaxed Mrs. Hervey through delivering the afterbirth, and then gently handed the child to his mother for the first time. With happy tears in her eyes, Mary looked across the bed at Doctor Jones. His eyes were on her with such an expression that her face froze and her heart raced. Then, as they stood facing each other across a delivery bed, he said, "Marry me, Miss Mary? I love you and I don't think that I can live without you."

Mary just stood there, stunned. Then, for some reason, she looked down at the amused face of Mrs. Hervey, "Well girl, answer the man."

She looked back up at the doctor's worried face and beamed, "Yes! Ezekiel Jones, I love you and nothing would make me happier than to be your wife."

When Mary and Kitty arrived home well past dinnertime, Mrs. Bennet was prepared to harangue the pair with all her might… but then she saw Doctor Jones slip into Mr. Bennet's book room, she saw the huge grin on Kitty's face and the dreamy expression on Mary's face. To her, Mary had always been plain, almost an insult considering her own beauty. But tonight Mary' happy face glowed and she looked quite beautiful. "Is he… are you…?"

Mary's beaming smile threatened to split her face, and then her mother's happy screams could be heard out in the fields.

Elizabeth, who had just returned from dealing with a tenant issue, smiled softly at Mary and took her hand. Their eyes met and they nodded. More than one late night conversation lately had been about Mary's confused feelings.

Her older sister was happy for her, but something inside ached as she wondered if there would ever be a man who she could love.

oOoOOoOo

Miss Kitty Bennet slipped into Madam de Bossuet's back door and checked for customers. One of the young French seamstresses who worked for the modiste smiled at her with anticipation. "Is she with a customer, Marie?"

"No, Miss. She is jus' fini, now all alone. Should I go to her?" Marie began to rise, but Kitty motioned for her to sit. "I can get her."

Setting her sketchbook on a cutting table, she tentatively peaked out into the measuring room. Lauretta looked up when she saw motion and winked, "That Mrs. Long, she require more fabric every year. Good for your uncle… not so good for Mrs. Long. You have something to show, no?"

Kitty nodded and stepped back into the cutting room. Lauretta followed, glanced at her two seamstresses, and motioned them over. With a great show of respect, Madam de Bossuet opened the leather book to look at the sketches. "Oh! My dear girl! You are so gifted at this!" The young seamstresses also exclaimed in the native tongue. "If your General Wellesley ever drives that pompous Corsican out, then I take you to Paris and you design dresses for the court." She turned back to one drawing in particular, "So stunning this one. I send it to Angelique in London. Next season it will be worn by the nobility."

The second youngest Bennet blushed. She had taken a liking to the Bossuet ladies from the first, when Elizabeth asked them to help sew several dresses. From that time on she slipped into the modiste as often as she could without being noticed. If she could, she would have taken employment with the ladies, but her status as a genteel lady made that impossible. But she did start making drawings of new dress ideas. Lydia mocked her and Mama dismissed her, but the Bossuet ladies encouraged her.

Elizabeth, Mary, and Jane encouraged her as well. In fact, Elizabeth set aside a room at Netherfield for her to draw and design to her heart's content. Her ideas slowly evolved from childish sketches to real designs. Her sisters and the Bossuets made suggestions from time-to-time, but most of the ideas were hers. She knew that she was being taken seriously when she began to see her designs being worn by the local ladies, though nobody knew who the true designer was. Lauretta told everyone that they were from the newest designer Katerina. Then Angelique de Bossuet took Kitty's designs back with her to London… and suddenly Katerina became a name in fashionable circles.

The two modistes paid Kitty one fifth of the profit from every dress made from her designs. At first Kitty demurred, but the ladies would hear none of it and they enlisted Elizabeth to support them. Kitty's older sister agreed, and then arranged for Kitty's income to be secretly invested with Uncle Gardiner.

A year had passed since Kitty's first design was purchased. Anglelique's store was now the place to buy, and fashionable ladies of the Ton were boasting about wearing a dress designed by Katerina. It was exhilarating. It was laughable. It was actually quite terrifying. But Kitty was slowly gaining confidence and the ideas were flowing.

"We must make catalogue," Lauretta stated firmly, "Is more… legitimate to do so. Your normal designs, they go in catalogue. Then your best designs, they stay separate… how you say it: exclusive."

"A catalogue," Kitty flushed, a little overwhelmed. The two seamstresses nodded aggressively in support of the idea. "But I don't…"

"You let me handle. I speak with your Uncle. He know somebody for everything."

Kitty nodded. The true secret to Uncle Gardiner's impressive success was that he was gifted at finding good men and women with great skills. "I will leave these with you then and go draw more."

The three ladies hugged Kitty. She returned the hugs. At first she was overwhelmed by French manners, but now she rather liked their less-stiff ways.

"A catalogue… from Katerina!" Kitty giggled and slipped back out of the shop.

oOoOOoOo

Lydia Bennet pulled down on her dress to increase the display of her décolletage and waited for the men to walk out of the two mills. There were several very interesting young men who she had noticed, and she wanted to flirt.

Several men eyed her suggestively, but walked on. The Cooper brothers walked up the path together, saw her, and their expressions clouded. They nodded, stepped up, and each took an elbow. "Come with us, Miss Lydia. You're for home."

"Let me Go!" She snapped at them, but Luke Cooper only leaned over, "Unless you want to be made an even bigger fool of than you've already done, you will walk quietly with us. Do you know what kind of girls stand out like that when men are around?"

Lydia gasped and glared, "Are you calling me a prostitute?"

"No, Miss Lydia… that is only the idea that you put in those men's heads. You don't have a pinch of sense. I can't understand how you could be Lady Elizabeth's sister."

"LADY Elizabeth? Where did you get that ridiculous idea. She's just as common as anyone."

Mark Cooper shot his brother a silencing look, then spoke to Lydia, "It's just a slip of the tongue, Miss Lydia. What he means is that she behaves like a real lady. You should follow her example."

"A Lady!" Lydia scoffed, "Mama says she's a hoyden who will never get a husband because she does men's work and doesn't keep her proper place. I'm more of a lady than she ever was."

Mark shook his head sadly, "You need to open your eyes, Miss Lydia, before it's too late."

oOoOOoOo

Elizabeth leaned back in the chair in her study at Netherfield and scrubbed her face. Mr. Matthews watched her with concern. "Miss Lizzy (he was one of the few who was still allowed to call her that), I think that it is time for you to take a trip."

"A trip?" Elizabeth asked with a scoff. "I don't have time to take a trip! I have Netherfield and Longbourn to take care of. I have the grist mill and the textile mill. We're experimenting with different sheep and it's planting season again."

Mr. Matthews laid a hand on Elizabeth's clenched fist, "Miss Bennet, you are making my point for me." He removed his hand but used it to tick off his points, "For all practical purposes, you started managing one estate when you were ten. You manage your own investments with your Uncle and you have helped start four businesses here in Meryton with your investments. You now own and operate the biggest estate in this whole area, and you are doing it well while keeping it all a secret from almost everyone. Miss Bennet, if you don't get away, it will all either make you old or kill you."

Elizabeth had been meeting her friend and advisor's eyes for the whole time. She held his gaze for a minute longer, and then seemed to deflate, "I do need a rest. Aunt Gardiner invited me to go with them on their summer trip to Cornwall. Maybe I should write to her and accept. Will you watch over both estates again?"

"Actually, I wanted to speak with you about Netherfield… I have a suggestion, though you may not like it." This raised Elizabeth's eyebrows, but she only nodded at him to continue, "Many people are beginning to ask me who the new owner is and when they might meet him. I have deflected them, of course, but the mothers and daughters are hoping for an eligible young man to join the neighborhood."

Elizabeth grinned, "They would certainly be disappointed."

"True… but there may be a way to stop speculation. Remember, until you are twenty-one, anything that you possess actually belongs to your parents. Lady Adele protected you by putting the estate in your Uncles' name, but it still represents a danger. The same is true if men find out… you would suddenly be the target for every fortune hunter in England."

"So what is this suggestion that I won't like?" Elizabeth asked tentatively.

"Lease Netherfield."

"NO!" Elizabeth leaned forward, suddenly ready for a fight, "I will not have another Mr. Meriwether coming in and endangering my sisters and my friends! That is why I agreed to take Netherfield in the first place!"

"Please be calm, Miss Bennet," Mr. Matthews said in his most soothing tone, "You don't have to worry about that. We can carefully investigate the credentials of any applicants before any offers are accepted. With your Uncle's contacts, the servant's network, and my own experience in knowing a man's true character, you have nothing to worry about."

Elizabeth stood and paced as she weighed the idea. Mr. Matthews simply sat and waited. Finally she replied in a softer voice, "That is acceptable. But I have certain rules I want in-place for any lease. I will not allow anyone to hurt my people or my home."

Mr. Matthews pushed himself up and extended his hand for a handshake. Her people… she truly is Our Lady of Longbourn… and Netherfield and Meryton to boot. She doesn't even realize how well she suits the role.

oOoOOoOo

Jane sat beside the sickbed of Lord Andrew Archer, Viscount Almond, and mopped the little boy's fevered brow. It had been over two days since he had opened his eyes or responded. He barely moved anymore and the doctor held out little hope.

His grandfather, Lord Archer, the Earl of Kirby, was laying in his bedchambers, also very ill. His wife, the Countess, was at her wits end trying to stem the tide of sickness in her house. Her dear husband was dying, her grandson was dying… her oldest son and his wife had been killed years ago in a house fire when they visited a friend, and her second son was commanding a task force somewhere dangerous, and knew nothing of what was happening at home. Will this never end, God?

Leaving her husband, she walked down the hall to see her grandson. Jane was there with him… dear Jane. She had left her own son at the Gardiners with his nurse so that she could come here to help. Stephen, you made such a good match. She is such a dear, sweet young woman… but there is iron in her spine.

Lady Elaine sighed silently and turned away. Enough time soon to spend with her dying grandson. She needed to send an urgent message to Admiralty House. They need to send for Stephen. By the end of this night he will be the Earl of Kirby. Lord please bring him safely home to us.