Love Among the Gifted - A Pride & Prejudice Alternative

Chapter Two

Elizabeth Bennet watched in a mixture of amusement and chagrin as her two youngest sisters endeavored to catch a glimpse through an upper window of their new neighbor as he visited their father.

"Can you see his face?' Kitty asked anxiously. She tried futilely to shoulder her younger sister out of the prime viewing spot.

Lydia effortlessly resisted her older, but smaller, sister's exertions. "I can't see his face, but have you ever seen such a fine blue coat?"

"I can't see anything, as you will not let me."

"And he rides a great black charger, like a knight in a story." Lydia sighed romantically.

"Let me see!"

"Too late." Lydia turned from the window, relinquishing her place to her fuming sister. "He's gone. I do wonder if Mother is correct and he will marry one of us. I should so like to marry before Jane or Lizzy. To be the first of us all to wed would be such a laugh."

Mrs. Bennet was quite disconcerted when Mr. Bingley was obliged to refuse the subsequent dinner invitation to return to London. She spoke of little else for several days. On one occasion Elizabeth was in company with her dearest friend, Charlotte Lucas. Their mothers were discussing the matter.

"What business could he have in town so soon after his arrival in Hertfordshire?" Mrs. Bennet quizzed. "I do hope he will not be always flitting about from one place to another, and never settled at Netherfield as he ought to be."

"You need not worry on that account, my dear Mrs. Bennet," Lady Lucas replied, "Mr. Bingley told my dear Sir William that he had to return to London to gather a large party for the assembly."

A report soon followed from another source that Mr. Bingley was to bring twelve ladies and seven gentlemen with him to the assembly. The girls grieved over such a large number of ladies.

At breakfast on the morning of the assembly Elizabeth, as was her wont on most days, queried her sister about the news of the tenants. "Is there anyone I should make a particular effort to see on my rounds this morning, Jane? Mr. Quint mentioned that the Greens have a cow that might benefit from my attention."

Jane, who had adopted the responsibility for overseeing the welfare of Longbourn's tenants when she turned eighteen, considered her sisters inquiry. Mrs. Bennet had never been overly conscientious in her fulfilment of these duties as the mistress of the estate and the tenantry benefited greatly from the elder daughter's more assiduous attention. "Mrs. Stringfield has been feeling poorly these last two weeks. Mr. Jones is concerned that it may be more than a trifling cold. He says there have been reports of influenza in Belton and St. Albans. I wonder if you might be able to stop by and see her this morning."

"I'll be sure to visit." Elizabeth agreed.

"I'll have Cook prepare a basket for Mr. Stringfield. I'm sure that he is tired of eating at the Mare," said Jane.

"There's no need for that today. You have to get ready for the assembly, Jane," Mrs. Bennet interrupted. "And you, Miss Lizzy ... If you'd spend as much time working to get yourself a husband as you do traipsing about the countryside doing who knows what, then we might not have to fear being tossed out in to the hedgerows when your poor father dies."

"My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts." Mr. Bennet added, peeking out from behind his paper. "Let us hope for better things. Let us flatter ourselves that I may be the survivor."

Before her parent's familiar dialog could delay her, she left the table to prepare for her second walk of the morning.

Miss Elizabeth Bennet was a habitual early riser and made it a habit to walk out almost every morning shortly after dawn. She would patrol the estate looking for any threats or disturbances. More than three years ago her father had unofficially ceded his magisterial duties to his second, and most gifted, daughter. As his de facto sheriff, she fulfilled the responsibilities all landowners had of keeping the peace and enforcing the King's law on their estates.