Page 16 of A Most Favourable Match

“It is too fine a day to tour cellars, I think,” returned Mr Bennet. “We shall save that for next time it rains, Lord Grantchester. Today, we should all appreciate the sunshine and your undoubtedly excellent wines.”

“There is also salmon, roast chicken and salad, as well as any quantity of cheese and freshly baked breads and cakes,” Lord Grantchester informed them. “Soups and sauces too, although I never want such messy things at a garden party myself.”

“Excellent, excellent,” Mr Bennet said, rubbing his hands together in approval. “Whoever said that bachelors do not live well?”

“Single or married, one should always live well, within one’s means,” pronounced Lord Grantchester.

“Very true, don’t you think so, Mrs Bennet?” Elizabeth’s father concurred. “Ah, there is Sir William and Lady Lucas. We are not quite the first to arrive.”

As her parents strolled away to greet their neighbours, and her other sisters dispersed in the direction of their friends among the various Lucas offspring, Elizabeth kept pace with Lord Grantchester and Jane for a little longer.

“How was London, Lord Grantchester?” she enquired. “I hope you have not found the journey back and forth too arduous, especially transporting so much, and so many people, to Hertfordshire.”

“Not at all,” he assured her. “Keeble and I spent most of the week chasing about the town and ordering things for Belton Manor. So much of the furniture here was moth eaten and the cellars empty, as I told your father. My London servants are used to travelling with me and think nothing of a few days in Hertfordshire. This house looks far better already, does it not?”

“We have only really seen the outside before you took the place, haven’t we, Jane?” returned Elizabeth with a smile.

“Yes, I remember meeting Lady Furness occasionally when we were small, but we never knew her well,” agreed Jane.

“She wasn’t very interested in children,” Elizabeth added, before spotting Charlotte Lucas strolling along the lower lawn. “Anyway, I shall leave the two of you to yourselves. I should not wish to make myself a gooseberry.”

Lord Grantchester laughed again and shook his head. “Do not go anywhere on my account, Miss Elizabeth,” he told her and then smiled at Jane. “Your sister could never be in the way, could she?”

“Never,” Jane confirmed, now smiling herself. “Do stay with us a while.”

“You are both very kind, and I shall return later, but I spy Charlotte over there and would like to speak to her,” admitted Elizabeth, breaking away. “You must give us all a tour of the main rooms of the house later, Lord Grantchester.”

“If they’re presentable, I shall,” he told her. “We must consult my housekeeper on that point first. There were many good reasons why she recommended that I hold a garden party today rather than a house party.”

“Shall we greet my aunt, Mrs Philips?” Jane suggested to her fiancé as Elizabeth walked away, seeing this new arrival walking towards them from the front garden. “You have not met her yet.”

∞∞∞

“He does seem a remarkably good catch, doesn’t he?” observed Charlotte as she walked arm-in-arm withElizabeth through the small wilderness at the bottom of the Belton Manor garden, catching up on the latest Bennet family news. “Jane is very beautiful, of course, but still. Finding a husband with fortune, title, a pleasant personality, and even pleasing features seems like something out of a fairy tale.”

“You do not believe in fairy tales, Charlotte,” Elizabeth returned with a smile. “You never have.”

“No, I am not a romantic, as your mother and sisters are,” Charlotte agreed easily, “and perhaps you too, in your own way, Lizzy.”

Elizabeth gave a derisive snort at this final statement. “I do not feel very romantic, Charlotte,” she objected with good humour, although Charlotte only looked at her knowingly. “I know nothing of romance, or love, at all, it seems.”

“Does anyone?” her friend questioned philosophically. “Those who think they do are usually hopeless romantics and utterly deluded. At least you know we know nothing.”

“I am in good company with Socrates then,” said Elizabeth. “Anyway, the more I see of Lord Grantchester and Jane, the more I realise how little I understand of love or marriage.”

“Poor Lizzy. Has Jane deserted you for her lover?” teased Charlotte.

“No, not at all, although I had rather expected that she would,” Elizabeth replied. “Instead, there is no objection to me spending half the day with them. Lord Grantchester is happy to be with our entire family. Theyare never sneaking off to walk together in the garden, or whispering together in corners like lovers in books. In fact, you would hardly know that they are betrothed at all.”

Charlotte puzzled briefly, but quickly regained her equanimity. “Maybe that is for the best. Liking and respecting someone seems a more stable basis for marriage than falling violently in love, as in a novel.”

“You think they do not love one another?” Elizabeth exclaimed.Thatidea made her feel peculiarly uncomfortable. It felt almost disloyal to think such a thing of Jane.

“Why should they? They hardly know one another,” answered Charlotte, amused. “I always imagined Jane to be a great romantic, but it seems she is not. She has accepted a decent man, who also happens to be very rich, and this is a sensible choice. I dare say they have as much chance of living happily together as any other couple.”

“Jane is only shy and modest, and Lord Grantchester is a very private person behind his sociable exterior,” Elizabeth insisted, unable to bear the thought of Jane marrying for anything so prosaic as good sense. “I am sure they must love one another. Jane was always far more romantic than me.”

“It is not important,” Charlotte commented, and Elizabeth could see that for her friend, it was not. “Let us talk of Netherfield Park instead. Mrs Hurst and Miss Bingley called on my mother yesterday. I found them most condescending, in the worst way, but Mother was enamoured by their dresses and manner of speakingabout London.”