Rosings Park, Kent, October 12

Fitzwilliam,

I do not call you nephew, for you are no longer a nephew of mine. I am shocked and astonished that you could stoop to offer your hand to a person of such low breeding. It is a stain on the honour and credit of the name of Darcy. She will bring you nothing but degradation and embarrassment, and she will reduce your house to a place of impertinence and vulgarity. Your children will be wild and undisciplined, and your daughters will run off with stable hands. Your sons will become attorneys. You will never be received by any of your acquaintance. You will be disgraced in the eyes of the world, a figure of contempt. You will bitterly regret this day. You will remember that I warned you of the consequences of such a disastrous act, but by then it will be too late. I will not end this letter by wishing you happiness, for no happiness can follow such a blighted union.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh


Miss Anne de Bourgh to Miss Georgiana Darcy

Rosings Park, Kent, October 12

Dear coz,

We have just heard the news. Mama had a letter from Fitzwilliam, telling us of his betrothal. It is such a relief, I am overjoyed and I wish Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth every happiness!

Mama, on the other hand, is not overjoyed, and I am keeping out of her way. I sent a message downstairs to say that I was not well and I intend to keep to my room all day. I hear from my maid that the Collinses have thought it expedient to visit Mrs Collins’s family in Hertfordshire and I am not surprised. Mama is livid. She has had three of the maids and two of the footmen in tears this morning, upset by her complaining about anything and nothing. She has written a letter to my aunt in Cumbria, telling her she must write to Fitzwilliam and forbid the match. It will do no good, I am sure my aunt is too sensible to take any notice, but it has gone some way to relieve Mama’s feelings. She further relieved them by writing to Fitzwilliam and telling him he would disgrace his name, his family and indeed everything else if he married Elizabeth. However, I am sure he will be too happy to care for anything Mama might say.

I intend to remain in my room for two or three days and I have had the foresight to bring my pencils and paints, my needlework and my novels with me.

Do you think Henry will be home for the wedding? If so, I hope he might call on us here at Rosings, though I would not blame him if he stayed away. I wish we might attend the wedding, but Mama is so angry that she has declared she will not go and so there is no hope of that—unless she changes her mind, so that she can stand up when the vicar asks if any man can show any cause why they may not be joined together, and say that yes, she knows of a just cause, that Elizabeth would pollute the shades of Pemberley! Oh dear, I wish that thought had not occurred to me, for I now find myself wondering if it might happen. I will have nightmares about it, I am sure; or, even worse, that Mama might stand up and say that he was promised to me.

I will not think of it. I will think of church bells and white satin and flowers instead. You must tell me all about it; I rely on you, Georgiana.

Your dear coz,

Anne


Mrs Bennet to Mrs Gardiner

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 15

My dear sister,

Were there ever such times! Jane to marry Mr Bingley, Lizzy to marry Mr Darcy! We are coming to London to shop for wedding clothes and we will be with you on the eighteenth. Poor Lydia had no time to shop for her clothes, but I mean to make up for it with Lizzy and Jane. I will not let anyone say that my girls did not have the best dresses for their wedding. Speaking of Lydia, I have told her to write to her sister and beg her husband’s help for poor Wickham. He has been very hard done by and I am sure that Lizzy’s husband would be glad to be of use to him. Who better than his own brother-in-law to assist him? I am sure he deserves it, for never a handsomer young man lived.

Now, if I can only get Mary and Kitty married, my happiness will be complete. Mr Darcy’s cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, will be standing up with him, and I think he might do for one or other of them. Then there is Mr Bingley’s younger brother, who is to stand up with him. To be sure, the Bingley fortune comes from trade, but Mr Bingley and his sisters are very genteel, and I am sure the rest of the family is just the same.

We will stay with you until Monday.

Your sister,

Janet


Miss Mary Bennet to Miss Lucy Sotherton

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 16

Most noble Friend,

This has been a doleful time for the cause of Learned Women. One of my sisters is already married, and now two more of my sisters are betrothed. Although I never had any hope of Lydia, and very little of Elizabeth, I did think, in time, that my sister Jane might abandon the path of frivolity and walk the highway of learning. But alas! It is not to be. Now Kitty and I are the only two girls remaining unspoken for. Kitty says she will never find a husband if Papa keeps her chained to Longbourn. I applauded her attempt at imagery; however, as we were at my aunt Philips’s house at the time, her metaphor of being chained to Longbourn was not well chosen. When I pointed this out, Mama said, ‘Oh, Mary, do be quiet,’ but Mr Shackleton agreed with me.

He told me I looked charming in my new gown and asked me to dance with him. When I demurred, he reminded me that dancing was a healthful exercise and said that, in point of fact, he thought it more beneficial than playing the pianoforte, for that exercises only the fingers and dancing exercises the entire body.

I was much struck by his comment and I have decided that I should dance more often. Once my sisters have left the neighbourhood, I will no doubt be called upon to display true elegance and erudition, in the physical as well as the mental arts.

As Mr Shackleton led me back to my seat, I overheard my aunt Philips saying that we had had three weddings, and would no doubt soon have another one.

I cannot think what she means, unless she was referring to Kitty, who sat next to Mr Haydock all evening. He is visiting his cousins and means to spend some weeks in the neighbourhood, though what he can have to talk to Kitty about I do not know.

Your fellow traveller through this vale of vice,

Mary


Miss Kitty Bennet to Miss Eleanor Sotherton

Longbourn, Hertfordshire,

October 17

Dearest Ellie,

It is not fair, Mama is to go to London tomorrow with my sisters Jane and Elizabeth, but she will not take me. I do not see why I should not go to London, for I am sure that my attendant’s gown is just as important as their bridal gowns, or at any rate, nearly so. But I am to be left behind with Mary.

We have had a new visitor to the neighbourhood: Mr Haydock, the vicar of Kympton. I met him at my aunt Philips’s house. You may be sure I let him know what I thought of him for stealing poor Wickham’s living from him, but Mr Haydock just looked down his nose and pretended not to know what I was talking about, then tried to say that Wickham had not deserved the living, and then laughed at me when I told him he was an odious man and that I would not speak to him. And he is odious, though admittedly very handsome. It is a good thing Lydia was not here, or she would have been very severe on him.

Mama says that, now my older sisters are getting married, I must hurry up and find a husband for myself. Mr Darcy’s cousins will be at the wedding and Mama says I must try to catch one of them. I am sure I will do my best. They are all very rich and if they are handsome as well, I think I would like to marry one of them. Lydia got a husband by running away with him and Jane got one by going to stay with him and Lizzy got one by nursing her sister devotedly. But as I believe Papa would track me down if I ran away with anyone, and as I cannot invite myself into someone else’s house, and as I have no sister to nurse, then unless Mary should happen to be taken ill, I do not know how it is to be done.

I said so to Mr Haydock, but he only laughed at me.

I saw that he was to be no help and so I suggested to Mary that she should visit Cumbria and endeavour to catch a cold there, but she said she could not catch a cold to order, and when I said that she should pretend to have a cold, she said that he who walketh in vice does so ne’er so often as something or other, and then looked pleased with herself and said she must remember to tell it to Mr Shackleton. I do not know why she does not marry him and have done with it, but she says she will never marry, she is a follower of the goddess Athena. She has asked Mama to buy her an owl. Mama said she had better have a new dress instead and make herself agreeable to all the rich gentlemen who are certain to be at Mr Darcy’s wedding.

Lots of love and kisses,

Kitty


Mrs Lydia Wickham to Miss Elizabeth Bennet

Newcastle, October 23

My dear Lizzy,

I wish you joy. If you love Mr Darcy half as well as I do my dear Wickham, you must be very happy. It is a great comfort to have you so rich, and when you have nothing else to do, I hope you will think of us. I am sure Wickham would like a place at court very much, and I do not think we shall have quite money enough to live upon without some help. Any place would do, of about three or four hundred a year; but, however, do not speak to Mr Darcy about it, if you had rather not.