Pemberley by Emma Tennant Read Free Book Online

on her lap, she tore off the paper herself and held up a small garment, at which the assembled company gaped in silence.
    â€˜I have become extremely proficient at smocking,’ said Mrs Long when no comment was forthcoming. ‘This is a child’s smock, Mrs Bennet.’
    â€˜Why, so it is,’ said Mrs Bennet in a faint voice.
    â€˜The very facsimile of a young farmer’s smock,’ said Mr Collins, bowing to Mrs Long.
    â€˜For your grandson, Mrs Bennet,’ said Mrs Long, who was unable to contain her excitement any longer.
    â€˜My daughter Jane has a daughter, Emily,’ said Mrs Bennet. ‘It is true that Jane may give birth while at Pemberley, for she is near her time. I shall warn Lizzy of this. I am sure Mr Darcy will be most understanding and that the accommodation at Pemberley will be entirely sufficient for an accouchement.’
    â€˜Indeed, Mrs Bingley will bring more happiness into your life very soon, Mrs Bennet. But I mean this smock to be worn at Pemberley; and to be handed down the generations too. Make sure Nurse starches it not too much, for this is a fine lawn. As for the smocking itself – it may well outlive the gown, for small boys do enjoy a rough and tumble.’
    â€˜Mrs Long, I really do not know what you are saying,’ said Mrs Bennet. ‘But we must, alas, continue with our preparations for the journey to Derbyshire. Kitty comes from Lyme tomorrow and we shall have all the business of readying her for the trip.’
    Mr Collins said that Kitty would find a young man at Pemberley and that there was bound to be a ball, for Lady Catherine, Mr Darcy’s aunt, had written to him very recently saying she hoped the tradition of the New Year’s Ball would be continued and the fact of a Mrs Darcy at Pemberley would not prevent it.
    â€˜Why should my Lizzy stop a ball?’ cried Mrs Bennet. ‘But what are we to wear? And who is this young man, Mr Collins, I would like to know?’
    Mr Collins was glad to impart the information that the young man was a Master Roper. He was a cousin of Lady Catherine and therefore of Mr Darcy and she intended to apply to Mr Darcy for an invitation to Master Roper, who would otherwise be alone at Christmas, for an invitation to Pemberley.
    â€˜Very thoughtful, I am sure,’ said Mary.
    Mrs Bennet enquired into the prospects of Master Roper; and at the same time complained that Kitty would have nothing at all to wear for so grand an occasion as a ball at Pemberley.
    â€˜Master Roper, Mrs Bennet,’ said Mr Collins, ‘is Mr Darcy’s heir.’
    â€˜What can you mean by that?’ cried Mrs Bennet, most disagreeably surprised by this information. ‘The son born to my own daughter Elizabeth will be Mr Darcy’s heir.’
    â€˜In the event of Mr Darcy’s dying without a son and heir, Pemberley is in entail to Master Roper,’ Mr Collins explained. ‘Lady Catherine de Bourgh’ – and here he bowed, as if that august personage had walked into the room – ‘Lady Catherine does not know why a family of the stature of the Darcys should go in for entail. It is not like Longbourn, you know.’
    â€˜So we are thrown out of our home and to be doubly pitied,’ Mary said with some dryness. ‘We are not grand enough to do without an entail and that is somehow our fault for not being able to stay in the house we grew up in!’
    â€˜Rosings is not in entail,’ said Mr Collins, who had no desire to reply to Mary’s charge. ‘Lady Catherine can rest assured that Miss de Bourgh will inherit Rosings.’
    After reiterating that from all he heard Master Roper was a personable young man, Mr Collins took his leave; and Mrs Long, when she had delivered instructions on the future preservation of the smock, did likewise.

Chapter 10
    It happened every year at Pemberley in the week leading up to Christmas that Mr Darcy and a group of his friends