Recollections of Rosings (14 page)

    "And what is his success?" asked Jonathan.

    "Only one or two of the major employers have agreed—the others are digging their heels in. My cousin believes that the only way they will succeed is by getting working-class candidates elected to the Commons. And of course, the Liberals have not agreed to support them. They are very disappointed."

    "Why is it not possible for a working man to be worthy of a decent wage?" asked Catherine plaintively, and Jonathan Bingley explained that it was not a simple matter.

    "Because the employers hold all the cards, Catherine. Strikes are costly to workers because they must have wages to feed their families and pay the rent. Impecunious tradesmen and labourers have no bargaining power, they do not fight on equal terms," Jonathan explained.

    "Especially not when their opponents are unprincipled men with entrenched power," added Mr Burnett and Lilian applauded. "Spoken like a true radical!" she cried and he said as if in jest, "You will get me into deep trouble, Miss Lilian, calling me a radical. I am not a radical, I promise, but I am very aware of the grievances of the poor. My late father was an attorney and he was forever going to court to plead for some poor man who had been arraigned for taking trout or game and once boasted he had saved two of the men arrested for rick burning and machine breaking from the gallows."

    "And where did your father practice, Mr Burnett?" asked Anna Bingley, to which he replied, "In the Midlands, ma'am, where much of the troubles occurred."

    Catherine listened, fascinated; she had had no inkling of this aspect of Mr Burnett's family. No one had told her, when he had worked at Rosings as a librarian all those years ago, who his parents were and where he came from. Nor had it ever occurred to her to ask, being so little aware of events in the wider world outside of Rosings.

    The ladies withdrew, leaving Jonathan and Mr Burnett to continue their discussion and enjoy the port. Lilian, who knew how well Anna Bingley played, opened up the pianoforte and Anna was happy to oblige. By the time the gentlemen joined them for coffee, the mood had changed to one of genteel pleasure. Jonathan joined Catherine as she sat on the sofa, and they listened to the very superior playing of his wife and the rather less perfect but very acceptable performances of both Lilian and Mr Burnett, who had been persuaded to contribute their voices to entertain the company.

    "I did not know Burnett could sing," said Jonathan, and Catherine smiled as she said, "Oh yes, I do believe he used to have a very fine voice, but is a little out of practice these days. We, Lilian and I, intend to work on him and persuade him to practice more often when Mr Adams is back. He sings too, you know."

    Jonathan nodded. "He does indeed have a fine voice; we have heard him sing. It has a most mellow tone and excellent pitch. My wife was very impressed."

    Two days later, Lilian left home in the company of Mr and Mrs Bingley to travel to London, where she was delivered into the welcoming arms of her aunt, Becky Tate.

    Mrs Tate gathered her into an embrace.

    "Oh my dear Lilian, how glad I was to receive your mama's letter saying you would come. Now, let's go upstairs and take a good look at your things; we may need to visit my dressmaker tomorrow to get you a couple of new gowns and we must shop for a hat and some gloves."

    Lilian protested. "My dear aunt, I have plenty of perfectly good gowns; Mama made me bring a ball gown even though I said I did not think I would need it, and I have two very good bonnets."

    Rebecca smiled as if she had not heard a word.

    "Of course you are going to need a ball gown—your mama was quite right to make you bring one. But your bonnets, now, they are quite out of the question. I know them well, and while they are quite fine for walking in the woods around Rosings or trotting down to the village, you cannot be seen driving in Hyde Park wearing one of them. No matter, my love, we shall get you a more suitable hat tomorrow. Now, you must be tired after your journey; when you have rested and had some tea, we shall talk again."

    Lilian could neither argue nor demur. Her aunt Becky carried all before her and later that afternoon, they were making lists of the sorts of things they were going to have to purchase on the morrow.

    "Ah well," thought Lilian, "at least I shall be able to write a letter while my aunt is busy buying me all these new clothes!"

    Sitting alone in her room, which overlooked a quiet street, Lilian's thoughts were all of Mr Adams and how she might contrive to send him a letter. It had been her primary purpose in accepting the invitation to come to London. She turned it over in her mind, pondering how she should write; she must suggest warmth and friendliness without appearing too eager and yet she wanted more than anything to know his feelings.

    "How shall I discover them if I do not, at the very least, let him see that my own are open to engagement?" she wondered.

    It was a conundrum she would take awhile to resolve.

Back at the Dower House, Catherine faced the prospect of spending several lonely evenings without her daughter.

    For the first time since the death of her husband, she understood how much she had come to depend upon Lilian for company and friendship. Lilian had promised, when she said good-bye, to write regularly and tell her mother how they spent their time in London, but Catherine knew this would not be very often. Once Rebecca drew Lilian into all the varied activities she had planned for them in town, there would not be a great deal of time for letterwriting, Catherine thought.

    She was usually kept quite busy through the day, but did not look forward to those long Autumn afternoons.

    On the first evening, she decided to dine early and retire to her room. As night fell and the servants completed their work and retired to their rooms, the silence in the house was unsettling. She came downstairs again and went into the study to get a book, which she hoped would help occupy her thoughts. It did not and she turned to the Bible, which lay on her bedside table; that helped, but not for long.

    Finally, determined she would not allow herself to be driven into a panic by loneliness, she opened the bottom drawer of her bureau and took out a pile of old notebooks, which had lain undisturbed in a cupboard under the stairs at Hunsford for many years. They had come to light again when they were disposing of the books in Mr Harrison's study and she, reluctant to consign them to the attic, had hastily gathered them up and carried them upstairs to her room. Here, she thought, was something to engage her mind.

    Dating back to the days when Catherine had lived at Rosings, the old notebooks were her own diaries, which, though rather worn and faded, were filled with memories that transported her back through the years. Opening first one and then another at random, she perused quickly the entries—written at first in the round, girlish hand of a fourteen-year-old, they traced the many events of her early days at Rosings Park.

    They ranged from very short sentences and scraps of information, such as:

    Then longer, discursive passages describing various events and important personages within the social circle of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Recollections of life at Rosings came rushing back as she read on, picking up an entry here and there from later diaries.

Lady C is not in a good mood today, even though God is in his Heaven
and all seems right with the rest of the world,
she had written rather irreverently.

    Catherine giggled, recalling the occasion; it had been rather funny seeing both Lord Denham and Mr Burnett laughing together at matters Lady Catherine neither knew nor understood, but wanted so much to know.

    As she read on into the night, Catherine was drawn deeper into the time when her life at Rosings had introduced her to people and ideas she had never dreamt of whilst at the Hunsford parsonage. From the pages of her old diaries, there emerged long-forgotten pictures of persons and occasions that had been a part of the life she had lived then, a style of life that had seen her grow from a quiet little girl in a country parsonage into an intelligent young woman, able to move in society with confidence.