Advent Day 7-A Chance Meeting pt 14

As a special treat for Austen Variation readers at Advent, I present the penultimate part of what is now published as “A Most Affectionate Mother.”

Part 14

Mrs. Johnstone was waiting in the kitchen with a dry, warm blanket and a large cup of hot broth. Mr. Johnstone set her down in front of the fire and saw her wrapped in the blanket before he stalked away. How delicious the warmth seeping into her mostly numb and heavy limbs, melting away tension, along with most of her thoughts. As soon as she had drunk the broth, Mrs. Johnstone, urged her upstairs, helped her into a warm dry nightgown and tucked her into a warmed bed. Mary fell asleep before Mrs. Johnstone left her room.

Given the shadows on the floor, it was nearly noon by the time she rose the next day. She pushed the covers off and sat up. Gracious it took more effort than it should to do that. She tested each joint in turn. Stiff and achy, one and all. She sniffled and searched for her handkerchief. If all she had to complain for from a night spent in the woods was a stuffy nose, then she was very lucky indeed.

She dressed, albeit very slowly, listening to the sounds of the children in the schoolroom below stairs. She swallowed hard. Those noises distracted her at first, but now, the low roar that they created was welcome, even comforting. She would miss it when she left. That would be soon enough. Surely it would not be wrong to linger a few more moments and enjoy it.

A quarter of an hour later, she made her way downstairs. Mrs. Johnstone saw her from the parlor and hurried to meet her.

“How are you feeling? You gave us all such a fright.” She laced her arm in Mary’s.

“A bit of a sniffle, but nothing more of concern. Pray forgive me for causing you worry. I had no idea of getting lost in the woods like that. I followed the trail in, but then took the wrong fork back and … and…” She sniffled.

Mrs. Johnstone patted her hand. “It could have happened to any of us. You seemed so distraught when you dashed out like that. In that state of mind, distressing things always seem to happen.”

“Still, I should not have been so rash. I like to think that is out of character for me. But perhaps I am wrong.”

“Nonsense, you are as steady a girl as I have ever known. Come, now, let us find you something to break your fast. You must be famished. I know those boys must not have eaten everything in the house, at least not yet.” She chuckled under her breath as she trundled toward the kitchen while waving Mary to the dining room.

Mary sat in the chair that had effectively become hers. Near the window, it afforded a commanding view of the boys when they were seated to eat. Funny little chaps, many still struggling with their table manners. Mealtimes seemed to be as much a lesson time as did the school day. Though there were times she missed the more polished conversation around the table at Longbourn, there was an element of whimsy that the boys brought to each meal. She dragged her sleeve across her eyes.

“Miss Bennet?” Mr. Johnstone stood in the doorway staring at her. “My mother told me I was wanted immediately in the dining room and has taken over supervising the boys as they read.”

“She told me she was off to the kitchen—”

“Excuse me sir,” the maid ducked around him, a breakfast tray in her hands. She set it in front of Mary and scuttled away as fast as she could without running.

“It seems as though she succeeded in that errand.” His eyebrow rose slightly. “Pray, please, go ahead and eat, do not let me stop you.” He sat down near her. The scent of his shaving oil nearly brought tears to her eyes. She would miss that.

“You must forgive me. I am not sure I have an appetite.” She pushed the tray several inches back.

He grunted, lips wrinkled into something like a frown. “I am surprised you ran off as you did. I did not expect you to be foolish enough to be lost in the woods.”

She shrugged. “Neither did I. I did not exactly leave Leighton with the plan and intention to become lost.”

“Very few do, I would expect. Still, as many times as you have warned to boys to take care not to lose their way, I expected you to be a better example.” He drummed his fingers on the table.

“I did too.”

Silence broken only by the regular sound of his breathing and her occasional sniffle.

But it could not continue all morning. Someone had to say something. It may as well be her. “I pray you and your mother will be able to forgive me. I … I thought I could do much better for all of you. But it seems I am mistaken. I should go back to Longbourn now, before … before there are any more mishaps. I am sure it will be best for you and the children that way. I can write to my father to send the coach as soon as possible, or if you prefer, I … I do not mind purchasing a ticket for the stage and riding that home.”

“You would ride the public stage, by yourself?” His jaw dropped.

“If that is your preference. I can see that I am a disruption to the household and I … I understand why you might want to keep that to a minimum after what has happened.” She turned away. Though he seemed to be making no effort to meet her gaze, there was no point in taking a chance that he might.

“Are you in such a hurry to be rid of us? That you would jeopardize your reputation?” He slapped the table hard enough to rattle her teacup.

“I never suggested that I was.” She sat up a little straighter.

“It certainly sounded that way to me.” Was he growling at her?

“I am only trying to do what is best for your family and your school.”

“And how would you know what was best?” He knocked harder on the tabletop.

“I supposed that is a very good question. I clearly do not and should have declined this invitation when it came in the first place. I have been out of place all along.” She stood and turned her back to him.

“It seems then you would do well to be rid of us all.”

“You have done nothing to suggest otherwise.”

“Have I not?”

She met his gaze full on and glowered at him. How powerful was that eye contact with him. It forced her back half a step, but she grasped the back of her chair and stood her ground.

A gambit of expressions crossed is face in just a few seconds. Finally he looked away, mumbling. “I suppose I have not.”

“Excuse me?”

“You are right. I have done little to express my opinion of your contributions one way or another. I have been remiss.” His head drooped and his gaze lowered to the floor.

She pulled back her shoulders and straightened her spine, but it was not enough. “I beg you, spare me your analysis. It is entirely enough to know the damage I have done with the Mullens.”

His head snapped up and he gaped at her. “What damage?”

“Mrs. Mullen declares she will remove her son from your charge and ensure no other families ever sent their sons to you again.”

“She said what?”  His brows knit, but he laughed, deep and long.

“I cannot understand why you should find that so amusing.”

“Because it is entirely laughable, that is why. I cannot imagine why you do not find her amusing as well.” He touched her hand and bade her to sit once again.

“Perhaps because I was there to listen to her threats. Apparently I seem to take the welfare of your establishment far more seriously than you do, if you find threats to it so amusing. Clearly I have misplaced my loyalties.”

He fell heavily into his chair. “You are being temperamental and flighty and utterly unlike yourself, and I will not have it. You are a steady and sensible woman and I demand her to return right now.”

“You are awfully sure of yourself.”

“I can be when I am right.”

Oh, that smug, self-satisfied look he wore. Was he intentionally being maddening? “How is it that you think you are right in the current moment.”

“Because Mrs. Mullen is a hysterical goose and all who know her agree. She is on the verge of ruining that boy for all good society. He has been sent here in the effort to prepare him for the world of men.”

“That is not what she says.”

“Of course not, that is what makes her a goose. It is what his father says that matters in this case, considering it is he who is truly in charge of the boy. Once Mrs. Mullen left our parlor, he took the boy out and gave him a sound thrashing for all the trouble he has caused, then took me to task for not birching him bloody myself.”

Her jaw dropped. It was not pleasing to look like a trout out of water, but that seemed all she was capable of at the moment.

“I explained I had not done so as it ran the risk of making him a hero among the other boys, only worsening his character. Sending him to chop wood though, that was far more humbling and more likely to serve the necessary purpose.” He leaned back and cocked an eyebrow at her.

“You told him that?”

“Indeed. I think well on my feet as it were. While we never talked about it in those terms that is exactly what has happened. I for one am pleased with the approach. That is not to say that I may not be forced to follow his father’s preferences yet, but I am content to watch and see how his attitude changes now that he knows his complaints have fallen on deaf ears.”

“They are not taking their child from your school or suggesting other parents do the same?”

“Hardly. He has even offered me an extra ten pounds to keep him during the holidays.” He chuckled.

“Surely you are kidding me.”

“Not at all. He is pleased to have the boy be someone else’s responsibility. Can you blame him? If the boy returns home, he will have to hire a tutor, and that will be far more expensive than sending him to us. The Mullens are hardly poor, but some economy is always advisable.”

“What did you tell him?” Mary clasped her hands in her lap.

“I have not made an answer yet.”

They stared at each other awkwardly.

He looked at his hands in his lap and muttered, “Do you still wish to go?”

“Do you want me to?”

He threw his head back and rolled his eyes. “Must you ask that question? Can you not tell?”

Her throat clamped down against any possible word she could speak and she looked away. Why of all things would he have had to ask that? She slumped into her chair.

“I see I have made a muddle of it again, have I not?”

It would have been nice to be able to answer, but truly what was she to say?

“When things are so obvious to me, I take it for granted that everyone can see them. My most affectionate mother has often scolded me that it is a mistake. Perhaps she is right.” He dropped to a knee beside her. “Mary Bennet.”

Her eyes locked on his—what had he just said? How had he addressed her?

“Ah, now you have heard me. Good, I had feared it might be difficult to get through to you.”  Finally, that smile she had ached to see. “You asked me if I wanted you to leave now. I do not want you to leave, ever. This house has never seemed a home until you stepped through that door. You have invaded every part of my life, my home, my livelihood, my parish, my family—pleasing even my very particular mother. You have touched every part and made each one better in a way that I cannot express. I have admired your spirit and your fire from the moment you fought me for that library book. I have not been able to stop thinking about you since. When you did not come home yesterday,” his voice broke, and he gulped. “When you did not come home, I did not know how I would bear it, wandering within these walls without your company. Pray, do not put me through that again, Mary, my Mary. Be my wife.”

“What about your sister? Was she not—”

He laughed again. “She will think you a saint for relieving her from the responsibility. She had little desire to come to the country much less to assist me.”

The corner of her lips turned up.

“You will marry me?”

“Yes, I will.”

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. “I know it is sentimental and perhaps not even sensible to say, but I have never meant anything more. I love you, Mary and I hope you never forget that.”

So, did Mr. Johnstone do good? Tell me what you think!

Find earlier parts of this story HERE

You can find the complete book here: