The Meryton Murders Read online

  The Meryton Murders

  A Mystery Set in the Town of

  Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice

  VICTORIA GROSSACK

  Copyright © 2016 Victoria A. Grossack

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1515296843

  ISBN-13: 978-1515296843

  “AylesfordBridge” by Lynbarn – Own work.

  Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AylesfordBridge.jpg#/media/File:AylesfordBridge.jpg

  Note that the original photo was cropped.

  For Jan

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I must thank Jane Hawk and Catherine Yoes for their encouraging feedback, and Catherine Cresswell for her excellent suggestions. My greatest debt is to Jane Austen, who created such wonderful characters.

  The flaws that remain are my own.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Mrs. Annesley: Companion and chaperone to Georgiana Darcy.

  Mr. Bennet: Proprietor of Longbourn, husband to Mrs. Bennet, father of five daughters – Jane Bingley, Elizabeth Darcy, Mary Bennet, Kitty Bennet, Lydia Wickham. “A mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humor, reserve and caprice.”

  Mrs. Bennet (née Gardiner): Wife to Mr. Bennet, sister to Mrs. Philips and Mr. Gardiner, daughter of an attorney (deceased) of Meryton, mother of five daughters – Jane Bingley, Elizabeth Darcy, Mary Bennet, Kitty Bennet, Lydia Wickham. Her business has been to get her daughters married; she has succeeded with three of the five. “A woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper.”

  Miss Catherine (Kitty) Bennet: Fourth daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, she is delicate and slight and misses her younger sister, Lydia, very much.

  Miss Mary Bennet: Third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, she has the misfortune of being the only plain one of the five, and compensates through her accomplishments – music and reading. “A young lady of deep reflection who reads great books and makes extracts.”

  Miss Caroline Bingley: Unmarried sister of Mr. Bingley and Louisa Hurst (née Bingley), she has a fortune of 20,000£. “A fine woman, with an air of decided fashion.”

  Mr. Charles Bingley: Tenant of Netherfield Park, husband of Jane Bingley, brother to Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst (née Bingley). “Good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners.”

  Mrs. Jane Bingley (née Bennet): Wife to Mr. Bingley, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. According to her sister Elizabeth, Jane is about five times as pretty as every other woman and never sees a fault in anybody.

  Miss Anne de Bourgh: Heiress of Rosings Park, daughter of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and the late Sir Lewis de Bourgh. “She looks sickly and cross.”

  Lady Catherine de Bourgh (née Fitzwilliam): Proprietor of Rosings Park, widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh, mother of Anne de Bourgh, aunt to Mr. Darcy, Miss Georgiana Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam and others. Patroness of Mr. Collins, she is arrogant and conceited, dictatorial and insolent.

  Brown: Undergardener on the Netherfield estate.

  Mr. Henry Clarke: From the family that owns Clarke’s Library, this young man is clerk to Mr. Philips.

  Mr. Thomas Clarke: Older brother of Mr. Henry Clarke.

  Mrs. Charlotte Collins (née Lucas): Wife to Mr. Collins, daughter to Sir William Lucas and Lady Lucas, mother of Lewis William Collins, sister to Maria Lucas and others. “A sensible, intelligent young woman.”

  Lewis William Collins: Infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Collins, grandson of Sir William and Lady Lucas.

  Mr. William Collins: Heir to the entailed Longbourn estate, husband to Mrs. Charlotte Collins, father of Lewis William Collins, cousin of Mr. Bennet and his five daughters. Mr. Collins is a clergyman in Hunsford, his living afforded him by Lady Catherine de Bourgh. “A tall, heavy looking young man … his air was grave and stately, and his manners were very formal.”

  Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy (née Bennet): Wife to Mr. Darcy, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, sister to Jane Bingley, Mary Bennet, Kitty Bennet, and Lydia Wickham. “She had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous.”

  Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Proprietor of Pemberley, husband to Elizabeth Darcy, brother and guardian to Georgiana Darcy, nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. “Fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report of his having ten thousand a-year … was looked at with great admiration … till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity.”

  Miss Georgiana Darcy: Sister to Fitzwilliam Darcy and an heiress with 30,000£. “Her figure was formed and her appearance womanly and graceful.”

  Colonel Fitzwilliam: Younger son of an earl, nephew to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, cousin to Mr. Darcy and to Miss Georgiana Darcy; he shares joint guardianship of the latter. “Not handsome, but in person and address most truly the gentleman.”

  Mrs. Ford: Mrs. Collins’s previous nursery maid.

  Mr. Edward Gardiner: Brother to Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Philips, he grew up in Meryton but is now a man of business living in London on Gracechurch Street.

  Mrs. Gardiner: Wife of Mr. Gardiner and a favorite with her two oldest nieces.

  Mr. Goulding: A neighbor.

  Mrs. Goulding: A neighbor.

  Hannah: Maidservant of Miss Mary King.

  Hill: Housekeeper at Longbourn House.

  Mr. Hurst: Husband to Louisa Hurst (née Bingley). “Merely looked the gentleman.”

  Mrs. Louisa Hurst (née Bingley): Wife of Mr. Hurst, sister to Charles Bingley and Caroline Bingley. “A fine woman, with an air of decided fashion.”

  Jeanette: Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy’s French maidservant.

  Mrs. Jenkinson: Companion and chaperone of Miss Anne de Bourgh.

  Joan: Mrs. Collins’s current nursery maid.

  The elder Mr. Jones: Apothecary in Meryton.

  The younger Mr. Jones: Son of the elder Mr. Jones and apothecary in Meryton.

  Miss Mary King: She inherited 10,000£ from her grandfather in Meryton; Lydia described her as “a nasty little freckled thing.”

  Lady Lucas: Wife to Sir William Lucas, a neighbor of the Bennets at Longbourn. “A very good kind of woman.”

  Miss Maria Lucas: Second daughter of Sir William and Lady Lucas.

  Mr. Will Lucas: Eldest son of Sir William and Lady Lucas, brother to Mrs. Collins, Maria Lucas, and others.

  Sir William Lucas: Owner of Lucas Lodge, husband of Lady Lucas, father of Charlotte Collins, Maria Lucas, and several others. He was knighted when mayor of Meryton. “… all attention to everybody … by nature inoffensive, attentive and obliging.”

  Mr. Morris: Young relative of a real estate agent, he is a clerk to the attorney Mr. Philips.

  Mrs. Nicholls: Cook for the Bingleys at Netherfield Park.

  Jim Page: Son of Mrs. Page.

  Mrs. Page: Meryton milliner whose shop is across the street from the house/office of Mr. Philips.

  Frank Perkins: Son of Jailer Perkins.

  Jailer Perkins: Jailer in Meryton.

  Mr. Philips: Attorney in Meryton, former clerk to the father of Mr. Edward Gardiner, Mrs. Philips and Mrs. Bennet. “Broad-faced and stuffy.”

  Mrs. Philips (née Gardiner): Wife to Mr. Philips, sister to Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner, aunt to the Bennet girls.

  Reeves: Housemaid at Netherfield.

  Richard: Footman to Mr. Philips.

  Old Mr. Robinson: A neighbor.

  Young Mr. Robinson: A neighbor.

  Mr. Selby: Betrothed to Miss Mary King, from Liverpool, nephew to a baronet.

  Mrs. Smith: Tenant of Mr. and Mrs. Philips.

  Colonel Thorne: Commander of George Wickham’s regiment in Newcastle, and a friend of Colonel Fitzwilliam.
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  Reverend Wallace: Vicar with the living at the village of Kympton, near Pemberley.

  Lieutenant George Wickham: Husband to Lydia, son of the former, deceased steward of Pemberley, he grew up with Mr. Darcy but did not turn out well. “He had all the best part of beauty – a fine countenance, a good figure, and a very pleasing address.”

  Mrs. Lydia Wickham (née Bennet): Wife to George Wickham, fifth and youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. “A fine complexion and a good-humored countenance … high animal spirits and a sort of natural self-consequence.”

  Wilson: Pemberley coachman.

  Mrs. Annabelle Younge: Former companion and chaperone of Miss Georgiana Darcy, in whose character Mr. Darcy was unhappily deceived.

  CHAPTER I

  When a single man with a good income moves into a neighborhood, especially when he leases a large estate, the people rejoice and speculate. They are impatient to learn everything about him, such as his preferences for hunting, whether he likes to dance, what sort of horse he rides and whether or not they can persuade him to take an interest in one of their unmarried daughters. He is the subject of conversation, the recipient of eager visits, and the object of hopes and dreams.

  But when a middle-aged widow of modest means hires a few rooms in a market-town, her arrival is barely noticed. She is too old to cause excitement among the men, and too plain to provoke jealous gossip among the women. Even the tradespeople sigh with disappointment, for a widow of modest means cannot be expected to provide much custom for bread, meat and millinery. So when Mrs. Smith took lodgings in Meryton, her appearance mattered to only a few: to the attorney Mr. Philips, who was the landlord of Meryton’s newest resident; to those in his office, who were in charge of the details; and to his wife, Mrs. Philips, who welcomed any increase in their income, and had long regretted the vacancy of the apartment on F— street.

  Mrs. Philips, calling on her sister Mrs. Bennet at Mr. Bennet’s Longbourn estate, about a mile from Meryton, shared news of the new lady and neighbor, expressing the hope that her tenant would join them occasionally for an evening of cards. “I have called on Mrs. Smith and she has returned the visit. She seems an agreeable, genteel sort of lady.”

  “Does she now?” asked Mrs. Bennet, who was distractedly peering out the window in search of Kitty, her younger unmarried daughter. She turned to Mary, another single daughter and asked Mary if she knew where Kitty was; Mary replied that she was ignorant of her younger sister’s whereabouts.

  Mrs. Philips attempted to be philosophical. “You know, sister, at our time of life, with the departure of the militia and the marriages of your daughters, we should welcome every new acquaintance.”

  One might have expected that Mrs. Bennet, not too distant in years from Mrs. Smith, would be sympathetic to the middle-aged woman and her situation. “I hope she is a good tenant for you and Mr. Philips,” Mrs. Bennet said valiantly, before resuming the subject that she cared for most: single young men who she might convince to marry one of her two remaining daughters. The eligible bachelors in Meryton were few and well known, but Mrs. Bennet, devoted to her daughters’ welfare, observed them assiduously. “How is Mr. Philips’s new clerk?”

  Mr. Philips, once a clerk to Mr. Gardiner, the long-deceased father of Mrs. Philips and Mrs. Bennet, had recently hired a new clerk of his own, in addition to Mr. Morris, an extremely plain fellow who had worked for Mr. Philips for the last two years. “His name is Mr. Clarke,” said Mrs. Philips, “which makes me think he must come from a long line of clerks.”

  “He is connected to the Clarkes at the library,” said Mary, the third of the five Bennet daughters and the only one in the room. A dedicated reader, she was a patron of the local circulating library. “He has returned to Meryton after working in London.”

  “Yes, yes, but what are his prospects?” inquired Mrs. Bennet, who did not think well enough of any business based on people reading books to rely on them to support her daughters. “Does Mr. Philips think he will advance? Does Mr. Philips really have enough work to support two clerks?” Before Mrs. Philips could answer either of these questions, Mrs. Bennet continued. “He might do for Mary, if he is of a serious nature. On the other hand, laying a good table and looking fine is important for an attorney, so Mr. Clarke might be more suitable for Kitty.”

  Without waiting for an answer, Mrs. Bennet moved on to other prospective husbands. “Perhaps the eldest Lucas boy. At least Lucas Lodge is in the neighborhood. It is so hard to have children move away. I cannot tell you what I have suffered, Sister, in being separated from my dear Lydia and my dear Lizzy.”

  Mrs. Bennet could rejoice in her great success in having already married off three of her five daughters. Lydia, the youngest and Mrs. Bennet’s favorite, had been the first to marry. Her husband was Lieutenant George Wickham, whom the Bennets had met when the –shire Militia had been quartered in Meryton. Mr. Wickham was handsome, charming, and unreliable; he had only consented to marry Lydia after a scandalous elopement and pressure from interested parties. There was no question but that Mrs. Bennet certainly missed Lydia, even though she and her favorite daughter had not been parted long, as Mr. and Mrs. Wickham had recently stayed at Netherfield, with Mrs. Bingley, the eldest of the Bennet daughters.

  Mr. Charles Bingley, Jane’s husband, was the tenant of Netherfield Park, located about three miles from Longbourn, Mr. Bennet’s estate. The match between Bingley and Jane was one that that everyone could celebrate, for Bingley was reliable, handsome, good-humored and rich. The only flaw in his character was that he had taken a rather long time to propose, those months of hesitation causing deep anguish to Mrs. Bennet and to her daughter Jane – but since they had married ten months ago, all was forgiven.

  Mrs. Bennet’s last married daughter was Elizabeth, the second of the Bennet daughters. She had married Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Mr. Bingley’s great friend. No one could complain about Mr. Darcy’s looks, for he was a tall, handsome man; nor could anyone object to his fortune, for he was the owner of Pemberley, a great estate located in Derbyshire. Mr. Darcy, however, was not a charming man, and when he had first arrived in Meryton in the company of Mr. Bingley he had been generally disliked due to his pride and his continual giving of offense, and to falsehoods that had been spread about him by George Wickham.

  Mrs. Bennet was obliged to say that she missed Elizabeth, because that daughter was now Mrs. Darcy, by far the richest of her three married daughters. Before the marriage, however, Elizabeth had been her least favorite, as Elizabeth was quick enough to see and to occasionally object to her mother’s excesses. These remonstrations had irritated Mrs. Bennet, who felt that such interference was inappropriate. With her second daughter at a distance, the source of her vexation was gone, and expressing affection was much easier for Mrs. Bennet. She very much enjoyed talking about, if not talking with, Mrs. Darcy.

  Mrs. Philips had heard all these things so often that all she had to do was to make the usual sympathetic noises as she stirred more sugar in her tea, while Mary, who had heard them even more frequently, ignored her mother as best she could.

  “The eldest Lucas might do for either Mary or Kitty. And that would make up for what they have taken. I still have not forgotten how Lady Lucas stole Mr. Collins from me!”

  The eldest Lucas daughter had married Mr. Collins, a cousin to Mr. Bennet, a clergyman in Kent and the heir to the Longbourn estate. Longbourn was entailed, in default of male heirs, and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet had no sons. Mr. Collins had come to Longbourn in search of a wife, but the Bennet daughter he had chosen, Elizabeth, had refused his offer of marriage – another reason that daughter had fallen out of her mother’s good graces for a period. As Elizabeth’s marriage to Mr. Darcy was far better than the match that she could have made with Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet might have been expected to forgive Elizabeth this refusal. Sometimes she was successful, but other times the resentment, so habitual, if not the memory of the cause, reasserted itself. For Mr. Collins, affronted by Elizabeth’s r
efusal, had consoled himself by marrying one of Elizabeth’s closest friends, Charlotte Lucas.

  “It would be a way to even the situation between us, and at least Lucas Lodge is nearby. Ah, Mr. Bennet, there you are!”

  Mr. Bennet, husband to Mrs. Bennet and the proprietor of Longbourn, emerged from his library in order to join them and to take a cup of tea. Besides, his sister-in-law, although not a great wit, was at least a slight change from the sameness of the relatively small circle in which they now lived.

  “Do you have any news for us, Mr. Bennet?”

  Before Mr. Bennet could answer, the final member of their reduced family party arrived: Kitty, fresh from a walk to the Lucases, the family who had caused so much grief for Mrs. Bennet.

  Mr. Bennet accepted a cup of tea poured by Mrs. Bennet and answered his lady’s question.

  “Mr. Collins has sent us a letter,” Mr. Bennet announced, who enjoyed sharing this information because he knew it would irritate his wife.

  “Mr. Collins writes many letters,” observed Kitty, who shared her mother’s dislike of Mr. Collins, but not because he was the future proprietor of Longbourn. After meeting so many officers, as she had during the —shire Militia’s stay in Meryton, Miss Catherine Bennet could not imagine settling for a clergyman, especially one so long-winded and dull.

  “He has not written so many recently,” Mary corrected. “What does Mr. Collins say?”

  Mr. Collins, Mr. Bennet announced, had written his letter to inform them that he and his dear Charlotte and their little son were planning to visit Meryton in the near future, so that little Lewis Collins could meet his grandparents, his aunts and uncles and his cousins.

  “I hope they are not planning to stay here,” said Mrs. Bennet.

  “No, Mamma, they will be staying at Lucas Lodge,” said Kitty, then explained that Lady Lucas had also received a letter from Charlotte.