The Pemberley Papers

Chapter Two

I had thought to be satisfied with a visit to Pemberley but I find I cannot return without making a foray to Parnham Park in another part of Derbyshire where Emma Knightley nee Wodehouse is now in residence.

As to the situation of Parnham I refer you to a guide to Derbyshire and its Beauties. Suffice to say that the house is in the Gothick style and no opportunity has been lost to introduce a note of the sublime to every domestic arrangement. Even the kitchen has a fan vaulted ceiling. It is in short a house built with so much attention to taste and aesthetics that its owners now live in genteel poverty in Ostend.

But Emma Knightley is not looking up at the groyne vaulted celiing of the saloon, she is looking at the doors and windows as possible conveyors of drafts. For while she is sadly now a widow, she is still a daughter. Mr. Wodehouse has made the journey to Derbyshire with her, and now her one thought is for his comfort. To that end she has engaged Miss Bates, a voluble spinster of Highbury Parish to go on ahead to make sure that Parnham is in a fit state to receive her father. Miss Bates has recently lost her mother, and Emma thought it might be a kindness to give her the opportunity to escape the melancholy associations of Highbury.

‘ As you can see I have caused drugget to be put down around the doors, and what I think is a very pretty arrangement of screens here by the fireplace so that dear Mr. Wodehouse can sit here and be quite safe from any unwelcome drafts. “

Emma surveys the room which has been so swaddled in drugget that that it would have to be a very hard wind indeed to penetrate the cocoon that Miss Bates has created .

“ You have done well, Miss Bates. I shall bring Papa up here presently. “

Miss Bates flushes with pleasure. “ I fancy I have some talent for arranging rooms to be comfortable. Of course I have had little opportunity in Highbury as the lodgings that I shared with dear Mama were quite small. But dear Jane Churchill, Fairfax that was, has been kind enough to invite me to stay with her on many occasions and when I am there you know, I always try to repay her kindness with those little attentions which only those who are rich in time but not money can give. I would assist her in the arrangement of the many vitrines in the Churchill home. You cannot imagine what a number of ornaments they have, all of them quite exquisite, and much too precious to be left to the attentions of the maids who while willing, are never quite to be trusted with the really good things.”

Miss Bates draws breath and Emma seizes the chance to escape. She knows that Miss Bates is one of the most well meaning women alive, but a little of her conversation goes a long distance. But she is careful to conceal her feelings. Emma has never quite forgotten the scolding she received from Mr. Knightley after a picnic at Box Hill. In an attempt to entertain Frank Churchill who seemed at that time to be a potential suitor, she had mocked Miss Bates’s garrulousness to her face. As Knightley had told her later, “it was not worthy of you Emma.” At the time she had dismissed his rebuke with a laugh, but she can still feel her shame at the expression on his face. Since then it has been Emma’s duty not to say penance to treat Miss Bates with the utmost respect. Even though Knightley is no longer here to give her an approving smile when she showssome small attention to Miss Bates; Emma never again wants to be the thoughtless girl who made fun of a woman who had so few of her own advantages. But there are times when she has to bite her lip.

Mr. Wodehouse is being conveyed in his bath chair from the carriage into the house. He can still walk quite well unaided but he always feels safer in his bath chair. ‘It is so easy to slip and fall when crossing unfamiliar ground. There are a good deal of hazards in this part of the country.” This is Mr. Wodehouse’s first trip to Derbyshire, indeed his first journey to any part of England apart from London and Bath. He regards the North of England with the same trepidation as commander of a roman legion would on being sent to pacify the Picts. Emma despaired of ever persuading him to leave Highbury until her son had reminded her of the proximity of Parnham to the town of Buxton with its famously therapeutic waters. Dr. Lacey was most cooperative in his praise of the healing powers of the Buxton springs. He swore that an octogenarian patient of his had been completely cured of gout after a sojourn there. Mr. Wodehouse ate very sparingly and did not imbibe more than the occasional glass of madeira, but soon after Dr. Lacey’s visit he began to complain of a pain in his big toe which he was very afraid might be the beginnings of gout. Perhaps he should take Dr. Lacey’s advice and make the journey to Buxton.. After two weeks spent taking the waters, Mr Wodehouse felt sufficiently restored to travel with his daughter to pass judgement on Parnham Park.

‘An east facing house. Oh dear. I wish you had consulted me, Emma, I could have told you that such a position is thoroughly unsalubrious. I hope that poor Miss Bates has not already succumbed to a chill.”

“ Miss Bates is perfectly well, Papa. Look here she comes now, and I know you will be delighted at how well she has arranged everything for your comfort.”

“ Oh Miss Bates, I fancy you are looking a little peaky. I hope that you are wearing wool next to your skin in this inclement climate.”

Miss Bates is used to Mr. Wodehouse so she nods and smiles and relieving the footman she takes the handles of the bath chair and pushes it into the house.

“ Dear me! a flagstone floor. Can there be a more dangerous surface for the unwary? Emma, you must be sure to put down rugs before you receive visitors.”

“ Don’t worry Papa, it will all be perfectly safe.”

“ I hope so my dear, it wouldn’t do to have another fatal accident in the family.”

At this last remark Emma bites her lip so hard that it draws blood. Kinghtley’s death had the effect of reinforcing her father’s belief in the imminence of catastrophe. She braces herself for the inevitable coda,

“ If only poor Knightley had taken my advice and given up riding to hounds, he would still be alive today.”

Emma walks ahead into the parlour that Miss Bates has prepared and rings the bell for tea.

I confess that I do not like to see Emma dressed in her widow’s cap. She is quite as handsome as any woman of eight and thirty years can be, and of course she is still clever and rich. Yet that confident brightness which so endeared her to me if not to everyone, is dimmed.

It has been two years since Knightley’s accident and not a day goes by when Emma does not feel his absence. Her friend Mrs Weston, who was widowed a few years earlier, told her that the loss would with time become less painful, but Emma does not yet feel this diminution. Her marriage to Knightley had not always been tranquil. They were both possessed of strong opinions which did not always coincide. But in the course of their marriage Emma had learnt that she was not infallible, and Knightley had come to understand that it was better to allow his wife to find this out for herself. They had been doting parents to little George, and the only sadness was that no little Emma emerged to keep him company. They had been as happy as any couple with an ample fortune, tolerable relations, and a genial disposition can be.

It has not been an easy decision to leave Donwell. Already she misses sitting in the wingbacked chair by the fire where the leather bears the mark of Knightley’s head as he listened to Emma recount the excitements of her day . It is time though, she knows, to find a new interest and what could be more appropriate than moving to Derbyshire . Emma remembers meeting Fitzwilliam Darcy once in town, and once when he paid a visit to Donwell. He struck her as a man not unlike her husband, in that while always cordial and polite , he did not seek to make a good impression. Darcy was a man who knew his own worth, even beyond his ten thousand a year, and was largely indifferent as to the opinions of others. Before her marriage Emma might have been piqued by Darcy’s lack of particular interest in her, but as Mrs Knightley she was secure in the knowledge that she fully occupied her husband’s horizon. But she was not changed so much that she was not curious as to the exact particulars of Mrs Darcy. Knightly had not been much help in that regard – all the details he could furnish were a pair of fine eyes, a light step and a spirited way of talking. But he could not remember any examples of the spirited talk or how he had come to notice the lightness of the lady’s step. In fact the more that Emma pressed him, the less he seemed able to recall. Emma decided that she would not seek an opportunity to make the fleet- footed Mrs Darcy’s acquaintance .

But the mother of George Knightley the heir presumptive to Pemberley takes a different view about Mrs Darcy. She cannot help but reflect that the possession of a son has its advantages when meeting a mother who has five daughters. Pemberley, she knows, is one of the finest houses in the country; Knightley often remarked to her Darcy had been most judicious in his improvements – he had managed to plant a rose garden without chopping down a single oak. She has brought with her a Guide to the picturesque country of Derbyshire which contains a whole chapter on the Pemberley estate. Emma looks forward to seeing the picture gallery, and the celebrated double staircase in the company of its future master. There have even been moments when she imagines how she will greet the current Mistress of Pemberley and her five unmarried daughters. Emma is quite aware that Mrs Darcy will no doubt be considering her George as a suitable match for one of those daughters. This prospect fills Emma with as much pleasurable anticipation as a widow of two years standing can feel about anything. Although she has learnt from experience that matchmaking can be an uncertain enterprise she feels that in the case of her only son, her views on the suitability of one of the Miss Darcys as a bride must be taken into account. The quick witted Mrs Darcy will be well aware of this..

I am relieved to see that this train of thought has brought some colour to Emma’s cheeks, and restored the sparkle to her eye. It encourages me to think that despite the tragedy of losing her beloved Knightley, there is still hope that spirit of Emma Wodehouse lives on in her present incarnation. She may have learnt to control her temper with Miss Bates, but my Emma could never resist the opportunity to take control. I shall tarry a while longeras no amount of milk and honey can compare with the delights of witnessing the first meeting between Emma Knightley and Elizabeth Darcy. .

To be continued