Elinor and Edward's Plans for Lucy Steele
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Elinor and Edward’s Plans for Lucy Steele A Novelette and Parody of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility By Mary Lydon Simonsen Quail Creek Publishing, LLC http://marysimonsenfanfiction.blogspot.com Prologue The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex at Norland Park. The manor house was a massive stone edifice of three stories with two wings and an extensive park where sheep nibbled the lawn by day and deer by night. It was home to Henry Dashwood, a kind man and good father, and his wife. Mrs. Dashwood was a good-hearted woman and affectionate mother, who, whether for joy or sorrow, was given to bouts of weeping. They had three daughters: the practical Elinor, a handsome woman of twenty-one years, the romantic Marianne, a beautiful lady of nineteen, and the young Margaret, a pistol of a thirteen-year-old given to eavesdropping and spying on her neighbors. At Norland Park, life was a bowl of cherries. Elinor, being an outdoorsy type person, enjoyed the extensive grounds of woods and meadows, Marianne, being the opposite of her older sister, had her music and poetry, and Margaret, being a combination of her elder sisters, had a tree house with a retractable rope ladder where she would often play her lap harp. From her perch, she watched and reported on all the comings and goings of the inhabitants of the manor house and any visitors to the estate. Little did young Margaret know that on the day she looked through her spyglass and saw Dr. Cureall’s carriage coming down the drive that her world was about to change—and not for the better. Chapter 1 Mr. Henry Dashwood lay dying from an ailment that had come upon him suddenly and one which was to carry him off quickly. Realizing the precarious state of his financial affairs, he asked that his son, John Dashwood, the only child from Mr. Dashwood’s first marriage, be sent for. Although the current Mrs. Dashwood resisted, Elinor convinced her mother that it must be done, if only for the reason that her father had requested it and that it was very likely to be his last request. “Mama, please remember that John is the heir to the Norland estate, and I am sure Papa has some things he wishes to clarify. It may possibly come out in our favor,” a statement no one believed for a moment—not because of John—but because of his wife, the former Fanny Ferrars, a ferocious female given to fits of frugality on behalf of others. While they waited for the arrival of the heir, Mr. Dashwood’s wife and daughters kept vigil. After minutes lengthened into hours, an exhausted Mrs. Dashwood was encouraged to retire after she had been assured that they would call her if her husband gave any indication of giving up the ghost. After her departure, their father called his daughters to his bedside. “Dearest ones,” he began, “it had been my intention…” Marianne looked at Elinor. This was not good. Statements that began with “It had been my intention…” usually meant one thing—bad news was coming. “…my intention to increase the fortune I received from my uncle last year, but it seems that I am only to outlive him by a twelvemonth. Worst luck! As a result, your mother is to inherit only £7,000, and you girls are to have £1,000 each. But I intend to speak to your brother and tell him that it is my wish—my dying wish—that he take care of his sisters.” Thus, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret placed their future in the hands of their brother, who they were not particularly close to and had no depth of affection for, and for his part, he was not inordinately fond of them either. It seemed to the sisters that it was now necessary to rely on the kindness of a brother who was nearly a stranger to them. No doubt, they would have to live in reduced circumstances, but as long as they remained at Norland Park, they would be able to maintain some semblance of their former life, that is, if their brother allowed them to stay. But nothing was certain. Elinor was sick at heart at the thought of her father dying, but she was the strong one in the family. After Papa went on to his reward, everyone would come to her for guidance and advice, and so she must look to what would happen after her father had passed. If all of them together were to inherit only £10,000 that would mean that they would have to live on £500 a year, a sum that would require drastic changes on the part of the Dashwood women. Considering that Mrs. Dashwood had never been a good manager of the household finances, Margaret was overindulged, and Marianne had expensive tastes, not only in clothes, but in accessories: sheet music, books, magazines, and baubles, it would not be an easy task. It was only the sensible Elinor who had few habits of expense, but she did have to eat. Because there had never been any reason for economy, no thought had been given to what anything cost. All of that was about to change. “Before Papa breathes his last, we must write down everything John promised our father that he would do on our behalf,” Elinor said with great urgency. “As I recall, the first thing Papa mentioned to our brother was that we were to be made comfortable. To my mind that would require our remaining at Norland Park. Do you agree?” Marianne indicated she did and wrote it down on a piece of paper. “After that, Papa suggested that each of his daughters was to receive £3,000 pounds apiece, as well as all of the china, plate, and linen from the Stanhill inheritance, the breakfast china, and all of the gifts given to Mama by her brother, Admiral Faraway.” “But all of those things you just mentioned already belong to us,” Marianne reminded Elinor. “Yes, of course. But it is important that we list all our assets,” which Elinor knew would make for a very short list. “From the coach house, we are to have a carriage and two horses, and I am sure we shall be allowed to take the gardening tools as we shall have need of them. It is not much, but if we are careful with our money, we will get on quite well or reasonably well or well enough.” But before the document could be signed, their father went the way of all flesh, and it did not seem like a good time to ask John to initial his part of the pact, a decision they would come to regret as Fanny Dashwood was soon upon them. It was Margaret who brought them the bad news that on the day after their father’s funeral Fanny was discussing their future with her husband, their brother, in the library, and although Margaret heard little of the conversation, what she did hear did not sound good at all. John had been so long gone from Norland that he had forgotten that there was a door between the study and library that had been papered over so that it was made to look like a part of the bookcase. From behind that hidden door, the three Dashwood sisters, who were down on their knees, ears to the keyhole, and with list in hand, listened as their future was being decided. “Three thousand pounds apiece!” Fanny exclaimed. “Please think again on this subject, my dear husband. Are we to rob our own son of so large a sum?” “It was my father’s last request,” John sputtered, now unsure of himself where a moment before he had been confident of his decision to share some of his inheritance. “It seems like the right thing to do, especially in light of the buckets of money that were left to me by my mother.” “There you have it, dearest. Your father already had one foot in the heavens when he spoke those words, and not being fully of this earth, he had made such an improbable request,” Fanny said, ignoring his comment about his late mother’s largess. “If he had been in his right senses, he would not have asked you to give away half of your fortune.” “Perhaps, if the sum were diminished by half,” John said. “That would be a prodigious increase to their fortunes.” Marianne, using one of Elinor’s drawing pencils, crossed through the £3,000, which was at the top of their survival list, and replaced it with £1,500. “It is not as much as we would like, but we can still manage on that,” Elinor whispered to her sisters. “But when you consider they are only half blood, I think you are being overly generous,” Fanny countered. “The question must be, what can you afford to do?” “I think I can afford £500 apiece,” John answered, quite sure that he was doing well by his sisters. “As they will each have £3,000 on their mother’s death, a very comfortable fortune indeed.” All of the color went out of Margaret’s face. “Is Mama dying?” the young girl whispered, and Elinor shook her head, which did nothing to reassure her little sister, who was now convinced she was to be an orphan twice over. Marianne marked through the £1,500 and penciled in £500. But then there was silence, and when John spoke again, the sum had been reduced to £100, and Marianne made the change.