Longbourn

Sarah takes a letter to the post office for Jane. She envies Lydia, thinking, “[I]t was something, it must be something, to be with the man you wanted. Even if it was just Wickham, there must be joy in it” (272). Jane tells Sarah she is a good girl.

Polly reports on Colonel Foster’s visit, describing Lydia’s departure. The postmistress reports that the militia officers left unsettled accounts, gambling debts, and molested women. Mrs. Hill feels sorry for Lydia, whom she cared for as a child; “[W]hat a poor, poor bargain she had made of herself,” Mrs. Hill thinks (277). Mr. Bennet will go look for Lydia and asks Mrs. Hill to pack for him. She resents that he will search for Lydia but not James. Sarah tries to ask Colonel Forster about James, and he scolds her for asking his assistance. Sarah breaks a dish in the kitchen, then sweeps up the pieces.

The house is full of tension. Elizabeth returns. Sarah is upset that no one seems to care that James is missing and thinks about going after him. Mrs. Hill loses her temper and chides Sarah, telling her she would be throwing her life away if she left, breaking her employment contract. She reminds Sarah these are bad times and lean years; she tells her to work and wait. Mr. Bennet returns, discouraged, and Mrs. Hill holds his hand, thinking how hard he is working to rescue Lydia.

Lydia is found and married to Mr. Wickham. Mr. and Mrs. Hill discuss how much money it took to secure the marriage. Mr. Hill thinks it would have cost Mr. Bennet a large sum. Polly supposes things will all go back to normal now, and Mrs. Hill thinks about how no one mentions James.

Lydia and Mr. Wickham visit Longbourn. Lydia is pleased with herself for being married. Mrs. Hill does her laundry and thinks that if she “had the ruling, and not just the maintenance, of Lydia, the little madam would be obliged to wash her own dirty linen just this once, and see what other people thought of her” (287). Sarah curls Lydia’s hair and tries to ask if she saw James in Brighton. Polly joins them. Mr. Wickham appears and suggests they take one of the maids north with them, preferably Polly. Sarah, thinking that Lydia is barely 16, draws Polly away.

Mrs. Hill enters the library to confront Mr. Bennet about what he was willing to do for his daughter, but not for his son. Mr. Bennet says he has suffered. Mrs. Hill suggests James enlisted because he didn’t care about himself; “He didn’t know that he could be loved. That’s why he didn’t think twice about throwing himself into harm’s way” (292), she says.

Sarah and Polly are picking plums in the orchard when they see Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley arrive. Sarah feels herself fade in Mr. Darcy’s presence. Ptolemy is still Bingley’s footman. Jane is engaged to Bingley, much to Mrs. Bennet’s delight. Ptolemy and Sarah converse briefly; he hints she would look well in London. Mr. Bennet pays the servants their quarterly wages, and Sarah signs his ledger. Mr. Bennet tells her she is a good girl. James has been gone four months, and Sarah wonders, “How long could she wait without a scrap, a crumb?” (296).

The household panics when Lady Catherine de Bourgh arrives, demanding to see Elizabeth. Sarah thinks how money is magic, turning Lady Catherine’s desires into actions, but “[h]ow many quarters’ pay would Sarah have to save, before she could turn any of her desire into anything at all?” (297). When she learns Darcy proposed to Elizabeth and what he can offer her, Sarah thinks of how little she wanted from James—just his company. Mrs. Hill questions Ptolemy about his plans, trying to decide if he suits Sarah. He tells Mrs. Hill of his savings and his ambition to open a tobacco shop. Mrs. Hill encourages Sarah to take Ptolemy’s offer, saying love does not matter in the end, but Sarah still wants James.

Sarah helps Elizabeth don a gift from Mr. Darcy, a bonnet veil. Elizabeth asks Sarah what she thinks being married would be like. Sarah looks in the glass at “her own reflection, standing behind the young mistress, a raw hand resting on a delicate shoulder, the other holding the lace and bonnet; her own mousy dress, her hair in need of a wash and scraped back under a work-cap” (303). Sarah says she thinks Elizabeth’s marriage will be very pleasant. She thinks it an equal trade: Darcy’s property and standing “were equal to, and offered in straightforward payment for, her loveliness” (303). Elizabeth asks Sarah to come with her to Pemberley. She seems nervous, and Sarah wonders if it is possible to be entirely happy. Mrs. Hill, Mr. Hill, and Polly are saddened at the news that Sarah will leave.

Sarah travels with Elizabeth’s trunks and is brought by wagon late at night to Pemberley. The house is enormous, and Sarah feels stripped of everything she’s known and suddenly aware of how little she possesses materially. The housekeeper shows Sarah to her room, which she will share with Anne, the personal maid to Mr. Darcy’s sister. Sarah’s tasks are only to look after Elizabeth, who has become anxious about her appearance; she tells Sarah once, “You must understand that I am anxious to be quite as he would wish me” (312). Sarah spends her day sitting in Elizabeth’s dressing room, sewing. Her hands grow soft. Another servant brings her tea, resenting the task. Sarah stares out the window at the park and hills and wonders how far she could get before she was stopped and sent back to her corner.

Ptolemy is with the Bingleys when they arrive for a visit. Sarah is seated next to him at the servant’s dinner. She asks why he doesn’t have his shop yet, and he says he is keeping his options open. He mentions seeing James working on a road crew when the family was touring up north. At the next quarter day, when Mrs. Darcy is paying the servants, Sarah asks to end her employment, and Elizabeth doesn’t understand. The housekeeper insists that Sarah is well-treated. Elizabeth asks if she is homesick. Sarah trades her box for a knapsack. Elizabeth has Mr. Darcy intervene and ask Sarah to stay; Elizabeth especially wants her because she is pregnant. Sarah stands her ground. Mr. Darcy is baffled, but he knows he cannot make her stay. Elizabeth asks, “[W]here will you go, Sarah? What can a woman do, all on her own, and unsupported?” (324). Sarah answers that she can always work.

Mrs. Bennet is entirely happy, wearying her neighbors with talk. Kitty is often with her older sisters. Mary finally gets attention from her mother and flourishes. Mr. Hill dies and is buried. Polly stays away from the local boys; she will become a schoolteacher. Mrs. Hill has Mr. Bennet more or less to herself. She wonders what her life would have been if she had married him and supposes she would have ended up here, taking care of him, either way.

Sarah hikes to the sea, then turns north. She finds a new road and walks until she meets the workers. There is James, sweating, thin, and tanned. She shakes him. Some years later, Sarah and James return to Longbourn with their child.