Twelvetide Chaos Read online

  Twelvetide Chaos

  Deborah E Pearson

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  A Partridge in a Pear Tree

  Two Turtle Doves

  Three French Hens

  Four Colly Birds

  Five Gold Rings

  Six geese a laying

  Seven Swans a swimming

  Eight Maids a Milking

  Nine Ladies Dancing

  Ten Lords a Leaping

  Eleven Drummers Drumming

  Twelve Pipers Piping

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other books by Deborah E Pearson:

  Twelvetide Chaos Copyright © 2019 Deborah E Pearson. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First Printing: March 2020

  ISBN: 9798624918405

  Imprint: Independently Published

  Cover Design ©2020 Deborah E Pearson

  Cover Picture: Photo 4842467 © Marivlada - Dreamstime.com

  Created with Vellum

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to say thank you to all who have helped me on this project. Many in my beta readers have had personal problems, but they have brought me through, so without further ado thank you to Debra-Ann Kummoung, Beverlee Swayzee, Kathy Langstein Berlin, Morgan Osborne, Ashley Haskins and Luanda Pérez Brayer.

  Foreword

  Authors note

  Writing this novella has for the most part been a challenging but a fun time for my beta readers and me. However, it took an unexpected turn as two of my characters suffer from serious health complaints where the symptoms can be easily missed. I had no wish to dwell on the dark or the macabre, therefore I have glossed over much of what my characters suffer. In both liver disease and a brain tumour, the symptoms are slow and generally dismissed. The symptoms in many cases can also cross over to other conditions. Therefore, while I hope that you enjoy the story, if you or someone you know shows any signs of the symptoms I’ve mentioned or anything else that seems minor please go to the doctor and get them checked out, so that they can be treated.

  A Partridge in a Pear Tree

  Christmas Day 1812

  “Oh, my poor nerves” Mrs Bennet opined. “Christmas has arrived, and the girls’ weddings are in four days.”

  Mr Bennet sighed. He had heard the same refrain for the past month. His wife was notoriously nervous. However, Bennet had yet to see her miss a social event or fail in any endeavour that she put her mind to. When their girls had all returned engaged from their annual Ramsgate visit, Mr Bennet had been somewhat concerned. Mrs Bennet had taken that in her stride and was overjoyed. Mary, their middle daughter, had done herself proud as she had become engaged to Thomas Bertram, the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Bertram a baronet from Mansfield Park. Catherine, their second youngest, had won the hand of Edmund Bertram, the younger son. Jane, their eldest daughter, had betrothed herself to Mr Bingley, a wealthy young man who was renting Netherfield Park not three miles away from Longbourn, their family home. It was Elizabeth, their second eldest, and Lydia, their youngest, who had brought the most surprises. Elizabeth had returned home engaged to Mr Darcy, a wealthy landowner from the North of England, and Lydia had found herself a young ensign in the regulars by the name of Mr Wickham. Mrs Bennet was overjoyed that her girls had done so well for themselves. It had not taken long before the girls had decided between themselves that they would exchange their vows in a single ceremony. Initially Mrs Bennet had been in her element as she organised the weddings of five daughters, but the quantity of work had soon overwhelmed her, and every morning before they descended the stairs for the day, Mr Bennet had heard his wife lament about her ‘nerves’. Gently, he pulled her into his arms, “My dearest, you can do this you and you alone have the strength to pull this quintuple wedding together.”

  “Oh, Mr Bennet, I fear this may be too much for me. It really is a lot of work.”

  “If anyone can do it, you can. Now, Mrs Bennet we must get dressed. The young men and your sister will be here soon.” Mrs Bennet grumbled but saw the sense in starting their day. It did not take the matriarch and her husband much time to get ready. They were downstairs five minutes before their daughters and long before any of their guests arrived.

  Mrs Bennet could not remember the last time that Longbourn had been so full. Every guest room was full, and the second parlour had been pressed into use as a temporary bedroom. Yet still the guests that arrived for the wedding had spilled over into Longbourn Village, as well as Meryton and as far as Stevenage and Watford. Mrs Bennet had been embarrassed that they could not put all their guests up at Longbourn, but the house only had ten bedrooms, and they were completely full. There had been nothing for it. Longbourn was the focal meeting point this morning and everyone would adjourn to Netherfield after church for the afternoon celebrations.

  Christmas had been a time for quiet reflection on the birth of Christ when Mrs Bennet had been young. She still preferred to keep it that way, but there were many amongst whom the more raucous traditions of Christmas had been kept alive. Her father had always refused to open the door to carol singers or anyone else throughout the whole of the twelve days of Christmas. It was not safe to do so. Now as she thought about the activities and plans that had been made for this afternoon, she thought that the young were trying to bring in a sanitised version of those raucous activities.

  The visitors to Longbourn had arrived by nine o’clock and the group walked to church at a quarter to ten. Her daughters were always very quick to head to church. “You must be proud of the girls' piety.” Mrs Phillips told her sister as they walked to Longbourn Church.

  “I am indeed.” Mrs Bennet replied and watched as three of her daughters walked arm-in-arm with their husbands to be.

  Mrs Phillips watched as a slight sadness crept into her sister’s eyes. “Stop worrying, the Bertrams will be here. I heard that Sir Thomas’s carriage broke an axle and they were delayed for a week. The coach makers could not fix it immediately.”

  “Aye, that is true, I just worry for our Mary. She is so serious and the accounts that Mr Bennet had of the young Thomas Bertram were not very encouraging. Did I tell you that Mr Bennet nearly forbade the match? I would have been so distressed if he had, of course.”

  “No, I do not recall that you told me this, Sister.”

  “Well, the story goes like this. Apparently last year the Bertrams had a lot of family troubles. There are two daughters and two sons. The eldest son, Thomas, of course inherits the baronetcy from his father, along with the plantations in the West Indies. The younger son, Edmund, goes into the church and is to be ordained this coming Easter. Both of Sir Thomas Bertram’s daughters caused a scandal. The elder abandoned her husband, a man with twelve thousand pounds a year and ran off with a scoundrel! Imagine that! She abandons him and his twelve thousand pounds. The marriage of the eldest daughter did not last more than a few months. Meanwhile, the younger daughter eloped with a friend of her eldest brother. It is the eldest son who is to marry Mary and the younger son who is to marry Kitty.”

  “That is shocking, but I do not understand why Mr Bennet would refuse to allow Mary to marry young Thomas Bertram? Has not Bennet always stated that the s
ins of one member of the family should not harm the rest?”

  “Why yes, he has and ordinarily that would not be enough for Mr Bennet to withhold his consent. However, it seems that young Thomas was of questionable character himself.”

  Mrs Philips gasped. The church was now in view and the two matrons paused in their discussion to let Mrs Long and a few other older ladies pass. “Surely our Mary would not marry a scoundrel?”

  “No, she would not. Mary is too pious for her own good, and in that matter, she would not entertain a scoundrel for a marriage partner. Young Thomas has been good for her and opened her mind to other things than simply being pious. However, if he were a true scoundrel, she would not have entertained his marriage proposal. Apparently, he had become involved with a bad crowd that was involved with heavy gambling and drinking. It was those around him who would carouse around more than he, and he had been seeking a way out from them, when he had taken a bad tumble down the stairs while they were staying in Newmarket. It was then that they abandoned him. They cared not whether he lived or died, and that is when he finally found the courage to change his life completely.”

  “Sister! That is terrible!”

  “Yes, it is indeed. Apparently after the eldest Miss Bertram was found and young Thomas recovered, the family left Mansfield to take a tour of the coasts of Kent. The young Mr Bertrams went no further than Ramsgate when they met our girls and their friends. Our Mary saw something in the reforming Mr Thomas Bertram that nobody else did. She convinced Mr Bennet to give his consent to the marriage. Without her convincing, I do not think Mr Bennet would have entertained the young whelp. I just worry that Mary is going to have her heart broken by him.” Mr Bennet interrupted them at this point and ushered them into the church. The service was about to begin. Mr Bennet did not like Mrs Bennet discussing her future son-in-law in the middle of the thoroughfare like that, it was hard enough on Mary that her and Kitty’s betrotheds were absent while their sisters’ betrotheds were showering them with gifts and attention.

  Mrs Bennet usually enjoyed the Christmas services, and she rarely missed them. The last time she could remember missing a Christmas service was twenty-three years ago when she had given birth to Jane. Today her mind wandered as she contemplated her five daughters and their uniqueness as they each sat on the verge of their new lives as wives, and hopefully, mothers.

  Jane had grown up to be a beautiful young woman, yet Mrs Bennet had been afraid for her. Beauty could be a trap as well as a blessing. Jane had attempted to apply herself to the same lessons that Mr Bennet would later give to Elizabeth, but she seemed to be unable to understand the things that Elizabeth would grasp instantly. Elizabeth was two years younger than Jane, but in intelligence she was the superior of all the girls. Mrs Bennet knew that on the surface it appeared that Jane and Lydia were her favourites and that she neglected her other girls, but in truth it was Jane and Lydia that as they grew up needed the extra support and bolstering. Without the seeming bias towards them, Mrs Bennet knew that they would both suffer in comparison to their sisters, whose intelligence and personalities sparkled in everything they did. It was fortunate that the current fashion in society was for girls to pretend that they were ignorant and vain, so that the common accomplishments of sewing and netting a purse were all they needed to have good chance to marry a young man of fortune. Jane had been a worry for she had not spoken a word until she was four, but she had then spoken with almost perfect precision in her sentences, and she had shown an aversion to being touched. Her insistence on order and aversion to anything that ‘felt funny’ in her mouth had left Mrs Bennet at her wits end as to how to cope with her firstborn. Mrs Bennet had spent many hours with her mother and sister, in Meryton, crying and worrying about her eldest daughter, who appeared so closed off from the world.

  The problems with her nerves had begun when she had been expecting Elizabeth. The strain of Jane’s unusualness was beginning to take a toll on Mrs Bennet’s health. Everything had begun to seem like it was an insurmountable challenge. Mrs Bennet soon began to put everything into a routine, and the slightest variation from her routine would send her spiralling to a nervous panic. Palpations, and insomnia were but two of the symptoms that she would suffer. Elizabeth was a blessed relief for she was almost entirely Jane’s opposite in every way. Where Jane was withdrawn and awkward, Elizabeth was bright and precocious. Where Jane was fussy and shied away from everything, Elizabeth was hungry to experience all that life had to offer. For the first few years of her life Elizabeth had been unsure of her elder sister; the two were so different that Elizabeth could not understand Jane. However, around the age of five Elizabeth had seemed to take to Jane, protecting her elder sister and aiding her to come out of her shell. Soon Jane had begun to flourish. Mrs Bennet had broken the rules of society when she brought Elizabeth out into society. Usually girls did not come out until they were fifteen at the very least, however, Jane had refused to enter society without her sister Elizabeth by her side. Rather than waste the opportunity for Jane to attract a nice young man, Mrs Bennet had brought Elizabeth out two years too early. Elizabeth had coped well, and the two sisters had stayed close to each other, with Elizabeth often making up for Jane’s social deficiencies. Mrs Bennet had had no worries that Elizabeth would make a fine match one of these days, just as long as she did not allow her loyalties to her sister Jane to interfere with gaining a young man of her own.

  Mary and Catherine were very similar in their personalities. Both were quiet and unassuming. The only worries Mrs Bennet had about these two of her daughters had been that they would be too influenced by the men that they chose to marry. However, now as Mrs Bennet surveyed her children, she knew without a doubt that each one had chosen wisely and each one had chosen a man that would suit them exactly.

  Lydia was the only one who was still a concern. George Wickham did not seem suited to settling down, nor did he seem suited in personality to Lydia. It was a closely guarded secret that Lydia’s ignorance and impatience was not by choice. As a young child, Lydia had struggled to learn even the simplest of things. It had taken her the longest to learn her alphabet and how to read. After many tears and outbursts of anger, she had eventually managed to learn to read and write and to do rudimentary arithmetic. Elizabeth’s habit of long walks had begun as a way of soothing the distressed Lydia. Elizabeth would take Lydia on a long walk that would use up the frustrated child’s energy and make learning fun. Gradually Lydia calmed down, but she would never have the same intelligence of any of her sisters. Mrs Bennet wondered if George Wickham would have the patience that his choice of bride would require. Not only did Mrs Bennet have a surprise at what she observed in the church, but it would set her mind at rest. Mr Wickham had ingenuously maneuvered it that he and Lydia shared a single prayer book, and he kept the book not only at the right page, but he was always a step ahead. Mrs Bennet had to admire him, under the guise of a betrothed besotted with Lydia, he had managed to make sure that strangers would not realise that Lydia could not keep up.

  Two Turtle Doves

  26th December

  “Emma!” The surprise and wonder on Elizabeth’s face as Mr and Mrs George Knightley stood in the vestibule of Longbourn made the trouble of the journey worthwhile. “I thought by your last letter that you would not be able to visit at this time?”

  “Oh, Lizzy. My father has always been difficult, but he was being particularly difficult about my wedding. I do not know why it is that he has taken so violently against weddings.”

  “Come, Emma, you know that it is the change that he dislikes.” Mr Knightley stated. “Miss Elizabeth, you must understand that Emma’s father dislikes anything that removes him from the comfort of his hearth and changes the number of people that are around him.”

  “I understand. There are those who dislike changes of any sort.” Elizabeth answered.

  “Indeed, they do.” Mrs Bennet cut in, “I myself of course suffer from terrible nerves whenever there is to be a change. I reall
y do not know what I shall do after the wedding, when all of you girls go and make your lives with your husbands.”

  “Mama, you will carry on as you did before. You will visit with Mrs Long and Lady Lucas, as well as our aunt and your other friends. You will see us all regularly.” Elizabeth reminded her mother.

  “True, but the house will be so quiet.” Mrs Bennet replied with worry.

  “Miss Elizabeth, you have written so much about the beauties of Hertfordshire, that I am longing to see some of those beauties first-hand now.” Mr Knightley said, attempting to change the subject.

  “So, you shall. I promise.” Elizabeth said. “We could begin by a trip to Oakham Mount tomorrow.”

  “Lizzy, we should wait until after the wedding. There’s a myth that if new brides go to Oakham Mount then something magical happens.” Mary added.

  “Magical how?” Elizabeth queried. Mary was the last one who anyone expected to talk about anything magical. She was far more apt to condemn anything that she had no explanation for. For Mary anything unexplainable was witchcraft, which was a mortal sin.

  “I do not know the particulars. There are very few who have seen the sight, and those who have all had conflicting stories to tell.” Mary replied.