SEPTEMBER
Saturday 12 September
It is a good thing I did not wait for my father to come home before providing Fanny with a horse, for I had a letter from him this morning saying that his affairs are still in such a state that he cannot come home until next year. I was not as alarmed by this as I would have been a few months ago, for I have learnt how to manage the estate and I believe it to be prospering.
Friday 25 September
We have all been thrown into an uproar, for Tom is home! He arrived late this afternoon, as careless and laughing as ever, but as brown as a nut, and with hair so bleached by the sun it resembled a piece of driftwood. He was barely recognizable, being slimmer and fitter than when he went away, with his eyes looking so green in the brown of his face that my aunt was moved to say that they looked like a pair of emeralds.
‘All the better for wooing,’ said Tom merrily, catching her round the waist and spinning her round before putting her down, breathless.
Mama bestirred herself so far as to leave the sofa and kiss him, and he repaid her with a kiss on the cheek. He delighted her by asking after Pug, who sat like a fat potentate on the sofa, and then turned his attention to Maria and Julia. They were pleased to see him, and eager to discover what was in the packages that had followed him into the room. He had brought presents for us alclass="underline" exotic material for Mama and my aunt — ‘To make you some splendid new gowns. You will be the talk of the neighborhood’ — fans and shoes for Maria and Julia, a pair of shoes for Fanny and a compass for me.
‘How is Sir Thomas?’ asked Mama, when she had seated herself once more on the sofa with Pug on her lap.
‘Very well.’
‘It is a terrible thing for him to be so far from home. I wished he would not go, but he said he must, and there was an end of it. I do not like to think of him in all that heat, on his own. He will miss us all dreadfully.’
‘He scarcely has time. There is plenty to do, and he is busy from morning ’til night.’
‘How are his affairs?’ I asked.
‘Lord knows. I could not make head nor tail of them. Sugar plantations are a mystery to me. Now horses...’
‘You have not been gambling again, Tom?’ asked Aunt Norris.
‘No. I have promised my father not to bet on another card or horse — at least until his affairs are settled!’ he added.
‘Impudent boy!’ said Aunt Norris indulgently. ‘But, were it not for the joy you bring us by returning like this, I cannot help thinking that it must bode ill for Sir Thomas,’ she went on, shaking her head. ‘Indeed, it is a singularly bad portent. It is so like Sir Thomas to send you home if he had a foreboding of evil. I have a terrible presentiment that something dreadful is about to occur.’
Mama was beginning to look worried, and stir anxiously on the sofa, so Fanny put an end to my aunt’s woeful imaginings by saying to Tom, ‘Tell us about Antigua.’
Tom was only too happy to talk, for he was full of energy and liveliness.
‘It was hot,’ he began. ‘Very hot. You would not believe the heat, little Fanny. Not all your hats and fans and parasols would keep you cool. I believe the ladies there were made from less pliable material than those at home, for they bore it well, and managed to walk around with only a little droop, instead of melting like candles.’
‘And were there any balls?’ asked Maria.
‘Not in all that heat,’ said Mama.
‘Nothing would stop me dancing,’ said Julia. ‘Tell us about them, Tom.’
‘Oh, they were the usual sort of thing, you know,’ he said carelessly.
‘You have been breaking hearts, I warrant,’ said my aunt, putting her presentiments aside for the moment and joining in with the more agreeable conversation.
‘There were so many to break, it would have been ungentlemanly not to.’
‘Tom!’ protested Mama.
‘There is nothing the young ladies like better than the son of an English planter, and I could not disappoint them by refusing to flirt with them.’
‘Especially not as you are such a fine young man,’ said my aunt. Maria and Julia pulled faces behind Tom’s back at this, whilst Fanny looked at her new shoes; a fine pair, but two sizes too small.
‘The men were gentlemen, I hope?’ asked my aunt.
‘Lord, yes.’
‘Though not what we are used to over here, I suppose. Maria and Julia have been attracting a great deal of attention whilst you have been away. They are the belles of the neighborhood. all the young men are eager to dance with them, and if Mr. Rushworth does not propose to Maria by Christmas I will be very much surprised.’
Maria looked conscious, and Julia retaliated by saying that the young men roundabout were dull.
‘He is very taken with your sister,’ went on my aunt, as though Julia had not spoken. ‘And what a fine man he is, with a good face and figure, charming manners and a house in town. His fortune is sizeable, too, for he has twelve thousand a year.’
‘Then it is no wonder that Maria likes him,’ said Tom with a sly look. Maria blushed.
‘I am sure Mr. Rushworth has no thought of proposing,’ she said, tossing her head.
‘And I am sure he has,’ was my aunt’s rejoinder.
I could get nothing more out of Tom about Antigua for he said he must dance, and before long we were all doing some of the steps he had learnt in the Indies. Even Mama was persuaded to dance, whilst my aunt played, and Pug sat on the sofa and watched us all.
OCTOBER
Thursday 22 October
The winter evenings have had enough balls even to satisfy my sisters, and Aunt Norris is now determined to see them well married.
‘Maria is twenty now, and of an age to be married,’ she said to me as we sat in the drawing room this evening. ‘And Julia, too, is not far behind. What a thing it would be if we could find suitable matches for them both before your father returns. I am sure Mr. Rushworth wants only a little encouragement to offer for Maria, and there are several young men who seem remarkably fond of Julia. And if poor Sir Thomas fails to return,’ she added, for she has still not despaired of him being shipwrecked, or lost overboard, ‘it will be a consolation to see Maria married, and to know that he would have approved.’
But no young men offered for my sisters tonight, despite my aunt’s hopes. We returned to find Fanny sitting peacefully with Mama. She looked up as I entered the room, an eager smile on her face, for though she is too young for balls, she loves to hear of them. I sat by her for half an hour and told her all about our evening. She wanted to know every dance I had danced, and with whom; and when I had done, I told her I was looking forward to standing up with her at her first ball, as soon as Mama thought she was old enough to at end. She looked at the floor, reminding me how young she was, for even the smallest compliment discomposes her. Perhaps it is a good thing she does not go into company, after all.
1808 JANUARY
Monday 11 January
It seems my aunt’s fondest wishes are about to be fulfilled, for Maria has received an offer of marriage from Mr. Rushworth.
‘Such a nice man,’ said my aunt. ‘He has such a way with him; such manners, and such—’
‘—a large property,’ finished Tom.
My aunt perceived no irony in Tom’s comment, but replied with, ‘Very true, it is a fine property. One of the best in the country, and then there is his house in town as well. Maria is a very lucky girl to have attracted such a man, with everything in his favor: his home, his fortune and his person. I only hope the rest of you will marry as well. Julia, we will have to look about us and find another such a one for you.’ She turned to Maria. ‘We must have an early wedding.’