Free Recollections of Rosings by Rebecca Ann Collins Page B

Lilian.
        Jonathan Bingley offered his assistance and his wife Anna invited her to spend some time at Netherfield Park in the future, if she wished to get away from Rosings for a while. Catherine thanked them all sincerely.
        Rebecca had already offered her and Lilian a home with her in Matlock, but Catherine had made it clear that she had no wish to move to Derbyshire.
        "Becky, I have lived all my life in Kent, I would be a complete stranger in Derbyshire… even if I could get accustomed to your weather!" she had said, protesting even as she thanked her for her offer. "I should be quite lost. It is very kind of you to ask me and I am not ungrateful, but how would I feel knowing no one in the community? I have grown up here, there is hardly a person in the parish who does not know me, every tenant and farmer's wife on the estate is familiar to me. How shall I leave them all?"
        "But what do you propose to do? Where will you and Lilian live?" Becky asked, concerned at the vagueness of her sister's response. A practical sort of person herself, Becky worried that Catherine had no real plans.
        She answered just as vaguely, saying something about needing to discuss it with Lilian because Lilian had never known any home but the parsonage at Hunsford. "Besides," she added, "she is unlikely to wish to leave at this time; she is just seventeen with all her life ahead of her. The friends of her childhood are all here, and I am not inclined to remove her from this place just when she has lost her father and needs the comfort of her friends."
        Rebecca agreed. "I can see that Lilian's interests lie here. Indeed, I had hoped to speak with her about them…" she said and was astonished at the speed and sharpness of her sister's riposte.
        "Becky, I would rather you did not. Although Lilian is young, she is exceedingly sensible and would never do anything untoward or stupid. I am confident of that. Pray, do not intervene to query or quiz her about matters that are surely for her alone to decide; she may well be resentful and I would not wish such a circumstance to come between you two. Believe me, Becky dear, it is for the best."
        Seeing she was being quite serious, Rebecca said no more about it, but could not help wondering at the liberality of her sister's views.
        Writing once more to Emily Courtney, she complained:

    I cannot understand Catherine at all; she seems prepared to let young Lilian continue an association with Mr Adams without having ascertained if his antecedents, his background, and income are entirely suitable. I am convinced that they are in love or very close to it, but Catherine shows little concern, which is very unlike her usual meticulous nature. I am afraid I cannot comprehend it at all.
        A week later, Rebecca returned home to Matlock, promising to be back at a day's notice if her sister needed her.
        "Promise me, Cathy," she pleaded, "you will send word if you need my help. There is little to occupy me in Derbyshire now and I will come at once, should you send for me."
        Catherine promised. She knew her sister was not happy to be going, while some matters remained unresolved, but clearly there was nothing more she could achieve by remaining at the Dower House at this time.
    ***

        Some days later, Catherine and Lilian together had been upstairs in Dr Harrison's room, looking askance at the piles of books and papers that seemed to fill every available space. They were wondering how they would sort out the material to be sent to the library at Rosings and what they might do with the rest.
        "We could take them all down to Papa's book room, but I cannot begin to pack them up, until I know which are those considered suitable to be preserved and which might not suit. Papa appears to have kept copious notes on everything," grumbled Lilian.
        "He certainly did that," said her mother. "There are more boxes in the