In Hertfordshire, Catherine Bennet found herself to be exceptionally lonely with the sudden loss of three sisters from a home usually filled with five girls. As the officers of the militia prepared to move to Brighton for the springtime, Kitty found herself less and less inclined to walk to Meryton with Lydia to visit her precious Lieutenant Denny.
"Come on, Kitty. You know Lieutenant Denny will have a friend or two to amuse you." Lydia tried to coax her sister into changing her mind.
Kitty shoved her sister's hands away from her arm as Lydia tried to pull her sister from her window seat in the parlor. "Leave off! I don't wish to go today."
"Don't be such a boor, Kitty. You and your sister should walk to Meryton and visit your Aunt Phillips while you're out," Mrs. Bennet opined.
"It's too cold," Kitty complained. "Besides, we visited Aunt Phillips yesterday. I want one day to stay indoors. I could work on my portrait of you, Lydia," Kitty suggested. She had received a handsome drawing set from her sister Elizabeth, who now resided in London. With a bit of practice, Kitty had improved her skills immensely and had moved on most recently to capturing human subjects.
"That's doubly boring, I don't want to sit still for a silly sketch. Mama, make Kitty go to Meryton with me."
Kitty began shouting at the same time Lydia began shouting, and Mrs. Bennet started to complain about her nerves. The entire situation was spiraling into a nasty argument when Hill announced the arrival of Miss Maria Lucas. All three women ceased in their disagreement, and Mrs. Bennet instructed Hill to show Miss Lucas in.
Dressed in a frock handed down from her sister Charlotte, Maria Lucas entered the parlor and curtsied. Responded to in kind by Kitty and Lydia, she offered her two friends in the neighborhood her famous crooked smile.
"I came here to share the good news!"
"Tell us quickly, Miss Lucas. We are all in suspense to hear it," Mrs. Bennet answered.
Miss Lucas opened her reticule to pull out a letter that had been folded extra small to fit into the tiny purse. "My sister Charlotte writes to me, and I am to visit her in Kent this spring!"
Mrs. Bennet frowned, and Lydia cared not as she lay on the sofa more or less ignoring Maria Lucas. Kitty was ashamed of her family members and welcomed Miss Lucas's news with extra enthusiasm as compensation.
"How wonderful! I can't wait to see my sister Jane when she and her Mr. Bingley return to the neighborhood this spring. I am so happy you are to visit your own sister."
"Yes, yes. We all have sisters who are married. These things happen, and they are of little to no consequence. You girls will see it will soon be, as they say, old hat," Mrs. Bennet interjected with venom in her voice.
Kitty worried further discussion of Charlotte's match with Mr. Collins would spur her mother into a tirade about the sister she may not mention, Elizabeth. Wishing to avoid another scene such as the one she experienced the last time the Bennets were invited to Lucas Lodge for dinner, Kitty took action.
"Miss Lucas, I wonder if you would sit with me in the sunlight in the back of the house? I have received drawing materials and would quite like to capture the joy on your face in a sketch," Kitty suggested.
Flattered at the offer of such an opportunity, Maria Lucas happily accepted her friend's invitation and followed her to the back of the house. As soon as the two girls left the room, they could hear Lydia whining and complaining from the parlor, and it was not long before Mrs. Bennet agreed to take the carriage with Lydia into town.
The two friends were quiet as Kitty worked diligently to fashion a rough outline of Maria's face and add the details. Kitty asked a personal question for which she desperately wished an answer. Having witnessed the disastrous morning of Jane's wedding day, Kitty still tried to work out why it was that her sister Elizabeth adamantly refused to marry Mr. Collins, yet Charlotte Lucas had no similar complaints. "Is your sister quite happy now she is settled?"
For a moment, the joy on Maria Lucas' face became shaded before she quickly recovered. "Charlotte has written of trials in adjusting to marriage. But I hope she is happy to have a home of her own."
The answer did little to help Kitty reason out why her family was so splintered, but she increased her attentions on her portrait. Moving quickly with the colored pastels, she made Maria's face come to life and added a lovely rosette of flowers beside her cheek. Feeling satisfied she had done her best, she extended the picture to her friend.
Miss Lucas cooed in an overjoyed manner at the quality and subject matter of the piece, then right readily embraced Catherine Bennet and proclaimed her the best of friends.
"I came to share my news, and I leave with a most prized treasure. Sadly, I must start back. My mother will miss me if I’m gone for too long, you understand."
Kitty did understand and offered to walk Ms. Lucas back towards her house as far as the bend in the road. The Lucas family was not as well off as the Bennet family, though they held a title. Maria was a great help to her mother whereas Kitty felt herself to be an inconvenience to her own.