Longbourn

Content Warning: The source text and guide refer to suicidal ideation, sexual assault of children during war, and sexual grooming of a minor.

Sarah, a housemaid at Longbourn, wakes in the cold morning to launder the Bennet girls’ dirty linens. She is weary, and the work is demanding. Doing their laundry makes Sarah realize that the girls aren’t the “alabaster statues” (4) they look like. While fetching water from the well, Sarah slips on the ice and falls in the pigs’ muck. Sweating in her faded dress as they launder, Sarah helps Polly, the younger housemaid. Her real name is Mary, but because there is a Bennet daughter named Mary, the maid was renamed Polly. As they hang the wash, Sarah spots movement on the lane behind the house and thinks it must be a Scotchman selling trinkets.

They take their supper with Mrs. Hill, the overworked housekeeper, and her husband, Mr. Hill, the aged and increasingly infirm butler. Their dinner is unappetizing, and Sarah eagerly waits for the day to end. She reads from the newspaper about the English desire for a victory over Bonaparte in Spain. Sarah goes to bed and wonders what it’s like to be a peddler, free to travel, even to the sea.