Mansfield Park "The Crawfords' redemption"

Chapter 16

After lunch they changed places, Mary joining her brother on the box, and Fanny sitting with Edmund. She was glad to have a softer seat, and she could see brother and sister happily chatting, though Henry always kept his eye on the horses and the road.

Edmund snuggled really close to her, it was good to see him so free of reserve, so loving towards both Mary and herself, and he observed: 'I am really glad to be away from Tom for a few days. I've seen him sink into debauchery slowly the last year, and when he had reached what I thought would be his absolute low, being in danger of losing his life when I was with him in Newmarket, he went on to prove I was wrong, that he could sink still further.'

As she had been thinking on the same subject earlier, she asked Edmund the question she had asked herself: 'Do you think he was always this unprincipled, or did his vicious habits degrade him?' Edmund looked at her in pain, and he replied: 'I always thought him overconfident and thoughtless, but his transgression was so serious, and his conduct afterwards so unfeeling and unrepentant, that I am starting to wonder if he did not always lack true sensitivity.'

A sudden, shocking though caught him: 'He did not bother you before, did he? You would have been helpless against him, him being so strong and with your feeling of inferiority?'

She could calm him easily: 'No, he did nothing worse than plague me to take the role in his play, or dance with me only to escape a card-party he didn't feel like joining. Only unthinking selfishness, not true vice.'

With a sigh of relief, Edmund told her: 'Well, I hope to forget about him the coming days, I'm very curious as to what amusements your beau has in store for us, and I will be curious what realisation of his error our father may have gotten into Tom's thick head by the time we return. If he doesn't feel remorse by then, I do hope Crawford may crack his skull to let some sense in.'

Seeing Fanny's look of horror, he laughed and said: 'Yes, I'm trying to change too, it has done you a world of good to allow some uncharitable thoughts once in a while, and I'm rather enjoying them. Henry will not hurt him very much, he's far too nice, and before you take fright for him, Tom's not a match for your intended, he's actually not very active nor very brave. And now I'm done with my spoiled brother, until we go back to Mansfield Park I am determined not to think of him.'

Though Henry had tried to comfort her, Fanny could not help asking Edmund about her cousins, too: 'Will Julia and Mrs Rushworth blame me very much for being with Henry, when they wanted him so much for themselves?'

Edmund replied: 'I don't see why that should bother you, it is clear Henry loves you and no-one else, I never saw any sign of admiration in him for either Maria or Julia.

If they imagined him in love with themselves, and showed their feelings indecorously, and were then disappointed in their hopes, that is entirely their problem, not yours. But if the idea of meeting them oppresses you, I will make sure we avoid them during our stay in town. And I'll ask Mary as well, I am thinking that Henry will not want to see them anyway. But you cannot avoid them on our mutual weddings, they will be present.'

'I know that, and I hope I will be too busy to have to notice them much. Henry has promised me a small wedding anyway, I hope it will be over soon,' Fanny mused.

Now it was Edmund's turn to tease her back, he prodded her in her side and drawled: 'Can't wait to hit the marriage-bed with Mr Crawford, my dearest cousin?'

Since this was the absolute truth, and Edmund knew it, Fanny blushed a beautiful rosy-red, and he squeezed her white hand and said in a low voice: 'I can't blame you, sometimes when he looks at you in a certain way I cannot help thinking you have a very interesting time ahead of you. That man is just ready to burst with passion. He's not like us, is he? Untouched?'