Emma VI

Mr Knightley is furious with Emma over her joke and she is really ashamed of herself. She decides to go and see Jane and Miss Bates the following day, but Jane wont see her. Upset and blaming herself for being unkind, and ashamed that Mr Knightley whom she now realises she loves, blames her too, she resolves to try and look after her father. She fears that Knightley has grown fond of Harriet Smith or Jane Fairfax, and that she will be left alone more and more, as Mrs Weston is pregnant and she will soon be preoccupied with her baby. She is sad and depressed. She learns that Jane has been offered a good job through Mrs Elton, but she is aware that she has never been the friend to Jane that she should have been. Frank gets called to Richmond to his aunt who is apparently sicker, and leaves Highbury. Then a few days later, Emma gets a message from the Westons to go and see them, and hears astonishing news. Mrs Churchill who was always thought of as a spoiled hypochondriac, had become seriously ill and died suddenly. And Frank tells his father and stepmother that he was secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax for some time and that now, with his aunt gone, he can make his engagment public. HIs uncle is a quiet gentle man and not likely to raise objections. Emma is shocked that he has deceived all his friends in Highbury, flirted with her, and encouraged her to half believe that Jane was in love with her own good friends husband, as a cover for his secret romance with Jane. She forgives him but she is far from impressed by his behaviour. Frank comes back to Highbury to claim his bride and Emma and he talk. He apologises for the lies he told and Emma understands that they were in a very difficult position with his aunt being so hostile to the idea of his marrying a poor girl.