Introduction

It started when she was a little girl. Elizabeth always sat at the end of the Bennet pew. The Bennets had one of the most prominent pews at St. Alban's Church in Meryton because they were one of the first families.

St. Alban's was an old stone church. It had been rebuilt in the seventeenth century out of local stone, heavy and ugly, and was in want of repair. There were few windows in those thick stone walls, and yet at the end of the Bennet pew there was a narrow window in the nave wall on the south side of the church. That window was one of only three which looked out over the graveyard. It was one of the few that had yet to have some rich subscriber donate a great deal of money so that a stained glass window could be installed in it for the glory of God and in remembrance of some family member.

Mrs. Bennet hated to sit at the far end and to look over the graveyard; she sat on the inner aisle. It allowed her to keep an eye on the comings and goings of her neighbors. Not that there was much change to observe as everyone sat in the same place, and Reverend White gave the same sort of sermon, week after week after week at St. Alban's.

Mr. Bennet dutifully sat next to his wife. Jane (the oldest daughter) being equally dutiful, sat next to her parents. Mary never minded going to church, sitting on those hard wooden pews and listening to sermons, at least not to ever complain about it—she came next. And once Catherine and Lydia were old enough to leave the nursery and be brought to church, well, they needed a lot of attention so they had to suffer sitting with Mrs. Bennet or Nanny Pickens, who had been their nursemaid until she died when Lydia was seven.

Somehow, Elizabeth had been left to her own devices when it came to her church attendance, sitting at the end of the pew. The fact that she did not object to sitting on the end by the window near the graveyard was welcomed by everyone.

Elizabeth had discovered at a young age that there was a colony of crows which lived in the oak and yew trees out there. Uncle Phillips had once corrected Elizabeth about her choice of words when she mentioned that there was a colony there in the graveyard. He said it was to be called a 'murder' of crows.

She thought that was too coarse of a phrase, it did not describe them fairly. She saw them going out in twos together, courting almost, she believed. Elizabeth imagined she saw them as if dancing as they moved about the graveyard in pursuit of worms to eat, or seeking twigs for nests, or pursuing whatever activities they did each day.

And sitting on the end of that pew and watching the ministrations of the crows was a far better use of her time than listening to old Reverend White's sermons about sin.