“How lovely! I do enjoy it when young ladies get along and help one another!” Lady Sayles clasped her hands.
“I believe we ought to get on the road.” Mr Bingley rose and clasped his hands. “Mr Bridges is still predicting bad weather–more likely tomorrow than today–but we do not wish to get caught out in it, just in case it comes earlier.”
“Is Mr Bridges on your estate, Mr Bingley? We follow his predictions even here.” Sir Gregory rose. “His advice travels faster and farther than you might imagine.”
“Heisat Netherfield, Sir Gregory! All of Meryton regards him as an authority on the weather.” Bingley bowed. “I am certain he will be gratified to hear of it.”
“Miss Lydia, I regret to say that your souvenir–the puddingstone–must be held as evidence,” the magistrate informed her regretfully. “But I wish to make you a present of this one, which I found on a visit to Amwell as a boy.” The stone was more than four times the size of the one Lydia had used to bring down Wickham. It would be a mightytrophy to return with her to Meryton.Andit was not covered in Mr Wickham’s blood, which was a mark in the relic’s favour.
“Thank you, Sir Gregory,” Lydia thanked him. “You are very kind.”
“Weare the ones who must express gratitude, Miss Lydia, you have rid our area of a terrible villain who has plagued us these five months.” Sir Gregory tilted his head. “We thankyou, most sincerely.”
“Miss Lydia, would you care to join us in my carriage on our way back to Meryton?” begged Georgiana. “My cousin will remain behind with my brother to help here, so there will be room for you.”
“Thank you, Miss Darcy, that is very kind,” Lydia accepted. “Oh! But what about Miss Jane?”
“I shall be very happy with Elizabeth, your father, and Mr Bingley,” Jane promised as the women all rose and began to collect their belongings and take leave of their hosts.
“Lydia, my dear!” Mrs Bennet cried as her daughters were handed down from the carriage in front of Netherfield. “My darling child, let me look at you! I was certain that you had been killed!”
“Mama!” Lydia threw herself into her mother’s arms.
“Oh!” Kitty huffed as she was duly ignored by her mother. “I am glad to know everyone is happy to see that dearLydiais unharmed!”
“Oh hush, Kitty, Lydia has triumphed over a dangerous criminal! She could have been killed!” Mrs Bennet dismissed her fourth daughter.
“Iam the one who had a pistol pointed at my head!” Kitty objected.
“And Lydia saved you, so I hear,andMiss Darcy, and the rest of you as well. Yououghtto be grateful.” Mrs Bennet herded her youngest daughter past Mrs Bingley, who was quite deprived of greeting her youngest sister, so determined was Fanny Bennet to sit down and hear all. “Now Lydia, sit in the drawing room by me while your sister Jane pours you a cup of tea, and tell me every little detail.” The two ladies disappeared into the house.
Mrs Bingley turned to the other ladies with a wry grin. “Well, it seems we are now to hear every little detail, unless any of you feelunequal to it. I amso relievedto know none of you were harmed! Would you all like to join us in the drawing room?”
The ladies followed her indoors, Jane clutching Elizabeth’s sewing bag closely. She did not know why the boy had not taken it, it must be worth something, and everything else that could have been taken, was. Perhaps it was the unfinished or feminine nature of the contents that made him leave it behind. Whatever the reason the lad had not found the contents of interest, Jane was exceedingly thankful that all of her hard work was not lost, and she had made a great deal of progress on the wrap during their journey. Another day or two, and she could start working the beaded fringe she intended for the garment.
“Mrs Bennet, Mrs Bingley, I wonder if I might beg a favour, I fear I am being unpardonably rude, but I must ask. Might Miss Lydia, Miss Mary, and Miss Kitty stay here at Netherfield with me for a few days?” Georgiana inquired hopefully. “I confess that I have not had such kind friends before, and we have made so many engaging plans for the next few afternoons. With the threat of poor weather, I fear I might be obliged to do without them if the elements turn, as we are warned that they might.”
“Of course, Miss Darcy,” Mrs Bingley assured her. “It is indeed, no trouble at all. If my mother agrees that they may stay, I shall have the rooms close to yours prepared for them at once.” Mrs Bingley signalled to Elizabeth, who rang for Mrs Nicholls as Mrs Bingley began to pour tea and pass out plates of sandwiches and cakes.
“Of coursethey may stay and amuse you, Miss Darcy, though I do hope the weather will be fine on Saturday, that we may attend the party at the Lucases. Their son, John, has written something, and there is to be a reading of his work that is to be published inAinsworth’s Magazinenext month. And, of course, we are to farewell the Collinses.” Mrs Bennet had finally begun to warm up to Mr and Mrs Collins, now that Elizabeth was to be married so well.
“Now, Lydia.” She turned and patted her youngest daughter’s hand. “Tell me everything that happened. Leave nothing out, my dear.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Wednesday 16 December1812
The following day, Jane walked in the early morning with Elizabeth. She often woke early, if she had not taken laudanum for a megrim the day before. She usually wrote in the early mornings when she was at home, but since she did not feel comfortable writing while she was here, and risking having anything she wrote found and misinterpreted, she often accompanied Elizabeth, or more often, Elizabeth and Darcy, on their early morning walks.
“I feel terrible, intruding upon your private time together when Mr Darcy is here, though you are always both so kind,” Jane said to Elizabeth as they descended the stairs together. Finally, Jane was allowed to do so without the aid of a footman. She still had headaches, often, but they were improving, and since she had no fainting spells, Mr Jones allowed it.
“Pish, Jane, you are providing valuable chaperonage, and I do not have to worry that the footman or maid following us will report our every move or overheard word to the others in the servants’ hall. Mysister is mortified that Mr Darcy’s valet has reported tohimand he has reported tomethat Jane’s servants’ hall is a veritabledenof gossip, and that Mrs Nicholls does little to stop it, likely because of the long years here where there wasnomaster and mistress, and few servants. My sister plans to wait until after the wedding and festive season to address it quietly with the housekeeper, so that Mr Darcy’s staff is not blamed for the new rules, for we intend to be frequent visitors.”
They reached the bottom of the stairs and left by a back door. They turned into the gardens, then headed out across the fields towards the boundary of Netherfield and Longbourn. Jane had by now visited Oakham Mount many times, and the place was almost as special to her as it was to Elizabeth. She liked to pace about the area where she had been found, looking for something, anything out of place, that could explain how she had turned up there. Jane had laid her hands on the trunk of every tree, every boulder or large stone, and more, while Elizabeth and Mr Darcy walked and talked nearby.
Today, the ladies sat together on the boulder and Jane listened happily as Elizabeth chattered on about the wedding, the month she and Darcy would spend in town while they shopped for her trousseau and chose the colours and fabrics for her new bedchambers, parlours, and office at Darcy House, and the three months they would spend alone at Pemberley before returning to London to collect Georgiana from Matlock House, then spending time at Darcy House before heading north again.
“Wherever you are, I am sending a carriage to collect you and bring you to Pemberley for a lovely month or two in the summer. Or perhaps you can travel with Mary and the Gardiners.” Elizabeth finally paused for breath. “What would you like to do while you are visiting us in the north?”
