“The skies are lightening quickly. I find I cannot leave Meryton without visiting Oakham Mount today. This morning is the last time I will wake in Meryton while it is still my home.”
“Of course, Lizzy.” Jane headed to her dressing room. “Let me get changed. Can we come back by way of the wishing well again? I need to make another wish.”
“Of course, but do hurry. We must leave, and quickly, or I shall never escape the house,” Elizabeth fretted. “My sister will certainly be about soon.”
Elizabeth went downstairs, and met Darcy near the back door that they always left by. Of course, her intended was waiting, as ever.
She could not help it. The moment she reached him, Elizabeth threw her arms around his neck impulsively. He returned her embrace warmly, and after quickly glancing about to ensure they were alone, kissed her with a bit more abandon than the sweet, chaste kisses they were used to under the mistletoe.
“Whatever merits such a friendly greeting?” Darcy asked her with a rakish glint in his eye that Elizabeth had never seen before.
“I am only so happy that we will marry today, and never be parted again.” She laid her head on his chest.
“I too, am overjoyed.” Darcy chuckled. “I fear that I shall not be able to demonstrate preciselyhow muchuntil we are alone tonight.”
“Wicked man!” Elizabeth gasped playfully. “Here I thought you were impeccably proper.”
“I am.”Darcy pretended mock offense. “In public.”
“Oh dear.” Elizabeth pretended to fret. “I fear I am marrying a rogue!”
“I promise only to be a rogue when we are alone together, Elizabeth.” His words and his eyes held a rather intense promise, and her heart raced wildly.
“The sooner we get you two alone together properly, the better off everyone will be,” Miss Jane interrupted drily, hands on her hips, from a few feet down the hall. “Come along now, the sooner we visit Oakham Mount and the wishing well, the sooner we can return and get the pair of you married. And the sooner you are married, the sooner we can send you away in your carriage, and hopefully three or four months on your own will cure whatever this is.”
Darcy chuckled as the lady gestured vaguely at their embrace. “Miss Jane, I find that I agree with you entirely about marrying with no further delay, though I fear no cure exists.” He looked down at Elizabeth. “Shall we?”
The three of them set off, and as she always did, Miss Jane fell back and allowed Elizabeth and Darcy to converse alone. Elizabeth looked back worriedly several times, likeshealways did, but as always, Miss Jane seemed not to be disturbed by her solitude. She walked with her face tilted towards the sky, enjoying the brisk morning air and admiring the heavens which were quickly turning to grey as dawn approached. LikeElizabeth frequently did when she herself walked alone, Miss Jane seemed to just enjoy the opportunity to stimulate her constitution with exercise and to appreciate the beauties of nature.
Reassured that their friend was content, Elizabeth turned her attention to their walk. As she and Darcy had agreed the night before, they walked briskly to the garden at Longbourn first. Elizabeth wanted to start her last walk to Oakham Mount before her wedding from her home. Unlike their usual mornings together, they did not speak much. Elizabeth was too captivated by seeing everything for the last time as a resident of her home village, before she went away to become Elizabeth Darcy of Pemberley.
Darcy, understanding her feelings completely and, being touched by her affection for her home, was quiet and did not press her for conversation. Once they passed the garden at Longbourn, Elizabeth started to slow, and as Miss Jane caught them up, she began to speak of her memories of different locations on the path.
“That is the tree I fell from when I was nine. And that is the tree I got stuck at the top of when I was five. Mama never quite forgave me when Papa had to risk his life to get me down. She never ceases to remind me that if we had grown up in the hedgerows, it would have been my own fault.”
Later as they entered the wood, “I used to frighten poor Kitty when she was seven that there were trolls in here. I was tired of her and Lydia escaping the nursery to follow me. I was visiting Oakham Mount at every opportunity even then.”
“Were you not also escaping the nursery?” Darcy teased.
She nudged him playfully as they walked. “And this is where John Lucas tried to kiss Jane when she was fourteen. I gave him a black eye.”
“I am sure you did.” Darcy chuckled. “And under what tree did you receiveyourfirst kiss?”
“I hope you do not believe any local man had the courage to kissmeafter John sported his black eye for a fortnight,” Elizabeth answered. “I receivedmyfirst kiss in the library at Netherfield.” She watched Darcy blush slightly at the memory.
At the top of the mount, Elizabeth paced about like Jane often did, and took in the view in a nostalgic manner. At length, she felt ready toreturn to Netherfield, and the trio departed by the alternate route that was planned.
At length, they reached the spring, and to Miss Jane’s surprise, there was a newly built picket fence around it, with a sign on the gate that read:
Miss Jane’s Well
Just inside the fence on one side was a wooden bench. Miss Jane looked astounded. “What has happened here?”
“It was fortunate that you asked to see it today, for when I told Charles that he should put up a fence before one of the livestock or a child falls in, he liked your idea of it being called a wishing well,” Elizabeth explained. “He visited an older woman who lives on the estate in a cottage, and asked if there were any local legends about the well that he should know about, and Queenie said that some of the older tenantshavebeen known to call it a wishing well, but there is no particular lore about it. So we named itMiss Jane’s Well.”
“But to have built this so quickly even with the recent weather!” Miss Jane was in awe. “And to name it for me…well, I am quite without words.”
“Winter on an estate can be a difficult time for the workers, Miss Jane,” Darcy said practically. “There is the harvesting of the winter crops, and packing down snow in the lanes when the weather calls for it, but the cottagers need work. Many landowners will use any little excuse to give their labourers or carpenter employment through the lean months. It is my understanding that part of what made the poet John Scott build the grotto you all visited was to keep some masons and labourers on his land working. Elizabeth was right about this well, it ought to be enclosed for the safety of livestock and small children at the very least. It was prudent of Bingley to see to it right away, and it gave Elizabeth great joy to show it to you before we left Meryton.”
