“I will have to help Mary change her style of dress and the way she wears her hair.” Fanny paused as she felt a certain level of chagrin at her behaviour towards her middle daughter who may hold their collective futures in her hands. “It will be my task to show Mary she is not plain as I have too often told her.”
“That is another thing in which we have both erred. Neither of us should have shown a marked preference for any one of our daughters above any of the others. It is something we will discuss at another time,” Bennet told his wife.
With a renewed sense of purpose, Fanny left her husband’s study to seek out her middle daughter. She had work to do and not many days in which to do it.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As much as she would have preferred not to be in the supercilious sisters’ company again that night, Elizabeth knew it would have been rude of her to not show her face in the drawing room at all. She did not plan to remain long.
When she entered the room, four of the party, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Hurst, Mr. Bingley, and Miss Bingley were seated around a card table playing what looked like whist to Elizabeth. Mrs. Hurst was sitting and disinterestedly looking at nothing in particular while playing absent mindedly with her bracelets.
Elizabeth spied a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets on a side table. She picked it up, sat down in an armchair, and began to read the Bard’s well known words.
“Do you not want to join us in playing whist, Miss Elizabeth,” Hurst grunted as he looked at the cards in his hands disgustedly.
“No thank you, Sir, I am quite happy to sit here and read,” Elizabeth averred. Besides not wanting to play, she suspected they were playing too high for her tastes.
“You prefer reading to playing cards! How singular,” Hurst managed as he watched Bingley play his cards.
“Miss Eliza is a great reader and prefers reading above all else,” Miss Bingley commented derisively.
“I neither deserve such censure nor praise MissCaro, I do enjoy reading, but I take pleasure in many things. In fact, some in this house have pointed out I am agreatwalker,” Elizabeth responded sweetly.
Darcy sat fighting not to smile as the highly intelligent Miss Elizabeth tied Miss Bingley in verbal knots. He almost guffawed as he watched the latter trying to decide whether she had been insulted or not.
Miss Bingley was about to ask Mr. Darcy if he agreed with her assertion about Miss Eliza’s single-minded interest in reading when she remembered he was an avid reader. She did not want to hear him publicly disagree with her again. Miss Bennet could not recover soon enough for Miss Bingley because it would mean Miss Eliza would be out of her house.
How dare the hoyden call her by a name which was not hers? Miss Bingley entirely missed the irony of her having just called Miss Elizabeth, Miss Eliza. To try and regain Mr. Darcy’s attention, Miss Bingley began to speak of the accomplishments a true lady needed to have.
With everyone distracted from the game of cards, Hurst stood and made his way over to the nearest chaise lounge and was soon snoring loudly.
When Miss Bingley prattled off a list of things which she decided made a woman accomplished—all her own accomplishments by some coincidence—she was angry when she heard Mr. Darcy amend her list.
“In addition,” said he, “one must possess one more attribute to be truly accomplished—the practice of extensive reading to expand one’s mind.” Darcy was looking at Elizabeth when he said the last and she did not miss his meaning, causing her to blush.
Elizabeth was not the only one who understood who Mr. Darcy was referring to. Miss Bingley was trying to maintain an outward façade of calm while internally fumingherMr. Darcy had found a way to compliment the hated Miss Eliza.
To break the spell spawned by the way Mr. Darcy was looking at the hoyden, Miss Bingley suggested some music. “Louisa, you do not mind if my playing wakes your husband do you?” Miss Bingley made for the pianoforte not waiting for an answer to her question.
She played a sonata with cold precision, not infusing the music with any warmth. Listening to Bingley’s sister play reminded Darcy how much he enjoyed hearing Miss Elizabeth’s playing.
‘I will conquer this!’ Darcy assured himself silently. ‘We can never be more than indifferent acquaintances!’
While the hostess was exhibiting, Elizabeth made her excuses and wished everyone a goodnight. Thereafter, she made her way upstairs to spend time with Jane.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On entering Jane’s chamber, Elizabeth could see her favourite sister was asleep, and unlike the previous night, her sleep seemed to be peaceful. A maid was unobtrusively seated in the corner of the room.
As gently as she could, Elizabeth felt Jane’s forehead and was well pleased to be able to detect her fever was far lower than it had been the previous evening. It was still detectable, just far less worrying than before.
Elizabeth lifted her eyes to the heavens offering prayers of thanks. Theworstshe had dreaded was no longer a worry. That first night when Jane had been burning up and convulsing, Elizabeth had worried her worst fears would become a reality.
Before she went to her chamber to change, Elizabeth wrote a note to her mother to request her presence to evaluate Jane’s progress. As upset with her parents as she was, Elizabeth knew they loved their daughters and would never knowingly cause them harm.
With the note sealed, she handed it to a footman requesting he have the butler send it out in the morning. After checking on Jane once more, she instructed the maid to summon her if Miss Bennet’s fever climbed again. She then moved to her adjoining chambers.
She had not realised how worn out she was, and soon after her ablutions and changing into a night rail, Elizabeth was dead to the world.
