“Darce, please forgive me. I realise Caroline did not give you a moment’s solitude to write the letter. I should have stopped her from interrupting you,” Bingley stated contritely.
“As Miss Elizabeth so ably pointed out, you are not to blame for your sister’s actions,” Darcy granted.
“Thank you, Darce,” Bingley inclined his head to his friend. “You go. I will absorb my younger sister’s displeasure at you not returning to the drawing room.”
He clapped his younger friend on the back and then Darcy slipped into his chambers where he told Carstens to lock all doors which allowed access to the rooms.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Well?” Jane enquired as soon as Lizzy re-entered her chamber.
“Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy…” Elizabeth related her encounter with the two men.
There was no mistaking the look of pleasure on Jane’s face when Mr. Bingley asking after her, more than once, was canvassed. However, Jane had an uncharacteristic scowl when the parts regarding Miss Bingley were repeated.
“Talking of our hostess, how many times have she and her sister been to see you since the first day you took ill?” Elizabeth enquired.
“None,” Jane revealed.
“They seemed to indicate they came to visit you when I was not present.” Elizabeth related.
“It seems mysupposedfriend likes to dissemble,” Jane shook her head. “I can only be ashamed of my defending them when you told me what they were really like.”
“It is not in your nature to suspect someone’s motives, Janey, and I would never want you to change who you are,” Elizabeth responded warmly.
“It has come to my attention I am far too naïve at times,” Jane admitted. “No Lizzy,” Jane pre-empted her sister’s protests, “you know it to be true. It may be advantageous for me to see the world, at least in part, with a bit of your satirical eye.”
“And I, Sister dearest, need to learn to consider the world can be good and pure—to a certain extent—just like you do.”
Jane began to feel fatigued and was soon asleep. Elizabeth called the maid in and then went to her chambers to change into her night attire.
Once she was ready for bed, first she donned her robe, then Elizabeth crossed back through the shared sitting room to Jane’s chamber. She made sure to ease the door open gently as the last thing she wanted was to wake her slumbering sister.
Like yesternight, Jane was sleeping without any disturbance and when Elizabeth felt her sister’s forehead, it was cool to the touch. No fever at all. Elizabeth instructed the maid to wake her if awaken her if there was any significant change Miss Bennet’s fever.
The maid promised Miss Elizabeth she would wake her if there was reason to do so. With that assurance, Elizabeth returned to her chambers, took off her robe, and placed it over the back of a chair near the bed in case she had to go to Jane during the night.
After extinguishing the final candle next to her bed, Elizabeth slid below the covers and allowed the warmth to envelop her body. Just before she slipped into Morpheus’s arms, Elizabeth’s mind drifted unbidden to thoughts of a certain extremely handsome man from Derbyshire.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
A few suites down from the Bennet sisters, Darcy was preparing for bed. He had completed his letter to Giana without the shrew’s constantly importuning him while he tried to write. In addition, he had written a letter to his aunt and uncle, and one to Richard.
As he did every night, he had Carstens check that all doors, including the one leading to the servants’ passages, were locked. Even if she compromised him, Darcy would never marry the harpy, but he preferred to avoid the situation so her brother would not have to face his sister’s ruin and the ensuing scandal that would be attached to the Bingley name.
In an additional layer of security, Carstens had a pallet between the doors from the sitting room and the hall. His man had requested all copies of keys to his master’s chambers, but Darcy did not want to take a chance Miss Bingley somehow found another of which the housekeeper was not aware.
His valet assisted him to prepare for bed and soon the candles were blown out and Darcy was lying in his bed, his hands behind his head, deep in thought. Within a minute or so he could hear his man’s deep breathing telling Darcy that Carstens was asleep.
He had always known what his duty was with unswerving surety, so how had this slip of a woman come to cause him so much confusion? That he was in love with Miss Elizabeth Bennet was an irrefutable fact. Darcy was aware denying it to himself would be a complete prevarication and disguise of any sort was something he abhorred.
His head told him he had to remember his duty to his name, and especially to Giana. If he married someone so far below himself, his belief was theTonwould see it as a degradation and his sister would suffer for it in the quality of her future match.
At the same time, his heart was screaming he would be a simpleton to give up a woman like Miss Elizabeth. Each time his heart began to gain the upper hand, his head would remind him about the low connections and the behaviour of her family. Even if the mother seemed to behave with decorum on her visit to Netherfield Park, his head would not allow him to forget how she and the younger sisters had carried on at the assembly and other times they had been in company together.
‘No!’ he told himself silently. ‘I must get over this, I cannot give in to my heart in this. Iwillconquer these feelings!’
He lay awake wrestling with his feelings until well after midnight. Darcy eventually drifted off to sleep, but it was a fitful rest during which he dreamed of being with the raven-haired beauty with the finest emerald-green eyes he had ever seen.
