Both Gardiners looked at their niece in surprise. “We will leave you to speak as a family,” Darcy decided as he shepherded his friend out of the sitting room with himself.
As soon as the door was closed and Mr Jones slipped back into his patient’s bedchamber, Gardiner looked at his niece. “Lizzy, it is obvious you are devastated by what is occurring, but why are you so bitter regarding my sister?” he probed. “It is not like you. What did you not tell us in the letter Mr Darcy’s man delivered to us?”
Elizabeth told them all. It did not take long before the Gardiners understood their niece’s anger and animus towards her parents. Once she had finished, they sat in silence for some moments.
“Surely not. Not even Fanny is without some level of intelligence, and my brother just capitulating as he is wont to do.” Gardiner just shook his head. If only Jane had disobeyed Fanny. Now I understand why you feel as you do about your parents. It is unconscionable what they have done, or in your father’s case, not done.”
“Come let us go see Janey,” Elizabeth suggested. Her aunt and uncle nodded and followed her into the sickroom.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
William Collins was the eternally grateful recipient of the great Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s beneficence and condescension. At first he was rather angry to receive his cousin’s letter rescinding his ‘invitation’ to visit his future inheritance and deliver his amends and olive branch. Now with the express just arrived, his honourable intentions were being thrown back in his face.
He took the time to read the missive again, and then henoted the reference to illness in the house. His pique changed to gratitude in a trice. If he had followed his first inclination and travelled to Hertfordshire regardless of what his cousin said, he could have brought the disease back to his home. He knew how insistent his patroness was that no one with even the most minor of colds would be permitted in her house due to Miss de Bourgh’s delicate health.
If he had returned, even were he not sick himself, but somehow carried the bad vapours back and infected Miss de Bourgh, Lady Catherine would never forgive him.
Collins could see his cousin was only paying deference to his patroness. He could not fault the man for that. He would wait to hear when health had been restored, before he ventured forth to deliver his olive branch, and honour one of his cousins with his hand.
Chapter 9
There was no longer any denying the inevitable. It seemed all of her prayers, even her bargaining with God had not succeeded. Elizabeth owned she did no one any favours by clinging to the vain hope her Janey would ever leave the bed alive .
Before they entered the bedchamber, Mr Jones had prepared the three for what they would see. Jane’s pallor was almost grey. To Elizabeth, however, it was not so great of a variance to what she had seen before her flight away from her parents, but for the Gardiners whose previous memories of their niece had been of Jane in the bloom of health, it was a shock of enormous proportions.
Madeline covered her mouth to stifle the cry which wanted to escape her lips. Gardiner lost some of his colour. Regardless of Mr Jones’s words of preparation, nothing had made him ready to see his eldest niece in this condition. Elizabeth replaced the maid at Jane’s side and began to apply cooling water with one of the cloths in the basin on the small, tall table next to the bed. Madeline took a seat on the other side of the bed opposite while Gardiner sat close to Elizabeth.
As Mr Jones had said she would, Jane woke about a half hour after the Gardiners and Elizabeth sat beside her. “Water,” Jane croaked, barely above a whisper.
Madeline waved, telling the maid to remain in her seat. Then she assisted Lizzy in bringing Jane into a sitting position. Elizabeth brought the water to her sister’s lips and slowly and gently allowed the cool liquid to drip into Jane’s mouth, drop by drop. It took some minutes but Jane drained the glass.Elizabeth signalled to the maid who came and placed more pillows behind her sister’s back, and then she and her aunt slowly allowed Jane to lie back against them. Gardiner stood next to his niece in case his assistance was required.
“Thank…you…Lizzy,” Jane managed. She needed to take a breath between words. It was then she saw who was on her other side. “Aunt Maddie!” Knowing her aunt would not be here without her uncle; Jane turned her head to the other side of the bed. Her dulled eyes almost brightened some when she saw the uncle she and Lizzy loved so dearly. “Uncle. Thank you…both for…coming.”
“Did you think we would not come when we heard how sick you are?” Gardiner asked, his voice thick with emotion.
Jane looked at the faces of three of the people who she loved most in the world. She saw the truth in their looks of sorrow without them saying a word. “I will…not recover, will…I?” It was a statement more than a question.
“I should have done more to stop you,” Elizabeth wailed. “I am so very sorry, Janey. Mr Jones does not think you will survive another night like you suffered during the previous one. I do not want you to go!”
As weak as she was, Jane reached out and took her younger sister’s hand. “Lizzy, we all…go when…He calls us…home. It seems…it is…my turn. It…was my choice…to ride…here. Do…not blame…Mama…and Papa, I…could have…refused.”
Elizabeth wanted to let Jane know how much she held their parents liable for what was happening and what was to come, but she would not burden her sister with her thoughts and feelings. She knew not how much longer Janey had before she was called home, so it was better not to waste that precious time on recriminations. There would be more than enough time for that afterwards. She decided she would not lie to her sister and promise something she was certain she would notbe able to stand by, so she would not speak about the fault she assigned to her parents and try to experience as many minutes with Jane while she was still with them.
“The cousins?” Jane enquired.
“They are here,” Madeline responded. “The children are with the governess and nurse in a parlour downstairs. If you want to say goodbye…” Madeline’s breath caught as she fought to hold back a sob, “…I think Lilly and Eddy are old enough to come see you.”
Jane nodded her desire to see the two older Gardiner children. Gardiner squeezed his niece’s hand and then rather than send a servant, he decided to go and bring his eldest daughter and son to the suite.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As Bennet would have expected she would, his wife had wailed and lamented for the whole of the three miles back to Longbourn. Unlike his wife, who was making this all about herself, he felt the crushing weight of the guilt engendered by his inaction and capitulation to his wife’s whim, which would cost Jane her life.
Thankfully when they arrived home, Fanny made for her chambers to take herself to her bed, all the while complaining of her palpitations, flutterings, tremblings, and spasms. Only once the door to his wife’s chamber had been closed, was her whinging no longer audible to Bennet. It was not many minutes before Mrs Hill was summoned to bring the salts to her mistress.
Facing the three youngest girls, who had said nary a word between them since they had seen Jane, was not what he desired to do—if ever he craved losing himself in the world of a book with a glass of good port on hand, it was at this moment—but he knew he could not leave them without a word. Hence he followed them into the drawing room.
“Papa,” Lydia began. Bennet did not miss that her cheekswere tear stained. The Lydia before him was a big departure from the brash, selfish, spoilt girl. “Is…is Janey really going to die?”
