During the almost fortnight since they had begun courting, Hilldale was with Jane for most of every day, except when he went to his own house to sleep.
It had taken three days after Jane accepted his offer of a courtship before he admitted to himself that he was deeply in love with her. As the last thing he wanted to do was pressure her, Hilldale made sure he did not mention his feelings to her. He wanted to shout that he loved Jane Frances Bennet from the rooftops, but in this, he exercised discretion.
The more time she spent in Andrew’s company, the more Jane saw the stark difference between the man that he was and the boy that Mr Bingley had been. All she could do was to offer prayers of thanks that she had woken up and realised that she had to make a change in her personal philosophy.
Without that, she would have pined away for Mr Bingley by not allowing herself to see that they were never in love as she was now. Jane froze as she realised the truth of her last thought. She loved Andrew!
The fact that they had been courting for less than a fortnight was not material. It would be a fortnight complete on Monday coming, the day they were to depart Bowness-on-Windermere. All she knew was that when she was in Andrew’s company, she felt vibrant andcompletely alive, and when he went back to his own house in the evenings, or for some reason he could not be with her during the day, she felt like a part of herself was missing. Granted, that was not something which had occurred more than once.
Jane had a feeling that Andrew loved her as well, but she did not know if she could be so forward as to give him a hint. That evening after Andrew departed for his house, she must have been puzzling out what to do because Lizzy noticed that Jane was deep in thought.
“Jane, you are my dearest sister. I can see something is weighing on you; may we speak?” Elizabeth requested before they each made their way into their own bedchamber.
“I will come to you once I am ready for bed,” Jane said. Lizzy was very intelligent, so it could not hurt to speak to her. Besides, they did not have secrets between them. Jane gave Lizzy’s one hand a squeeze before slipping into her bedchamber. The maid did her plait first because her hair was easier than Lizzy’s. Once the girl was done, Jane completed her ablutions and dressed in a summer nightgown with a light robe. She knocked on the interconnecting door between her own and Lizzy’s chamber.
“Come, Jane,” Elizabeth called out. “Peggy is almost done taming my wild hair.” As she spoke, the maid tied a ribbon to the bottom of the plait. Hopefully, it would hold the hair until morning. As soon as Peggy left the room, Elizabeth turned to Jane with an expectant look.
“Lizzy, I have fallen deeply in love with Andrew. I suspect he too loves me. However, I do not want to be too forward by giving him a hint. You were always more adventurous than me, so do you have advice for me?”
Elizabeth never enjoyed keeping things from Jane, and she had kept a secret about the questions she had asked in the letter to Gigi as well as the reply she had received from the manhimself, not to mention their on-going correspondence. It was time. “Jane, there is something I have not told you. Do you remember how nervous I was right around the time Andrew requested to court you?”
“Yes, I do. What of it? I wanted to ask you what vexed you, Lizzy, but I felt that if you needed my counsel, you would ask me.”
“I did my best impression of Mama and the way she used to be with her nerves because I had been rather forward. You remember I had jumped to a conclusion about why Mr Darcy left Hertfordshire and the reasons for his speedy departure? And you know that day the letter came, my worries were proved to be for nought.”
“Yes, I do. And I remember how I opined that you had misunderstood and come to the wrong conclusion. What of it?”
“I never told you what led to my new understanding. In the letter to Gigi before I was beset with nervousness, I asked her somehypotheticalquestions to be put to her brother in service of afriendof mine. You are too intelligent not to know what the subject of the questions was.” Elizabeth looked away from Jane in embarrassment.
“Rather than censure, as you worried, Mr Darcy must have given you a positive reply through Gigi,” Jane guessed.
“Not in Gigi’s handwriting…”
“No! Are you saying that Mr Darcy wrote to you himself? If so, what did he say? You did not keep this one, did you?”
“A page was included inside of Gigi’s letter. Without going into detail, he told me that you had arrived at the right interpretation, and lastly, no, I do not have it. This time, I took a flame to it. I do not want to force his hand.”
“But you are hoping we willsee him in Derbyshire, and he will renew his addresses to you?”
Elizabeth nodded as her cheeks bloomed scarlet.
“Are you in love with Mr Darcy, Lizzy?” Jane saw her sister nod shyly. “How do you account for this change? I know you began again. However, you did say that you hated him, did you not?”
“My former wrongheaded feelings are all forgot. In cases such as this, a good memory is insupportable.” Elizabeth smiled. She saw Jane do so as well. “Once I saw the real Mr Darcy, I realised he was my perfect match. I was in the middle before I knew I had begun. The time since he left Meryton showed me what kind of man I stood to lose, and I could not imagine ever marrying another.”
“So, he has gone from the last man you could be prevailed upon to marry to the only one you will agree to marry?”
“That is true.” Elizabeth paused. “There is a reason I told you all of this. Had I not been so terribly forward. Had I not risked everything to both discover the truth and at the same time, let him know how much my feelings towards him have changed, I know not how much longer we would have danced around the subject with each of us assuming the other was not ready to move forward together. And Janey, each time I reply to Gigi or she writes to me, notes are included from me to William and from him to me.”
“So it is William now, is it?”
Elizabeth nodded and explained they only took the chance because their letters were being carried by a Darcy courier.
Jane cogitated on Lizzy’s words regarding taking a chance on love for some minutes. “Thank you, Dearest. I think I know what I need to do now.” Jane leaned forward and kissedLizzy’s cheek and left the same way she had entered.
Once Jane fell asleep, she dreamed of the man she loved.
~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
