I shall continue to hope, until I hear otherwise from you, that Maria’s illness is not Jane’s, and that you and your mother continue well.
With fondest regards and best wishes for a happy resolution, I remain your friend,
Elizabeth
* * *
When Jane awoke the next morning, she confessed that she felt slightly better. Elizabeth was pleased to see her sister eat more than she had at a single sitting for the last several days, and yet that slight effort left her visibly exhausted. Even the revelation of another note from Mr Bingley, which had been slipped under the door while they both slept, was not enough to rouse her further than to say, “Will you read it to me, Lizzy?”
Elizabeth complied, and when it was done Jane said only, “I shall reply later. I wish to sleep now. Lizzy, go for a walk.” She turned her face away from the windows and closed her eyes. Loath though she was to leave Jane for any length of time, Elizabeth recognised that she desperately needed to clear her head, and that obeying Jane’s directive might very well accomplish just that.
A few minutes later, she emerged from the house with a great inhalation of cold, fresh afternoon air, to find Mr Darcy just dismounting. “Miss Elizabeth!” he said, and belatedly bowed. “Is all well?”
She curtseyed. “As well as can rationally be hoped. Jane has decreed that I shall take a walk while she rests, and I dared not disobey.” Her saucy smile gave the lie to her ruse of reluctance.
“Do you go to the gardens?” At her nod, he continued hesitantly. “Might I…that is, would it be an imposition if I were to accompany you? It is pleasant to stretch one’s legs after so long in the saddle, but if you wish for solitude…” he trailed off with a vague gesture.
Though she had been looking forward to a bit of time alone, his shy solicitude caused a revolution in her feelings, and she found herself glad of the promise of company which did not require her constant diligence and care. “I should be pleased to walk with you, sir. Though it is cold, the sunshine is most pleasant, is it not?”
He agreed, moving towards her and offering his arm, which she took. They set off towards the gardens, she asking after her neighbours and he replying largely in the positive. There were no new reports of illness from his visits that day, though Maria Lucas had again raised her family’s concern that morning by fainting when she tried to sit up too quickly. “Oh, I have letters for you from your sister and Miss Lucas,” he concluded.
“I thank you. I will remember to ask you for them when we return to the house. Do you visit the Blake family?”
“I did yesterday. All of the children are ill; the youngest lad is having a difficult time of it, but the rest go on tolerably well.”
“Little Michael? I am sorry to hear it, he is a sweet boy.”
“How is Miss Bennet today? I hope that her desire to sleep indicates that she is more comfortable?”
Elizabeth sighed. “Rather the opposite, I fear. Her discomfort prevents her from sleeping for more than an hour or so at a time. She sleeps when exhaustion overcomes her.”
They walked on for a moment in silence, past the dried, rustling remnants of the summer’s bounty. “That is unfortunate,” he replied at last. “I hope this stage will pass quickly.”
“Oh, so do I,” she admitted, and his quiet, concerned attention induced her to admit softly, “I hardly recognise her. I look at the person dearest to me in all the world, and only her eyes are my Jane’s.” Her own eyes filled with tears, and overflowed. “I do not know what I would do without her, and I cannot conquer the fear that the loss of that familiar visage is an omen of a greater loss to come.”
He wordlessly handed her his handkerchief, and waited until she had made use of it to say, “If she has half your strength, Miss Elizabeth, she will defeat this wretched illness easily.”
She laughed shakily through her tears. “You flatter me, sir.”
He looked uncomfortable, his feet shuffling aimlessly in place as his eyes darted hither and yon before at last returning to meet her gaze with an expression of remorse. “Truth is not flattery, and any compliment from me is long overdue. I learnt recently that upon our first meeting you overheard a comment I made in a moment of childish petulance. A comment which I cannot too strongly state was untrue.”
Elizabeth had become rather accustomed to being surprised by Mr Darcy of late, so her wit was not now subdued by it. “‘She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me’?” she queried with a lift of her eyebrows.
He winced. “Entirely false. I sought to induce Bingley to leave off pestering me to dance, but the method I chose was deplorable. Instead of telling him outright that I was in no mood to perform, I insulted a respectableand very handsomeyoung lady. I am sorrier than I can say, and hope you might one day forgive me.”
She tucked the soiled handkerchief into her pocket and slipped her hand about his arm again, indicating that they should continue their walk. “I might be more inclined to forgive you if I knew why you were so very disinclined to dance that you would use such tactics to evade the young ladies of Hertfordshire,” she said playfully.
He was silent for a moment. “I have never enjoyed balls, or assemblies, or indeed anything which requires many people to share a confined space,” he said slowly. “But that night, I was more averse to merriment than I had been since the period after my father’s death. I had just left my sister at a time at which I was particularly loath to be parted from her, to honour my promise to Bingley that I should assist him whenever he took an estate.”
“Was your sister unwell?” Elizabeth asked sympathetically.
“Not in body. Only two months before I came here, I went to visit her on her seaside holiday.” His jaw clenched, and she felt his arm tense beneath her hand. “There I discovered that a scoundrel—the worst sort of fortune hunter—had made my dear Georgiana’s thirty thousand pounds his object. He had persuaded her to believe herself in love with him. You may imagine how I felt, and how I acted. She is but fifteen, her heart is tender and was very much hurt by this, and her confidence in her own judgment has been left in shambles.” He paused, sighed, then added, “It was made all the worse by the fact that he had been known to her from the cradle. He was the son of my father’s loyal steward, Mr Wickham, and a boyhood companion of mine. Wickham even attended the same schools I did, as a gift from my father, meant to secure his future in an honest manner.”
Elizabeth was shocked and angered by this foul treatment of a girl so young, and likely more sheltered than her own fifteen-year-old sister. “Why, that ungrateful cad! I hope, sir, that you sent him off with a broken nose!” Her eyes flashed fire. “But your poor sister! Of course you did not wish to leave her at such a moment, and you may be assured I shall not breathe a word of this to anyone. You are entirely forgiven for your remark, Mr Darcy—though I may still tease you about it on occasion.”
He smiled down at her. “Knowing that you have forgiven me, it shall be no great task to bear your teasing, Miss Elizabeth.”
She laughed. “Ah, you say so now, sir!”
