Lydia cried louder, looked about for help that did not come, then limped from the room, slamming the door behind her.
An awkward silence followed. Mr Bingley cleared his throat. “I…ah…perhaps I should—”
“No, no,” Mr Bennet waved a weary hand. “Stay, I beg you. You are family now. We shall weather these little storms together.”
Mr Bingley remained another hour but declined the invitation for dinner that evening. After his departure, the family continued to discuss the happy, most unexpected outcome that none of them had hoped to occur. That night, when the house had quieted, Jane could not sleep; her happiness turned into restlessness.
“Can you believe he proposed, Lizzy? How could I have doubted him? He is such an excellent man! He said the scandal was nothing compared with his regard for me. He will returnto Hertfordshire with us, reopen Netherfield at once, and marry me as soon as the banns can be read. He was so determined, so earnest! I fear his sisters will be furious and raise many objections, but he said Mr Darcy supports him.”
“Then all my fears for you were needless. He is worthy of you, Jane. Utterly,” Elizabeth replied, her heart pounding at every mention of Mr Darcy’s name.
Jane sighed, blissful. “I think I shall never stop smiling.”
Yet she did so shortly after, when she finally fell into a deep sleep.
Elizabeth was not so fortunate, as she struggled for most of the night and only caught a little sleep when the daylight broke through the windows.
∞∞∞
The next morning, at breakfast, Lydia was still upset, and still nobody indulged her except with some casual conversation.
“I have decided we shall return to Longbourn tomorrow,” Mr Bennet suddenly declared. “Jane’s engagement will, I trust, cast a more flattering light upon recent events than Lydia’s folly ever could. We shall tell everyone that Lydia travelled no farther than London, where she was immediately reunited with her family. We shall see in the coming months if there are any consequences of her elopement. If there are, we might take Mr Darcy’s offer into consideration.”
“What consequences? What offer?” Lydia asked. “And where is George?”
Mr Bennet heaved a great sigh. “I shall allow your mother to explain to you in more detail once we are home. As for Wickham, he cannot expect to leave debts everywhere he goes, deceive people, elope with a gentleman’s young daughter, and face no consequences.”
“So I shall never see him again?”
“With God’s will, none of us will,” Mr Bennet replied harshly. “I am heartily sick of London and of George Wickham!”
Scarcely had the decision been made than the knocker sounded again. Mr Darcy entered, grave, composed, accompanied by Mr Bingley, who looked as though he had not slept from sheer happiness.
Greetings were cheerfully exchanged; Mr Darcy congratulated Jane while he glanced at Elizabeth repeatedly.
“Gentlemen,” Mr Bennet said after a while, “if you will step into the library, we shall settle the final particulars of this wretched business.”
“I was about to suggest the same thing,” Mr Darcy responded.
The four gentlemen disappeared into the library once more. Elizabeth lingered in the hall, restless, curious, her heart performing an alarming series of somersaults at the mere thought of Mr Darcy so near. What final arrangements were being made? Would Mr Wickham be imprisoned?
She paced, despite her aunt’s repeated invitation to sit. She straightened a picture that needed no straightening. She waited, ears straining for the sound of voices, for any hint of what was transpiring behind that closed door.
At last it opened. Mr Bennet emerged first, looking tired but resolute. Behind him came Mr Bingley, still beaming, andMr Darcy, whose dark eyes found hers at once and held them for one long, unreadable moment before he looked away.
Elizabeth’s breath caught. Whatever had been decided, her father would tell her soon enough. But in that brief exchange of glances, she felt the familiar, delicious ache of hope renewed — and the quiet terror that it might yet prove to be in vain.
The gentlemen stayed for another hour, but only neutral subjects were discussed. Mr Darcy conveyed to Jane the heartfelt congratulations of Miss Georgiana Darcy and his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam and wished them a safe journey back home. At Mr Bennet’s enquiry about his presence at Netherfield and an upcoming reunion, Mr Darcy answered that his plans were not yet settled. Elizabeth met his eyes again for another instant but had no time to read anything in his dark gaze.
Then the guests left, taking a friendly farewell, with Mr Bingley’s promise that he would come at the earliest hour the following day to begin the journey back to Hertfordshire.
Chapter 14
The journey back to Longbourn passed in a haze of spring-green fields and the gentle clatter of carriage wheels, yet for Elizabeth, the miles seemed to stretch and contract in the most peculiar fashion — lengthening whenever she allowed herself to dwell on a certain tall, silent gentleman, and shortening only when Jane’s soft laughter at some of Mr Bingley’s words drew her back to the present.
They arrived at last to find Mrs Bennet in a state of uncommon felicity. She met them at the door with arms flung wide, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, and declared in a voice that carried to the very attics, “My dearest Jane! My sweet, beautiful Jane — engaged! Oh, what a triumph! What a comfort to a mother’s heart! Mr Bingley — such a gentleman, such a fortune, such manners! I always said he was the very man for you!”
Lydia’s escapade, she dismissed with a wave of her hand and a sniff. “As for that silly girl running off with an officer — well, young people will be young people, and Mr Bennet has settled it all so handsomely that there is nothing left to fuss over. I declare I never liked that fellow Wickham at all — an idle, flighty sort of man. I always said so.”
