With her assistance the boy, who declared his name to be Peter Holler led her by a winding path to his family’s modest farm at the edge of the Rosing's lands. The fields were neatly kept and smoke curled industriously from the chimney.
Mrs Holler received them with alarm that soon dissolved into gratitude. Elizabeth explained the encounter with modest brevity, accepting no praise for what she termed “the smallest exercise of neighbourly duty.”
Mr Holler, summoned from the barn insisted that she take refreshment before returning to the great house.
Throughout it all young Peter scarcely left her side. He watched her with a devotion so undisguised that his mother was obliged twice to prompt him to close his mouth.
When at last Elizabeth rose to depart, Peter followed her to the gate, “I shall remember you always,” he declared solemnly. “When I am grown, I shall rescue ladies and dogs in the woods; and I shall think of you.”
Elizabeth, touched beyond expectation placed a hand lightly upon his shoulder. “Then I hope Master Peter that you will first remember to keep your dogs from deer and harm’s way.”
His blush was as brilliant as the setting sun behind Rosing's Park and Elizabeth returned to the manor house with a lighterheart, reflecting that even in the shadow of grandeur the truest nobility was often found in the humblest fields.
When she left the Holler’s farm she knew she was already very late for her appointment with Lady Catherine, as it was already past 3 in the afternoon; by the time she arrived back at Rosings it was almost 4 O’clock.
Elizabeth had no idea that her delay in meeting Lady Catherine would set in motion a train of events, a sequence of incidents which could have neither been foreseen nor avoided and that would in time change many people’s lives and rock others to the very core of their existence.
***
Earlier on the same day
Lady Catherine cackled maliciously as she held the little muslin bag firmly in her hand. It was vital that she treated the contents as the danger that they in fact were. She could not afford accidents that threatened her own life, but it was also imperative that everything looked as inoffensive as possible.
She had asked Mrs Quinton to acquire, for her personal use, a small mortar and pestle. Into this mortar she now poured the contents of the little pouch. The white crystals looked like coarse salt and were, from all appearances, odourless and tasteless. But once ground into a fine powder they would serve her purposes very well.
She then turned out the glistening white powder into a delicate porcelain sugar holder, and then set it in the centre of the small parlour table near the cups and saucers.Once that task was completed she proceeded to wash her hands with soap and dry them thoroughly, along with the equipment she had used in the process.
She organised the small container with real sugar, hiding it in the drawer, having it ready to swap with the one on the table for her visitor’s benefit. She then ordered the tea and cake which she had instructed her cook to bake. It was to be an almond cake, for she had noticed that Miss Elizabeth had liked almond cake and praised it to Mrs Quinton, asking her to pass on her compliments to the cook.
The tea service and cake were served exactly at three o’clock, just as Lady Catherine demanded. She waited a few minutes but when Elizabeth failed to make her appearance the lady called her maid to ask her to go and fetch the young woman.
After a few minutes the maid returned saying she could not find Miss Elizabeth anywhere.
Lady Catherine became uncontrollably irate and throwing the door of her sitting room open with a crash proceeded to go to look for and find the young woman herself, whom she suspected was hiding in the library, possibly with Darcy.
When she found Miss Elizabeth she would know how to act. The insignificant chit caused one offence after another. Her patience was finally spent!
***
Mr Collins had been held up in the morning, stuck in a difficult passage of the Prophet Isaiah that warned against idolatry. His sermon for the following Sunday was an earnest admonition against the sin of idol worship, which he described as ‘that lamentable tendency of the heathen to elevate the creature above the Creator,’
He had paused and then lingered to refine a sentence praising the incomparable condescension, wisdom, and symmetry of mind possessed by his noble patroness, whoseguidance, though he was careful not to add as an object of worship, was nevertheless deserving of his deepest admiration, gratitude and total reverence.
Thus, so delayed, when he finally made his way into Rosing's for his daily session of devotion at the feet of his benefactress, it was already 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
Mr. Gibbs, the butler, received Mr. Collins with a solemn bow and informed him that her ladyship was, as was her custom, in her private sitting room, where tea had already been laid.
At the mention of tea, Mr. Collins felt a most pressing agitation within his stomach, which he endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to ignore. With eager steps, he hastened toward the room, anticipating the honour of attending upon Lady Catherine and partaking in the elegant refreshment as he had done many times.
Upon entering, however, he found the chamber entirely deserted. Neither her ladyship nor her maid was in attendance. Yet the table was set with exquisite care. A teapot, still gently steaming, stood beside a freshly baked cake, its surface adorned with delicate slivers of almond arranged in a most pleasing design.
“What luxury,” he murmured, his eyes brightening with undisguised satisfaction.
He seated himself and resolved, at first, to wait. A few minutes passed in silence, broken only by the faint ticking of the clock and the increasing insistence of his appetite. At length, he began to reason that Lady Catherine, who valued propriety in all things, could hardly approve of such fine provisions being neglected and allowed to grow cold.
Thus persuaded by his own logic, he concluded that he would, in fact, be rendering a service by partaking while the tea remained hot. So, he proceeded to pour himself a cup of tea with a liberal hand, adding two heaping spoonfuls of sugar, andcontinued to cut a generous slice of the fragrant cake. A further sprinkling of fine white sugar over it completed the indulgence. The scent of almond rose most invitingly, and he partook of the first bite with unrestrained eagerness, quite gluttonously.
It was not until he had begun upon a second portion that an unusual sensation overtook him. His hand faltered. A sudden dizziness clouded his senses, and the room seemed to waver before his eyes. The teacup slipped from his grasp and fell, its hot contents spilling unnoticed upon his person.
