On the following morning at breakfast, I said, “I have decided to forego my visit to Rosings this year.”
“Are you in earnest?”
“Do not look so startled. Lady Catherine will be annoyed, but she is unlikely to die of vexation.”
“Richard will not have to go alone, will he?”
“My word!” I said playfully, “he is a colonel in the King’s own regiment. I daresay he can decide what to do, and if he must go alone, he will likely manage.”
“Do not tease me. It would be, to me, a terrible prospect to face her without you.”
“Fortunately, you do not have to do so. But perhaps to lessen the impression that I have deserted our cousin outright, we should concoct so-called ‘other plans.’ Where would you like to go before the season starts in earnest?”
“Do you mean a holiday?”
“Yes, that is precisely what I mean. Lady Catherine will object regardless, but Richard would certainly understand. You have been nowhere of interest since you went to Ramsgate.” I held my breath. We never willingly spoke of her seducer, much less the scene of her near ruination.
Her eyes fell, and she spoke while looking inward. “It is a pity, but I cannot remember what the seaside looked like.”
“Would you like to see it again perhaps?” I asked this as casually as I could so as not to inflect my preference either way.
Her eyes whipped up, and she stared at me.
“I only ask because Miss Elizabeth had a fright at Mrs. Jennings’s house, yet she went back several times. I believe the effect was lessened because of her willingness to see it in other circumstances. In any case, we should gosomewhere, even if for only a few days, and perhaps even invite your new friend to come along.”
Georgiana’s anxious expression transformed to joy in an instant. She put her hands on her cheeks and cried, “Are you in earnest? Could we ask Elizabeth to come?”
“I do not see why not, if she is free to go and willing. You will have your debut directly after and will want to remember a pleasant time during the long hours of standing in a receiving line.”
“And waiting to make my bows a-and everything!”
“Where shall we go then?”
“Let us go to Ramsgate.”
“Are you certain? The weather will be wilder than in summer.”
“But I would dearly love to see a storm on the sea. And besides, I did not dislike being wet and cold when we rode in the rain.” She came to a halt in her effusions and said, “But Elizabeth might not like it.”
“I assure you Miss Elizabeth Bennet has no aversion to being out of doors in any weather.”
My sister sat imagining this scene for a minute, and then suddenly entertained her doubts. “But Ramsgate is in Kent, and perhaps that is too close to Lady Catherine.”
“I doubt she would hunt us down and drag us to Rosings. But if you would like, we could go enjoy the wind and rain of Brighton instead.”
She laughed. “We could take Elizabeth to see the Pavilion and perhaps even engage to take a tour of it.” She spoke playfully, for I had never disguised my disapproval of the Regent’s palatial expenditures.
I was satisfied with her plan. We had broached the idea of Ramsgate, and I did not doubt she would return there when she was ready. And, should someone mention the place in casual conversation during her Season, I knew that she could face it without undue distress.
Our plan to travel invigorated a household that had not yet recovered from the anticlimactic departure of the most exciting guest to ever visit Pemberley. In a matter of days, the servants cheerfully ushered us out the door, having packed our trunks for any eventuality and waved us away with little Queenie tucked in a basket and a hamper of food taking up the space of a person.
Chapter Forty-One
20 March 1813
Longbourn, Hertfordshire
Elizabeth’s story…
