“I remember when you would not leave her side,” said Mary, with a faint trace of malice. She had always longed to be close to one of her sisters, even Lydia. Yet, it had never happened until their father’s death, when her relationship with Kitty had unexpectedly deepened.
Kitty did not answer. The girl she had once been, who admired Lydia’s foolishness, had long since disappeared. She was preparing to become a wife and return to Longbourn asmistress of the house. Now the very sister she had once admired threatened to destroy that happy future.
A maid entered carrying a tray, and as happened every time a letter arrived, a frozen silence settled over the gathering.
The letter was for Elizabeth, and because of her connection with Mr Darcy, the tension deepened.
“It is from Mrs Cooper,” said Elizabeth, and everyone relaxed. Much as they longed for the matter to be resolved, they had also begun to fear that the affair might end badly before Kitty’s wedding. In the end, no news was often preferable to bad news.
They all looked at Elizabeth, who smiled as she read. “Mrs Cooper has decided to come to London and will travel with Miss Darcy.”
Yet the news produced little reaction. Lydia remained their only concern, and the fact that they spoke so little of her was itself another source of frustration. At another time, Mrs Bennet would have wept and agitated herself throughout the house, involving everyone in her distress. During these days, however, she behaved differently, far more quietly, though Elizabeth suspected that she poured out all her anxieties when alone with her sister, far from the rest of the family.
It was a remarkable change. Looking about her, Elizabeth felt certain it was permanent and that her mother’s famous nerves would never again display themselves in quite the same manner. Perhaps they had always been, at least in part, a game she played with her husband.
She sincerely hoped that Mr Bingley had told Mr Darcy more about the family’s circumstances and especially about the manner in which their mother had assumed the role of head of the family and discharged it with considerable success. Elizabeth had spoken with her uncle, who managed their finances. He had advised her to place her confidence in Mrs Bennet, who hadproved herself every bit as capable in managing their modest fortune as she had always been in running her household.
Only Jane leaned towards her and asked quietly, “Do you think Mrs Cooper would come to our wedding?”
Elizabeth nodded with enthusiasm. “I think it is an excellent idea to invite her. It would seem rather strange for Uncle and Aunt Gardiner to attend while she remained in London. Though solitude cannot be too difficult to endure when one is in the same city as one’s fiancé, can it, dear sister?”
Elizabeth smiled at the sight of Jane’s flushed cheeks. Jane imagined that no one noticed her absences with Mr Bingley.
“We discuss details of the wedding,” she replied, even if Elizabeth did not make any verbal allusion.
Without intending to, Elizabeth found herself imagining those “details”. She and Jane had been the closest of friends all their lives and shared nearly everything that happened to them. Nearly everything, for Jane would never describe those moments when her fiancé took her into his arms or kissed her.
“It is magical. The feeling is no longer only in my heart, but I feel it everywhere.”
That was all Jane had ever said, yet even that had been a revelation to Elizabeth. She remembered Mr Darcy’s eyes fixed upon her when he departed for London. Jane was right and had described love perfectly. It no longer existed only in the heart. She, too, had felt her whole body respond beneath his gaze. A sweet ache spreading from her heart through every part of her being.
From time to time, Mrs Cooper had revealed a little of the mystery that existed between husband and wife, always with great discretion and only to warn Elizabeth that love was far more than she had ever imagined. Agnes had once told her, while attempting to persuade her that she ought to accept MrDarcy if he proposed again, that love assumed many forms within marriage and that she had loved her husband in many different ways.
Elizabeth had blushed shyly, while Agnes laughed gently at her embarrassment, pleased that she understood at least a little of what marriage truly meant.
But Agnes had been mistaken in one respect. Elizabeth still could not imagine that happiness was possible without love. Only now that the love she had always dreamt of had come for her, there would be no marriage.
∞∞∞
Elizabeth had considered going to London herself, and whenever the thought returned, her hand instinctively sought the cameo she wore constantly around her neck. It was not only a remembrance of Darcy, but also the knowledge that the miniature might help solve the problem if the fugitives were found.
Then events moved quickly.
One morning, Mrs Phillips arrived at Netherfield in great agitation with the news that it had become known that Lydia had run away with an officer.
“Who?” asked Mrs Bennet, and although she tried to speak in a whisper, her voice would no longer obey her. Her fear was too great.
Kitty was weeping. Elizabeth and Jane attempted to comfort her, though they themselves were scarcely calmer. Once the story had emerged, it would spread with extraordinary speed. Everyone in the room knew how things evolved in Meryton, and nothing they could do would stop the gossip or lessen its effect upon the family. Unfortunately, they did noteven know what would happen next, for nothing so scandalous as an elopement had occurred in their neighbourhood for many years.
Mrs Bennet no longer cared whether she herself might be ostracised. At that moment, only Kitty mattered, and Sir William would certainly refuse to permit the marriage he had so carefully arranged.
“There are only five days left,” murmured Kitty through her tears. “I would never forgive her.”
“Kitty, my dear, do not say such a thing,” said Jane.
Yet for the first time in her life, even Jane was not entirely removed from such a feeling. After all they had endured with their father’s death, they had only just begun to recover, only just begun to see a little light ahead, and now Lydia threatened everything they had rebuilt with such difficulty.
Sir William arrived that evening with James and informed them that he had decided the marriage should take place only after Longbourn was ready, approximately a month later. James blushed deeply yet did not dare to say anything. He only looked at Kitty with obvious despondency.
