"There now," said Mr Bennet, glancing back through the rear window. "Your mother has begun imagining the wedding breakfast before we have reached the end of the lane."
Jane coloured at once. "Papa."
Mr Bennet slipped into a high falsetto that was an alarmingly accurate imitation of her mother, saying, "I knew you were not so beautiful for nothing."
He patted Jane’s hand. Her lovely face was now a vivid shade of red. "Now, she only wants the best for you, even if her manner is somewhat unorthodox."
Elizabeth laughed as Longbourn disappeared beyond a bend. It was impossible not to poke a little fun at her mother. She had spent the greater part of the morning alternately lamenting the dangers of travelling and declaring herself perfectly convincedthat Jane would return engaged to some wealthy gentleman who would "save them from them from the hedgerows."
"I believe," said Elizabeth, "that Mama has already settled every particular of Jane's future. But she appears remarkably unconcerned that Jane herself has not yet been consulted."
Jane shook her head with smiling resignation. "Mama merely wishes us to be happy."
"She does," agreed Mr Bennet. "Though your mother has always been of the opinion that a wedding ring cures almost every difficulty known to mankind."
Elizabeth smiled towards her sister.
"Poor Jane. I almost pitied you before we left. You received enough advice to furnish every unmarried lady in Hertfordshire."
Jane laughed softly. "I shall endeavour to remember all of it."
"I would not trouble yourself to remember it all," said Mr Bennet. "Your mother certainly will not."
Jane covered a smile with her glove.
Elizabeth rested her elbow upon the window ledge and watched the familiar countryside slipping gently past. The wheat stood high in the fields, while labourers paused to raise their hats as the carriage rolled by. Before long the lanes she had known since childhood began to give way to roads less familiar, andwith them came the curious realisation that she was travelling somewhere she had never seen, towards people she had never met and an adventure she could not already imagine from beginning to end.
It was precisely what she had wished for. How strange, then, that it should make her just a little nervous.
"You have become very quiet, Lizzy," said Jane after a spell.
"I was thinking."
Mr Bennet looked up from his book. "A dangerous occupation."
"So you have told me often, Papa."
"And what conclusion has all this thinking produced?"
Elizabeth hesitated before answering. "As every turn of the wheels takes us nearer to something new, I find myself wondering whether I was quite so eager for adventure as I believed."
Her father regarded her over the top of his spectacles for a moment before nodding. For a little while nobody spoke. The silence was an easy one, interrupted only by the steady clatter of wheels and the distant song of larks somewhere above the fields.
At length Elizabeth turned back towards her sister. "Mama is convinced that you will return with an offer of marriage," she mused.
Jane gave an embarrassed little laugh. "She places far too much confidence in me."
"But what confidence does she place in me?" asked Elizabeth with a laugh.
Mr Bennet folded the corner of his page before answering. "Your mother never expected you to bring home a husband."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "I hardly know whether I ought to be offended."
"She imagines that, while Jane will spend her time dancing and making pleasant conversation, you are more likely to get lost exploring an attic or to cause a to-do sharpening your wit on some poor young earl."
Jane laughed outright. "Mama did tell Lizzy only to behave herself."
"Did she?" said Mr Bennet. "How very hopeful of her."
