Chapter Two
Netherfield Park
Meryton, Hertfordshire
Jane woke again several hours later, when the light had faded in the sky outside the window. There was a maid sitting by the bed. Jane cleared her throat, and the maid hurried to help her sit up by putting two pillows behind her back.
“How do ye feel, miss?” the maid asked kindly, reaching up behind the bed to ring the bell.
“I am not certain, yet.” Jane allowed the maid to assist her to the chamber pot, though, on the way back, she felt much stronger and less sore than she had that morning. Her head still ached, but she required no assistance as she returned to her bedchamber.
It was a charming room; the walls featured ivory wainscoting and similarly colored paper with a lovely sage, soft pink, and fawn floral pattern.
The furniture was light and feminine, and of rich quality.
The room looked as if it had been recently refreshed.
Jane assumed Mrs Bingley must have married recently, and had already begun her work upon her new home, for the Miss Caroline Bingley of her story would never have designed a lovely room such as this.
Jane hoped that she would have an opportunity to meet Miss Bingley.
Indeed, she recalled Miss Bennet speaking of an upcoming visit from Mr and Mrs Collins!
How amusing it would be to meet Miss Bennet’s cousin!
An older woman entered in a neat black gown suited to senior staff. “Good evening, Miss Jane. I am Mrs Nicholls, the housekeeper at Netherfield. Have you rested well?”
“I have, thank you.” Instead of returning to her bed, Jane had taken a seat on a comfortable chair near the cheerful fire.
“You and Mrs Bingley must run an excellent house, Mrs Nicholls. I am exceedingly comfortable in this lovely room. Has Miss Bennet returned to her home? I was never able to thank her.”
“This was the second suite of rooms in the family wing that Mrs Bingley decorated after her wedding. You were placed here for your proximity to Miss Bennet, with whom you share a parlour, so that she might easily look in on you. The guest rooms are all nearly done as well, in record time thanks to Mr Bingley’s generosity with the workers; and a very good thing too, with guests arriving for the festive season and a ball later this month.
She is an excellent mistress; the staff has known Mrs Bingley her life.
We are all so pleased to see her so well settled, and to have the privilege of working for her and Mr Bingley.
” Mrs Nicholls smiled fondly about the room as a footman entered with a trolley.
“It was understood that Miss Lizz- I beg your pardon, Miss Bennet, was to move to Netherfield permanent to stay with Mrs Bingley after the guests went home in the new year. But seeing as how you are here, and Mrs Bingley is preparing for a house party, Miss Bennet made her move today, so as to be a help to her sister. She is downstairs at dinner with the family now.”
“Miss Bennet and Mrs Bingley sound devoted to one another,” Jane said.
“Oh, they are, Miss Jane, they are.” Mrs Nicholls dismissed the footman, then set about pouring tea for Jane and arranging her tray.
“Are you certain you will not return to the bed? No? Very well then, but you must tell someone if you feel the least bit poorly. But back to Mrs Bingley and Miss Bennet, I have never seen a pair of sisters closer. Why, once Mrs Bingley, Miss Bennet as she was then, stayed here after falling ill. Miss Lizzy walked here after such a storm, through three miles of mud to care for her. Hardly left her side for the duration. No, it was only a matter of time afore Mrs Bingley asked her sister to come and reside with her.”
“I hope that I will not be in the way if Mrs Bingley is hosting a house party.” Jane accepted a cup of tea. “I fear that I have met with misfortune somehow, and though I know not where else I should go until I find where I belong, I would not wish to inconvenience my hosts.”
“Oh, not to worry, Miss Jane.” The housekeeper removed a cover from the boiled eggs, toast, and fruit upon the tray.
“There are ample guest rooms, and the ones on the third floor will not even be touched. You are in nobody’s way, I assure you.
How are your injuries? Does your head still ache? Have you remembered anything?”
“I am not as sore as I was when I awoke this morning. The feather bed is marvellous. I fear my head still aches, but no, I have not remembered anything new since this morning.” Jane nodded to the candles.
“I find the soft light of these candles much easier to tolerate than the light from the windows earlier today.”
“Well there is a powder here by your plate.” Mrs Nicholls said kindly. “Mr Jones said you ought to eat before you take it. A meal will make it much easier to stomach. I must return downstairs in case I am needed, but please, if you need anything, ask Daisy to ring the bell.”
An hour later, Jane had consumed her meal, used the pitcher and basin in the dressing room to wash, and changed her nightgown.
The nightclothes were made of incredibly high quality linen, and Daisy informed her that they had been loaned to her by Mrs Bingley, from the unused portion of her trousseau.
No, I suppose Mrs Bingley has had no call for such a plain nightgown so early in her marriage, Jane thought to herself.
She returned to her bed as Daisy left for her supper, taking the trolley and tray with her.
The maid promised that Miss Bennet intended to look in before she retired, and that Daisy herself would return and sleep on the sofa in her room later, in case she needed something.
Jane lay in her soft bed with the candle burning low and thought about her situation as the evening began to turn late. She wished she felt well enough to join Miss Bennet downstairs and meet whatever other characters of her story were present in this delusion of hers.
Will other new characters besides servants turn up? Ones that I did not even write? she wondered. I suppose some must, at some point or another, if I remain very long. I did not create Daisy, for example, not consciously, at any rate.
She turned her thoughts to what had happened to bring her here.
I would think that I have just been knocked quite senseless by falling, but considering that I have gone back in time by more than a fortnight, I wonder if this is not some strange well magic, giving me something more for December. What a whimsical notion.
Would she be here for an entire month? It was an exciting thought, but she certainly hoped not.
She did not consider herself an accomplished deceiver, and the thought of missing the festivities at Godmersham saddened her.
For all of the excitement that she felt to be in such a wondrous predicament, she could not be parted from her dear sister and family for so long.
I fear that unless a miracle occurs overnight, I shall likely be stuck in this room tomorrow too.
Jane lifted her head from the pillow and winced. Her head pained her terribly, and the powder had not begun to help.
I wish I could read, but I could never see the lines in this state, nor even listen to the softest voice read to me. I wish Cassandra were here.
At length, Jane struggled from the bed and rang the bell.
When a footman arrived, she asked him to see if Mrs Nicholls had anything stronger for her headache and soreness.
Now that she had been awake a little while, her head was getting worse, her bruises and injuries ached more, and though she felt fatigued, she ached too much to sleep.
Mrs Nicholls arrived with Miss Bennet and the two determined that she was not coming down with a fever, and that she merely needed something to ease her pain so she could rest. She took a cup of tea with a few drops of laudanum, and fell deeply asleep.
When she awoke the following day, it was late, but Mrs Bingley had ordered that a hearty breakfast be kept warm for her.
It was nearly eleven o’clock when Jane left the dressing room and sat down to a tray piled high with dishes of kedgeree, bacon, sausage, plum cake, fruit, toast, and marmalade.
Jane was groggy from the laudanum, and so sore she could scarcely drag herself from the bed to use the chamber pot, but at least her head pained her a little less.
“You must eat well and regain your strength, Miss Jane,” Mrs Bingley told her as Jane sipped a delicious cup of chocolate.
“I am sorry to hear that you have remembered nothing about your ordeal, and that your soreness has not abated, though I am not surprised considering your bruises. After you break your fast, I shall have the bath filled. You must have a nice long soak. It will help, I think; at least it is what Mr Jones recommended. Then you must apply arnica to your most painful areas.”
“Thank you, Mrs Bingley, I hope the labor of so much hot water will not be an inconvenience for your household, I understand that you are preparing for guests,” said Jane.
“Oh please, I beg you to not concern yourself! It is no trouble, I assure you. We only wish for you to get well and to find your family. You must have someone looking for you.” Mrs Bingley wrung her hands.
“They must be so worried. You must be so worried! If I woke up in a strange place not knowing who I was, nor if my family had been hurt in whatever befell me, I should be quite terrified.”
Jane knew where her family was, but not how to return to them. This morning she was feeling quite a bit of anxiety and homesickness for the care of her sister. “You comprehend my predicament quite well, Mrs Bingley.”
“Will you be quite up to visitors later, do you think? Mr Jones will arrive at three, and once he has examined you again, my father, and the magistrate, Sir William Lucas, wish to ask you some questions. You are in no trouble at all, I assure you!”
“Of course,” Jane agreed.
“And my sister Kitty will come to sketch your likeness so that we may find your family, will that be acceptable?”
“Mrs Bingley, I assure you, I am at your disposal,” Jane promised.
The bath helped Jane's soreness wonderfully, but she was exhausted when she returned to her room, and could not help falling back into her bed and napping for an hour before waking again at two to find Miss Bennet reading beside her bed again.
“It is a relief that you are awake, Miss Jane,” Miss Bennet said with a bright smile. “We could not bear to wake you, but feared you might sleep through the visit from Mr Jones and Sir William. Do you feel any better?”
“I do,” Jane confessed. “Though the morning exhausted me, the long bath did wonders for my soreness.”
“We shall have to draw you another late tonight,” Elizabeth insisted. “It will help you sleep, and is a far safer choice than laudanum.”
“I quite agree, if it is not too much trouble for Mrs Bingley’s staff,” Jane said agreeably. It would be difficult to be anything but agreeable to this charming creature. Jane thought again of how impressed she was with her own imagination.