Chapter 38
Three very different greetings arrived in a mud-splattered carriage at the end of April.
The first, bounding out with a large smile attached, was that of Charles Bingley.
He was clearly delighted to see his friend again and made quick and effusive observations about Darcy’s good health, the excellent roads on his estate, the cleverness of his plan, and the tasteful cut of his coat.
Not at all put off by Darcy’s minimal replies, Bingley then turned to Elizabeth and extolled her beauty, wit and charm.
“You barely know me, sir! How can you say such things?” Elizabeth protested.
“I know you as well as a sister, madam! Miss Bennet has told me so much about you.”
With a radiant smile, Bingley hurried back to the carriage and helped Jane to descend.
Lizzie gasped aloud. She couldn’t hide her shock at seeing what her beautiful sister had become.
All of Jane’s lovely, youthful glow had been crushed beneath their mother’s unrelenting pressure.
Jane looked tired to the point of exhaustion.
Her eyes were shadowed, her countenance dour, and her lip trembled when their eyes met.
“Oh, Jane!” Elizabeth cried, running forwards to clutch her sister in a trembling embrace. Jane looked up, choked, and then burst into tears.
“Ah.” Bingley shuffled his feet awkwardly, looking around for assistance. “I… er…”
“We have a new billiards table,” Darcy said at once, “Come in and play a game, Bingley. The servants can deal with your luggage.”
“Wait! Caroline.” Bingley squeaked, going back to the carriage to help his, now irate, sister descend.
The servants can deal with her, too. Darcy thought unkindly.
Forcing a pleasant look onto his face, he greeted the woman and welcomed her to Pemberley. She did not return his feigned good humour.
“Her family were awful, Darcy. Utterly intolerable! You owe me a great debt, sir.”
Miss Bingley had raised her voice for the sisters to hear her complaint. Darcy knew that she was doing it deliberately. Caroline had no compassion for anyone other than herself and, possibly, her sister.
“Where is Mrs. Hurst?” he asked.
“Oh, dear Louisa remained in London. She was invited to stay with Lady Winter: a most respectable family.”
Again, the emphasis. Again, the nasal sneer of a supremely arrogant toad. Darcy knew that it was not just the Bennets whom she looked down upon. His conduct in Meryton had made her despise him and resent the years she had wasted trying for his hand.
Well, her dislike of him was excusable. Her open insult of his family was not.
“The servants will show you to your room, madam. It is quite respectable, I assure you, and if it is not then I am sure your continued presence will improve it. Bingley, are you coming?”
Bingley barely noticed the exchange between Caroline and Darcy. He was too busy looking worriedly at Jane. Mrs. Darcy had wrapped an arm around her waist, and they were walking away together into the drizzly walled garden.
“Yes, I suppose so, but… Darcy, do you think they will need any assistance? They are such delicate flowers…”
“Elizabeth is much stronger than she looks.” Darcy promised. He was familiar enough with his friend’s lyrical chivalry to resist an eye-roll. “Come on. You beat me last time, and I want to win my shilling back.”
Darcy looked back over his shoulder when he followed his friend indoors. He was shocked by Miss Bennet’s transformation, too. The woman he had pitied in Meryton had looked tired, yes, but nothing like the frail figure who had stepped down from the carriage.
The letter Jane had sent to her sister had been grim, but now Darcy feared that there was much more that Miss Bennet had decided to conceal.
Worry dripped icily down his spine. He had seen the colour drain from Elizabeth’s face when she saw her sister.
His wife was stronger than she looked, yet, but everyone had their limits.
On the other side of the house, Elizabeth walked with her arm wrapped around her sister’s waist. They were silent.
Lizzie knew better than to force a conversation.
She would not blame Jane for pretending that everything outside of Pemberley was just a bad dream, best forgotten.
If she decided not to speak, then Elizabeth would respect that.
But Jane did not stay silent.
She began with genuine sweetness, as was both her habit and her nature.
She complimented the fine carriage that had brought her here, and the pleasant time she had spent in London.
Jane praised Mr. Bingley unequivocally for his protection and manner.
He was cheerful and attentive, sympathetic about her circumstances and, in sum, the best escort one could possibly hope for.
While even Jane could not pretend that Miss Bingley shared a single one of her brother’s adjectives, she still managed to compliment her. Dear, kind Miss Bingley had been firm in Meryton and was the one who had given Jane the nerve to present Mrs. Bennet with her ultimatum.
“It did not go well.” Jane sighed.
Elizabeth clutched her waist a little tighter, “What do you mean? I thought, since you made it here…”
Jane smiled wanly. “Our dear cousin was very eager to collect his prize. He arrived the day before your letter.”
“What do you mean?” Elizabeth asked again, her heart pounding in her chest, “You did not accept him?”
Her sister shuddered. “I confess I was going to do it. When he proposed, Lizzie, I heard a great roaring in my ears, and everything else fell silent. His mouth opened and closed over and over, but I could not hear a single word. I could not move, or see, or speak. The next thing I knew I was lying on the floor and he was gone. Hills was holding a cold compress to my head. She told me that I vomited on his shoes.”
“Oh, Jane! It is too terrible.”
“I am sure it cleaned off.”
Elizabeth let go of her sister to glare at her. There was no need; a tiny smile danced on her sister’s lips. It was such a welcome sight that she kissed Jane’s cheek.
“Miss Bingley arrived the next day.” Jane continued, “I was still abed, but she was very insistent that I receive her. I agreed for her to come up. Mama sent up some tea, but with only one cup, for her latest tactic was to deny me such indulgences. Of course, dear Caroline noticed her ‘error’ at once. She made a joke about our family owning only one un-chipped cup. It was not funny, but I felt less ashamed of the clear sign of my mother’s displeasure. ”
“Mama is the one who should feel ashamed! How dare she…?”
“Hush, dearest, let me finish while I have the nerve. Miss Bingley told me of your plan and showed me your letter so that I knew she was sincere. Oh Lizzie, I thought I would faint a second time! I accepted Caroline’s help at once but asked for a delay.
I could not bear to face down mama when I was so unwell. ”
Jane shook her head, biting her lip. “Miss Bingley would not agree. She insisted that we must make haste, both for my own sake and for the sake of her arrangements, as her belongings were packed for the journey and her maid had already departed. Seeing that I could barely speak, she brought me a pen and paper and told me I must write my compromise into a letter for mama.”
There was a pause, an awful trembling pause, and Elizabeth braced herself. Jane cleared her throat, looked away, and then blurted out: “Mr. Collins intercepted it. He read it, Lizzie, every word.”
“Oh, Jane.” Lizzie breathed. Jane shivered and wrapped her travelling cloak more tightly around herself.
“Yes. I must say that he only sought out the words that served him. He crowed about my acceptance so loudly that I could hear it upstairs. Then I heard mama crying out, just as loudly, about her ridiculous, selfish daughter! Such words, Lizzie, that broke my heart. I have always tried so hard to be good and obedient, but I failed.”
“You did not!” Elizabeth was outraged, “It was mama who failed. What kind of woman bullies and neglects her child so heartlessly? No Jane, you shall not reproach yourself for her misdeeds. You are here now, and safe, and we need never speak of her again.”
“Lizzie, you must not…”
“You would defend her?” Elizabeth laughed harshly, feeling hot tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. Jane rested a steadying hand on her elbow.
“She acts as she does for the good of our family.”
“For the good of herself! And for the good of a cousin she barely knows. She does not protect our family, she is prepared to destroy it for her own security!”
Jane hesitated, “Our sisters will be better for the arrangement. She must think of them, Lizzie, as well as of her oldest children. You and I always knew that we would be called upon to help them.”
“They are safe. Mama knew that the moment she learned of my husband’s fortune.
” Elizabeth’s eyes blazed. “She set herself upon this wretched path, Jane, and is too stubborn and greedy to change her mind. I challenged her authority, and she punished you for my unfilial betrayal! Are those the actions of a woman who acts for the good of others, Jane? Do not dare defend her to me!”
The older girl sighed. She was not at all shocked by her sister’s fury and looked resigned to it.
It had doubtless already played out in her head, since she knew Elizabeth’s mind so intimately.
Elizabeth still expected her sweet-natured sister to find some way to excuse their mother for her cruelty, and so she was surprised when Jane nodded.
“You are right, Lizzie. Mama’s treatment of us both has been unforgivable.
But I had to try, my love. For one last time, I had to try to find a shred of our dear mama in the cruel woman she has become.
Oh Lizzie, I could not even bear to see our aunt and uncle in London.
I desperately wanted to, but… but how could I explain the matter?
How could I listen to their excuses, or suffer their comfort?
Even if Caroline had allowed me to visit Gracechurch Street, I should have been wretched. ”
“Perhaps, when mama is out of Mr. Collins’ influence, she might change.” Elizabeth doubted it, but the thought made her sister brighten up a little. “Jane, what happened when mama and Mr. Collins read your letter?”
Jane swallowed hard and said, “It was Mr. Collins who agreed to let me come here. He has the right to make such decisions, he said, since we are engaged.”
“But you did not accept him!”
“It matters not. He has it in writing - in my own hand - that I will accept him. He has returned to Hunsford to show his patroness the document in person. Our cousin hopes that Lady Catherine de Bourgh will see my visit to Pemberley as a chance to meet me in person, as she herself plans to stay here in the summer. No doubt Mr. Collins will accompany her, and then we shall leave together to be married.”
“Lady Catherine has not been invited.” Elizabeth replied flatly, taking her sister’s arm, “Let’s go inside, dearest. I will show you to your room and ask the servants to fill your bath.
They will bring as much tea as you can drink!
Now that you are here, my love, you shall not be denied a single thing.
While you are resting, I shall tell Mr. Darcy what we have spoken about. He will help us to think of a plan.”
“Another plan.” Jane murmured, smiling a little.
They walked down the path which led through the herb garden into the still room.
The icy spring mist had made the air outside still and without scent, so stepping inside was like entering a perfumery.
Sprigs of dried lavender, thyme, rosemary and mint warred with trays of dried apples, peaches and plums. Jars of jam and pickles caught the light and coloured it red and green.
It was not a room that the ladies were supposed to spend much time in, but Elizabeth had loved it ever since she found it on one of her early explorations of Pemberley.
It led through to the servants’ wing, and from there they could walk through to the main hall.
As they walked through the rows of pickling shelves, Elizabeth told Jane about all of the other hidden treasures Pemberley had to offer.
“Lizzie?” Jane’s question was sudden, in a nervous, querulous tone: “Are you happy here? With him?”
Elizabeth could not help smiling. “We are more suited than I could have hoped for.”
Jane smiled back, then reached forward to squeeze her sister’s arm. That gesture was not enough; she wrapped her arms around Lizzie’s back and kissed her cheek. “I am so happy to hear that, my love. One of my nightmares, at least, is untrue.”