Chapter 34
Bingley returned from London a few days later without any news; everyone saw his dejection except Jane, who was so happy to see him again that nothing else seemed to matter.
Indeed, she was the only member of the family who was no longer truly anxious.
Charles had solemnly promised that within six weeks she would be his wife, and if the disgrace brought upon them by Lydia had not shaken his resolution, nothing else could.
Deep in her heart, Jane had lived through several days of fear, remembering that November when he disappeared without a word.
However, her fiancé appeared on horseback at Netherfield, handsomer than ever, both dreaming of the moment when she would be in his arms, hidden away in the music room where they retreated whenever they wished to be alone.
First, he related to all the family in a low voice the little that he knew, but only after Mary had assured herself that no indiscreet ears were nearby. Mr Phillips was also present, for of late they all dined together at Netherfield, feeling that they ought to remain united.
“Do you think I ought to go to London as well?” asked Mr Phillips.
“No. Darcy and the colonel have their own methods, and they have involved Mr Gardiner too. Do not forget that the colonel is still in the army.”
Elizabeth had informed them of Mrs Cooper’s engagement to the colonel. Yet, even this piece of news, which at another time would have been of interest and repeated throughout Meryton, passed almost unnoticed. The family’s distress was too great.
“I met Sir William today, and we discussed nothing except his own affairs,” said Mr Phillips, glancing towards Kitty, who breathed more easily while once again counting the days until her wedding.
Mr and Mrs Phillips spent their mornings in Meryton, attentive to every rumour and conversation, even seeking out those who might still have connections with the officers from Brighton and Colonel Forster’s circle.
They had received a letter from Colonel Forster himself, who, having returned to his regiment, had attempted to discover further information as discreetly as possible, exactly as he had been asked to do. Yet no one seemed to know very much.
“Imagine writing in a letter to Mrs Forster that she was giving us such an excellent joke to the family!” exclaimed Kitty, probably for the tenth time in recent days. “A joke!”
“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 as mistress 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 had proved 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 Mr Darcy 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 not even 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.
Until then, Mrs Bennet had been the one who held the family together and laid the foundations of their new life. That afternoon, however, despair overcame even her, and Elizabeth cast aside her own fear and grief and assumed that role almost naturally.
She seized Kitty’s hand so tightly that it hurt, for tears were ready to run down her sister’s face, and whispered to her and Jane,
“Do not cry, do exactly as I say, and everything will be well.”
Taking advantage of the fact that Sir William was speaking with Mr Phillips, she looked towards her mother and aunt, certain they would understand, and then turned to Sir William with a pleasant smile.
“It is an excellent decision, Sir William. Mama had also been discussing the matter with Aunt Phillips that the young people ought to begin their married life at Longbourn.”
Sir William looked at her in surprise. It became obvious to everyone in the room that he knew little and had perhaps expected to learn more from their reaction.
Then, Kitty smiled as well.
“After all, it is probably better this way. I wish to have my wedding breakfast at Longbourn.”
“It is only natural that her wedding should follow mine,” added Jane with a smile. “I am the elder sister.”
Mr Bingley immediately approved, as he agreed with everything his fiancée wanted.
“Besides, it will be five months since Papa left us, and Kitty deserves a somewhat more elegant wedding,” said Elizabeth.
“Your decision gives us time to go to London and prepare her trousseau and, naturally, a wedding gown. Mrs Cooper, my aunt’s sister from Derbyshire, has just arrived and will assist us in that pleasant task.
Mr Darcy and Miss Darcy are in London as well, and I am certain we shall enjoy excellent company for a month.
Mrs Cooper is engaged to the second son of the Earl of Matlock. ”
This torrent of words, so unlike Elizabeth, had precisely the desired effect.
Elizabeth’s message was clear: they were expected to appear pleased with the decision and not to suggest that they understood its true cause.
No questions were to be asked. There was no reason for delay beyond the desire to arrange a finer wedding and allow the young couple to begin their married life properly at Longbourn.
Sir William departed, looking puzzled, whilst James regained some of his normal colour. He dared not accompany his father home, and Sir William offered no objection.
He immediately led Kitty outside, but Elizabeth felt certain that her sister perfectly understood the safe way to behave with her betrothed.
James, too, must know nothing beyond what they had said.
Secrets ought not to exist between those about to marry.
Yet, in that instance, they were trying to save the marriage itself, and old rules might reasonably be suspended.
“I shall take her to London with me,” said Elizabeth, “and everything I mentioned shall be accomplished.”
“And if the marriage does not take place?” asked Jane anxiously.
“Then I assure you that the trousseau will be put to use very quickly indeed. In London, Kitty will find a charming husband. At present, she is determined to marry, and in good company, she will forget everything about Meryton.”
“But she loves Mr Lucas,” protested Bingley, perhaps remembering that he himself had once been prevented from marrying the woman he loved.
“If he loves her, he will marry her with or without Sir William,” declared Mrs Bennet in a martial tone, looking gratefully towards Elizabeth, who had rescued the situation.
“We know nothing about Lydia,” added Mr Phillips, and his words sounded like an order. “At most, we know that she is in London. Anything beyond that is merely gossip without substance.”
They all looked at one another somewhat more calmly, and when Jane asked with a trace of mischief,
“And what of my trousseau?”
Mr Bingley immediately hurried to her side, took her hand, and kissed it.
“My lady shall have everything she desires.”
Kitty returned a little later in far better spirits and informed them at dinner that James had departed in despair because he was convinced that in the household of Lord Matlock, she would find someone far more interesting than himself.
“Excellent,” said Elizabeth. “That is precisely what he ought to tell his mother, for he would never dare say such a thing to Sir William. Lady Lucas is another matter entirely. She has always had a weakness for her eldest son, and she also knows that he will never find anyone better than Kitty in Meryton. Before long, she will be connected to Mr Bingley and received into the household of an earl.”