Chapter Seven
Two days after Elizabeth and Jane’s return to Longbourn, Elizabeth sat in the drawing room as her mother flitted about in a state of delighted agitation serving tea.
Mrs Bennet repeated her welcomes as if their company were royalty who had landed unexpectedly at Longbourn by mistake rather than just the two Bingley siblings, the Darcys, and Lady Priscilla.
Mr Collins was in the study with their father, a visit he had repeated often since his arrival in Meryton.
Jane, Elizabeth noted, displayed the same brightness of manner she seemed to always wear when in company with Miss Bingley. Elizabeth observed her sister, whose eyes sparkled with a mischief she had only ever seen in their youngest sibling, and wondered warily what it meant.
“Miss Bingley,” Jane began as she turned to her new friend.
“I must thank you again for your kindness, and apologise for any trouble you experienced during my stay at Netherfield. Your burden would have been halved if it were not for Lizzy’s spirited, though quite unnecessary walk through the mud to tend me. ”
“Indeed, I could hardly credit Miss Elizabeth’s machinations,” Caroline tutted, seeming for all the world as if she were teasing, but Elizabeth saw the cold glint in her eye. “She certainly made an entrance, a gentleman’s daughter appearing in such…disarray.”
“I have always admired my sister’s independence.” Jane smiled sweetly at Elizabeth, who raised her eyebrows at her. “I have never met another lady who could match it.”
“I thought Miss Elizabeth walked all that way because she cared for you very much,” Miss Darcy spoke up in a timid voice.
“Of course!” Jane smiled serenely. “Lizzy’s heart is always in the right place.”
“Even if her boots are not,” Caroline murmured quietly.
Mr Bingley beamed at everyone present. Elizabeth wondered if–for all his affability–he was not somewhat simple, for he seemed to believe the conversation was a pleasant one.
“Miss Bennet speaks with such warmth, and defends her sister so gracefully that one might almost suspect her of intending the opposite. How fortunate you are, to have a sister so willing to be cast as the villain of her own kindness.” Priscilla’s tone was all one might expect from the intensely displeased daughter of an earl.
“Oh!” Jane whispered, her lip trembling. “Oh dear! Lady Priscilla, I would never…oh to think anyone might believe I meant to degrade my dearest sister!”
Jane’s voice caught, the last word a sob in her mouth. Her eyes shimmered, then perfectly executed, tears began to spill down her cheeks.
“Good heavens! Miss Bennet, have we offended you?” Bingley jumped to his feet and hurried to her, glaring at Darcy’s cousin. “I am certain Lady Priscilla did not intend to cause such harm!”
Elizabeth noted Miss Bingley watching Jane in surprise, and wondered if that lady had been under the misapprehension that she was the one pulling the strings of this particular performance. Their neighbour looked like a playwright whose lines were being delivered quite wrongly.
“I-I only wished to praise Lizzy.” Jane wept beautifully. Elizabeth had never seen any person weep with such loveliness. “If my words were misunderstood, I must beg your pardon. I cannot imagine how I have given such an impression.”
Moved by Jane’s display of distress, Miss Darcy ventured, “Miss Bennet, I am certain that my cousin meant no accusation.”
“I would never knowingly say anything unkind about Lizzy. Never.” Jane’s chest heaved with sobs.
Priscilla did not retreat. She was as used to warfare as her brother who was fighting on the continent, though of an entirely different nature.
Her eyes narrowed, a warrior recognizing a worthy opponent.
“I spoke up only to ensure I understood you, Miss Bennet. Your intention may have been lost beneath…phrasing.”
“Indeed, dear Jane, we all know that you would never…” Caroline trailed off, gazing at Jane in perplexity.
“My sweet Jane, how could anyone think that you have the ability to hurt anyone!” Mrs Bennet cried as she rushed over to Jane with a cup of tea. “You must forgive Jane’s delicate feelings, Mr Bingley. It is not her fault that she is so good that she is easily wounded by the sharpness of others!”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to say something that would calm the situation, but her mother continued, her voice rising righteously.
“My Jane never speaks an uncharitable word about anybody–anybody! She is not like some girls who are always running wild and disgracing the family, and then take offense when their family speaks the truth about them!”
“Mama!” Elizabeth objected, feeling a blush creeping up her neck. “You sent me to–”
“That is enough, Lizzy! Now you hush, for I will not have you upsetting Jane and our guests any further!”
“Actually, that was the very first thing that Miss Elizabeth has even attempted to say since we sat down. I am the one who upset the room.” Priscilla’s voice was firm enough to interrupt Mrs Bennet’s caterwauling.
“Well, I will not put up with anyone injuring my dear Jane when she is so put upon by her sister! It is enough to make any mother heartsick to see what her gentle heart suffers! But I assure you, Lady Priscilla, if there has been unpleasantness, Jane is never to blame. Never!”
Mrs Bennet glared at Elizabeth as if daring her to contradict her, not that Elizabeth would. Up until very recently, her mother’s words would have been entirely true.
Mr Bingley reached for Jane’s hand and patted it. “Miss Bennet, please do not weep. I am certain that none here meant any ill.”
“Indeed, Miss Bennet, you are perfection itself.” Elizabeth thought Caroline Bingley sounded entirely bewildered. Elizabeth felt quite the same.
Elizabeth watched her mother beam at the obvious affection the Bingley siblings seemed to bear Jane and realised that the entire scene had gone exactly how her elder sister intended, almost as if she had scripted it.
Who is this person I have been so close with my whole life, and how did she change so quickly?
Caroline Bingley watched Jane Bennet glide through the drawing room at Lucas Lodge with her usual serenity.
Jane had provided the amusement she required these last weeks while she was in Meryton, but it had not taken Caroline very long to realise that Jane was not easily led at all, and indeed, posed a far greater challenge than Caroline had ever experienced.
Charles was already devoted to Jane, and like every time Caroline had played this game before, delighted that he had his sister’s blessing.
However, it seemed as if no matter how Caroline attempted to find ways to keep her brother at a slightly safe distance–he did not need to be in Jane’s reticule all the time–it seemed as if Jane always found a clever way to quite innocently include or access him, even when Caroline intended quite the opposite.
She had spent the last few weeks planning an abominable ball that her brother insisted on throwing soon, and she had used Jane Bennet shamelessly throughout the organising.
Jane was only too happy to visit Netherfield almost daily and assist Caroline in planning the entire event.
The silly chit had even offered to come and arrange the flowers the day before the ball.
Caroline would not take a chance that Jane would manipulate the romantic surroundings of the ball to ensure that she left with a proposal in hand.
Tonight she would expose Jane’s tendency to be all too willing to engage in malice against her own sister.
Even Caroline was amazed by how quickly Jane had been willing to turn on her closest sibling once presented with what appeared to be a sure suitor with a supportive sister.
Charles would be heartbroken, but he would also be utterly disgusted by Jane’s malevolence when faced with it.
It would be simple enough after to convince him to continue with the ball as a proper show of gratitude for the neighborhood, and then close the house permanently the next day when he was meant to visit London on business.
Elizabeth entered the room in a stunning pale rose gown.
Jane had spent the entire day before complaining to Caroline about the extravagant gift that was newly arrived from London, though she confessed that she had not even yet worn the azure silk that she herself received from the same aunt only last month.
Jane was wearing the blue silk tonight, and Caroline had to admit that the two eldest Bennet sisters were in fine looks as she approached Jane.
“You were silly to even think of Eliza’s new gown when she could never compare to you in blue, Jane,” Caroline complimented sweetly.
“I do not even know what worried you. My brother appears ready to fall at your feet and, as usual, everyone forgets Eliza exists. Your sister could never compare, no matter what she wears.”
“Lizzy always looks well in pink,” Jane grumbled.
“Perhaps, but she is so unladylike and clumsy that she is unlikely to remain in such neat looks for long. Something will be sure to happen to that poor gown before the end of the night. Come, let us get some punch.” The two of them went to the refreshment table together.
“I am certain you are right,” Jane said thoughtfully to Caroline. “I had not considered that.”
Caroline served herself a glass of punch and stepped around the side of the table to face Jane, who was beginning to serve herself. “Why here she is now; Miss Elizabeth, how lovely you look in that shade of rose!”
She wagged her eyebrows up and down expressively to Jane, who turned with the ladle full of punch in her hand just as Elizabeth–who was walking by while deep in conversation with Miss Lucas–turned towards Caroline’s voice, and Jane’s hand.
The ladle swung. The punch splashed. The front of Elizabeth’s gown turned a deep and unattractive red.
The entire room turned as Elizabeth gasped loudly and staggered back, the crimson liquid spreading across her bodice.
“Oh, Lizzy, I am terribly sorry!” Jane cried, a blush of horror blooming in her cheeks. “I ought to have asked for help, I should never have tried to serve myself, I am so clumsy!”
Caroline had timed this scene with the strategy of a war general.
Charles was just on the far side of the table perhaps ten or twelve feet away, speaking to Mr Darcy.
Jane seemed unaware of his attention, but of course he was watching her closely, and ought to have seen the triumphant expression flicker across her visage before it turned cunningly to horror.
Instead, Mr Collins had approached the two gentlemen with John Lucas in his wake and Charles had turned away at just the wrong moment. Blasted men! Now that his attention had returned, along with that of the rest of the room, Caroline seized her opportunity.
“Well! I cannot imagine being incapable of being quite so near the refreshments without creating disaster!” She said, meaning Jane, not Elizabeth, hoping that Charles would see the harm Jane Bennet had caused her sister.
Jane was far too cunning to suit Caroline. “I will never forgive myself,” Jane said, shaking her head in anxiety. “Lizzy, your new gown, your gift from Aunt Gardiner. You must despise me!”
“Miss Bennet, it could never be your fault!” Sir William rushed to his guests.
“I am certain the blame must lie with the general distraction of the room,” Mr Collins added as he, Mr Bingley, and Mr Darcy joined them from nearby. “But Cousin Elizabeth’s disappointment for her gown is a shame, for it was everything lovely.”
“Charlotte will be glad to assist Miss Lizzy upstairs and to find her a new gown for the evening,” Sir William assured everyone.
“And Lizzy, we have a lovely new dye, called amaranthine,” Lady Lucas added, “My sister sent it from Bath and we were trying it on some silk ribbon in the kitchen only yesterday. You must come to us tomorrow, we will dye the gown, the colour will cover that punch easily, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how well it comes out.”
Elizabeth smiled and nodded kindly at Lady Lucas, knowing that if she said anything at all, even to forgive Jane, that her sister would somehow twist her words to make her appear the villain.
Everything she did made Jane cry of late.
She wondered if this accident had been intentional, but she had no way to prove it even if it was.
Jane had been appallingly cruel privately to Elizabeth these last weeks, and every time Elizabeth opened her mouth it all went wrong for her.
Unfortunately, the entire room was watching and waiting for her to forgive her sister.
Elizabeth smiled tremulously at Jane as she worded her comment carefully. “It is only punch, dearest Jane. As you see, I am already recovered. You heard Lady Lucas, the gown will be as good as new, I am sure of it.”
Just as Elizabeth expected, tears spilled down Jane’s cheeks and everyone rushed to comfort her, though none as fast as Mr Bingley.
“Miss Bennet, there is no need to cry. You have the kindest heart in the world, the dearest, the sweetest.” The room gasped as Charles Bingley sank to his knees.
“Miss Bennet, would you do me the very great honour of devoting my life to ensuring that this is the worst mishap you ever encounter? Please, Miss Bennet, say you will be my wife.”
Jane ceased crying and smiled brilliantly at him. Mr Bingley was entirely undone. “I cannot bear to think of you shedding another tear.”
“Oh yes, Mr Bingley!” Jane cried in happiness.
The room erupted as Bingley rose to his feet, the entire party congratulating the pair. Miss Bingley was as white as the lace cloth upon the table. Elizabeth was close enough to hear what Priscilla murmured to the lady as she passed on her way to Elizabeth.
“I have been waiting for years to see you played by your own game, and I am so happy I was present to see it unfold. You have met your match, I think, Miss Bingley. I hope you find your new bed quite comfortable.” Priscilla turned away and approached Elizabeth, who was still standing in shock, still flanked by Charlotte Lucas and now also Darcy and Mr Collins.
Priscilla looked up at Darcy, “Your friend never stood a chance, Cousin.”
Elizabeth met Jane’s gaze. Her sister’s expression was that of a saint, but the triumph in her eyes told Elizabeth everything she needed to know.
At least Jane has found her happiness, but I never thought she might use me as a tool to obtain it.