Chapter 12
Earlier Saturday morning:
Darcy’s conscience pricked him the next morning when he thought about the way he had caused Bingley to stop importuning him. He decided that there was nothing to worry about because he was certain the lady had not heard his words, and if she had, then it was the cost of eavesdropping.
He ignored the voice in his head which told him that her reaction when she spoke to some other ladies, looked at him, and laughed gave lie to his assertion.
He also did not give credence to the same voice telling him that he should not be surprised if he was overheard as he and Bingley never moved to where they were not close to anyone.
Added to that, neither man lowered his voice.
The last thing Darcy wanted to think about was his behaviour at the assembly when he had been, as close as they had ever come to doing so, remonstrated with by both Mrs Hurst and Miss Bingley. They had disguised their words as humour, but they had been anything but.
The ladies had told him that they could understand why he had refused to dance with any of the country mushrooms, and it had been a disappointment to them that it had caused him to even not dance with ladies of quality.
Of course, they thought themselves as those ladies.
Darcy had wisely held his peace and not reacted to the barely disguised barbs.
Bingley had said nothing to harangue him about his behaviour, but then again, Darcy was well aware that Bingley would not say a thing to cause conflict. Besides, he always deferred to Darcy and would never criticise him.
Thoughts of his friend led him to also think—unbidden—of Richard and Lambert.
His cousin and friend would not have hesitated in taking him to task.
They would have called out his behaviour as ungentlemanly.
Rather than consider why they would have reacted so, Darcy was grateful they were not present to see how poorly he had behaved.
To chase the unwelcome thoughts from his mind, he decided a punishing ride was in order. Darcy was certain none of the other residents would be up yet because they kept Town hours even in the country. He had his valet, Carstens, assist him into riding attire and made his way to the stables.
As he had not sent a message as to when the grooms and stable hands were to prepare his stallion, Darcy waved them away and saddled and tacked Zeus himself.
Soon he was galloping across fields. The harder he pushed his stallion, the better he felt.
It was not long before the ride achieved his aim of pushing the assembly and his behaviour there out of his mind.
He was sure it was for the best, as he had not done anything so very bad, had he?
Thanks to having a good sense of how far he could gallop before having to pull back on the reins, Darcy slowed to a canter and then a trot to allow Zeus to cool down well before he needed it, while turning him back towards the manor house.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Not even staying up late to write to her aunt and uncle in London caused Elizabeth to sleep longer than was her wont.
She was awake before the dawn and dressed fast and with purpose.
She first slipped into her warmer undergarments, including thick, wool stockings.
Then, she donned a dark-green day dress made for winter, which would help keep the cold out while she walked.
She shrugged into a heavy spencer over the dress to help keep her arms warm.
Thankfully, her half boots were cleaned after her previous walk.
Sarah—the upstairs maid who assisted all five Bennet sisters—had placed Elizabeth’s cleaned footwear in the bottom of her closet.
She fit her small feet snugly into the boots and laced them.
Last were a pair of wool-lined gloves. It was an unseasonably cold autumn which foretold a harsher than normal winter.
The letter she had scribed after the assembly was waiting on the dresser.
Elizabeth slipped it into her pocket and then removed coins from her secret hiding place where she kept her unused allowance.
She had learnt the necessity to hide her money and other treasures away; when, before Lydia was eight, she began to search through her sisters’ chambers and purloin what she wanted.
As Mama would not force Lydia to return what she had taken, making sure the youngest Bennet could not find things was the only solution.
To Jane’s own chagrin, she did not begin to do so right away, as she tried to excuse Lydia’s behaviour.
Eventually even the serene Janey had begun to hide anything of value to her.
Hill was already at his station and assisted her into her warm coat. Elizabeth wrapped a scarf around her neck and tied her thick bonnet under her chin.
She would not try to have Papa to pay for the express. She wanted her letter to reach her aunt and uncle as soon as may be. Hence, Elizabeth would pay the costs herself. She would not leave it to the Gardiners to pay upon delivery.
At the pace Elizabeth walked, she covered the one mile to the Red Lion Inn in Meryton in less than a quarter hour.
Thanks to the hour of the morning, there were an abundance of express riders waiting at the inn for an assignment.
Elizabeth chose a young-looking man. She paid the fee in full and handed him her letter.
The young man, not much older than a boy, placed the letter in the pouch slung over his one shoulder and across his torso. He fairly ran outside and vaulted onto his gelding and was off.
Normally, Elizabeth would have stopped in the Longbourn kitchens before walking out, but as she had not, she could feel her belly grumbling with hunger.
She walked to the tearoom and bakery in one and purchased an iced bun and a muffin.
The shopkeeper wrapped them in white paper, which Elizabeth deposited in her coat’s pocket.
Elizabeth walked past the assembly hall—she huffed at the memories it evoked from the previous night—and headed the way she would as if she were to walk to Netherfield Park, except she passed the turnoff to that estate and instead took a path about two hundred yards further, on the opposite side of the road, which would lead her to Oakham Mount.
She did not slow down as she walked the mile and a half to the low hill someone long ago had named a mount.
She supposed that Oakham Mount did sound grander than Oakham Hill.
She followed the wide path which gently rose to the summit as it circled the mount.
Upon reaching the top, Elizabeth thought the stand of nearly leafless oak trees, which gave the hill its name, looked rather mournful as the stark branches reached for the heavens.
There were a few leaves remaining, but they were brown now; the reds and golds had faded already.
By this time of the morning, the trees were usually full of birds singing their songs of welcome. Elizabeth only spied a few skylarks, the woodlarks having already flown to the milder climes in the south of England.
Rather than sit on one of the stone benches which had been placed under the oak trees, Elizabeth walked to the flattened boulder on the eastern edge of the hill.
Thanks to the errand she had needed to achieve this morning, she had arrived after the sun rose above the horizon, but she still preferred this rock, where she would sit to watch the birth of the new day when, as she regularly did, she arrived before sunup.
The paper holding the iced bun and muffin was removed from her pocket.
Elizabeth spread the paper over her lap and decided to start by eating the bun.
She was aware that the icing would get stuck on her glove, so she removed one.
She took small bites as she savoured the sweetness of the iced bun.
Although she chewed each bite slowly, the treat eventually was eaten.
Before she re-donned her glove, Elizabeth made certain that there was no icing remaining on her fingers.
With her glove back on her hand, she had just lifted the muffin to her mouth when she saw a man galloping across the fields of Netherfield Park on a rather huge black horse.
She could not make out his features, but with what she could see of his size and shape, she believed it was Mr Darcy.
“Insufferable, hateful man!” Elizabeth exclaimed to the skylarks in the branches of the trees behind her. “He had better not be coming here, this is Longbourn’s land.”
As if he had heard her, Mr Darcy slowed his beast and wheeled him in a big circle until horse and rider were riding in the direction of Netherfield Park’s manor house.
“Good,” Elizabeth said aloud. “Had he come this way, I would have had the pleasure of telling him he was trespassing on tolerable land.”
As she said that, she knew she could not have because Papa allowed their neighbours to ride or walk to the mount and use the path, which was wide enough for a horse, to come to the summit.
When the muffin was consumed, Elizabeth looked over the fields below.
They had been harvested already, and those with grass for livestock were already shades of brown.
The vista reminded her of a quilt made in earth tones that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Having taken in the view she loved, Elizabeth began the walk back to Longbourn’s manor house.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Tuesday after the assembly, the first day of October 1811, the Gouldings hosted a musical night for several of their neighbours; among them were the Bennets and the party from Netherfield Park.
The Bennets, as was their wont, arrived among the first guests, while thanks to Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst wanting to make an entrance, the party from Netherfield Park arrived a half hour after the time the invitation had specified.