Chapter 29
Library
Longbourn
Early the Next Morning
Elizabeth sidled around the door of the library with some trepidation, reflecting that she had been experiencing considerably more anxiety than usual ever since their buffoon of a cousin had descended upon them.
In addition to his prodigious appetite and incessant droning, Mr. Collins had brought with him stress, worry, and difficulty.
She, Jane, Mary, and several members of the Netherfield party had enjoyed looking at the comet the previous night, and she and Jane had returned home an hour after Lady Bennet and Mr. Collins had taken to their own beds.
Given that, Elizabeth had thought it safe enough for her to sleep in her own bedchamber, though disquieting dreams plagued her sleep, and she had woken early.
While Lady Bennet rarely rose before nine o’clock, Elizabeth was not in the mood to be accosted early by the mistress of the estate and, after attiring herself hastily, slipped outside for a brisk walk.
Walking seldom failed to calm her, and that morning was no exception.
Elizabeth had even felt equal to dealing with her mother's displeasure when she returned.
Her calm faded when Sally, the maid, had met her in the entry hall to inform her that Sir Thomas required her presence in the library.
Sir Thomas, who was seated at the desk frowning over a page of figures, looked up in surprise, which quickly shifted into an expression of pleasure.
“Oh, Lizzy,” he said. “Do sit down by the fire, and I will join you as soon as I finish this calculation.”
She nodded, made her way to a leather chair by the fire, sat down and held out her hands to warm herself.
Ten minutes later, Sir Thomas grunted in satisfaction, put down his pen, and walked over to the chair across from his second daughter. He had only been in his seat for a second before he said, “Lizzy, I think you ought to visit the Gardiners.”
She blinked at him. “In Cheapside, sir?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask why?” Elizabeth asked.
Sir Thomas frowned hideously. “Mr. Collins wishes to marry you. Did you not know that? I understood that he offered for you and you refused?”
Not for the first time, Elizabeth felt as if she and her father were talking at cross-purposes. Sir Thomas was, without a doubt, a genius, but his way of thinking was unusual, and thus he often made leaps in conversation which were hard for mere mortals to understand.
“Yes,” Elizabeth said carefully. “He offered for my hand, and I refused him.”
He stared at her, and she stared back, and fear suddenly washed across her, leaving her full of terror. “Father, pray do not make me marry him.”
“Marry Mr. Collins?” Sir Thomas repeated, his face now contorted in disgust. “Of course I will not! The man is a complete and utter idiot! I would sooner toss my favorite telescope into the sea!”
She relaxed with relief. “Then why must I go to visit the Gardiners?”
“Because I have important work to do, and your mother will keep harassing me about this insupportable offer from Collins, and if you leave Longbourn, she will give up all hope of the engagement, and I will be able to do my calculations in peace.”
Elizabeth nodded with rueful understanding.
To Sir Thomas, his scientific calculations were paramount, and he did not wish to be bothered by his daughter, or his cousin, or most especially his wife.
Lady Bennet had a peculiarly female determination and a strident voice, and she notoriously put both to use when she wished to get her way.
Such unhandsome phrases occurred to one, such as water dripping on stone, and nag, and even shrew.
They were not kind, perhaps, but remarkably apropos, Elizabeth thought wryly.
It was a pity that Sir Thomas would not simply deal decisively with the situation by sending his cousin packing, or finally, after some twenty years, take his hysterical wife in hand.
Experience had taught Elizabeth that such a thing was too much to expect, but at least he had taken her part in her refusal of Mr. Collins, as she had hoped he would.
For her to retreat to London was not, perhaps, particularly valorous, but it would be prudent and not so far out of line with her own plans.
“I daresay I could stay with Lady Keaton soon,” she said thoughtfully. “Clara wrote me only last week saying she was already at Keaton House in London and was looking forward to my arrival. She originally intended for Jane to come as well, but given her engagement, that will likely not work out.”
“The Gardiners or the countess, I do not care,” Sir Thomas said irritably, his gaze shifting toward the desk where numerous papers were piled, doubtless full of enticing mathematical equations.
“Do whatever you like, but I want you to be on your way to London by tomorrow, my dear. I simply cannot think when your mother is shrieking in every room of the house!”
***
Stables
Longbourn
Noon
Elizabeth was beginning to feel quite at home in the tack room, which was just as well considering how much time she had been spending there.
Coachman Jack was being very understanding about this ongoing commandeering of his sanctum, and he had even been so thoughtful as to bring in a plank of wood, planed and sanded smooth, to place on the uneven tabletop so that Elizabeth might work in her solitary exile.
Three lanterns sat in a rough triangle around this impromptu desk, warming a small pocket of air enough that Elizabeth had been able to dispense with her thickest gloves in favor of thinner ones that allowed for more nimble movements of her fingers.
Stacks of correspondence sat in front of her, sorted into piles of letters read, answered, and unread.
Elizabeth bent over a single sheet spread before her, reading it attentively.
She preferred to do her work in the clean, warm library, but doubtless that was one of the first places Lady Bennet or Mr. Collins would look for her when they wished to harangue her.
An hour previously, Elizabeth had sent off an express to her friend Clara, Countess of Keaton, asking if it would be possible for Elizabeth to stay with her starting the next day.
That done, and with no expectation of a reply for some time, Elizabeth had turned her attention to seeing that the estate’s bills were paid and all was in readiness before her departure.
Inside the house, Sally labored over Elizabeth's trunks, packing all that would be needed for an extensive stay in London.
Elizabeth would depart shortly after dawn.
She would be entrusted to the care of Coachman Jack, who would return with the Bennet carriage after seeing Elizabeth safely installed at Keaton house or, if the Countess could not host her yet, in Cheapside with her aunt and uncle, with whom she could be sure of a welcome.
While she looked forward to her trip to Town, the unfairness of it all rankled Elizabeth.
It was unjust that she should be the one forced to flee her home, the home for which she had given so much of her time and effort, which she maintained with all the love in her heart and the strength in her limbs.
It was not Elizabeth who had started making trouble, but a man with no loyalty or love to Longbourn and who would inherit the same by an unfortunate fluke of birth and legality.
It was also enormously frustrating that Lady Bennet was a willing accomplice in Mr. Collins’s mischief.
The mistress of Longbourn should protect and care for her daughter above her own desires, and yet it was Elizabeth who paid their price.
Elizabeth compressed her lips and banished such melancholy reflections.
No good could come from dwelling on them.
Instead, she would eagerly look forward to seeing her beloved aunt and uncle and spending time with dear Clara.
Mr. Collins still, the last she had heard, planned to return to Kent in a little more than a week, and perhaps without his presence, or Elizabeth's own, to aggravate her memories of her grievances, Lady Bennet would begin to calm down.
She would, after all, have Jane's wedding to focus on, bridal clothes to be ordered, and a wedding breakfast to plan.
Elizabeth dearly hoped to be able to return home in time to witness her sister's nuptials, but there was time enough to worry about that later.
For the time being, Elizabeth would enjoy the company of people dear to her, away from her unbearable cousin, and rejoice in the knowledge that Jane was engaged to a good man who loved her as much as she loved him.
The sound of rolling wheels caught her attention, and she turned her head, her ears pricked.
Within a minute, she heard a door open and a moment later, the familiar voice of Charles Bingley.
She was on her feet in a second and took a step toward the door of the tack room, only to halt as two more familiar voices spoke.
Charles was not alone. At a minimum, he had brought along his friend Darcy and sister Caroline Bingley. That was reasonable enough, and Elizabeth hoped that the young woman had come to congratulate her sister-to-be.
But it would not be wise for Elizabeth to appear now. Sir Thomas’s eccentricity was, at least, erudite and well respected by many in astronomical circles. Her own eccentricity in hiding in a tack room in the stables would not likely be accepted so easily by either Mr. Darcy or Miss Bingley.
Moreover, she did not want any hint of her sanctuary to leak to her mother.
She sighed, sat down as the voices moved farther away, and turned back to her correspondence.