Chapter Thirteen
ELIZABETH WAS SITTING in her chair by the fire while the woman named Mabel was working a bit of oil into the snarl in her hair, gently using the tines of the comb. It stung, pulling at her scalp, but Elizabeth could tell the woman was having better luck with it than she had.
“It’s hard when you cannot see it,” Mabel was saying. “I got one, not quite this bad, in my hair, and I eventually had to get assistance. How long have you been up here by yourself, ma’am, no one to help you comb your hair?”
“Oh, well, just since we arrived,” said Elizabeth.
“Yes, that was a foolish question,” said Mabel, chuckling. “Obviously, you all came together.”
Elizabeth could hear someone ascending the steps, now. The footsteps were forceful as they came closer.
“Someone is walking with a purpose,” said Mabel, and dragged the comb over her hair, all the way through. “Well, then, almost there with this. I think we’ll have it entirely free in—”
The door burst open.
Caroline Bingley was standing there. “Get out,” she said to Mabel in a tight voice.
Mabel hesitated. “Well, the master told me to—”
“Out,” said Caroline, coming across the room, taking the comb from Mabel and gesturing with it towards the doorway.
Mabel inclined her head. “As you wish, ma’am.” She walked out.
“Close the door,” said Caroline.
Mabel shut the door.
Caroline stared at Elizabeth for several long moments and then stalked over to drop the comb in Elizabeth’s lap.
Elizabeth turned it over in her hands.
Caroline flung herself down in the chair opposite her in front of the fire. “I did not do it to be vindictive. Well, maybe I did. I do not know what it is about you, Eliza Bennet, but you seem to bring out the absolute worst in me. I don’t take delight in other’s suffering, but you… you…”
Elizabeth was very confused. “Didn’t do what to be vindictive? Do you mean all of this? Because if we are being very plain with the other, it has been quite clear from the beginning of our association that neither of us cared for the other.”
“It was you,” said Caroline. “You started it. You were always so dismissive of everything I said.”
“It was me?” said Elizabeth. “It was very clear, when I came to Netherfield to see to Jane, that you did not wish me to stay.”
Caroline licked her lips. She started to say something, stopped, shook her head, and folded her hands in her lap. “I told him the babe is Mr. Wickham’s.”
Elizabeth’s heart squeezed.
“I did not think he would react the way he did, I must say,” said Caroline. “I know he does not like him. I thought he’d be angry or that he’d go red in the face or… I think it broke him, though.”
Elizabeth drew in a breath, but her lungs were not working. It was only a half breath. It came back out as a wheeze.
“He could not stand upright. He walked out of the house holding the walls. He was sick all over the walkway. And then he just left without another word.” Caroline dragged her teeth over her bottom lip. “I’m sorry,” she breathed.
Elizabeth still could not quite breathe properly. She was sucking in quick, noisy shallow breaths.
“No, I truly am,” said Caroline. “I have been awful to you, and I see that now, and I don’t really have a good excuse, it’s only…”
Elizabeth continued to wheeze.
Caroline got out of her chair. “He is never going to want me. I think I knew it, deep down, but I did not want to know it, and I kept shoving it down so that I did not have to know it, but this has been so, so very pathetic, truly, and I, oh, Lord, Elizabeth, I repent of this with you. Truly.”
Elizabeth managed to get in one decent breath.
“Well,” said Caroline. “I do feel better, having apologized.” She waited, as if she expected Elizabeth to say something. When Elizabeth did not, she squared her shoulders and turned to the door.
Then she walked out of the room, leaving Elizabeth to continue to try to remember how to breathe.
ELIZABETH FELT NUMB.
She stayed in her chair for a very long time, and then she took up the comb and began to work it through her hair. She was able to get the tangles free without too much effort. Carefully, she braided her hair in a tight and tidy braid. Then, she dressed herself methodically.
She paused to find some of the sausage on the plate Mr. Darcy had brought her and ate it. Fortified, she left the room.
She found Mrs. Hurst and Caroline in the morning room, frantically having a discussion.
When Elizabeth appeared in the doorway, they both stopped talking immediately.
It was entirely silent.
Mrs. Hurst, who had obviously been writing a letter, went over to the desk and capped the inkwell.
She regarded Elizabeth. “I have been telling my sister that my husband is set on this child. So, we must go back to the cottage, I think, since she seems to think Mr. Darcy is going to turn us all out now.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, all right. I am in agreement.”
Mrs. Hurst nodded, too. “Very well, then.”
It was quiet for several moments.
“I suppose we must pack,” said Mrs. Hurst. “Can you see to yourself, Eliza?”
“I always do these days,” said Elizabeth faintly.
“Good,” said Mrs. Hurst. “That is best, I think.”
“Hmm,” said Elizabeth.
Caroline spoke up. “You have not forgiven me, Eliza. You said nothing when I gave you my apology.”
Elizabeth did not know what to make of whatever it was that Caroline had said to her.
Did Caroline truly repent? Even if she did, it didn’t matter in some ways.
The damage was done. But if she was to be shut up in that small cottage with these women for another four months, it would not do to breed even more conflict.
“Of course I forgive you, Caroline,” she said.
“Good,” said Mrs. Hurst again.
Mrs. Hurst did not apologize, though she had been just as complicit in a number of elements of Elizabeth’s discomfort.
“Well, I am off to speak to the servants about packing our trunks,” said Mrs. Hurst, moving towards the doorway.
Elizabeth was obliged to back out to allow the woman through. But as she backed up into the hallway, she could see that Mabel was coming towards them both.
“Mr. Darcy is here,” said Mabel. “He wishes all of you to join him in the sitting room.”
All of them?
Elizabeth did not know what to make of that.
“Well, of course, he is our host,” said Louisa, casting a look back at Caroline.
Caroline grimaced, looking ashamed of herself. “I am sorry that I told him. I did not think—”
“Hush, Caroline,” said Louisa, sighing. She led the way down the hallway towards the sitting room.
In the room, Mr. Darcy was staring into the fireplace, his expression inscrutable. He did not look up as they came in. “Sit down,” he said in a strangled sort of voice.
They sat.
“The first thing that is going to happen, Miss Bingley,” he said, “is that you are going to move out of my grandmother’s old bedchamber and cede it to Miss Bennet, because you’ve already terrorized a woman who’s been victimized quite enough.”
Elizabeth had not been expecting that. She sat up straighter on the couch.
“Mr. Darcy?” said Caroline. “I have apologized to Miss Bennet. She has forgiven me. We are—”
“Quiet,” Mr. Darcy interrupted.
Caroline hunched up her shoulders.
“Secondly, I shall be sending a maid for Miss Bennet and she will be joining everyone for dinner in the evenings,” he said.
“You will have to conduct the introductions to my sister yourselves, I’m afraid, but that should not be a true hardship.
I trust you can manage that. I shall hopefully return soon.
I don’t anticipate being gone too long. When I get back, we’ll put all of the rest of this to rights. ”
“You’re leaving?” said Elizabeth.
“You should have told me,” said Mr. Darcy. “You kept that from me, and I would have never behaved the way I behaved with you had I known what you had gone through, what that villain of a man did to you. To you.”
Wait a minute? Was he angry with her? What did that even mean? “I’m sorry, but I did not think you would look charitably on me if you knew,” she said. “Keeping it from you was dishonest, and it was not to my credit.”
“This is not a scolding, not for you, Miss Bennet,” he said.
“But it is frustrating, I suppose, because it’s yet another time when I become aware that you do not understand my character at all.
I would not punish you for his sins. I am not that sort of man.
” He shook his head. “But it does not matter. You will know me hereafter. We shall have time.”
What did that mean? Time? Was he still insistent that she be his mistress? “Where are you going?”
“What is important,” he said, “is that I shall be asking for a report on how things are conducted here, and if I find that either you, Miss Bingley, or you, Mrs. Hurst, have mistreated this woman while I am gone, I will not be pleased. I will not stand for it. I am appalled at what you have done to her, utterly appalled. I feel this sort of sick rage when I think about—” He clenched a hand into a fist. “But then I am appalled at myself as well. Between the three of us, we have done her a number of great wrongs.” He lifted his gaze from the fireplace to find hers.
“My apologies, Elizabeth.” His voice cracked.
What was he apologizing for?
Elizabeth was entirely confused.
He straightened. “Right, then. Remember, I will have reports on your behavior. See to it that you do as I say.” And then, he simply walked right out of the sitting room, leaving them all there to gaze after him.
Silence reigned for several long minutes after he was gone.
Louisa was the first to speak. “Well, he has not turned us out.”
“I don’t need your bedchamber, Caroline,” said Elizabeth. “I am fine where I am, though I suppose it is a bit of a trek for the servants, so if I should move somewhere closer to the—”
“I think we must do as he says,” cut in Caroline. “I have never seen him like that.” She shuddered. “Did you see the way he balled up his fist like that? He is rather terrible when he is angry.”
Elizabeth had to agree to that. He had not raised his voice or raged or kicked things, but the quietness of his anger had been, yes, terrible.
“Well, all right, I suppose we shall do as he says, then.” She paused.
“But I don’t understand anything. I don’t think I should be dining at Pemberley or meeting Miss Darcy.
I am so obviously with child, and… well, I don’t think I should. ”
“Yes, where is he going?” said Louisa. “Does he still wish you to be his mistress?”
“I do not know,” said Elizabeth. “He… after knowing that Mr. Wickham… you said it made him violently ill, Caroline.” She looked at the other woman.
Who nodded. “Indeed.”
“So, he must not wish that anymore,” said Elizabeth.
“On the other hand, it was all very confusing. He said strange things that I could not make sense of, that he would not punish me for Wickham’s sins, for instance, but there is no way to undo whatever consequences have been wrought on me, no matter what bedchamber he puts me in or how many of his sisters he introduces me to. ”
“He only has one sister,” said Caroline.
“No, I know that,” said Elizabeth. “I was saying that for emphasis. I only meant he’s angry and he’s behaving erratically.”
“Yes, where could he possibly be going?” said Louisa.
“I am sorry, Eliza, but I think we must do everything he said,” said Caroline. “You must come to dinner. You must meet Miss Darcy. We cannot disobey him.” She turned to her sister for support.
“Yes, I agree,” said Louisa.
Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, of course. I do not know why I am thinking I have any reputation to salvage, anyway.”
“Well, it is only Miss Darcy,” said Louisa.
“And all the servants at Pemberley,” said Elizabeth quietly.
Another long pause.
“Do you think he will prevent my taking the child?” said Louisa. “My husband would be quite, quite out of sorts if so.”
“Well,” said Elizabeth, “I think I have some sway with him.” He was rather ruinously attracted to her, after all. “I shall do my best, when he returns, to convince him to do what is best for everyone.”
“And what is that?” said Caroline.
No one had an answer for her.