Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
After Jane left London, for the next month or so, Elizabeth delighted in socializing more than she ever had before.
She and Edith continued a steady friendship, and they spent much time together at Gracechurch Street or at Mr. Cage’s home.
In addition to Edith and Mr. Cage, she had a few other acquaintances to visit with at any party she attended.
Priscilla was not among them, as she had left London to marry before Easter, but she always had Aunt Gardiner or Edith’s mother along as chaperone, so she was never without friends.
Elizabeth occasionally witnessed whispers and glances and derisive laughter clearly aimed at her, but with the companionship of other girls whose fathers were in trade, she found the courage to continue entering society.
She chose smaller events and parties sponsored by tradesmen’s wives whenever possible.
She was more relaxed going with her friends to Hyde Park and other public areas now, knowing she would not be expected to remain in Miss Bingley’s company even if their paths did cross.
Elizabeth was also becoming more comfortable with Mr. Cage being present most evenings she was with Edith.
She realized he might even be helping to keep other men from approaching her for more than a dance or brief conversation, which she appreciated.
She was careful to not offer more than she felt, as she still thought they would only ever be friends.
She saw little of Mr. Cage after the middle of May, though, even at his own home. One afternoon, as they relaxed in Edith’s sitting room, Elizabeth asked why her cousin had not been around of late.
“Must we speak of Robert? I am afraid I may never forgive him,” Edith said with unfeigned vexation.
“We need not mention him if it gives you pain, but I had no idea he had offended you.”
“Did you not?” Edith asked, and Elizabeth was surprised she looked embarrassed. “Has he not offended you?”
“Not at all. Whatever can you mean?”
Edith explained that about a week before, she and Mr. Cage had met Miss Bingley again at a ball Elizabeth had not attended, having another engagement with her aunt. The next morning, Mr. Cage had asked Edith personal questions about Elizabeth that led to a row between the cousins.
“What kind of questions?” Elizabeth asked slowly, suspecting she knew the answer.
“About your parents…and your lack of dowry,” Edith said.
“I see. So, he has decided I am no longer the person he thought I was and has dropped the acquaintance.”
“I am sorry, though I see now he is not good enough for you no matter how much I would have liked to become your cousin.”
Elizabeth nodded, surprised by how much his turnabout hurt.
She knew for certain by the quality of her feelings now that she would never have wished to marry him, but she had thought they had been friends, and she was saddened that he would not so much as speak to her anymore.
It was like Mr. Darcy all over again. Would she ever find someone who could accept her as she was?
If she could not even maintain friendships, would she really never marry?
She was being overly dramatic, of course.
Her cousin Mary had always accepted her, even if they had drifted apart some over their years of separation.
Jane’s friendship was returned to her. She had not lost Priscilla’s regard even if her friend was far away.
She still had Edith, although she would leave London at the end of the Season.
Elizabeth was not inherently unlikeable, then. She would survive this latest setback.
Not many days later, at the end of May, Edith, who was half a year older than Elizabeth, shared the happy news that she had accepted a proposal from one of her cousin’s friends, Mr. Kirkpatrick.
Elizabeth was unsurprised by the match, having observed the couple throughout the Season, and she congratulated her heartily.
When they next ventured to a card party in excellent spirits, accompanied by Edith’s mother, both friends were surprised to hear the prejudice against Elizabeth had spread even to this venue.
They soon found, however, that the criticisms had shifted to including her loss of Mr. Cage’s affections.
People had noticed his overt attentions and his subsequent withdrawal from her side.
Whispers of her being a dowerless fortune hunter or a country bumpkin who no man could wed were not new, but even Miss Bingley’s influence had not previously made public the claims of her growing up on a tenant farm.
Is this what she had told Mr. Cage? Miss Bingley had not previously spread lies about her, as far as she knew.
The truth had always been harsh enough. Had Mr. Cage required more to drive him away?
Had his interest been deep enough to have caused him pain to give her up?
She hoped not, as she had liked him, despite his betrayal in the end.
The crushing sadness that sometimes threatened to overtake Elizabeth in the week since she had learned Mr. Cage had dismissed her was not for the loss of her brief friendship with him, though, but of her more longstanding one with Miss Bingley and for the way his loss reminded her forcefully of losing Mr. Darcy’s friendship in a similar way.
“Mama,” Elizabeth whispered to the miniature portrait of her mother after returning home early from the card party. “Mama, why did you not marry my father before allowing him liberties? Why did you not think of what could happen? And Mama…why did you leave me? Why could you not stay with me?”
Elizabeth cried herself to sleep that night clutching her mother’s miniature in her fist. It had been a common practice when she was fifteen—not the casting of blame on her mother, which was new and not to be repeated, but speaking to her and crying for her own loss.
When she woke the next morning with the small portrait under her arm, she told herself this crying herself to sleep should no longer be a common practice now that she was eighteen.
She washed her face and told herself to be brave for another fortnight, so she could be fully involved in her last days with Edith.
She found some success, at least outwardly, and shortly after Edith’s June ceremony and departure for a wedding tour, rather than feeling completely unmoored by the loss of another friend, Elizabeth found consolation in being occupied by a new Gardiner baby.
Even amidst her other activities, Elizabeth had been giving her young cousins pianoforte lessons for some time, and she now taught Mandy and Bella a duet to perform for the proud parents of little Joseph. Eddie, not yet three, even agreed to sing with his sisters, so glad was he to have a brother.
Finding substantial ways to help her aunt were not easy, given the presence of a governess and nursery maid, so in addition to her music, Elizabeth continued to use her other talents to show her love and appreciation for this family that had taken her in for the past three-and-a-half years.
She sketched the children while they played or slept and painted an imagined scene of the family together, not having them sit together to ruin her surprise.
Continuing to share her love of literature and history with the children was also within her power.
She would do her best to be content with the relationships she had and not regret those out of her reach.
When Darcy had first heard in June that Elizabeth had lost the affections of Mr. Cage, he was ashamed that his initial reaction was relief. He next felt disgust at the gleeful way in which Miss Bingley told him and her brother and sister of her own part in the couple’s parting.
“Mr. Cage was a lovesick puppy, forlorn to be parted from Miss Eliza for even one evening. When I questioned him, he spoke of her as though their engagement were imminent, although he admitted it would be a long betrothal. Apparently, Miss Eliza had at least told him of her uncle’s decree that she not marry until she is of age. ”
Darcy had not heard that before. He supposed that was why she had been slow to enter society in the first place.
This was good news, as it meant she would not be utterly lost to him for some time yet.
Not that she could be any more lost to him than she already was.
He could not stoop so low, no matter how much time he was granted.
“If Cage was so much in love, what happened, Caro? You said he changed his mind about her?”
Darcy was appeased to see Bingley’s face showed all the concern of a brother for Elizabeth when he questioned his sister. He could not support Elizabeth openly, but Bingley should if he was serious about her cousin.
Miss Bingley shared a smug smile with Mrs. Hurst before replying.
“I may have hinted that before coming to London to live in Cheapside with the purpose of securing a wealthy husband, she lived her first fifteen years on a tenant farm.” She laughed. “He grew pale and excused himself quickly after that.”
Darcy’s teeth clenched as he struggled to control his rage.
He knew that was a lie. Elizabeth’s father may have been a tenant farmer or may have been a yeoman who worked his own small plot of land.
She may be far below him in birth, but her father had died, and she had grown up as a gentlewoman, not as a peasant.
Later, he would feel shame once more for behaving almost as poorly as Mr. Cage had. At least he had not raised Elizabeth’s expectations. He hoped she was not terribly heartbroken over her recent loss.