CHAPTER FORTY-ONE The Night Before
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The Night Before
The night before the wedding, Longbourn refused to sleep.
There were flowers in buckets, ribbons draped over chairs, boxes from the modiste, shoes being polished, cakes cooling in the pantry, and Mrs. Bennet giving contradictory orders in three rooms. “Not those roses, Hill! Those are for Jane’s bouquet.
Lizzy’s are the cream ones. Kitty, where is the blue ribbon?
Lydia, if you touch that icing I shall—Oh!
Mary, do stop playing that funeral piece.
Your sisters are marrying, not being buried. ”
Mary lifted her hands from the pianoforte. “It is Handel.”
“Then Handel should have been cheerier.”
Elizabeth escaped upstairs. Jane was already in their room. For years they had shared secrets there after everyone else slept. Tonight trunks stood partly packed. Two wedding gowns hung from the wardrobe doors beneath protective linen. Jane sat on the edge of the bed.
Elizabeth closed the door. For a moment they only looked at each other. Then Jane began to cry.
Elizabeth crossed the room at once. “Jane.”
“I am happy.”
“I know.”
“I am very happy.”
“I know.”
“I do not want you to think—”
“I do not.” Elizabeth sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.
Jane laughed through tears. “We shall not live in the same room again.”
“No.”
“You will be in Derbyshire.”
“And you will be three miles away.”
“That is unfairly comforting.”
Elizabeth smiled, then began crying too.
Jane laughed harder. “Now look what I have done.”
“You have ruined me.” They leaned against each other like girls.
After a while Jane said, “Do you remember the assembly?”
Elizabeth groaned. “Unfortunately.”
“I thought Mr. Darcy very handsome.”
“You thought everyone good.”
“No. I thought him handsome.”
“Traitor.”
“And you said he had a tolerable face but an intolerable manner.” “
Accurate at the time.”
Jane smiled. “And Charles nearly stepped on my gown.”
“You pretended not to notice.”
“He apologized four times.”
“He remains consistent.”
They laughed softly.
A knock came.
Lydia entered without waiting. “Are you crying?”
“No,” Elizabeth said.
“Yes,” Jane said.
Lydia’s face crumpled. “Oh, do not! If you cry, I shall cry, and my eyes will swell tomorrow.”
Kitty appeared behind her. “Mama says we are all to bed.”
Mary came too. Within five minutes all five Bennet sisters sat in the room. Lydia lay across the foot of the bed. Kitty sat on the floor with her back against the mattress. Mary occupied the dressing stool. For once no one argued.
“I shall miss you,” Kitty said.
Elizabeth reached down and touched her hair. “I am not dying.”
“You are going very far away.”
“You may visit.”
“Truly?”
“Of course.”
Lydia rolled onto her back. “I am coming for a whole summer.”
Elizabeth looked at the ceiling. “I withdraw the invitation.”
“La!”
Jane laughed.
Mary said quietly, “The house will be altered.”
Everyone looked at her.
She flushed. “It will.”
“Yes,” Jane said.
Mary looked down at her hands. “I shall miss hearing you talk at night.”
Lydia’s eyes filled. “Oh, Mary.”
“Do not make a scene.”
“You said something sweet.”
“I am capable of affection.”
Lydia threw herself at her. Mary protested while hugging her back. Elizabeth watched her sisters and thought of Darcy’s early judgments.
Silly. Ignorant. Uncontrolled. He had not been entirely wrong. That was the humbling part. People could be ridiculous and generous, foolish and brave, vain and loving, all in the same hour. She had learned that too. Mrs. Bennet found them at midnight. “What are you all doing awake?”
No one answered. Mrs. Bennet looked at the gowns, then at Jane and Elizabeth.
Her face folded. “Oh.”
“Mama,” Jane said.
Mrs. Bennet sat between her eldest daughters and cried harder than any of them.
“I know I speak of your marrying,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I know I have always spoken of it. But I did not mean for you to go so soon.”
Elizabeth put her head on her mother’s shoulder. “Mama, I am nearly twenty-one.”
“That is very soon.”
No one contradicted her.