Page 29

It was fortunate that Elizabeth happened upon the Bingley carriage not half a mile from Longbourn; the equipage had been dispatched to collect her when the skies darkened as they had the day before, and as soon as Elizabeth was happily ensconced in the comfortable interior, torrential rain began to fall.

A quarter of an hour later, she arrived at Netherfield and asked at once to be taken to her sister. Elizabeth was shown into her sister’s guest chamber and found Jane reclined against the pillows; Caroline sat at her side, tears streaking her face.

Elizabeth hastened toward them, fearing the worst. “Jane, are you very ill? Was Mr. Jones here?”

Jane blushed. “No, Lizzy - there was no need, for I am not unwell.”

“Forgive me for alarming you,” Caroline said as she wiped at her tears. “The Hursts just departed and I had words with Louisa.”

“I am sorry to hear it. But you are not ill, Jane, truly? What mischief are you about? Caroline, I would have come for your sake if you needed another friend to commiserate with.”

Caroline smiled up at her with bleary hope and then tugged at Elizabeth’s arm until she sank down onto the bed, sitting beside her sister. “Even though you have quarreled with Mr. Darcy?”

Elizabeth allowed her astonishment to show. “What? Who says I have quarreled with Mr. Darcy?”

Caroline narrowed her eyes. “Do you deny it?”

Jane and Caroline were exchanging such conspiratorial looks that Elizabeth sputtered with bemused laughter. “We made amends. But I may quarrel with you for worrying me so!”

Caroline rubbed at her temples. “If you have brought any more of your excellent megrim cure, I shall be wanting some ere long. See, your mission of mercy is not a complete sham.”

When Elizabeth retrieved a packet of herbs from her pocket, Caroline rang for tea. But Elizabeth would have her answer. “Jane, you would not really lure me here under false pretenses.”

“She will if I beg very prettily,” Caroline said with a weak smile as she stirred the herbs into the teapot.

Jane sat up straighter, giving a playful wiggle of her shoulders.

“I was right, Lizzy. Caroline told me she wished you to think me ill so that you would come to Netherfield, fearing you may otherwise avoid Mr. Darcy. And when I heard the real reason she wished you to come, how I laughed inside to think of it! I believe you two must have a little chat.”

Elizabeth watched as Caroline drank deeply from her tea. “Are you not attached to Mr. Darcy?” And now Caroline was snorting out her tea.

“No! I once thought I was, but I am glad to have rid myself of such notions. No, Lizzy, ever since the night of the party at Lucas Lodge, I have thought you would make Mr. Darcy an ideal wife. Have I not praised you enough to him, and he to you?”

Caroline looked to Jane for confirmation of this, and Jane crossed her arms triumphantly at Elizabeth, who threw her hands up in surrender. “Well! We are all fools in love.”

“You love him?” Caroline gasped.

“I have been afraid to - I thought you were attached to him,” Elizabeth said.

Caroline’s mouth fell open. “You would have let me have him? You are either a fool, Lizzy, or a far better woman than I.”

Elizabeth gave a little shrug of her shoulders. “Perhaps both. But I like him, and he said that he loves me.”

“And how could he not? See, it is for the best that you have come, and now I intend to keep you here,” Caroline said.

“I have thought of what to tell Mamma,” Jane said. “I knew that I could not tell you the truth in my note, knowing Mamma’s penchant for reading our letters aloud at breakfast. But Caroline has quarreled with her sister, though not until after she wrote to me saying that she had done so.”

“I am always quarreling with her, so it is never untrue,” Caroline said with a wave of her hand.

“But you might tell your mother anything you choose, if you wish to stay a few days at Netherfield. It is perhaps not entirely proper, with the Hursts gone, but word of their departure may take some time to circulate - nobody will be particularly missing them, except perhaps the drunks who beat Hurst at cards.”

Jane raised an eyebrow at her friend before turning back to Elizabeth. “Caroline is planning a ball, and Mamma will let us stay at Netherfield to help our friend.”

“Mamma would allow us to remain here indefinitely for no reason at all,” Elizabeth laughed.

“But is this what you both wish? I confess I feel a little strange about coming to reside in the same house as Mr. Darcy the day after I refused his offer of marriage, and the very day I have refused another.”

Jane and Caroline instantly burst out a great many excited queries, and Elizabeth savored the moment of mystique before indulging their curiosity.

“Mr. Darcy proposed in such great haste after I made amends with his sister, but I feared he desired a companion for her more than a partner for himself - that is why we quarreled. We have made amends and agreed to a courtship, on the condition that it would not distress my friend.”

“You mad fool,” Caroline said with a shake of her head.

“And the other? Not Mr. Collins?”

“Indeed, Jane. He was instructed by his patroness to prevent my aiming too high.” Elizabeth proceeded to tell them everything, concluding with her suggestion that Mr. Collins pay his addresses to Charlotte.

“And now you must tell me the truth, Jane. I think you must really wish to stay at Netherfield, for our trip to London ought to have been a chance for you to court Mr. Bingley without the interference of our relations, and though it went awry, you shall now have that chance.”

Jane ducked her head a little. “Yes.”

Caroline was still shaking her head in wonder at Elizabeth. “You are the fiercest creature I ever saw. Refusing two proposals in two days, and one from Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley! You will eat the ton alive - if they do not fall at your feet.”

“I suppose I could live with either alternative,” Elizabeth quipped.

“But I shall consent to remain here, if only for fear of Mr. Collins reconsidering the matter.” But it was not only this that guided her decision.

She thought of Mr. Darcy - of how he had kissed her - and she, too, found herself perfectly amenable to some unchaperoned time with her beau.

“La! How the colonel will laugh when I tell him of how Mr. Darcy nearly spoilt everything!”

Elizabeth nudged Caroline. “Do you mean to tell me that you and he have been in league together? For how long? If you conspired with him in London and made him flirt with me to make his cousin jealous, I may have to work a few tricks upon the both of you.”

Elizabeth caught herself behaving as she might with Kitty or Lydia; she reached out and began to tickle Caroline, who was far from affronted by the familiarity.

She squirmed and hurled herself across the bed, until she was laying on her back and laughing hysterically with Jane and Elizabeth. And then Caroline began to shed a few tears. “La! This is what having true sisters is like, is it not?”

“If you mean that we will defend you assiduously, but also give you a sound thrashing, and often make free to take complete leave of our senses together, then yes,” Elizabeth said, wondering if she ought to ask about Caroline’s quarrel with Mrs. Hurst.

Caroline gave a sigh of contentment. “I think I fancy him - the colonel.”

“As you should, for you are both wicked creatures,” Elizabeth replied.

“Perhaps, but we both have our moments of tender-heartedness - and of wrathful temper. I have never styled myself an army wife, though Mrs. Forster seems to think it all the rage.” Caroline chortled.

Elizabeth beamed at her friend. It had occurred to her in London that Caroline seemed to think only of material considerations where Mr. Darcy was concerned, but it was pleasing to hear that her friend had greater depth when her affections were engaged. “How long have you liked him?”

“When we came back from London, he happened upon me after I had argued with Louisa, and he asked me to confide in him. I had not thought him capable of such seriousness, but he listened to me and it was very gratifying. But then - oh Jane, Lizzy! I was astonished and rather mortified to learn that Charles once wished to make a match between the colonel and I. He also thought us well suited because of our spiky dispositions. But that was when I had my head full of Mr. Darcy, and I thought of the colonel only as a vexation. At the ball he told me that he has always admired me, and was merely waiting for me to stop chasing after his cousin and give him a little of the trouble he loves giving me. I shall endeavor to do so, for I think him the very best of men, now that I know him better.”

Elizabeth grinned to hear Caroline’s dreamy tone of voice. “So, are you courting?”

“I know he wishes to ask me, but I am determined to make him give proper chase before I relent. After so many years of his idiotic japery, I am of a mind to reform him into a desperate poet of a lover.”

“The only proper course of action, naturally,” Jane said with gleeful approbation.

“But only think of it!” Caroline took each of her friends by the hand. “You and I shall be sisters, Jane - and Lizzy, you and I will be cousins.”

Elizabeth felt her face burning. “Has anybody ever told you that you have a very rapid imagination?”

Caroline grinned. “As a matter of fact, yes. And I refuse to be ashamed of it!”

***

Darcy spent the morning with his cousin, making the necessary preparations to have Wickham held responsible for all the debts that he had incurred over the years - debts that Darcy had purchased, knowing the day may come when he would have no other choice but to see his father’s favorite bound for prison.

Colonel Forster had indeed apprehended the rogue before he could do worse than seek admittance to Netherfield; Wickham was transported to Newgate where he would likely remain for quite a long time.