Page 71 of One Night with Mr. Darcy

It didn’t happen.

She could not say that she was strictly faithful to her husband. There were the occasional fervid kisses.

But as for any true carnal congress, they abstained.

They both knew, no matter what they might want, that it was beneath them. It was a line they would not cross.

And then, one morning, Elizabeth went into Jane’s rooms to ask her where she wished to ramble after breakfast. Jane was getting stronger these days and could manage walking if she could lean on other’s arms and if she had a nice chair to sit on once they reached their destination.

But Jane didn’t answer.

Elizabeth was in the room quite early, before the maid that saw to Jane had even had a chance to come in. She walked over to the bed and peered down at her sister. “How could you sleep through all my bluster?”

Nothing from Jane, who was still and silent.

She reached down to shake Jane’s shoulders.

She recoiled.

She backed away, both hands at her lips, all the way across the room and stared at her sister’s motionless form on the bed. She didn’t move.

Some time passed.

The maid knocked on the door.

Elizabeth should have answered, should have called out that she was in there, but she didn’t.

The maid opened the door. “Well, then Miss Bennet, we shall have you up and moving in no time.” She came across the room to the bed. “Miss Bennet?”

“She’s cold,” said Elizabeth.

The maid turned on her, eyes wide.

“I don’t understand it,” said Elizabeth. “She was getting better. She was getting stronger. We did everything the doctor said, and it wasworking. She can’t be…”

The maid touched Jane’s face. She jerked her hand back. She turned to look at Elizabeth, pity all over her face.

“But I don’tunderstandit,” said Elizabeth.

THERE WERE ALLmanner of things that must be done.

Letters needed to be written.

Jane’s body was going to be wrapped and taken back to Hertfordshire, for the family plot was there, and it made no sense to have her funeral far away from her family. It was not so formidable a distance that transportation could not be undertaken. However, this must be done immediately. A body could not be allowed to molder for long, obviously.

But Elizabeth simply retired to her room and shut the door and would admit no one, not even little Willie. She asked his nurse to keep him and then she asked Charlotte to do so, and when it was late, she said Willie should likely sleep in the nursery that night.

She knew she needed to be doing something, but all she could do was to try to figure out what they had done wrong.

She sat on her bed, going over and over everything that the doctor had said and trying to determine where they had gone awry of his instructions. She tried to think of any signs she might have had that Jane was taking a turn for the worse or anything of that nature. She sifted through all of the events in her mind, every single one, and she couldn’t figure it out.

She didn’t understand.

There was a knock on her door.

It was dark outside at this point. Too late for knocks on the door.

“Lizzy,” came a deep and insistent voice.