Elizabeth sat vibrating in her place as the carriage set off, with the bells of the horses ringing slowly, Mr. Peake listlessly sat on the other side of the vehicle. The huge wooden carriage wheels squished through a giant puddle, splashing mud as high as the bottom of the carriage window. There had been no time for new hot water bottles to be prepared, or the brazier to be lit. The air froze inside as well as outside. Their breath clouded with each exhale.
The ride to home was several miles length, and the carriage’s muddy bouncing endless.
“Do you think…” Mr. Peake’s voice cracked as they neared Longbourn. “Is there hope Mr. Darcy might… I did not expect him to immediately accept such a connection but—”
“No hope.”
The sharpness of Elizabeth’s tone cut the man off, and he sat back into the carriage without speaking for the remainder of their trip. After so much time in the cold, Elizabeth shivered.
When the carriage pulled to a stop Elizabeth stared at the soggy driveway and the big double paneled front door. Candles and fires flared from the windows, due to the dark of the storm. The light made Elizabeth unbearably sad.
Why did light and life make her so sad?
Mr. Peake climbed out of the chaise quickly, and nimbly. He went around to Elizabeth’s door and politely opened it for her.
The wind and rain lashed her and the upholstery, and she stared blankly at his face. Oh, yes. She needed to exit the carriage. It took another aching pause before she could impel her muscles to move. Without taking his hand Elizabeth slowly stumbled down the step, as though she were aged and infirm.
Mr. Peake looked at her with a worried frown. Realizing her rudeness, Elizabeth said quietly to Mr. Peake, barely audible over the slashing rain, “I apologize — that was incivil, but I am in a poor mood.”
“I as well.”
Elizabeth nodded, aching in her heart. They were together in this, broken hearted. Perhaps Georgiana would one day decide to rebel against her brother’s orders, maybe after she reached her majority in a few months.
Mr. Darcy would never be a man different than he was.
The coachman and footmen worked the carriage into its housing so they could unhitch the horses and wash the mud off the carriage. The coachman turned to Elizabeth, “Are you goingelsewhereof sudden, Miss Lizzy?”
“I…” Elizabeth took a deep breath. James had been with them long enough that informality was natural. The Bennets never treated their servants with the conventional stiffness of much greater houses. Would Darcy have expected her to act in such a manner withhisservants? Idle question now. “My apologies for the suddenness.” Elizabeth pretended to smile. “If I have a desperate need to leave Longbourn in the next half of an hour, I shall run into the wind and rain unaided.”
James tipped his hat and smiled. “Not onouraccount. We’ll take you anyhow. Spite of weather.”
Elizabeth and Mr. Peake went into the house. Mrs. Hill took Elizabeth’s coat and scarf from her while exclaiming loudly her surprise that Elizabeth could bear to part herself from her Mr. Darcy so quickly.
Everyone. She needed to telleveryone. Moreembarrassingthan even Lydia. Mama would be difficult, and she had not the stomach to deal with her mother’s shrieked demands that she reconcile with Darcy because he was so rich that he was as good as a Lord.
Elizabeth took several deep breaths. Delay would not ease the shame of jilting a man of ten thousand a year and admitting all her impetuous mistakes. “The entire family is in the drawing room?”
“Yes, Miss Lizzy, Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner moved their backgammon to the room as the Gardiners leave tomorrow.”
Elizabeth walked to the door, her hair damp from the wet blown by the wind under her bonnet. She stared at the handle. Despite his unhappiness Mr. Peake felt no such anxiousness. He walked past her, opening the door and holding it for her with a half-hearted smile.
All were assembled there. Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner returned to London the next day, and they knew the nature of Mr. Peake’s trip to Netherfield to ask for Georgiana’s hand. It was clear in their anxious expressions that they knew from the manner and time of the two’s return that Mr. Peake had been refused permission by Darcy.
Mr. Bennet sat next to Mr. Gardiner his hand caught in an excited gesture as he turned to see who had entered. The backgammon board had been pushed to the side, with the position of the pieces showing that black had won. Unsurprisingly the two continued good naturedly chatting without setting up a second game.
“Back so fast?” Mrs. Bennet frowned at Elizabeth. “Mr. Darcy should have kept you longer. You have pleased him best you could? Men can be fickle — I understand neither you, nor him. When me and Mr. Bennet went courting, I never missed an opportunity to spend an hour’s time with him — is that not true, dear?”
“That is very true,” Mr. Bennet replied frowningly towards Elizabeth. “Lizzy—”
“And Jane and Kitty and Mary, none of them would have missed such an opportunity with their betrothed. However, I should speak not. I never understood you, nor Mr. Darcy. To first declare you too old to look upon and then to become your dearest friend, througharguing, and then to marry you. He makes no sense untome. But it is only two weeks until the wedding, and—”
“There will be no wedding.”
Mrs. Bennet blinked cowishly at Elizabeth. Then she gasped and shook her head. “No — no! I will not allow it.”
Elizabeth tilted her head, curiously waiting to see how Mrs. Bennet would attack her for ending the engagement.
“You must marry! You can’t live together without marrying — I am not so French as to accept that from my daughter — not even fromyou.”
