“I already have said I shall not.”
Elizabeth felt a terror in her gut of Jane dying while she was not there. Jane dying alone.
Mrs. Bennet motioned for Elizabeth to come to her side by the globe and flowers in the far corner of the room, and reluctantly Elizabeth did so. “You must come home. Think of me. Of all of us. You cannot be this selfish. If Jane should die,” Mrs. Bennet lowered her voice, and glanced at the other persons in the room. Only Mr. Darcy was close enough that he might overhear her whisper, “If Jane dies she won’t be able to marry Mr. Bingley, or anyone else. And then—”
“You sent her here.” Elizabeth hissed. “You are trying to kill us so that we can marry some gentleman who will satisfyyou. You knew she was ill, and you ordered her to come.”
Mrs. Bennet moaned and flapped her hands nervously. “Lizzy, Lizzy. My dear Lizzy. Oh I feel such nerves! I could faint. But I do not complain. Lizzy, you must come home.”
“I. Shall. Not.”
“I am ordering you to return home.”
In that next almost terrifying moment of anger Elizabeth saw red. She nearly slapped her mother. Her chest was tight with rage.
Then it receded, and what was left was an anxious, scared feeling. And she saw her mother for what she was: Another anxious, scared woman, and Elizabeth knew she had nothing further to say to her.
Mama began again, wringing her hands together, “Please, Elizabeth—”
But Elizabeth, without apology or further word, walked away. When she reached the door she made a small curtsey to everyone else in the room and returned to Jane.
Chapter Eight
Four days after Mr. Thompson had been brought to examine Jane, Mr. Darcy made his way out of Netherfield and went to sit on a chair outside in the November cold. A great many lovely golden leaves covered the ground. The wind stirred them up, making them blow in lovely patterns.
He tapped the letter in his coat again with annoyance.
He would not allow his irritation withthat manto damage the happiness he felt at believing that Jane Bennet was in fact improving.
Her fever was almost nothing now, and over the course of yesterday the left side of her face had begun to be mobile again. She was speaking, with no sign of the delirium that had been there before, and also with no sign that her mind had been affected by her serious fever.
It was more by far than they had any right to have hoped for, and Darcy thanked the Almighty for this apparent miracle.
When they had spoken briefly during breakfast Elizabeth had looked at him with a deep gratitude, as though he had saved Jane’s life by calling Mr. Thompson to her side.
Darcy believed he had done nothing of the sort, but rather simply acted as any gentleman would.
Also, Darcy was not wholly sanguine yet.
It was not unknown for a person to appear to be recovering from a serious illness, and then to have a sudden relapse. He thought it would be worse for Elizabeth if Jane died now, than it would have been had she never begun to recover.
As Darcy sat, with his crutches leaning against a tree next to his chair, he saw Elizabeth come out, dressed warmly. She walked back and forth pacing and turning three times, rubbing her hands together before she saw him.
As soon as she did she bounded to sit by him at another bench nearby. Her smile was probably the most perfectly beautiful image that Mr. Darcy had ever seen in his life. “Jane smiled at me!”
“Of course she did.” Darcy smiled at her. “Wait, you mean?”
“Yes, there was no sign that it had ever been paralyzed. It is a miracle!”
Darcy grinned back at her.
“She sent me out to take a walk, so I don’t grow so pasty as a marble statue — she spoke clearly, barely any slurring. She is very weak, of course, but I could detect no fever. When I kissed her forehead it felt cool to me.”
Elizabeth grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I do not think I have ever been so happy.”
He smiled at her, his heart glowed.
“It was Mr. Thompson’s treatment — something so simple ‘to induce vomiting to dry out the body’ and it worked! I can still hardly believe it! But it did. If you had not called him—” Elizabeth shuddered. “I am certain that Jane’s condition would have continued to worsen and she would have died.”
