Yes: Dark, windy, wet and near freezing. Yes: The gray hid the sun, soaked the birds, and there were no fluffy white shapes to identify as France, a lizard, and a carriage careening down a cliff with people falling out of it.
But it was a sunny day in Elizabeth’s heart.
She had missed Caroline.
“You intend to settle in Meryton,” Elizabeth exclaimed suddenly. “I am so happy!”
“London is no longer to my taste — and I am not to its taste.”
“You mean the scandal?”
“In chief. Besides you, only Lady Emily wrote to me from amongst our acquaintances.”
Elizabeth winced. “She has written to me with a long description ofallthe stories, and how she has heard about you from fifteen separate persons. And also how I fit into these stories. The general belief is that Ididhope to steal Mr. Darcy from you — gossip. It does not matter.”
“It mattered to me once. It would have mattered a great deal to me. It isrightthat I am known as an untrustworthy person who will act wrongly — I gave certain proofs to that. I wish to be more like you, or at least to consider gossip as little as you do.”
“Ah,nowI understand why you intend to settle in Meryton! I must enlighten you.” Elizabeth grinned. “It is my unique twists of mind, and not my settlement in the neighborhood which has given me such a sensible attitude towards the attitudes of others.”
Caroline batted at her. “You goose. I want to be near you. Charles as well, if he’ll speak to me. But you are the one true friend I feel as though I have.”
That made Elizabeth flush. “Even though I declared you to be lying.”
“A service, and one for which I shall be ever grateful — imagine if Mr. Darcyhadbeen obligated to marry me — he would have despised me. I would have faced that coldness every morning over bread and butter. Eventually what liking I had for him would have been extinguished under that hatred. He is a determined man. I hardly can credit that I was such a dunce as to evenwishto succeed in such a scheme.”
“Such is what I wrote, in the first version of my letter to you.”
“Oh?”
“I sat down to write, and then I found that every angry word that had been in my mind for the previous weeks flowed out, like steam exploding from a pot that had been too tightly shut. That letter was not fit to be read, and so it cannot be. I burned it immediately.”
“I am certain I deserved every word — but I am glad I received the kinder, if simpler note you sent.”
The two girls looked at each other and embraced.
“Oh, I am so happy! And we will have such fun over the summer — Lydia convinced Papa to remove her from school three or four months earlier than he planned, so she shall be here in another two weeks — Oh but did you know that Charlotte Lucas married mycharmingclerical cousin?”
“No, not Mr. Collins? — poor girl. I never liked her, but she deserves a better man than him.”
“I said as much to her, and she… in essence she told me to mind my own business, and to not judge her for making a choice I did not need to. I must confess that her choices are far more limited than mine, and her situation in life is much worse, with neither much fortune, nor any exceptional beauty.”
Caroline sighed and rubbed at her nose. “I was a snob, and I should have been kinder, and accepted that she had some wisdom.Shetried to warn me. Perhaps not in the kindest way, but if I had listened to her, I would be happier today.”
“It is in general impossible to accept advice in such a case as that — which is why I made no great effort togiveyou any advice. Not until near the end.”
“And I was still in no fit state to take it then.” Caroline grimaced, then shrugged. “About Miss Lucas, I do wish we could have found a less…”
“Mr. Collins-esque man for Charlotte?”
“Precisely.” Caroline giggled.
“I must warn you, I have solemnly promised to visit Charlotte for at least a month over Easter — I’ll keep it to just a month, or five weeks at the most, now thatyouare to be here in Hertfordshire.”
“We will then keep the men of the post busy once more while you are absent.” Caroline sighed. “I am so happy you do not despise me. I do not deserve it, but I am very happy.”
Chapter Seventeen
“La! But Papa, I am nearly sixteen.Please, please, please, please! Just one assembly — while the officers are still here.” Lydia sighed. “The officers are all so handsome.”
