Elizabeth forced a smile. “Go prepare a bedroom for Colonel Fitzwilliam.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Milk on the stove. Stirring constantly. Checking the temperature with her finger every minute, and then just when it reached the point that it was almost painful to keep the finger in, she removed it from the heat.
Tears, after all, never helped anyone.
The tight sensation in her gut slowly receded.
After last night she had depended on having a month to contemplate her situation and decide what she must do next. Shecouldn’tgo to Papa. She wouldn’t make it real. She wouldn’t become that burden that her father had said she would become if she married Wickham.
She would not.
She would not steal from her sisters what belonged to them. Not because she had been so immature, so naïve, and so stupid. So small.
Elizabeth, unfortunately, had no better idea about how to care for her children than to go to Hertfordshire immediately and hope that Papa would support them. If she had been forced to leave now, she would in fact have gone to Hertfordshire, without even a real promise of a welcome.
Pawning George’s storybook in London would give enough money to get the stage to take them the rest of the way home…
Soak bread crusts in the milk. Wrap the soggy bread in the bandages. Put it on the silver tray. Collect a long strip of linen to fix the poultice in place.
Kitty and Lydia might be quite as likely to elope as she had been. She hoped Papa would keep a better eye on them, and she hoped that he would not permit them into society until they were seventeen.
She missed her sisters.
Homesickness had been dangerous. She had refused the sensation. But she felt an ache to see her home country, the home ways, the old house, her father and his bald spot and grey bushy sideburns, her nervously fluttering mother. Mary and Jane. Sweet, dear Jane. The two younger sisters would be changed so greatly. Lydia would now be fifteen. The same age that Elizabeth had been.
Elizabeth returned to the drawing room.
Colonel Fitzwilliam’s voice was loudly proclaiming, “A total, entire, idiotic, and what is worse, asinine fool.”
Shewould not be driven away by him.
If he convinced Mr. Darcy to send her off now, Elizabeth decided she would scream and demand money. She wouldnowdeserve it, not because Darcy killed her husband, but because he tortured her nerves.
As Elizabeth opened the door, she saw that it was in fact the cowering Georgiana who was the subject of this tirade. She held Emily like a Catholic putting the cross between themselves and a brigand, and the little girl sobbed.
George watched Colonel Fitzwilliam steadily, clearly unsettled by the man. Upon seeing his mother step through the door, he came to her and pointed at his sister. “Emily is sad.”
“I see.”
Emily squealed and stretched her arms towards Elizabeth, and Georgiana put her down and the little girl ran unsteadily across the room to Elizabeth.
Mr. Darcy said in a manner that showed that it caused him pain to speak firmly, “Fitzwilliam, save your lecture to Georgiana for when we are in our private circle. We must speak together first.”
Elizabeth smiled as her daughter clamped herself about her skirts. “Darling, I cannot pick you up, as you see.” Emily squeezed Elizabeth tighter as Elizabeth tried to scoot forward a few feet towards Mr. Darcy.
“Oh, the deuce,” Colonel Fitzwilliam exclaimed. He stomped over and grabbed the tray from Elizabeth. “I can change the bandage myself. I’ve seen it done enough times.”
Elizabeth laughed. She in fact liked the officer a little.
Shecould not despise him for his suspicions about her. Anyone in his position would have such sentiments.
“No, no, just a second—” Elizabeth replied as she picked up Emily and bounced her. “This is the disadvantage that your cousin chose when he insisted on being nursed by afriend, no doubt to save money.”
Mr. Darcy laughed, which turned into a hiss of pain immediately. He grinned widely. “Mrs. Wickham, I beg you to have mercy on me. Do not say such things.”
As Emily was now calmer, Elizabeth smiled at him, and after kissing Emily’s hair several times, and squeezing her tightly, she handed the girl back to Georgiana who happily took her.
