“Not at all. I hope Jane and Mary are in good health.”
“Yes, and so are your aunt, uncle, their children, and most likely all of their servants. The weather is lovely for this time of year, although the clouds on the horizon look ominous. Now that we have covered the weather and everyone’s health, may we move on?”
This was definitely not the mother Elizabeth knew. “You will be quite a surprise to everyone at Longbourn, not to mention Meryton.”
“Some of them, no doubt, will think I should be bound again.”
“I hope they will not.” But Elizabeth could understand why they might. She herself would be happy for her new mother to turn back into her old self. “What did you wish to discuss apart from the weather and everyone’s health?”
“First of all, I appreciate your assistance in having the spells removed. Had you done nothing, I would likely have lived under themthe rest of my life.”
“I am glad to have been able to do it. I wish I had realized you were spellbound sooner, but I was unaware of it until Uncle Gardiner said something to me about how different you were before you had children.”
“It did not pass my notice, though, that you went to great lengths to get the spells removed, and as soon as that was accomplished, you fled. Your uncle tells me you do not even plan to return to Longbourn.”
“I always planned to return to Matlock House after calling at the Gardiners, so it was hardly fleeing to do so. You did not need me; you had Jane, Mary, and my uncle. I do find your new speech rather disconcerting, though, as if you are a puppet and someone else is speaking your lines.”
“You forget, Lizzy, how much time I spent among the fay. I recognize your strategy – you said three true things without addressing my point.”
Elizabeth would need to remember that she could not fool this woman as easily as she once had. “Once you were free, Aelfric was naturally your first priority. I was glad to bring you together, but he is usually angry with me about something. Mary was already furious with me, and doubtless is more so since she has seen how much you were changed. I am no fonder than anyone else of being in company with people who are angry at me, and I had accomplished what I came to do. As for returning to Longbourn, that is not about you.”
Her mother studied her. “I did not want any more children after Aelfric. Every pregnancy, every childbirth simply reminded me that I had, as I thought then, caused my son’s death by my own irresponsibility. I did not want to care about any of you. Jane was an easy baby and caused very little trouble, but you were more difficult.”
“I already know this part,” said Elizabeth sharply. “I cried all the time, got into mischief, and ruined your favorite handkerchief. If this is to be another litany of why I am your least favorite daughter, I have nointerest in hearing it.”
Her mother winced. “I would not have said those things if I were in my right mind, although the handkerchief incident stung. It had been a gift from Oberon. As for the rest, your behavior was your nursemaid’s problem, not mine. Your trips to Faerie were what I could not forgive. I could no longer quite remember Faerie, but I knew it was a place I wanted to go, and almost every day Bluebird came to take you there. When you stopped going there a few years later, I was even angrier that you did not appreciate the privilege you had.”
“I stopped because Oberon decreed that I must.”
Mrs. Bennet frowned. “Aelfric did not mention that to me.”
Elizabeth shrugged. “He may not know. I do not remember much of that time.”
“Titania must have been furious.”
“She was. She still is, for that matter.” Elizabeth paused. “Do you plan to return to Faerie?”
Color rose in her mother’s cheeks. “No. The Sidhe love youth and beauty. I want Oberon and Titania to remember me as I was, not as I am now. Someday I might go there just for a few minutes to breathe the air again, but only if I were sure no one would see me.”
“You still have Aelfric,” said Elizabeth uncomfortably.
“Simply knowing he is alive is a great relief. You lifted an enormous burden from my shoulders with that news. I cannot begin to tell you how much that means.”
“But why did you think you had caused his death?”
Her mother’s face fell, making her look like her old querulous self. “When I saw that he was Sidhe, I knew he must never leave my side until I could take him to Faerie. To most people he would be an abomination, and to your father he was proof that he had been cuckolded. Most men would smother such a baby in the cradle. But I was so tired and so weak after childbirth, so I let the wet nurse take him justfor a little while. I never saw him again. I had known better than to do that. To this day I cannot understand why I allowed it.”
“Perhaps that was when my father set the spell on you.”
“Or it was just my weakness.” Her expression was anguished. “Even now, knowing he is alive, I despise myself for it.”
“Did you think my father had killed him?”
“Yes,” she said bleakly. “It was what any other man would have done. I am still surprised he allowed him to live.”
Horrified at her mother’s calm acceptance that her father would have killed Aelfric, Elizabeth asked, “Why did you remain at Longbourn when you thought your husband had murdered your child? My uncle would have taken you in.”
“I had treated your father very badly. I knew I was increasing, and I intended to pass off Oberon’s child, whom I assumed to be mortal, as his. How could I blame him for wanting to dispose of the evidence that I had been unfaithful to him? He could have punished me for what I had done or even sent me to an asylum to live out the rest of my life, but he never said a word about it. How could I have left him then?”
