“Not this same evening! I am not so desperate nor improper as to call so late on a lady of the peerage,” Elizabeth said.
Darcy cocked his eyebrow. Elizabeth clearly did not remember how that same lady had behaved indecorously toward her and the entire Bennet family, so that she might make her undue demands.
Elizabeth sat across from Fitzwilliam,entertaining a conversation all their own with naught but gestures and glances.
Dinner was a joyous occasion, rife with laughter and discussion. The morrow would be difficult enough with Lady Catherine, but for now, they were merry.
Until a pounding at the door silenced their colloquy, and everyone sitting around the table looked at each other for answers nobody had.
Elizabeth’s heartbeat pounded out to her fingertips, a sense of foreboding raising the hair at the back of her neck.
A scuffle, and then a tap step preceding an imposing figure swathed in stiff silks. Lady Catherine charged into the dining room with Mrs. Hill chasing behind her.
Something stirred within Elizabeth, but she could not put her finger on it. She had a sense she was reliving an event.
“I will have a word with you,” Lady Catherine ordered, as though she were the Queen, and Elizabeth a chambermaid.
Again, that sense of previous experience for which Elizabeth could not account.
She had little inclination to acquiesce to Her Ladyship’s demands, and especially less so when she saw the tall gentleman with sharp cheekbones and head-to-toe black watching her with hawkish eyes. He had yet to be presented — nor was he likely to be, given the rudeness with which Lady Catherine had interrupted their dinner — but his appearance and watchful bearingpresented enough clues. He represented Bedlam. He was here for her.
Fear trembled through Elizabeth, but she squared her shoulders. She had nothing to fear. She was not going insane. What was more, she was in her home and surrounded by defenders who would not allow her to be carried away and committed.
Lifting her chin and arching her brow, Elizabeth set her napkin on top of her plate and rose from the table slowly, calmly. Turning to Her Ladyship, Elizabeth assumed her iciest tone. “I am surprised to see you here, and in this manner, Lady Catherine. Might I convince you to join me in the front parlor where our discussion will be less likely to upset my family?”
Fitzwilliam was at her side. “You do not have to meet her demands. She cannot expect you to receive her politely after such a ghastly display of vulgarity.”
Elizabeth mumbled, “It would not be the first time.”
Her breath caught in her throat, her mind catching up with her tongue as the realization of what she had impulsively said dawned. Something about Lady Catherine’s unexpected, unannounced, unwelcome call had shuffled the missing pieces in Elizabeth’s mind.
She felt Fitzwilliam tense, felt his gaze. He must have gathered that something significant had happened, but Elizabeth dared not admit to any weakness of mind before the asylum doctor nor encourage Fitzwilliam’s hopes lest they lead to nothing more than one insufficient observation.
Still, there was no denying that Lady Catherine had jogged something in her mind into place, and Elizabeth was determined to take full advantage of the lady’s call if it meant restoring her memories.
“Mrs. Hill, please show our guests into the front parlor. I will be along shortly.”
Lady Catherine made it clear she did not approve of the delay, but Elizabeth did not concern herself with the grand lady’s opinion when Fitzwilliam and her family needed to be appeased.
Once she ascertained that the doctor was out of hearing, she turned to them.
Fitzwilliam whispered, “Did you remember?”
Elizabeth grinned widely, her happiness far greater than her apprehension. She had a feeling she had triumphed over Lady Catherine once before … if she could only remember how. But it was enough encouragement to continue. “A flicker, nothing more. Pray, do not get your hopes up, but I have every intention of seeing if Lady Catherine will fan the flames until our past is fully illuminated.”
Papa warned her, “Take care not to show any signs of amnesia. I will not allow you to be taken away from Longbourn, but neither do I wish for Her Ladyship and the doctor to begin a campaign against you in the village. They could stir up fear and take the matter out of my hands, and I cannot allow it.”
Elizabeth nodded. She was very well aware of whatcould happen if she were presumed dangerous and her family incapable.
She and Fitzwilliam paused before the door Mrs. Hill had had the good sense to close, taking steeling breaths when a gentler knock tapped the entrance door.
Elizabeth looked at Fitzwilliam. Who could that be? At this hour?
Hill looked at Elizabeth, reluctant.
Elizabeth shrugged, “By all means, see whoever it is in.” Why not?
It was Miss de Bourgh along with Mr. Collins.
