“I expect he will, but I would rather go look for him. Are you well enough to come?”
Jane started to nod, winced, then smiled. “I shall manage.”
It seemed half the town had turned out to watch the excitement. Elizabeth was forced to push her way through a crowd of young boys as she neared the edge of the throng, clasping Jane’s hand behind her to keep from being separated. “There he is!” She pointed through the body of horses when she identified her father’s wiry figure holding the halter of a fractious sorrel.
Jane tipped up her bonnet and was searching the faces surrounding the horses when something pushed them violently from behind. Elizabeth barely faltered, but Jane, with her residual dizziness, stumbled to her knees in the dirt. She sought Elizabeth’s hand, but not before her own was stepped on by a rowdy boy.
“How dare you!” Elizabeth rebuked the crowd. She tugged Jane upright to a chorus of jeers. One boy looked directly at her and spat on the ground, just before her feet. Elizabeth’s face grew hot. “Rolly Harris! I shall speak to your father!”
“Are ya gonna shoot him too, Miss?”
Elizabeth’s mouth ran dry. “Wh-what did you say?”
Jane was shaking her head, clenching her eyes. “Don’t answer him, Lizzy. Come, let us go to Papa!” Fear and pain made Jane assertive for once in her life, and she dragged at Elizabeth’s hand to pull her away.
“No!” Elizabeth stamped her foot for emphasis and stretched to her full height. “As you say, Jane, I did only what I was forced to do. I will not run. Who else cares to insult me?”
The boys were not cowed, but a woman dragged one of them back to shoulder her way to the fore. It was Rolly Harris’ mother, all two hundred pounds of her, and she shook a calloused finger in Elizabeth’s face. “Have you no decency, Elizabeth Bennet? Bad enough that you were a shameless hussy, flippin’ your skirts all around and playing the coquette, but then you had to kill a man when you changed your mind! You’re no innocent maid, I’ll lay to that. You get out, I’ll not have you leading onmyboy!”
“Mrs Harris! I will have you know that—”
“Go on, Elizabeth,” sneered another woman. “Who’s next? D’ya mean to go for my man now? Or was it Old Man Bryson and your father’s ranch you’re after?”
A crowd seemed to materialise at once around Mrs Harris’ ample skirts, and all of them were glaring at her. Elizabeth drew back, staring blankly at the faces of friends, neighbours—women she had known almost since her infancy.
“How can you… I meant no harm to anyone!”
“Tell that to Jake Bryson!”
Elizabeth’s vision had begun to blur. She was panting, shaking her head in denial. “I—”
“Elizabeth! There you are, my darling.”
Before she could draw breath, someone caught her hand and spun her into a close embrace. “I was beginning to think you would not come to see me off.”
“What… Colonel?”
“Do you know, I was thinking…” He made a pointed glance around at the hostile faces, the fisted hands, and the threatening postures. “Why have we not yet announced our engagement? Your father is here, and I cannot bear thinking of going away until the matter is settled. Come, my dear! Let us see to it at once.”
He clutched her fingers and tugged her away, with Jane dragging closely behind by Elizabeth’s other hand. The colonel pushed fearlessly through the mass of men and horses, just beyond the reach of Elizabeth’s tormentors.
“What… are… you… Colonel, please wait!” She lodged her feet into the ground and stopped, snatching her hand away. “What do you think you are doing?”
He turned back with a gentle smile for anyone who might be watching, but his words were low and intense. “You are over your head, Elizabeth. It was about to get ugly back there, and you are too damnably stubborn to close your mouth.”
“And you are too presumptuous! What do you mean by pretending we are engaged? Everyone knows it is not true!”
“Do they?” His eyes scanned above her head, then, with calculated precision, he leaned down for an easy, familiar kiss—the kind a man might bestow on his acknowledged fiancée. Before she could sputter in astonishment, before she could wipe his scent from her lips in outrage, he clutched her hand again and marched her toward her father.
“Lizzy!” Jane was begging, pulling at her other arm, but Elizabeth could not stop. “What does he mean by kissing you like that?”
Elizabeth merely glanced over her shoulder, bared her teeth in a mixture of confusion, anger, and humiliation, and continued to follow the colonel.
Her father was watching their approach with eyes darkened by sorrow and regret. His shoulders hung in defeat, and he sighed as Elizabeth and the colonel stopped before him. She opened her mouth to plead her case, and sensed the colonel at her side preparing to speak as well, but Mr Bennet merely lifted his hand. “I saw it all, Lizzy.”
“But Papa, I—”
“I saw.” He silenced her with a hard look he had not employed since she had been very small, then turned to the colonel. “I thank you, sir, for your efforts to protect my daughter. But you are boarding a train that is set to depart in forty-five minutes. I am afraid you have only complicated matters further.”
