Page 32 of The Widower of Pemberley

Especially if Mr. Collins did not make an offer for one of them. And what would become of her if he did?

Tea was sent up for Elizabeth, and the maids brought everything that the physician had recommended for Mr. Bennet’s comfort and treatment. Elizabeth realised that she had not drunk anything during the whole of the day, not since the morning. She still could not make herself eat, but she was dreadfully thirsty, and over the course of ten minutes she refilled her cup repeatedly and drank the whole pot of tea.

When Jane came to join her, she sent her sister to bed, saying, “I shall just read aloud, and you and Mary can come to sit with him for a few hours after midnight so that I can sleep.”

She read from the Bible, and later fromTom Jones, until Mary and Jane came.

When Elizabeth went to her room, she passed the guest room in which Mr. Collins had been housed, and she heard his loud snoring. She was barely able to sleep, filled with grief, anxiety, and thoughts of her cousin.

The next morning, she was woken from her fitful slumber by low voices speaking outside her door.

She leapt from the bed, thinking that it was news about her father, but when she reached the door, she realised that it was her mother and Mr. Collins.

“One of my intentions for this visit is to find a mistress for my parsonage house amongst the daughters of Longbourn, and my interest in making such compensation for the grief that the entail must cause them is only made the greater by this sad situation, as we wait for the event that, while it may be delayed, can never be wholly avoided.”

“We are saved,” Mrs. Bennet said quietly yet fervently. Then she added, “That is a kind, a generous, a disinterested plan! I know of no prior attachments upon the part of any of my daughters. For Jane, of course, such would be impossible. But I assure you, she will not be so much of a burden. She is a very quiet creature.”

“You need say no more upon that topic. I understand the kindness with which the Lord demands we treat the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and most especially the blind.”

“But all of them, Elizabeth especially, are biddable, capable girls.”

“Yes, Miss Elizabeth,” Mr. Collins replied. “I was struck by her beauty yesterday. I am most eager to offer help and kindness to her.”

The two moved away from the door, and Elizabeth then threw on her robe and went across to her father’s room.

So, Mr. Collins was her fate.

It was deserved after she had despised the handsome Mr. Bingley for his bland good nature. She was grateful Mr. Collins did not show any vicious tendencies. At least there had been none displayed in the half day that she had known him.

When Elizabeth stepped into Mr. Bennet’s room, she found Jane and Mary asleep and her father alive and snoring.

She let out a long breath. Papa was still alive.

But instead of looking at him, she studied Jane’s pockmarked sleeping face.

She could do it. She could bear the burden that had settled on her shoulders.

Shewouldmarry for the deepest love, even if it were not love for her husband. And she would, when she married, strive to bea good wife, because that is what Jane would expect of her, and that was how she would rightfully earn the care that her husband would give her sister.

When Mr. Collins asked her, she would not say no. She would even encourage him to make the offer.

If her father had been healthy, and certainly if none of her sisters had been blind and in need of support, she would have refused a man like her cousin without a thought.

But she must not imagine such a case. She must live inthisworld.

Chapter Eight

Poor Miss Elizabeth.

They had heard the news the previous evening when a group of local gentlemen came for billiards and dinner with Bingley.

Georgiana had immediately determined to go the next morning to offer what comfort she could. “But, Brother,” she had then said after declaring this, “shall I be welcome? Poor Lizzy must be in such a state.”

That had made Darcy ache for Miss Elizabeth’s likely feelings. It was too soon since his mother had died for him to feel anything but grief and a sense of understanding for anyone else losing a parent.

“True friendship, care, and an expression of honest feeling will rarely go amiss,” Darcy had told his sister.

Georgiana had nodded.