Page 12 of Resilience

“Miss Elizabeth, are you quite well? You are holding your head rather oddly.”

Elizabeth turned her entire body from her waist rather than move her neck to look at Mr Collins as he spoke to her at the breakfast table.

“I am certain she is fine, only nervous to have been indoors so long, Jane says she is worse than a hound when kept in the house,” Miss Bingley interrupted before Elizabeth could answer. “You must be aching to go out walking, but do not fret, I will stay by your sister’s side again. Indeed, dear Jane is no burden at all, at least not to some people.”

“Nonsense, did you not rest well, Miss Elizabeth?” Lady Priscilla, all too familiar with Miss Bingley’s cruel machinations, pierced Elizabeth with her gaze. “Your poor neck is obviously affected, you must have slept quite wrongly.”

“Perhaps Miss Elizabeth is unused to such comfortable accommodations. I have heard of the lower orders struggling to adapt to better circumstances before,” Miss Bingley continued insistently.

Georgiana gasped.

“Perhaps I am only used to sleeping in an actual bed and not on a sofa,” Elizabeth finally answered irritably. “Jane was too fitful to share, I am afraid. I could not very well disturb her rest.”

“Caroline!” Mr Bingley objected, scandalised at Elizabeth’s implication, that his hostess had been less than inviting to his home.

“But surely you were offered a bed of your own!” Lady Priscilla’s eyes were blazing. “Not even Miss Bingley would be so inhospitable.”

Miss Bingley bristled at the insult, but Darcy and her brother had been close for years, and since the Fitzwilliams had begun to perceive her as a threat to Darcy’s liberty and happiness, Lady Priscilla was always near when Caroline found an excuse to reside under the same roof with him. She was quite used to Lady Priscilla, and had given up her hopes of becoming friends with the earl's daughter–and her ambitions of her brother marrying the woman–long ago.

“Dear Jane insisted that she and Miss Elizabeth were content to share, but perhaps Miss Elizabeth does not feel the same.” Miss Bingley was obviously not going to cease this direction of insistence. “We had an expected guest yesterday, in addition to a sick friend in the house. I was occupied.”

Elizabeth could only be grateful that her hostess had finally ceased calling her Eliza when Elizabeth began to address her with equal familiarity.

“Well, we are expecting no guests today, Caroline, so please, have a room next to Miss Bennet’s prepared for Miss Elizabeth without delay.” Bingley was firm with his sister. Elizabeth sympathised with him. Lydia was difficult, but Elizabeth would take six more of her over even one Miss Bingley.

“Oh no, we could not possibly allow Miss Bingley to go to such trouble, not when Georgie and I dearly wish to become close friends with Miss Elizabeth, and this is the perfect opportunity,” Lady Priscilla objected. “Georgie may share with me, and Miss Elizabeth may have her room that connects with our parlour. I will even share my maid with you, my friend. It will be no trouble for Miss Bingley at all. Though I will trouble our hostess to have a hot bath sent up to Georgie’s dressing room without delay. Miss Elizabeth looks sincerely uncomfortable, she must have a long soak, and my maid has a marvelous salve that is good for such things. We shall have our new friend well looked after. It will all be very sisterly, will it not, Georgie?”

“Oh yes! I would like that above anything!” Georgiana agreed with alacrity.

“I thank you for your kindness, Lady Priscilla, but I still must look after my sister, that is, when she is not otherwise occupied with Miss Bingley. I came to nurse her so that our hostess would not be inconvenienced, even though I find myself de trop.”

“Miss Elizabeth, it would please me very much if you would call me Priscilla, both in company, and in private,” the other lady invited.

“Thank you, Priscilla, I should like that very much. Please call me Elizabeth, or Lizzy, as my sisters do.” Elizabeth noted that Mr Darcy nodded approvingly at his sister and cousin for their kindness, while Miss Bingley appeared to be steaming from the irritation of having never been invited to address the Earl of Matlock’s daughter with such familiarity.

Chapter Six

The next day, Elizabeth was in the library at Netherfield, wishing it had a tenth of the tomes found in her father’s book room. She was so engrossed in browsing the volumes that she was startled after some minutes to learn that she was not alone. Mr Darcy was standing by the window with a book he did not appear to be reading.

“Mr Darcy, I apologise if I have disturbed you, I will not be long.” Elizabeth dropped a curtsey.

“You will be long if you are attempting to find something interesting to read in this library.” He held the tome in his hand out to her. “Would you like to borrow this one? I have finished it, and perhaps we might discuss it with Georgiana. She and Priscilla read it together.”

“Oh, I have wished to read this!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “Self-Control by Mary Brunton! Thank you Mr Darcy, I would like to read this very much. Now, allow me to leave you and the library in peace.”

“I am grieved that I have lost against Mary Brunton in the competition for your interest. I hope you will stay, if only for a while. I enjoy your conversation.” He smiled shyly.

“Is there something in particular you wished to speak of?” she inquired.

Darcy deliberated, then said, “It is very kind of you to be so attentive to my sister and cousin.”

“Priscilla and Georgiana require no effort at all to esteem them,” she assured him.

“No, but they both lack true friendship, for ladies of society often have other agendas. They seem to have have found it in you.” Darcy bowed.

“I am glad.” Elizabeth blushed faintly, then noticed something she had not yet seen on a nearby shelf. “Oh, and here is another that I have longed to peruse, but my father has not added it to our library. I can read Self-Control to Jane while she is awake, and this other one when she is sleeping.”

“Ah, yes, The Life of Lord Nelson, I enjoyed that immensely. Do you read much history, Miss Elizabeth?”