Page 5 of Near Pemberley

She folded the letter carefully and laid it aside.

For some time, she sat quietly. The stillness of the room, so lately welcome, now seemed to press upon her.

They had been gone a long while. Longer than she had expected.

She rose and crossed to the window, though she did not look out at once. When she did, she found nothing to engage her attention. A cart passed, a few figures moved along the street, but none belonged to her party.

From below came the sound of movement within the inn – a servant hurrying along the passage, the sharp ringing of a bell, and somewhere beneath her window, a child laughing loudly before being hushed with little success. The ordinary bustle of the house continued undisturbed, while she alone seemed incapable of letting the hour pass quietly.

The grounds must be extensive, she told herself. Or they had been detained. By what, she did not consider.

She moved away again, took up her gloves, set them down, then sat once more. It was a small restlessness, but she could not entirely command it.

To her mortification, the image came to mind: she, Elizabeth Darcy, receiving her aunt and uncle. Then they would not be staying at the inn… but she remembered too clearly what he had said at Hunsford. What if her relations, being in trade, would not be welcome at… Pemberley?

She stopped herself almost angrily. Had she not already learnt the injustice of forming conclusions from wounded pride? And yet the memory of his proposal was not so easily separated from the man himself. He had loved her; he had insulted her; he had written with candour; he had proved himself, in many particulars, better than she had believed.

The welcome sound of wheels upon the gravel reached her.

With relief, she stood at once.

Voices followed, her aunt’s clear tone, her uncle’s answering, both speaking at once, as if each eager to be heard before the other had done.

Elizabeth resumed her seat before they entered, though she could not have said why.

Mrs. Gardiner came in first, her bonnet slightly displaced, her cheeks touched with colour. “My dear Lizzy, we have had such a day…”

“Such a place!” said Mr. Gardiner behind her, removing his gloves. “You cannot conceive it.”

“But I protest I am quite fatigued,” she added, laughing. “I have not walked so much in…”

“Nor I,” said he, “and yet I would not have missed it.”

Elizabeth rose to greet them. “I am very glad you have been pleased.”

“Pleased!” repeated Mrs. Gardiner. “My dear, it exceeds everything. The grounds… oh, the grounds alone… The gardener was so knowledgeable and kind. He gave me some seeds. He said they would do well under the window.”

“The finest I have ever seen,” said Mr. Gardiner, nodding. “Beyond expectation. You would have loved it.”

The words struck her more than they ought.

“And the stream, Lizzy! I do not exaggerate when I say I have rarely seen a finer stretch of water for fishing. I ought to have enquired whether they would permit it, for I could very willingly have spent an entire day there.”

“Your uncle,” said Mrs. Gardiner, laughing, “was ready to establish himself at Pemberley entirely.”

“And with good reason,” he replied. “If a man cannot be content at Pemberley, I do not know where he may hope to be so.”

“But the house,” she continued, “though we must do it justice later, for I cannot speak of it properly now.”

“And dinner first,” said her husband. “I insist upon dinner.”

Elizabeth smiled. “That may be arranged, I believe.”

They spoke a little longer, though their account was broken and confused, each beginning where the other had not finished, until at last they agreed that a fuller description must wait.

***

When they met again below, the room was livelier, and the presence of others imposed some restraint upon their eagerness. Yet it did not wholly subdue it.