Page 179 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

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Mrs. Bennet lay in her coffin wearing the gown Jane had chosen and the lace cap Kitty had brought down.

Mrs. Phillips touched her sister's cheek before stepping aside so the daughters could approach.

The sisters gathered around the coffin, but Lydia remained near the door.

Lydia touched her mother’s hand. “She does not look like Mamma.”

“No, my darling. Not quite, but come and see her,” Mrs. Phillips said.

The first callers came late that afternoon to pay their respects and offer condolences. By the following morning, black fabric had arrived from Meryton.

The sisters were measured for mourning gowns, and Mrs. Phillips directed the dressmaker with something of her old authority. Edward Gardiner left for London to collect his family.

Elizabeth helped her father make the arrangements for the funeral. When she saw tears on his face, she reached across the desk and took his hand.

They remained together in silence.

* * *

The following morning, the women went outside and waited near the front steps of Longbourn.

A short while later, Mr. Bennet stepped out of the house with Edward and Mr. Phillips.

Then the front doors opened, and the coffin was carried down the steps.

Elizabeth watched as they placed it inside the hearse. It seemed impossible that only a few days earlier her mother had been alive and quarreling with Lydia.

Mr. Bennet took his place behind the hearse with Edward and Mr. Phillips. Several gentlemen of the neighborhood joined them.

The horses began to move.

Elizabeth stood with her sisters and watched as their mother left Longbourn for the last time.

Chapter 49: Netherfield Park

Darcy had slept very little.

Elizabeth was less than three miles away.

For weeks, distance had been measured in counties and days. Now a good horse could carry him to Longbourn in a quarter of an hour, but six o'clock in the morning was hardly an acceptable hour to call upon the Bennets.

He abandoned his bed before dawn.

The stable boys had not yet come down when he entered the stable. Ares lifted his head over the stall door and greeted him with a low nicker.

Darcy saddled the gray himself and led him into the yard.

The eastern sky had begun to lighten when they left Netherfield. He took the road toward Meryton without deciding where he meant to go. The air was cool, and a thin mist lay over the lower fields. By the time the first sunlight touched the hedgerows, he had left the road and was following a narrow lane between two pastures.

Oakham Mount rose ahead of him.

Darcy slowed Ares.

He had never seen it before, but Elizabeth's letter had named the place. The mount stood above the surrounding countryside, its summit crowned by oaks.

He urged Ares forward.