Page 18 of A Prudent Engagement

At New Cross, the coachmen set up the lamps all around the sides of the carriage, and they drove on at a slower pace due to the falling darkness.

The conversation became quieter, and Elizabeth was tired of the road and wished to stretch and simply walk.

They reached the outskirts of the great city. Candles flared in the windows. Torches and streetlamps.

It was brighter by far than it had been on the open road.

The carriage crossed the dark expanse of the Thames at London Bridge before continuing onto the broad course of Gracechurch Street, where Elizabeth’s aunt and uncle resided.

She had a slight concern that the family may have instantly gone to Longbourn after receiving the news, but lights were visible through the windows. A black ribbon had been tied around the knocker.

Elizabeth alighted and knocked.

The housekeeper came to the door, and she exclaimed upon seeing her, “Oh, Miss Elizabeth! What dreadful news.”

“Are Jane and my aunt and uncle still here?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Mr. Darcy was kind enough to bring me this far, and he will convey us the rest of the way tomorrow morning.” Elizabeth gestured to the gentleman. “And Mrs. Collins has also come with me.”

Jane and Mr. Gardiner came to the door, and on seeing Elizabeth, Jane threw her arms around her with a gasped-out sob. “Lizzy! Lizzy!”

While the sisters continued to embrace, Charlotte spoke with Mr. Gardiner, explaining how they had come so quickly to London after receiving the express, and she introduced Elizabeth’s uncle to Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam.

Mr. Gardiner sombrely welcomed them all into his house.

A part of Elizabeth’s mind eagerly watched to see how Mr. Darcy would act towards her uncle, the tradesman. But she gained very little information from his quiet willingness to shake hands with his host.

Colonel Fitzwilliam was as he ever was, a well-bred man who spoke to everyone with ease, always using words that were mostly proper to the situation but with a satirical air, as though he considered the forms of society as not really having any importance.

Mr. Gardiner invited the gentlemen to sit in the drawing room and refresh themselves before continuing to Mr. Darcy’s town house.

Upon that suggestion being made, Mr. Darcy looked to Elizabeth, rather solemnly it seemed. It was as though he was searching for something in her.

However, before Mr. Darcy made up his mind about what he wished to say, Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “I would of course be most grateful to sit for a few minutes. It has been a long trip in the carriage, and I am not eager to return to one. I have half a mind to walk from here to my lodgings.”

As Mr. Gardiner showed them all to the drawing room, he said to Elizabeth, “We mean to go tomorrow. I had some thought to leave as soon as the news reached us today, but I was handling a matter of importance for my business, and I was able to settle things so that I do not need to return to London for at least a week. I am glad to see you. You have been in my thoughts all day. I had not known how to easily retrieve you from Hunsford.” Mr. Gardiner said once more to Mr. Darcy, “We are sincerely grateful for your kindness to my niece.”

“It was what any gentleman would have done in such a situation,” Mr. Darcy replied solidly.

He then sat quietly in one of the fine armchairs in the drawing room, on a seat at such a distance from the fire that it left his face shadowed.

His eyes flickered about, often landing on Elizabeth, and she could not tell whether he was uncomfortable or simply unsure of what to say.

Mrs. Gardiner said all that was kind, and of course equally useless, to Elizabeth. It reminded her of how Charlotte had spoken after she had first heard.

They all knew that she had been close to her father; they all expected her to dissolve into tears, and it would be unkind to her papa’s memory to do what was expected by everyone. He would not approve if she was too conventional.

Only Mr. Darcy had spoken in such a way that let her feel her grief fully, and though it had hurt, hurt so deeply, she was ever grateful to him for that.

Elizabeth was happy to see Mr. Darcy meet those of her relations for whom she had no cause to blush. Several times during their conversation in the carriage he had said something which showed that he thought very ill of her mother and youngest sisters.

Each time he had done so, Elizabeth had felt an odd sensation of resentment towards him for judging them, then shame at the correctness of the judgment.

In the Gardiners’ drawing room, he displayed his quietness and reserve. Such manners might denote arrogance, or he might be shy. He had said that he could not easily speak with strangers, and the Gardiners were strangers to him.

She kept watching him. She wanted to understand what was in his mind.