Longbourn to London (21 page)

Once the highly advantageous particulars were repeated to Mrs. Bennet enough times that she finally comprehended them, the elevation of her spirits was nothing short of piercing. She fanned herself vigorously and smiled upon Darcy with every affectionate phrase at her disposal. No one was more generous, liberal, bountiful, charitable, or kind. She patted Elizabeth and rained approval upon her, telling Darcy what he already knew: he was marrying the most beautiful and charming of the Bennet daughters, the cleverest and best educated.

“And her temper—so easy, Mr. Darcy! Nothing disturbs her, and she never raises her voice. She has never spent an angry day in her life!”

At these words, Darcy, Elizabeth, and Mr. Bennet began to call out that she had now overstepped herself entirely, and betwixt them laughed her into a brief silence. Finally, Mrs. Bennet joined their laughter. “Well, perhaps I did err a little there. Lizzy
can
bear a grudge, but it is nothing a walk in the fresh air does not cure.”

“
That
description of my future wife, Mrs. Bennet, I shall allow as more accurate,” Darcy said with a chuckle. He patted his soon-to-be mother-in-law on the shoulder as he rose to leave.

Mrs. Bennet was vastly pleased. She looked at the clock on the library mantle and wondered whether she had enough time to visit her sister with the settlement’s particulars before the appointment at Netherfield.

***

And so the few remaining days before the wedding passed with Elizabeth and Darcy much in each other’s company but rarely alone together—and never for longer than a few moments to say hello or good-bye with a kiss or two as one or the other came and went from Longbourn or Netherfield.

Elizabeth continued her morning exercise on the lanes of Meryton’s environs. Darcy did not join her. She did not like it, but she understood him. A charming note arrived two days before the wedding with a gift of sheet music in which Darcy explained that, although he had resisted her the morning he returned from London, he did not suppose himself strong enough to do so again. He confessed to sleeping poorly, as he was visited by dreams of being alone with her that seemed alarmingly real. He asked her to bring the sheet music to London, so she could play the selections for him privately. He did
not
write that, while awake, his sustaining occupation was devising ways of seducing her just before the wedding— he had no intention of doing so, but it did not make him want to any less—thus passing the time in anticipatory reverie until the event.

Occasionally he spied her running away from the cares of wedding details on the lanes, or she saw him galloping across the fields. They waved to one another, but Darcy rode with Bingley and Colonel Fitzwilliam, and even once with Georgiana. At his sister’s behest, they approached Elizabeth for a pleasant conversation, but the two Darcys did not dismount.

As they rode away from Elizabeth, who had climbed and sat upon the top tier of a fence to converse, Georgiana leaned towards her brother and asked, “Does Elizabeth often run? Is it a habit with her? It is a most unusual thing for a woman to do. I am only a month from turning seventeen, and I cannot remember the last time I ran.”

Darcy smiled. “She says it disperses her ill humours. Jane says the activity subdues Elizabeth’s excessively high spirits. I have seen her vigorously walk herself out of a fit of temper and into good cheer on more than one occasion. I hope she will be so happy at Pemberley that she will not feel the need, that she will not be vexed or frustrated in any way.”

“But wait… Fitzwilliam, am I mistaken? It is my understanding that she is marrying
you
, so certainly she will lose none of her motivation—unless she is marrying another, more amiable man who plans to settle at Pemberley?” Georgiana was learning from Elizabeth that she could—and should— tease her brother.

“Brat.” Darcy glared.

Georgiana laughed and found herself hoping Elizabeth would not give up the practice of running and that she might partake with her new sister.

***

Unbeknownst to Darcy, the days for Elizabeth were punctuated by regular skirmishes with her mother. All her sisters and Mrs. Gardiner had taken her part; Mrs. Bennet was beset on all sides, making her more stubborn. Mr. Bennet, who in this case decided not to enter the fray, was nevertheless aware there was, indeed, a combat to be avoided.

The wedding gowns were modelled by the brides-to-be for their female relations. Elizabeth and Mrs. Gardiner were relieved when Mrs. Bennet admired, if in a comparatively mild way, the style and detail of Elizabeth’s gown, and complimented her sister-in-law for bringing the sheer fabric over-layer of the gown’s skirt, which suited Elizabeth and drew attention to her “sweet little” emerald betrothal ring. For Jane, Mrs. Bennet fussed constantly at errant threads, worried over the symmetry of the beading—“Is there a bead missing from your wrist, Jane? Oh no, it is just a trick of the light.”—and would not let anyone with food or potentially soiled hands near it.

Chapter 14

Two Beloved Sisters, One Doting Father

“You are thought here to be the most
senseless and fit man for the job.”
William Shakespeare
Much Ado about Nothing

The morning of their wedding at last arrived, and with sleep coming in fits and starts for both sisters, Jane rose early with Elizabeth. They went to the two window seats in their shared bedroom, one on either side of their dressing table, and watched for signs of the approaching dawn, each lost in her own thoughts.

Jane sat with her arms wrapped around her legs, her chin on her knees. There were no words, in French or in English, to calm or distract her from the evening to come. The wedding would be wonderful, and in no way a trial, but by lingering outside the Netherfield billiard room, Jane had ascertained Bingley’s experience with women was rather chaste, and she wished he were more educated. Jane could not bring herself to examine her reasons.

Elizabeth stood in her nightgown, languidly leaning against the side of the window with the curtains pulled back. She wondered whether Darcy would ride that morning and whether he would see her. Elizabeth was not superstitious and was quite consciously titillated by the notion of revealing herself to Darcy from the safety of her maidenly bedroom.

“Oh, Lizzy,” Jane finally groaned. “The day has come.” Sensing disquieted spirits, Elizabeth immediately went to her sister’s side.

“Yes, Jane!” She embraced her from behind with one of the exuberant hugs for which she was legendary within their family circle. Since girlhood, Elizabeth was known to nearly knock sisters, parents, favourite aunts, and dear friends off their pins. “Are you not relieved?”

Jane turned to her. “I shall be lovely, Charles will be handsome, you will be beautiful, Mr. Darcy will be regal, the food will be marvellous and the four of us will hardly touch it. Then you and Mr. Darcy will leave, and I shall not see you for months, well, a month anyway, and I must stay and see to the remaining guests, and when they all leave, it will be my wedding night and, oh dear, Lizzy…”

No one blushes like Jane.
Elizabeth smiled to herself. “We must not dwell on our wedding nights, dear. We shall not get through the day if we do. We must be done with that. I need my wits about me for one more bout with Mama, at least, and I trust you, this one last morning, to take my part.”

From the distance of fifty yards, a handsome horseman watched from his hidden spot as the only woman he had ever loved moved from her window. Darcy would not have imagined that Jane could fold herself to look so small, and he wished Bingley were with him to see her vulnerability. Then with the boisterous actions of a mother hen—he could imagine her chuckle—Elizabeth’s arms swooped in to surround Jane and wrap her in a jubilant embrace. Darcy could see the sweep of his beloved’s dark hair engulf her sister
—tonight, this very night, her hair will enrobe me.
The embrace held for a few moments; then both sisters laughed and moved away from the windows. The parted curtains closed, and he smiled. Although Elizabeth did not appear to have seen him, it did not matter; he had seen her. And not just a glimpse, but he had witnessed her doing something so endearingly and characteristically Elizabeth that he found he was as amply comforted as Jane appeared to be. He rode back to Netherfield to make an attempt at breakfast and to dress for his wedding.

***

Thomas Bennet, awakening to the role of father of the brides, and who rarely insisted on anything except not being disturbed in his library, had demanded the night before that all his daughters, his wife, and his in-laws, come down early to breakfast. All were seated when he entered the dining room, already wearing his wedding frock coat.

“Now hear me, all of you.” He stood formally behind his chair at the head of the table. Rather than looking at him, all eyes turned to Elizabeth as if she could explain his behaviour. Elizabeth turned her eyes to him with raised brows and the others followed her gaze. “I demand efficiency this morning. I shall not have Bennet daughters arriving late for their wedding when leaving from
my
house. Mrs. Bennet, I demand the maids be left to Lizzy and Jane. The rest of you can help each other.” His wife nodded, speechless, drawing in a breath for a coming salvo. “And as their father, my last request is that I be allowed a mere quarter hour each with Jane and Lizzy before we depart. Can this be managed, Mrs. Bennet? Mrs. Gardiner, you will help me?”

“Of course, Thomas,” nodded his nearly laughing sister-in-law.

“Mr. Bennet, how can you imagine so much can be accomplished?” ranted Mrs. Bennet, letting loose at last.

“Fanny!” Mr. Bennet fixed her with a sharp eye that would have opened an oyster at twenty paces. The room hushed. “Jane, Lizzy, eat as quickly as you can and get about dressing. The Bennet carriage will leave with the three of us promptly at nine o’clock. As you see, I am ready. Lizzy, Jane, you will join me in the carriage at nine o’clock in whatever state of dress you find yourselves. If the rest of you miss the proceedings, that is your head and your ulcer. Until then, I shall be in my library.”

Jane and Elizabeth jumped from the table, each grabbing an apple and some tea, and dashed upstairs. The family maids, Annie and Sarah, followed them in a matter of seconds. Fifteen minutes later, Elizabeth and Jane were joined in their room by Mrs. Gardiner, who was herself ready for the wedding, but for her bonnet and gloves.

“Lizzy, I shall help you since I am familiar with your gown, and Annie, you see to Jane,” instructed Mrs. Gardiner. Elizabeth had already put on her short-stay corset with Sarah’s help; it only cinched in her ribs, and it was topped with short tight rows of ruffles under her bosom to hold her breasts up and out in the popular fashion.

Elizabeth fastened a petticoat around her waist, pulled up new pale pink stockings, and tied her garters. The gown was slipped over her head and settled about her with a whisper. The skirt was suspended from the bodice and comprised of several layers of sheer fabric over one of heavy satin. The outermost sheer layer also constituted the inner bodice of the gown, and quite scandalously, the usually proper Mrs. Gardiner convinced Elizabeth not to cover her bosom by wearing a fancy camisole under it. The separate outermost portion of the gown consisted of a matching long-sleeved pelisse of heavy satin, secured by seven tiny mother-of-pearl buttons and cut away to form an outer skirt with a box pleat reaching below the knee at the back.

The entire ensemble was a perfect example of what an elegant bride would wear, and despite Mrs. Bennet’s mean intentions, the candlelight colour enhanced Elizabeth’s warm skin tones and rendered her even more radiant than had she also worn white. She and Jane had exchanged gifts of small pearl earrings, and her only other ornaments were the garnet cross her father had given her when she turned sixteen and the betrothal ring from Darcy.

Elizabeth was dressed in mere minutes, and with a little assistance from Annie, began dressing her hair in the style requested by Mr. Darcy. On the dressing table lay Darcy’s gift of the golden hairpins topped with pearls. Sadly, Mrs. Bennet was unmoved.

“Oh, Mama,” sighed Kitty dreamily from the doorway of her sisters’ room, watching as Elizabeth’s hair was dressed. “It is so
romantic
that Mr. Darcy wants to marry Lizzy with her hair full of pearls. How can you oppose it?”

All spare hands were attending the complex lacings and buttons of Jane’s gown.

“Indeed, Mama,” added Jane, speaking in jerky breaths as her mother and aunt tugged at her corset. “It would be…wrong of you…to insult Mr. Dar—oof!—Darcy.”

“He insults you, Jane, by not providing for your hair and jewels,” Mrs. Bennet huffed. “He means for Lizzy to outshine you, and you should have precedence. You are eldest and far more beautiful.”

“But he is not marrying
me
,” Jane gasped as her mother tied the laces.

“It is improper for Lizzy not to wear a bonnet or veil. Whoever heard of just wearing pearl hairpins, even if they are real? It is not seemly to dress my daughter like an actress. I wonder you would consider it, Lizzy. I do not understand you and Mr. Darcy at all.”