An Unexpected Ally

Part 21

"This is my favourite place in all of Hertfordshire!" Lizzy exclaimed, tilting her face up towards the spring sunshine and smiling, happily.

"You said that about the brook, the way it weaves through the trees in the Appledown clearing," Jane pointed out. "And the tumble-down bridge we pass on the way to Meryton. And our very own library..."

"Very well, this is my favourite place today," Lizzy conceded with a laugh. She opened her eyes, drinking in the sight of the tree blossoms dancing in the sunlight. "Isn't it beautiful? Aren't we lucky to have such a place as this?"

"Yes." Jane's answer was genuine, but her smile did not quite reach her eyes. Lizzy stooped to pick a daisy that was growing near her feet and absently plucked its petals one at a time, girding her courage to being the conversation she wished to have with her sister. It was not about blossom that she wished to talk, or sunshine, but Mr Darcy. Heat flooded her cheeks and she turned away, grateful that Jane chanced not to be looking at her at that moment.

"I am surprised you wished to come here with me," Lizzy remarked, after a long moment of silence between the two sisters. "Lately it is impossible to persuade you to come on even the shortest of walks."

"What is a short walk to you is a test of endurance to the rest of us." Jane raised her eyebrows. "I have confirmed as much with Richard. Even he agrees it is asking a lot to expect company when you decide to roam half of Hertfordshire and call it fun."

Elizabeth laughed, picturing the wry smile Colone Fitzwilliam would wear when he made such a statement. She conceded the point with a dainty curtsey.

"In any case, if one of us had been with you walking this morning you would never have had Mr Darcy for company." Jane's gaze met Elizabeth's, brimming with curiosity and concern.

Lizzy's heart began to beat quickly in her chest. This, then, was the very opportunity she had longed for. She could speak quite openly of Mr Darcy now, and it had not been down to her to be the first to mention him.

"It was kind of him to escort me all the way home, do not you think?" Elizabeth strove for nonchalance but even she could hear a peculiar note of anxiety in her voice. She swallowed and tried again, praying that she would sound normal to her sister's ears, if not her own. "And I have never known him to smile or laugh as much as he did this morning. Do you know, Jane, I think him quite altered by his time in London."

"You certainly seem altered in your opinions of him." Jane's response was sage, the very kind of detached observation Lizzy herself might have made, and for a moment it felt as if the sisters' role had been reversed. Lizzy was the flighty romantic and Jane the rational one of the two.

"Am I wrong to change my mind?" Lizzy plucked the last petals from her daisy and discarded it, dropping her arms to her sides. "Very well, let me be wrong." She bit her lip, strangely nervous to confide this truth in the sister she loved and trusted above all others. "I think - I think him very amiable, very clever and -" She swallowed. "Well, I have never claimed I did not think him handsome." With a yelp, she buried her head in her hands, muffling the last of her confession. "There is no hope for me, Jane. I think I love him!"

To her surprise, Jane did not leap back in shock at this surprising admission. She made no response at all, and Lizzy peeked at her from between two fingers. Jane was not looking at her, but her brow was furrowed as if in thought and at first Lizzy wondered if she had heard her at all.

"Jane?" she ventured, lifting her head just enough to see without squinting. "Well, Jane? Tease me if you must. I dare say I deserve it!"

"You care for Mr Darcy?" Jane shrugged her thin shoulders. "I do not see why your acknowledgement of that should lead to teasing."

Lizzy's mouth fell open in shock.

"It does not seem to lead to surprise, either." She frowned. "Jane, you act as if you knew all along that I cared for Mr Darcy. How can you when I have only just realised the truth myself!"

Jane smiled, then, her old, knowing smile. She slipped an arm around her sister and together they continued their amble through the orchard.

"You act surprised that anyone should know a thing about you before you do. Has it never occurred to you that you are not the most aware of your own feelings? The grudge you bore against Mr Darcy's first slight against you was an indication to us all that you cared more for him than you claimed. If you did not like him why should it matter what he said or thought of you?"

Lizzy groaned, burying her head in her sister's shoulder.

"Then you have all been laughing at me, all this time?"

"Hardly." Jane shook her head. "I do not suppose the others noticed. Mary, maybe. But Lydia and Kitty are too preoccupied with their own interests to care for anyone else's."

"I did not like him at first," Lizzy said, straightening and slipping free of her sister's arm to stoop and pluck another daisy. Her hands needed some occupation and destruction offered her the perfect distraction from sharing what was on her heart and had been until now - at least as far as she was aware - private. "He was so proud! And the way he parted you and Mr Bingley!"

Jane stiffened.

"I'm sorry!" Lizzy said at once. "I did not mean to mention his name." She paused. "Perhaps it was for the best! After all, without Mr Bingley going away you would never have met Colonel Fitzwilliam and now look how happy you are!"

"Yes, I am happy."

Jane looked into the middle distance, her smile strangely sad, but before Lizzy could query it, she brightened, turning to her sister with a merry smile.

"Now you must tell me every detail of your conversation with Mr Darcy this morning! For I dare say it was this that has gone a long way in changing your mind about him. Was he so charming and so chivalrous - ouch!"

Jane yelped as Lizzy jabbed her in the side, and laughing, they continued to walk and talk and share secrets, happy in the revival of their sisterly closeness, in the sunshine and surrounded by the fragrant beauty of the cherry blossom.