A Continued Affection

Part 9

"Jane?" Mrs Bennet knocked at the door to the room Elizabeth and Jane shared in a secretive manner, affording Lizzy one moment to exchange a glance with her sister before their mother tumbled in, with a conspiratorial glint in her eyes. "I have come to help you prepare for dinner at Mr Darcy's house."

"Prepare?" Jane laughed, turning back to the mirror and giving her appearance one last, appraising look. "It is not as if I have never eaten dinner before, Mama!"

"Yes, but this evening could be important." Mrs Bennet took a step forward until she stood behind her eldest, prettiest daughter, and examined her reflection with pride. "I recall how delighted Mr Bingley was to see you in London. Just think, this evening could be the evening that he, at last, makes his feelings known!"

"Mama..." Elizabeth had formulated a whole lecture designed to put a stop to Mrs Bennet's interference but could deliver not a word of it before her mother glared at her and turned back to Jane.

"I merely think it is important to be prepared. Now, what shall you speak about this evening? You might think up a topic or two of conversation that will endear him to you, and encourage him to talk..."

Elizabeth took that as her cue to escape, ignoring the desperate widening of Jane's eyes in the mirror as she broke free of the room, slipping into the corridor and making her way downstairs to the parlour to await the rest of their party and abandoning Jane to her doom.

She was still laughing as she crossed the threshold and, finding the parlour deserted, selected a book from the pile she had left on an end table. She was several pages deep in moments, so thoroughly absorbed that she did not notice her aunt's arrival in the room until Mrs Gardiner laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Elizabeth!" Mrs Gardiner smiled, slipping into the seat nearest Elizabeth. "I was so hoping I would be afforded a chance to speak to you before this evening." She glanced towards the door and, despite finding the corridor deserted, still lowered her voice to little more than a whisper. "I wanted to speak to you about Mr Darcy."

"Oh?" Elizabeth concentrated on placing her bookmark carefully between her pages and closing the book, grateful that her voice sounded entirely normal but certain her eyes, if they met her aunt's, would betray her. "Yes, we met him lately in Hertfordshire..."

"Indeed." Mrs Gardiner spoke sharply, enough to make Elizabeth decide, in a moment, to abandon her pretence and speak freely with the one lady she could.

"You mustn't tell anyone," she murmured. "Nobody knows. Even Mr Darcy himself agrees -"

"Ah, then you have at least spoken of it between yourselves."

Elizabeth nodded once, then a second time with less certainty.

"You have spoken?" Mrs Gardiner seemed destined to remain unconvinced by anything other than direct, immediate honesty and Elizabeth obliged, sketching a picture of the reunion she and Mr Darcy had experienced, the way they had both avoided mentioning their past friendship, and the fact that he seemed inclined to place the blame for their parting on her shoulders. She expected her aunt to take her part in the matter without question, so she was surprised at the frown of concern that dimmed her Mrs Gardiner's kind features.

"Now, that is a mystery. Did he write to you? And you received no letter?"

"He says he did," Elizabeth said, bitterly. "But I have no cause to believe that any such letter was ever sent." She lifted her chin. "Regardless, I did not receive it and he refuses to countenance the idea that it might have gone astray." She fixed her aunt with a look. "Letters do, you know."

"They do..." Mrs Gardiner's frown darkened. "But perhaps he did not send it in the usual way. If he trusted the sender -"

"He trusted them more than me, in that case," Elizabeth remarked, her stomach clenching as she recalled the way Darcy had dismissed any explanation she had attempted to give. "In any case, he was convinced I would marry Mr Collins." She pulled a face. "And the matter scarcely seemed to concern him. He does not care for me now, if he ever did!"

Mrs Gardiner said nothing, but her expression softened as she examined her niece, and Elizabeth wondered if she recalled as clearly as Elizabeth did the happy weeks she and Darcy had spent together when she had dared to think of marriage and a future by his side.

"It is not important," she said, praying her aunt could not hear the tremble in her voice. "We are friends now only insomuch as we must be: because of Jane and Mr Bingley." She smiled, thinly. "At least Mr Darcy does not seem to object to their pairing, although I feel certain Caroline Bingley offers enough opposition for them both."

"A pity." Mrs Gardiner sighed, tugging thoughtfully on one of her pretty pearl earrings. "But I do not see why you must focus on Jane's happiness at the exclusion of your own. Fate has seen fit to reunite you with Mr Darcy. Is this not a cause for hope?"

"Hope?" Elizabeth's gaze strayed towards the fire, and her answer, when it came, was flat. "I dare not hope any more, Aunt. I do not believe I could survive a second time to see it come to nothing."