A Continued Affection

Part 4

Elizabeth had been in London many times since the summer she thought of as Darcy's, but walking these streets now seemed to remind her only of him. Her eyes fluttered closed and she allowed herself a moment to reminisce, to dream, to hope...

Alas, a moment was all she was permitted.

"Elizabeth!" Mrs Bennet shrieked. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Of course, Mama." Lizzy's eyes flicked open and she exchanged a weary glance with Jane, who walked alongside her, before turning to her mother with a contrite expression on her face. "How can I help?"

"Help! You might have helped by accepting a proposal when it was offered to you!" Mrs Bennet had at least ceased to shriek, thinking, with propriety, that perhaps all of Cheapside did not need to hear every detail of the lecture her daughter deserved to listen to. Again.

"Mama..." Lizzy began, but this time it was Jane who interceded on her behalf.

"Mother, how could Elizabeth accept when Mr Collins did not indicate interest in her before declaring they must marry? It was a decision he had not thought long on -"

"One need not think long before proposing!" Mrs Bennet hissed. "Your father had known me but one evening before we spoke of marriage!"

Elizabeth and Jane exchanged a glance that betrayed thoughts they chose not to share. They had heard the tale of their parents' betrothal many times and whilst their engagement had always been swift, one evening was quite the shortest Mrs Bennet had ever made it.

"But Papa loved you from the very first moment you met, Mama," Jane continued, consolingly. "Do you not wish for the same affection for your daughters?"

Mrs Bennet's mouth opened and closed, working on some silent, indiscernible response. At last, she conceded the point with a toss of her head.

"Very well." She fixed Elizabeth with a glare. "You may consider yourself fortunate, Lizzy, that I am too concerned with securing Jane's happiness to give full consideration to your actions." She sniffed. "I suppose Mr Collins might soften if you take the time to explain..." She frowned, turning the matter over in her mind. "Yes, if you were to write to him, to explain that his proposal came so swiftly that you were unprepared - yes, I am sure we could convince him to ask again, and then -"

"And then I should be forced to refuse him a second time," Elizabeth said, calmly but clearly. "Mama, I will never marry Mr Collins, so please do not consider it." Her eyes sparkled at a fleeting imagining of her life at Hunsford and she shook her head, quickly dispersing the picture. "We should be very ill-suited indeed and I assure you I do not intend to ruin my life by marrying someone I do not love."

"No, you shall choose to remain a spinster all your days and condemn your family to poverty, too!"

"Not poverty, Mama." Jane slipped back a step, sliding her arm through her mother's and patting Mrs Bennet warmly on the hand. "Do not fret so! Nothing is as bad as you imagine. Look, we are in London and we are all together. What more could we wish for?"

"Mr Bingley," Mrs Bennet began, and Lizzy glanced back, pulling a face that only Jane could see.

"Mama," Lizzy began, but Mrs Bennet cut her off, gesturing wildly into the distance.

"Mr Bingley! Look, there! With his sister. Come along, girls, we must greet them. Quickly, before they get away. Lizzy, pinch your cheeks as Jane and I do, so that they may have some colour. And Jane - no, you need not do anything else, for you are a picture! How pleased I am that one of my daughters is a beauty...oh! Mr Bingley! Mr Bingley!"

She had slipped free of Jane's grasp and skipped - breaking into a run - across the road, barely stopping to check for carriages or pedestrians and narrowly missing a collision with a plainly-dressed servant in her eagerness to hail their friends.

"Mrs Bennet!" Mr Bingley stopped immediately and Caroline had travelled two full paces before she was aware of it, pausing a few feet away and turning back with something that Elizabeth was sure was reluctance. "Miss Bennet! Miss Elizabeth!" He beamed at them. "What a delightful surprise! We were just saying, weren't we Caro, that we wondered if you had made it to London yet and now here you are!"

"Here we are!" Mrs Bennet giggled. "Jane - Mr Bingley, does not Jane look well in this pleasant London weather?"

Lizzy eyed the clouds warily, for whilst it was dry, she did not think anybody could apply the word pleasant to the dreary gloom that settled around them.

"Indeed, you all look quite charming!" Mr Bingley declared, with an affable smile. "But, we must not stand here in the street and converse. Will you walk with us, ladies?"

"We do not wish to detain you -" Jane began.

"Detain?" Mr Bingley snorted. "What nonsense detain! We were just on our way home. I say, perhaps you will care to join us? You have not yet called at our house, I believe -"

"Charles," Caroline began, with a calculated step closer to his side. "Perhaps -"

"It is not far," Mr Bingley continued, oblivious to his sister's concerns. "We might be there in but a few short moments and it looks like rain, you know."

"Does it?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes merry with amusement.

"Well, one can never be too careful, Miss Elizabeth." Mr Bingley barely missed a beat, smiling and offering his arm to Mrs Bennet, who refused with a flourish.

"Oh, no, no! You must walk with Jane, Mr Bingley. I am quite happy here walking with my dear Elizabeth...Lizzy!" Mrs Bennet was clasping at the air for a comical moment before she realised her dear Elizabeth was standing quite some distance from her and summoned her with a glare.

"Yes, Mama, I shall walk with you," Elizabeth said, meekly, falling into step behind her sister.

Caroline, at the front of the party, did not move at all, to begin with, and Lizzy sensed she was poised to summon some excuse to derail the walk before it was even properly begun. She hurried to think of some word that might remove any obstacle Caroline Bingley might conjure but Mr Bingley put the matter to rest before she needed to with a merry smile.

"Come along Caroline, lead the way! I know how much you adore entertaining friends at home - now we shall have three at once!"

Caroline obeyed with a smile, but Lizzy could not have been alone in witnessing its reluctance. Friends, yes, her expression seemed to say. But I see none by that name here!

It would have been amusing, had Elizabeth's ears not caught on the next words uttered by Mr Bingley, who sent her thoughts zigzagging in an entirely different direction.

"We have just come from Mr Darcy's house," he confided to Jane. "How delighted he shall be to hear of your arrival in town. It is the day for arrivals, it seems, for who do you think should turn up at Darcy's while we were there? None other than his sister! Georgiana Darcy, all the way from Pemberley...what a merry time we shall have in London, now that we are all together again...!

Carefully, Elizabeth kept her smile fixed in place, but she could not help but think of Pemberley, of Georgiana Darcy, and her brother...