You know the drill; I don't own any of these characters.
Stay
Louisa had been comfortably situated, as comfortable as she could have been.
Now her companions debated, who would stay with her and who would have to break the news to her parents?
Charles, Henrietta, and Captain Wentworth were the three in consultation, and for a little while it was only an interchange of perplexity and terror. "Uppercross,--the necessity of some one's going to Uppercross,--the news to be conveyed--how it could be broken to Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove--the lateness of the morning,--an hour already gone since they ought to have been off,--the impossibility of being in tolerable time." At first, they were capable of nothing more to the purpose than such exclamations; but, after a while, Captain Wentworth, exerting himself, said,
"We must be decided, and without the loss of another minute. Every minute is valuable. Some one must resolve on being off for Uppercross instantly. Musgrove, either you or I must go."
Charles agreed; but declared his resolution of not going away. He would be as little incumbrance as possible to Captain and Mrs. Harville; but as to leaving his sister in such a state, he neither ought, nor would. So far it was decided; and Henrietta at first declared the same. She, however, was soon persuaded to think differently. The usefulness of her staying!--She, who had not been able to remain in Louisa's room, or to look at her, without sufferings which made her worse than helpless! She was forced to acknowledge that she could do no good; yet was still unwilling to be away, till touched by the thought of her father and mother, she gave it up; she consented, she was anxious to be at home.
The plan had reached this point, when Anne, coming quietly down from Louisa's room, could not but hear what followed, for the parlour door was open.
"Then it is settled, Musgrove," cried Captain Wentworth, "that you stay, and that I take care of your sister home. But as to the rest;--as to the others;--If one stays to assist Mrs. Harville, I think it need be only one.--Mrs. Charles Musgrove will, of course, wish to get back to her children; but if Anne will stay, no one so proper, so capable as Anne."
That was in fact true, Anne Eliot was the most capable and intelligent woman he had ever encountered, other than his sister. When everyone else froze, she was the one who called for Benwick to fetch the surgeon and for Louisa to bet gently carried back to the inn. She assisted the physician in his examination and she was the one who had attending to Louisa in her present state.
The words were on his lips, at the tip of his tongue. Anne was the best nurse that Louisa would ever find, but it was his own selfish desires that wanted her to stay. He wanted to tell her that he had not forgotten her, that his heart was still hers. Despite the past, if given the opportunity, he would again make that declaration of lifelong affection and admiration.
Louisa Musgrove was pretty young lady, gregarious and amiable. He was amused by her and admittedly flattered by her attentions to him, but their marriage would not be a happy one, and he knew it.
As they rode back to Uppercross, the words seemed frozen in his mind and away from his lips. She was still an Eliot, as he had been reminded eight years ago, the daughter of nobility. He was only a poor sailor and even with his newly acquired fortune, it was clear that the divide between them as well as the past would never be bridged and the unspoken feelings would remain unspoken.
