Chapter 10

When Lydia was back in her own room, she sat her sister, Elizabeth, down in the hatbox next to Prissy. Lydia quickly left the room before Elizabeth fully realized what was happening to her. Lydia had decided that if Lizzy was not going to be a team player, she could sit out until she was ready.

Elizabeth was not content to simply spend her evening in a hatbox. Assembling the food Kitty had given them into a pile, she climbed out of the box and onto her sister's vanity.

The vanity was a mess of ribbons and hair pins with a few larger items such as a hair brush, a hat, a lone glove, and a handkerchief. Grabbing a couple hairpins, Elizabeth armed herself.

Elizabeth climbed off down to the floor. The maid, Sarah, came in to tidy up the room. When Sarah came in, she left the door to the hall open. Elizabeth waited until the maid was distracted. She made her escape.

Lydia was going to find that witch. Lydia resumed her search for clues along the path Elizabeth had taken a couple days before. This time she was on the trail of a witch.

Lydia had already walked to Netherfield and back twice that day, which was about four times as far as she walked in the average day. Shortly before reaching Meryton, Lydia's exhaustion caught up with her. She found a nice patch of grass and laid down to take a nap.

Lydia was woken a couple hours later by a most unexpected sight. A tiny Miss Bingley. "Giant Miss Lydia," she shouted in her tiny voice, "You must help me get to Mr. Darcy!"

"How did the witch get you Miss Bingley? Does she have a magic potion?"

"What do you mean; what witch?"

"The one who shrunk you, of course," Lydia replied as if this was obvious.

"I was not shrunk by a witch. I most certainly did not drink any potion."

"Then how did you come to be so small?"

"I am not that small," replied Miss Bingley sounding rather offended.

"You are most definitely smaller than you were." Lydia was frustrated.

"I suppose you could say that."

"Well, now that we have that established, how did you become your current size?"

"It is a long story. It started…" Before Miss Bingley could continue, it began rain heavily. Lydia stood up, grabbed Miss Bingley and ran back to Longborn.

Lydia removed her wet outer-garments and a draped them over a chair by the fire. She did likewise with Miss Bingley's small coat and hat. Lydia then retrieved one of the doll chairs from the nursery for Miss Bingley to sit in by the fire while she dried. This doll chair was a little big for her new companion but was the best fit of the available furniture.

Once Miss Bingley was situated to Lydia contentment, Lydia went to her hatbox to fetch her sister and Prissy. Only Prissy was in the hatbox.

Lydia grabbed prissy and looked around briefly for her sister. She looked around the vanity and under the bed. She didn't see Elizabeth.

Lydia return to Miss Bingley and explained what happened. Miss Bingly replied, "Miss Eliza?" in a voice of realization. "Is she small too?"

"Yes." Lydia explained, "She has been tiny for several days now."

"Oh."

Before Lydia could preform much more of a search for her sister – All she had time for was a quick look int the closet – Mrs. Bennet claimed to need her. Mrs. Bennet wasn't finished with Lydia until it was bedtime.

Lydia intended to wait until everyone was asleep and then begin her search for her sister, but she feel asleep and slept until shortly before breakfast.

Meanwhile Elizabeth snuck around the house. She tiptoed through the hall and down the stars to the first floor. She escaped the house without anyone seeing her, or so she thought. In Truth, Mrs. hill saw Miss Elizabeth but was unable to anything about it as her arms were overflowing with laundry.

Mrs. Hill then went to Netherfield so she could speak with Mr. Bennet about what she had seen. Upon arriving at Netherfield she was directed to Mr. Darcy after being informed that the other gentlemen were out.

Mrs. Hill smiled pleasantly at Mr. Darcy, and briefly explained what she had seen adding at the end, "I may be going crazy, I don't know any more but that's what I think I saw.

Mr. Darcy asked, "Can you take me to her quickly?"

Mrs. Hill nodded.

Mr. Darcy, having learned from his previous adventure ordered his carriage to be brought around. The two were shorty thereafter on their way to Longborn. The hard part of the matter was finding Elizabeth. All of the servants except Sarah and Mrs. hill were out searching for Elizabeth already – Mr. Darcy thought it prudent to keep the news of Elizabeth's location with as few people knowing it as possible. Sarah had duties to attend to in the house, so it was only Mr. Darcy and Mrs. Hill who were free to spend the next hour searching the garden.

The next morning Lydia awoke and was quite angry at herself for not waking as soon as her sisters and parents were asleep so she could find her sister that night. She was quite positive that if Elizabeth had escaped it was to go find the witch. It was very unlikely her sister was in their house, or any house for that matter. Chances were that she was sleeping in the woods or in a bush. The tiny hair pin Lydia had found the previous day was evidence supporting the fact that Elizabeth had slept in a bush.

Lydia quickly dressed herself in and nice morning dress. She then went to Miss bingley who had slept in a doll night gown and in a doll bed the previous night. Lydia helped her get ready for the day. Unfortunately, there were no doll dresses Miss Bingley's size. This meant she had to wear the same dress she had worn the day before.

Once they were both dressed, Lydia left Miss Bingley in her room and went down to breakfast. Mr. Bennet was at breakfast for the first time since Elizabeth had gone missing. Lydia counted herself lucky and she requested to ride over to Netherfield with him.

Mr. Bennet saw no reason to object and indicated his agreement with the plan to his youngest daughter. Mr. Bennet was under the impression that Lydia wanted to visit Jane. Mr. Jones had given Jane permission to go home that afternoon.

After breakfast Lydia packed up Miss Bingley and Prissy in the comfort of the hat box. She specifically said to them "Now you two behave yourselves, I don't want any fighting." Next she prepared herself for the journey to Netherfield.

Miss Bingley listened to Lydia reprimand. Prissy did not. Mr. Bennet eyed the hatbox with suspicion every time prissy made a noise of protest at her confinement but said nothing.

At Netherfield Mr. Bennet was directed to the men's morning meeting in the library and Lydia followed despite all her father's attempts to send her to Jane's room.