The doctor comes. From London, very recommended, very expensive. Very sure of himself. When he comes, Darcy is not present. He should have been, but there have been some trouble with a mine, in another property.
The doctor listens to Elizabeth. They are alone, in the parlor, near her room. She tells everything. She speaks about her nightmares, her fears. Then how those disappeared, suddenly. Leaving the food with no taste, the view with no colors.
When Darcy comes back the next day something is very wrong.
The footman won't look at him. A maid does look at him – with fear in her eyes – and almost flees. Mrs. Reynolds appears. She's livid.
"I have to talk to you now, sir. It is imperative… sir," she whispers, she seems almost afraid.
"What is it?" he asks as soon as they are alone.
"Sir, the doctor has come."
"Yes ? What did he say?"
"Sir, Mrs. Reynolds explains, not meeting his eyes, "Mrs. Darcy is locked in a tiny closet upstairs, near the attic, screaming."
"What?"
"He said – the doctor said – that Mrs. Darcy was very ill, that she needed a shock, to 'restart' her brain, sir, he said that terror and hunger and... I refused to obey him, but Jenkins – Jenkins didn't know what to do, because you said to 'do all the doctor said', and the doctor has imposed on him I think, saying it was imperative, that you would be furious if there was disobedience and… The footmen hesitated but at the end… But Mrs. Darcy, she's not sick! She's not crazy! She is a little melancholy sometimes, sure, but... "
"Where is she?"
When Darcy arrives to the third floor, near the attic, yes, she is screaming. He tries to open the closet, the doctor has the key, he kicks the door down, Elizabeth throws herself in his arms, sobbing.
"Oh please please please, get me out of there. Oh please I am begging you..." He is dragging her into the light, she is clutching his shirt (it's a light blue shirt) and trying to breathe, she begs, "don't put me back in there, oh God, don't put me back... I will be happy, I swear I will be happy, just don't put me back..."
"Never," he's whispering, in her ear, "never." She's burying her face in his shirt (light blue shirt). "I swear," he breathes. "I swear to God. Never. That will never happen again."
The doctor is back the next day, with his assistants. He explains that Mrs. Darcy should be come with him, in his clinic, in London. Mrs. Darcy is such a good case, a perfect case, he declares, he has a new method, with icy water and isolation and shocks – physical and of the mind. Elizabeth is there listening and Mrs. Reynolds is there listening, and the footmen are there listening and some of the maids have gathered in the corridor, and Darcy throws the doctor and the assistants out, relatively politely, paying them their dues, saying thank you so much, but we don't need your services anymore. He walks them to the door then shakes the doctor's hand, keeping a straight face all along, and tells him a very low voice, that only the doctor hears, that if he ever comes back, he's going to kill him, chop up his body and feed it to the dogs.
When Darcy comes up two hours later to see Elizabeth, she is herself again.
Bathed, dressed, her hair done.
Tense smile.
Perfectly composed.
"Mr. Darcy," she says, "I apologize for my behavior. It seems I lost a part of my rationality up there." She smiles and adds, "Never a good idea where you are trying to prove you are not crazy."
Darcy is not composed.
"This will never happen again. I am so sorry I was not at home to prevent this. That man – that man is out of his mind."
"Thank you. That is very reassuring. But of course," Elizabeth continues, extremely politely, her smile just this side of terrified, "this is what a husband would say to reassure his wife, to calm her before the men arrive the next morning to bring her to Bedlam."
Darcy looks at her with dismay.
"Is that what you think is happening here?"
"I… do not know," says Elizabeth, in a light tone. "Is it?" Her smile disappears, she stands up and begins to pace up the room. "You are trapped with a woman you do not esteem or want, Mr. Darcy," she explains, her voice imperceptibly shaking, "and now, you are told she is not completely well. Wouldn't 'the clinic' be a perfectly clean, society acceptable way to get rid of an undesirable partner? And if I protest, if I panic," she says, with an edge of, well, panic in her voice, "it will be more proof that I am crazy."
"Elizabeth," he begins... And suddenly all his wife's formality vanishes, only supplication and dread in her eyes, and he cannot think straight, "Dearest," he says, and she doesn't register it, she does not notice, for now, "I don't want to get rid of you. On my parents' grave, on Georgiana's memory, I will not do it. That man – those men – will never come back, I swear..."
She is listening. Her eyes are focused on his shirt again. Light blue. The shirt is the first thing she saw when he got her out of that dark closet. The light blue is what she was clasping when he took her in his arms, repeating words of reassurance.
She nods. She thanks him. She spends the whole night awake, haunted by vivid nightmares, no, by visions, worse than nightmares, because nightmares are unreal, and this is very real – people, right now, women, undesirable wives or mistresses or fallen daughters are tortured in hell, yes, right now, labeled "crazy," experimented upon, laughed at, Elizabeth heard the stories, but they say – they say reality is worse.
At least those visions are in color.
The doctor doesn't come back.
After a while, she realizes he never will.
The next day, and the next and the next, she sees light blue everywhere. It is connected to him. To her husband. To his shirt. It is connected to "dearest", yes, she heard it, she just – noticed later. What a word to use.
Light blue is connected to her husband's embrace, to his smell. To the intense emotion in his eyes when she looked at him, with such gratefulness, after he got her out.
The sofa in the summer drawing room is blue. And there is a vase, with red flowers, on the table.
She sits down.
She looks around.
The world is grey, and red, and light blue.