Half chapter
January - March 1812
Elizabeth was looking thoughtfully at the monotonous landscape through the window of the small carriage as she approached her destination.
Over the past few weeks, several important things had happened in her life. She had been to several dinners, parties and a ball at the homes of her grandfather's friends, and visited Jane twice at the Gardiners. She had also visited Georgiana Bingley on three occasions and seen Mr. Darcy twice.
To her surprise, at a party at the Stevens' house, she ran into John Lucas. At first, the meeting was relatively awkward for both of them, the last time they saw each other Lizzy had rejected him. Fortunately, by the end of the night, they parted on very good terms.
A few weeks later, an acquaintance told her that John had begun courting Marianne Stevens. Apparently, John Lucas had gotten over his heartbreak and Marianne Stevens seemed very much in love with him.
During a courtesy visit, John told her that she would always occupy a very important place in his heart, she was his first love and gladly he would have married her but he understood she was not interested in him. He didn't hold a grudge against her and sincerely wanted her to be happy. He further assured her that he genuinely appreciated Marianne and thought they had a good chance of being happy together.
On her 21st birthday, her grandfather threw a big dinner to celebrate the important occasion. While she would have liked to invite the Bingleys - out of respect for the Stevens - she decided not to. Jane attended Lizzy's party with Mrs. Gardiner and met the Stevenses. The Stevenses were very surprised by Jane's physical resemblance to Diana and they talk with Jane about Diana and their relationship with Mr. Darcy.
As stipulated in her father's will, from that moment Lizzy came of age, she had full access to her dowry. Her grandfather had added even more money over the years, in addition to the interest generated by said dowry. At that moment, she had a little more than £50,000.
She was amazed; she knew that she had a large dowry but she didn't imagine it was such an amount of money!
Her grandfather suggested that she leave the money invested at 4% since, as long as he lived, she could live with him in London and in Derbyshire. In addition, he suggested that to avoid fortune hunters, it was better that it was not known that she had such a large dowry.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts, that she did not realize the carriage had stopped at a nice house with a small garden, and Mary and Mr. Collins were waiting for her at the door.
The two cousins hugged, very happy to see each other again. In recent months, since they wrote to each other regularly, their relationship had strengthened remarkably. Even Mr. Collins seemed glad to see Lizzy again.