"Evie!" Lydia shrieked out of a second floor window as her new friend walked up the driveway. The Doctor had left her at the gates, unwilling to come to the house. Evie found it hilarious that, after everything he'd seen and done he was scared of five fictional women.
Before the teenager had even reached the front door, it was flung open and the two youngest Bennet girls were running towards her. Both seemed incredibly excited about something, but they were also surveying her with matching curious expressions. Rather than going into the house, the sisters pulled the older girl around the side of the house and into a wild area hidden from the house.
"Woah! What…?" Evie protested as they pulled her through the garden. When they came to a stop, she turned to look at them, eyebrows raised questioningly. "What?"
"Billy Cartwright told Annie who we overheard telling Hill that his father saw you and your brother on the landing last night and that you were in your… underclothes." Lydia said in a rush, looking at Evie under her fringe to see her reaction.
Evie blushed and looked between the two younger girls, her mouth open. She was trying to think of the right words to use to explain what had happened, but at that moment she was panicking too much that she'd blown the whole trip by freaking out last night.
"There was someone looking up at me from outside and I panicked." She said slowly. "I didn't even think about getting dressed… I just wanted to get to him... my brother…"
"Who was it?" Kitty asked, pressing her hands to her mouth. She looked horrified at the thought of someone staring through the window at the girl.
Evie shrugged. "No idea. They were wearing a cloak with a hood and I couldn't see their face. It was horrible."
Lydia, however, had other things on her mind. She was looking at Evie with her head on one side. Her gaze kept sliding down to the older girl's chest, which was making her incredibly self-conscious. Crossing her arms across her chest, Evie mirrored Lydia, her head on one side as well.
"What?" She asked.
"Annie said that Billy said you were wearing the most intriguing underclothes." Lydia said without a hint of embarrassment. Evie, on the other hand, went scarlet again. "He said they barely covered any of you and were purple and patterned."
The time travelling teenager couldn't believe that she was having a conversation about underwear with a couple of fictional characters. It was too surreal. Gripped by a sudden urge to do something crazy, Evie grabbed the front of her dress and pulled it down, revealing one side of her purple leopard-print bra. Kitty and Lydia looked as though their eyes were about to pop out of their heads.
"That is truly beautiful!" Lydia breathed staring at it. She and her older sister bent closer to get a better look. "Where is it from?"
As she'd seen a board in the window of the dress shop advertising the latest fashions from Paris, Evie decided to think of somewhere else. "Rome."
"You have been to Rome?" She whined. Evie nodded.
"Listen… I don't think we should mention any of this to your mother… I doubt she'd think I was a suitable acquaintance for her daughters." She said hastily. Getting in the good books of all the Bennets might come in handy later on. Presumably that was why the Doctor kept pushing her into their company.
"Alright…" Lydia said slyly. "But only if you tell us the truth. Is that man really your brother? You and he do not act like any siblings I've ever seen… take Mr and Miss Bingley for one example."
"And the way he put his arm around your waist this morning…" Kitty joined in.
Evie sighed, thinking very quickly. "Alright… he's not my brother."
"I knew it!" Lydia exclaimed excitedly.
"My parents tried to marry me off to some wealthy old Earl but I had other ideas and he… the Doctor… came to find me and helped me escape."
"So are you married? Are you a… Countess?" Kitty asked, working out what her title would be. Evie shrugged; why not, she decided and she nodded. Lydia almost shivered with excitement.
"I cannot believe it! A Countess standing in front of me! It is like something out of one of our novels, Kitty!" She gushed. Evie was almost dizzy with the effort of thinking and trying to keep herself calm. "What are you, Countess what?"
"Countess Carmichael." Evie said quickly, borrowing her grandparents' surname. "But you cannot tell anyone…" She pleaded. Having a sudden brainwave, she pulled up her skirts to reveal a large bruise on her thigh from where she'd tripped over one of the dogs and landed heavily on an upturned bucket. "I cannot go back to him."
Kitty and Lydia gasped and hugged her tightly. Evie was taken aback, not realising that people went in for that sort of thing in the early eighteen-hundreds.
"Of course, Miss Jones." Kitty said with a smile. "Your secret is safe with us, Evie."
"We shan't tell a soul." Lydia agreed.
Following them towards the house, Evie took several deep breaths to steady her nerves. How she'd got away with that lie she'd never know. She was just glad that Kitty and Lydia Bennet were so easily convinced. If they told anyone, however, they would be far less likely to believe her flimsy lie. Evie just hoped she got a chance to warn the Doctor before the teenage girls got to him.
By the time the three teenagers joined the other Bennet sisters and their mother in the parlour, it was time for the carriages to be called and for them to set off for Netherfield Park. Lydia and Kitty were true to their word and didn't utter a syllable that might arouse suspicion about Evie and they joined in the excited chatter as though they'd learnt nothing more exciting that morning then that they had received the invitation.
Mrs Bennet talked non-stop. Her favourite topics of conversation seemed to be Mr Bingley, Mr Darcy and the Assembly the night before. She was ecstatic about how often the former had danced with her eldest daughter, complaining about the few times he had danced with anyone else. His friend, however, seemed to be the single thing that she could focus all her bad feeling on. She criticised everything about him; from his manners to his hair. Evie couldn't help smirking at her words.
"Why do you smile so, Miss Jones?" Elizabeth asked conspiratorially as her mother turned her attention to Jane, prepping her for the meeting.
"Call me Evie." The teenager said with a smile. "It is just that I feel like I know your mother… the way she is so fixated on your marrying well."
"Are not all mothers so engaged?" Elizabeth asked with a wry grin. "I believe that all mothers have a single goal in their lives and that is to see their daughters well married."
"Maybe so, but I shall never marry for money alone."
"No, neither shall I, Evie." Elizabeth agreed with a nod. "I am determinedthat nothing but thedeepest lovecould ever induceme into matrimony." Remembering the line from her English lessons, Evie grinned. Elizabeth gave her a curious look. "You puzzle me, Evie. Sometimes you seem to be so lost; so far away from home."
"Why do you say that?" Evie asked quickly, feeling her heart thudding in her chest.
"I cannot say… there is something about you… I cannot describe it."
The teenager was prevented from answering by the crunching of gravel as the carriage came to a stop outside Netherfield Park and she was jolted by Lydia who almost climbed over her in her excitement to get out.