Will ya lookit this - a second chapter in less than a day! I was blessed yesterday, I truly was. I got chapter 14 finished up and posted, and got almost the entirety of chapter 15 written. Just had to write up the end of it and now here it is. Once I have this all prettied up for you, I will be starting on chapter 16. Keep those fingers crossed that the creative juices keep flowing, because when I'm "in the zone" I tend to do a LOT of writing.
Thank you, as always, to everyone who follows, favorites, and comments. Y'all are seriously some of the best people in the world. You encourage not only my writing, but you encourage me. I can't thank you enough.
Now, I suggest you get a few tissues and keep them handy...
Chapter Fifteen
Jane Bingley found herself so eager to see her sister again, she instinctively made to alight from her carriage almost before it had come to a stop.
"My darling, please calm yourself," said her husband as he put a hand to her shoulder to stop her. "Believe me, I understand your feelings, but you really must think of our little one."
It was an effort for Jane not to snap back at him that he could not possibly understand her feelings, and when she realized how close she had come to losing her temper—something that had always been uncharacteristic for her—she drew a breath and sighed as the footman was opening their carriage door and lowering the step.
"I know, Charles," said she. "I cannot seem to help myself—Lizzy is here. She is here!"
Charles Bingley could only nod, then he exited the carriage and turned to hand his wife down. Jane kissed his cheek before hurrying over to her father to take his hand.
"Oh, Papa, at last! At last, we will see our Lizzy again!" she cried softly.
It was then that Darcy made his presence known, as he welcomed them all to Pemberley. "I know you are all of you eager to see Elizabeth and Maria, but I must ask you to wait just a little longer," said he as the large party were ascending the stairs.
"Why?" demanded Sir William. "Why must we wait? I want to see my daughter—I must see her!"
"And you will, Sir William," Darcy replied. "However, I must prepare you to see them again."
"What do you mean by that, Mr. Darcy?" asked Mr. Bennet as they were entering the north entry hall.
Jane watched Darcy turn around and regard them all with a solemn gaze. "There are things I must tell you about their condition so that you will not be surprised when they come down. Please, I am certain you are all exhausted from your journey, and I know you are eager to see the girls again, but if you will come into the drawing room, I will explain what I can."
Jane gripped Bingley's arm tightly, certain that what news Darcy had to share could not be good. Behind them, servants were bringing in the luggage, and she hurried to point out which were to go to Elizabeth and Maria.
Darcy smiled at her when she explained having brought them their own things to comfort them. "I have no doubt at all, Mrs. Bingley, that your sister and Maria will be vastly pleased."
He turned and led the party through the house into the drawing room after directing one of the servants to alert the kitchen to have tea and coffee prepared. Jane soon found herself on a sofa between Bingley and her Aunt Gardiner. When all the guests had taken a seat, Darcy cleared his throat and drew a breath.
"Elizabeth and Maria are not in the best of health," he began slowly. "They were, as you have surely imagined, not well treated. They were often denied food, were subject to beatings, and they were, most unfortunately, despoiled."
"Those villainous dogs!" growled Sir William. "They have ruined my little girl!"
"She is also with child, sir," said Darcy.
Sir William froze as both Jane and Mrs. Gardiner gasped softly. Darcy quickly launched into a speech about how he understood what society would think of Maria, but that none of her family should lay blame for her condition at the girl's feet.
"Remember, sir, that neither Maria nor Elizabeth chose this," said he. "They were not given a choice."
"I am sure it was either do as they were told or be killed, do not you think?" Jane said, looking up at Darcy with tears spilling down her cheeks. "Oh, God, my poor sister! Poor Maria! To have to let their bodies be abused in such an abominable fashion just so they might see another day!"
She turned her head onto her husband's shoulder and sobbed softly. Darcy then went on to inform them that Elizabeth had taken on the role of protector, or so he gathered from what little had been shared with him.
"She would do that, our Lizzy," said Mr. Gardiner with a glance toward his brother-in-law. Mr. Bennet nodded solemnly.
Tea and coffee were then brought in by Mrs. Reynolds. Mrs. Gardiner took on the duty of serving everyone, encouraging Jane, especially, to drink. "The tea is chamomile, I am sure of it," she said softly. Jane's hand was shaky as she brought the cup to her lips.
Darcy next described the activity of the girls over the last few days, and Jane found she could understand why they were reluctant to go out of doors despite being trapped in a house for an entire year. She understood why, even after spending much of the year locked in a dark cellar, they preferred the relative safety of locking themselves in their rooms. And she agreed wholeheartedly with the plan to henceforth refer to Maria Lucas as "Mrs. Woods" in the company of anyone not intimately associated with her. Sir William had balked at telling a lie, but was convinced that—should Maria do as she'd been considering—it was best that some story be told, as the falsehood would enable them to preserve Maria's respectability.
"We'll not be able to tell that story in Meryton," the troubled knight pressed. "Everyone there knows the girls have been missing for a year! If she comes home with a child… there's just no way we could stop the truth getting out! The whole family will be ruined!"
"And what of my daughter?" challenged Mr. Bennet. "What of my family? Even were there no child at all, there is the risk of censure. Of vile gossip. People will wonder where they've been, what they've done—what was done to them. It wouldn't bloody matter, William, had they not even been touched! Just being gone for so long, people would talk. Both of our families are at risk of ruination over this!"
"Please, stop that!" cried Jane. "Stop talking of ruination, as if Lizzy and Maria have done wrong."
"Jane, dearest, it is unfortunately the way—"
"I do not care if it is the way of the world, Charles!" she cried as she shot to her feet and began pacing in deep agitation. "The way of the world is utterly ridiculous, to shame and censure a woman for being forced into a man's bed against her will! As Darcy said, they didn't choose for this to happen—what woman would?"
"I think we should lay aside any talk of ruin for the time being," said Mrs. Gardiner in a calming tone of voice. "Let us first and foremost celebrate the return of our precious girls and praise the Lord that they are alive and healing from their ordeal."
"Well said, Marjorie," agreed Mr. Gardiner.
"Where is my daughter at the moment, Mr. Darcy?" asked Mr. Bennet then.
"Elizabeth and Maria are upstairs in their rooms. They have been rather anxious in anticipation of your arrival," Darcy replied. "My sister is with them now. I am just waiting on the doctor to be fetched before sending for them."
"My cousin, sir?" asked Mrs. Gardiner.
Darcy nodded. "Dr. Jones has been every day to look in on the girls. He has said that for all they have been through, aside from their pallor and evident loss of weight, they are in remarkable condition and already improving."
"Why must we wait for the doctor?" asked Sir William. "Why won't you send for the girls now?"
Darcy looked at him. "Because both Elizabeth and Maria are in a very fragile state, both physically and emotionally. They have an aversion to being in the presence of men and are easily startled by loud noises—it was more than half a day before they would even leave their rooms. And Mrs. Woods, as we must remember to call her before the servants, may be six weeks from her lying-in, but excessive agitation could bring on her labor. The doctor's presence will ensure the well-being of both as they adjust to being among family again."
Jane turned to him. "Then I will go to them—surely just one of us, in their place of comfort, will be all right. I can't… I cannot be at ease until I have seen my sister."
A full minute passed before Darcy nodded his head in agreement. Intense relief and renewed agitation suffused Jane as she watched him walk in silence to a bellpull to give it a tug. In only a few minutes the housekeeper answered the summons and was given instruction to escort Mrs. Bingley to her sister's rooms. After kissing her husband's cheek and assuring both fathers she would convey their love, Jane followed Mrs. Reynolds from the room.
She was shaking with anticipation by the time the two reached the second floor, and Jane realized that Elizabeth and Maria had been given the same suite of rooms that she and Charles had stayed in when they'd visited Pemberley the previous autumn. After the housekeeper had left her, Jane drew a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and knocked on the sitting room door.
-…-
Elizabeth had hardly finished crying over the fact that she now had a trunk full of her very own gowns to wear when there came a soft knock at the door. As Georgiana was with them—still holding Maria, who had broken down in wretched sobs at the sight of her old trunk—it could not be her. Nor did it sound like Mrs. Reynolds' knock, and it was too light to be Darcy's. He had said he would speak to the family party on arrival, so it was not her father or Sir William. One of the maids, perhaps, had been sent to call them down?
"Who is there?" she asked as she started for the door with the key in her hand.
"Lizzy?" came one of the most beautiful sounds she had heard in over a year—her sister's voice. "Lizzy, it's Jane."
Elizabeth rushed to the door, her hands suddenly shaking as she tried to insert the key into the hole. In her hurry, she dropped it. Bending, she picked it up again, and as her hands still shook too much to properly obey her, she struggled to get it into the lock.
Georgiana suddenly appeared beside her. "Allow me to help you," said she with a small smile as she held out her hand.
Handing it to her wordlessly, Elizabeth switched places with the younger woman and clasped her hands together in a vain attempt to settle their trembling. A moment later, Georgiana had pulled the door open, Jane was in the room, and Elizabeth threw herself into her sister's arms with a cry.
"My Lizzy! Oh, thank God! My beautiful, dear, sweet Lizzy!" cried Jane as her arms tightened around her.
"Jane!" was all Elizabeth could force past the lump in her throat. "Jane!"
After a long, sweet moment, Jane lifted one arm and called Maria over, and she tightly embraced them both, saying over and over again how happy she was to see them both. Elizabeth was vaguely aware of Georgiana quitting the room.
When at last the three girls stood back from one another, Elizabeth found she could not stop staring at her sister's face. "You are here—you are really here? I'm not still stuck in that awful nightmare and dreaming?"
"No, my dearest Lizzy," said Jane tearfully. "I am not a figment of your imagination. You are safe and secure at the home of Mr. Darcy, and we are together again."
She looked to Maria. "I can imagine how much you wish your own sister could have come, and I can assure you that had Charlotte been in Meryton, there is no one who could have stopped her joining us."
Maria sniffled. "M-Mr. Darcy said she recently had a child."
Jane nodded. "Yes, a beautiful little girl. Lady Lucas had just returned from visiting the Collinses only a day before Darcy's letter reached us. But I am sure, dearest, that even with an infant to care for, she would have come for you."
She then slipped an arm about the waist of each of them and guided them over to the settee before the fireplace. As soon as they were seated, Elizabeth seized her sister's hand. "Who else is come with you?" she asked.
"Well, Papa and Sir William, of course," Jane began. "Also Charles, and Aunt and Uncle Gardiner."
Elizabeth grinned. "Charles, is he?"
Jane laughed. "Well, he is my husband now, and we have begun our family."
"And I am so very, very happy for you, though it was this awful business that brought you back together."
Jane waved her words away. "'Tis no matter, Lizzy. We are together now."
"How did Miss Bingley and her sister take the news?" asked Maria. "Sorry, but I overheard Lizzy and Charlotte talking one day about how she—that is, Lizzy—thought Mr. Bingley's sisters had some hand in convincing their brother to give you up."
Here, Jane sighed. "Miss Bingley has been…" She paused and shook her head. "False. She and Louisa both—once they understood that Charles and I were to be married and there was nothing they could do about it, they were all politeness and feigned amiability. I think it only because of his friendship with Darcy and the desire to retain the privilege of being invited to Pemberley, though I am full aware Darcy has not entertained visitors other than Charles and I in the last twelvemonth, aside from members of his family."
Elizabeth scoffed and tried not to scowl. "No doubt they tried to talk him out of it on the basis of what a scandal it would be, should I ever turn up again."
"Something to that effect," said Jane sourly, before her expression brightened. "But enough about my husband's pernicious sisters—I want to talk about you! I want to look at you and touch you and… Oh Lizzy. Maria. I am so very happy to see you both again."
Maria rubbed a circle over her belly. "Did… Did Mr. Darcy tell my father about this?"
Jane nodded slowly, and she told them what all Darcy had shared before she came upstairs. Elizabeth would have much rather he had said nothing, but then, what else would he have said? How else could he have prepared them? She was not sure she could have so easily spoken of her condition and what she had endured, and so found herself feeling a deep gratitude for Darcy's intervention.
"Now," said Jane when she had finished, "do the two of you feel up to going down to your fathers? They are both of them most anxious to see you."
"My father wasn't mad?" Maria asked hesitantly.
"At you? Of course not, dearest!" said Jane as she gave Maria's hand a reassuring squeeze. "You are not to blame for what has happened, not at all! Sir William is angry at the men who did this to you, as my father is angry for what happened to Lizzy."
Elizabeth looked at Maria. "We can do this. It is our fathers, my uncle, and Mr. Bingley. They are not strangers."
"You're right, of course. I just… I'm so nervous," said Maria.
"Do not distress yourself, Maria," said Jane. "I will be with you, and my Aunt Gardiner will be there."
Maria nodded and the three stood. Elizabeth held tightly to one of Jane's hands and Maria the other as they made their way out of the suite and through the hall to the stairwell, which was quite wide enough for them to walk abreast of each other. Only when they were near to the drawing room doors did they separate, at which time Jane turned to them as Elizabeth and Maria grasped each other by the arm.
"I will go in first," Jane said. "Come in when you are ready."
Elizabeth nodded and watched her go. She and Maria stood in the hall, each trying to settle their shallow breathing, and it was a couple of minutes before Elizabeth drew a deep breath and began the march forward through the doors.
The gentlemen all stood upon their entrance, and the fathers each took a step forward. Elizabeth sensed her recognition of each face, though her gaze was focused on her father. Never had she seen him appear so tired and careworn, nor could she recall ever seeing his eyes briming with tears. Suddenly recalling just how much she had missed him, how she had desperately longed for his comfort, she forgot her fear, released Maria's hand, and flew to him, throwing her arms about his neck with a great sob.
Mr. Bennet slowly lifted his arms to encircle her and hold her to him. Elizabeth soon felt his tears soaking her shoulder as he cried over and over, "My little Lizzy."