I cannot describe how happy and overwhelmed I am about your reviews. I thank every one of you for your time. This is my first writing ever, besides business letters and I´m not a native speaker. I love "Pride and Prejudice", I am not always of the same opinion as Jane Austen, but nonetheless is her work inspiring. Enjoy the new chapter!
At Longbourn the morning came after a long night. Mr. Jones, the apothecary, came prepared and did what he could to lower Jane´s fever, nevertheless Jane burned. In the end the only thing that helped was a cold bath. Elizabeth did not sleep at all, the maids changed every few hours. Mrs. Bennet took her nerves to her bed and commanded Hill to attend to her, Mary prayed and said it was God´s will an they could not do anything to change it, and the youngest two went to bed like every other evening. Mr. Bennet also stayed true to himself and made some witty remarks about dying from trifling colds.
After the first shock of Jane´s return settled and Elizabeth had more time to think, she asked herself how it came, that Jane rode in such a condition home. A fever like this did not develop in the 20 to 30 minutes she needed to be on the road. Did Miss Bingley or Mrs. Hurst not see the beginnings of the illness? Or has Jane as always been to modest and concealed her symptoms, as not to being a burden? It never even came to Elizabeth´s mind that the sisters had absolutely no compassion and practically kicked Jane out to fend for herself.
Although the fever lowered after the cold bath it was not broken. Elizabeth stayed the whole night with Jane, and as the sun began to rise she went down to the garden to stretch her legs and to breath some fresh air. On her way out she stopped in the kitchen to get a fresh baked roll, where she heard some snippets of a conversation between two of their maids. Perhaps it was the sleepless night, perhaps the worry about Jane, but she did not realise, that the maids gossiped about the hateful Miss Bingley and her not less hateful sister.
The unspoken rule of the society, if you want the whole neighbourhood to know something, tell it to one servant, reached this morning new heights. From Molly to the servants at Netherfield, then to her sisters, at Lucas Lodge and Mr. Philipp´s house in Meryton, and her best friends at Longbourn, the servant´s network did it´s best to condemn the Bingley sisters and as an implication the whole family. Even Mr. Darcy had not been spared. He had already made a bad first impression at the assembly and although all servants at Netherfield told that he always was polite and respectful, the fact, that he was friends with such people like the Bingleys and the Hursts, made him in the eyes of the long-established community as guilty as the others.
Mr. Bingley as the head of his family has been held responsible for not only Miss Bingley´s behaviour the day before, but also for the behaviour of the whole party for their stay at Netherfield. Every interaction with the family, every slight, scream, strike or kick from Miss Bingley, every lustful and disgusting look or touch from Mr. Hurst, and the absolute absence of authority in Mr. Bingley has been told from the servants to their employers. Such excitement has not been seen in Meryton since King George III made a stop in their little town and knighted Mr. Lucas for his speech over 10 years ago.
The female population of their enclosed society made so many morning calls that day, that after some time both hosts and guests were so full of tea, so nobody was offended on declining the half-hearted offer of beverage. The community lived on new gossip and this juicy tale of the wicked Miss Bingley or her spineless brother fed them in droves. The impertinence of some tradesman-daughters to slight and denigrate the gentry and to despise the tradesmen in such a rate, forgetting where their dowries and the fortune of her brother came from, alienated them from both, gentry and trade.
And if you might believe, that gossip is a mere female pastime, you could not be more wrong. The book rooms and the offices of the estates, the inn, Mr. Philipp´s office and all the other places where the male population of Meryton met to discuss their important matters, could be compared to an active beehive, with comings and goings and the exchange of information.
Two places has been not frequented on this day. Netherfield and Longbourn.
Netherfield has been obviously shunned. Nobody wanted to be seen entering the house of such a despicable hostess.
Longbourn has been left alone, partly because of Mr. Bennet, his book room has been always his sanctuary and the other gentlemen of the area did not like to visit as the master could not be moved to put his book away. Partly because of Mrs. Bennet, because she would wail and cry and make herself the victim of every situation. But mostly they have been left alone because early in the morning some residents met Mr. Jones the apothecary in Meryton and he told them of Jane´s illness and asked to give Jane and Elizabeth, the two most respected Bennets, perhaps even the only two respected Bennets, time. Time for Jane to get better and time for Elizabeth to nurse her sister.
For the first time in history of Meryton the people honoured the privacy of a community member and decided to visit only on the morrow.
To all this the Bennet family was oblivious. Five of the seven behaved as expected, book room, nerves, sermons and piano, giggles, silliness, bonnets, ribbons and men in red regimentals. Jane was feverish and lost in some kind of nightmare, full of unintelligible murmurs about manners and excuses. Elizabeth did sleep a few hours after she came back from the garden and went afterwards immediately back to the sickroom to nurse Jane.
Throughout the day the servants of Longbourn told Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper, everything they learned from others. Mrs. Hill knew that the aforementioned five were useless to do something with the information and Miss Elizabeth was busy with Miss Jane. She resolved speaking to Miss Elizabeth later in the evening or the next morning.
Elizabeth was exhausted. She worried about Janie, tried to make her comfortable, gave her little sips of water, cooled her forehead, helped changing Janies nightdress and sheets, both soaked in sweat and through all this she also managed the household. Mama had one of her typical fits of nerves and could not be bothered. Papa felt not responsible for the duties of his wife and just wanted his books and his port. Mary, Kitty and Lydia never learned the duties and would have made more problems. Lizzy knew they had been extremely lucky to have Mrs. Hill, nevertheless a house needed someone to make decisions. And this someone was today she.
Mr. Jones visited twice through the day. He was guarded about the prognosis and told Elizabeth, that as long as the fever was not broken it could go both ways. Perhaps the next morning he could say more. After this statement Lizzy doubled her efforts to break Jane´s fever. He also told her about his encounter with the residents and his request to give them time. Just for that she was extremely grateful.
The knocker on the door stayed silent, the servants knew why and were happy about it, they had enough extra work and Mrs. Hill has been able to delegate the maids to their best abilities. Mary, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet didn´t even noticed. The youngest two did wonder and wanted to walk to Meryton, but saw the dark clouds and decided against walking, not wishing to get soaked like Jane and miss days with the officers.
Mr. Darcy was frustrated. His valet could despite all his efforts not tell him anything new when he dressed him for the evening meal. Apparently the personal servants of the residents, the lady´s maids and the valets, were not included in the gossip of the house. The meal itself was perfectly cooked, the seating arrangement was again Miss Bingley´s attempt to catch his attention. Nobody mentioned Miss Bennet´s visit the day before. In the drawing room after the separation of the sexes Miss Bingley made herself again laughable with talks about mending his pen and endless greetings to his sister Georgiana.
And above all this his feeling of something being very wrong stayed.
As soon as it was possible he withdraw from the company and repaired to his room.
Rodes greeted him with excitement: "Mr. Darcy, I know what happened!"