Elizabeth Bennet
Longbourn, Hertfordshire
Lizzy's dreams were filled with the sound of the instruments playing, and even if her feelings had been bruised by the reprehensible Mr. Darcy, she still felt the pull of the dances as she woke next to her sister.
Jane, for her part, was still fast asleep, curled against her pillow, tendrils of her blonde hair coming loose from their braids. Lizzy shifted, lifting the sheets quietly and resettling the counterpane around her sister so that Jane could sleep a little longer. The Assembly had gone late into the night, and as Lizzy paused and listened for the noises of the household she surmised that almost every member of her family were still asleep.
She dressed in a simple morning shift, and wriggled her toes into a pair of older boots that would see her out into the fields.
With a book tucked under one arm she took herself out into the grasses of Longbourn without another thought. The sun was low on the horizon, and the tops of the grasses were heavy with dew as she walked. She wanted to lose herself in the fresh air, and leave behind all the tumultuous feelings of the night before. There was a slow ache in her feet and her calves from dancing that began to fade as she walked, her muscles warming up to the exercise.
The night before they had retired to their bedrooms, returning long after Lydia had gone to sleep so she had not been up to pester them for details. Their dresses taken away to be refreshed for the next event, Jane and Lizzy had been left to themselves to giggle over the evening. She had mostly forgotten the bad parts of it and had in fact, if she must be honest, enjoyed the whole event quite thoroughly. She did so love to dance, and there had been a great many young men who had taken her hand to the floor.
One of them, she recalled, had been a tall figure, handsome in his uniform, a colonel away from his regiment. He'd been eloquent and better spoken then most men of the military that she'd met, and he'd been an elegant dancer as well. She could still remember the tingle of warmth that had passed through her gloves when he'd held her hand.
She lifted her fingers to her cheeks and fanned away the flush that had blossomed there. Truly, she was a fool for love, almost as bad as her sisters who were prone to fall in and out of affections as quickly as a gentleman passed by on his horse.
Elizabeth found she had wandered her way onto the path to Meryton, the road high in the middle for horses to ride along while still low enough for wagons to pass over it while their wheels rolled through the ruts. She kept to the side, in case a carriage snuck up on her while she was drifting along with her thoughts. Mr. Collins was due to arrive any day, and she found herself growing nervous over the contemplation of his coming.
Especially given the favor that Mr. Bingley had shown Jane last night, Elizabeth found her nerves ever more unsettled. Before the Assembly, their mother had been quite adamant that Mr. Collins' attention would focus on Jane, and the rest of the girls should distance themselves in that respect so that the oldest might have the best chance at securing an offer.
Now though, Elizabeth knew her mother all too well, and the prospect of Mr. Bingley's interest in Jane would far outstrip the meagre Mr. Collins regardless of his familial relationship to them and the fate of Longbourn resting in his hands. Her mother, liking for all things in life to have some semblance of 'natural order', would feel that it was now Lizzy's duty to attract Mr. Collins' eye, despite two of her younger sisters being out. She did not think so serious a man as to take up orders and be of the cloth would want Kitty, who was naturally silly due to age and closeness with the ever impertinent Lydia. While Mary was studious, and very focused on religious discussion for most of the day (and night it seemed), Mrs. Bennet would be putting in all of her efforts to marry off the second eldest since it looked like Jane would quite shortly relinquish her title as a Miss.
While she had engaged in long discussions with Charlotte regarding marriage and the duties of a woman to put sensibility first with pride second in the search for love and a husband, Elizabeth did not believe in marriage without love, without kinship.
She had no desire to marry Mr. Collins purely for the sake of Longbourn's safety and keeping it within the familial lines of the Bennet family. She would become a Collins only if the man suited her, and her mother's plans be damned.
She ended that thought with a decided stomp of her foot as she walked down the path, coming upon a pretty little meadow with a likely outcropping of rocks, perfect for sitting and reading as the sun rose.
There she found herself relaxing as the sunlight poured over her, and her heart felt lighter. She would not let herself be forced into any marriage, for any reason. She would marry for love, or not at all.
New chapters uploaded on Fridays, but you may find it in its entirety on Amazon now by searching for 'Nora Kipling - A Required Engagement'.