Page 36 of Penned By Mr Darcy
“Out of those wet clothes at once!” Jane scolded, throwing aside the covers and reaching for her robe. “I’ll find you something dry and warm. Here, wrap yourself in this blanket once you are out of those wet things.”
She pulled off the blanket that she herself had been resting under, offering it to Lizzy. She shook her head, taking it from her sister’s hands and placing it back onto the bed.
“A nightgown will do,” Elizabeth interrupted. “Mama has decreed bedrest, effective immediately.”
“Why?”
“You’ve ruined getting caught in the rain for the rest of us,” Elizabeth said with mock gravity, squeezing her sister’s hand. “She fears I will take ill as you did.”
“Perhaps she is right to be cautious. I’ll make room for you beside me in bed.”
“Oh, no,” Elizabeth smiled wryly. “I have been banished.”
Jane’s eyes widened.
“Not the Blue Room?”
“The very same. Mother’s cure for dampness appears to be draughts and the possibility of ghosts.”
“I’ll go,” Jane offered. “You stay here.”
“You’re the one who’sactuallyill. I’ll be perfectly fine. Besides, it might be a welcome escape from our esteemed houseguest.”
“Mr Collins cannot be so dreadful as all that,” Jane murmured, ever gentle.
“You’ve only endured him in brief doses,” Elizabeth replied. “I assure you - he isworse.”
Jane smiled despite herself.
Jane retreated into their shared dressing room and retrieved a clean nightgown. As she changed out of her sodden clothes, she thought briefly of the diary tucked into her bed. Temptation pulled at her, far stronger than she had ever known it.
Soon, she would be alone in the quiet of the Blue Room. Nobody would dare to disturb her if her mother had forbidden it and…
It was wrong, she knew.
Dressed only in her damp slip, she darted forward to her bed, checking that Jane was still in their dressing room. She plucked the diary once more from its hiding place and placed it with her pile of reading books.
“This one should be nice and warm,” Jane called. “Oh, you poor thing. You are trembling.”
Lizzy looked down at her shaking hands.
“Oh. Yes, I suppose I am.”
“Come, get out of that and get warm. I will accompany you to the Blue Room and see that you have all that you need. Are you sure I cannot stay with you? Mama would understand…”
“You are too kind, darling Jane, but I insist that you get back into bed and forget all about me. It is not worth making Mama angry with you as well. I will be quite alright.”
Elizabeth changed into the nightgown, her skin still damp and chilled. Bidding farewell to Jane (as though she were departing to a far-off land, rather than just down the landing), she scooped up her pile of novels and scurried away to the Blue Room.
She did not even mind that the room smelt musty and that there was a spider currently taking residency in the corner of the room. She set the books down on the bedside table and slipped beneath the covers. She sat there, tucked tightly beneath the sheets, frozen in both temperature and motion.
“I cannot read it,” she muttered, glancing over to the diary. “I cannot. It is not mine.”
Some secret, devilish voice in her mind whispered back
He does not know you have it. He will never know that you have read it. He thinks it lost to the rain.
“That is not the point!” she muttered to herself.
