Page 11 of The Blackmail of Mr. Darcy
Jane was discretion personified, and she assured Elizabeth of her absolute silence on the topic. The sisters decided that jumping into the fictional problems of Lord Glenthorn was a good way of distracting themselves from speculating about a dear friend’s real problems.
The apothecary came and went.Jane’s lungs were still clear, but her nose ran almost continuously, and she was sneezing and blowing her nose as often as she was coughing. He left more medicine and told both sisters to stay the course: liquids, rest, chicken broth and honeyed tea, as well as his draughts. He suggested that a warm mustard plaster or elderberry tea might help as well.
Mr. Jones said, before he left, “Keep listening to Miss Bennet’s lungs, Miss Elizabeth, and send for me if you hear any troubling sounds. Also, send for me if her fever goes up again. At this point, I rather think she will not become feverish again unless the illness invades her lungs.”
Jane was awake more that day, and Elizabeth stayed in the sickroom through lunch and tea. Georgiana came and checked on them once during the afternoon, and she looked so miserable that Elizabeth exited the room when she left, wanting to check on the girl’s wellbeing.
She kept her questions to a whisper. When Georgiana claimed she was well enough, Elizabeth apologised for rushing away that morning. “My sister was asking for me,” she explained. “I hope that you did not feel that I was running away from you. And I hope that your brother was able to give you some comfort.”
“Oh!” Georgiana gasped out, and then she went back to whispering, “I am so grateful to you for your friendship, Elizabeth, and my brother was as soothing as you were. You must not think of me, now, not when your own sister is unwell.”
“Georgiana, you are now my honorary sister, too. I hope that you do not feel that I am overstepping to say that, but I care about your wellbeing just as I care about Jane’s.”
“You do?” The girl looked so grateful and clutched Elizabeth so hard, she felt sure that Georgiana had begun to feel sisterly towards her, as well.
“You will come down to dinner, will you not?” Georgiana asked.
Elizabeth was feeling terribly restive. She wished she had been able to walk much farther that day, but she felt that being out of Jane’s bedroom would be nice, so she promised to join the Bingleys, Hursts, and Darcys for dinner, “as long as Jane does not take a turn for the worse.”
Later, Jane’s meal arrived with Molly, and Elizabeth went to her own room to freshen up before going down to dinner. When she made her way into the drawing room, the faces of both Mr. and Miss Darcy lit up with brief smiles. Miss Bingley, of course, looked peeved rather than pleased.
“Miss Elizabeth,” Mr. Bingley said. “I am happy to see you again; you have been entirely missing today during our meals, and I am hoping that it is not because Miss Bennet is worse?”
Elizabeth reassured him, “She is not worse. She is still quite ill, but her fever has stayed down, and she has slept less during the day. So I have been reading and reading to her, hence my absence.”
Mr. Darcy said, “I spoke with Mr. Jones as he was leaving. He told me that there is still no reason to send for my physician; I assume that you agree, Miss Elizabeth?”
“I thank you again for your concern, sir, and I do agree with Mr. Jones. My sister’s cold is following a benign trajectory. Her lungs are still clear, as I ascertained just before coming down.”
Mr. Darcy nodded. He looked—truthfully, he looked quite kindly. Every day that she was at Netherfield Park, Elizabeth became more and more certain that her first ill impression of the man was quite mistaken.
During dinner, Elizabeth and Georgiana spoke about the novels they were reading. Several times, Miss Bingley attempted to lure Georgiana into a discussion of music, but the young girl kept her replies minimal and always turned back towards Elizabeth. The two were almost done reading their respective books and agreed to exchange the following morning when they finished.
Mr. Darcy had been almost silent during the meal—although that was not unusual, Elizabeth thought wryly—despite Miss Bingley’s many attempts to converse with him as well as hissister. Near the end of the meal, he asked Elizabeth if she had read further of Humboldt’s expedition.
“I read the portions of his travels in Cuba and Colombia, but Jane has been awake more today so I have not managed to go further than that.”
“I found the portion about Ecuador and Peru, in which Humboldt describes mountain sickness, to be particularly fascinating,” Mr. Darcy said. “I assume that my friend would be happy to allow you to continue to read the book at Longbourn, should you not have the opportunity to finish the volume while you are here. Is that not so, Bingley”
“Oh, quite! I do not care if it ends up in Mr. Bennet’s bookroom rather than my library, to be perfectly honest.”
“Well, sir,” Elizabeth said with a smile, “since you have already disclaimed the book as yours, I do not believe you should be giving it away to anyone, not even me. But I should love to keep the book as long as it takes to finish reading it, before I return it to the library here.”
Mr. Bingley blushed and said again, “Oh, quite! Quite so.”
Miss Bingley was staring at Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth caught her breath as she thought she saw some sort of warning in that lady’s narrowed eyes. Once again she wondered at their relationship. Mr. Darcy was obviously sincere in his dislike for the woman; contrariwise, she was as obvious in her desire to establish a bond with him. She did not seem to care about his feelings, nor the feelings of his sister, but Elizabeth remembered that Miss Bingley spoke incessantly of his physical perfection as well as his grand estate.
There was something about her gaze that made her worry that Miss Bingley held some ill-intentioned power over Mr. Darcy. And the words the woman had used to scold Georgiana gave her the impression that Miss Bingley knew somethingabout whatever “terrible and horrible mistake”—whatever “perfectly colossal error”—to which Georgiana had alluded.
Elizabeth felt a prickle of fear for the Darcys.
As dinner concluded, Elizabeth said that she needed to help entertain Jane before she went to sleep. “I am certain that you all were hoping for a repetition of Georgiana’s and my rendition ofScales in C Major, D Major, E Major, F Major…. Well, I will truncate the title of our duet, for the purpose of letting you know that we will not be repeating our performance. Georgiana, would you object to helping me cheer up my long-suffering sister, rather than enjoying the drawing room, tonight?” Elizabeth looked to Mr. Darcy and added, “With your permission, of course.”
Mr. Darcy gave his enigmatic smile and said, “Of course I would permit it.”
Georgiana was radiant. “Oh, yes, I should love to help our patient!”
Miss Bingley made a noise in her throat, and once again Elizabeth felt concern about what the woman meant to do.
