Page 113 of A Most Beloved Sister
“Elizabeth?”
The hand on her shoulder, along with her name, caused her to jump. “Oh!” she cried out.
“I’m sorry,” Darcy said, coming around from behind to kneel in front of her. “I didn’t intend to frighten you.”
“I didn’t even hear you come in.”
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I heard about Jane.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she leaned forward, throwing her arms around him and burrowing her face into his neck. He held her tight as she wept great, gulping sobs shuddering her body and soaking his cravat.
After several minutes, her weeping slowed into soft whimpers of a grief so profound Darcy felt as though his heart would rip in two. “I’m so sorry, my love,” he whispered, his lips pressed against her hair.
She sat back in her chair, and he shifted his position, allowing the blood to begin flowing once again to his legs and feet. Elizabeth mopped at her eyes. “I knew it was coming, of course—yet at the same time, I just never pictured what it would be like. I’ve never lived my life without Jane.”
With one hand, he cupped her cheek. “She will always be with you. Wherever you are, she will be there, in your heart, and she will live on as you share your memories of her with our children.”
Lifting her hand to cover his, she whispered, “Do you really think so?”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “So much of why I love you is because of her. Your sister and her unique view of the world—her goodness, her purity—has affected you. You are strong, and you are kind, and it is because of her influence. As long as you live, she will never die. And as long as our children learn those same admirable traits from your example, she will live on from generation to generation indefinitely.”
At a loss for words, Elizabeth leaned forward once more and kissed him gently on the lips. Unlike their more wanton encounter the night of the Meryton assembly, this second kiss was filled with love and respect, and was more potent than anything Darcy had ever experienced.
It lasted for an eternity, but then ended all too soon. They sat in comfortable silence, just enjoying the peace of one another’s company before they were interrupted by a footman at the door in search of Elizabeth.
“Begging your pardon, miss, but Mr. Bennet is here.”
Reality came crashing down around her, and Elizabeth practically leaped from her chair. She gave Darcy’s hand a tight squeeze before dashing out of the room in search of her father. She was directed to Jane’s room, where she found him looking down on his eldest daughter with heavy, sorrowful eyes.
“Well, Lizzy, for the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I had hoped you’d decided to follow in your mother’sfootsteps and had allowed your nerves to take hold of you when you wrote your missive.”
She gave him a wry smile, the first that she’d experienced since being summoned to Jane’s side that morning. “I’m very sorry to disappoint you, Papa, but I daresay you will overcome it soon enough.”
He sighed heavily and placed an arm around her. “I never thought I’d see the day when I would have to say goodbye to one of my girls this way. No parent should have to bury their child.”
His voice broke, and she felt his struggle to keep his composure. She prayed that he would, else she knew she would not be able to keep from descending into tears again herself.
“Dr. Carson says he thinks she may only live a few more days,” he told her. “He was here just before you arrived, and he said that she was unable to swallow any food or drink, not even bone broth or weak tea.”
“So soon, then?”
“I’m afraid so, my dear. I will need to inform your mother and two younger sisters. They will want to come and say their goodbyes. Kitty’s, at least, will be genuine, but your mother and Lydia… well, their affection is of the sort that means they will make the most of the situation.”
“Then perhaps we had best let them get it over with as quickly as possible,” Elizabeth suggested.
“Very well,” he said. “I will have them come by carriage this afternoon.”
He moved closer to Jane’s bedside and placed a hand gently on her head. “Rest well, my darling girl.”
As he turned to leave, Elizabeth suddenly remembered their middle sister. “What about Mary?”
“I will send a letter; an express wouldn’t arrive in time for her to make arrangements to come, so I won’t bother with the expense. Besides, she was never particularly close to Jane. Idoubt she would wish to make the effort. Oh, she might out of a sense of Christian duty, but not from any true sensibility.”
Elizabeth hated to admit as much about one of her sisters, but her father was correct. It would be best to inform Mary about Jane’s passing after the fact and allow her to choose to mourn in her own way, especially as she wouldn’t arrive in time to do much. The vigil would be over by then, and the ladies would not be allowed to attend the procession or the funeral.
Besides, Elizabeth selfishly did not think she would be able to bear Mary’s sermonizing as they sat at home, waiting while the men interred her sister’s body in the Bennet family vault just outside of the Meryton parish church. The vault housed the remains of the former inhabitants of Longbourn dating back nearly two centuries to when the family was deeded the property.
No, dealing with her mother and Lydia would be difficult enough. As she watched her father take the carriage towards Longbourn to fetch the remaining Bennet family members, it was all she could do to keep herself from escaping out into the gardens to avoid what she was sure to be the most hysterical performance of a lifetime.
