On the morning of Jane's wedding, Elizabeth opened her eyes and experienced a sharp pointy elbow, belonging to her eldest sister, poking her most acutely between her shoulder blades. It wasn't the pain that made Elizabeth frown, but the immediate realization this was the last such morning a similar sisterly trouble would occur.
Carefully, Elizabeth nudged her sister's arm away and burrowed deeper into the quilt. She closed her eyes and willed herself to go back to sleep, but the chirping of birds outside and sounds of the world waking up made such a task impossible. She had just slowed her breaths back to a measured rhythm when the door to her shared bedroom with Jane flew open.
"Girls! Girls! How could you still be in bed at this late of an hour?" Mrs. Bennet stood in the doorway with her hair still tied in ribbons to curl her locks, glaring at them both.
Jane sighed in her sleep, rolled over onto her back and blinked her eyes at their mother. Mrs. Bennet fell under the spell and the sweet, beautiful eldest daughter shared a shy smile that made her mother beam with pride. Elizabeth curled from under the coverlet and pushed feelings of jealousy over her mother never gazing at her with the same expression out of her mind. Today was about Jane. No matter what occurred, Elizabeth vowed she would do all in her power to make the day the best ever for her favorite sister.
As Mrs. Bennett's gaze moved to include Elizabeth, her expression melted away.
"Hurry, hurry! Get out of bed. Jane dear you take a bath first, Lizzie I'm sorry it's too late for you to get a bath afterwards. Hurry downstairs and collect the laundry from Hill. We need all of the stockings, ribbons, and bonnets brought upstairs immediately."
Elizabeth yawned and stretched as she removed herself from bed, walking over to her closet to don a morning dress until she changed into her finer gown for the ceremony. Unfortunately, this was not part of Mrs. Bennett's plans.
"There's no time for niceties. Put on your dressing robe and hurry downstairs! The maids have brought up the hot water for Jane."
Puzzled, Elizabeth did as she was told. It was unlike her mother to go so far as to ask Elizabeth to perform the menial tasks reserved for servants. She expected that perhaps the day's chaos was to blame.
Feeling self-conscious, she tiptoed down the stairs with her hair still braided from last night, positive she appeared a fright in just her dressing robe and slippers. As she turned the corner to cut through the dining room into the kitchen, she stopped in her tracks as a fully dressed Mr. Collins sat in the dining room, uncomfortably erect in a chair that was turned to face the doorway.
"Cousin Elizabeth, I am waiting for you."
Raising an eyebrow in complete confusion, Elizabeth pulled the top of her dressing gown closer together at the neck. "Forgive me, Mr. Collins, I must fetch something for my mother." She ducked her head and took two steps to move around the table when Mr. Collins hastily hopped up from his chair to block her way.
"I see you fell for my ruse I planned with your mother. I had hoped to make this a surprise for you."
Elizabeth's heart raced as a feeling of dread dropped like a stone to the bottom of her stomach. She stood as a startled deer at the edge of the woods, too nervous to say or do anything that might encourage the man before her.
"It cannot have gone amiss since my arrival you are the cousin to attract my undivided attentions. Originally, when I planned to visit, I did so hope somehow your father and I could find a way to ally our mutual families and preserve the history of this grand estate as it passed most nobly along the male line."
"Mr. Collins –" Elizabeth started to speak, but the man hushed her lips by actually placing his fingers upon them.
"Sssh, I know well your penchant for expressing opinions not entirely your own and occasionally insulting those around you, though I hardly credit your gentile nature for intending to do so."
Elizabeth took a step backwards to again establish space between them. "I assure you Mr. Collins I have never intentionally insulted anyone without meaning to do so. If someone felt insulted in my company, they should know it absolutely was by my own intent."
Mr. Collins chuckled and again raised his hand to touch her face. Elizabeth slapped it down with ferocity. "You are stunning when you are angry. Has anyone ever told you so?"
"Good day, Mr. Collins. I have a wedding to get ready for." Elizabeth turned to march out of the dining room when Mr. Collins again grabbed her arm to keep her there. Not knowing what to do, Elizabeth began to scream out for help, assaulted in her father's own home! She pulled and fought and yelled until the entire household came thundering down the stairs wondering at the scene before them.
Elizabeth's father stood in the doorway to the sight of his weeping daughter and a very angry Mr. Collins in the dining room. "Whatever has happened here? Lizzie? Mr. Collins?"
Elizabeth, sobbing, explained he would not let her leave the dining room, grabbed her arm and abused her thus.
Mr. Collins sniffed and tucked his vest down over his portly belly. "I have offered my genuine affections and care to my fair cousin this entire visit. She spurned my offer of marriage. I tried, in vain, to overlook the haphazard manner in which all of my cousins were brought up. Why my patroness, Lady Catherine, warned me of the potential problems in marrying such a woman who calls herself a lady yet did not grow up with the benefit of a governess. I am afraid I can no longer offer for this woman with a clear conscience."
Mrs. Bennett's cries rang out and she barged into the dining room to follow Mr. Collins as he escaped through the kitchen. Calling after him that she would rectify this situation if only he would allow were the last words that echoed into the dining room.
Elizabeth, trembling from her encounter with Mr. Collins glanced at her two younger sisters standing in the hall with their mouths open in shock. She turned to Mr. Bennet hoping to see a father's acceptance, yet she spied a man with nothing but pure anger in his eyes.
"My study, Elizabeth. Now!" he bellowed.
The two younger girls jumped out of their father's way as he stormed into his study, fully expecting his wayward daughter Elizabeth to follow. Taking a moment to restore her composure, Elizabeth did not tarry to obey her father's command.
As she entered the study, she was instructed to shut the door. The last time she had followed her father into his study seeing him so angry was when she was caught climbing a tree on the edge of Winslow's Woods by the gamekeeper of Netherfield Park, nearly ten years ago. Silently, she stood before her father's desk and waited for him to speak.
Mr. Bennet paced the small space behind his desk with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself. Every few moments he would glance at his daughter, and continue his pacing and muttering. Elizabeth stood discomposed in her father’s study for a number of minutes until her mother barged in, disrupting the speechless standoff.
“It is an uproar, Mr. Bennet! Mr. Collins cannot be prevailed upon to marry Lizzie and he refuses to consider any of the other girls, even Lydia! She has ruined forever the security of her own family!"
"Well, Elizabeth, what have you to say for yourself?"
Elizabeth began to weep afresh. "I cannot control when Mr. Collins was going to attempt to propose to me, Papa. I did everything in my power to discourage the man and to encourage his attentions towards Mary. She would make him a fine wife. He was aggressive with me and twice he placed his hands upon my person in an attempt to bully me."
Elizabeth expected some sign of sympathy from her father, but instead she had only made him angrier. "I thought I had made myself quite clear,young lady, regarding my expectations. You sat right here," Mr. Bennet pointed at her place by the window, "and I shared my vision for your continued happiness. You promised me you would give that man an honest chance but I've observed you Elizabeth, and not once in the last two weeks have you shown any ounce of genuine kindness toward your cousin. You have been mean, you have been missish, and you have taken it upon yourself to make decisions affecting this family when it is not your place to do so." Mr. Bennet lectured.
"No Papa, I cannot marry that man. I never meant to defy you or disrespect your position as my father."
"Be that as it may, it is too late to change what you have wrought.” Mr. Bennet finally took a seat behind his desk.
For a moment the only sound in the study was Elizabeth’s continued sobs. She had never considered that her father would take her rejection of Mr. Collins to be a direct flout of his authority. She assumed he found the man as ridiculous and unsuitable as she did. She could not understand why her father had chosen her to fall on the family’s sword of injustice.
Unfortunately Mrs. Bennet took the silence between her husband and her least favorite daughter as indication that once more Miss Lizzie would receive a reprieve for her headstrong ways.
"Mr. Bennet, I insist that you –"
“There will be no further discussion of this matter until after Jane's wedding breakfast. Elizabeth go upstairs, wash your face and put on a brave smile."
"But Mr. Collins –" Mrs. Bennet started again.
"I'll handle Mr. Collins. The man won't wish to be embarrassed any more than we wish to be embarrassed amongst our friends and neighbors. A jilted man has no desire to spread his tales, though I highly doubt your youngest daughters will allow that.” He scowled for a moment, then gazed at his wife. “The wedding, Mrs. Bennet, you have more than enough on your plate to handle with the wedding."
Utterly defeated, Elizabeth curtsied and quit her father’s study, leaving her parents alone to discuss matters further. There was nothing more she could say and she did agree with her father that today was Jane's day.
She wiped her eyes a final time and found her sisters standing solemnly in various states of dress upon the stairs. Managing a smile, Elizabeth looked at Jane.
"Only two more hours and you'll be a Bennet no more!" Elizabeth reminded Jane of the happiness still to come. As she took the stairs, she was surprised that it was Lydia who offered her comfort by embracing her shoulder as they were at the end of the Bennet girl line-up on the stairs. Within minutes, all of the bedrooms were a flurry of gowns, ribbons, bonnets and gloves as today would be so very important for all of them, but especially Jane.