By the end of the week, Elizabeth had endured enough of her mother’s ire and decided to return to Netherfield with her friends, the Bingleys.
She had sent a note to Bingley House explaining her situation when her mother went out to visit the duke at his townhome and beg him to give her obstinate, headstrong girl a second chance.
Lady Francine planned to beg the man to marry one of her other daughters, but Elizabeth thought it quite impossible. She had warned them all of his advances and vulgarity so that they would turn away from him as well.
While she watched her maid pack a small trunk for the trip, her sister Lydia tapped lightly on her bedroom door.
Elizabeth instructed the maid to hurry, for her mother might soon return. “Have a footman take it directly to Bingley House. I do not wish for my mother to know of my plans.”
Meeting her sister in the hallway, Elizabeth smiled and closed her door.
Lydia was fidgeting and Elizabeth began to worry for her youngest sister was rarely shy. “Lydia, are you well? Has something happened?”
Lydia shook her head. “I came to you to discuss my decision to accept the duke’s proposal if he will have me.”
Elizabeth was astonished by this news. “He is beneath you, Lydia. You cannot marry such a wretch. He compromised me in the parlor and Mother threatened to buy a special license so that we might be wed. I was forced to say he had not pawed me, that is how desperate I became to escape such a fate.”
Lydia only laughed in her usual annoying manner. “La, do not preach to me, Lizzy. You may not wish to have his riches, but I do! I want the dresses and the jewels and the grand estate. I shall be a duchess and you will not!”
Elizabeth was incensed by Lydia’s silly behavior. She might not change her sister’s mind, but she could paint a picture of misery. “Do you not care that he will not cease his vulgar and lewd behavior once you are wed? You will be pitied among his friends and acquaintances. How will you bear it?”
Lydia sneered at her. “I do not care a bit, Lizzy! I shall be a duchess in a grand home. I do not marry for love! I only want what he has and will give to me. I wanted to tell you why I would in case he accepts the offer Mama will give him today. You must not interfere and ruin it all for me.”
Elizabeth wanted to shake her sister to help her see the truth. “I will never approve of it and I can never visit you if you become his bride, Lydia. You do understand that?”
“I would not want for you to be a guest in my home and have him leer at you ever again. I can bear his advances and his dalliances for a home and title as long as they are not aimed at you.” Lydia laughed again and flounced away.
Elizabeth had hated her cousin more and more each passing day, but now she despised him. Lydia was foolish and too young by half, but she did not deserve what fate had tempted her into accepting.
When her maid came into the hallway with the trunk, Elizabeth went back in her room to retrieve her reticule. Just as Lydia was lost to her, so was her place in this house if her mother made good on her promise to disown her.
Gathering her courage, she followed the maid and left down a back alley with a footman in the gig. No one would see her in Grosvenor Square and Bingley House was not so far. And by the time she was in Hertfordshire, her mother would have closed her accounts and given her dowry to her sisters.
At Bingley House, Caroline met Elizabeth at the door and ordered the footman to take her trunk upstairs to the room she normally used when visiting her friends.
“Eliza, I am only returning to Netherfield as a favor to you, but you must tell me what has happened between you and the duke. Rumor has it that you told your mother and father you are in love with another man!”
Elizabeth took her friend’s hand and pulled her upstairs to the parlor. “You must not say a word to Charles. Has he heard the rumors?”
Caroline shook her head. “I do not think so, but you know he would never believe it anyway. The man you claim to love can be none other than Mr. Darcy if your choice of refuge is a home not three miles from his own.”
“I will not entertain gossip, Caro. Perhaps I wish to return to Netherfield because there is no one we know from London there,” Elizabeth said as she watched her friend’s reaction.
Caroline laughed. “I am right! Though I wish I were not. His family, Eliza, how can you think of aligning yourself with them? And there is someone we know from London there, Colonel Fitzwilliam.”
Elizabeth had not thought of the colonel. But of course, he was stationed in Hertfordshire through the winter! “Since he is with the regiment, he will not come to London often and he has no friends in our circle. I do not believe he is a gossip either for he did not appear to be of that ilk.”
“Eliza!” Bingley called as he greeted her. He had just come into the parlor. She hoped he had not overheard their conversation.
“Charles, I am so pleased to see you! You must know how grateful I am you will return to Netherfield so soon and take me with you,” Elizabeth received the kiss he placed on her cheek with much gratitude.
“I do not do it for you, my dear, as much as I do it for myself. Miss Darcy left Town today with her brother and cousin. I cannot bear to think of him proposing to her before I might and so we must leave come the morning. You do not think your mother may figure out your plan and come to drag you home?” Bingley laughed as he said it, but Elizabeth did not find his musings to be humorous.
“Mother will be in such high spirits if Lydia is to become the duke’s wife she will forget all about me, that is my hope.” Elizabeth said.
Caroline gasped. “What delicious gossip and scandal! Eliza, are you certain you do not wish to stay in town and see the spectacle? Lydia could never keep from telling everyone she took him from you. Will you remain in Hertfordshire for so long?”
Elizabeth glanced at Bingley. He would make his home there if Miss Darcy accepted his proposal. “I may stay at Netherfield Park until the spring or summer if you will have me.”
Bingley gathered his best friend in a fierce embrace. “You may visit as long as you like, Eliza. Caroline may regret returning to Hertfordshire if it is you and I and the Darcys who will be wed.”
Elizabeth gasped and pushed against Bingley’s embrace. “Mr. Darcy? Why would you think I might marry the man? Infatuation does not a marriage make.”
Caroline’s eyebrows shot up. “It seems Charles has heard the gossip too, Eliza. I do hope that Mr. Darcy is worth the scandal and loss of support from your mother.”
“If my only concern was for money, Caro, I would have married the duke. I think of poor, stupid Lydia and the miserable life she will lead. All the money in the world could not entice me into such a union.”
The trip to Netherfield Park was made the following day and Elizabeth received a missive from her father with several hundred pounds enclosed, but there was no word from her mother. His parting line still echoed in her mind — When your grandfather hears what she has done, I am certain he will put a stop to her ill treatment of his favorite grandchild.
Now, as she stood on the gravel drive of Netherfield Park, she stuck out her chin and pulled her shoulders back. If Mr. Darcy had won her affections so effortlessly, she owed it to herself to see whether he felt the same. Against her own sensibility and better judgment, she had become infatuated with the man.
It might prove a terrible mistake, she might have her heart broken, but she would have him know of her feelings rather than spend the winter in London seeking love where she had never found it before.
Caroline took her hand and they went inside with Bingley as footmen carried the many trunks back inside the home they had left only a few weeks ago.