Helping Elizabeth (EDITING)

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

The journey to Devonshire was nothing but a blur for Elizabeth, in the morning she would cross her fingers and smile for she knew that with each new day her encounter with William was drawing close. Her nights on the other hand, were sleepless for she would stay awake making up different scenarios about her encounter with her fiancé when the time came and after that she would sleep a couple of hours to rest her body before their departure to continue the journey.

Each scenario would start the same way, with William standing at the front steps of his mansion, and the mansion itself changed in structure in each scenario, with a broad smile on his face and the longing in his eyes would bring unshed tears to her eyes, tears of joy and happiness, and then she would get out of the carriage and wait for him to come to her side take her hand and place a kiss on her delicate gloved hand, their eyes boring into one another. With the proper introductions made, William would take her inside and give her a personal tour, after she refuses to retire, inside the huge mansion, where he grew up, and she of course would be immensely absorbed in every detail of the stories he would tell her, and when they were out of sight and earshot he would take her to a shadowed corner and kiss her until she was out of breath.

Elizabeth sighed in contempt for the tenth time, Charlotte would roll her eyes each time, spare her daughter a glance and continue staring outside the window and into the changing scenes, then Elizabeth would sigh again and the same thing would occur again. But Elizabeth never expected her arrival to be the worst thing to occur to her, apart from that nigh of course, but nevertheless, it was unforgettable.

It all started when the carriage started slowing down into a slower pace, she suddenly lurched from her seat and felt the first wave of panic take over her entire being, for it was then did she realize that she was to meet the entire Seddon family, it was not William alone. Her short lived scenarios were entirely forgotten when the carriage came into a halt. Her mother spared her the I-expect-you-to-be on-your-best-behavior-look, and Elizabeth reached up to put the loose tendrils of hair into place and then she started to fix her dress and when she felt presentable she pinched her cheeks and released the breath she was holding.

The footman opened the carriage door and started helping the countess and her daughters, and when it was Elizabeth's turn she stumbled on her skirts squeaking in surprise just when she was reaching the footman's extended hand, and the next thing she knew she was on top of the footman, a searing pain in her ankle with her face burning red from humiliation and embarrassment, all these years she descended the carriage with grace and confidence but her feet decided to betray her on one of the most important days, the day were she was to meet her future-in-laws.

One minute she was sprawled on top of the poor footman and the next everyone was gathered around her, the voices were a bit distant and her vision was blurry, she might have hit her head when she fell, she wasn't quite sure but the tears streaming where burning her eyes. She tried pushing herself, but when it came to standing up she gasped from the pain in her ankle and it occurred to her that she had sprained it, and she tumbled to her knees taking deep breathes in hopes to ease the pain.

"Elizabeth?" the voices where growing even more distant and the waves of nausea were making it hard for her to focus to whatever was being said. "Ellie, darling, William here is going to carry you to your room, we already sent for the doctor and physician, don't worry everything is going to be alright." The hand that was pushing her hair away from her face was her mothers, Elizabeth was sure about that. "Open your eyes darling." Her mother's soothing voice broke into her reverie again.