Ten Days with Mr Darcy (on hold)

Chapter Sixteen - A generous gift

For their first scene after lunch Jessica entered the Rose Boudoir and sat at the table, picking up the prop letter that had been placed there earlier. Off to her right, a blonde-haired toddler swung the red velvet rope back and forth with one hand, while a finger on the other worked industriously as it excavated his right nostril. His mother stood nearby, weighed down by a sleeping baby in a front carrier. By the window, at the very back of the group, a young couple—their bodies intertwined like a pair of Siamese twins—had less interest in the performance than in each other.

Jessica wondered whether they wouldn't be more comfortable somewhere a little less public.

At the moment the chimes of the mantle clock fell silent, Elizabeth Bennet began to read her letter from Longbourn aloud, for the benefit of the audience. As the bad news about Lydia's elopement unfolded she became more and more agitated, particularly as she reached the last paragraphs that Jane had written. "My father is going to London with Colonel Forster instantly, to try to discover her. What he means to do, I am sure I know not, but our uncle's assistance and advice would mean everything in the world." She cast the letter onto the table. "Oh, dear Jane! Yes...yes. Uncle Gardener will know what to do." Elizabeth sprang from the chair, as though in a great hurry, checking herself when the door opened before she reached it.

Emily, dressed again in her maid's costume, curtsied as she announced Mr. Darcy's arrival. The young girl withdrew as he strode into the room. "Miss Bennet, I—"

"I beg your pardon, but I must leave! I have to find Mr. Gardiner this moment, on business that cannot be delayed. I have not an instant to lose."

"Good God, what is the matter?" Darcy cried with feeling, delivering what she knew was one of Sebastian's favourite lines. "I will not detain you a minute, but let me, or let the servant go after Mr. and Mrs Gardiner. You are not well enough. You cannot go yourself." He returned to the door, passing along his instructions.

Sinking back onto the hard wooden chair, Jessica imagined the worst news she could possibly receive: a devastating phone call from the other side of the world; perhaps losing forever the only family she had left. The trick worked as tears welled in her eyes and one rolled slowly down her cheek. Elizabeth sniffed as she pressed the handkerchief to her face.

She could not see Mr. Darcy, who stood somewhere behind her, but heard the sincere concern in his voice as he said, "Is there nothing you could take to give you present relief? A glass of wine...shall I get you one? You look very ill."

Jess half-turned towards him, wishing she could drink something to ease a throat dried by the monologue. "I have received some dreadful news. My younger sister has left all her friends...has eloped...has thrown herself into the power of...of...Mr. Wickham." She paused a beat for effect as she dabbed the corner of her eye. "You know him too well to doubt the rest. She has no money, no connections, nothing that can tempt him. She is lost forever."

Elizabeth crushed the handkerchief between her fingers as she rose from the chair to stare out of the window. "When I consider that I might have prevented it! I, who knew what he was. Had I but explained some part of it...some part of what I learnt to my own family! If they had known his character this could not have happened. But it is all too late now."

As she reached the end of her dialogue the baby in the audience, who had been asleep, began to bawl. Everyone else in the room turned to look at the mother, the actors momentarily forgotten.

"I am grieved indeed." Darcy raised his voice to make himself heard above the noise of the wailing infant. "Grieved...shocked! But is it absolutely certain?"