by Lory Lilian
“Lady Cassandra, I do appreciate your concern, and I understand you are doing everything for the benefit of my daughters. But the scandal will erupt; we cannot avoid that. The servants, my daughter’s state and yours, the sudden absence of Markham—these things cannot be hidden. And to all that, just consider what will happen when Darcy finds out. I doubt you will be able to appease him. He would not hesitate a moment to do what is right, and I will surely support his decision.”
“I agree,” said the colonel and Bingley in unison.
“Oh, you do?” cried Lady Cassandra, her voice so enraged that all three gentlemen looked at her in shock. “Indeed, what a lovely, honourable thing! Let Darcy call Markham out and risk his life. Of course, he might be killed—along with Elizabeth and Georgiana’s chances of happiness—but at least we will all be satisfied to know he has done what any man of honour would do!”
“Lady Cassandra, you are too hasty and too emotional,” said the colonel, stepping toward her. “Darcy can defeat Markham any time with any weapon and on any ground, I assure you—
“Really? You can assure me? What a relief! Can you assure me that Markham will fight with respect for the rules? And, even if Darcy kills him, what then? Duelling is illegal; we all know that.”
“Oh, come now…You cannot possibly suggest letting Markham leave unpunished. Most likely, Darcy will not kill him—only give him a proper punishment and make sure he will never approach Miss Bennet again. But let us not speak more of that. This is men’s business, and there is little for you to do. We had better discuss something else and try to solve what can be solved.”
“You are mistaken, Colonel. I know only too well how these things are done, and that is why I will not allow anything of the kind to happen. As for things that can be resolved, I have already found a solution to everything. There is a simple way to avoid any scandal falling upon the Bennet family and prevent Darcy from risking his life in a fight with Markham.”
Three pairs of eyes stared at her inquiringly in utter disbelief. “There is no such way, Lady Cassandra,” replied the colonel and the others nodded in agreement.
“I beg to differ. There is a way—a perfect way! Markham’s father—the earl—is visiting a relative; he resides less than twenty miles from here. I have already sent him an express telling him that his son attacked me, and I have asked him to come immediately to remove him.”
“You did what?” cried all three gentlemen.
“Cassandra, that was a foolish thing to do,” said the colonel, barely hiding his anger.
“Indeed, you should not have done that, Lady Cassandra,” Mr. Bennet spoke severely. “Besides, I cannot allow you to take this matter upon yourself; I shall not protect my daughters by exposing you nor save their reputation by ruining yours. I am sure Lizzy will agree with me.”
“Mr. Bennet, perhaps your daughter will agree with you,” she answered, her eyes daringly confronting them. “But it is already done, and it is done for the best—and it is indeed the wisest solution. My reputation means little to me, and as I have no family left, no one will be affected. Furthermore, Mr. Bennet, you do not know that I have a history with the Markhams; any gossip would harm their name more than mine. They will be most careful about the rumours. I know how to deal with the earl and his unworthy son. If the earl takes Markham from here soon enough, Darcy will have time to calm himself and think properly before making any decisions. I will speak to Elizabeth about that, and I am sure she will see my reasons and eventually accept them.”
“I doubt that very much,” replied Mr. Bennet. “Elizabeth will not allow you to take such a burden upon yourself. And even if we accept your version, Markham himself could easily contradict you—not to mention the fact that the servants will talk, and rumours and gossip will spread in no time.”
“You should trust me more, Mr. Bennet,” she answered with a bitter smile. “I have already informed my maid that I was the one attacked by Markham and that Miss Elizabeth came to my rescue and was injured in the process; I am sure she has already shared this news with the other servants as I did not ask her to be discreet about it. By tomorrow night, it is likely all of Meryton will be informed of my version of the incident. As for Markham, he was too inebriated to know what he was doing, so nobody will take his word seriously, at least not in this county.”
Three men watched her, eyes and mouths gaping, as if they could barely understand her words.
“You intend to lie and expect us to support you in concealing the truth,” the colonel concluded.
“No, I do not expect you to do anything. The truth? What truth, Colonel? What was it you saw exactly when you arrived?”
He hesitated only a moment. “I saw you fighting with Markham.”
“Precisely. That is the only thing you can testify about on your word of honour, but I doubt anyone will actually inquire about or even doubt my word. What reason would a woman like me, with wealth and position, have to lie about such a scandal? Am I not right?”
“I do not know what to say,” whispered Mr. Bennet, looking from one to the other. “We should talk to Lizzy and see what she thinks and then wait for Darcy’s arrival. Has Darcy been informed?”
“Yes, I sent him a note,” answered Bingley.
“You sent him a note? When did you do that?” asked Lady Cassandra, obviously surprised and highly displeased. “And what did you write in the note?”
“Immediately after…the incident. I thought he should know. I wrote him that Lord Markham attempted to attack Elizabeth,” Bingley whispered in front of Lady Cassandra’s open censure.
“That was a stupid thing to do, Bingley,” she said coldly. “We must hurry. I will go and talk to Elizabeth immediately,” she added while exiting the door.
Three gentlemen remained motionless in the middle of the room—gazing at Lady Cassandra as she left—each of them helplessly and unsuccessfully contemplating what was best to be done.
***
Lady Cassandra entered Elizabeth’s room and found only her sister. She cast a quick glance around before looking inquiringly to the obviously distressed elder Miss Bennet.
“Lizzy is still in the bath,” Jane whispered, her eyes tearful. “She has been there since you left; the water must be quite cold by now. I tried to talk to her, but she said she still was not clean enough. She…she kept cleaning herself. She behaves so strangely that I do not know what to do.”
“I shall go and talk to her if you agree.” Jane nodded silently, her eyes full of gratitude and hope.
Elizabeth was sitting in the bathtub, her hair down and wet, lying on her back. She did not even turn her head when Lady Cassandra entered. “Jane, I am not ready yet,” she said, continuing to rub her hands against her body in an obvious gesture of washing herself.
“Yes, you are ready,” Lady Cassandra stated, and Elizabeth startled. Her ladyship moved forward, taking a robe from the chair. “You are ready and will get out this instant, Elizabeth. You are cold.”
“No, I am not,” Elizabeth answered with the obstinacy of a child. “And I am not yet ready. I am so dirty. I feel all that mud on me, and…” The tears burst out, rolling down her cheeks, and she wiped them off furiously and continued to wash her neck and face.
Lady Cassandra kneeled near the tub and took Elizabeth’s hands, stopping their violent movements and forcing Elizabeth to look at her.
“You must get out of the water, and then we must talk. You must trust me; all will be well!”
Elizabeth continued to cry silently, her eyes—pained and vacant, utterly devoid of their usual liveliness—stared at Lady Cassandra.
“You are calling me Elizabeth,” she said softly.
“I am? Yes, I suppose I am,” her ladyship admitted, slightly uneasy. “I apologise.”
“No, there is no need. I have long wanted you to address me by my given name, but you never did.”
“I do not know why I did not call you by your given name sooner, but for heaven’s sake, let us not have
this conversation now. Come; let me help you out of the tub.”
As Elizabeth still did not move, Lady Cassandra took her arms firmly. “Elizabeth, I will give you one more minute; then, if you do not remove yourself, I will call the servants to pull you out of that bathtub. I am not joking; you know that to be true.”
“You have no right to order me like that,” Elizabeth replied, wrapping her arms around herself.
“If I am worried about a friend, I care little about rights or wrongs; I do everything I consider proper. So—shall I call the servants? Or perhaps your father, who is downstairs?”
Elizabeth flinched violently; then, after only a few moments of hesitation, she reached her hand to take the robe and wrapped herself in it as she stepped out of the tub. She almost lost her balance and was about to fall when Lady Cassandra hurried to support her.
A few minutes later, Elizabeth sat in the middle of the bed, propped up with pillows. Her colourless face and her eyes stared toward a blank point somewhere on the opposite wall. Neither Lady Cassandra nor Jane spoke, patiently waiting and exchanging quick glances with each other.
“Elizabeth…” whispered Jane after an interval of unbearable silence.
“I feel nothing,” Elizabeth said, her voice hardly audible. “Not even shame—only dirty and angry. I thought…I thought there would be pain…and blood…But there was nothing…”
Jane gasped and turned pale, whispering, “Oh, Lizzy…”
Lady Cassandra stared at her wonderingly, searching for the meaning of her words.
“Oh, my dear!” she burst out. “You think that? You believe that Markham took advantage of you?”
Elizabeth’s shocked expression confirmed that she was indeed correct in her assumption. “My dear, what you are afraid of did not happen! There is nothing for you to feel because nothing happened! Elizabeth, I cannot say how sorry I am that you had to go through that nightmare, but fortunately, he was stopped in time. It did not happen,” her ladyship insisted, watching Elizabeth carefully.
Elizabeth stopped breathing, her eyes searching Lady Cassandra incredulously as her heart pounded with desperate hope. “Lady Cassandra, what do you mean? I can remember that something happened. He touched me and he tried to kiss me…and then I fell, and I felt him upon me and—
“My dear, please calm yourself. I left the house a few moments after Markham, but unfortunately, it took me some time to find you. I saw you fighting with him. Less than a minute later, I was there.”
“But…” Elizabeth’s face regained some of its colour; she released herself from Jane’s embrace and moved out of the bed. She felt dizzy as she stood and leaned slightly, almost falling.
“Lady Cassandra, how can you be certain? Where is my dress? I know my dress was ripped off—
“I am certain; trust me, my dear.” Lady Cassandra looked at Elizabeth’s confused, pained expression and then at Jane, who seemed as tormented as was her sister. “Oh, dear! How can I explain this? It requires some amount of time to…accomplish that activity, much more than it took me to reach you. Besides, he was fully dressed…if you understand my meaning.”
Lady Cassandra hoped her assurance would calm Elizabeth to some degree—and apparently, she succeeded. To her utter surprise, Elizabeth’s eyes remained fixed upon her, inquiringly, still obviously distrustful, and then suddenly Elizabeth started laughing, loudly, nervously, covering her face with her palms. Then her peals of laughter turned into painful sobs that shattered her entire body.
They allowed her time to cry—a relieving, liberating cry—and Jane’s tears joined those of her sister. Lady Cassandra tried to keep her composure as she watched the two sisters.
Suddenly, Elizabeth’s sobs stopped, and she turned toward Lady Cassandra. “You saved me,” she said. Then, as if seeing her for the first time that evening, she touched her ladyship’s cheek.
“And you have been hurt because of me. Your face is bruised—
“Oh, that? He was stronger then I imagined when I tried to take him off you, but do not worry; it is just a scratch. You should see his face. The colonel actually broke it!” she added with forced laughter.
“You have been hurt because of me. You exposed yourself because of me, risking your own safety,” Elizabeth continued with no little emotion.
“No, Elizabeth, that is not true. You have been hurt because of me. I should have taken better care of you. I should have warned you more seriously about Markham.”
Elizabeth shook her head in disapproval. “You had done everything to indicate the danger, but I did not take your warning seriously. I should have been more prudent. My impertinence exposed my family to scandal again—and only three days before your engagement ball, Jane. I am so sorry!”
“Lizzy, how can you apologise? You have done nothing wrong; it was not your fault. I certainly do not care about the ball and neither does Mr. Bingley, I assure you!”
“Mr. Bingley?! Jane, does he know what has happened? What did he say? Oh, of course he knows, I am in his house after all…I cannot think rationally, I only—
“Elizabeth, let us talk calmly for a few minutes, shall we?” Lady Cassandra resumed her place on the bed near Elizabeth. “There is no scandal at all. Only the colonel, your father and Mr. Bingley are aware of what happened. The colonel followed me when I exited the house and made a timely and fortunate appearance while I was fighting with Markham. He silenced Markham, but we needed Mr. Bingley’s assistance, so we informed him and your sister. There is something I need to talk to you about immediately so we can settle this thing for good. I really hope you will use your good judgment and your sense to support me in this.”
“What about William?” she whispered.
Lady Cassandra hesitated only a moment. “Well, Bingley informed him—and I am afraid he did not accomplish that task in the best way possible. In truth, Darcy is precisely the reason I want to talk to you about this if you feel strong enough to bear a difficult conversation.”
“Of course, Lady Cassandra,” Elizabeth answered, her eyes still downcast. “I can tolerate anything if it is about William. But do you think he will come? And if he does…I do not think I will be able to bear the expression on his face. What if he —?”
“Elizabeth!” Lady Cassandra cried, with a severe voice. “Please listen to me—Darcy will come sooner than you think, and the only one who can put this horrible incident behind us is you! Now, here is what I have done and how I need your help…And, by the way, from now on—no more of this Lady Cassandra, if you please! I can predict we will have a long and difficult argument this evening, and it will be much more comfortable to call each other by our given names when fighting.”
***
Darcy had compelled his mount to a gallop since the first moment he touched the saddle, and his only coherent thought was that he was moving too slowly—unbearably, painfully slowly. The servant needed three hours to reach his house with the express from Bingley, and Darcy needed a quarter of an hour after he read it to be ready and on his horse, rushing to Netherfield—rushing to her.
First, he was certain Bingley had somehow mixed things up in a deplorable manner. He said Elizabeth had been attacked by Markham—but that was the most ridiculous thing ever; how could Markham be in Hertfordshire? Of course, he could not ask the servant for details, so all he could do was leave within a few minutes to discover the truth for himself. The only thing that mattered and the only thing he prayed for while careening through fields in the middle of the night was the hope that he would arrive in time but fearing the worst.
As he hurtled wildly, his mind was vividly invaded by Elizabeth’s pained eyes, her fears, her sadness and the desperation in her kiss when they parted, and he hated himself for leaving her. She was afraid of something that evening, and he was so insensible that he dismissed her fears lightly. He was not there when she needed him; he was not there to protect her. He hated himself as much as he loved her. The night was dark with no moon or stars—nobody to witness his tea
rs of anger and helpless despair.
***
They talked for a long time, neither of them willing to accept the other’s justification. Lady Cassandra tried to impose her version on a stunned Elizabeth, who instantly rejected the idea of allowing her ladyship to take the blame upon herself.
Jane was unable to intervene, as she could not decide whose side she should take. She could see the wisdom in Lady Cassandra’s plan, and she could understand her sister’s reason for not accepting her ladyship’s generous offer. For the first time in her life, Jane Bennet hated a man with all her heart—the man who had done so much harm to her beloved sister.
“Elizabeth, you must trust me; everything will be much easier this way, and besides, you have few choices. What do you propose to do—tell everyone that I lied and that, in fact, Markham attacked you? You can easily imagine what kind of speculation and gossip that revelation would raise; and the damage would affect both your family and me. What would be the use of it?”
Elizabeth hesitated a moment, long enough for Lady Cassandra to feel she had gained the advantage. “Moreover, there is something you have not been told: almost the same thing happened to me four years ago. The earl’s eldest son forced me into a compromising situation during a ball, and we were caught; afterwards, they insisted I marry him, and when I refused, they spread all kinds of rumours about me. Back then the scandal did affect me,” she admitted with a light tone, trying to prove those memories affected her no longer. However, her pale face and the expression of distress did not go unnoticed by either sister.
“The earl has another son?”
“He had…That son passed away two years ago.”
“That was the reason you left town?” The improper question escaped Elizabeth’s lips.
“Yes, partially…I was very young then, and since I had spent all my life away from London, I was not accustomed to such shameless schemes. I confess that, when I first met young Lord Markham, I enjoyed his company very much. Then he became quite insistent in his courtship, and I withdrew to the point where I did not accept his calls. And then, at the first ball where we happened to be together, he pretended he wanted to talk to me and apologise. We were on a balcony, and there were people around us, but he felt no remorse in kissing me right there. You can imagine what followed.”
