The Codicil (On Hold)

Chapter 2 - Part 1

*If you are following this story please be aware that chapter 1 was altered, affecting the ending.  Rereading the last 2 paragraphs of the chapter should put you up to speed.

Chapter 2 - Part 1

Darcy was not able to say how long he remained standing in the park after Elizabeth left him, but he was too overcome with emotions to return soon to his aunt’s home.  If he was to arrive at Rosings in his current state Lady Catherine would be sure to take note and question him in the same imperious manner she was accustomed to use when determined to interfere. He was in no mood to deal with his aunt and her delusion that he would offer for her daughter’s hand in marriage.  All of his focus needed to be on Elizabeth and understanding what had just occurred between them.

 Fair to Jane?  Why would Elizabeth’s courting me be unfair to her sister? He pulled his fingers through his hair.  Jane? He struggled to review their entire conversation. 

So much had happened in the few hours between his ill spoken proposal and this accidental meeting that her last words puzzled him.  How did Elizabeth find out about what transpired in London?  He doubted Jane knew the truth.  Who informed her about his part in keeping Bingley away? Miss Bingley would never tell. 

He leaned against the tree, the very spot Elizabeth was leaning against when he came upon her.  He imagined he could still smell the light lavender fragrance that swirled around her and teased him whenever she was near.  Less than a day ago he was, “the last man she could ever be prevailed upon to marry,”  but today, Elizabeth wanted to love him! He had held her close and for a few precious moments she had relaxed in his embrace – then she fled.  It was confusing.  

“Poetry, I actually quoted poetry!” He feverishly ran his hands through his hair again as if the mere motion would help him locate his missing intellect, and then he groaned aloud. Had she not once told him that in the absence of a healthy and stout love, poetry would starve away any thin inclination?  Is that not what she said happened to Jane when some unnamed gentleman had quoted her a few lines of verse?  But Elizabeth was not Jane, and when he recalled her reaction to his recitation, he reasoned that his short foray into the land of sonnets did not seem to have harmed his suit.  It appeared that Elizabeth’s feelings exceeded a thin inclination, yet she had fled from him and the only explanation he was to get was one word—Jane. 

His mind took a turn in a new direction.  Could it be that she had harbored a tender regard for him all along? It hardly seemed possible.  He paced back and forth as he tried to make some sense of this puzzle.  He needed to understand what had led to the change in her sentiments from hatred to almost love and then to run away from him.  She had said it was because of--

Jane! She was the key to unraveling this dilemma and he knew she was staying in London, at her uncle’s home somewhere in Cheapside. He must return to town without delay and find her before Elizabeth’s arrival the next week when she was to join Jane for the return trip to their home in Hertfordshire.  He could not remember the uncle’s name.  He ran his fingers through his hair yet a third time, stopping to clutch a handful in a desperate attempt to pull the answer from the part of the brain that stored all the useless information pushed at him. He wondered how he could ever have thought so little of Elizabeth’s family that their name, something he now needed and valued, had been dismissed as inconsequential.  

He glanced up at the sky as if the motion would shake the name loose from its hiding.  He shielded his eyes from the sun, now at its height.  Richard! He had told his cousin they would be leaving at ten, nearly two hours ago.  He must be wondering where I am.  How much should I reveal?  How much should I conceal?   Should I ask him to help?