“By all means, finish reading. I’m curious to hear news of her as well.”
Amelia nodded and picked up the letter, then set it down again.
“Before I forget again, do you know that your husband has apologised to me?”
Saying that Elizabeth was surprised would be an understatement. “He has?”
Amelia nodded. “Well,” she cocked her head, “as well as he knows to.”
“How? And for what?”
“Yesterday, before dinner, we were talking in the parlour, and Oliver mentioned his time in the war, and then Talbot said that not speaking up when an injustice was being committed was the same as participating in the wrongdoing. And then he stared at me. And I stared back in confusion. And then he added,like I did at your parents’ ball,” Amelia said with a fond smile.
Lizzie laughed. “I can’t believe him! Well, what did you tell him?”
Amelia shrugged. “Nothing. I nodded. He nodded back. I understand him, such conversations are awkward for me too.”
When Amelia read her letter, Elizabeth thought about Colin’s roundabout apology and wondered how many of those he’d extended to her throughout their time together.
“Elizabeth,” Amelia said in a strange voice, and she looked up.
Her friend wordlessly handed her the letter. After reading it, they exchanged a horrified glance.
“Colin,” Lizzie said, breathless from running up the stairs some fifteen minutes later.
“What is it?” Her husband asked anxiously.
“Elinor has written. Her father arranged her marriage to a neighbour of theirs. He’s a widower who not only has four small children, which is Elinor’s personal idea of hell, but he is also known for his cruelty. We have to go home, now!”
In an attempt to soothe her, Colin said, “All right, we’ll go. Please, don’t excite yourself. I’m certain the father can be reasoned with, or some solution can be found.”
“There is no solution, I remember cousin Andrew telling me that cruelty isn’t grounds for divorce, and besides,” Lizzie shook her head frantically, “you haven’t seen her letter. I’m afraid for her, she sounded so… hopeless. I just… I’m worried sick.”
Colin hugged her as firmly as he could. “Let’s go.”
*
“Wake up,” she heard Colin’s voice urging her, but it still wasn’t enough to drag her out of the world of sleep. “Lizzie, come on, we’re here.”
Her eyes flew open.
“We’re here?” She asked as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “How long have I slept?”
“Almost the entire drive,” her husband told her with a smile. “We’d even made a stop before this, and you never even stirred.”
“No need to unload the trunks,” Colin told his groom when they exited the carriage. “We’re going home as soon as we finish with Miss Woodhouse.”
Lizzie was rather surprised but decided to focus on her friend for now and inquire about their living arrangements later.
The maid led them to the parlour. Colin never took his eyes off her. Elizabeth had thought that stepping into Colin’s London house again or seeing the ponceau decorative pillows she’d so lovingly embroidered would cause her pain or flood her with negative memories; instead, she congratulated herself on the choice, seeing as they complemented the room beautifully.
Elinor soon joined them, wearing what looked like a very old house dress, with her hair in a cap. Her face was swollen and red, and her eyes looked, for lack of a better word, lifeless. She wasn’t even blinking as much as she normally did.
“Elinor,” Lizzie met her halfway, and they held onto each other tightly and desperately.
Elinor just kept shaking her head.
“Please, let us sit,” Lizzie urged her, and the girl let herself be led towards the settee. “Mrs White will bring us some tea soon, and we can talk, all right?”
