Page 92 of When Elizabeth's Cat Chose Darcy
“Caroline. I shall settle your dowry upon you immediately—the full twenty thousand. You will have your independence. But you will not live under my roof, and you will not be welcome in my company. When I marry Jane Bennet, you will not be invited. You will never be Aunt Caroline to any of my children. You may live with the Hursts or go to Aunt Octavia up north. What you do with your dowry is yours to determine, but do not ever come back to me.”
Caroline looked at me. I said nothing. There was nothing to say that Bingley had not already said. Everything he said was right, and his spine was magnificent. I would tell him so when this was finished.
“You are both fools.” Caroline’s voice had lost its polish. “You will throw away everything—fortune, connection, consequence—for a pair of country girls with no money and no prospects.”
“I will throw away everything for Jane Bennet,” Bingley said. “And I suspect Darcy will find her sister a great gain both for the honor of his name and friendship for Miss Darcy.”
Mrs. Hurst took Caroline’s arm. The gesture was not comfort but extraction, the elder sister recognizing the orderly retreat to surrender.
“I am going to fetch my sister,” I said, picking up the novel,Belinda,from the desk. “She has been in her room long enough, and she will be eager for the friendly faces at Longbourn.”
Without even so much as a farewell, I walked by Miss Bingley and the Hursts, down the corridor and up the main staircase to Georgiana’s room.
The first thing that struck me was the open door and the silence within.
“Georgiana?”
She wasn’t there. Her boots were gone, and so was her cloak. A trail of dried mud led from the carpet toward the servant’s door at the back of the room.
The bird had fled her cage.
