Pride and Prejudice doesn't belong to me

An Evening To Remember

Elizabeth put down the book she was struggling to read and gazed at her sister's sleeping face again. Jane was still sleeping peacefully, like she had been the last two times Elizabeth had checked on her. She stood up and made a quick decision – she would take the walk she had been planning to take for the past half-hour; she needed the fresh air before she was forced to spend another evening with her hosts. Jane would not wake and if she did she would wait for Elizabeth to see to her needs. Not that Jane needed as much attention now as she had done before; Elizabeth intended to talk to her about asking Mr. Bingley to lend them his carriage to take them home. She couldn't wait to get back home.

Elizabeth took her shawl from the wardrobe and after another quick look at her sister she made her way outside.

000

Mr. Bingley debated with himself for the third time and he would have gone to Darcy to ask his opinion but he knew his friend would quickly dissuade him and worse still Caroline would probably overhear – she was always hanging around Darcy, and then he'd never hear the last of it. He took a deep breath and walked out of his room and made his way to the guest chamber where Jane and Elizabeth were currently residing.

He knocked softly on the door and received no answer, and while that would have been taken as an indication that he abandon the whole scheme, Bingley decided to open the door and enter.

Jane was alone in the room, sleeping.

Bingley thought, again, about leaving the room but instead he found himself drawing the chair closer to her bed. He must have made quite a bit of noise because Jane slowly opened her eyes.

"Mr. Bingley," she said softly.

"Hush," he replied, taking her hand in his, "I didn't mean to wake you."

She smiled at him and after a beat closed her eyes again and went back to sleep.

Bingley gazed at her and thought to himself that he had never seen such a beautiful sight in his life. He doubted he ever would. He knew that he should get up and leave the room before he was discovered but decided to stay a while longer.

000

Elizabeth opened the door and was surprised to see her sister and Mr. Bingley both fast asleep still holding hands. She wondered if she should wake them and decided to go back out and return making enough noise to wake him up. She shut the door quite loudly behind her and then knocked even louder before entering.

"Miss Elizabeth," Mr. Bingley, smiled at her, he was standing away from the bed. "I came to check on your sister."

"She's recovering very well, sir, thank you for asking," Elizabeth smiled at him.

"I'll get out of your way," Mr. Bingley said. "See you at dinner."

000