First, she sought a promise that Lizzy would write to her regularly – that much, surely, she could depend on. Sir William and Maria were due to visit the bridal couple in Kent in March, and Charlotte found herself pressing, almost begging Lizzy to join them – as they descended the stairs as two maiden friends for the last time, she admitted that Lizzy’s presence would be as welcome to her as her own father and sister’s. She understood but chose to ignore Elizabeth’s reluctance to take up the invitation, and pleaded her case with such fervour that Lizzy agreed at last.

This gave Charlotte some relief on her last day as a spinster; with momentous changes ahead of her, there would be some continuity between her old life and her new one. In the unknown that lay ahead, there would still be familiar faces and voices, bringing news of home and the community she was leaving – for which she felt a surprising amount of affection now that her departure, with many long years before she might return, was imminent.

There were moments when the enormity of what she had managed rendered her breathless: never before had she been so aware that, as a woman, she was little better than a parcel to be lodged where first a father and then a husband decreed. But there was no use in hankering after the independence of a man; she was better off than many women, with a family overjoyed by her imminent nuptials, and an ostensibly comfortable home to anticipate.

The wedding day dawned bright and clear, her family, friends, and neighbours filled the pews of the church, and she trod the aisle on her beaming father’s arm to where her groom waited, all smiles and no little relief. She spoke her vows like a ventriloquist’s doll, and her path was chosen, her fate sealed. What her life would be now depended largely on her capacity to meet the terms of the contract to which she had just assented. And she was determined to make the very best of it she could.

1819

CHAPTER XVII

CHARLOTTE LOOKED AROUND THE FRESH green, white, and gold furnishings and papering of Miss Darcy’s apartments. The sun had settled on the tops of the hills as she had spoken, and it was time to wake Laura. She felt exposed: had she been too candid in her account of how she came to be the wife of Mr Collins? But she could not deny the relief she had also experienced. ‘I must apologise for speaking at such length – I confess to surprise at how the hours have flown,’ she said. ‘I hope my account has not been too tedious.’