by Wynne Mabry
He walked to the end of the hall and knocked upon the door to the chamber which Mr. Hurst was occupying. After a moment, it was opened, and they stared at each other. Mr. Darcy saw a familiar face except for the glint of intelligence in the eyes and an overall appearance of good-humour.
“I presume that you were expecting Miss Elizabeth,” he said. “I am sorry to startle you, but may I come in? There are several things that I would like to discuss with you.”
Mr. Hurst let him in, offered him the one chair, and then sat himself upon the edge of the bed. “I must apologize for having presumed upon Mr. Bingley’s hospitality,” he said. “Unfortunately, there was little else to be done. Do you know who I am?”
“You are a Mr. Hurst from another reality.”
“And you know about Elizabeth?”
“Yes, I do.”
“I suppose this is all rather astonishing to you.”
“It certainly is surprising, but I am not completely unfamiliar with the concept of alternate planes of existence.”
“You heard it from Mr. Carruthers?” Mr. Hurst cried. “So did Darcy and I in my world.”
“Yes, I did. You were at Cambridge?”
“I was indeed.”
For the next ten minutes they talked quite agreeable and with some enthusiasm about memories from those days, many of which were the same or similar. There was one great difference though.
“Your counterpart and I were almost inseparable in those days,” Mr. Hurst said. “We have been great friends for quite a few years now.”
“Yours never attended a university.”
“No. I understand that he is not like me.”
“Nothing like. He could never invent a machine to travel between planes.”
“It was not actually meant for travelling between them,” Mr. Hurst said. “I only meant to observe other planes, but it went dreadfully wrong. I believe that the cylinder I used was too big. It was an inexcusable error in calculations. Even then, I should have had the sense to step back from the portal, but I was too curious.” He sighed. “If I had not been so reckless, then even if your Elizabeth had been pulled in, I would have been able to send her back straight away.”
“She is not my Elizabeth,” Mr. Darcy felt compelled to point out.
“Oh, right. Elizabeth did tell me that. I am just used to thinking of them as a pair. Quite a devoted pair, I can tell you. It is wonderful to see Darcy so happy. He has been through some difficult times, but I suppose you know that.”
“Yes, I think I do.”
“He will be terribly worried about her. I really must build this machine as fast as possible and get the three of us back where we belong. But I can understand that your Mr. Bingley might not want me to build it here. Perhaps you could help me think of somewhere else I might go.”
“He will not mind. I can safely answer for him. Bingley is always obliging.”
“Just like ours, I understand. He is also the most amiable person. His happiness with Jane has been the perfect reward for his goodness. It surprises me that they are not engaged here, but perhaps they might soon be.”
“Perhaps,” said Mr. Darcy, a bit overwhelmed by this talk of happiness and devotion. “On the subject of your machine, can you tell me what building it will encompass? Perhaps I might be of some assistance to you.”
A Friend in a Time of Need
In the breakfast room, Elizabeth found only Mrs. Hurst.
“Caroline was not very hungry,” she said. “And Charles has gone to see if the servants have discovered anything. I am glad to see you, my dear friend. I have been feeling rather low.” She was holding a handkerchief, and there was a little pinkness around her eyes.
Elizabeth took the chair beside her and said, “Who would not be in such a situation? You have had a great deal to bear. I think you are being very brave.”
“I have been trying, but I am really am very worried that I shall never see him again.”
“You must put your confidence in Mr. Darcy. He really seems to understand how Mr. Hurst’s machine works,” Elizabeth said, immediately realizing that she should have said Fitzwilliam. What about Mr. Hurst, she thought. Did she call him by his first name as well? It was difficult to pretend to be somebody else.
Fortunately, Mrs. Hurst did not seem to notice. “Is he intending to use it?” she asked.
“Yes. He expects to be ready to make the attempt very soon.”
“No, he must not. It is too dangerous. I cannot let him take the risk.”
“He is quite willing to,” Elizabeth said, “and I am sure he knows that he must be careful.”
“My husband would not have been incautious, and now he is in another reality. The same thing could very well happen to Darcy. Anyway, there is no reason for him to do this. I thought he was hoping for Frederick to make his own way home, using the machine in the other reality.”
“We have concluded that there is not one,” Elizabeth admitted with hesitation. She would rather not have told Mrs. Hurst this.
“There must be,” she said.
Unable to reveal that she knew this with certainty, Elizabeth said, “It simply cannot be counted on. It makes sense for Darcy to try.” She could not say Fitzwilliam, but she managed to drop the mister.
“I cannot agree. I will not take the chance of the same thing happening to him,” Mrs. Hurst said, getting up from her chair.
“Stay a moment, please,” Elizabeth asked her, making a decision in that moment. “There is something more that you need to know.”
Mrs. Hurst sat down again, and Elizabeth told her the truth. She was astonished, but her response was compassionate. “You poor girl,” she said. “It must have been a dreadful experience.”
“It was a puzzling one. At first, I had no idea what had happened to me. The vortex and the sudden appearance of a strange machine had me wondering if I was hallucinating. Then I went to dinner, and there were quite a few things which seemed out of the ordinary, but I still thought it was something wrong with me. I was hoping that it would all go back to normal, but instead things became stranger. After I understood what Mr. Hurst’s machine was for, it eventually dawned on me that I must also be in a different reality.”
“So you need to go home too?”
“Yes. And your Elizabeth needs to get back here. That is the other reason why Mr. Darcy is so determined to work that machine.”
“You are quite certain that there is not one in your reality?”
“I am. The Mr. Hurst there has no interest in science or inventions.”
“He does not invent anything? How very strange.”
“He is very different,” Elizabeth admitted.
“So this is why Darcy must try. I can understand how determined he must be. There will be no talking him out of it.”
“No, I am sure there will not,” Elizabeth agreed. “But as I have experienced a portal, I will be able to advise him.”
“Yes, that will be helpful. Do keep an eye upon him, please. I am afraid that desperation might make him reckless.”
“I do not think he is the sort of person to take risks.” But even as she said this, Elizabeth thought that he might do so in order to retrieve his fiancée. “But I will watch out for him, and I know that Mr. Bingley wants to do the same. He said that Mr. Darcy should not proceed without him. You can come and watch as well.”
Mrs. Hurst shook her head. “I will go and sit with Jane,” she said. “She will like the company, and I think it will be too nerve-wracking for me to watch. But could you please summon me straight away if Mr. Hurst comes back?”
“Once he is back, I will not be here,” Elizabeth reminded her, “And I am guessing that Mr. Hurst will be in a great hurry to see you anyway.”
“Yes, he will, and of course you will not be here. How silly of me. It is strange dealing with alternate realities. Not something I ever thought of in my life.”
“Very strange indeed. I will never be able to tell anybody that this happened to me.
Nobody will believe me.”
“Not even your Mr. Darcy?”
“Him least of all. He is not my Mr. Darcy, you see.”
“You are not engaged.”
“We are not even friendly.”
“How very sad.”
This was not a perspective which Elizabeth had considered. She stared at Mrs. Hurst for a second before saying, “Unfortunately, we have never gotten along very well.”
“Well, I do think that a shame. Darcy and Elizabeth are so perfect for each other. And they are so much in love.”
“I gathered as much from the depth of his concern about her.”
“Your Mr. Darcy must be very different, for you are just like Elizabeth.”
“I guessed that I might be. Our clothes are identical, and our needlework.”
“How very interesting.”
“Jane is just the same too. And your brother. He is exactly like the Mr. Bingley that I know. A very generous, welcoming sort of person, who has a great capacity for thinking of others.”
“Am I the same?” Mrs. Hurst asked.
Elizabeth hesitated, not wanting to tell the truth.
“I can guess that I am not.” But Mrs. Hurst was smiling. “That other person is not me,” she said. “You need not hide it from me. Is she quite dreadful.”
“Just a little,” Elizabeth said somewhat honestly. “She might be nicer to her friends, but she and I do not get along well.”
“It is hard to imagine,” Mrs. Hurst said. “Elizabeth and I have been excellent friends. I am sorry that you have not had the same experience.”
“Having had this chance to know you, I am rather sorry myself.”
“Is she friendly with Jane at least?”
“In a way, but I think there is more pretence than real affection.”
“Well, that is sad. Especially if they are to be sisters. Is your sister engaged to my counterpart’s brother?”
“No, she is not. There is undoubtedly a strong affection between them, but I believe that both his sisters are strongly opposed to the match.”
“Ah. Your Mrs. Hurst is like my sister, is she?”
“She is.”
“I was once like her myself,” Mrs. Hurst said. “When we were at school, neither of us was very nice. I think it was because I always felt that I had something to prove. I used to try very hard to assert my superiority. Then I fell ill one winter. Several of the girls were much kinder to me than I deserved, including one whom I had not treated well. It was generous of her to be so forgiving. We became quite good friends as a result of the time that she spent keeping me company. Caroline, meanwhile, barely came to see me. She does not have much patience with illness. I believe that experience was responsible for changing the direction in which I was headed. It completely altered my perspective. I began to value friendship over self-importance, and I started thinking about how my behaviour affected others. Perhaps your Mrs. Hurst did not have the same experience.”
Elizabeth agreed that this was a logical conclusion. “It does make one think about how events can shape people,’ she said. “It is interesting that you both married Mr. Hurst though.”
“It is. There must have been some difference in our reasons, but I assume that we both felt an attraction to him. Or perhaps it was just inevitable. Some force bringing the same people together in spite of other differences.”
“By that theory, I must be destined to end up with Mr. Darcy. That is a very unlikely event.”
“Is he also very different?”
Elizabeth pondered the question. “I am not entirely certain,” she said. “Your Mr. Darcy is much nicer, but I have seen similarities between them. They might be more alike if the one I knew was less proud. But this Mr. Darcy tells me that he is proud as well.”
“I have seen it sometimes, especially when he is among strangers. With his friends, he is a very good-natured person. He has been even more good-humoured than ever since meeting Elizabeth.”
“I think the one I know might have become even prouder since we met. I seem to bring out the worst in him.”
“Are you quite certain that he dislikes you?” Mrs. Hurst asked in an amused voice.
“Very certain,” Elizabeth said. “We are barely civil to each other. And he did not think me tolerable enough to tempt him to dance.”
Mrs. Hurst burst into laughter. “Did he say that too?”
Elizabeth smiled. “Mr. Darcy just told me that he did the same. I am quite astonished that my other self forgave him. She must be kinder than I am.”
“Oh, she was very unimpressed with him that night. I remember her saying to her friend Charlotte that she was very glad he did not want to dance with her since she did not find him tolerable enough to be her partner either. That compelled him to apologize, and ten minutes later they were laughing together.”
“Mr. Darcy and I have never laughed together. I did say the same thing to Charlotte though. Only she was not sitting next to me at the time. I got up and went to find her.”
“Perhaps that little thing made all the difference. Once our Mr. Darcy overheard Elizabeth, he realized how offensive he had been and immediately regretted it. I wonder if perhaps yours regretted it later.”
“It is hard to imagine that he did. I have seen him staring at me or listening in on my conversations, and I am certain that he only wants to find fault with me.”
Mrs. Hurst smiled. “Did it never occur to you that he might be admiring you and finding it hard to strike up a conversation of his own?”
“Impossible,” Elizabeth cried. “I am certain that he does not admire me. Anyway, he never finds it hard to speak when he wants to.”
“In my experience, a man who is attracted to a lady often finds himself encumbered by awkwardness.”
Elizabeth shook her head, but she could not help wondering if that really had been the case. Did Mr. Darcy actually like her? Was that the reason he looked at her so often? And could she ever like him? Absurd though it seemed, could they really be destined for each other?
A Welcome Offer of Assistance
After Mr. Darcy left, Elizabeth wondered if he intended to do anything about her presence here. There was no reason to think that he would interfere though. Clearly he wanted things restored to their natural state. Her back in her own world, and the other Elizabeth restored to this one where he could admire her while reminding himself that she was not good enough for him.
Of course, it really was none of her business. If Mr. Darcy did not want to marry her other self, then it was not her place to tell him that was his route to happiness. Indeed, in this case, it might not be. She could not assume that they would happy together just because she and Fitzwilliam were.
Not wishing to have further quarrel with a man who looked just like her fiancé, she was now even more keen to see the appearance of a portal. Unfortunately, there was nothing. In a little while, she saw the return of Mr. Darcy instead.
This time, he was not alone. To her astonishment, he was ushering Mr. Hurst into the room. Not his Mr. Hurst, but hers, with an armload of papers.
While Mr. Darcy locked the door with a key which he produced from his pocket, Mr. Hurst put the papers on a table and came over to Elizabeth. “This is very thoughtful of Mr. Darcy,” he said. “Such an excellent idea of his to get the key to the library so that we can both be here and wait together. So much better than you having to go without me and Darcy having to repeat his efforts later.”
“Yes, an excellent idea,” Elizabeth said, trying to sound agreeable, but she was wondering why Mr. Darcy felt the need to lock himself in the room with them.
“Are you sure that you were not completely mistaken about him?” Mr. Hurst asked. “I find myself liking him very much. He is a great deal like our Darcy. Just as clever as well. He has actually heard of alternate realities, and from the same gentleman who told me about his theories.”
“We have been having an interesting discussion,” Mr. Darcy said, joining them now. “It is
a fascinating subject, and one upon which Mr. Hurst is obviously a great expert.”
There was no hostility in his manner now, but Elizabeth could not so easily be made comfortable. She still looked at him with suspicion, but Mr. Hurst appeared to be his new best friend.
“If I have to build another machine, Mr. Darcy is going to help me,” he announced with enthusiasm. “Right here in the library, just as I did the first time.”
“In the library? Will it not attract attention for the door to be locked all the time?”
“Not at all,” Mr. Darcy said. “I have asked Mr. Bingley for exclusive use of this room, and he was very happy to accommodate my request. I told him that I wanted to work on a project without being disturbed, which provides a convenient excuse for everything.”
“Was that not very clever of him?” Mr. Hurst said, repeating his evident admiration for the man. “This will be better than the attic. And he insists upon paying for everything, so that we do not have to take Miss Bennet’s money.”
“I could not let him have that upon his conscience,” Mr. Darcy said. “It will also be more efficient if I fund this endeavour instead of you having to go to Longbourn in search of money. I hope you have no objections to accepting my assistance.”
“No,” Elizabeth said slowly. “I would also prefer to take money that is willingly offered to us.”
He was suddenly appearing as a very generous and thoughtful man, like the one she knew, but she wondered if his only motivation was to be rid of them as swiftly as possible.
“It is very willingly offered,” Mr. Darcy said as though he understood the unasked question. “I am not just trying to get rid of you. I do want to help. You are in need, and I am able to supply that need.”
“Of course we do not suspect you of wanting to be rid of us,” Mr. Hurst said heartily. “How could I think that after the kindness with which you have treated us? Or the questions you have been asking me. I am more likely to think you would want to keep us here in order to enjoy further discussion.”
Mr. Darcy smiled. “That would be agreeable. I am almost tempted.”