Page 4 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

He reached across the desk and took her notebook. “Never mind the noise, Lizzy. They will soon settle it among themselves. Now, then, I believe you should draw a star beside Arbor Low, Lizzy. With its extensive earthworks, it is the most spectacular of the Derbyshire sites.”

She handed him the quill. He drew a star beside the name.

“Lizzy, I will take you and the family to see it, for it is a treasure from antiquity. You will help me plan the journey, and we shall travel to the Peak District and perhaps even to the Lakes.”

They both faced the door as Mrs. Bennet’s voice rose from elsewhere in the house.

Mr. Bennet returned the notebook. “Go, Lizzy, and see what you can do to restore the peace.”

She rose to do as bidden. Upon reaching the staircase, she waited for Jane, who was descending.

Elizabeth laughed when she saw the mess her sister had made. Leaves and petals were strewn across the floor around Lydia and her mother.

“Lydia, hawthorn is thought to be a fairy tree. If you bring the flowering branches into the house, the fairies will come in too.”

Mrs. Bennet nudged her daughter on the shoulder and pointed toward the door. “Take those branches away, for they carry the smell of death!”

“I do not know what you can mean, Mamma. They smell sweet.”

“Take them out, for now you have invited misfortune into our house.”

“Where shall I take them?”

“Take them back to the tree where you cut them. Go now!” Mrs. Bennet gestured to Elizabeth.

“Go with your sister and make certain she returns those branches to the tree where she cut them.”

“Yes, Mamma.”

“I shall go with you, Lizzy,” Jane said, laughing. “Come, let us fetch our bonnets and gloves.”

Mr. Bennet stepped out of his study. “What is this about fairies, Lizzy? Have you become a believer?”

Elizabeth laughed. “You know what they say, Papa. Beltane is the season of the fairies, when the veil between the two worlds is believed to grow unusually thin.”

He chuckled, stooped to retrieve a branch from beneath his foot, and held it out to Lydia. “Here you are, my girl. Remove these from the house before your mother suffers a nervous fit.”

He returned to his study.

When they reached the lone hawthorn, Lydia laid the flowering branches at the foot of the trunk, and the three sisters paused to admire the tree laden with white blossoms.

* * *

That evening, Elizabeth sat at her desk, bent over a letter, when Jane entered.

“Are you replying to Aunt Maddie?”

“Yes.”

“I am excited to go, Lizzy. There are no eligible gentlemen left in Meryton.” Jane picked up the letter of invitation and read it again.

“They have all gone off to university or to fight in the Peninsula. Unless we go to London, we are unlikely to wed. You must go, Jane, and pray our uncle finds you a match.”

A look of mischief crossed Jane’s face. “And spare us from ruin should Lydia continue in this manner.”

Jane bent over Aunt Madeline’s letter, drew something in one corner, and handed it to Elizabeth with a wink.

Elizabeth examined the sketch. “Hawthorn blossoms?”