Lady Livery Takes a Fall

It came without warning. The letter Mrs. Livery now held in her fragile hands made her wilt. She had just returned from a leisure trip in Derbyshire to find the folded parchment on her nightstand;

"Mrs. Livery," it read, "I understand that for seventeen years we have been married, and that I am your husband, and that as your husband I have certain duties, one of them being to remain your husband, regardless of the circumstances. As it stands, I no longer feel the same...increase in heartbeat in your presence, and have not for some time. However, I think it best that we remain joined in wedlock, and believe it would also best serve us if I found some sort of dwelling away from the estate for now.
"I've told the Wickhams that I must to London for business, and will return in three months or so. See to it that Pemberley is taken care of in my absence."

She let the parchment fall to the floor and sank into the Regency chair, crying until Liza (her favorite maid) came in. Snatching up the letter, Mrs. Livery jumped and ran out the room. So flustered the poor creature was, that she nearly forgot to chastise Liza for failing to steam the creases out of her maidservant's uniform, and thus looking so sloppy and unladylike.

xxx

Oh, what a dreadful thing, this letter. Mrs. Livery knew very well when and how often James visited his French mistress, and so the information inside came as no real surprise. But - heavens - think of how the Drakes and the Eliots and the Wilsons would react once they realized her husband left without speaking to her, and that the written word had become their principal mode of communication. And, "careful of Mrs. Livery's girls," Mrs. Clarkson would say to her two sons; "their mother speaks to her husband through letters." And the Dawsons would certainly never invite her to dine with them again, after hearing of such a scandal.

"Oh, what a tragedy is this!" she cried (for Mrs. Livery thought herself a poetic woman, though theatrics were much more her forte). With a stumble here and a trip there, she feigned at fainting.

Her name would be forever tainted. 'Twas a shame worse than low birth.

A/N:

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