Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
T he day of the Netherfield Ball was excessively busy for the Bennet household. The servants spent the day heating water for baths, and the sisters spent the day helping each other prepare for the ball. Mrs Bennet was reasonably secure in her third daughter’s courtship, now was the time to secure Jane’s. Mrs Bennet spent the day flitting about Jane, ensuring that every possible effort with Jane’s toilette was made, and the effort was worthwhile. Mr Collins expressed great joy to have the honour of escorting so many lovely ladies with his Cousin Bennet.
Caroline Bingley spared no effort on the affair, and Netherfield was turned out in all its glory. Hundreds of candles lit the rooms, and the flowers from the suppliers in town were stunning. Strands of crystals reflected the candle light, and the ballroom was breathtaking. Miss Bingley was determined that this event would show Mr Darcy what a perfect hostess she was, and inspire him to propose. She spent days hinting that he ought to ask her for the first, to no avail. Mr Darcy never danced the first, and when he finally did, it would make a statement to everyone about his choice.
He asked her for the second, Miss Lucas the third, and immediately after supper, he plucked up his courage and asked Miss Elizabeth for her next available set. Somehow, the lady did not look too pleased, but she accepted. Darcy was tongue tied through the entire set. She needled him about his lack of conversation, which did not help the matter.
“Come Mr Darcy, we must have some conversation,” Elizabeth said with a wry smile.
“Do you converse as a rule while dancing?” he asked.
“No,” Elizabeth answered cheekily.
“No?” he echoed.
“I prefer to be unsociable and taciturn. It adds such flavour to the evening, does it not?” she replied impishly.
“I sense you are chastising me. You are right to, I suppose, for I ought to be more open, but it does not come easily to me,” he confessed.
“No?” Elizabeth asked.
“I find myself ill-qualified to recommend myself to strangers. I have not the talent for conversing with those I have never seen before. I struggle to catch their tone of conversation, and appear interested in their concerns, as I see often done.”
“Why is that, I wonder?” Elizabeth asked as they moved with the dance. “Is it perhaps because you will not take the trouble of making an effort?”
Darcy looked chastised. “Probably,” he admitted. “But those who are reserved are often uncomfortable calling attention to themselves. I have noted that your eldest sister seems like such a person. I assume that this may be why the two of you are so close. Your convivial demeanour is the perfect compliment to her reticence. It is thus with myself and Bingley. I often put my foot in it when I am nervous, but his proficiency in conversing with others often eases my path. Though I have been much occupied in correspondence with my steward the last two weeks, I hope that I have made a beginning at being on good terms with my friend’s neighbours.”
Elizabeth thought over what he had said. She had not taken it into consideration that Mr Darcy might be shy. Indeed, he had improved in the opinion of the neighbourhood since the Meryton Assembly. It had been noted among the matrons of the town and their husbands that the gentleman, while still excessively restrained in his speech, paid attention to the conversations of those about him, offered sound and useful advice when appropriate. He had been of small assistance to a number of the residents in Meryton. First, when he heard during a visit to Lucas Lodge that Mrs Long’s chicken house had collapsed, he had, the very next morning, sent his grooms and footmen with lumber to build her a new one. He had given several local gentlemen very sound advice regarding troubles they were facing on their estates. He sent a letter of recommendation for Mr Mitchell’s third son, which resulted in the young man obtaining a good position as a deputy steward to an estate of great wealth and importance, and one afternoon when out riding, he spotted Mr Goulding and his son struggling with their labourers to dig a drainage ditch. According to Mr Goulding, Mr Darcy had been the first to encourage Bingley to dismount, remove their coats, and roll up their sleeves to assist. A possible storm had been expected, and the completion of the proper drainage had ensured the safety of the field in question. As a result, despite his reserve, Mr Darcy had quietly earned the approbation of the matrons in the little town, and the respect of the gentlemen.
The dance ended as Elizabeth continued her musings; Darcy wondered what she might be thinking, but felt too awkward to ask. He left her with her mother, who exclaimed far too loudly of her expectations for Jane. Elizabeth felt chagrined. Already, her father had humiliated the lot of them when her next younger sister had displayed her talents at the pianoforte for far too long during dinner, making an even worse spectacle of Mary, and appalling everyone in earshot with his cruel words. She spotted Kitty running at full speed through the drawing room, brandishing Lieutenant Chamberlain's sword over her head. Why was Lydia not leading this charge? By the time she was seven and her sister was two, Elizabeth had learned that if Lydia was separated from Kitty, and you could not hear her anywhere, that she was probably getting into trouble. This pattern had not changed since her youngest sister’s infancy. She scanned the ballroom just in time to see Lydia slip out onto the terrace with Lieutenant Wickham.
She made haste across the ballroom, Charlotte Lucas noticing her hurry, and following hot on her heels. Lydia had just begun to enjoy her fourth kiss from a gentleman, but her first in the moonlight – her first, second, and third having been bestowed upon Lieutenant Denny, Lieutenant Chamberlain, and Lieutenant Saunderson over the last two weeks – when her second eldest sister pulled her out of a shadow on the terrace by her ear.
“Lydia Frances Bennet, how dare you? What on earth do you think you are doing?” Elizabeth hissed.
“La! Don’t be so jealous, Lizzy!” Lydia cried. “Just because I helped Mary select a gown does not mean I have changed my mind about being the first of my sisters to wed! Go away, and leave me be! You are only jealous!”
“How do you plan to be married, when Mr Wickham confessed to me that he has no fortune the very day he met me!” Elizabeth spat out. “He has nothing but his army pay! Is it worth living in a tent for the rest of your life just to be the first to wed?”
Lydia and Wickham, not even having noticed Charlotte standing quietly by a potted fern in another shadow, pushed past her back into the drawing room. Suddenly Lydia pushed the doors closed, and Elizabeth heard a tell tale click as her younger sister locked it.
“Lydia! Lydia Bennet, you open this door immediately!” Elizabeth shook the doorknob violently.
“What a lark!” Lydia trilled behind the door.
Charlotte went around the other corner of the terrace to see if there was another door, and as she did so, Elizabeth heard a smothered shriek, and Charlotte came back as quickly as she had gone.
“Who was that?” Elizabeth hissed.
Charlotte only shook her head, and said nothing. A moment later Captain Carter came from around the same corner holding the hand of Miss Edwina Long, whose face was flaming and appeared near tears.
“Charlotte,” the girl said plaintively.
“I saw nothing, Edwina,” Charlotte said firmly, giving the captain a hard glare.
“Miss Elizabeth,” Miss Edwina whispered.
“I know nothing, Miss Edwina,” Elizabeth assured her. “Now compose yourself, or everyone will suspect something when we finally return to the ballroom.”
A moment later, the door opened, to reveal Lydia and Wickham with Mrs Bennet and Lady Lucas. When Lydia spotted the other ladies, she whirled on Wickham, “When you said Captain Carter had just gone around the corner, I thought you meant alone!” The man shrugged his shoulders, unconcerned.
“Lydia Bennet, have you just attempted to compromise your own sister?” Lady Lucas demanded.
“As if Eliza Bennet – of all respectable young women – would go anywhere alone with a gentleman,” Charlotte said in derision. “There were any number of us out here as you can see, it was a childish attempt.”
“She deserves it for spoiling my fun!” Lydia said hotly, tossing her head. “How dare she follow me about! Lizzy is not my governess!”
The matrons stood there, squabbling with Lydia, as Elizabeth, Charlotte, Edwina, and the gentlemen made themselves scarce.
A moment later, Mr Collins appeared at her elbow. “Cousin, is that Mr Darcy of Pemberley in Derbyshire?”
“I believe so, Cousin.” Elizabeth replied.
“I must make myself known to him, instantly! He is the nephew of my esteemed patroness, Lady Catherine!” Mr Collins insisted. “Her ladyship would expect me to pay my respects!”
“Mr Collins, you cannot! Considering that Mr Darcy is the man of higher rank, he must request that you be made known to him! The man will consider it to be impudent!” Elizabeth insisted.
Her cousin smiled patronisingly. “Cousin, you have been a wonder of good advice since I came to Longbourn, but I flatter myself that I have been out in the world, and know what society expects of me. Being a man of the cloth, I have the liberty of approaching those above me, and it is expected of me to carry tidings of relations to one another.”
“Cousin, I beg you, at least ask my father to obtain an introduction,” Elizabeth begged.
“Do not trouble yourself, Cousin Elizabeth. I assure you, Mr Darcy will welcome news of his aunt.” Collins bowed and made his way across the ballroom. Elizabeth watched in horror as he spoke thrice, loudly, to gain Mr Darcy’s attention. As soon as Mr Darcy turned, the man began making his excited explanations for why he had approached him. Mr Darcy looked at the parson as if he were a bug, and cut the man before he finished speaking. Insufferable man! Of course it was impertinent for Mr Collins to approach him without invitation, but could not Mr Darcy be a bit more magnanimous toward someone so obviously and innocently lacking in sensibility? Elizabeth had heard enough of Lady Catherine to know that Mr Darcy must be well acquainted with the behaviour of his aunt and thus ought to be more condescending to an obviously nervous man, dependent on the good will of his relation.
Elizabeth watched as Mr Darcy stalked away from her cousin, who stood in shock with his hand still outstretched, then hid his mortification and approached Kitty, whom he had not yet danced with. Their cousin had promised to stand up with all of them, and while Eliabeth could still not call him graceful or light on his feet, his skill had improved so that he was, at least, not an embarrassment to dance with.
A short while later, Elizabeth and Charlotte had each participated in another dance, and were now conversing quietly in a small alcove. “You were lucky indeed, Eliza, that I noted something was wrong and followed you. What would you have done if I had not followed, and Captain Carter was indeed alone?”
“I would not have considered myself compromised, I assure you that, Charlotte.” Elizabeth said. “Why should I marry to save Lydia when she is the one who attempts to put me in such a position?”
“You have three other sisters, Eliza,” pointed out Charlotte.
“And when have any of them, save Jane, ever hesitated to mortify me, or trod upon the credit of our family?” Elizabeth said scathingly. “Did you see Kitty, stealing an officer’s sword and shrieking abominably? What about Mary, overstaying her welcome at an instrument she had never even been invited to play? I hesitate to sound cruel, but none of my sisters save Jane care for my chances, I would not give up my chance to marry for love for such an ill return.”
“What about Jane?” Charlotte asked. “I suppose you think Mr Bingley is above abandoning her.”
“I think he likes her very much, Charlotte. Do not you agree?”
“But does she like him , Eliza? Jane is all aloofness,” said Charlotte.
“If he cannot perceive her interest, then he is a simpleton who does not deserve her,” said Elizabeth decidedly.
“New love makes simpletons of all of us,” Charlotte insisted. “She should express more regard than she feels, if she wants him. She may fall in love all she chuses after the wedding.”
“And if she does not?” Elizabeth said. “Then her dreams are over, and her life is a prison. You know that Jane and I have sworn never to fall into such a nightmare. We will take our time in courting, and be certain of our matches. There is all the time in the world for falling in love as we chuse before the wedding, in my opinion. Neither of us will accept a man for anything other than the deepest love, which is why I will end up an old maid.”
“I hope not, Eliza,” her friend said softly, as she left her to her thoughts. “It is not as romantic as you believe, being an old maid. And I do not believe you. You would do whatever you must to save your sisters, and you know it.” Elizabeth said nothing as her friend left her.
Darcy leaned his head back against the other side of the wall where they were speaking. It was wrong of him to eavesdrop, he knew. But once he heard Elizabeth’s voice, he had been rooted to the floor. What were the chances that the handsomest woman of his acquaintance, the cleverest, most witty, and caring female that he had ever met, was also blessed with a sincerity and authenticity that a man might trust, and she was determined to marry only for love?
He would be an idiot not to explore a possible mutual affinity with the lady. If his father knew he sacrificed such an opportunity, he would box his ears. It was inevitable, and he had known for some weeks that this magnetism that drew him to Elizabeth was something significant. He sensed that she was the partner of his soul, the one woman he could trust to always tell him the truth. He would seek her out for a private audience without delay. He had seen her many mornings while out on his rides. Even when she had been out late at a party or entertainment, like him, nothing except the worst weather kept her from her exercise. She walked the same route nearly every day, he would meet her in the early morning tomorrow, and beg her for a courtship.