Chapter 7 #3
“Fanny, as much as it chagrins me to admit to you, I have always held the belief I was better than you. Of the two of us, however, you changed for the better. So much so after the twins that I was envious and refused to allow myself to acknowledge all the ways you had bettered yourself. You stopped boasting and gossiping; you had an air of contentment about you that I could not fathom or emulate, so I suppose I felt if I looked at how you changed then I would have to look at myself. Not being ready to do so, I was so jealous and petty...” she stopped when Fanny locked onto her arm.
“Sarah Lucas, let me stop you there! You have nothing to apologise for.
You cannot be held accountable for your thoughts, and as far as I know, you have never slighted me or any in my family.
The fact you recognise now that you may need to make changes only points to your inherent goodness and value as a friend.
“Heaven forbid, but you could be another Miss Bingley, and never see your faults, ignore anyone who tried to point you in the right direction, and become very bitter. Sarah, I have known you as far back as I can remember so if there is anything I can ever do to help you as you take steps to become the woman you want to be, I am here for you,” Fanny told her friend lovingly.
“From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, Fanny, but you do not need me when your friends include peers of the realm.” Sarah shook her head, trying to understand why Fanny was bothering with her when she had been so very unkind in her own thoughts.
“Do you think we have ever selected our friends by social standing? What is important to us is genuine friendship, character, and that we enjoy each other’s company.
Social standing has nothing to do with it, so please put such thoughts out of your mind now and forever.
You have been my friend since I was a little girl holding onto my mama’s apron strings, do you think so little of me that I would cast you off because of wealth or our other friends? ” Fanny challenged.
“You became so calm, and you had no more attacks of nerves, they stopped from one day to the next, I could not fathom what had changed. I was so very confused,” Lady Lucas stated with a smile.
At that, both friends giggled like they once had so many years ago when they were schoolgirls.
When the comfort of laughing with her friend enveloped her, Sarah knew no matter how wealthy the Bennets were, or who their friends and connections were, the Bennets would never cut the connection to the Lucases as so many others in the same position who rose to higher social circles would have.
The Bennets esteemed each person by the content of their character, and Sarah resolved she would always be worthy of Fanny’s friendship.
As Kitty and Georgie were not out yet, they were requested to play some music the party could dance to.
The girls acquiesced with alacrity. This was such a big change for Georgiana, as before she had come to stay with the Bennets, she never would have considered playing the pianoforte for anyone outside the immediate family circle, even before Ramsgate.
Now she could not wait to share the experience with her friends, and the joy she took in it made all those who loved her fill with love and gratitude for the Bennet girls who had helped her not only find herself but help her transcend the timid and shy girl she had once been.
Darcy was overjoyed at the transformation he saw in his sister, and almost as much at the changes he had noticed in himself. He knew it was all due to the Bennets and their warm, loving, familial, genteel, kind, and welcoming ways.
The Darcys had been made to feel like long-lost family and were valued for themselves, not their wealth, connections, or standing.
It was a whole new experience for him, being amongst personages that not only matched his wealth and moral codes but had so much more in ways he had not considered because their world was more naturally inclusive of others due to so many in the household.
After Georgie had been at Longbourn but a few days, she had felt comfortable enough to share with the Bennet sisters her misadventure from the summer.
Darcy remembered the happy tears she had cried when she told him none of the sisters had judged the Darcys generally, or her specifically, for the occurrences that culminated in what they helped her call The Ramsgate Debacle.
All of their rebukes were for the companion who lied and deceived the Darcys and the Colonel, and the dastardly wicked Wickham who manipulated, lied to, and tried to seduce a fifteen-year-old girl.
That unburdening was the final turning point for Georgie, and when combined with his own discussion sharing all with Bennet before Georgie arrived, he had been able to literally watch the dark fog that had weighted down their mood since Ramsgate lift and fade away.
As soon as Georgie and Kitty sat down at the pianoforte, Darcy approached Elizabeth and was granted a dance, as was Richard with Mary, and Bingley with Jane.
Charlotte and Maria, Charlotte’s seventeen-year-old sister who was out, each danced with one of the Captains who had accompanied Colonel Forster.
Unlike the Bennet girls, Maria thought a man in a red coat looked very fine indeed and had always dreamed about marrying an officer in regimentals and him whisking her off to far away and exotic places.
If she knew the reality of the poverty most militia officers under the rank of major suffered, and the fact they never left England’s shores, she might have reconsidered her opinions of militia officers as marriage material.