Chapter 5
The night of the Gouldings’ party, Kitty felt that she was as pretty as she had ever been.
She had trimmed her blue gown with a darker blue velvet ribbon, and Mama had helped her fix the neckline and waist to better show off her figure.
Additionally, she had new silk gloves and two lovely bracelets to wear over them.
Her efforts had exactly the effect she wished for. As soon as Kitty, Mary, and Mama entered the drawing room, Mr. Goulding walked straight up to her and said, “Miss Kitty, you look remarkably well this evening. Is that a new bracelet on your wrist?”
Kitty blushed that he would notice her enough to know when she was wearing something new. “The one on my left wrist is new. The other is older, but it is quite my favorite piece of jewelry.”
“I can see why,” he said. “It is perfectly lovely. As are you.”
Kitty’s happiness at such compliments made her feel as light as a feather. The slightest breeze would surely send her floating away.
Mr. Goulding leaned forward and said quietly in her ear. “I also quite enjoy this new gown you’re wearing, for it shows off your figure in the most appealing manner.”
The blush which was already painting her cheeks pink deepened, and Kitty thought she might just burn up. It was the most attention she had received from Mr. Goulding since she came out over a year ago. Usually, he just greeted her then ignored her.
“Thank you, Mr. Goulding,” she managed to say through her pleased embarrassment.
“Mr. Goulding is my father,” he said. “Please call me Alan.”
Kitty looked up at him, and she felt her smile grow wider than it ever had been before. “Of course. I will be pleased to call you Alan. You may call me Kitty if you like.”
Once again, he leaned down and said softly, directly in her ear, “As you will, Kitty.” The way he said her name felt more like a caress than a word. Pleasant shivers went down her spine. He stood up and said, “Now, Kitty, do tell me all the news of Longbourn.”
“Well, I am certain you heard from your mother, since she is such good friends with mine, but my uncle recently passed away, leaving fortunes for each of my sisters and myself,” said Kitty.
“Papa, Jane, and Elizabeth have all gone to London to take care of the legal matters associated with it, so Longbourn has been relatively quiet the last few days.”
“A fortune, you say,” said Alan. “This is the first time I am hearing of it.”
Kitty looked up at him in surprise. “Are you certain? I was sure everyone would know about it by now. Mama spent the first two days after we learned of it visiting everyone we knew, sharing the news of it.”
He shrugged. “I’m afraid I don’t listen to gossip much,” he said.
Kitty expected him to ask how much her fortune was, to at least be interested in the subject, but instead he said, “So tell me what you have been doing with your time.”
This question completely stunned Kitty. It was almost as if Alan didn’t care about her fortune at all, as if he truly was interested in her.
It made her feel warm in a way she had never felt before.
“Well, I have been working on this gown for the last three days,” she said, “though I admit to a little bit of shopping here and there. I found this new bracelet in the haberdashery.”
“Your hard work was well worth it, as I am certain every gentleman in the room would agree,” said Alan.
Kitty didn’t care about the other gentlemen’s opinions. She only cared about the man who stood before her. His obvious pleasure in her appearance made her three days of hard work well worth it.
~~~~~
Elizabeth, Jane, and Papa settled into an inn in Mayfair as soon as they arrived in London. Within half an hour, however, Papa left to call on an old friend, and the two sisters were left to themselves.
“I can’t believe we are staying in Mayfair,” said Jane once Papa was gone. “Did you see the size of the mansions we passed? They were easily seven or eight times the size of Uncle Gardiner’s home.”
“Some of them were,” said Elizabeth. “The smaller ones, however, were merely three times the size of his home. How poor those people must be.” She quirked a smile to show she was teasing.
“You should probably try to get used to such grandeur, Jane,” said Elizabeth a little more seriously. “If you ever manage to marry a man truly worthy of you, you will likely live in such a place.”
“You are not making any sense, Lizzy,” said Jane. “My value as a person, as a wife, does not change simply because I inherited a great deal of money.”
“That is true,” said Elizabeth. “However, your wealth will make it far easier for those who deserve you to find you.”
“You speak as if I am the only one to have inherited a fortune,” said Jane. “Does not the same thing hold true for you and for all our sisters?”
“As for myself, my new fortune has only hardened my resolve to never marry unless I can find a man I can love and respect with all my heart and mind,” said Elizabeth.
“Such a man would have been impossible to find as we were, but I don’t know that an increase in wealth will make it any easier.
As for our sisters, Mary’s studious and retiring nature will make her unlikely to wed even with a fortune. ”
“What about Kitty?” asked Jane.
Elizabeth sighed. “She is the one I am most worried about, because she is particularly susceptible to flattery. I am only grateful that Papa did not tell her the true nature of her inheritance”
“So, what I am hearing is that Kitty and possibly Lydia will marry poor fortune hunters; you and Mary will remain wealthy spinsters; and I will still bear the burden of being required to marry a rich man,” said Jane.
Her voice and expression sounded as though she were teasing, but Elizabeth detected a deep disappointment that she tried to hide.
“Not at all,” said Elizabeth. “If you don’t wish to be rich, by all means marry a farmer’s son. However, I genuinely believe you will be much happier in a quieter, more mannerly society than what is found in Meryton or among the lower classes in general.”
Jane sighed. “I suppose you are right,” she said reluctantly. “I am not overly fond of noise and chaos.”
The two sisters sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in her own thoughts.
Eventually, Elizabeth said, “Well, there is no use moping or pondering. Neither of us really knows what our future will look like. Let’s unpack our trunks.
Then we can at least look around the inn a bit.
I’ve never seen such a large, elegant inn in my life. ”
An hour later, the two sisters had put away their belongings and had explored the inn. Shortly after they returned to their room, Papa walked in.
“Well, my dears, we have an invitation to dinner tonight,” he said.
“We do?” asked Elizabeth. “I had thought this trip to London was for business, not for socializing.”
“Are we going to dine with Uncle Gardiner?” asked Jane.
“It is not with your uncle,” said Papa. “It is an old friend of mine, Judge Darcy.”
“A judge!” cried Jane.
“How do you know someone like that?” asked Elizabeth.
Papa chuckled. “He wasn’t always a judge, you know,” he said.
“When I was much younger, several years before I met your mother, I spent a couple of years in London to complete my education.
I met Darcy there. At the time, he had just become a barrister, and he was making as many connections as he possibly could to fuel his rise in his profession.
“We quickly recognized a similar sense of humor in each other, and we have kept in touch over the years, though I never visit London anymore, and he never leaves the city. Still, his letters are among my favorite correspondence. Where else can you find greater human folly than in the courts?”
“I am glad to know you have reconnected with an old friend,” said Jane. “I am wondering, however, why he would invite all of us to dinner.”
“Well, I called on him to ask his assistance in finding suitable companions for you all,” said Papa. “However, he would not promise his assistance until he had a chance to meet you.”
“He wishes to judge whether we are worthy of his help?” asked Elizabeth.
“While I commend your cynicism,” said Papa with a wry half-grin, “it is nothing of the sort. Darcy has never been guilty of that sort of pride. Rather, he wishes to get to know you so that he can recommend someone that is most suitable.”
“I am sorry, Papa, for criticizing your friend without knowing anything about him,” said Elizabeth.
Papa waved it away with a chuckle. “No need. No need,” he said.
“It was a natural assumption. Since being a judge means he automatically has connections to some of the highest people in the land, it makes sense to believe him to be unapproachable. Darcy, however, is one of the most gregarious people I’ve ever met, and he doesn’t stand on ceremony or even formality except in the courtroom.
He attracts friends the way light attracts moths.
There is no one in the city who would be more likely to know of two ladies who could serve as suitable companions for you girls, even with your rather unusual circumstances. ”
“Unusual circumstances” described their situation perfectly.
Such wealth as they had was sufficient to draw the attention of almost any man in the country, but their status didn’t even come close to matching it.
Ladies with such a mismatch very often ended up in avaricious marriages, even when the lady thought she was marrying for love.
They would need to tread carefully in order to find men who would continue to be pleasant even after marriage, and to do so they would need companions who could warn them of potential danger.