Chapter Ten
The evening’s entertainment began with a champagne reception accompanied by the strains of a talented string quartet.
Lit by dozens of beeswax candles, the room glowed warmly, the light catching upon the ladies’ pale gowns and the gentlemen’s white cravats.
It looked every inch the refined society event, but beneath the music and murmured conversation, civility between the two teams was already beginning to fray.
Mr Ashcombe had been overheard describing the ladies as "a pack of hoydens, lacking any truly ladylike feeling.
" Lady Frances had responded by calling him "a sore loser in search of an excuse," while Clara had been obliged to keep hold of Harriet’s arm when Sir Geoffrey declared that "gently bred young ladies do not gallop about houses like racing horses. "
Jane and Colonel Fitzwilliam appeared both blind and deaf to the discord.
They were seated together upon a small settee near the windows, talking in low voices and looking at one another in a way that made it seem there was no one else in the room.
Elizabeth watched with growing concern as he raised her sister’s hand to his lips and kissed it tenderly.
She would have to speak to Jane. It would do her sister no good to lose her heart to a man of whom they knew little beyond his name and his agreeable manners.
Mr Hadley, she noticed, was also paying particular attention to Mrs Cartwright.
The lady, who had seemed so reserved, was now covering her mouth with her gloved hand as she laughed at something he had said.
A moment later, he made an expansive gesture and drew from her a second, much less restrained laugh.
What an odd mix it all was, Elizabeth thought. Attachments and enmities, flirtations and rivalries, all thrown together under the careful eye of Lady Hortensia. The older woman approached just as Elizabeth stood alone, observing the room.
"Quite the mix, eh, Miss Bennet?"
"Certainly," Elizabeth replied, unsure whether Lady Hortensia offered this observation as criticism or praise.
Lady Hortensia looked about the room with open satisfaction.
"Ever since I was a girl, I have been fascinated by people.
Their interests. Their foibles. The way they behave when the odds are stacked against them.
It was one of the reasons I found the Challenge so satisfying.
So entertaining, frankly." Her gaze moved towards the quartet for a moment, then back to the room.
"My husband indulged me. Malcolm would rather have had few visitors and spent our days occupied by quiet pursuits.
Books, walks, a little music after dinner. He was the very best of men."
Elizabeth glanced at her, then back to her sister. "Why now?" she asked before she could stop herself. "Why bring back the Challenge after all this time?"
Lady Hortensia did not seem offended. If anything, she looked pleased by the directness of the question.
"I have grieved my Malcolm for a long time, my dear.
Probably rather too long, he would have said, and life has slipped by while I was about it.
" Her voice remained brisk, but something in it softened.
"I have not much of it left, and I wanted another moment in which this house might be bright again.
Filled with noise and people and liveliness.
Selfish, perhaps, but you will have to indulge an old lady. "
With that, she patted Elizabeth’s hand and moved away before Elizabeth could think of any answer that would not sound foolish.
Soon after, the dinner gong rang. The company began to arrange itself for the procession into the dining room, with all the small hesitations and manoeuvres such occasions required. Elizabeth had barely gathered her thoughts before she found Mr Darcy standing before her.
"Miss Elizabeth."
Mr Darcy bowed and offered his arm. She accepted his arm because there was no graceful way to refuse it, and they walked into dinner together without speaking a word. Elizabeth looked straight ahead and felt, much against her will, a small flicker of guilt for her earlier behaviour.
???
Dinner was magnificent. Delicious course after delicious course appeared without interruption, and the excellence of the food, assisted perhaps by the quantity of wine, seemed to soften some of the hostility between the contestants.
Before long, a murmur of pleasant and polite conversation filled the room.
Elizabeth spoke easily enough with Clara on her right and Sir Geoffrey on her left, though nobody said anything of great consequence.
Sir Geoffrey was determined to explain the merits of his favourite hunter, while Clara responded to every remark with admirable composure.
Elizabeth smiled, answered when required and tried not to let her attention wander.
It wandered all the same. Again and again, she found her gaze drawn towards the dark-haired figure farther down the table.
Oh, but he looked handsome in the candlelight.
Severe, certainly, and rather too proud in the set of his shoulders, but handsome all the same.
Like the prince one might imagine from a fairy tale.
And yet Mr Darcy puzzled her. He could be severe and biting, certainly.
She had reason enough to know that. But during the contest he had also shown himself to be fair and commanding.
She could not imagine Mr Darcy pushing her out of the way to secure a win, and the memory brought a little heat into her cheeks.
Vexing man. She wished very much that he occupied fewer of her thoughts than he currently did.
As the dessert course was cleared, Mr Pritchard stepped forward and struck a fork lightly against his glass. The conversations died away. Lady Hortensia rose slowly from her chair, resting both hands upon the silver head of her cane. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have some difficult news."
The room fell silent.
"After careful discussion with my staff, it has come to my attention that this afternoon's contest was not conducted fairly. A member of my household accepted a bribe in exchange for revealing the location of one of the hidden objects."
A murmur swept around the room. Elizabeth's hand tightened around the stem of her wineglass. Across the table, Miss Harrington's cheeks flooded crimson.
"The servant has confessed the matter in full and has received a suitable punishment. I shall not name the person who offered the bribe. Public humiliation has never struck me as an especially useful pastime, and I imagine the lady in question is already suffering considerably."
Miss Harrington lowered her eyes to her plate.
Lady Frances spoke first. "Then the result cannot stand," she said evenly.
"No," said Lady Hortensia. "It cannot." She turned to Mr Pritchard. "The ladies are to lose three points."
The room erupted into noisy chatter.
"Three?" cried Harriet.
"One for the victory itself," said Lady Hortensia, holding up her hand to restore calm. "One for the hidden object obtained unfairly, and one because the completed phrase depended upon information that ought never to have been known. The entire solution was therefore compromised."
"But the rest of us did nothing wrong!" Harriet protested.
"No," agreed Lady Hortensia. "You did not. Yet this is a team competition, Miss Harriet. The victory belonged to all of you, and so, regrettably, must the consequence."
"Serves them right," said Mr Ashcombe with a satisfied smile.
The words had scarcely left his mouth before Mr Darcy turned towards him with a dark look. "The ladies won the greater part of that contest fairly," Darcy said evenly. "There is no satisfaction to be found in another person's dishonour."
Lady Hortensia's eyes rested upon Darcy for a moment.
"Quite so," she said. "Which is precisely why I have no intention of allowing the evening to end upon such an unhappy note.
" She looked around the room. "Today's theme was logic and observation.
It seems only proper that the matter should be settled by one final test of both. "
A murmur of curiosity ran around the tables.
"Each captain will nominate one competitor to represent their side in a game of chess. Two points shall be awarded to the winner. So I suggest you choose wisely."