Chapter 13
The residents of Netherfield Park were assembled in the drawing room having sherry and port, except for Miss Caroline Bingley.
For some reason, she thought everyone would be waiting at the base of the stairs to watch her as she descended.
She was dressed in what she believed was the finest, most fashionable colour.
Her gown was a burnt orange, as was her turban.
She had had three oversized ostrich feathers dyed the same colour, which protruded almost two feet above her turban.
Miss Bingley was dripping in jewels. When her maid attempted to point out most of the jewellery did not match her outfit, it earned her a slap from her mistress. She was determined to set herself apart from the country misses who would attend, especially that chit Miss Eliza.
In her mind’s eye, Mr. Darcy would beg for the three significant sets as soon as he saw her superiority when he watched her descend the stairs.
She reached the top of the stairs and held her head high but heard no reaction from below, so she looked down, flummoxed when she saw not a single person was waiting to applaud her triumph.
By the time she entered the drawing room with now-broken feathers as there was insufficient clearance between the monstrosity on her head and the doorframe, Miss Bingley was primed to explode.
She regulated herself, although it was not easy.
No one looked her way, except Louisa who was looking at the bent and broken feathers.
Her expectation that Mr. Darcy would fall at her feet and beg for dances was never realised.
She sidled up next to him and tried to take his arm, but he placed his hands firmly behind his back, ignoring her, so she decided the man merely required a hint.
“I know you do not normally dance the first, Mr. Darcy,” she cooed, “Mayhap tonight you will?” Miss Bingley batted her eyelids at Mr. Darcy in a coquettish manner.
Darcy wondered if the lady had embers in her eyes the way they were blinking.
“I am dancing the first tonight, Miss Bingley.” Darcy did not miss the way the woman looked at him so expectantly.
“I have already been granted the sets I intend to dance by my partners. Excuse me, Miss Bingley.” Darcy joined his cousins, aunt, and uncle.
Behind him, Miss Bingley did not know which way to turn.
Not only had he not requested the first from her, but he also did not ask for any sets!
He told her in an unambiguous way he had already requested all the sets he intended to dance that night!
If there were not so many members of the first circles present, one a peer, Miss Bingley would have had a tantrum and thrown the closest object to her with all she had.
Mrs. Hurst walked over to her sister. “Caroline, what is it? Calm yourself, for you are making a spectacle!” Mrs. Hurst whispered in her sister’s ear.
“Mr. Darcy is dancing the first with someone else, and not me. If it is that Eliza, I will scratch her eyes out!” Miss Bingley hissed.
“Unless you want to ruin yourself and us along with you, you will do no such thing. Do not forget who is present tonight. One word from the Countess of Matlock, and there will not be any who receive you,” Mrs, Hurst told her sister softly as she held onto her arm stopping her sister from accosting Mr. Darcy about dancing with her.
“Leave it be before you make a bigger fool of yourself than you already have!”
Although she was seething, Miss Bingley regulated herself.
What her sister said was true. She would just have to compromise the man after the ball.
If he would not realise she was the perfect woman to be mistress of Pemberley and Darcy House, then she would have to make him give her what she wanted!
As it was time, the receiving line, comprised of Mr. and Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst, formed just as the first guests arrived. Mr. Hurst had begged off and was examining the refreshments. Standing next to her brother, Miss Bingley pasted on her best false smile on her face.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As Georgiana was not out and desired to keep the fact she was in the area from Miss Bingley, she would remain at Longbourn. Kitty Bennet, in a display of maturity her father was proud of, volunteered to remain at home with her new friend.
Before the Bennets were ready to depart, the Lucas conveyance arrived at Longbourn.
Charlotte, after receiving a note from Eliza telling her Kitty had chosen to remain at home with Gigi, suggested the same to Mariah, who agreed right away.
Mariah had confided in Charlotte she preferred Kitty and did not always feel comfortable with the way Lydia behaved.
The three girls remaining at Longbourn would have a full complement of servants with them, and before they departed, Kitty asked her older sisters to apologise to her partners for her.
Charlotte, Jane, and Lizzy assured Kitty they would understand.
Given how much Kitty loved to dance, her family was impressed by the selfless way she decided to remain at home with their guest.
It was easy to see how the separation from Lydia was having a positive impact on Kitty’s behaviour and character.
She was starting to bloom now she was out of Lydia’s shadow.
Charlotte had opined Gigi and Kitty would be good for each other.
Kitty would draw Gigi out of her shell, while Kitty would learn how to behave like a true lady.
Before they departed, Charlotte called the three girls to her side.
“Gigi, if you are up to it, it may benefit Lydia to hear from one her own age who has experienced Wickham’s perfidy first-hand.
If it is too hard for you, do not attempt it.
” Charlotte had a good feeling Gigi would be able to succeed in reaching Lydia where all others had failed.
Not long after the carriages departed for Netherfield, the three girls were admiring some of Kitty’s drawings and sketches she kept hidden away because Lydia would mock her for wasting time on pursuits not connected to flirting with officers.
“Lydia, who is obsessed with officers, always made me feel bad about my art,” Kitty admitted to Georgiana. “I should not have allowed her that power over me.”
“She always made me feel badly about myself as well, Kitty,” Mariah shared. “Mayhap she saw us as competition for the officers’ attentions.”
“What is your younger sister like?” Georgiana asked, not having met the youngest Bennet yet.
“She is very outgoing and thinks nothing of flirting, especially with one officer before he was taken to gaol,” Kitty revealed.
“Do you mean George Wickham?” Georgiana asked, trying to keep her disgust from showing but failing.
“Yes. Oh my, I remember from the meeting when your brother spoke about him almost ruining you. I am sorry to bring him up if it is painful for you,” Kitty stated contritely. Kitty clamped her hand over her mouth, realising Mariah Lucas was with them.
“Do not feel uncomfortable, Kitty, I think it will be good for Mariah to hear this as it may help her in the future,” the newly confident Georgiana assured her friend.
“It used to, but I no longer feel pain when I hear his name—only disgust at what he has become.” Georgiana proceeded to tell Kitty and Mariah the full story of her past with George Wickham.
As they spoke, the girls were not aware the subject of their conversation was chained in the hold of a transport ship on its way to Australia. The scourge that was George Wickham had departed English shores for the final time in his miserable and wasted life.
“Lydia has been told all about her favourite’s crimes here in Meryton, yet she refuses to believe anything bad about her ‘Wicky,’ claiming he will return for her as he loves her.” Kitty shared once her new friend completed her recitation.
“May we go visit Lydia as Charlotte suggested? I have not met her yet.” Georgiana asked with purpose.
“We may. Just be ready for an extremely mulish and belligerent girl,” Kitty warned.
“I will remain here,” Mariah stated. “I have a feeling Lydia will not be as open with me in the nursery, as she always feels we are in competition, something I do not feel.”
“Please unlock the door, Edward,” Kitty requested when she and Georgiana reached the nursery. “But do be ready in case she tries to bolt again,” Kitty looked to Georgiana, who gave her a questioning look. “She has attempted escape a few times already.”
The footman opened the door carefully. Thankfully the woman-child did not attempt to escape.
When Kitty and Georgiana entered, Lydia was lying on the bed.
“Have you come to gloat again, Catherine,” Lydia spat out, then she noticed a girl in elegant clothing she had never seen before. “Who are you, and why are you here?”
“My name is Georgiana Darcy,” Georgiana started to say.
“The proud, arrogant one George told me about!” Lydia returned petulantly.
“I do not know about proud and arrogant, but we do have one thing in common,” Georgiana remained calm in the face of Lydia’s rudeness.
“What could I have in common with one such as you?” Lydia demanded.
“George Wickham. Do you think you are the only, or even the first, he has plied his lies with?” Georgiana asked pointedly.
“Wicky never lied to me. He told me he loved me and if…” Georgiana cut the stubborn girl off.
“If you loved him, you would give him your virtue before the wedding!” Georgiana completed Wickham’s well-worn manipulative line.
” Seeing Lydia shock at her repeating his words verbatim, Georgiana drove her point home.
“As I said, you are not the first he has attempted to seduce. Unfortunately, too many have fallen for his lies, including four in your town!” Once the truth of George Wickham was well known, a fourth girl had admitted the truth to her family.
“You and I are two of the lucky ones he did not succeed in ruining!”