Chapter One
A smile of delight spread across Elizabeth’s face and she pressed her hands against the cool pane of glass as the sight of Weymouth came into view.
The heart of the charming seaside resort town lay just beyond when the carriage came to a stop on the front drive of a large manor house.
The coachman helped Elizabeth down from the carriage, and she peered up at the grand house where she would spend the next three weeks.
The falling sun cast the impressive stone edifice in an ethereal golden light, and flowering vines crept up the walls, creating an effect of warmth and romance that was just what she might have expected of Lady Gresham’s home.
The din of the nearby village hummed in the air, which was laden with the scent of the sea.
A swelling sense of excitement propelled Elizabeth up the marble stairs, and then the massive doors were thrown open by a pair of liveried footmen.
Inside, she came to a stop in a large and ornate foyer, and Lady Gresham hurried down the prominent staircase to greet her.
“Miss Bennet, there you are, my dear! How relieved I was to observe your carriage from my bedchamber, for I was beginning to fear some terrible calamity had befallen you! It would never do for you to miss the opening festivities of my house party!”
Lady Gresham embraced her warmly, radiating the same cheerful mirth that had first endeared her to Elizabeth.
“My apologies, Lady Gresham,” Elizabeth said with a pert smile. “I was so occupied in fighting off highwaymen on the turnpike that I lost all sense of time this afternoon.”
“Highwaymen! Ha! I know you must be jesting, but I truly had imagined just such a sordid scenario.”
The two women shared a laugh, and then Elizabeth offered her hostess an apologetic smile. “The carriage broke a wheel near Dorchester, hence my delay. I was able to hire a coach after a few hours of fretting over my predicament – the expense of it would shock you beyond recovery.”
“But that will not do! I shall compensate you for the trouble of it, dear child, but we have greater matters to attend to at present. The rest of my guests are already upstairs, dressing for the evening’s festivities – but the Campbells only just returned from their excursion to the village, so I suppose you will not be the only person who must make haste in preparing for the ball.
It is to be a masquerade – I have set out a few masks in your room for you to choose from. ”
Lady Gresham was already splendidly attired, though her hair had not yet been arranged in the elaborate style she favored, and she wore no mask herself.
She bid Elizabeth to follow her upstairs, and showed her to a room in the guest wing.
“Here is your chamber, my dear. I know you have not the same fascination for finery as most young ladies; if you complete your toilette before it is time to make your grand entrance downstairs, I have placed you in a room that shares a private parlor with my niece; but, no, perhaps you had better come down directly.”
Elizabeth thanked her gracious hostess, and found a maid already waiting within the elegantly appointed chamber to attend her.
The maid, Sally, wasted no time in brushing out Elizabeth’s hair while they waited for her trunk to be brought up.
Sally sniffed with distaste as she tamed the thick, dark curls, and she eyed Elizabeth with suspicion.
“What an odd fragrance you use to rinse your hair! Oh, dear – forgive me – perhaps it is the custom where you are from. We haven’t the time to call for a bath for you, but tomorrow we certainly must.”
Elizabeth felt her cheeks flush with heat.
She had been tardy in preparing for her departure from London, and had not bathed herself since Hertfordshire the week before.
“Oh dear – I fear I must reek of travelling – I hope I do not disgrace Lady Gresham. My father’s housekeeper, Mrs. Hill, gave me a small bottle of the special soap she uses on my hair. ”
Elizabeth retrieved the glass bottle, and offered it to Sally.
The maid uncorked the bottle and sniffed the dark, viscous liquid, her face contorting with disgust. “I beg your pardon, Miss, but that is horrid.” Sally pressed her lips together in an expression of contemplation.
“I suppose the piney scent might be masked with some of the mistress’s special lavender water – she swears it is what caught Sir Duncan’s fancy – I shall be quick about fetching some. ”
While the maid attended to this task, Elizabeth’s trunk was brought in, and she set about selecting a gown for the evening’s festivities.
She was well aware of the fine society Lady Gresham moved in, but she resolved not to be daunted by the maid’s admonishment.
Elizabeth was an inexperienced country orphan, this much she would neither deny nor repine, but she was also an heiress of considerable fortune and a lady of high courage.
She summoned this courage as she stood before the mirror, and by the time Sally returned, Elizabeth had resolved that she would not be intimidated by so many high and mighty companions.
She pulled two new gowns from her trunk.
They had been newly purchased for her in London by her guardian, the man she had called Father for half her life, since the death of his dreadful wife.
“What do you think, Sally? The pale pink voile, or the cerulean silk?” Elizabeth could not help but smile as she displayed the two beautiful frocks, for they were among the finest garments she had ever owned.
“They are both very lovely, but perhaps it is best to match your mask.” Sally displayed the three small, intricate masks that Lady Gresham had provided.
They all had an avian theme, but the one with blue and gold feathers was by far the most alluring, and Elizabeth supposed it would look well with her blue eyes.
“Blue it is,” Elizabeth decided, retrieving a necklace with three small sapphires set like teardrops in the center of the delicate gold chain; it once belonged to Mr. Bennet’s grandmother, and though the late Mrs. Bennet had always coveted it, the piece had always been set aside for when Elizabeth came out in society.
She had little opportunity to wear jewels and finery, for her guardian was of a reclusive disposition, and since Mrs. Bennet’s death ten years earlier, Mr. Bennet had been as content to stay at home as Elizabeth had been to idle her days away with him in Netherfield’s expansive library.
He had naturally protested a little when Elizabeth received Lady Gresham’s invitation to the house party in Weymouth, and might have denied her his consent, had it not been for his cousin.
Mr. Collins, a recently ordained parson of manners both obsequious and grandiloquent had visited Hertfordshire a fortnight ago, for he was the heir to Longbourn, a smaller property also owned by Mr. Bennet.
Though Netherfield would someday pass to Elizabeth, Longbourn was entailed upon Mr. Collins, a fact which had never given Mr. Bennet much distress.
Upon meeting the man for the first time, however, Mr. Bennet decided with uncommon vehemence that something must be done to prevent the feckless young toad from undoing what had been the work of generations of Bennets before him.
No sooner had Mr. Collins proposed to Elizabeth in a remarkably preposterous fashion – and been soundly refused – than Mr. Bennet declared he was resolved to prevent Mr. Collins’s inheritance by any means necessary.
Though he despised London, Mr. Bennet loathed his fatuous cousin even more, it seemed, for he made ready to travel in all haste.
It was on the morning of their departure that Elizabeth received Lady Gresham’s timely invitation, and the cost of his consent had been assuring Mr. Bennet that she would refuse any offers of marriage she might receive in Weymouth with as much passion as she had done in declining Mr. Collin’s infamous addresses.
Sally worked assiduously in combing out Elizabeth’s hair with a brush dipped in lavender water, and she managed to coax the thick, dark curls into a very fashionable arrangement.
By the time Elizabeth donned her cerulean silk and fastened the blue feathered mask about her face, she began to think it was not impossible that she may indeed be called upon to honor her promise to Mr. Bennet.
She felt herself to be in supremely good looks, and Lady Gresham’s letter had indeed hinted at there being several eligible bachelors in attendance.
Laughing at herself for such nonsensical vanity, Elizabeth stepped into a pair of new velvet dancing slippers and made her way downstairs.
The sound of musicians warming up their instruments led her directly to the ballroom, which she entered through a small private door.
Across the room, Lady Gresham and her relations were lined up to receive guests through a grander public entrance.
Lady Gresham noticed Elizabeth and waved her over.
When Elizabeth approached, her hostess presented her daughter Selina Gardiner, who had just come out in society.
Elizabeth had met the girl a few times before, for Lady Gresham stopped in Meryton for a day or two every year on her annual journey to Derbyshire, and Miss Gardiner had accompanied her for the last few years.
The rest of Lady Gresham’s relations were unknown to her, and were introduced in rapid succession.
“This is my step-son Mr. Jerome Gresham, my sister by marriage Lady Prudence Montrose, her son Viscount Ernest Montrose, my cousin Sir Oliver Longmont, and his wards, his nephew Mr. Percy Longmont and his niece Miss Beatrice Longmont.”
Elizabeth bobbed into a curtsey for each of them, though she was certain that she would require another round of introductions when they were all unmasked. “And Sir Duncan?”