Chapter One #2
“My husband was called away on business to London,” Lady Gresham said, seeming entirely unbothered by his absence. He never accompanied his wife north to her native village of Lambton, and so Elizabeth had never met the man.
“It is fortunate his relations are present to confirm his existence, else I might begin to doubt it,” Elizabeth quipped with a grin.
“He is a very busy man,” Lady Montrose sniffed before directing her son’s leering gaze to a finely attired young lady just arriving.
Miss Gardiner betrayed a small smirk and leaned close enough to whisper, “His absence may be a great boon to us, Miss Bennet – he believes there is nothing worth doing after the sun goes down, and I have every intention of dancing long into the small hours.”
“And so do I,” Mr. Gresham agreed with a gallant bow. “Indeed, if I may put my name down on your dance card, Miss Bennet, I shall delight you not only with my lightness of foot, but in repeating all the praise I have heard of you from my step-mother.”
Elizabeth extended her hand to him, allowing him to produce a little pencil from his coat pocket and inscribe his name on the dance card fastened about her wrist with a thin blue satin ribbon.
She smiled politely, even as she imagined that beneath his mask he resembled Mr. Collins as much in countenance as in his flowery speech.
Not to be outdone by his cousin’s attempts at charm, the viscount complimented Elizabeth’s appearance and claimed the second set, and then both the younger Mr. Longmont and his uncle, a dapper bachelor in his late thirties, claimed sets later in the evening.
Lady Gresham observed all this with evident satisfaction, and then broke away from the receiving line to link arms with Elizabeth.
“Come with me, my dear; there is another of my relations I most especially desire you to become acquainted with. She is my niece – well, she is the niece of my first husband, but I have known her since she was a babe, and I promised my poor Edward that I would always be good to his nieces. Her history is a sad one, and very like your own – very similar. I am certain you shall find a great deal to speak of together, though I must warn you she is rather reserved. She is a dear sweet girl, and you are of the same age.”
“Anyone whom you approve of is sure to be excellent company,” Elizabeth agreed, and she allowed Lady Gresham to lead her across the room to a small cluster of fashionable people assembled near the refreshments table at the back of the ballroom.
The Campbells were presented first – a Colonel clad in his uniform with a red and gold mask to match, his wife in a silk gown of matching vermillion, and their daughter, Miss Diana Campbell.
She was rather short and might even have been called plump, but her finery was enough to ensure she would always be admired.
Lady Gresham’s niece was presented last. “This is Miss Jane Fairfax, who has resided with the Campbells these ten years; her father served in the militia with Colonel Campbell.”
Jane Fairfax was tall like Elizabeth, her thick flaxen hair complimenting the gold of her gown. Her mask was also feathered, in warm golden tones, with tiny pearls set around the holes that framed her large blue eyes. She dipped into a graceful curtsey as she offered Elizabeth a shy greeting.
The colonel raised his brows high over the mask he wore, his lips set in a tight, thin line as he let out a thoughtful grumble. “Miss Bennet? Are you a relation of Captain Thomas Bennet, of Longbourn in Hertfordshire?”
“He is my guardian,” Elizabeth replied. “He allowed me to take his last name after his wife died, for he has no children of his own, nor any inclination to remarry.”
“Then you must be his heiress,” the colonel said, still assessing her curiously. “I recall he unexpectedly inherited a place in… Hampshire?”
“Longbourn, in Hertfordshire. It is a charming place, but he purchased a larger neighboring estate about a dozen years ago, and we have resided there ever since.”
The colonel nodded and gave Lady Gresham a strange look, which that lady pretended not to notice.
Lady Gresham gave Elizabeth a nudge toward Miss Fairfax before addressing the other young lady.
“My step-son wishes to claim a dance of yours, and I know my Selina is keen to compliment your lovely gown; will you walk with me, Miss Campbell?”
Elizabeth was sure her friend was up to some sort of mischief, though she could not guess what it may be.
She had supposed that Lady Gresham had invited so many young people to her house party with the intention of some meddlesome matchmaking, but Elizabeth could not imagine what that would have to do with Miss Fairfax.
Feeling a little discomfited by the colonel’s somber scrutiny, Elizabeth followed Lady Gresham’s lead, and asked Miss Fairfax to take a turn about the room with her.
“You have the advantage over me, for I believe your party arrived in time to grow acquainted with the other guests when their faces were fully visible,” Elizabeth said with a laugh.
“I shall be at sixes and sevens tomorrow when our companions appear at breakfast in different clothes.”
Miss Fairfax laughed softly. “If you have met Lady Gresham’s relations, then you want only to be introduced to the Dixons and Mr. Churchill.
I accompanied the Campbells to take in the sights of the village this afternoon at Lady Gresham’s behest, and so we were not present when the other guests arrived, but of course I have met her relations before, and the Dixons are intimately acquainted with the Campbells. ”
Miss Fairfax led her toward a small cluster of young people, two of whom possessed the reddest hair Elizabeth had ever beheld.
The Dixons hailed from Ireland; Mr. Patrick Dixon’s estate was called Baly-craig.
His accent was thick and quite charming, and he proved an energetic and gregarious fellow.
He solicited two dances from Elizabeth and two from Miss Fairfax, and praised their fine looks with very pleasing charm.
His sister, Miss Mary Dixon, did not appear impressed by his openness, and spoke not a word to Elizabeth, but their other companion, Mr. Frank Churchill, most obligingly led the haughty creature away after putting his name down once on Miss Fairfax’s dance card and twice on Elizabeth’s.
Mr. Dixon was determined to divert the pair of ladies until the dancing began, and in praising their ravishing beauty, he began to suppose that beneath their masks they must bear some little resemblance.
“You both possess the bluest eyes I have ever gazed into, like a summer sky in Galway. I am sure the gentlemen of our house party shall all be in some danger of losing their hearts, particularly when the pair of you are together, each so statuesque, one fair and one dark – and you both have dimples when you laugh at lad’s attempt to speak poetically! ”
Elizabeth was sure Miss Fairfax had turned entirely pink behind her mask at this heavy praise, but Mr. Dixon’s style of address was rendered a little less ludicrous when Elizabeth danced the second set with him.
After opening the ball with the elder Mr. Longmont, who scarcely spoke ten words to her, she began to appreciate Mr. Dixon’s style of eloquence – and perhaps his pleasing accent might have rendered any words spoken by the man agreeable.
He was full of praise for everything, from the elegantly decorated ballroom, Lady Gresham’s home and hospitality, the Campbells and Jane Fairfax, and of course, Elizabeth herself.
His good cheer was tempered by good sense, unlike the obsequious inanity of her cousin Collins; they spoke of music and literature and poetry, and though he favored Irish writers and composers over Elizabeth’s English favorites, he expressed himself with enough intelligence that she felt it would be perfectly delightful to stand up with him again for the supper set.
After dances that felt like interrogations with the viscount and the younger Mr. Longmont, Elizabeth danced next with Frank Churchill.
He was as determined to please her as his friend Mr. Dixon, and had the added allure of a rather mischievous turn of mind.
He asked many of the same questions as the gentlemen before him, inquiring after her family, her home, and her situation in life, but his japery throughout their conversation indicated that he was more concerned with their mutual amusement than assessing her advantages as a mercenary match.
Suspecting as she did that Lady Gresham intended to play matchmaker for her guests, Elizabeth was prepared to be on her guard.
She was her guardian’s heiress, set to inherit Netherfield and a sum of more than twenty thousand pounds.
The viscount had made it evident that he expected far more than this in a prospective bride, while both the Longmonts had all but sneered at her rather mysterious origins.
Mr. Churchill, on the other hand, acknowledged with a self-deprecating laugh that Elizabeth was rather too good for him.
“We have something in common, which I believe we also share with Miss Fairfax, who I know a little – a very little, for she is so reserved – but we were none of us brought up by our own parents.”
“Indeed? But that is remarkable to me,” Elizabeth cried. “Perhaps I betray my own limited movement in society by admitting that I have never met anybody else with such interesting circumstances as my own.”