Chapter Seven
Hertfordshire
Elinor had no partner for the opening set; she sat with her mother and kept a watchful eye on Marianne, who had stood up with the colonel.
Mrs. Dashwood could sit in pensive silence with Elinor for only so long before indulging her own fancy.
“It is a shame about Mr. Willoughby; I believe he had us all fooled, for I was so sure that he meant to marry her.”
“I hoped for it, as well, but it cannot be a great surprise that his aunt likely disapproved. The pursuit of an heiress must be why she sent him to London.”
“Oh, Elinor, I daresay he must be unhappy, too, for I know he cared for her.”
“I believe he did, but we cannot know how long mere mutual affection would have sustained them. His estate, and the one he shall inherit from Lady Allen, are both in want of funds to put them right, I understand.”
Mrs. Dashwood frowned. “You mean that he might have come to resent the connection, in time? That he may have come to value the interests of his pocketbook over the concerns of his heart?”
“I believe many people do,” Elinor said sadly. She had wondered the same about Edward – could he love her at the cost of his inheritance, and the support of his family?
“I suppose that you will say we ought to think practically, that you and your sisters may not have the luxury of a love match, when your brother and his horrid wife are determined to deny you aid of any kind. And yet…” Mrs. Dashwood watched Marianne dancing with the colonel.
They were having a very animated conversation, though Elinor was not convinced it was a pleasant one.
Mrs. Dashwood apparently did not perceive the discord.
“How interesting that she should cross paths with another colonel – perhaps this one might cheer her. Colonel Brandon is a good man, and it is a pity she cannot like him, but Colonel Fitzwilliam is younger and more charming; I daresay one might almost consider him handsome.”
Elinor looked skeptically at her mother.
When Marianne learned of Edward’s secret engagement, and Elinor revealed that she had known of it already, Marianne suggested that perhaps Elinor’s feelings were not as deep as what she felt for Willoughby.
Elinor was wounded, for she felt it like a dagger in her heart, and she began to wish that the reverse should prove true, that Marianne’s feelings may prove shallower than they imagined, that her sister might begin to heal this wound.
“As much as I should wish to see her forget Willoughby, we ought not make the same mistake as when Colonel Brandon was presented to her, for she will only balk at the notion. She needs time. Besides, I am sure the colonel had not singled her out. He means to dance with as many ladies as he can; he told us as much yesterday. And Marianne was rather rude to him about Mr. Wickham.”
“They will sort it out between themselves – he has asked her for the first, which is not nothing.” Mrs. Dashwood eyed her daughter curiously.
“Unless you would prefer to make more of his asking you for the supper set? You had a great deal to say to one another as we walked him from the village yesterday.”
“I should think it difficult to grow acquainted with any newcomer if one does not speak to them,” Elinor said with a shake of her head. “It may amuse you to imagine some grand romance for us, but I know you would not really wish to part with Marianne and me so easily.”
Mrs. Dashwood was almost astonished by Elinor’s pragmatism.
“Of course I would! I wish you girls to have whatever shall make you happiest – whoever shall. Poor Marianne has had her heart broken, and you will not tell me anything of Edward’s visit, though I was so sure he had come to propose to you. ”
“He is not at liberty to do so – Fanny told you as much before we left Norland. I expect he quite dreads being pushed at some heiress while he is with his mother in London.” This much was true, but Elinor had not told her mother everything – she knew that the truth about Lucy Steele would break her mother’s heart, and she already grieved for Marianne.
“As if you would mind if he were disinherited! He does not have Willoughby’s responsibilities. He could simply take orders, or perhaps he could live at the cottage with us.”
“Forgive me, Mamma, but he may mind it very much.” Elinor frowned at her hands in her lap. If Edward had no care for his inheritance, he would have owned to his attachment to Lucy Steele years ago.
Elinor began to wonder if that pernicious creature was the only obstacle.
She had told him that she would wait until that obstacle was removed from their path, though she knew not how such a thing could be accomplished.
Yet even then, how would they live? “Mrs. Ferrars would never accept me,” she sighed.
Mrs. Dashwood sipped her wine. “Then perhaps you ought to think of the colonel; it is indeed too soon for Marianne. I hear he is the second son of an earl.”
“You shall grow worse than my aunt, who you must know would likely murder me if I stood in her daughters’ way.
” Elinor gave a playful shake of her head and pasted on a smile.
Doubt began to creep into her mind as she thought of Edward, but like Marianne she had no wish to hasten into another romantic entanglement.
Across the ballroom, Marianne moved away from the colonel, though the dance had not ended, and he pursued her through a door that ostensibly led out to a balcony. Elinor was up from her seat at once.
Mrs. Dashwood laid a hand on her daughter’s arm.
“Oh, give them a moment, at least. The colonel seems a man of honor – surely he will not take liberties. It is more likely he will give her some comfort in her misery, and I daresay nobody noticed them slip out. If they did, well, they are wearing masks, after all.”
“I must go to her at once, for I know she would wish it, and after everything that has happened, I am not willing to trust anybody implicitly upon so short an acquaintance!” Elinor hurried to the balcony door across the room, but not with such haste that she would attract unwanted attention to herself.
She had been impressed by the colonel’s serious address to Mr. Bennet, and she hardly knew what she expected to find when she slipped out onto the balcony.
She was not surprised to discover her sister weeping, but her heart ached nonetheless. “Marianne, whatever is the matter? Sir, have you provoked her in some way?” Elinor glowered at the colonel in her best imitation of an imposing posture.
Colonel Fitzwilliam held up his hands in a pose of innocence.
“As I promised, I gave your sister a complete account of the disciplinary measure that Lieutenant Wickham will face in the morning. I am heartily sorry that it is unpleasant to hear of; I cannot tell you what I would give to have never encountered the man at all.”
Marianne hugged at herself, shivering though her gown was long-sleeved.
“It seems my judgement of character cannot be credited at all, for I was completely taken in by his tales of suffering, and must only be ashamed of confiding my own. Once again, I have been an utter fool! Where is Mamma? I should never have come tonight!”
Marianne did not wait for an answer before darting away from them, returning to the ballroom in a state of high emotion. Elinor would have followed her directly, but the colonel looked beseechingly at her. “A moment, Miss Dashwood?”
The ballroom had been warm, but she was already too cool to be comfortable; the colonel doffed his coat and offered it to her. “Please; what I would say to you must be kept private.”
She nodded, taking the coat and draping it over her shoulders. “I will hear you until I cannot bear the chill. I must go to Marianne ere long.”
“Very well. I informed your sister that Wickham had not been granted formal leave from Colonel Forster when he pursued Miss King to Liverpool. He claims that he had verbal permission from my predecessor, and perhaps he did. However, I have known Wickham all his life – we should both freeze before I could list half his depravities to you. He gambles and leaves a trail of debts everywhere he goes, including with shopkeepers here in Meryton, though many of them – those with daughters – have other reasons to resent him. A young lady of my acquaintance was even persuaded to elope with him, though her family managed to prevent it. He told the girl’s brother candidly that his purpose had been her fortune of thirty thousand pounds, as well as a personal grievance against that gentleman, who had tried in vain for many years to reform Wickham’s character when they were at Cambridge together.
He is a danger to this village, and if there is any means of removing him, I must make the most of it. ”
“And what of his tale of woe? Marianne was very moved by his misfortunes.”
The colonel scoffed. “His misfortunes! He was the godson of my uncle, a wealthy man who supported him at school, oblivious to Wickham’s debauchery.
When my uncle died, he was bequeathed one thousand pounds, and it was my uncle’s wish that he should take orders and be granted a valuable living.
This he declined, in lieu of an additional three thousand pounds.
Within a year, he was penniless again. He demanded the living of my cousin, and was refused – hence his desire for revenge last summer. ”
“Your cousin… Mr. Darcy? Whom he abused so harshly to my sister….” Elinor mused aloud, clutching his coat tighter around her as she shivered.
“Yes. Damn, and I have said it was his sister! I must beg your discretion – I forgot that your cousins are acquainted with mine. If word of what happened to her were to get out…. But there is nothing else to be said that requires you to freeze; return to the ballroom, and I will follow after a decent interval.”