Chapter Seven #2
Elinor nodded again and returned his coat, for he looked to be in great need of it in the frigid night air.
She lingered a dozen paces or so from the door, watching a new set form as she waited for the colonel.
Once again, a rather ghastly confidence had been forced upon her, and yet she comprehended that it was always best to know the truth, even if it was painful or shocking.
Poor Colonel Fitzwilliam, and poor Mr. Darcy!
She was heartily sorry that they had been obliged to endure such a connection, and she offered the colonel a commiserating smile as he returned to the ballroom and offered her his arm.
“I have no partner for this set, as I suspected my information would shock your sister. Will you take a turn about the room with me, Miss Dashwood?”
“Yes, of course.” Elinor slipped her arm through his and smiled at him. “I apologize that my sister obliged you to share what must be painful to you, and I commend you for your honesty.”
“Thank you for saying so, Miss Dashwood. I believe it is a heavier burden for my cousin Darcy, whose wretchedness has been compounded by his father’s preference for the lieutenant.
Were it not for that, he may have allowed me to resolve that other situation in a manner which would have prevented any chance of further shenanigans. ”
Elinor’s eyes went wide. “I see.”
“He will always be a danger to every young lady of looks or fortune that he encounters, but at least I can remove him from this area, and he shall no longer have his status as an officer as a voucher of his character.”
“What will happen to him?”
“He will be made to run the gauntlet and then be flogged, and he will be discharged from the regiment. He will likely return to the unsavory shadows of London and gamble to survive – I can only hope that he will be unable to pass himself off credibly enough to deceive any other woman of fortune.”
“Marianne must be devastated,” Elinor sighed.
Colonel Fitzwilliam frowned. “Was she very much attached to him?”
“We have known him less than a fortnight; Marianne claims she merely sympathized in friendship with another who had suffered, for he painted himself quite a victim of your family. Marianne has a loving heart, which I believe is more easily influenced since the death of our father last spring. It is not the first time she has discovered herself deceived after forming a favorable impression. She learned recently that another person of our acquaintance has been duplicitous and disappointing in his deeds.”
Behind his mask, the colonel’s eyes conveyed his compassion. “I hope she will not learn to mistrust every new acquaintance.”
Elinor nodded her agreement. “I hope the same, as much as I fear it shall indeed affect her so. But I believe she wants only time to recover, and we are amongst loving relations.”
The colonel gave her a lopsided grin. “So, you are the pragmatic sister? There is always one in every family, and the other is carried away by flights of feeling and fancy. I have two such sisters; the eldest married at eighteen and has seven children, and still refers to her husband as her beau – their affection is nauseating, though envied by many, I believe.”
Elinor chuckled softly. “And the other?”
“The other has a sense of humor, rather than a sense of whimsy. She spent six years, from the time she came out, refusing to show the slightest inclination for any man. She is uncommonly intelligent and has a wide variety of interests and pursuits, and insists that when she is old she must always have a niece or nephew with her; she has ten altogether, though she wants no children of her own. A friend of ours had a brother who was in ill health – he was dying. She wed him for the purpose of becoming a widow and achieving her own independence. She has control of her own fortune, and does as she pleases, often to my chagrin, for one of her chief pursuits is being perpetually on hand to advise her relations of what they ought to do.”
Elinor laughed heartily at this. “I must always be the ally of the practical sister; I will hazard a guess that her advice is generally sound. Indeed, she sounds like a woman who knows what she is about.”
“Pray, do me the great favor of never telling her so when I am about!” The colonel grinned at Elinor, then gestured to a petite woman in one of the finest silk gowns Elinor had ever seen.
She had raven hair and wore a mask set with diamonds, and was looking around the room with the same lopsided smile as the colonel.
“Your sister is here?”
“Yes, she chose to accompany her brother by marriage – chiefly for the purpose of vexing him and me in equal measure. But she will be delighted to meet the multitudinous ladies of Longbourn. Shall I introduce you?”
“You may, but I am sure I shall praise her if I find her agreeable,” Elinor warned him with a warm smile. “I am already imagining that line from Shakespeare – though she be but little, she is fierce.”
“Ha! She has heard that all her life, for she was ever a terror!” The colonel looked to his sister as they approached her, and clearly the lady heard his admonishment, for she gave him a cheerful smile, her eyes narrowing.
“Richard, I find I must inform you that it is a great slight to this lady that you should lead her in a circuit about the room, instead of asking her to dance.”
“Sister, allow me to present Miss Elinor Dashwood, who has already promised me the supper set. Miss Dashwood, my sister, Lady Rebecca Bingley.”
“Bingley!” Elinor pressed her lips together when they might have hung open from astonishment.
“Yes, I believe my brother-in-law is known in the area. He informs me that the local families are all delightful. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Dashwood.”
“Miss Dashwood and her mother and sisters are staying at Longbourn with their cousins, the Bennets.”
Lady Rebecca grinned at her brother like the cat that ate the canary. “Oh! How fascinating! I have heard the greatest praise of that family. I hope you will introduce me to your cousins, Miss Dashwood. At once.”
At that same moment, Kitty broke away from her dance with Captain Denny, and latched onto Elinor’s arm with a heady giggle. “Oh, Elinor, why are you not dancing? La! What a fine mask you have, Miss…?”
“Lady Rebecca. Pray, are you one of the Bennets?”
“Kitty,” the girl said with a nod as she drank in Lady Rebecca’s spectacularly fashionable gold and ivory gown. Then she turned to Elinor. “Oh! But look – you will never believe who Marianne is dancing with!”
Before the dancing had begun, Elinor and her relations had seen Lady Rebecca enter with a gentleman, and Kitty had insisted the gentleman was Mr. Bingley, though Mary and Mr. Bennet insisted this was impossible, for he was not expected until the following week.
They were sure that the lady at his side was not either of his sisters, and there would have been word of it in the papers if he had married.
“You owe me a shilling, Elinor,” Kitty said before flouncing back to dance with Captain Denny.
Lady Rebecca laughed at the girl’s flightiness, then turned to her brother. “Which reminds me – you owe me a crown. I have asked Mrs. Goulding, and none of the Lucases are present this evening. I knew that nobody could show their face after the spectacle you described.”
Though his mask concealed much of his face, Elinor believed the colonel was blushing, and so was she.
She looked away, mortified at her own relations’ involvement in the debacle, which must have factored into the account the colonel gave his sister.
Curious who Marianne was dancing with, she found her sister in the crowd, and saw her actually laughing with the man Kitty had informed her was Mr. Bingley. “Oh dear.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam recovered himself and said to Elinor, "Perhaps your cousin and my sister are quite correct, and we ought to be dancing, Miss Dashwood. Will you?” He offered her his hand and Elinor accepted, though she wished to speak more with Lady Rebecca, not only with a hope of the lady being all the colonel had described, but also of hearing of Mr. Bingley’s return.
***
Marianne returned to the ballroom shivering and weeping, and fled at once to the ladies’ retiring room.
Miss Goulding and Miss Long were already within, giggling together on a tufted bench in the center of the room.
Marianne went to stand by the fireplace, where she removed her mask and wiped at her face.
The other two ladies ignored her, and continued their chattering. “I heard that he left debts all over the village, and that he got into a fight with Lieutenant Mason, who said he cheated him at cards!”
“I heard Papa tell Mamma that he got caught meddling with Tom Carpenter’s daughter! And of course we already knew that he only fancied Miss King for her fortune!”
Marianne clenched her jaw and closed her eyes, letting out a slow breath.
She had wanted so much to believe that there were good men in the world, that they were not all as vile as Willoughby.
Learning the worst of him had shattered her heart, and she feared it would never mend if everyone she met only proved a villain.
She regretted that she had come to the ball, for even the lamentations of Lydia and Mrs. Bennet could not be worse than what she was hearing presently.
The two hateful gossips continued their litany of Wickham’s offenses, and tears slid down Marianne’s cheeks.
She had not been attached to the man, nor had she any wish to be.
Rather, she had hoped that she could enjoy the friendship of a man who understood hardship, and of course she hoped that someday she would find a friendship that could grow into love.
Now, she feared, she would always be waiting for the truth to come out.
Even a gentleman who spoke of art and love and poetry, might truly be a blackguard.