Chapter 2
“Jane,” Elizabeth cried, running to her sister.
Jane, who had been crying in her mother’s arms, turned into Elizabeth’s hug instead as her mother released her to her younger sister’s care.
Her mother turned her head to Hill even as she continued into the drawing room, herding her daughters before her.
“Bring some hot chocolate for Miss Jane and Miss Lizzy, please,” her mother instructed.
“And some brandy for your mistress and myself,” her father added.
Jane tried to reassure Elizabeth that all was well, but her words were barely a whisper and were interrupted by weeping and hiccupping, which made it impossible for Elizabeth to understand much at all.
Hill came with the hot chocolate and wine, and Jane drank the chocolate with her sister’s encouragement.
“You go on up to bed now,” her mother instructed Elizabeth once Jane had stopped crying. Elizabeth did not move, determined to fight this maternal edict, and she was aided in her battle by Jane’s unwillingness to release her hand.
“Leave her be,” her father said, and her mother looked as if she would argue, but her father went on.
“She will only tell Lizzy later,” he explained, “and the story could then easily be overheard by any of her younger sisters, I believe,” he said, looking from Elizabeth to her mother, “that she is mature enough to understand to keep what she is told to herself.”
He waited her mother’s assent, as did Elizabeth. When her mother nodded, Jane slowly began to speak, her words halting and quiet.
“It was so beautiful, Lizzy,” she said, her voice quiet and sad.
“The ballroom was lit up, near to daylight, with lamps and candles, and the fireplaces were all alight too,” she said.
“The ladies were dressed in so many shades, it was as if a rainbow had come to life,” and for a moment her voice gained in strength.
“The music,” she said, “oh Lizzy, you have never heard such fine music. Mr Stanley...,” she said, and then halted, and a cry escaped her, which she suppressed with a hiccup.
“Mr Stanley,” she repeated, “brought a full quartet to play,” she told her.
“They played such music as I had never heard before, and all our neighbours looked so fine, it was as if we were all at court,” she said, and Elizabeth listened, her eyes wide in wonder at the description.
Jane then looked at her parents and took a deep breath.
“I danced from the very first set until we were near to the supper set,” she said, and took another breath.
“I was fair ready to faint with fatigue,” she explained, and looked at their parents.
“So, I thought to take a break from the dancing by sitting for a few minutes in the library.” At this, she stopped speaking, her face turned down, and tears were dripping from her eyes.
“It is all right, my dear,” her father confirmed, “you have done nothing wrong.”
“Mr Stanley junior followed me to the library,” she said, in a near whisper, and she stopped a moment and looked to her father.
Elizabeth did not know what she was waiting for, but her father looked at her mother, who nodded.
He raised a hand to his chin, contemplating her, and finally, he gave the nod that Jane had been waiting for.
“He came all close to me,” Jane said, a frown and look of anger appeared, such as Elizabeth had rarely seen on her most serene sister’s face, and she held her breath. She wondered what had the beastly man done to her lovely sister?
Elizabeth was unaware, but the fierce expression that she now held must have given her sister comfort. Jane was the elder of the two, but Elizabeth was the braver. If she had been there, she would have hit him over the head with a book, she thought, and if she saw him now, she still would.
“I backed away from him,” she said, looking to their parents, as if trying to reassure them.
“But,” she paused before saying in a voice so quiet Elizabeth could barely hear her, “he kept coming closer to me.” Elizabeth noticed she was clutching her sister’s hand so tightly that it had near gone white, so she made her grip gentler but did not let go, and Jane continued to speak.
“Then I was at the very wall of the library,” she said.
Jane took another deep breath and looked at Elizabeth most earnestly.
“I do not know what would have become of me if it were not that Mama and Papa came, at just that moment, and saved me,” she said, and turned a look of deep gratitude onto her parents.
“Thank you, Mama,” she said. “Thank you, Papa.”
“Do not thank us, Jane,” her father said, his voice grave. “It is I, and your mother, who put you in such danger, my dear,” he said. “I am heartily ashamed of myself, and I vow that we will do better by you girls.”
Elizabeth could see that Jane would not be able to sleep, so once readied for bed, Elizabeth crawled in with her, and they whispered together for some time before finally, Morpheus took them.