Georgiana was never happier than when she found herself seated at her elegant piano and even more so when she was able to play the music she knew her family and friends loved to dance to. She was fond of dancing, herself, and forced to choose between the playing of music and enjoyment of dancing to it she was often at a loss as to what would be her preference. That evening, though, she played with merry abandon, her enjoyment lifting when she witnessed the look that passed between her brother and Elizabeth as he and his wife led the party in the first dance of the evening. Darcy was a skilled dancer, although he did not enjoy it, largely because it most often facilitated seeing and speaking to crowds of strangers, which pastime he abhorred more than almost any other thing. This evening, though, surrounded by friends and with his bride on his arm, his mood magically lifted. He smiled and even - Georgiana smiled to hear it - laughed at the running commentary Elizabeth provided. Georgiana knew her sister-in-law well enough to know that she would be at pains to amuse her husband, and so to distract him from the trials of leading the dancing. It still surprised Georgiana to see her brother so well understood by his new bride, although to hear Lizzy tell it this understanding was not easily won and was instead the product of a great many months of mis-understanding.
I shall never have a love like that. The thought struck her suddenly and seemingly from nowhere, so that she faltered her playing, her fingers crashing into a false chord. Taking a breath, she shook off the thought and feelings it brought, focusing her attention on playing carefully and well. She knew this piece and had mastered it many days ago, saving it for just such an occasion as this where it might be properly appreciated.
"Would you like someone to turn your pages for you?"
Miss Evelina Finch had come up on Georgiana's right side, startling her by her sudden appearance such that there was almost another musical catastrophe. Georgiana rescued the piece at the last moment and nodded, shuffling down the piano stool sufficient to allow Miss Finch to perch beside her.
"Are you not dancing?" she asked, in a whisper. Evelina and she were friends by virtue of age and proximity and very little else in the way of shared feeling. She knew her neighbour to be fond of dancing and rarely, if ever, to pass up the opportunity, especially for so thankless a task as turning the pages of music she did not play.
"No!" Evelina sighed "The partner I most wished to dance with has been ensnared by someone else. I thought a show of generosity might win him for my next dance." She winked with such ferocity that Georgiana could see it even without looking at her. She bit her lip.
"Oh? And who is your preferred partner? I did not realise you had any interest in any of the young gentlemen local to us?"
"Oh, no!" Evelina giggled, which made Georgiana flinch. She had never been fond of giggling, especially when deployed as loudly and often as it was done by this particular young lady. "No, I have no interest in the gentlemen we grew up with. Such fools!" She sniffed, haughtily, glancing behind her to observe the dancers before sharing what was on her heat, and leaning close enough to Georgiana that she might whisper and not fear being overheard by any other ears but those belonging to her friend. "I wish to dance with the curate. Mr Lambert. Do not you think he is handsome?"
"Mr Lambert?" Georgiana had spoken his name far louder than she intended, and turned back to her sheet music, bending over the piano to hide her flushed cheeks and praying none of her guests had either heard her exclamation nor noticed her discomposure.
"Do not tell me you have not noticed him!" Evelina chided. "Why, you were sitting beside him all through the dinner! Could you not feel the daggers I was shooting your way with every look?" Evelina giggled again before sighing. "He is ever so handsome, and even though he is only a curate I think it quite possible he is from an old family. He came to call on us, you know, and Papa said it was a shame he was pressed into curacy when he might just as easily have had a military career." She frowned. "There was some tragedy or some mismanagement, I do not fully understand it. But it is not so very terrible a profession, to be a curate, particularly for a parish as wealthy as ours. I think it quite likely, too, that he will be recruited from here to a higher position within the church, you know."
Georgiana's smile remained fixed as she processed this piece of intelligence. Although Evelina parroted it as if she herself had been clever enough to come up with the whole entirely unaided, Georgiana knew her friend well enough to think it likely that this information was, instead, repurposed from the opinions of another. Her father, perhaps, for Mr Edward Finch was not short on opinions, nor cautious of sharing them in the hearing of his daughters.
"And now you shall be working with him on your concert!" Evelina sighed. "It is a cunning ploy, I must say. I wondered how it was your sister-in-law managed to secure your brother but now I see she is teaching you her ways. No doubt she saw an opportunity to pair you with Mr Lambert for some project in the hopes you will win his heart and his hand, you cruel thing, depriving us of him before anyone else even has a chance."
Georgiana was so stunned by this assessment of the situation and so horrified at the callous and conniving way Evelina spoke of Elizabeth that she had to bite down very hard on her lower lip to keep from putting her friend right. Instead, she played the last few bars of her piece with the utmost care, and as soon as she hit the final chord she stood.
"You have been a fine assistant, Evelina. I do not doubt you are eager to display your own talents next, so I will not keep you from doing so."
And, leaving Evelina open-mouthed but unable to argue, she walked off, feigning a sudden eagerness to join the dancing and putting as much space between herself and her friend as was humanly possible.