I've done it again - posted two chapters within a week!
I meant to get to the Netherfield ball in this chapter, but some more character stuff had to come out - they wouldn't let me do anything else, lol. However, the ball is talked of and some plans are made, as well as some information passed on. Also, both Elizabeth and Darcy come to something of an understanding with themselves. Now only if they could quit being so stubborn and come to an understanding with each other, eh?
Thank you, as ever, to all my dear readers. Thank you to those of you who left a comment. I adore each and every one of you.
Chapter Twelve
"A ball?" said Bingley.
"Indeed!" Lydia replied. "Do not you remember that you talked of having a ball when you first came into Hertfordshire? Kitty, don't you think it would be quite the scandal if he did not keep his word?"
Kitty nodded vigorously. "Oh, I do hope you will hold a ball, Mr. Bingley!"
"Just because one talks of holding a ball," drawled Caroline Bingley, "does not mean one will or one must. I am sure that my brother cannot possibly—"
"I should be delighted!" Bingley interrupted her. "Something a little more grand than the monthly assemblies in Meryton would be just the thing!"
"Oh, indeed it would be!" joined in Mrs. Allen. "My dear Caroline, I should be delighted to assist you with the preparations!"
Miss Bingley, seeing she was not to succeed in dissuading the scheme, acquiesced with disdainful civility. Conversation around the table then resumed, the prospect of a ball now the prevailing subject.
"A ball—how delightful!" said Catherine. "Colonel Fitzwilliam, do you dance at all?"
Elizabeth glanced across the table in time to watch the perpetual grin about the colonel's face grow. "Why, of course I know how to dance! Who do you think taught Darcy here everything he knows?"
Darcy scoffed. "My dancing master," he replied. "And my late honored mother."
Fitzwilliam sobered. "I shall concede to the latter, Darcy," said he. "My dearest aunt was indeed a fine dancer, and she taught us both very well."
He then looked back to Catherine, his grin returning. "Dare I presume to solicit your hand, Miss Morland, for the first two dances? We do not know when Bingley's ball shall be held, but I will definitely remain in the country for a time. Long enough to attend this ball, I assure you."
Catherine blushed scarlet, but she smiled and nodded her head. "I should be honored, Colonel. Thank you."
Elizabeth looked to her friend and smiled, happy for her to have already found a charming partner to open the dance with. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted Fitzwilliam jamming his elbow into Darcy's side; his cousin scowled at him, then cleared his throat.
"Miss Elizabeth," he said, and she looked up at him. "Might I have the honor of your hand for the first two dances?"
The first two dances. With Darcy. She would get to dance with him again!
Fighting to curtail her elation, for Elizabeth knew that his asking her was nothing more than a simple request to have an accomplished dancing partner, inclined her head and smiled. "I should be delighted, Mr. Darcy, provided I may be so bold as to suggest Colonel Fitzwilliam as my partner for the second set. After all, however will I know which of you is the better dancer?"
Fitzwilliam guffawed at her comment, and on Darcy's other side Georgiana giggled. Beside Elizabeth, Catherine also laughed. "Lizzy," said her friend between giggles, "do not you recall that James said one cannot tell other people whom they ought to dance with?"
"I do indeed, dear Cathy, and I am certainly not telling the colonel that he must dance with me—the choice is certainly his," Elizabeth replied. "But I think I should like to dance with him, if he is so inclined, and does not mind my impertinence in doing the asking. I simply must know if two men in the same family can really be equally accomplished at dancing."
Darcy's expression seemed a mixture of surprise and, if she were not mistaken, jealousy. Lifting an eyebrow, she challenged him silently to respond.
He cleared his throat. "I cannot speak for my cousin's acquiescing to your request; I will, however, warn you that should he grant it, you had best not care too much for your toes or your slippers, for they might both be ruined and you shall not dance again the rest of the evening."
"Oh, now that is throwing down the gauntlet indeed, Darcy!" cried Fitzwilliam. "Miss Bennet, your challenge is most readily accepted. I shall be glad to prove to you which of us my dear Aunt Anne taught best to dance."
"Brother, will I be allowed to attend Mr. Bingley's ball?" asked Georgiana then.
Darcy looked at her. "Of course, dearest. It would hardly be kind of us to hold a ball at Netherfield and force you to remain above stairs. I have but one caveat for you—you may only dance with the gentlemen who reside in the house."
"But what if someone else should ask me while you are all dancing? Theodore is already partnered for the first two sets," Georgiana protested.
"And I am only partnered for the first set, my dear," said her brother with a smile. I should be delighted to claim the second. I will talk with Bingley and see that he will dance the first with you."
Fitzwilliam looked around Darcy and added, "I have no wish to disappoint you, Georgie, but as you are not properly out, we must have some oversight as to your partners. Perhaps a compromise, Will? Should another young man wish to dance with your sister, it must be someone you have been introduced to."
"I should like to second that suggestion, if I may," added Elizabeth with a smile in Georgiana's direction. "I could name at least three young men you have met and conversed with, Mr. Darcy—in fact, you played a game of chess against William Lucas when last you attended a party at Lucas Lodge, and he is sure to attend the ball."
Darcy sighed and gave a curt nod. "Very well. If it is a young man with whom I have met and conversed, I will approve him."
"Oh, thank you, brother! I am so very excited to attend my first ball!" Georgiana cheered happily.
"Mrs. Annesley will chaperone you when neither Theo or I are available," said Darcy. His tone, Elizabeth noted, brooked no argument.
Georgiana did not offer one—it was clear that she was ready to agree to anything just to be allowed to attend and to dance.
Although conversation throughout dinner was hardly lacking, a subject Elizabeth really wished to broach could not be across the dining table; there was too much risk others would overhear. Cards and entertainment were to follow the meal, and it was her hope she might get Darcy alone to backgammon or chess. Colonel Fitzwilliam, when talk of the coming ball was all but done, suggested making a table with himself, Darcy, and Georgiana for the first rubber of whatever game Elizabeth desired to play. This, she realized, was an even better situation—for she could relay Wickham's accusations to all concerned parties at once—and readily agreed. When Darcy cocked a curious eyebrow at her, she replied that she had some news regarding the gentleman he had spoken to Colonel Forster about earlier that day.
While the men were lingering over brandy and cigars, Elizabeth talked cheerfully with Georgiana, Catherine, Jane, and Charlotte; they spoke of the ball, Jane's upcoming marriage, and Elizabeth was at last able to ask her oldest friend if indeed she were being courted by Colonel Forster. Charlotte blushed deeply and nodded.
"I am so very honored by his attentions, Lizzy," she said in a low voice. "I am not romantic, you know—I never have been. But ever since the colonel began to pay his addresses, I have begun to almost feel… I cannot really describe it except to say that my feelings make me think of romance. He has been so very kind and attentive when he has called on me. My only fear is…"
Her voice trailed off and Elizabeth reached for her hand. "What do you fear, Charlotte?" she asked softly.
Charlotte drew a breath. "My only fear is that he shall end up disappointed. I'm seven-and-twenty, after all, Lizzy. What if I cannot give him children?"
"Nonsense, Charlotte!" Elizabeth admonished her. "Women older than you have borne children. I am sure God will bless you with a dozen."
Her friend laughed and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "I should be happy if I only had one, I am sure!"
When the gentlemen at last rejoined the ladies, the servants were just behind bringing in the card tables. The doors to the music room were opened and Mary sat to the pianoforte to play for them. Elizabeth gestured for her party to join her at the table closest to the instrument, as the noise of the music would enable them to speak more freely. Once a deck of cards had been placed in Colonel Fitzwilliam's hand, she recounted her meeting with Mr. Wickham the night before.
Darcy was at once livid, and his cousin no less incensed. "Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners," said the former bitterly, "that he makes friends easily."
"Whether he is capable of retaining them is less certain," said Fitzwilliam with a derisive snort.
"It…it wasn't all lies he said," offered Georgiana hesitantly. "After all, he was Papa's godson, and old Mr. Wickham was highly regarded by our father."
Darcy drew a breath and released it slowly. "Indeed, dearest, both of those statements are fact. But I am afraid that little else of what he said to Miss Bennet was truth. Father did once hope that Wickham would take the living, but—"
"It's quite all right, brother," said the younger Darcy. "I remember what you told me of it at Ramsgate."
"Might I ask what you said to Colonel Forster that led to his ordering Wickham to remain at camp?" Elizabeth asked then.
"Nothing less than the truth," replied Fitzwilliam. "We simply said that we had known the wretch since childhood, and knowing him to be in the neighborhood, could not in good conscience remain silent as to his deficits of character. Forster was informed of his habits of gaming, running up debt, and seduction of young women. I do not prevaricate when I say that it is likely only my connection to the nobility which led him to believe us, for the colonel himself regarded Wickham as a 'charming and amiable' fellow and said he was 'universally liked' among the regiment."
Elizabeth looked then to Darcy. "By the by, I feel compelled to apologize for my conduct last evening," she said. "I'm afraid I was for a time still vexed by our last conversation and I encouraged him to speak ill of you. It was unpardonable of me."
"On the contrary, Miss Elizabeth," said Darcy. "Although disguise of every sort is my abhorrence, your subterfuge has given us an idea as to what lengths Wickham is willing to go in order to sully my character. Think what he revealed to you only moments after first meeting you—who but one whose intent is to deceive would speak of such personal history to one whose acquaintance he has just made? His conduct was the unpardonable. At least you acted as you did only as a means of gathering information, and I am grateful that you were not swayed by his lies."
"As am I!" cried Georgiana softly. "Oh Lizzy, how mortified I am whenever I recall how thoroughly I was deceived in him—to think I was persuaded to believe myself in love with such a man is horrifying!"
"I would not be so hard on yourself, Georgiana," Elizabeth replied. "You are young and not much experienced in the world, and he is a practiced liar. Mr. Wickham took advantage of you for his own gain."
"In return for your clever use of feminine charms," spoke up Fitzwilliam, "I think I can safely speak for my cousin when I say I have no doubt at all as to your discretion in this matter."
"Theodore is correct," agreed Darcy. "As were you when you declared that a promise to my sister was as much a promise to me. I should not have asked you to swear another."
Elizabeth felt all the import of that statement as warmth bloomed in her chest and in her cheeks. All their disagreements thus far had led to her apologizing to him, so to have him also recognize that he had been in error felt momentous. It told her that Darcy respected her more than she had believed him to.
Smiling in return, she at last replied, "Thank you for that, Mr. Darcy. It may not have been necessary, but after my interaction with Mr. Wickham last evening, I understand why you did it. Your sister is as precious to you as mine are to me, and I would probably have done the same were our situations reversed. I am also relieved to have been told the truth of Mr. Wickham's character before meeting him, as I came to realize that did I not already know you as I do, his charming lies might well have thoroughly poisoned me against you."
Darcy's expression flickered, rousing Elizabeth's curiosity as to what he was feeling in that moment, but he said only, "Thank Providence, then, that you were not deceived."
After that statement, the four players readily altered their topic of conversation to the ball once more. Georgiana expressed her delight at being allowed to attend even if all her partners did have to be approved, and Elizabeth took the opportunity of asking questions of Colonel Fitzwilliam. He may have only just arrived in Hertfordshire, but she had seen him pay particular attention to Catherine already, much as the local boys had done—many of them only after learning she was an heiress. No doubt the colonel already knew of her fortune.
She found herself remarkably pleased with Darcy's cousin, and hopeful that his interest in her friend, whom she thought as well of as she did her own sisters—who would be as much as a sister when James and Jane were married—was merely an effect of his open and amiable nature.
Her concern was touched again when the first game was done and Georgiana offered to take Mary's place at the pianoforte. Her place at the table was taken by Catherine, much to her delight and the colonel's. Elizabeth could not help again wondering if he thought her friend pretty or if his charm was due to her wealth. Then she became rather angry with herself, realizing that her mistrust had been influenced by Wickham's attempted elopement with Georgiana. Not all men are scoundrels, Elizabeth Bennet, she told herself firmly.
Determined to enjoy herself, she forcibly pushed aside such morose thoughts as she had been having and concentrated on the game.
-…-
Darcy became aware as soon as he stepped from his coach at Netherfield that Bingley and Caroline had been arguing. His friend was visibly vexed as he climbed the front stair, his sister trailing behind as she continued to harangue him.
His suspicion proved correct when he, Georgiana, and Fitzwilliam stepped into the entry hall, for it was in that moment that Bingley said, "That is quite enough, Caroline! If it is my desire to host a ball here at Netherfield, I shall, and if the prospect of an evening of dancing does not appeal to you, you are most welcome to beg that our sister and her husband take you to their home in London—or perhaps you would prefer our aunt and uncle's house in Scarborough?"
Beside him, Georgiana colored with embarrassment at having witnessed the scene; Fitzwilliam smiled his amusement. No surprise there, thought Darcy perversely, before he quietly encouraged his sister to take to her bed. Georgiana readily agreed, and after kissing both his cheek and their cousin's, bid a hasty farewell to the rest of their party. Catherine Morland quickly joined her in going up to the first floor.
"Darcy, Morland, Colonel Fitzwilliam," said Bingley then. "Would you all care to join me in a nightcap?"
"I would be delighted, sir," answered Fitzwilliam, and after divesting himself of his greatcoat and passing it to a waiting maid, followed after Bingley who was already on his way towards the study. Darcy and Morland were close behind, and when they were behind the closed door, Bingley turned to them.
"My apologies that you were forced to witness such a scene," he began, then he looked to Morland. "I also feel rather compelled to offer my apologies to you personally, James."
Morland frowned. "Whatever for?"
Their host went to the sideboard and poured himself a drink. "My sister thinks it an insult to host an evening of gaiety when you have robbed me of my heart's desire."
Morland scoffed. "Good gracious," he murmured. "It's not as if you were asked to throw Miss Bennet and I an engagement ball—that, at least, I own could be considered an insult."
He then stepped closer to Bingley and said, "Sir, you really have been most gracious regarding Miss Bennet and myself, and I cannot thank you enough for it. It cannot have been easy for you to allow me to return to your home or to witness our joy this evening."
"To be perfectly candid, 'twas not as difficult as I had imagined it would be," Bingley replied. "Seeing Jane—that is, Miss Bennet—seeing her happy pleases me. She's a good girl who deserves every happiness the world has to offer, and if she finds it with a capital fellow such as yourself, so be it. That she chose you and not me simply means that it is not yet my time to settle down."
"Your perspicacity in this matter is remarkably mature, Charles," Darcy said as he crossed the room and poured his own drink.
"Thank you, Darcy," Bingley replied. "I know that my history with the fairer sex, falling in and out of love and all that, might have given you reason to expect my feelings for Miss Bennet were just as flighty. I assure you they are not, but I think…" He paused and took a draught of his brandy, then sighed. "I think that being rejected by a girl I truly liked has pushed me to that greater maturity. I've learned that even the rich do not always get what they want."
"Speaking of the rich," said Morland as he poured two snifters and carried one over to Fitzwilliam. "You were most attentive to my sister this evening, Colonel."
Fitzwilliam's eyebrows winged up as he accepted the glass. "Miss Morland is a delightful girl," he replied slowly.
"She's also a very rich girl," Morland reminded him, "and you have said yourself that you cannot marry without some attention to money."
"Come now, Morland," said Darcy. "You don't seriously suspect my cousin to be acting a part when he has only just met your sister."
"It only takes one meeting, does it not?" Morland retorted.
Fitzwilliam, though surely amused by this turn of the conversation, nevertheless kept his expression sober as he said, "Mr. Morland, I have never been the profligate sort, nor have I ever used my noble connections to seduce young women as you may have heard my lot to do. I was brought up to treat women with respect no matter their station in life."
"That does not mean you've not as much an eye on Catherine's fortune as any of the fellows in Meryton who have tried to pay her attention," Morland asserted.
"Miss Morland's fortune is, at present, of no interest to me," Fitzwilliam rejoined. "What is of interest is becoming acquainted with a delightful, charming—if a touch naïve—young lady whose fine eyes and pretty smile I should like to see more of. I enjoy her company and conversation, and that is all."
They stared at one another for a long moment, then Morland nodded. "I would beg your pardon, sir, but as you have yourself acknowledged, it is my duty to see my sister protected."
"And it is to your credit that you are so vigilant, Mr. Morland," Fitzwilliam replied. "But while I can acknowledge such a fortune as hers is as attractive as she and would set me up quite nicely, the business which brings me to Hertfordshire all but precludes my pursuing any possibility of attaching myself, to Miss Morland or any other girl."
"And why have you come to Hertfordshire, if I may ask?" queried Bingley. "As charming as both your cousins are, Colonel, I suspect it was not Darcy's descriptions of the pastoral countryside which have brought you thither."
Fitzwilliam laughed. "No indeed, sir. I am here because a scoundrel of mine and Darcy's mutual acquaintance is in the neighborhood, and we wish to see all the local daughters' virtues protected."
Bingley scoffed. "Surely you don't follow this fellow everywhere?"
Darcy shared a look with his cousin. "Certainly not," said Darcy. "However, this person is not only likely to run up debts and ruin shopkeepers' daughters, he is also about ruining my character to anyone who will listen. Only last evening he spoke to Miss Elizabeth about me and accused me of inhumane treatment, among other crimes."
"Impossible," said Bingley with a snort. "You're the most generous man I've ever known."
"It is kind of you to say, Charles," Darcy replied. "But suffice it to say, Morland here is not the only one with a sister to see protected. Every brother in the neighborhood would want to keep theirs locked up if they knew about him."
"Then why not blast this man's true character to all and sundry?"
"Because despite what we know of him, it is not our intention to ruin him entirely," replied Fitzwilliam. "Only see to it that he behaves himself whilst we are all in the same neighborhood."
Morland scoffed, then said, "Something tells me you do not expect he will."
"For a time he may, but Wickham is too much a creature of habit," said Darcy.
"Indeed," agreed Fitzwilliam as he threw back the last of the amber liquid in his glass. "If there's anyone hereabout you ought to fear lusting after Miss Morland's fortune, sir, it's George Wickham."