Chapter 36

'Miss Elizabeth, tell me about your relations.'

'Hm. I love them very much. They are like second parents to me and Jane. We were often with them over the last ten years. They offered the structure for us that was somewhat lacking at home… When I became eighteen, my uncle invited me into his office and told me that they had invested the money my father gave them for taking care of us, added to it themselves, and that now both Jane and I have two thousand pounds for dowry.' Darcy looked at the couple on his other side. Mrs. Gardiner smiled at him.

'That is… very generous of them. Generous and enterprising. But then why did Miss Bingley think you had only a thousand to your name?'

'Miss Bingley told you about my dowry?' She was taken aback.

'I may have made a comment about your eyes to her…'

'You-you commented about my eyes? Mr. Darcy, and what did you say, pray?' She looked at him cheekily. Inside, her heart was playing a quick piano practice scale. Darcy looked away and then looked back at her.

'I told her that I thought your eyes were beautiful.' It was Elizabeth's turn to swallow. She took her glass and drank. Darcy watched.

'Beautiful? You think my eyes are beautiful?... When… was this?' She could not take her eyes off him. Darcy swallowed hard. His hands were sweating. For the second time, they almost lost themselves in each other in front of everyone. She had to shake herself to come back to the dinner.

'At the Lucas's, when I first heard you play on the piano.' She gasped. That early in their acquaintance, he had admired her. Well, my eyes, she thought with a trembling heart.

'Our father had a talk with us not long ago as now some of us are at marriageable age, and told us that each of us had three thousand pounds, and a hundred per annum until he lived. So, I actually have five thousand.' She desperately wanted to know if it made any difference to him. She wanted to feel that she could offer him something substantial.

'You have each three thousand pounds and you two five?' She nodded. He could not believe what he was hearing. She had a dowry after all. He quickly added the dowries which made an impressive nineteen thousand pounds. Many of the ton's debutantes had less to offer.

'That is,' he cleared his throat, 'that is impressive.' His throat was dry. He also took a sip from his glass. It makes a difference. Elizabeth grinned and looked at her father at the end of the table. She shook her head. She was grateful that their father had not let his daughters down after all. She did not mind that he was not business minded. He was an academic at heart. All those years, she thought he did not care. Well, he did not care to tell them that their circumstances were not as dire as they had thought.

'I am glad that you have brought your sister with you. It is nice to be together at Christmas.'

'There was no possibility that I would have left her behind. She would have slept in the carriage. She is all I have. Our parents were gone before she could really get to know them. I at least had that.'

'Tell me about your parents.'

Mrs. Bennet was satisfied. As she looked around her domain, the dinner table, she saw conversation, laughter, her dishes were praised, Mr. Bingley noticed the centrepiece and examined it. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. She looked at her husband who then felt her eyes on him, and there in the middle of dinner they shared a moment. They held each other's gaze until Mrs. Bennet demurred and looked down blushing.

The younger girls immediately took a liking to Miss Darcy. She was a sweet lady as she saw her. Polite and she answered every question thrown at her. There were many. Lydia and Kitty were hungry to know what made a girl from the ton different from them. They were confirming their fears that their girlish days were over. It was time to apply themselves to become ladies that the gentry would want to marry. Mary was mostly quiet, but even she became animate when the talk turned to music.

She was happy for her two eldest daughters as they enjoyed the attentions of their unacknowledged suitors. She would give the two gentlemen a little more time, but then she would urge Mr. Bennet to confront the young men.

When she saw that everybody finished eating, she made a show of getting up. The ladies at the table then followed her example.

'Gentlemen, enjoy your drink. We will be in the parlour.' The footman and a maid quickly cleared the table collecting the remaining dishes and plates.

Bingley and Darcy were not regular users of snuff or the pipe. They always had a small box of snuff in their dinner jackets, in case the situation called for it that they should join the others. That evening Darcy had a surprise for the men, including Bingley. He had cigars from Spain. His Fitzwilliam cousin had brought a big box of it for him as a present. He only tried it once since. He offered it to the men present. He showed what to do with it. And so the gentlemen had a great time tasting tobacco leaves from Cuba1. It was a novel experience for all. The smell and taste of the tobacco were almost sweet. They laughed at their blunders at the beginning. The two elder gentlemen, Mr. Bennet and Mr. Gardiner enjoyed the cigar experience immensely. They knew that it would be some time before they would have the privilege again.

'… My cousin was there2.'

'The one who gifted you the cigars?'

'Yes, Richard Fitzwilliam, now a colonel. He had an injury in the leg and was shipped home after that. Thank goodness it was only his leg.'

'Can he walk?'

'Yes. It was serious for a while, but the doctors at home could beat the inflammation that sat in. He can walk and one cannot really tell. He only just got back on the horse. It would have devastated him if he had become an invalid. He is a soldier through and through. He got a new assignment here in England for the time being. Thank God.'

'You worry for him.' Mr. Bennet stated. Darcy nodded. 'What did he say about the battle?'

'He says that there was stubborn courage on both sides. It was not a question of who was the bravest but of who was the bravest longest. On that day the British won. It has been the bloodiest battle yet. They had help. Colonel Fitzwilliam. Two line regiments from Portugal, for whom this was the first major action, plus the first Battalion of the Loyal Lusitanian Region protected the British 4th Division's advance from repeated attacks by the French cavalry. He managed to get his men through and got injured in the process.' Silence was in the room for a few seconds. Then the men sighed.

'Will this war ever end?' Mr. Gardiner asked no one really.

'All those young men away from their families at Christmas, and they do not know if they ever see their loved ones again.' Bingley shuddered.

'It is profound that both sides pray to the same god.' Mr. Bennet commented.

'Since Albuera, it seems like half of the battles are won by them and half by the allies.' Mr. Bennet added.

'Well, I hope sanity wins, and Napoleon will be defeated. This revolution of theirs I believe was orchestrated to destroy the old order to replace it with nothing under the guise of freedom and brotherhood. What brotherhood? Napoleon made himself emperor as soon as he could. I would say it is a joke if it were not the future of Europe at stake.'

'You have some definite opinion for one so young, Mr. Darcy. But I think I understand you.' Mr. Bennet exhaled his cigar.

'Speak for yourself, brother. What do you mean it was orchestrated?'

'I say that it was orchestrated because people, mostly illiterate, do not organize themselves nationwide and march to the capital when they have nothing. It takes days or weeks on foot. What did they eat on the road? There must have been people strategically placed in communities who would create the sentiment and make arrangements. The question is who trained these people, and who financed it. I do not believe for a minute that it just happened.'

'Now that you say… I never thought about it. Organizing people together is quite a feat. It is enough of a job to get my people in the warehouse to know what they are doing. Something is fishy here.'

'A nation that gets rid of its whole ruling class. And then what? They killed and ruined families, and their homes are devastated, I am told, all over the country. Everybody got a piece if they were at the right place. And again, then what? Without order there is chaos… Do not get me wrong, some culpability also goes to the gentry who basically used the lower classes as not much better than slaves over there. This hell that ensued was against nature. It had to be made.'

'By whom?'

'Who knows? Someone approached me to join their secret society. They do not know God, and do not believe in country. They want a new world where obviously they rule.'

'Good Heavens.'

'Who was it?'

'You do not say…'

While the gentlemen enjoyed their drinks and cigars and discussed the societal issues of their time, a quite different atmosphere was awaiting them in the parlour. The piano was brought in for the evening, and they were listening to Georgiana. With little persuasion, she played her favourite piece, Mozart's Lacrimosa. It was a very technical piece as the hands cross each other many times during the playing. The music lured the men, and one by one they joined the ladies. Elizabeth followed at the piano forte, and she also played a Mozart piece, a cheerful one.

Cake was served with tea. The girls managed it among themselves and quickly everybody enjoyed Mrs. Bennet's recipe. The three eldest girls then excused themselves. When they came back into the room and went to the instrument, Bingley and Darcy stopped talking and looked at the sisters as if they were seeing a vision. Their eyes widened in shock. Then they could not have enough of what they saw.

It had been Kitty's errant idea in the morning as the sisters were practicing to create headdresses for them to suit the song. Darcy (and Bingley) was bewitched: Elizabeth had her hair down and the winter crown of small branches as leaves around her head made her look like a nymph. Miss Bennet was also truly beautiful with her blond tresses down; even Miss Mary looked lovely. Mr. Bennet looked at his wife; he had not known about the planned spectacle. Mrs. Bennet shrugged and wore a satisfied smile on her face. The final piece for the entertainment was a song the girls learnt from the daughters of a local family a few years back. It was the creation of the girls' piano master. It had such a lovely simple melody, an enchanting song that speaks to the listener's inner child. Elizabeth had copied the notes and the three had performed it before.

The girls had been practicing diligently to perform this song again with perfect harmony. Mary would play the piano and Elizabeth the flute with some simple melody. She would join in the singing of the chorus. Bingley could not take his eyes off Jane. At last, he thought. He could not wait to hear her sing. She looked younger with her hair framing her face. He wished he could touch her curls. Darcy was not faring better either. He even stopped breathing as he took in her lovely face. Her dark brown hair had red beads of holly in it. He wished he could have her painted like this. He tried to carve the image of her beloved into his mind.

Once they were in place, after the piano's first accords, Jane started to sing in a slightly husky soprano. Her voice filled the room, filled the senses. Bingley was transported to heaven.

Woodland Folk3

As the sun sets in the west
And the sky grows dim
Through the leaves the last warm rays
Are shimmering in the breeze

Take my hand and I'll show you the way
Come with me down the Woodland Lane

Night has fallen in the wood
There's an earthly sigh
As the Woodland Folk come out
To dance throughout the night

Chorus

In the grove neath starry sky
There stands the golden queen
And her voice lights up the night
And fills the trees with dreams

Chorus

1 Spain had a monopoly on Cuban tobacco at the time. Cigars were just getting popular on the continent, the soldiers took the habit home to England, and by 1826, England was on record importing only 26 pounds of cigars a year. By 1830, they were importing 250,000 pounds of cigars a year.

2 Battle of Albuera, May 1811, Peninsular WarThe Peninsular War, fought by Spain and Portugal, with the assistance of Britain, against France came as a result of Napoleon's invasion of Spain. The war took place in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. The Treaty of Paris concluded the allied victory.

3 By Ella Roberts

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the link to Jane's song is on the story website :) enjoy