Monday provided Kitty with her first sign of hope. She had caught a glimpse of Mr. Warde at church, but she had not been able to manage an introduction. Still, she found him to be every inch as handsome as she had expected. But on Monday, Mrs. Phillips called with the news that she had not only met Mr. Warde, but had actually managed to secure his promise that he would come for supper and cards on Friday. Her visit to Netherfield was to invite the Bingleys and Kitty, who was staying with them, to this same gathering. Mrs. Bennet had already accepted eagerly, and although Mr. Bingley had a prior engagement, Jane accepted for her sister and herself.
She arrived at her aunt's house with every hope fully excited. How long it had been since she had met any single men! And Mr. Warde was likely to be there already, as she had purposely delayed to ensure that they would be late in stopping at Longbourn to pick up her mother and sister. She was very sure that they would be able to make the most effective entrance with everyone watching them. Jane and Mary ignored her eager chatter in the carriage, but Mrs. Bennet picked up her enthusiasm and Kitty felt that her mother would be an excellent ally.
A small party greeted them on their arrival, but it was no less cheerful for that. Kitty was pleased to see so few other single young ladies in attendance, and her hopes rose further when she saw Mr. Warde standing at the back of the room. Kitty was sure that his twinkling eyes indicated a temperament to match her own.
Mrs. Phillips called him over to introduce the party. He examined them each in turn as he approached, and Kitty felt proud of her appearance beside Mary. She couldn't compete with Jane, or Lydia, or even Lizzy, but with Mary she was always sure of looking better by comparison.
He greeted them all warmly, and Kitty thrilled at the sound of his his rich voice. She was convinced that the man could read aloud from Fordyce and make it interesting, just by virtue of those deep tones! She asked him how he liked working for her uncle, which he professed to enjoy very much. It was a very promising beginning! She was going to ask him about his preference for parties like this one before Mary interrupted, and asked about what he liked to read. Reading! What a miserable conversation to begin at a party like this!
But he answered politely and somehow (Kitty could not entirely perceive how) he was soon offering Mary his arm and leading her into the room. Never mind that, as the eldest, she was entitled to his first attention. Kitty felt slighted.
She followed behind them as he led her into the room, but he led Mary to a sofa that did not admit any possibility of a third, and Kitty could see no way to rescue him from the miserably boring conversation he was doomed to. His fate was sealed when Mrs. Bennet called her over to settle some point of argument with Mrs. Phillips. But at least Mrs. Phillips might have more information about him.
"Well, Kitty, what do you think of him?" she asked, glancing over at the couple.
"He is every inch as handsome as you said he was," Kitty said eagerly. "But what is he like? Poor man! I am sorry that he felt it necessary to attend Mary instead of me. He must be bored out of his mind!" She glanced over at them again, and this time caught his eye as he was looking at her. She blushed and smiled, and he nodded his head ever so slightly. Kitty was sure she detected some great longing in his countenance and she pitied him all the more for his present situation.
"I have found him to be quite a gentleman," Mrs. Phillips said. "He would do very well for one of your girls, I am sure. Nothing like some other young men we have entertained here in the past!" She glanced at Mrs. Bennet, who was nodding an understanding that Kitty was reasonably sure she did not possess, for Kitty herself had no idea which young men her aunt could mean. She had quite enjoyed the company of all the gentlemen her aunt had introduced her to, and felt quite confident that she would have gotten the attention of more than one of them if her other sisters had not been there to attract them away. With Mary, that was certainly no danger. She glanced over at her sister again, and again caught Mr. Warde's eye. They exchanged the same gestures as before, and Kitty's heart soared within her. It would not be long now before he found a way to shake Mary off and come to talk with her instead. She quickly took inventory of her appearance to be sure that everything was in order. Brown curls arranged carefully about her face, white gown smoothed and pulled and pinched to show off anything that would entice a man while remaining, at least apparently, modest—she was looking her best, she knew. After all, she had taken especial care to look very well tonight.
"Do you think that he might want to come to dinner some night?" Mrs. Bennet was asking.
"I am sure he would not be opposed! How very kind of you!" Mrs. Phillips looked over at the other two and beamed. "He certainly seems to be getting along well with Mary."
This startled Kitty. Did he? Were his frequent glances at her not evidence to the contrary? She looked back at them again but this time his eyes remained fixed on Mary. Maybe her aunt was seeing something she was not. But Mary! Impossible! She had nothing that would attract any man. It was ridiculous. "I do not think it is that so much as he is too polite to break away from her," she said. "I have caught him looking at me several times tonight."
Mrs. Phillips smiled and patted her hand. "Well, between the two of you, I am not surprised that he is having trouble deciding where to bestow his attention. You are both lovely girls, are you not?"
Kitty looked to her mother, who was well-known to think very little of Mary's beauty. But Mrs. Bennet said, "Yes, both of them have turned out very well this evening. I am very glad to see Mary continuing to put herself forward; for such a long time she was trying to stand out by playing music which is not, I think, as conducive to attracting a man as is speaking to him. Why, that is how my other daughters caught their men, is it not?" She and Mrs. Phillips shared a comfortable chuckle and ignored Jane's quiet protest. Kitty sighed. She had never been much for Mary's kind of conversation on the best day, and she was fairly certain that there was nothing that could induce her to enjoy sitting with a man and blinking her eyes at him the way Mary was doing with Mr. Warde. He was probably as bored as she was.
"Do you think Mary might play a jig so we could dance?" she wondered.
"Leave Mary be for now. There are hardly enough couples here for dancing at any rate, and she seems to be quite content where she is," Mrs. Bennet said. "But look, Maria Lucas is come and you've not spoken to her at all! Go and sit with your friend, and leave us to ourselves." She patted Kitty's hand fondly and Kitty understood that she was dismissed. She did not understand how her mother could not see the reality of the situation; how bored Mr. Warde must be, and how badly Kitty longed to rescue him. She sighed and went to Maria, who was deep in conversation with the Meredith girls.
"Oh! Kitty! I thought you would never join us!" Maria said as Kitty approached. "We were talking of Mr. Warde, of course. Blanche says she has never seen anyone so disinclined to talk of pleasant things!"
"Really?" Kitty asked, startled again.
Blanche nodded eagerly, leaning forward with a conspiratorial glance toward the object of her exclusive knowledge. "Yes, I was talking to him when he first arrived. He was not interested in anything about the neighborhood or the assembly next month or any of it. The only questions he asked me were about the situation of my family and the kinds of books I read. But when I told him that I was currently reading The Monk he actually sneered, and turned away! I though it was very rude of him. And what kind of boring man doesn't read novels anyway? I think he and Mary will be very happy together." She laughed.
Kitty glanced back at them, surprised at this news. Mr. Warde did not look very interested in what Mary had to say; he kept scanning the room and when he caught her looking at him, he always bowed his head most gallantly. Besides, what man so handsome could bear to be as dull as Blanche seemed to think him? Surely there must have been some mistake, and Kitty herself had been bored by Blanche's conversation enough times that she was sure it was the speaker, and not the subject, that was at fault in the matter.
"Well," she said, "I can't believe anyone would voluntarily sit and talk to Mary for that long. She must be keeping up a pretty steady stream to keep him so captive that he cannot excuse himself. I am sure he would be very pleasant if we could talk with him about something that interested him—we only need to find out what that might be!"
"And do you think you will be the one to discover it?" Maria asked, giggling.
"Why should I not be? Do you think it is more likely to be Mary?"
The girls shook their heads, giggling, but Maria looked skeptical. "I do not think it is likely to be any of us. Mr. Warde has only ever demonstrated interest in one thing, from what little I have seen, and that is your uncle's business. He may be handsome, but, Kitty, I really do not think he's a very interesting man."
"I suppose I shall have to determine that for myself, if I can ever free him from my sister," Kitty said.
She was not to get that chance, however. Mary monopolized him for most of the night, and the few times when he was available, someone else snatched his attention away before Kitty had a chance. By the end of the night, Kitty was impatient to get home. Her dress was not nearly as pretty as she had thought it, and it did not help when Maria spilled tea on it. Moreover, her eyes felt dry, and her head was beginning to ache. After all the promise that the evening had seemed to hold before they had arrived, Kitty rather wanted to cry.
On the way back to Longbourn, Mary actually struck up a conversation about Mr. Warde. "I found him to be very well-informed, and we agreed on a great many things," she said, smoothing her skirts in a manner that struck Kitty as being excessively self-satisfied. "I was very pleased to be able to talk to him this evening."
Kitty rolled her eyes. "Did you bore him to death talking about Fordyce, or music?"
"For your information, Mr. Warde was very interested in what I read, as well as what I play. He said he would like to hear me play for him some time, and I hope to have the opportunity to do so. I found him a very pleasing companion. I doubt you would have liked him so well. He does not share any of your interests—he does not care for dancing, or gossip, or useless flirtation. He is a very sober and intelligent man."
"He did look at me an awful lot," Kitty said, unable to quite keep the note of triumph out of her voice.
Mary smiled and gave a little shrug. "Yes, he did ask me why you kept trying to catch his eye. He seemed most bemused by it."
This did not fit with Kitty's understanding of their interaction at all. "Maybe he was bored by you and was looking for an excuse to come talk to me. Did he not look as though he was not entirely attending to Mary, Mama?"
"Oh, Lord, I beg you would not ask me; I haven't the smallest idea of what he was doing. I was much too engaged by my conversation with Mrs. Phillips to think of a little thing like that. I am sure he found you both very charming."
Kitty scowled and resisted the urge to kick her sister. She knew Mary could not really understand what had happened with Mr. Warde, but she did not know how to demonstrate it. One thing was clear, however: if she was going to get Mr. Warde to fall in love with her, she was going to have to do it without Mary there. She was sure she could manage that.
UPDATE: Learnt to be Cautious is now a published novel! The final draft is published on under the same title, by Jaina Kirke. It has been edited and very much improved from this old draft, and if you are interested in supporting my writing I would LOVE for you to check it out! Just search Amazon for Learnt to be Cautious. Thank you so much for your support! You were instrumental in getting this book published.