Lucas Lodge
Hertfordshire
The Next Day
Aimless chatter filled the drawing room and hallway at Lucas Lodge, clusters of people happily talking together. A handful of the local gentry browsed along the buffet tables set up in the dining room, helping themselves to tea and cakes and small finger sandwiches and biscuits and tea and coffee. Dozens of candles were set carefully about in front of mirrors to reflect their light throughout all the rooms, and Miss Anna Long carried one candlestick over to set on the pianoforte, starting to look through the music there in search of merry dancing melodies.
Wickham glanced around from his vantage point in the corner of the drawing room facing the door. Plenty of frocks and gowns were in evidence, the local ladies out in force. Indeed, he thought the only ones missing were the Kings and the Bennets. Miss King's absence he mourned not at all; he awaited the Bennet ladies with a nauseous mixture of dark hope and unease. His charm and easy personality would always get him far, but it would not be easy to explain if Mrs. Bennet and her daughters were to cut him directly.
He took another drink of his ale, looking around at his companions. He stood in a cluster of other red-coated officers, all of them with tankards to hand. Most of them, like him, were watching the door with anticipatory eyes. He was not the only one awaiting the Bennet ladies, it seemed.
"They are not a particularly pretty lot, are they," Lieutenant Smythe commented, drawing Wickham's attention. Smythe had joined the regiment only the previous week, and a great deal of spring rain had prevented the man from meeting the local ladies until this evening.
"I fear that the loveliest ladies in the area, the two eldest Misses Bennet, are in London at the moment," Lieutenant Pratt said gloomily.
"Are they intending to return?" Smythe asked.
"I doubt it," Captain Denny said. "Miss Elizabeth inherited a great fortune recently and has settled in London for some time. Miss Bennet is keeping her company, I expect."
"How much of a fortune?" Smythe inquired.
"Seventy thousand pounds," Wickham said shortly, clenching his jaw as the other man gasped.
"Seventy thousand pounds?" the newcomer repeated in an awed tone.
"Yes," Denny remarked and shook his head. "Four of the five Bennet girls are handsome, but until this unexpected windfall, none of them were of particular interest as a wife as they had little money to speak of. Now Miss Elizabeth is a great heiress, but naturally she ran off to London where some lucky gentleman will snatch her up. Indeed, given her fortune and her beauty, she might well snatch up a member of the nobility!"
The main door opened at this juncture, and Wickham turned his head in time to observe Mrs. Bennet, dressed in a dark green gown, bustle into the room. He watched, his throat slightly constricted, as Miss Kitty and Miss Lydia followed their mother indoors. Miss Lydia, dressed in a low cut gown which showed rather more bosom than was appropriate for her years, looked around eagerly and then, at the sight of him, waved happily, her pretty face lighting up with joy.
He felt himself relax and smiled broadly in return. It seemed that either Miss Lydia had not been warned off from him, or if she had, did not care in the least.
Miss Long began playing at this fortunate moment, and Wickham quickly left the group of officers to stride briskly over to Lydia Bennet.
"Miss Lydia, might I have the honor of this dance?" he asked.
"Oh yes, Mr. Wickham! Thank you very much!"
/
Half Moon Street
London
Two Weeks Later
Elizabeth looked around fondly at Jane's bedchamber in the house on Half Moon Street, as her elder sister prepared for the evening. The room was practically unchanged since Mrs. Simpson's time, and while the furniture was quaintly old-fashioned, Jane had elected to use it as it was. She had fallen in love nearly at once with the delicate spring-blossom pink of the room, and after a thorough cleaning, it was perfectly charming. Antique lace ruffled the curtains and pillow slips, turned ivory with age and lending an air of sophistication to the pink it adorned.
Jane glowed like a daffodil in the yellow gown a maid was currently helping her into. Her lace overdress matched her hair almost perfectly, with her hair braided into an elaborate coiffure held in place with a pearl comb and pearled pins. A single pearl strand wrapped around her white throat right above her neckline.
Elizabeth, studying her approvingly, thought she had never beheld such a lovely creature. She turned to examine her own reflection in the mirror; her eyes shining above a pale green muslin gown hemmed with lace, the same lace lying across her neckline and arms. The maid had grimly tamed Elizabeth's wild curls into something elegant that now shone in the light of a six wax candles set about the room.
There were benefits to being wealthy, Elizabeth thought, glancing around at the candles. They were not exactly frugal at Longbourn, but even her extravagant mother did not burn so many candles in a single room at once outside of special occasions.
Her gaze drifted back to Jane when the maid Sally stepped back, her task completed. As Sally set about putting the finishing touches to Jane, Elizabeth allowed her mind to wander. She had greatly enjoyed these last few weeks in London with Lady Appleby, whose merry kindness scarcely hid her will of steel. She had presented the Bennet sisters with a list of her favorite modistes and milliners and cobblers, instructing them firmly to patronize the listed shops and mention her name.
But between all the shopping trips, life had been peaceful. Elizabeth had enjoyed the leisure to curl up with a book in the library or a sitting room or her bedroom near to the windows or with candles aplenty. It was a marked contrast to the endless parade of visitors that had so plagued her at Longbourn, and she had thoroughly enjoyed the lack of company.
All of that was to change tonight, of course. Lady Appleby was determined to start building the Bennets' connections, starting with this dinner party. She had carefully selected and invited several friends and family members of hers to this coterie with an eye to their connections to the Bennets in the future.
Hence, of course, their Uncle and Aunt Gardiner could not be present. Elizabeth had been discreetly and entirely displeased with this exclusion at first, no matter how well she understood the social necessity of it. After all the aid and comfort the Gardiners had rendered her in her inheritance – both her Uncle Gardiner's expertise with money and her aunt's steady sweet kindness – it had seemed churlishly ungrateful.
"Do not fret, Lizzy," Aunt Gardiner had assured her with a warm smile. "We are well aware of the conventions you must follow, and it does not bother us in the least. Besides, I would sooner stay in at nights with my children than spend the evening unprofitably among the haut ton."
Elizabeth's wandering mind was recalled as Sally stepped away at last, looking pleased with her work. "There you are, miss."
"How do I look, Lizzy?" Jane asked, turning towards her sister, who smiled mistily and said, "I am confident that you are the most beautiful woman in all of London, my dear."
"I do not think that is true," Jane said, and compressed her lips before continuing, "I am a little nervous, Lizzy. It will be quite peculiar meeting so many new people."
"You can go, Sally," Elizabeth said to the maid, who immediately retreated out of the door.
Once the door had shut behind her, Elizabeth stepped forward and took Jane's hands in her own, aware that an embrace would unduly ruffle their attire.
"It is quite normal to feel anxious at meeting a host of highly born individuals," she said.
A smile formed on Jane's lips and she said, "And yet, you are not nervous in the least."
"I am not, but I am not prone to nerves. I expect the ladies and gentlemen coming tonight are much like other people, with their own hopes and dreams. I promise I will protect you if any of them prove obnoxious, though I do not think Lady Appleby would invite anyone prone to that."
"I appreciate your reassurances," Jane replied and then smiled and continued, "In any case, they will pay very little attention to me. You are the rich Bennet sister, after all!"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes just as the door opened, and Sally appeared again and said, "Misses, Lady Appleby requests that you both come downstairs."
Jane smiled and hooked her arm in her sister's. "Onward, Lizzy?"
"Onward."
/
/
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. I'm so glad you're enjoying my work-in-progress! FYI, I decided to change the name of the Governesses from 'Ayles' to 'Adler'.