Georgiana was sitting in the Darcy house library interrogating her family. Bingley stretched long in an armchair, his legs touching his wifes. Jane kicked her legs out long away from her armchair as well, though her dress covered everything. They seemed to be in some sort of game. One would nudge the other with a communicative face.
Lizzy sat on the couch with William, who lounged next to her. An arm was thrown over the back of the couch ready to catch Lizzy whenever she would settle down. But she was too excited to relax as she spoke to Georgiana about her first ball.
Georgiana was incredibly nervous for the event, but had plead sickness for the last two, and her Aunt Matlock was getting impatient.
"You'll have so much fun!" Lizzy smiled, "Your dance card is probably full already. With your brother, your cousins and Charles, you'll have no space to be nervous!" But Georgiana was doubtful.
"Brother," she said, "what do you do when you're nervous at balls?" Lizzy eyed her husband with a wicked smile, and Charles nudged Jane with his foot. William turned a little pink, to Georgiana's surprise.
"I look for Lizzy," he said simply, to his wife's amusement.
"What if she's not around?" Georgiana pressed.
"Then I look for Bingley," William answered. Charles barked a laugh when Jane sent him a face.
"But," Georgiana said with some exasperation, "what if you don't have either of them?"
"Well I– then I–," William sputtered, "Jane why don't you answer this?" Jane face looked wildly surprised, and Charles laughed.
"Well, I'm not so different. I usually look for Charles or Lizzy," Jane smiled at Georgiana, who pursed her lip.
"But what if you found yourself alone?" Georgiana said.
"Oh, well then, I would panic," Jane chuckled to Charles' nudge. Lizzy laughed then as well.
"That seems like what my dearest husband does," she said, looking at said husband with a smile. Said husband reached over and tugged on one of her curls.
"Alway vexing," he said softly.
"So, you panic," Georgiana said, trying to keep everyone on topic. But then felt worse because she was told to panic. And she was already panicking.
"Yes," Jane laughed, "I would panic and find the nearest, outgoing friend. It can be stressful and scary at a ball. You're very normal for feeling scared. So, I would just feel scared until I found a friend." Georgiana felt a little better. She wasn't broken. She could just be scared. She could do that.
"That's true, then you just have to find a good expression to use when frightened. Jane has a good one. It's all serenity. Darcy has one that scares people away, so it has a dual purpose," Charles said, glancing over at her brother who smiled as he covered his eyes with his hand shamefacedly."We shouldn't be telling her to panic," William said.
"Of course!" Jane said, with an eye roll, "Georgiana, just don't be scared. You're too pretty to be scared." Georgiana thought that was the worst thing she'd ever heard.
"There was no middle ground between panic and awful?" William asked Jane, who nudged Charles. Charles head rolled back, and he looked at William.
"We could compare proposals if we want to talk about middle grounds," he grinned to Williams blush and surprised laugh.
"You can also do things to spite people," Lizzy grinned, speaking loudly over them, "then your courage will rise to be impertinent." Georgiana laughed at this picture. She could just go out of her way to vex people, and then she won't be nervous.
"Is that how you do it?" William asked, putting his hand on his wife's shoulder to look at her. "You just cause problems and everyone loves you?" Lizzy smiled and nodded.
"I disagreed with you every turn, and didn't you like it?" she laughed. William threw himself back on the couch incredulously. "I do it mainly as a joke, though. It doesn't work the same if you don't smile," she continued looking at Georgiana. Williams' eyes shot over to Charles accusingly.
"And what do you do?" he demanded. Georgiana was glad her brother was as confused as she. Lizzy used spite to be amiable? She thought Lizzy was simply born happy and outgoing! Charles whooped a laugh.
"I'm just an embarrassment! Always have been," he said, "I haven't died yet, so the feeling is my constant companion." Jane nudged him with a smirk and a quirk of her eyebrow. "Of course!" he told her, "why do you think I start off doing something embarrassing? You panic so people don't know what you look like relaxed. I embarrass myself, so that people don't know what I look like relaxed."
Lizzy laughed as she took a mental note of William's disgusted, horrified look at Charles.
"Or you can just feel scared as you look for a friend," William said, swiftly turning back to Georgiana.
"No, I think we're onto something," Charles said, examining Georgiana, "do you have an ugly dress? Something really eye catching and embarrassingly awful?"
Georgiana blushed to the roots of her hair at the idea of trying to be like Charles. She shook her head in a wide eyed panic.
"Oh, not like that, dear," Jane snorted a laugh, "you actually look panicked. Choose another expression for when you panic. Here, try this..."