“You are too good, Jane,” Elizabeth stated.
“Until you make me angry,” Jane warned with a smile.
“Lizzy, if you and Jane are finished conspiring, the courier brought a bag of post from Town today. There has not been a single‘no’to the invitation for your coming-out ball. Your dance card will be full as soon as the receiving line is over,” her mother shared.
“It is already half full, Mama,” Elizabeth owned.
“With whom?” Aunt Anne inquired, relatively sure that her son’s name would be mentioned more than once.
“Andrew will dance the first dance of the opening set, Father Bennet the second dance, Will follows, then Itch, William, Uncle George is next. I have one open before supper and then Will for the supper set. Perry is the first after supper, followed by Ian, then the rest are open until the final set, which is reserved,” she informed the ladies, hoping that no one would ask the identity of the partner for the final set. She had no such luck.
“Who is the lucky man to dance the last set with you, Lizzy?” Aunt Anne asked, fairly sure she knew the answer to her question.
“Your son,” Lizzy admitted, uncharacteristically shy as she did. Georgiana, who was sitting next to her cousin and best friend, gasped.
“You are dancing three with Will!” she blurted out.
“I am,” Lizzy’s courage rose.
“There will be a roar of speculation, and it will be widely reported in the gossip rags,” her mother pointed out.
“Let them talk!” came the defiant response. Before anyone could comment, the men re-joined the ladies.
“Did we miss something?” Will asked as he went to Lizzy, who had looked at him in a fit of pique. Try as he might, he could not fathom why his ladylove looked peeved while the rest of the ladies in the room were very much diverted.
Chapter5
The coming-out ball would be held at Matlock House and hosted jointly by the Fitzwilliam and Bennet families. On the evening of the sixteenth of January, the day of Lizzy’s curtsey, a formal dinner would be held at Bennet House for the family and some close friends. Elaine and Tammy, who were organising the ball jointly, had a cadre of assistants in the form of Jane, Lady Rose, Marie, both Annes, Maddie Gardiner, Hattie Phillips, Sarah de Melville, and Gillian Ashby.
Before they had left Town for the Christmastide break, all the plans for Elizabeth’s coming-out ball were in place. As they were tangentially related through Jane and Perry, and because of the Queen’s interest in Elizabeth over the years, an invitation to Elizabeth’s ball was sent to Buckingham House.
The Queen’s lady in waiting, the Duchess of Kent, had written a reply to the Dowager Countess Matlock that Prince Edward and Princess Elizabeth would represent the royal family. Once the Prince’s attendance was known, a small adjustment had to be made to the first set. The Prince would lead Elizabeth onto the floor and dance the first few movements with her, then Andrew would take over and dance the rest of the first half of the set as originally planned.
Between making sure that everything was in order with the upcoming activities surrounding Elizabeth’s launch into society and the plans for the Derbyshire Committee, there was not as much time for relaxation as there otherwise would have been for the ladies of the families.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On Sunday morning, the day before Christmas Eve, Elizabeth decided that she needed a long ramble before breaking her fast regardless of the cold. She dressed warmly, donning her sable lined gloves and heavy fur-lined coat. Although she would have preferred to sleep in front of the warm fire, Aggie dutifully followed her mistress, as did Biggs and Johns a little way behind them. Elizabeth remembered the vista that she had viewed from Oakham Mount and decided to head in that direction. As she walked with Aggie barking at the stray rabbit, she decried the fact that she had not had as much time with Will as she would have liked due to all that had needed to be accomplished of late.
Her mother and Mother Bennet had involved her in planning her ball as they had not wanted to make unilateral decisions, only to discover too late that they were not reflective of Elizabeth’s preferences. As she came out of the trees at the path leading up the side of the hill that the locals named a‘Mount,’she was jolted out of her current mood and became excited when she spied Zeus on a long tether as he breakfasted on the available grass and shrubs.
When she crested the top, Aggie gave a warning growl, then recognised that it was Will and walked up to him, tail wagging and nudging his hand in a bid to get him to scratch behind her ears. As her two footmen had seen their mistress’s cousin’s horse, they had relaxed, knowing it was a family member and not a stranger on the crest.
“Good morning, Will,” Elizabeth greeted her cousin as she approached the spot where he was sitting under the oak tree on the big rock. Aggie had already flopped down and was on her way to slumber.
“Morning, Lizzy,” he returned, thanking his lucky stars that his gamble on her taking a ramble before church paid off.
“It is a cold morning, is it not?” she asked as she pulled her winter coat around her shoulders.
“Here, take my jacket; you are cold!” He stood, quickly unbuttoning the top button. She placed her hand on his arm, so he went still. It was not just her touch that stayed his actions; it was her proximity. He could smell her lavender scent even through the layers that she had on. She was so close all he had to do was bend his head, and their lips would meet. He dropped his head slightly, and her eyes fluttered closed in anticipation. He would perhaps have broken a promise were it not for the loud cough behind them. Will took a step back and glanced up at Biggs, finding that the normally stoic man had a ghost of a smile on his lips.
“I am warm now, Will,” Elizabeth whispered up to him as a warm feeling started in her face and was felt throughout her body. How she wished that Will had kissed her despite the warning, for she had dreamed many a night about his kissing her and more, and this anticipation was driving her to distraction. She regularly dreamed of the man that she loved.
She was not alone in her dreams; the biggest difference was that Will’s dreams were far more vivid. He had been innocent until he had visited a courtesan that catered to the extraordinarily rich while he was on his grand tour. He had only visited her four times, but it was enough to gain an adequate education in the arts of relations between a man and a woman.
“Please accept my deepest apology, Lizzy,” Will said, mortified thinking that his almost loss of regulation had upset the woman that he loved.
“You have nothing to apologise for,” she returned softly.“I desired the same.” Her admission led to her breath feathering in longing.
