Elizabeth ground her teeth as she refilled her teacup, wishing it was brandy or perhaps poison that she poured into her cup as she endured Miss Steele’s prattling. Across the room, Colonel Brandon offered her a smile of commiseration.
Miss Steele leaned in closer, affecting a shy smile though her eyes gleamed with malice. “I suppose your cousin Elinor has told you my secret….”
Elizabeth stared blankly at her. “If you have told Elinor something in confidence, she has not repeated it to me. Marianne may be prone to repeating whatever she overhears, but Elinor is entirely virtuous.”
Miss Steele furrowed her brow as she considered this. “Well, since my confidante is not presently in London, nor my dear sister, I must tell somebody that I am secretly engaged,” she whispered.
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. “Are you not at all concerned about it remaining a secret?”
“I know you will keep my secret, for you must be just as obliging as your cousin. And it has been such a burden these four years! Edward and I have scarcely had any opportunity to seeone another, and even now that we are both in town, I daresay it remains a challenge. But you may be of some comfort to me, for at least I shall hear of him from you – you are to meet him when you dine with his family tonight! It is Edward Ferrars, you see, to whom I refer.”
“I am acquainted with him already,” Elizabeth replied, relishing the meager triumph of Miss Steele’s surprise.
“Oh! Did you visit Norland while he was there?”
“No, though I understand he spent a great deal of time there while my cousins resided at Norland. But I met him not a fortnight ago, at the party Mrs. Jennings hosted on Christmas Eve. He was already delayed on his journey to London, but he would not be deterred from visiting my cousins.”
It was perhaps ungenerous of her, but Elizabeth savored Miss Steele’s displeasure at this news. If this jealous, petty creature could revel in ruining Elinor’s hopes, and make sport of Jane’s ill-usage, she deserved a little taste of the same treatment. Elizabeth smiled and pressed on. “Are you not to join us?”
Miss Steele let out a huff of exasperation. “Mrs. Palmer has accepted an invitation to attend the opera with Mrs. Larson. It is dreadful luck, for I know Edward longs to see me as much I do him.”
As Miss Steele dabbed theatrically at her perfectly dry eyes, displaying a handkerchief that bore Edward Ferrars’s initials, Mrs. Jennings demanded to know what they were speaking of. “Only that I dearly wish we could accompany you tonight,” she cried. “Surely Mrs. Palmer would not mind if I accompanied you, instead, ma’am.”
“Lucy, really!” Mrs. Palmer gave a burst of astonished laughter.
Mrs. Jennings began to fret. “I should not wish to vex Mrs. Ferrars by putting her table out. I have already asked ifMrs. Gardiner might join us, and to balance the numbers she asked Colonel Brandon.”
“But surely Jane will not be able to attend,” Miss Steele sniffed. “I can take her place.”
Jane looked up from her book, then set it aside and stepped hesitantly toward them. ”I am perfectly well enough to attend. It is a seated dinner, after all; I shall only take a few steps here and there, and I shall have Lizzy and Aunt Madeline.”
Elizabeth and her sister shared a smile. She was pleased that Jane was indeed able to walk, and though she feared that any greater exertion than stepping across the parlor would delay her full recovery, she was sure that Jane shared her wish to hinder Miss Steele’s schemes. How could they sit idly by while the minx employed an arsenal of mean stratagems to keep her claws in the man Elinor loved?
Miss Steele sulked for the remainder of the visit, but Elizabeth was fortunately spared any further syrupy insinuations. Colonel Brandon came to her rescue and asked her to perform at the pianoforte.
“I hear you play as beautifully as your cousin, Miss Marianne,” he said, holding Elizabeth’s gaze as he bowed his head and helped her to her feet.
“She will surely require you to turn the pages for her,” Mrs. Jennings teased, tapping him with her fan as he moved past her to escort Elizabeth to the instrument.
Colonel Brandon was attentive and obliging, turning the pages for Elizabeth and listening with visible appreciation, though she made several errors in her performance. It was inevitable, for she was entirely distracted as Mrs. Jennings began to speculate that the colonel may have his head turned by another lovely songbird.
He made an equally agreeable dinner companion that evening, and Elizabeth was grateful to have him by her side for the meal. She had made it through the mortifying tedium of being presented to the brothers Ferrars and Mr. Anthony Morton, three gentlemen who vastly overestimated their own personal charms, when the final guests arrived just as they were going through to the dining room.
Elizabeth did not notice Mr. Darcy until he took a seat further up the table, with a pretty young lady that she presumed to be his sister at his side. Thankfully, he was far enough removed from her that they would not be obliged to speak, and she smiled merrily as Mrs. Ferrars scolded him for his tardiness.
“And where is your cousin the viscount? I had quite depended on hearing him sing for us all this evening! I am quite put out!”
“He is singing to his little Phoebe,” Mr. Darcy said. “His eldest daughter is feeling poorly, and he could not bear to leave her.”
“A daughter can be nothing to a father! There must be a first-rate nanny at Matlock House.”
“Oh, but she cried and cried for him – it nearly broke my heart,” Miss Darcy sighed. “But he has promised to be at the ball tomorrow.”
The topic of the upcoming ball was a favorite of all the guests over the course of the meal. Feeling Mr. Darcy’s gaze often upon her, Elizabeth took every opportunity of telling her companions how fond she was of dancing, though she could promise only to be atolerablepartner.
She felt this was perfectly fair, for the gentlemen on either side of her, who had both asked for one of her dances at the ball, were onlytolerabledinner companions. Robert Ferrars was ready to recommend himself to Elizabeth, and also to Jane, whowas seated on his other side. But though he was eager to please, he was rather lacking in the execution of his pleasantries. He took to a variety of subjects with alacrity, and seemed always to have a great deal to say, without conveying much beyond his own ignorance. It was a delight to Elizabeth, in a study of human folly, but one of which a little went a long way.
Colonel Brandon spoke far less, despite being a gentleman whom Elizabeth could reasonably suppose might have far more to say that was interesting and rational. He was not silent and brooding like Mr. Darcy, but seemed to say less out of a desire to only make thoughtful remarks to his companions, a desire which was not espoused by any of the other gentlemen at the table.
