“Perhaps that may be, but it is happier than the alternative – being excluded. I was nothing when I was a secondson, entirely at the whim of just such a family as that of the gentleman you mistrust.”
Elizabeth pressed her lips together in a tight smile, for she had no intention of telling him the real reason she disliked Mr. Ferrars. They lapsed into silence, and she scanned the ballroom once more. She and Jane cherished a secret hope that Mr. W might be at the ball; it was not likely, she knew, on an evening when there were many parties in London, but Jane deserved such a stroke of luck.
Elizabeth managed to be a more attentive partner, though the colonel was not a gregarious man, nor one whom she could coax into any teasing or wickedness. She was relieved that he would at least make Jane a superior partner after Edward Ferrars, and she relinquished him to her sister with a smile.
Mrs. Jennings fluttered over to Elizabeth, hoping to escort her to her next partner, Mr. Darcy; he and his charming sister were accompanied by their cousin, Viscount Bellamy, whom Mrs. Jennings was sure would be a delightful and advantageous connection.
“He is a widower with three daughters, and he was a parson until his elder brother died suddenly, and he has only lately come to London – I hear he is quite popular! Well, I do not think him as handsome as Mr. Darcy, who was particularly attentive to you last night, Lizzy!”
Elizabeth winced, hoping her friend had not been overheard as they joined Mr. Darcy and his relations. Fortunately, they were received with enthusiasm. Miss Darcy greeted Elizabeth in a flutter of excitement, giving a dramatic spin as she showed off her gown, and then demanding her brother join her in praise of Elizabeth’s appearance.
Mr. Darcy was as civil as he had been the previous evening, and warm in his compliments for Elizabeth. Heperformed the introduction to his cousin, Viscount Bellamy, who was affable enough despite appearing quite overcome by Mrs. Jennings’s loquacity.
When he could manage a word in response, he addressed Elizabeth with a twinkle of mischief in his eye. “I have heard much praise of you from my cousins, Miss Elizabeth, and I commend your amiable friend for bringing you to London. But I must ask a favor of you, if you will oblige me.”
Elizabeth began to present her dance card to him, and Mr. Darcy frowned at his cousin. “Phillip….”
The viscount smiled and added his name to the final set of the evening on Elizabeth’s dance card, but he gave a rueful chuckle. “You will think me fickle and forward, but I must ask you, Miss Elizabeth – who is the strikingly beautiful blond with whom I saw you speaking before the music began? The young lady just over there, in gold and pink. She is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld, and I must beg an introduction.”
“Why, that is Jane,” Mrs. Jennings cried.
Miss Darcy gave her cousin a playful shove. “Phillip, Miss Elizabeth will believe that you must think nothing at all ofher!”
“I have been more offended than this in a ballroom,” Elizabeth said to the girl before giving Mr. Darcy a quick wink. “Lord Bellamy, that is my elder sister, Miss Jane Bennet. I am sure I shall have an opportunity to introduce you, for Jane has promised to sit out every third set; she has lately sprained her ankle.”
“Has she? That is quite shocking, and I am very sorry for her! But I would never have known it; she moves so gracefully.”
“It was quite an ordeal, let me tell you!” Mrs. Jennings cried. “Poor Jane was distressed after visiting some very rude ladies who had once resided near her home in Hertfordshire, and as she was walking back to my home in Berkeley Square, shewas distracted by their cutting remarks, and would have stepped in front of a carriage if her mysterious hero had not whisked her out of the path of danger! She turned her ankle in the confusion of it, but I hear he was most attentive to her! He has even sent flowers and volumes of poetry. But sheisa great beauty, is she not? I daresay the elusive Mr. W shall not be the only man falling at her feet this winter!”
Miss Darcy looked ready to swoon at this tale. “How utterly romantic! I am sure I would be instantly in love with any man who rescued me in such a fashion, and behaved so gallantly afterward!”
Elizabeth had been silent and rather mortified as Mrs. Jennings prattled on at the viscount, but now she exchanged a look of mirth with Mr. Darcy, who had predicted his sister’s reaction to the tale of Jane’s sprained ankle.
The viscount had an entirely different response. “What ladies would treat her in such an infamous manner? Oh! But – were the Bingleys not lately in Hertfordshire?”
Mr. Darcy clapped his cousin on the shoulder. “I shall leave you to ponder that, Phillip; I have threatened to stand up with Miss Elizabeth for the next dance.”
“And the supper set,” Miss Darcy reminded her brother, flashing Elizabeth a bright smile. “But you promised to dance with me, Phillip; come, and I will tell you everything I know of Miss Bennet, and all the things Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst said of her, which I now know to be rubbish.”
Elizabeth looked at Mr. Darcy with alarm as he led her to the dance. “I suppose I ought not be surprised that they have slandered my sister behind her back, as well as to her face.”
“Unfortunately, I can easily believe it of them,” Mr. Darcy said gravely. “I heard them do both while we were at Netherfield,and I often thought that if I were Bingley, I would not put up with it.”
“And are you not the one who advises him on how he should act and what he should do?”
“In estate matters, most assuredly,” he said. “My cousins have spent years trying to bolster his courage to stand up to his sisters.”
“Your cousins – the viscount and his siblings?” Elizabeth arched an eyebrow in disbelief. “I should think thathisdisapproval alone would sufficiently inspire the ladies to a modicum of reformation. Are your cousins well-acquainted with Mr. Bingley?”
“They are his family, too.” Elizabeth spun with the other dancers, and as they moved through the next figure of steps, she saw waves of emotion ebb over his countenance. “Bingley had an elder brother who died the year I lost my father. Henry Bingley was wed to my cousin, Lady Rebecca, just weeks before he died.”
"His sisters mentioned the elder brother’s wife. How tragic! Your cousin must have been heartbroken.”
His expression turned droll. “I daresay you shall soon have an account of her from your cousins, for she has accompanied Richard and Bingley to Netherfield; she is not a woman prone to tender sentiments.”
A movement of the dance separated them, and Elizabeth nearly missed a step from astonishment – Mr. Bingley had gone back to Netherfield? But before she could ask Mr. Darcy about it, he spoke again when they joined hands and went down the dance.
“What I mean to say is that Henry was better able to check his sisters. He was ill for years, but they always treated him as the vital and imposing fellow who had been so commanding in his youth. When Lady Rebecca proposed to him, I hoped thatwould satisfy their ambition, but it only raised their expectations for Charles.”
