She sat on the bed beside Mary and noticed her sister’s red-rimmed eyes and the tear tracks down her cheeks.Had someone been rude to her at the assembly?Elizabeth had been so distracted with Jane and Mr.Bingley that she had not paid much attention to her younger sisters.
“It is nothing you should concern yourself over.”Mary straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin, but a choked sob made its way out.
Elizabeth wrapped her arm about her sister’s shoulders and pulled her close.“Nonsense!You are my sister.Your concerns are my concerns.Now tell me, what has overset you so?”It was something her grandmother used to say to her.Elizabeth had never been as close to Mary as she had to Jane, but they had played together often as children, and when Jane came out and Elizabeth was left at home, they had grown closer for a time.Mary was the most stoic of all her sisters.If something had made her cry, it was no small matter.
“It was that man.”
“What man?”asked Elizabeth, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
“The new one, at Netherfield.”
“Mr.Bingley?”
“No, his friend.Mr.Derry?Derby maybe?”
“Mr.Darcy, I think.What did he do?”
“Nothing so very bad.He merely refused to dance with me.”Her shoulders shook as a new round of tears started.
“What did he say?”asked Elizabeth, dreading the answer.Mary was not as pretty as her sisters, but she could hardly help it.She had been compared unfavorably to Jane and Elizabeth since she had come out.With Kitty and Lydia now in company as well, things were unlikely to have improved.
“Mr.Bingley offered to introduce us and told Mr.Darcy that I would be an agreeable dance partner.Mr.Darcy said there was not a woman in the room it would not be a punishment to stand up with, and that he would not give consequence to a woman slighted by other men.”
Elizabeth gasped.“No!”
Mary nodded her head miserably and buried her face in Elizabeth’s shoulder.
“You were not slighted by anyone other than that ogre parading as a gentleman!There were not enough men in attendance.Anyone with the ability to count would have realized that.Every lady took a turn sitting out.Even Jane sat out a dance!Is she slighted by other men?”
Mary shook her head, still not looking at her sister.
Elizabeth squeezed her shoulder.“Did he say anything else?”she asked gently.
Mary took a deep breath.“When Mr.Bingley called me agreeable, the other one said I was not handsome enough to tempt him.”
Elizabeth felt rage bubbling up in her and held her sister tightly.“You listen to me, Mary.Mr.Darcy does not know what he is talking about.He is a rude man with poor taste besides.He danced with Miss Bingley, and she is terrible company!”
Mary almost laughed at that.
“He is clearly no judge of character.He does not know what he is missing by dismissing you in such a fashion.”
Mary said nothing, but she did not have to.Elizabeth knew what her sister was thinking.Mary was not beautiful, and Mr.Darcy had merely said aloud what other gentlemen were likely thinking.
“I shall tell you what Granny told me when I was very young.”
Mary looked up at her and Elizabeth put her finger beneath her sister’s chin.
“You are lovely in your own right, and don’t let anyone go comparing you to Jane—not even your own mother.You are beautiful in your way, and anyone who cannot see that is not worth the breath you waste speaking of them.”Elizabeth smiled reassuringly.
“Did Granny truly say that?”
“Yes, more than once.She wanted to make sure I did not forget.”
Mary smiled weakly.
“Truly, Mary.We are all plain next to Jane.”That earned a true smile.“But that does not mean we do not have worth of our own, or that our looks are entirely unpleasing.After all, the world cannot be fully populated with stunning women.The men would all faint dead away.”
Mary smiled and sniffled.“Very well, Lizzy.I believe you.”
