Caroline Bingley did not care that she could not see the stage as there was one advantage to the terrible seats. With the use of her Galilean binoculars, she had a clear view of the Darcy and Fitzwilliam boxes.
She trained her opera glasses on the Matlock’s box first. The Viscount was seated next to his mother and next to him was a very pretty young lady. Her dress, however, was a few seasons out of fashion and there were no jewels of which to speak. Caroline guessed she was about her own age. Next to the woman was the second son. In addition, there were two unknown people in the box, an older couple who were very unfashionably dressed.
Then she swung her glasses to peer into the Darcy box. There were Mr. Darcy and Lady Anne with an unfashionable man next to them. There was a young lady, rather plain in Caroline’s opinion, sitting next to one of the Darcy cousins.
She frowned when she did not at first see the man she intended to marry. Then she noticed on the other side of the couple she had just seen was the Darcy heir, deep in conversation with, and smiling at—he never smiled at her in that way—a very pretty young lady. Unlike the one in the Fitzwilliam box, this one was wearing a current and fashionable evening gown. She wore jewellery which was far too understated.
Seeing the lack of jewels assured Caroline the woman would have a small dowry, nothing likehertwenty thousand pounds.
The lights dimmed and the performance commenced so try as she might, Miss Bingley could no longer see the occupants of the Darcy box.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As soon as the lights burned bright at the end of the first act, Miss Bingley again trained her glasses on the Darcy box. The interloper and her intended practically had their heads together.
“Charles, do you know who those people in the Darcy box are?” she demanded.
Bingley trained his Galilean binoculars in the direction his sister was looking. As he moved his glasses he saw a flash of blonde and immediately traversed back the way he had been moving.
There sitting and speaking to Lord Hilldale was the most perfect blonde angel he had ever seen.
Seeing her brother was fixated on the blonde, Miss Bingley elbowed him in his ribs. Bingley reluctantly swung his vision to the Darcy box. “I only know one of the men. He is Mr. Edward Gardiner, the owner of an import-export company our late father had some dealings with.”
“How can the Darcy’s entertain a tradesman?” Miss Bingley hissed.
Not wanting to cause an argument, Bingley did not point out his sister’s hypocrisy by reminding her, they were the children of a tradesman and the money for her oft boasted- about dowry was all from trade. Additionally, Bingley did not want to tell his sister he knew Mr. Gardiner because he was himself still active in trade. What he had said about his father, had basically been the truth.
Miss Bingley stood up to begin her way up to the Darcy box. She stopped when her brother placed a restraining hand on her arm.
“More than half of the intermission is over, we will not reach them before the lights go down again,” Bingley stated, “The intermission after the second act is longer, so as soon as the next act ends, I will accompany you.” He had to meet the angel.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Andrew and Jane were the only two left in the box as Lord Matlock, Mr. Philips, and Richard had gone to find refreshments while Lady Matlock and Mrs. Philips had joined those in the Darcy box.
“Miss Bennet, Jane, my attentions to you have been too marked for you not to recognise my interest in you, which is completely honourable. If you grant it, I would like to enter a formal courtship with you,” Andrew stated as he looked directly into her cerulean blue eyes. “During the time we have been together, I have developed extremely tender feelings for you, teetering on the precipice of love. I have never been drawn to another woman before you, and I am quite sure there can never be any other than you for me.”
“As I do not feel quite the same for you,” Jane did not miss how Andrew’s face fell a little, “in fact, I may already be in love with you,” her suitor's face was beaming now, “I would like nothing better than to be courted by you,” Jane responded as she glowed with pleasure. “You will have to speak first to Lizzy though, and then with her agreement, to my uncles. Is it not strange my younger sister is technically my guardian?”
Before Andrew could respond, the rest of those seated with them in the box returned. No one commented on the look of bliss shared by Andrew and Jane.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
At the next intermission, before all the lights were lit, Miss Bingley was dragging her brother towards the nearest stairs, not giving a whit on whose toes she stepped in her haste.
When they arrived at the Darcy box, she did not wait to be invited to enter, she simply barged in. From close-up she could see the intimacy between her intended and the raven-haired beauty and that drove any discretion from her mind.
“I suppose you are connected to the tradesman who wheedled his way into my friends, the Darcys’ box,” Miss Bingley sneered at the dark-haired young lady next to the Darcy heir.
If she had taken the trouble to look, she would have seen the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, the Earls of Jersey and Matlock along with their Countesses looking at her as if she was fit for Bedlam. All Miss Bingley saw, however, was the person standing too close to the one she counted as her own.
Elizabeth shook her head so all the men and women who were about to spring to her defence restrained themselves. “Even though we have not been introduced, I am proud to say thetradesman,as you called him, is a much-loved uncle,” Elizabeth responded sweetly.
“How did one with ties to trade force herself on the younger Mr. Darcy?” Miss Bingley spat. “Some may think you prettyish, but you have no style, no jewellery to speak of, I am sure you do not have close to my twenty thousand pound dowry, and your complexion is so brown. I suppose that is from working as a shopgirl somewhere.”
Bingley was doing his best to fade into the background hoping he could simply go to the neighbouring box to meet the angel when Gardiner recognised him. “I assume that person is your sister?” Gardiner barked at Bingley.
“Yes, she is,” Bingley admitted with great chagrin. “Miss Caroline Bingley.”
