“I shall put in my lace gloves,” Kitty said.
“I do not wish to give away my possessions,” said Mary primly, “but I shall put a groat on Lizzynotbeing kissed by Mr Darcy.”
A groat?Lydia nearly groaned.
“A half crown that Lizzy will be able to get a kiss from Mr Darcy,” Jane said.
Just then, light footsteps were heard returning up the stairs and down the hall. Jane shushed them all, needlessly, just as Lizzy entered the room.
“It was not easy to get Papa to give up a bit of his whisky, but I managed to persuade him,” she said with a smile. “Now, let’s rid Jane of her imaginary spot.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Darcy and his cousins will be arriving in time to dine at the Robinsons’,” Bingley announced.
Elizabeth wondered at the frisson of energy when he said so; her curiosity could only increase when she believed she heard Kitty murmur, “Let the game begin,” to a beaming Lydia. She had no idea what that meant but forgot it immediately. Her greatest concern was whether Mr Darcy would speak to her. Would he burn with hatred for her or be coldly indifferent? She was not sure which would be worse.
When the night of the party arrived, she was the first dressed and used the advantage to speak to her father privately. Lydia had grown nearly insufferable, incessantly boasting about her plans for Brighton. Elizabeth was increasingly worried that her father meant to let her go.
“Come in, Lizzy,” said Mr Bennet. “Eager to get to the party, are you?”
Elizabeth paused to take an account of him. Her father often had strange ideas for evening attire. He felt that being in fashion was tedious and that his own innovations set him apart—which they did, but not always for the good. Tonight, he had chosen to wear a puce-hued cravat that he likely had dyed speciallyand which in no way matched the rest of his garb. She forbore mentioning it, however, wishing to delve into a more important matter.
“Eager for the party, yes, but also wishing to speak to you in confidence.”
“Oh?” He poured himself a drink but did not offer her anything.
“You cannot mean to allow this scheme of Lydia’s?” Elizabeth took a seat closest to the chair her father favoured for reading. “I cannot think it sound for someone of Lydia’s age and high spirits to be in such a place with no one but a seventeen-year-old girl to chaperon her.”
“Mrs Forster is seventeen, is she?” Mr Bennet chuckled, settling comfortably back into his own chair. “Colonel Forster is an old devil, to be sure. He is forty if he is a day, I would wager anything on it.”
“But Colonel Forster has his own duties and an entire regiment that will engage his time and his thoughts.”
“And why should he have uninterrupted peace to do so?” Mr Bennet was clearly in a mood to be sportive. “I say if he was fool enough to extend the invitation, let us punish him for it by accepting!”
Elizabeth smiled wanly. “There is real danger in such a place, danger to which Lydia, with her careless assurance and disdain of all restraint, will be particularly susceptible.”
Her father was unconcerned, still easy in his chair with his drink, smiling at her worries. “Pray do not distress yourself so. She is too poor to be of much interest to these fellows.”
Elizabeth cast her eyes skyward.Too poor for matrimonial schemes, to be sure, but there are other men with more nefarious intentions, for which a lady’s fortune is immaterial. “I do not fear that she will come home married as much as I fear she might return irrevocably…harmed,” she said delicately.
“Perhaps. But only think of this,” Mr Bennet opined, clearly not understanding her meaning. “Until she is granted her way, there will be no peace in this house.”
He was not incorrect. Lydia had thrown tantrums from the very day she was upright enough to be able to hurl herself to the ground in a fit of rage. “But are not some fights worth the battle?”
That made him frown. “They are,” he said carefully. “And as herfather,I have decided that this one is not.”
Elizabeth recognised with dismay that she could not have secured Lydia’s permission to go more firmly had she tried. In pleading against the matter, she had set her father so determinedly in his position that he would never be moved. As she watched him finish his drink, the words of Mr Darcy’s letter came to mind.
The situation of your mother’s family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison of that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly, betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father.
Those words had, on first read, made her burn with anger. Now she could not be so outraged. Alas, they had too much justice in them for true indignation. She considered whether she ought to be more frank with her father, more forceful in her opinions.
“Papa,” she began, but Mr Bennet stopped her immediately.
“Now Lizzy, I have heard your opinion and shall take it under advisement. For now, we have a party to get to.”
Elizabeth wasglad to have had advance warning of seeing Mr Darcy. She could not imagine what discomfort might haveattended the surprise of seeing him enter Mr and Mrs Robinson’s home. As it was, there was discomfort enough.
