So, we distracted ourselves rather easily and we passed the hours on the road until we arrived at Tiewater Hall. It was evening now, the sun beginning to sink in the horizon. We took the time to walk about, stretch our legs, and to eat something, for there would likely not be food at the ball until the midnight supper.
After that, we dressed separately, each taking time in the carriage to get ourselves prepared. Emily did quite a nice job at seeing to my hair there, without the comforts of a dressing room. I was quite impressed.
Mr. Darcy seemed impressed too.
He stared at me again as I alighted from the carriage. He looked quite debonair as well, coiffed and fancy. I stared back.
He offered me his arm.
I took it.
We entered the ball. Everyone knew who he was; no one knew who I was. It was a little bit scandalous, of course, us arriving in this manner. He had brought me, all alone, an unchaperoned, unmarried woman, to a ball.
However, this seemed to only make me more mysterious and interesting. Or perhaps it was the dress, which was finer than anything I could have ever afforded to have made for myself. It fit much better than it had any right to, even though it had been made for Anne de Bourgh. It was only a little bit tight, really.
My dance card filled up right away.
Mr. Darcy laughed, scolding me for not saving my first two dances for him.
“Is that the way of it, sir?” I said, teasing him.
“Well, I don’t know anyone here,” he said.
“Oh, please,” I said. “You know everyone. Besides, this makes it apparent that it is quite easy to be introduced in a ballroom.” I shook the dance card at him. “See?”
“Yes, this is how you repay me for these introductions, I see,” he said. “Leaving me to fend for myself, all alone, watching you dance with other men.”
“Go ask someone to dance with you, Will,” I said.
“I haven’t the skill to converse with strangers,” he said. “Not with ease, not as you do.”
“Well, we neither of us perform to strangers,” I said. “Mark my words, I shall have offended half of my dance partners before the end of the night.”
He smiled at me, and I smiled back, and we stood there, looking into each other’s eyes, for some time.
And then I danced.
One half hour with one gentleman and another half hour with another.
And then I abandoned my dance card entirely and danced only with Mr. Darcy, and we made fun of all the people and rebuffed anyone who dared to criticize us.
But midnight came quickly.
I don’t know what we were expecting, truly. We had not thought that part through, clearly.
We were standing at the edge of the ball, together, and he was hiding me from the men whose dances I had agreed to and then skipped out on. There had been no announcement of the midnight supper, but it was not uncommon for balls to be loose when it came to time. The clock in the corner started to chime, though, and we both looked at each other, and I think we both realized it just then.
We thought about what had happened when we tried to stay up late with the tea.
And then, it came crashing down, and we both knew what was about to happen.
Seeing it, though (and it actually happened before the clock had finished chiming midnight. The clock must not have been set exactly properly) was something else.
One moment, the room was full of dancing and music and people chattering and the next it was dark and empty and open. Obviously, the room on Thursday morning had been cleared in preparation for the ball.
But it was now Thursday morning.
The clock was chiming midnight to a dark and empty house.
