“Even so.”
He left her at the edge of the floor, threading through the crowd with efficiency. How like him to act as if he knew best. Elizabeth merely shook her head as parties continued to flood into the ballroom. All of London, it seemed, had accepted an invitation to tonight’s soiree.
Elizabeth scanned the room, keeping an eye out for the cardinal red of regimentals, or a person who matched the description the printer had given. She’d spent the previous evening in a state of restlessness, trying to recall who the description reminded her of. After folding and unfolding the paper Darcy had given her bearing the man’s description, she’d finally surrendered to fitful sleep.
Elizabeth was so intent on finding the mysterious informant that she did not at first notice that the remarks of two young ladies were directed at her as they passed. Feathers trembled in their hair as they swooped by her with exaggerated delicacy.
“— quite shocking, the way Miss Bennet pursues Mr Bingley,” whispered the first. “Such blatant designs.”
“Indeed. And I heard her sister is little better,” murmured the second, nodding slightly toward Elizabeth. “Setting her sights even higher.”
Elizabeth’s spine snapped straight, her entire focus brought to the pair of ninnies who brushed by. “I fear you are mistaken,” she said, her tone so like Darcy’s stoic, no-nonsense rigidity it startled even herself. “Had you any knowledge of my sister’s actions, let alone her feelings, you would know them to be everything sensible and just. And as for myself, my sights, I assure you, are fixed only on helping my sister find herhappiness. Would not your own happiness be better served in attending to your own affairs than in interfering in matters of which you know nothing?”
The two ladies blanched, bobbed curtseys, and scurried off with a look of slight terror in their eyes.
Elizabeth exhaled through her nose. She could not believe that strangers felt emboldened to utter such nonsense aloud. She clenched her gloved hand into a fist at her side as righteous anger burned in her stomach. But as the wave of her temper receded, she hoped she had not just made the gossip worse by refuting it so vehemently.
She turned to resume her search for the light-haired man of medium build that they sought, but Darcy rejoined her with two glasses in hand. He offered her the lemonade.
“You defended your sister,” he said quietly.
Elizabeth sipped delicately, still fighting to regain her composure. “I always shall.”
He dipped his head, and for a moment, she thought she saw tenderness in his eyes.
She took another deep sip, taken aback by the softness in his expression. “Did you discover anything new from the Stanhopes’ circle?” she asked.
The stern tilt to Darcy’s mouth returned. “Only that the newest scandal sheet sold out within an hour. The editor may soon be a wealthy man.”
Elizabeth grimaced. “I suppose ruining reputations sells well.”
“Unfortunately.”
Before she could reply, they were hailed by Georgiana Darcy, Mrs Annesley at her side.
“Miss Bennet?” Georgiana greeted her shyly, twisting her fan between nervous fingers. She looked like a pale butterfly seeking a place to land and bobbed a delicate curtsy.
Elizabeth smiled warmly, returning the greeting. “Miss Darcy, what a pleasure! Are you enjoying the ball?”
Georgiana blushed. “I am trying to.”
“The company is hardly as fearsome as it appears,” Elizabeth said, though it was, perhaps, a bit of a lie. “And you look lovely.”
“Thank you, Miss Bennet,” she said shyly. “You are too kind.”
“No, not at all; I am only truthful,” Elizabeth told her.
Her remark seemed to charm the girl, whose smile shone a little brighter. “Miss Bennet, you make me feel as though there is nothing to be afraid of at all.”
“Excellent.”
Darcy coughed, drawing their attention.
“Is everything all right, brother?” Georgiana fussed over her elder brother, who denied that anything was wrong.
Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, but a snippet of sharp commentary stopped her short.
“I say, is that Miss Georgiana Darcy? Was it not she who was meant by that dreadful little item a week ago?”
