“What I was attempting to say is that I know it will not be easy, but I am trying to change and be a better person. All I can do is beg your forgiveness and ask for another chance,” Miss Bingley said.
‘She should be on the boards at the Drury Lane,’ Hurst thought. ‘I will give her all the rope she needs to hang herself. If she continues to behave, then we all win.’ “If we allow you back into our home, you will have but one chance,” he said aloud. “If you abuse it, there willneverbe another one.”
“Caroline, remember what I told you. If this is not genuine and just some ploy, you will truly be on your own. Never forget that the executors have the power to reduce or remove your dowry if need be,” Bingley warned.
She showed the expected contrition. Caroline was sure she would fool all of them. She knew she could not compromise Mr Darcy, but if he came to know her, and she showed him she was the perfect woman for him, all would be well. It was a pity Viscount Hilldale was engaged, so Mr Darcy was her only option now. She still believed Hurst was a drunken sot, and at some point, her brother’s resolve would weaken.
Chapter 20
With the excitement of Jane’s engagement calming somewhat, it gave Elizabeth time to think about the ball, or more precisely, the extremely handsome Mr Darcy with whom she had danced the supper set. She also recalled her first set with Papa very fondly. He had danced most proficiently. His protestations he did not enjoy the exercise notwithstanding.
As her mind returned to the supper set, Elizabeth was fully aware of the compliment Mr Darcy had paid her, having never before danced a significant set with a single woman of marriageable age, and she felt it keenly. It was no wonder there had been so many shocked and envious stares from ladies hiding behind their fans. When she recalled their first meeting four years past, she had thought him rather arrogant and prideful, which was why she had made him suffer through the chess game as she toyed with him.
The man she had danced with was not that same man. He was still somewhat taciturn, but Elizabeth ascribed that to an innate shyness that both he and Gigi—they had agreed to address one another informally—had. As she got to know him a little better, she saw how he relaxed around people he became familiar with and enjoyed their company. She was impressed by his native intelligence and his willingness to debate any subject with her, treating her as an intelligent being and not a female with a weak mind to whom he needed to condescend. He was not cowed by her ability to recall anything she had heard, read, or seen. In fact, he argued his points regarding books they had both read with vigour, in the face of her being able to recall any passage word for word to bolster her own position. When she proved him wrong, he did not sulk but rather accepted her knowledge was superior and moved on. Even with her recall ofevery word in the book, he was able to win some debates where her interpretation of the words was not accurate.
He was, perhaps, the most handsome man she had ever met, but like Jane, who was so much more than her outward beauty, so was Mr Darcy. There were depths to him which intrigued Elizabeth. She was not looking for a husband yet and did not know if Mr Darcy saw her as a potential wife, but Elizabeth would have been dissembling to herself had she said she would object to knowing him better.
She had enjoyed Aunt Elaine’s ball immensely, and the highlight had most certainly been the supper set she danced with Mr Darcy. For a tall man, he was exceptionally light on his feet, and he had smiled a few times during the set when she had made some impertinent comment or other. It was during that first, wide smile that she saw his dimples. The way they enhanced his handsomeness had practically made her weak at the knees. After the two dances, he had led her to the table with Jane and Andrew, Richard and Charlotte—the second set he had solicited from her—Louisa and Harold, and Anne de Bourgh and a gentleman she had met that night, a Mr Ian Ashby.
The rest of the ball had been unremarkable, except for Jane and Andrew dancing their third set of the night, the final pair of dances. Elizabeth had not danced the last set; rather, she and Mr Darcy had sat near Mamma, Aunt Leticia, and Mrs Annesley, continuing their discussions from supper.
Mr Darcy had told her that he and Gigi would return to Pemberley in another sennight, so Elizabeth was not sure when she would see the Darcys again. Gigi had requested that she and Elizabeth correspond, a request which had been easy to grant. She was sure that if Gigi met Mary, Catherine, and Lydia, they would do well together.
With the chess game upcoming against Prince Edward on the morrow, Elizabeth pushed thoughts of the handsome man from her mind.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Anne de Bourgh had been enjoying the ball when Andrew introduced her to some of the Ashbys. There were two brothers; the older brother, a good friend of Andrew’s, Lord Stephen, Viscount Fordham, the heir to the Earl of Ashbury, was married. His wife was Lady Jesica. They were pleasant and the viscount had solicited a set from Anne, which she had granted.
Her world had stopped when she had met the younger brother, Ian Ashby. In some novels, Anne had read about love at first sight and thought it a fanciful, romantic, but an ultimately unrealistic thing.
It was not that Mr Ashby was particularly handsome; he was certainly not homely, or of a better build than most of the men at the ball. It was some intangible thing which pulled Anne to him, something which sent frissons of pleasure throughout her body. To her delight, he had requested, and she had granted, the first set. Even though she had complained about all of the time spent with dance masters since coming under Uncle Reggie’s protection, this night Anne could not thank her aunt enough for making sure she had become an accomplished dancer.
Much to her delight, after their set, before he returned her to the waiting Mrs Jenkinson, her companion, Mr Ashby had requested the supper set, and Anne had granted it to him.
Before the end of the ball, he had found Anne and asked whether he could call on her at Matlock House the next day. Anne had granted the application almost the instant he hadmade it. Now here she sat, an hour after the morning meal, waiting like a nervous schoolgirl for Mr Ashby to arrive. Aunt Elaine and Mrs Jenkinson were present in the drawing room with her.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As much as she wanted to sneer at the Bennets who were being hosted at Hurst House, Miss Bingley knew that if she gave in to her inclinations, she would be kicked out of her brother-in-law’s house and have to fend for herself with only her eight hundred pounds per annum to live on.
Life was not fair. These nobodies from some backwater had been presented to Queen Charlotte, attended the Matlock ball, and the older one—granted she was rather pretty—was engaged to Lord Hilldale. What a pity she had not met Miss Jane Bennet when she had Charles doing her bidding. She was exactly the type he would have chased after—blonde, pretty, blue-eyed, and willowy—Caroline was sure she would have been able to turn her head to Charles, which would have left the viscount free, in case she did not succeed with Mr Darcy.
For the same reason, she could not put the country mushrooms in their place; if she attempted to insert Charles between Lord Hilldale and Miss Bennet, it would not go well for her. It was too soon, she needed to lull Hurst, Charles, and everyone else into a false sense of security before she would be secure enough to execute her plans.
Caroline knew she had to be especially careful around Miss Eliza—something she could not call the chit—because evidently the girl could remember everything.
Louisa and her sot of a husband had told her that there would be no second chance, so careful she would be. Even if shehad to play this part for a few years, Caroline Maleficent Bingley would get her due; of that she was certain.
Bingley was grateful to have heeded Hurst’s promptings and to have begun the process of growing a spine. Back among people he liked and respected, his only regret was that he had not met Miss Jane Bennet before Hilldale had. As part of the maturation process, Bingley realised that choosing a woman on superficial attributes was not wise, but Miss Bennet was so much more than her looks.
Being an honourable man, Bingley would not allow any sort of preference to show for an engaged woman. More than that, he regulated himself so that he did not even form a secret regard for the beauty being hosted in his brother-in-law’s house.
The younger sister, Miss Elizabeth, was beautiful as well, but she was not someone whom Bingley could chuse for himself. Although he had decided that appearance was not something so very important any longer, with her darker colouring and her petite build, she looked nothing like the type of girl who used to turn his head, but he had decided that was not something so very important any longer. The main impediment to his forming an attachment to her was that Miss Elizabeth was so much more intelligent than he was. Unlike himself, she loved books and was extremely erudite.
So far, and it had not been very long, Caroline seemed to be behaving. Bingley hoped it would continue, and it was not an act.
What Bingley did not know was that neither Hurst nor Louisa was fooled by Caroline’s attempt to pull the wool over their eyes. To that end, Hurst made sure that a number of his servants kept their eyes open and would report anything significant back to the master and mistress.
