“Robert, have you seen the way Lizzy and William cannot keep their eyes off one another?” Lady Anne said next to his ear. “One day that girl will be our daughter.”
Darcy knew better than to dispute his wife’s words, especially as he could see the same thing as his Anne. “Once Matlock and Elaine gain Jane as a daughter at some point, the family will expand greatly. It only formalises the way we have always felt about the Carringtons being part of the family.”
Lady Elaine could not have been more content. Marie and Andrew were here, and she was sure that Richard would not be long in proposing, even though he had not shared his plans with her. One son married, one well on the way, and each one had found the perfect woman for himself. She did not want to tempt fate, but she was hoping it would not be too much longer before her first grandchild arrived.
After the time spent in the drawing room, neither Elizabeth nor Jane had more than one set available to grant to anyone who asked. Similar to what had occurred at Jane’s coming-out ball, between uncles, a brother, cousins, Mr Bingley, and now Franklin and Johnny Lucas, their dance cards had filled up before they knew it. Said brother, of course, was dancing the three significant sets with his Charlotte, as was expected.
The ballroom filled up rapidly with those who had been invited from the neighbourhood, adding to the people already present, and soon enough those who had welcomed the guests in the receiving line entered the ballroom.
Edith called the first dance, and the couples lined up, with Charlotte and Jamey at the head. She looked a few couples down, and there was Jane and Richard, and next to them was Lizzy and her darling husband, Paul. After all the years her daughters had been with them, it still amazed Edith to see the wonderful women they were becoming. She was busy as the hostess, so it gave her pleasure to see Lizzy dance with her father. It was only right for him to squire her for the first dances, given at her first private ball. Soon enough, she would be coming out, and then, only He knew what the future would hold.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
William counted the sets until Aunt Edith called the supper set. This was to be the first time he and Lizzy danced, and he had been waiting for a long time to experience the pleasure of doing so with her.
The set before supper was finally over; he had danced it with Jamey’s affianced. He led Miss Lucas over to her family, where Jamey was waiting for her. He bowed and made his way to where he saw Aunt Edith and Holder next to his parents and the rest of the Fitzwilliams. William did not miss Richard also heading towards the group. He and his cousin arrived at the same time.
Fitzwilliam extended his arm to Jane for the second time they were to dance and led her towards the forming line.
“Are you two going to stare at one another or dance?” Hilldale jested. His quip earned Hilldale a tap on his shoulder from his wife’s fan.
“Elizabeth,” William invited as he offered her his arm. She placed her dainty hand on his forearm, and they were off. They lined up next to Jane and Richard. At last, Aunt Edith called the dance, and they were moving.
Each time they came close, or better yet, their hands touched—even with their gloves—Elizabeth felt warm all over. She was relishing the experience of partnering William so very much that she was not her normal jovial and talkative self. She had loved dancing the first set of dances with Papa, but she had secretly wished they had been with William.
“It is a pleasant dance, is it not?” William said, trying to help Elizabeth relax and be her normal bubbly self.
“Yes, it is,” Elizabeth replied succinctly.
“It isyourturn to say something now,LadyElizabeth. I talked about the dance, andyouought to make some sort of remark on the size of the room or the number of couples,” William teased when they came back together.
“Tell me what you want me to say, William, and I will say it.”
“Very well. That reply will do for the present. Perhaps by and by, seeing that this is your first private ball, I may observe that they are much pleasanter than public balls. Butnowwe may be silent, my Lady.”
“Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?” Elizabeth shot back with an arched eyebrow.
“Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to our families and friends for us, who have known one another since we were children, to be entirely silent for half an hour together. I have never known you to be one lacking in conversation. As you were more taciturn than me tonight, I decided something ought to be so arranged. I have never seen you preferring silence to conversation before.” William smiled at the beauty across from him. The dance separated them.
“Thank you for bringing me out of my stupor. I was lost thinking about this being the first of many balls I will attend, and then, next year, that will include London events,” Elizabeth explained when they came back together. “Now what would you like to discuss? Perhaps books?”
“No, Lizzy, books are not a good subject for the ballroom.”
With William’s help, the spell had been broken. The rest of the ball was extremely enjoyable for Elizabeth, especially the final set of dances.
When Jane and Elizabeth finally flopped into their beds at Longbourn with the eastern sky beginning to lighten, they had similar dreams, just of different men. For the first time in her memories, Elizabeth slept until noon.
Chapter 28
Happy was the day Lady Edith Carrington witnessed her only son wed Charlotte Lucas and make her Viscountess Hadlock. Her happiness paled in comparison to Jamey’s new parents-in-law.
At the sumptuous wedding breakfast at Netherfield Park, it was hard to see who was happier, the bride and groom or Sir William and Lady Lucas. Their daughter was two and twenty by the time she met her husband, and they had begun to despair that she would ever receive an offer of marriage. As much as they had hoped their eldest daughter would find a good man to marry her, never, in their wildest dreams, had they imagined the stupendous match she had made. Their Charlotte would be a countess one day, and she was now sister to her best friends, Ladies Jane and Elizabeth, not to mention Lady Mary as well.
With Charlotte’s marriage, the Lucases had gone from an unknown family to one with many enviable connections. Lady Lucas hoped that meant that her sons, Franklin and Johnny, and younger daughter, Maria, would meet potential partners with far better connections and wealth than anyone in the local area.
As pleased as they were about their daughter’s new rank, wealth, and the connections they had gained, of far greater importance was that Charlotte was happy and her husband was an honourable, godly man, who would always treat her as she deserved. Neither Sir William nor Lady Lucas doubted for the smallest measure of time that their eldest daughter would have an extremely felicitous marriage.
Once all the guests had been greeted and thanked for attending their nuptials, Charlotte and Jamey sat down with their family to eat a little and have something to drink.
