He held out his hand. “Will you honour me with your hand for the next two dances?”
She clapped her hands and threw her arms around him. It was surely the most cheerful acceptance to this application he ever had. And it brought to mind the first time Elizabeth hugged him, when he offered to teach her country dances before a party when she feared her lack of knowledge would embarrass her. He led Sandra to the dance, noting the soft eyes and tender smiles of everyone on this side of the room, his wife included.
Nothing mattered to him more than his wife and his child.
Surely, when his sister returned home, she could do nothing that would harm his family? No choice of hers would change the life he had here. His chest tightened at the trepidation of losing them because of some new decision Georgiana made. Would he go to the stone circle on the equinox and say goodbye to his sisteronly in his next breath to find that Elizabeth was not with him, that his daughter did not exist?
Sandra was looking at him in some concern; he had to keep his countenance. His worries were nothing a seven-year-old had to think on.
“Do you remember this one?” he whispered when the band began.
“It’s a three-person reel, Daddy. It’s like the easiest one.”
Scotch reels were certainly shorter, and simpler, with merely eight bars of reeling, followed by eight setting in place. But the steps were lively, and some danced with more vigour than others. Everyone was constantly moving, so much so that they were once thought to be better adapted to one’s private circle at home than to a public ball, but who was he to deny these re-enactors their amusement?
He and Sandra garnered quite a bit of notice. She was enthusiastic and talented, and he already knew how much people seemed delighted by a father interacting with his daughter. He could practically hear every exclamation of admiring approval, although why it was particularly attractive and pleasant to see them together, he did not understand.
Perhaps that would have been the same in any time. He would have to ask his sister.
Elizabeth wore a similar fond look when they finished and he brought Sandra to her. Elizabeth had the most expressive eyes and smile he had ever known, and right now her countenance burst to assure him he was everything his family needed. Perhaps she was right that he had not been as dreadful a father at first as he feared.
“You danced so well, honey,” Elizabeth said to Sandra. “And now it’s time for bed. It’s almost eleven.”
She shook her head as the rest of her sagged. “No, I wanna stay up to watch even if I don’t know all the dances.”
“Is it not very late, Miss Darcy?” Darcy insisted.
She yawned widely. “No.”
“Aren’t you cycling with your mother tomorrow? How will you beat her in a race if you’re so tired from watching the dancers?” Elizabeth did not yet have a bike, but she jogged along with her as Sandra pedalled around the park.
“I’m determined to beat you this time,” Elizabeth added with a straight face.
Sandra rubbed her eyes. “No, I’m gonna win,” she said through another yawn.
Georgiana took her hand. “I am tired too. I am not used to dancing all night or these sorts of late hours. Let us get you to bed so you can win your race. I will read you a story.”
Sandra would have stayed up until she collapsed, but Aunt Georgiana swayed her.
“When did she get so big?” Elizabeth whispered as they walked away. “She’s almost eight already.”
In another ten to fifteen years, she would be an adult and leave to live her own life, and as Sandra grew up, she would want his input and guidance less and less. He must find a way to render less disagreeable that unblinking vigilance any gentle and sensible father judged necessary in the care of his only daughter.
Elizabeth rested a hand on his arm, and he led her a little apart from the crowd. “You’re a devoted father, you know. And you always were. You put every other father to shame as far as I’m concerned.”
He did love that little girl more than anything, save for his wife. And while he still felt he had not done as well as he ought to have at first, perhaps he had done the best he could at the time. But now Elizabeth’s heated look brought other things to mind.
“Are you saying you approve of me, dearest?”
“Not only are you a good dad, but you did a wonderful job welcoming everyone this evening. For such a reserved person,you’re a remarkably good public speaker. Not to mention a skilful dancer.”
“You would never have fit in the nineteenth century, Mrs Darcy, with so many compliments, and to a man, no less.”
“I’m sure the ladies flirted with you in other ways. How were you still single when I met you when you could command a room like you did tonight?” she murmured.
“I was informed at the time it was because I was a jerk.”
Her cheeks tinted pink as she gave an embarrassed laugh. “Well, I can admit to being a little wrong about you. It turns out, on top of being a good father, all that confidence and authority is very attractive. You might be able to get away with some very bold things with me, Mr Darcy.”
