When Saturday arrived, it brought the return of Mr. and Mrs. Whipple, who liked the Bennet girls and were delighted to escort them all to the ball. Elizabeth, Jane, and Miss Whipple emerged from their carriage to the Hadleys’ sprawling countryside estate having heard nothing more from the Radcliffe family and being too nervous about the subject to discuss it with one another, either from some knowledge of having acted wrongly, embarrassment from being rejected, or disdain for the topic altogether. They were ushered inside just behind Mr. and Mrs. Whipple and greeted most warmly by Mrs. Hadley and her daughter, who took her cousin’s hand and gushed, “Oh, Juliana, I never dreamed—but then, you are always as good as your word!”
“What?” Miss Whipple said. She gave a cursory glance about the room, and her eyes fell unexpectedly on none other than the Earl and Countess Radcliffe—tall, elegantly dressed, and standing in the center of the room. “Oh! Good heavens! Then, have they truly come?”
“You told us they would,” Miss Hadley said in some confusion, but Miss Whipple quickly recovered in time to disguise her original reaction.
“Yes, I did—I merely forgot. How delightful! Tell me, is the Viscount also present? I do not recall whether he said he would be.”
“Yes, certainly,” Miss Hadley replied, beaming. “He is acquainted with many of our friends, as well. You see? He is in the corner now, talking to Mr. Pratt.”
Elizabeth looked up and saw that all was just as Miss Hadley had described. Her elegant, noble cousins-in-law had accepted Jane’s invitation. They espied Jane across the room, but they did not seem inclined to speak to her. Rather, the Earl bowed, and the Countess gave so small a curtsy as to show that they were willing to acknowledge the acquaintance, but very unwilling to put forward anything else.
It was enough. Miss Whipple practically shrieked with excitement, turning suddenly and taking Jane’s hands. “You see?” she whispered loudly. “You see how happy they are? Oh, I knew it would be just as I said. Of course, they would want to be acquainted with you and your friends. Who would not wish for it? But come, let us go inside. I am too happy to be still!”
The ladies entered the ballroom, which the Hadleys used exclusively for parties, and took a moment to look about them. Miss Whipple’s aunt and uncle were wealthy, indeed. Though her own home was no disgrace, it was nothing to the wealth and grandeur of her cousins’ home. Mrs. Whipple found her brother, and her husband found a card table, and when the ladies were left alone, Miss Whipple turned again to Jane and said in a louder voice, “Thank you, thank you! I could not be more delighted. Did you see them bow?”
“Indeed,” Elizabeth said, “we can be glad for all Jane’s effort when we consider the honor of a single bow.”
“Nonsense,” Miss Whipple said. “We cannot expect us all to be great friends instantly, without any effort on anybody’s part. It is begun, however. Now there is nothing standing in the way of a greater friendship.”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said, “nothing except the fact that we have long been bowing acquaintances and never anything more.”
Elizabeth’s speech was interrupted, however, by the approach of Lord Norwich himself, who, after bowing and asking how they did, smiled and said, “What an honor this is, to see my fair cousins again so soon.” To Jane, he added, “I understand we are indebted to you for the honor of this invitation. My parents were delighted. How thoughtful, they said, to connect them with a family with whom we have long wished for an introduction.”
“Have you indeed?” Elizabeth interposed.
“Yes,” Lord Norwich replied, “for Mr. Hadley is a near relation of the Earl of Matlock. We had hoped to see him at the party, but though he is not here, we may erelong procure an invitation to some event or other where he is present. It is only a matter of time before we are acquainted, and it is all that lady’s doing,” nodding at Jane.
Jane blushed and muttered something about being honored and not deserving such praise, but it seemed Lord Norwich hardly heard her. He watched her for a moment, but his gaze continually returned to Elizabeth. After a time, he said, “You cannot be very much older than Miss Hadley, can you, Miss Elizabeth?”
“I am not,” Elizabeth said, and then added with a smile, “but it is hardly proper to inquire.”
“Nonsense!” he said. “We are cousins.”
“All the more reason why you ought already to know my age,” Elizabeth replied.
“I do know it,” Lord Norwich said. “You are almost ten years my junior; I am twenty-six, and you are nearly seventeen years old.”
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. “Very well, then.”
“It is unusual, is it not, for you to be in London so long without Lady Sarah?”
“Not particularly. We have been in school here since we were girls.”
“You have not been out very long,” he pressed. “You are usually chaperoned by my aunt.”
“Nay, sir. By my governess, but this summer, she has gone to Longbourn, and Lady Sarah did not wish to come to London herself.”
“But you desired to remain in town? Good. That is just what I would do. I am glad you did not go home,” Lord Norwich replied. “I am glad you are here. You can finally see town as it is meant to be seen.”
“Indeed? And how is that?”
He leaned toward his cousin’s ear and whispered, “Untethered.”
Startled, Elizabeth took a step backward. Lord Norwich laughed. “You must allow me to show you some of my favorite places about town. It cannot be thought improper, for we are cousins.”
Though it was relatively early in the evening, Elizabeth began to wonder whether her cousin had had too much to drink. He was almost a stranger, yet he was treating her with such familiarity! And why would he say such a thing about their being cousins? Elizabeth said, “I daresay a great many things appear improper to others that would not appear so to you.”
Her stern expression had little effect, however. Lord Norwich thought Miss Elizabeth Bennet uncommonly pretty, and having seldom encountered a woman who could truly resist him, he was unable to recognize signs of disinterest when he saw them. He laughed again. “What a charming answer. Miss Bennet, is not your sister charming?”
Elizabeth remembered suddenly that her sister and their friend were both present, for they had been silent observers of the conversation, standing just behind her as she spoke to her cousin. She looked at Jane, who seemed just as scandalized as she was. Miss Whipple, however, gave a loud laugh and said, “Oh, certainly. Everybody says so. But Lord Norwich, you must know, if you are to thank anybody for your invitation tonight, it must not be Miss Bennet or her sister. It was I who insisted you and your parents receive an invitation, and it took a great deal of convincing to make dear Miss Bennet see things the way I do. She is so modest a creature! But Miss Elizabeth was quite against the idea.” Miss Whipple said these last words with so pointed a look at her friend as proved she saw her as a decided rival.
Lord Norwich returned his gaze to Elizabeth and said, “Were you indeed? But why, Miss Eliza?”
Having her name abbreviated thus only added to her irritation. She said, “We are hardly acquainted, Lord Norwich. I thought it improper. Did not your parents feel it was so?”
He waved his hand. “They are too interested in what is proper. And what is it, anyway, to be proper? A mere excuse for incivility.”
“I have always thought of it as a guidepost of civility, sir,” Elizabeth said. She did not like how close he was standing to her, nor how much attention he was paying her. As he leaned closer to her, the fragrance on his breath proved to Elizabeth that her suspicions had not been wrong. She wished Mrs. Whipple were a more attentive chaperone, for then this exchange would be cut off immediately. Lord Norwich was the kind of man who paid addresses to a very different sort of lady, and if he assumed Elizabeth was the sort who could be flattered into compromising herself for a man such as him, then he had grossly misjudged her.
“You are young,” he said with a smile that
showed her efforts to discourage him were totally lost on him. “You know very little of the world at present. I am glad, cousin, that I have become aware of this deficiency, for now I may assist you in correcting it.”
It is sometimes assumed by men that women are in need of their guidance, presuming a lack of intelligence where only a very natural silence exists—perhaps caused by dislike and a wish of the conversation ending. Though such a wish was certainly Elizabeth’s, its fulfillment was not her lot. Lord Norwich began to list incidents among his acquaintances of “great nonsense” and “totally unnecessary troubles” caused by the perceived need for proper behavior. His speech seldom required an answer, and no amount of inattention from the young lady discouraged her rakish suitor. She turned her head away and was silent, watching a couple of ladies in very fine gowns across the room pursuing the attention of a tall man in a blue jacket. Then the man turned, and she saw that it was Mr. Darcy. She was no longer surprised to meet him at a party among the Whipples’ set; she supposed he would be everywhere she went. In fact, following their last meeting, she wondered how he would meet her and had been half eager to see him again merely for the sake of laughing at his disdain for her.
The expression on his face was always so very serious. He was leaning away from the young ladies, indicating by his body language as well as his silence that he was not pleased with his present company. Elizabeth felt amused by this, despite its symmetry with her own situation. She liked the thought that, though her evening was begun in a most unpleasant manner, his was also unpleasant. He quite deserved it. Yet, with both men appearing before her, Elizabeth could not help but notice that, of the two, Mr. Darcy was the one she preferred. He was proud, his ideas about worthy connections wrong, and he had been quite insulting to her—yet he was not unprincipled. He was not forward. He did not impose himself where he was unwanted. This comparison struck her quite unbidden, and once it was in her mind, she could not remove it from her head. Mr. Darcy was proud, to be sure, but his pride did others no harm. He was no Lord Norwich, and that was infinitely to his credit.
She was still studying Mr. Darcy when he, too, began to look around the room. His eyes met hers, instantly darting away again when he saw that she was observing him. Amused, her lips formed a vague smile, and when he glanced at her again and saw the expression of her face, he smiled, as well. Recognition flashed in his eyes as he saw that Elizabeth was in quite the same situation as himself—pursued by one whose attentions she did not want—and his lips formed a vague smile. In the distance, the expression on his face was so becoming that Elizabeth had truly never liked him better.
For a moment, Mr. Darcy looked as though he was about to walk toward her. His shoulders turned full in her direction, and he seemed to draw in a breath as though resolved to act. But then, the ladies with him surrounded him in a coordinated coup, one on his left, and the other directly in front of him, and then the moment was lost.
Elizabeth felt a tiny sting of disappointment as she turned back to her own cousin, who was still blathering on about something someone he had known years ago had done. He had not noticed her inattention and was just now laughing at something he had said.
Elizabeth smiled politely and began to excuse herself, but Lord Norwich then took her by the hand and said, “I suppose you are already engaged for the first dance. Young ladies never come to balls but that they have already engaged themselves for the first. I would not insult you by presuming you were free.”
Elizabeth was caught. She did not want to sit out any dances at all, but she was not engaged for the first at present. However, to sit out would be vastly preferable to dancing with Lord Norwich. Even now, he was hovering much too close to her, displaying behavior that nobody but the most inattentive of chaperones could ever allow. What further liberties would he take if they were to dance together? Elizabeth was almost afraid to answer such a question, and she certainly had no wish of placing herself in a position to find out.
Miss Whipple, meanwhile, was listening from a short distance away, and she was hardly discreet in her wish of being the one Lord Norwich asked for the first dance. She instantly put herself forward, but hesitated before speaking. She was torn between a wish of exposing that her friend was not engaged for the first, concealing that she was also unengaged, and admitting she was unengaged so that Lord Norwich might ask her instead. However, before anything further could be said on any of these topics, their party was joined by Mr. Darcy.
“Juliana,” he said, with a bow to his cousin. Then, “Miss Elizabeth Bennet, how do you do?”
Though she had never been particularly fond of Mr. Darcy, she was surprised at how happy she felt to see him approach. It must have been the alternative he posed to Lord Norwich that made him appear in a more favorable light. Beside Mr. Darcy, the Viscount no longer looked so very tall.
Elizabeth turned to Mr. Darcy and smiled more warmly than she had ever done before. “Very well, I thank you, sir.”
Miss Whipple boisterously introduced him to Lord Norwich, and Jane was also presented, though she received him with less aplomb. Lord Norwich, standing straighter and putting his hands on his hips, said, “I have seen you sometimes in town, I believe.”
“I have a house near Berkeley Square,” Mr. Darcy replied. “It was my father’s.”
“And how are you acquainted with the Hadley family? I have only just met them tonight; they are friends of my cousin, Eliza.”
This was almost too much. Elizabeth looked up at him, horrified at his use of her name, but he seemed too preoccupied with his own self-importance to notice her.
“We are cousins,” Mr. Darcy replied. Then he turned rather abruptly to Elizabeth and said, “Miss Elizabeth, may I have the honor of dancing the first two with you?”
At this remark, Lord Norwich made a scoffing sound in his throat—but Elizabeth was elated at her escape. “Thank you,” she said, instantly moving toward him and noticing the pleased sparkle in his eye as she did so. “I would be delighted.”
CHAPTER 12
__________
The music began, and Elizabeth walked away with her hand on Mr. Darcy’s arm, feeling Lord Norwich’s incredulous gaze burning against her back.
The gentleman, for all the heroism he had just shown, was silent as he led his beautiful young partner to the dance floor. She might have expected him to gloat, or at least to comment upon the odd circumstances of their now being to dance together—that first, he had rejected the idea, and then she had done likewise, and now both were most pleased with the idea. She was conscious of having insulted him the last time they met by not accepting his offer to dance, and he was equally aware that his own rejection at their prior meeting had insulted her. He was not as bad as Lord Norwich, however, and Elizabeth felt her gratitude and civility were owed to him—at least until he insulted her again, which he almost certainly would. And then, she need not be afraid of him. She would at least have the power of laughing, and she dearly loved to laugh.
For the gentleman’s part, it was quite true that the notion of giving either offense or pleasure in any of his previous meetings with Miss Elizabeth Bennet had hardly occurred to him. He had found her beneath his notice, and he had no wish of gratifying her by elevating her with his attention. When he had come to see how little in need of elevation she was, however, his opinion of her changed. She was beautiful, fashionable, and accomplished. She was sought after by many. Yet to her, these were nothing. She was acutely aware of who she was and where she had come from; she was even more respective of her own shortcomings than he could be, but they did not lessen her sense of self-respect, nor had they created in her a desire to elevate herself. Rather, she appeared content with her station, confident with her worth despite having no fortune or true blood connections to depend upon. Her conduct was singular, and she fascinated him beyond any woman he had met.
As they began to dance, Elizabeth was rather too angry with Lord Norwich to be a truly pleasant dancing partner. She still felt t
he residual discomfort of having been insulted by his inappropriate advances, and the fear of feeling there was no way to escape his attention. Gradually, however, her enjoyment in dancing, her pleasure at seeing so many fine gowns and attractive couples, and the excellence of the music made her cheerful again. Mr. Darcy, she amused herself by thinking, was lucky somebody so unpleasant had addressed her, or she never would have accepted him.
With almost a full restoration to her usual good humor, she said, “I did not know we would have the pleasure of seeing you here, Mr. Darcy.”
“The Hadleys are my cousins,” Mr. Darcy repeated.
“You have said so,” Elizabeth replied, “but I am quite at a loss to work it all out. I know that you and Miss Whipple are cousins.”
“Ah, well,” he cleared his throat. “My mother, I suppose you know, was the younger daughter of the Earl of Matlock.”
“I did not know,” Elizabeth replied.
“Mr. Hadley is Mrs. Whipple’s brother. Both are cousins of my mother, on her mother’s side.”
“You must have many cousins in London,” Elizabeth remarked.
“Why do you say so?”
“I believe Miss Whipple knows everybody in London. I am convinced of it, in fact. The longer I stay with her, the more I see her friends and connections are everywhere. There is nobody who is not known to her.”
“How long,” Mr. Darcy asked when they were waiting to go up the dance, “have you been staying with my cousin?”
“It has been nearly three weeks,” Elizabeth replied, “and we shall stay one more.”
“And then you shall go home?”
“No, sir. To our friends, the Miss Campbells. Their family lives in town, as well. Many of our friends live here, but we have never had the opportunity to come to them before.”
“I did not think you were in town before,” he replied, and Elizabeth raised her eyebrows before she had time to think better of it. He clarified, “I never saw you last summer, though I was at many of the same houses where I have seen you lately.”
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