Chapter 16

J ane, even more so than her sisters, made sure almost all of her sets were reserved before she arrived at Netherfield Park with her family. Her younger sisters still had a few sets open, Jane had only one. As it was a private ball there would be no voluntary sitting out like there was at the local public assembly.

Netherfield was glowing with the light of hundreds of candles shining through the windows. In addition, there were torches lighting the drive from the gateposts to the manor house. Cilla was happy to see her house presented in this fashion.

Darcy was in his chambers, which had a view of the front of the house so he could see the carriages arriving. He told himself he was not watching for any one particular lady; he was simply interested to see if the locals were able to dress up to the occasion. He ignored the internal voice screaming out he was deluding himself.

Still convinced his initial opinions about the Bennets had been correct, he was rather surprised the Bennets were not among the first to arrive. He was so intent on watching those alighting from their conveyances, he failed to notice the coach which had stopped to disgorge its passengers. Had he been attentive to the vehicle he would have noted it was exactly as Miss Bingley had described on their departure from the assembly. All he saw was the occupants alighting.

He recognised Mr. Bennet and watched as the man handed out his wife, and then began to do the same for his daughters. The first one was Miss Bennet, who was glowing ethereally. Poor Bingley, the woman was not interested in him in the least. It was then he noticed Richard waiting next to the Bennets' conveyance. It made him scowl. What was Richard about? Thoughts of his cousin vanished when Darcy saw Mr. Bennet hand Miss Elizabeth out of the equipage; he reflexively took a deep breath. She had never looked more gorgeous and he could not help but hear her siren call tempting him to do that which he had convinced himself he could not. Her hair was elegantly piled atop of her head, held in place with what looked like pearl tipped pins, with some tendrils of her curls framing the sides of her face and at the nape of her neck. He could only see the bottom of her gown, which was a dark green, as she was wearing a warm three quarter length coat. Darcy was mesmerised. It was not until he saw Miss Elizabeth look up at him that he unfroze and jumped back, almost tripping over the armchair in the chamber.

"What do you find so amusing, Miss Elizabeth?" Richard enquired as he waited for Bennet to hand out Miss Mary. One more day, just one day more, and he would declare himself.

Richard had written to his parents to tell them, as he had mentioned when in London that he had found the woman he intended to marry, he was about to request a courtship. When he had spoken to them, Richard had only described her character, wit, and intelligence, with a cursory description of her beauty. Not a word about the Bennets' wealth or holdings had he mentioned as those were not the attributes he had sought in the partner of his future life. Mother and Father had replied to his letter with one of their own in which they told him to follow his heart. That is exactly what he would do!

"Your cousin," Elizabeth elucidated. "He was staring at us from that window on the second floor," she indicated the window where she had seen Mr. Darcy with a tip of her head in the direction, "and when he noted I saw him, he jumped back like he had been scalded."

Before Richard could wonder what William was about, Miss Mary was before him. He bowed to her curtsey and offered her his arm. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet led the way indoors, followed by Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth, while he and Miss Mary brought up the rear.

It was a thankfully short receiving line comprised only of Bingley and Mrs. Hurst. Richard was aware the latter had to convince the former how bad he would look if he did not greet his guests. It was only when Miss Bennet joined him that Bingley became animated.

"Miss Bennet, you look like an angel," Bingley bowed over her hand.

Mr. Bingley attempted to kiss Jane's gloved hand but she withdrew it before he was able to achieve his goal. There was no missing the man had not been happy when she did so, but that was not Jane's concern. If Mr. Bingley was so obtuse as not to see her disinterest in him, that was very much his own problem.

"Thank you, Mr. Bingley," Jane responded. She thought she had escaped his requesting a set, remembering she had an option for someone to fill her final open set if Mr. Bingley did make his request.

"Miss Bennet would you honour me by dancing the first, supper, and final sets with me," Bingley requested before the angel could move on. That it delayed the rest of the arriving guests was not something he considered, or cared about.

"All of my sets are spoken for," Jane gave a half curtsy and left the stunned man open mouthed behind her.

Bennet, who was ahead of Jane, could not believe the audacity of the man. He turned around with a thunderous look on his visage. "Mr. Bingley, have you asked my eldest daughter for either an engagement or a courtship?" Bennet hissed.

"N-No," Bingley stammered.

"I will assume that as you were raised the son of a tradesman you are not aware that dancing those particular sets with the same lady is a very public declaration of intent. Do you intend to propose to my daughter, Mr. Bingley?" Bennet demanded. Bingley turned pallid. "How fortunate you are that my daughter cares not a whit for you and would have refused you. Why do you think she made sure all of her sets were spoken for before arriving here?" With that, Bennet turned on his heel and joined his wife and Jane.

Until Fitzwilliam stopped in front of him, Bingley was lost to the world. ‘ How is it Miss Bennet dislikes me so much she wanted to make sure we could not dance? ' He was asking himself when Fitzwilliam's voice broke through the fog.

"Bingley, what were you thinking? Miss Bennet has done everything but place a notice in the papers announcing publicly that she has no interest in you and yet, like a child denied his toy, you persist. Grow up man!" Richard stated near Bingley's ear. The latter blanched. Richard led Mary past Bingley and into the ballroom to join her family.

Darcy had just descended the grand staircase when he saw Richard speaking to Bingley and his friend looking decidedly uncomfortable. ‘ Why would Richard disconcert Bingley in that fashion? I will have to speak to him about that and his unnatural obsession with the Bennets, especially Miss Mary, ' Darcy told himself silently.

He entered the ballroom repeating his mantra that he would not distinguish Miss Elizabeth with a dance.

Before following the final guests who had passed through the receiving line, Louisa Hurst rounded on her brother. "Charles have you lost your senses? You know it is not done to ask those sets of one with whom you do not have an understanding," she shook her head. "I am ashamed of what you have become."

Not giving her brother a chance to respond, Mrs. Hurst made her way into the ballroom and to her husband's side. Many had seen her brother's faux pas and talk of it was circulating the ballroom.

As Darcy did not think anything being said was worth his notice, he did not hear the talk of what his friend had done while in the receiving line. Without his wanting to, his eyes sought and found the vixen who had stolen his heart without his permission. Before he knew it he was standing in front of her and he heard himself speaking against his own will.

"Miss Elizabeth, good evening," he bowed, "may I request your next open set?" Darcy asked contrary to his firm resolve.

Elizabeth curtsied to the enigmatic man. She had two open sets, so she could not refuse him, unless she was willing to sit out. She was not, Elizabeth enjoyed dancing too much to allow Mr. Darcy to cause her to miss the exercise this night.

"I have the one before the supper set, and the set two after supper open, you may have one of them," Elizabeth stated after consulting her dance card, even though she had not needed to do so.

Darcy was appalled at his own weakness. At least she had not offered him a significant set. "The one before the supper set, please," he chose stiffly.

He wrote his name on Elizabeth's card for the chosen set, and then without a word to anyone else, he was gone. "What is Mr. Darcy about?" Elizabeth asked those close to her. "Why did he ask me to dance when he clearly derives no pleasure from the activity? It is not like he has made the effort to be known to us."

"As much as I should be able to answer your relevant questions, I too am at a loss," Richard admitted. "I will attempt to speak to him before he and Bingley depart on the morrow."

Some bars of music were played signalling the first set. Bennet led Cilla to the line with Richard and Mary right behind them. Franklin Lucas collected Jane and Jonah Goulding came for Elizabeth.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~ ~

After being publicly humiliated the way he had been, Bingley asked no one, not even his sisters to dance. He took himself to his study and opened a fresh decanter of brandy. He almost filled the snifter. He swallowed the amber liquor as quickly as he had poured it, and immediately refilled the glass.

He decided he needed to marry, and it had to be a wealthy daughter of the Ton . But who? Even with Darcy's help, he did not know many ladies of marriageable age from the first circles. As he drank more and more, a plan formed in his mind.

As he sat at his desk scheming, he thought about how he had paid the two men to attack Darcy so he could be the hero and have Darcy beholden to him.

No one at Cambridge had wanted to befriend the son of a tradesman. An envious Bingley had watched the camaraderie which flowed among the highborn men. He soon realised the two most popular men, whose lead the other students followed, were Richard Fitzwilliam and Fitzwilliam Darcy.

He devised a plan to act the hero. Once he had the details worked out, and thanks to fortuitously meeting a man who knew men like he needed, he employed two men for his purposes. He had then to decide which of the two it would be he was to save. Fitzwilliam was far too strong and would have been able to overpower his men who would have told all to save their necks. Darcy was not nearly as strong as his older cousin so he had been chosen.

One night, when Fitzwilliam was not with him, Bingley had his men attack Darcy as he exited the taproom of a local inn. The two did exactly what he had ordered them to do, they beat Darcy and threatened his life.

It had gone perfectly as Bingley arrived in the nick of time and ran the criminals off. As he had known he would be, Darcy was eternally thankful.

Of course Bingley had refused any monetary reward, all the while feigning knowledge of who Darcy was, his wealth, or position in society. All he claimed to want was a friend.

Since then, there was little Darcy would deny him. The plan had been executed perfectly. The money he had spent had been wisely expended.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

The Bennets were gratified that both Hattie Philips and her daughter Lydia Forster were very much subdued from the time they had arrived at the ball.

As Jane had known he would, Elias had accepted her final available set, and then he had requested one of Elizabeth's—the supper set—and Mary's—the one after supper.

Elizabeth liked Elias as a friend, but no more than that. Both of them knew they would never be more to each other.

Evidently, Colonel Forster reached a decision, he approached his wife for the first set of the ball. During the set he told her he would give her one more chance. In order to make sure she was not with child they would wait a month or two before they joined as man and wife again.

Lydia agreed to whatever strictures her husband put in place. She was too grateful he was allowing her an opportunity to fix things, so she would not do anything to jeopardise her marriage currently.

William Collins was extremely happy to have his fiancée on his arm as he led her out for the first set. His patron had granted him the time he had requested in order to marry and had seemed genuinely pleased when Collins had told Mr. Fitzwilliam his good news.

Charlotte's feet found out the hard way her fiancé was not at all an accomplished dancer. Halfway through the first dance of the set, she claimed fatigue and the two sat and talked rather than dancing for the rest of the ball.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Bingley was nowhere to be seen, but Darcy was far too preoccupied to worry about where his friend was, or to go look for him for that matter. His thoughts had overshadowed his concern that Richard had danced the first set with Miss Mary Bennet and the statement that made. He would deal with that situation in private.

Until he presented himself in front of her to collect her for the set before the supper set, Darcy had been having an internal debate about whether or not he should honour his commitment to share the dance with Miss Elizabeth. As a gentleman, he was now honour bound to keep his word to her. After all, it was not Miss Elizabeth's fault he had requested to dance with her, so why should she be punished for his own infraction. At least that is the way he rationalised his decision to honour his word.

"Shall we?" Darcy stated as he offered her his arm. Elizabeth accepted the offer, but her hand barely touched the sleeve of his Jacket. Darcy was too caught up in the anticipation of the upcoming dance to note how little contact she made with him. He led Miss Elizabeth to the floor and they lined up opposite one another waiting for the music to begin.

Elizabeth could still not fathom why the taciturn, insufferably proud Mr. Darcy would want to dance with her. She had noticed him dancing with Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley, as was right and proper being he was hosted by their brother at Netherfield Park. Other than herself, however, he had not asked another lady to dance. She wondered why he could not be a pleasant man like his cousin.

The music commenced, and the dancers began the patterns of the chosen dance Mrs. Hurst had called. Not a word passed between them, but Elizabeth had to admit Mr. Darcy was a very accomplished dancer. He moved with confidence and knew the steps well.

As it appeared he did not want to speak, Elizabeth saw no reason to force a conversation. After all, even though she had discounted his words at the assembly, she had not fully forgiven him yet. The reason was simple, he had not done the gentlemanly thing, owned up to his poor behaviour, and made his apologies. If he was too proud and disdainful to do that, then she was not interested in speaking to the man.

For the balance of the two dances in the set, not a word passed between them. At the end he bowed and thanked her before leading Elizabeth back to her parents.

Darcy stalked to a corner which offered a good view of the dancefloor. He felt pangs of jealousy when he saw a man he was not familiar with lead Miss Elizabeth out for the supper set. If only it had been his right to sit with her during the meal. He quickly dismissed that thought. It would not have done…

At that moment Darcy noted that Richard was partnering Miss Mary Bennet for the supper set. He was incensed Richard would raise expectations he was not willing to honour in such a way. Darcy ignored that what he thought was pure speculation and not fact.

During supper, he sat with the Hursts, Miss Bingley and her partner, and another couple he did not know. He looked around for Bingley and only then realised he had not seen him since the receiving line. What had Richard said to upset him to that extent that he would miss his own ball? Bingley was normally the first one to dance and the last to stop, so where was he now?

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

When Darcy noticed Richard lead Miss Mary to the floor for the final set, he almost strode onto the floor to separate the two. Not wanting scandal attached to his name was the only thing which arrested his action. Had Miss Mary compromised Richard and now he was honour bound to offer for her? Surely Richard would not give in to a compromise just like Darcy would not?

Knowing how strenuously Richard would object if he interfered directly, and more than likely there would be a physical reaction, Darcy was determined when he arrived in London on the morrow, he would go warn his Aunt Elaine and Uncle Reggie of the morass into which Richard was sinking.

They would know how to act.

By the time the Bennet coach departed, all were well pleased with the night, albeit rather tired. Tired or not, Mary was glowing. Mr. Fitzwilliam had requested a private interview with her in the morning. She had granted his request with alacrity. Sleep be damned, she would count the minutes until eleven o'clock.