Chapter 26

26

Isabella had not been particularly surprised by the news that the party was to attend an assembly in a nearby town. This was a familiar, comforting sort of news that she hoped she would be able to share with her mama with little editing. When she had been living at Northriding Castle during the brief months of her marriage, the family had quite often gone to dances, both private and public, in their particular part of Yorkshire. It was in a sense expected of a noble family living in the countryside, if they did not wish to gain a reputation for being disagreeably high in the instep. For that matter, though the circumstances had been rather different, she had first met Ash and danced with him at such a public event, at the elegant new rooms in Harrogate when he had been recuperating from wounds taken in battle. He had been wearing regimentals, and had looked so handsome and distinguished; he had been presented to her an eligible partner by the master of ceremonies, had smiled down at her with silver eyes that should have been cold but yet were warm and full of life and spirit, they had begun talking and never stopped… She crushed the memory with a ruthlessness born of long practice.

She was a little uneasy when she realised that she must share a carriage with Leo, his mother, and the largely silent Mr Wainfleet, but again this roused no particular suspicion in her mind, as she could see that Lady Irlam had certain constraints upon her arrangement of her guests, given that all the ladies should be able to travel facing the horses, if this were possible.

After some reflection, Isabella chose to wear her finest gown: the dark blue one with the silver stars that she had first put on for the Duchess of Northriding's ball. That this was the occasion where she and Captain Winterton had first kissed was of no consequence at all. Many of her new gowns held such associations, or ones that were even more likely to bring a blush to her cheeks when she thought of them.

Conversation proceeded comfortably enough in the carriage, though Mr Wainfleet, to nobody's great surprise, took little part in it. If Captain Winterton felt ill at ease in the company of his mother and the woman whose bedchamber he was sneaking into nearly every night, he betrayed no sign of it that Isabella could discern. He chatted easily with his parent about the various people they might expect to see that evening, and assisted her in verbally sketching the most notable of them for the benefit of their companions. His mother, for her part, appeared to feel not the least constraint in Isabella's company. ‘I hope we haven't overwhelmed you with description, Lady Ashby,' she said confidingly. ‘I dare say you may not remember the half of it when you climb down from the carriage! But I always feel that it is agreeable to know a little about persons one is about to meet before one meets them. And you need not be uneasy that you shall be obliged to dance with anyone unsuitable or uncouth, for even if they were admitted, which would surprise me, I assure you that I should not allow it.'

Isabella thanked her, and murmured something to the effect that as a total stranger to the area she did not suppose her dance card would be full, which gave the Captain the opportunity, if not the obligation – had she intended it so? – to secure her hand for the second set. ‘For I am sure that you will be obliged to first walk out with some gentleman of higher standing,' he said, ‘and I would not wish to put anyone's nose out of joint.' His mother agreed that this was quite right, and there then arose a little awkwardness when Mr Wainfleet became aware that he too was obliged by social convention to solicit Lady Ashby's hand for one of the dances, even though he very plainly didn't want to, but this fence was successfully surmounted, to everyone's relief, just as they arrived at their destination, which was a large, respectable-looking half-timbered inn in the central square of the market town, with a more modern brick-built ballroom at its rear.

The party from Castle Irlam entered the crowded room together, the three carriages having in a pre-arranged manner kept pace with one another, and Isabella could not help but be aware, though good manners prevented her from betraying the least consciousness of it, of the little stir of interest that ran though the room as the company became aware of their arrival, and turned in unison to look at them. Lady Carston was at her side, and murmured in low, mischievous tones, ‘One is reminded of the famous assembly at Meryton.'

‘Good heavens,' responded Isabella quickly, ‘I hope not! That would make us, surely, the party from Netherfield Park, and I have not the least desire to liken myself to Mrs Hurst or Miss Bingley, and I presume you do not either.'

‘We have done better than the Bingleys, and have brought not two but four eligible young men with us,' put in Lady Louisa. ‘How popular we must be! The Misses Bennet of Hampshire will be all aflutter, not to mention their mamas. Perhaps this evening will be amusing after all.'

Lady Carston shot her a look that mingled amusement and reproof, and Lady Louisa replied drily, ‘We have had this conversation before, Jane, and more than once. I have no power over anybody, least of all persons with whom I am unacquainted, to provoke them into behaving badly and making a spectacle of themselves. Like Mrs Bennet, Kitty and Lydia, they do so of their own accord. What harm if I merely observe their antics, and am entertained? Pray, how is it any different from reading the novel and laughing at it?'

‘These people here tonight are real, not fictional, and the position of unmarried women in our society…' began Lady Carston with a sort of weary heat, but Isabella heard no more, since she was drawn into a flurry of introductions, and the blushing young baronet with whom she was to undertake the first set – gentlemen of higher rank who were both willing and able to dance being thin on the ground on this occasion – was duly presented to her. They took the floor together, and it was pleasant enough, though she could not help but wish him gone and Captain Winterton in his place, no doubt because they had often danced together previously and were accustomed to each other's steps. He , she noticed, was partnered with a most vivacious brunette in white muslin with whom he appeared already to share an excellent understanding; presumably, she was one of the many intimate family friends his mother had mentioned in the carriage.

The first set ended and they commenced upon their own dance, but Isabella did not find it as comfortable as she had anticipated, since she could not help but be conscious of many pairs of eyes on her, almost burning holes in her midnight silk, as the gossip-addicted part of the company – which appeared to be most of it – quite blatantly picked over who she was, what precisely she was doing at Castle Irlam, and what if anything the nature of the Captain's interest in her might be. Such attention did not make for ease and enjoyment, and Leo too appeared to be labouring under a certain constraint, presumably for the same reason, so that the few words they exchanged were unusually stilted.

Although common courtesy later obliged her to profess to her hostess that it had been a most enjoyable evening, Isabella did not in sober truth find it so. She was unaccountably out of sorts and looked forward to the moment when the last fiddle would scrape, the last curtsey drop, and it would be time to take their leave.

Lady Louisa's prediction that the gentlemen of the Irlam party would be in great demand was amply fulfilled. Gentlemen were often in short supply at public dances in any case, and unattached ladies might understandably be tired of dancing with the boys they had grown up with, danced with a thousand times before, and for the most part, knew far too well to find of any romantic interest. But the presence of four – four! – apparently unattached gentlemen, two of them familiar to some degree and two of them complete strangers, must stir all manner of speculation in the sharp minds and tender hearts of the young ladies present. They could not, of course, boldly offer themselves up as suitable partners to the Honourable Mr Pendlebury, Mr Welby, Mr Wainfleet or Captain Winterton, but their fond parents and devoted aunts could make the suggestion on their behalf, and did. These persons might experience a little awkwardness in proposing that their daughters, nieces, cousins and granddaughters should step out with one of the young gentlemen, but they overcame it bravely. Lady Irlam and particularly Mrs Winterton found themselves positively besieged by ladies and gentlemen of mature years who wished to proffer partners for all the young men of their party.

Isabella herself was not in such great demand, since a young widow – and one furthermore who had previously been married to the son of a duke – appeared to be an intimidating sort of a creature, neither the one thing nor the other, to the young gentlemen of Hampshire. She danced with Mr Wainfleet, as she had promised, and once each with the besieged Mr Pendlebury and Mr Welby, but few others were brave enough to approach her. And while she was glad that, as Mrs Winterton had guaranteed, she met with no unwelcome or uncivil attention, she did not particularly enjoy sitting at the side of the room amongst the matrons, where she supposed she belonged and would in future always be, watching Leo dance the soles out of his evening pumps with a succession of eager partners. He was, she thought, even more sought after than his cousin Bastian, though she could not have said whether it was because he was, as everybody must be well aware, a single man in possession of a good fortune (and a snug estate, just up the road), rather than a mere second son and younger brother, or because he was of a naturally friendly, open disposition and appeared more genuinely interested in the young ladies he took out than Mr Pendlebury, despite that gentleman's undeniable civility. It was, of course, none of her affair, and she should be glad, she supposed, to see that in the event of the Captain beginning to overcome his hopeless passion for his cousin's wife, there were many, many ladies who would be more than willing to console him and offer him a brighter future.

She might have hoped to take supper with Leo as her partner, but somehow matters did not fall out that way. It was not quite clear to her how it came about, but she found herself escorted into the separate supper room by Mr Wainfleet. She refused to believe that he had engineered this circumstance; apart from the fact that he did not have the social skill necessary to contrive such a thing, it was hard to imagine what purpose it could serve, since he had as little to say to her as ever, but merely pushed his food around his plate in awkward silence. And certainly she had not desired it, though it did undoubtedly offer her an excellent opportunity to observe Captain Winterton, at the next table, flirting outrageously – or being flirted with, it was hard to tell – with the young lady in white muslin who was, she had learned, a Miss Peters, and some kind of distant connection of his late father's. Isabella began to perceive that this young lady's vivacity was exaggerated, somehow false, and could easily come to grate on the nerves if one were obliged to spend a great deal of time in her company. Furthermore, her laugh was displeasingly shrill and so very frequent. But Leo did not appear to find it so. Not in the least. It was all a matter of taste, of course.

It was a long evening.