The Lady's Jewels by Perpetua Langley

Author:Perpetua Langley [Langley, Perpetua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Jane sat at the looking glass while Hill made the final adjustments to her hair. Elizabeth sat on the bed and said, “I find myself torn. On the one hand, I am delighted to go to a ball. A ball at Netherfield, no less. We should never have imagined such a thing. On the other hand, it seems odd that we should throw off all cares, considering we may have a criminal in the neighborhood.”

“I attempt not to think too closely on that, Lizzy,” Jane said. “It disturbs my nerves.”

Hill arranged the last curl and said, “Your mama wouldn’t like to know of any disturbed nerves shakin’ up her girls on the way to a ball what’s to be peppered with men who ain’t married.” With that remarkable pronouncement, she trounced from the room.

Elizabeth smiled as she watched Hill disappear. “Inelegantly said, but true,” she said.

Jane was silent, and Elizabeth said, “You must look forward to this evening. To see what this evening will reveal. Mr. Bingley has gone from the house and now he may prove his feelings. Does he ask for the first? Does he claim another on your card? Does he take you to supper? And, of course, the most practical way any gentleman might express his feelings, does he gaze at you across the ballroom, blithely offending anybody talking to him?”

“Perhaps that is why I find myself almost out of sorts. It is as if I could not know the truth of it while he stayed here and now I must know the truth of it and am afraid of what I shall discover.”

“I think you will discover what I see so clearly—Mr. Bingley is smitten.”

Jane ignored Elizabeth’s teasing. “You are in very good spirits, considering…”

“You need not even finish the sentence, Jane,” Elizabeth said, laughing. “I was most put out for some hours, but then I determined that one dance shall not be the end of me. I approach the task with grim determination. Once I am through it, I shall make it my business to hide from Mr. Collins for the rest of the night.”

“Lydia told me he asked her and she laughed in his face and ran off. Kitty ran off before he’d got a sentence out.”

“Poor me and poor Mary,” Elizabeth said. “I had not the sense to run off and Mary sat patiently waiting for a turn that never came.”

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