Jane smiled. “I suppose you’ve caught me on that one.”
Georgiana was busy retreating to the corner where George and Geoffrey were standing. “Is this the hiding corner?”
“Only men are allowed to scowl away potential partners,” George said.
“Besides, we’re ineligible.”
“Well, you won’t be in a year, unless you’re going for a Fellowship, Mr. Darcy. And if you think every girl in this room doesn’t know that, you are fooling yourself.”
“I assure you, I am aware,” he grumbled.
“He’s been reading lips all night,” George said. “You would be surprised what people will say behind your back. Or just a certain distance away.”
“I think I’ve strained my eyes. I have a splitting headache coming on and we’re still an hour from dinner and possible wine. And many hours from quiet.”
“So I suppose we’ll all be spoilsports together, then,” George said.
Georgiana rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately, my father said I was obligated for one dance, and Charles is always busy, the flirt.”
“He doesn’t talk to them so it barely counts as flirting,” George said.
“If you are under such stringent obligations...” Geoffrey said, “May I have the next dance, Miss Bingley?”
“Are you serious?”
“I am.”
Realizing he was, she said, “You may.” She curtseyed, he bowed, and she left.
Geoffrey turned to George, who was smirking. “Well, at least it got the only smile out of you that will probably be seen this evening. Do I look all right?”
“How should I know? Ask the man who dressed you.”
Geoffrey just gave his jacket a tug and headed to the dance floor. He could have been paying attention to the people who were staring at him, but he was too focused on what he was doing, and hoping that she wouldn’t notice his hands were shaking when they touched. The dance began. He knew all the steps without thinking, which was quite good, because he wasn’t doing a lot of it.
“Your palms are sweating,” Georgie said as they crossed.
“How did you know? I’m wearing gloves.”
“Because you just confirmed it,” she said with a little smirk. She hadn’t given him a pleasant little smirk in two years.
Maybe he ought to dance with her more often.
“Are we supposed to converse while dancing?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “You’ve danced more than I have.”
“I’ve never had anything to say.”
“Ridiculous,” Geoffrey said, though the last turn was a little too fast for him, and he blinked to steady himself. “You always have something to say.”
“All right, I’ve never had anything polite to say.”
“Ah, the key difference.”
They separated for the last time and took their positions. He bowed to Georgie, but not very well. The dance was too fast for him and he was too distracted. He bowed to her. “Excuse me.” And he left the ballroom.
“Did you see that?” Elizabeth said, pulling Darcy away from his current focus on where his daughter was going and whom she was speaking to.
“See what?”
“Geoffrey danced with Georgiana. By choice!”
“That can’t be. He only dances when forced,” Darcy said. He turned his eyes fully away from his daughter for the first time in the evening, and towards his wife. “My, how he’s changed.”
~~~
Geoffrey Darcy made his excuses and did not return for the dinner. Darcy had been as careful with the seating arrangements as he had been with everything else, so that Anne was surrounded by family and not overeager bachelors. “I had no idea dancing was so exhausting!” she whispered to her mother.
“Then you haven’t done enough of it,” Elizabeth said. “But don’t tell your father I said that.”
Pemberley’s food was only the finest, and it brought out the older crowd from the card rooms with exceptional speed. Then there was the white soup followed by the entertainment, which included some lovely playing of the pianoforte by Eliza Bingley, games of whist and casino, and a chance for some gentlemen to smoke on the veranda. It was then that Anne finally had the chance to sneak away, bypassing her sisters, who were eager to talk to her, and opened the door to Geoffrey’s room.
He was lying on the floor with a pillow under his head, and only a single candle placed high on the shelf lighting the room. He stirred at the light from the hallway and the figure at the door. “What is it?”
“I came to see if you’re all right.”
“Anne! This is your ball.”
“And you’re my brother.” She knelt next to him. “Are you going to be all right?”
“In the morning, I’ll be fine. It was the last spin that got me. I should have picked a slower dance.”
“It would have been more romantic.”
“Hush! You’re out five hours and suddenly you’re all smarmy.”
She smiled. “Feel better.”
“I will.”
“I’ll send George up, if you want. He needs the excuse.”
“You don’t have – ” but she was already gone, “ – to.”
~~~
A few minutes later, Geoffrey was disturbed again from his meditative attempts to stabilize his head. “Sorry. They sent the wrong George,” Georgiana Bingley said in the doorframe.
“You’re not mad at me?”
“For what?”
“For walking out immediately after dancing. I thought you might think I was running away.” He didn’t want to say, again.
“It’s rather easy to tell when your eyes cross,” she said. “I shouldn’t have pushed you.”
“Pushed me? I requested the dance. And I had already met my requirements for the evening.”
Georgie looked at her feet. “I should get back to the feast. After all, I must be chaperoned, lest my reputation be marred.”
“If anyone thinks less of you as a woman for your perfect behavior as a dancer and your beautiful gown, as well as not being a gossiping chit, I will be very surprised.” He added, “And I would be inclined to hit them, but I don’t think I can get up right now.”
“I’ll delay my insults to society and propriety, then. Good night, Geoffrey. Feel better.”
“Good night,” he said, dreaming even though he was still awake.
~~~
Long after dinner and many card games, the festivities began to wind down and mothers began to reign in their unruly and possibly tipsy sons before they embarrassed themselves, as everyone did at a good ball. As Anne’s many new admirers drifted away, back into their carriages and gigs, Darcy began to relax, and shared a glass of wine with Bingley while the crowd finished up their card games.
“Well, brother, I think you succeeded in being sufficiently terrifying,” Georgiana Kincaid said to Darcy, taking a seat beside him on the settee. “You made my going out party seem almost a delight for you.”
“I was just as nervous, I assure you,” he said.
“And now, the court presentation,” Lord Richard Fitzwilliam said.
“That’s hardly anything. Quite brief, actually. And I don’t think the king will be paying much attention.”
“How is the king?”
Bingley kicked the leg of Dr. Bertrand’s chair at the table. “How is His Majesty?”
Dr. Andrew Bertrand, now one of many on the staff of the increasingly fat and ill king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, said, “All I will say is the papers are not lying in their descriptions.”
“You’re as bad as Maddox!”
“What?” Brian said from over the din. “Whatever it is, I wasn’t responsible.”
“You weren’t,” his brother said. “They were talking about me. I treated the king when he was a bit less of a public laughingstock.”
“More of a laughingstock and less pathetic!” Mr. Hurst proclaimed between drinks.
“Now, there’s some sympathy to be had fo
r a man who is stuck with a horrible wife, has lost his only daughter, and is still responsible for running the most powerful kingdom in the world,” Dr. Maddox said. “I would offer up a kingdom not to be him, and instead be a well-paid physician and professor who is only obligated to teach one lecture a year.”
“Hear, hear!” Bingley said, and raised his glass.
~~~
Meanwhile, the relatives of Anne who had no other business at the ball had gathered again on the porch, and were passing around a bottle of excellent brandy.
“I thought you didn’t start drinking again until your first lecture,” Georgie said, joining the three of them with a shawl wrapped around her from the evening breeze.
“It’s not all fun and games, you know,” Charles defended, however meekly, as he passed her the bottle, which she took a gulp of. “The exams are in Latin. And Greek.”
“Did they teach you the classics in that fancy seminary of yours?” Frederick said.
“Are you serious? Those are hardly appropriate studies for a lady. Our small minds are not capable of grasping the complexities of dead languages and are more suited to think like living ones, Maddok-Yarichin.”
“What did she call me?” Frederick said to Charles.
He shrugged. “I don’t know Japanese. I only know it was.”
“What good are you, then? I’ll have to find someone else. What did you say again?”
“Are you crazy?” Georgiana said. “I’m not repeating it.”
“That bad,” George said with a smile. “So what did the ladies have to say about us tonight?”
“Mainly they discussed how much you were worth,” she said. “Charles, they think you have about ten thousand a year. Frederick, they have no idea, but you’re the son of a knight and the second cousin of an earl, so their fathers would approve. George, they couldn’t believe how you just stood there silently when there were ladies waiting to dance. How rude!”
He shrugged unapologetically.
“The ladies do seem to have one-track minds,” Frederick said, as if he was making a great observation.
“I would say that of men,” George said, “but it’s a different track.”
~~~
At long last, when all of the guests except the very closest of relatives had departed, and many of the ladies had gone to bed, Mr. Bennet hobbled his way downstairs and joined them for a glass of port. “So then ... another thing I never thought I would be present for.” He raised his glass to that and sipped.
“To a long life, Mr. Bennet,” Darcy said, and they clinked glasses.
“Yes, I may even be so lucky to see all my beautiful grandchildren marry,” he said just as Darcy was trying to swallow. Darcy choked, of course, and lapsed into a coughing fit before he recovered. “Do be careful with your drink, Mr. Darcy. You never know when life will surprise you.”
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