Chapter Two

THE LADIES OF Longbourn played a symphony of giggles, shrieks, and hurried footsteps above the head of a patient Mr. Thomas Bennet. Father of five daughters, and nary a son, he sipped his port as he practiced his preparation for the evening ahead: a healthy amount of alcohol to brave a local assembly and delight in the folly of his neighbors.

His door flew open before the visitor could muster a knock and Mr. Bennet startled as he glanced over his glass to find his wife in a fit of nerves.

“Mr. Bennet! Is the carriage ready? We mustn’t be the last to arrive!”

As Bennet glanced at the fading sun outside his study window, he met his wife’s query with stern logic. “The carriage shall be summoned the moment you and your daughters are fully prepared and awaiting in the foyer.”

“But, Mr. Bennet, you do know how the girls love to dally, I really must prefer the carriage be summoned this instant as I oversee the final preparations. Our girls must shine tonight as the county’s finest.”

“My dear, our daughters are the only jewels of the county.” Mr. Bennet boasted as he grabbed his wife’s hand to kiss it gently, a gesture that always made her girlish youth reappear. This evening it was quickly replaced by the presence of a mature matron in near hysterics over the plight of her daughters’ marriage status.

“To be sure, yet there is to be Mr. Bingley and I overheard from Mrs. Long he is to bring no less than ten eligible men of significant wealth and means. With your dreadful cousin able to turn us out the moment you heart ceases to beat, the girls must marry well!”

“The carriage will be called when they are assembled, ready to leave.”

“Mr. Bennet—”

“My dear, as you linger fretting about the carriage, the later we are in attendance of this assembly with what, you say, five eligible bachelors?”

“Ten, Mr. Bennet, I said ten!”

Mr. Bennet seized his chest in mock surprise, making Mrs. Bennet’s eye widen with fear, before he started to laugh. “My apologies, ten then.”

With a small growl and a foot stomp, Mrs. Bennet quit her husband’s study to thunder up the stairs. “Girls! Girls!”

The eldest Bennet daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, shared the room at the farthest end of the hall. They could hear the familiar final rumblings of the family at large that occurred before any event in which all seven attended. Jane sat before the pier glass as Elizabeth tucked a few more dried roses into the back of Jane’s pinned hair.

“You are decided then on encouraging John Lucas’ attentions? I thought you were not truly in love with him?” Jane smoothed imaginary wrinkles from her pale blue silk dress as she presented a questioning expression to her sister’s reflection in the glass.

Elizabeth pulled a pin from her mouth with her left hand as her right held the last flower in place. With a quick movement, she shoved the last pin to cross the previous one and prayed it would remain for the evening. She stared at her sister’s reflection and smiled at her handiwork.

“John isn’t so bad. I am simply maturing. I may not be in love with Mr. Lucas at the moment, but I do admire his countenance and he is a man I can respect. I do so love our home, Jane. If none of us can inherit Longbourn, at Lucas Lodge our family line will continue in the county.”

Jane rose and collected her gloves from where they lay upon her bed. Sliding first one on and then the other, she carefully considered her sister’s words. “If you shall be happy, then I shall be happy for you.” She made a careful smile and Elizabeth gave her elder sister one last hug.

Elizabeth laughed with her customary contagious jubilation. “I shall always find joy around me.”

Jane blew out a breath and glanced once more at her reflection, practicing her sweetest smile. “I will have to find a husband nearby as well.”

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Jane, knowing that to be quite the task considering the lack of advantageous suitors. Though there was rumor that the newest neighbor to Hertfordshire, a Mr. Bingley, was a pleasant sort of fellow. “We will see that you do.”

“Girls!” cried Mrs. Bennet, louder and more insistent. With a nod, Elizabeth opened the door and waited for Jane to take her precedence before following down the narrow hall to the foyer below.