An Unlikely Acquaintance

Part 6

"You must allow me to introduce you to my family," Elizabeth said as soon as the last note was played and the dancing partners bowed to one another. "I am sure they will be delighted to meet you."

"I could hardly dream of depriving them, in that case," Colonel Fitzwilliam said, with a laugh. He did not object to being led through the bustling crowd to a corner table, at which sat a stout, grey-haired gentleman and his pretty wife, who looked eagerly up at him and demanded an introduction even before Elizabeth had been afforded a moment to make it.

"This is Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mama, newly arrived in Meryton."

"Colonel Fitzwilliam?" Mrs Bennet shot a pointed look at Elizabeth and Richard felt her move a hasty step away from him, evidently fearing some matchmaking plan already afoot. He grinned but allowed her to put the necessary distance between them, thanking his lucky stars that his mother was long gone from the earth and was therefore in no state of anxiety over his bachelorhood. His smile faded. His brother cared, but only as it provided him yet another thing to berate Richard for. He swallowed, mentally elbowing his brother aside and reassuring himself that there was no place for him here, in Hertfordshire. Richard need not spare him a thought. He certainly spares few enough for me when we are apart!

"Are you connected with the regiment?" Mr Bennet asked, shrewdly. Richard said that he was and offered a few specifics of his job history and current position. On the continent was scarcely uttered before Mr Bennet eagerly pulled a chair forward and bade him sit and tell him news of the war. With a glance at Elizabeth, Richard complied, feeling a flood of warmth at the enthusiastic welcome he received from these good people.

"I have invited Colonel Fitzwilliam to join us for dinner one evening, Papa," Lizzy said, hovering at Richard's shoulder as if she was unwilling to abandon him entirely to her parents, but did not yet wish to surrender her liberty and sit, also.

"Excellent, yes. Dinner! A fine idea." Mr Bennet turned back to Richard, his eyes bright and interested. "I do not suppose you play chess, Colonel Fitzwilliam? Of course you do!" He answered his own question before Richard could even form a word, but he was not incorrect in his assumption. Richard could and did play chess, and played it well. It was one of the chief hobbies he enjoyed indulging in with his cousin, pitching Darcy's classical training against Richard's field-knowledge, each of them boasting of their superiority until victory was decided. They were evenly matched, though, so the crown went to him at least as often as to Darcy and was rarely easily won.

"Lizzy, I wonder if..."

All occupants of the table and Elizabeth standing beside it turned at the sound of a delicate, musical voice, and even despite her mask, Richard could not miss the affection with which Elizabeth greeted the approaching young lady, who he took to be a friend until she was introduced, with much fanfare, as a sister.

"Jane, dear, you must be tired! You have scarcely stopped dancing all evening!" Mrs Bennet exclaimed, looking eagerly around for a fourth chair to add to their table until Richard recalled himself and stood, gallantly surrendering his own.

"Oh, Colonel Fitzwilliam!" Mrs Bennet wailed, and he hovered in indecision, unsure whether it would be better to sit or to insist upon the newly-arrived Miss Bennet doing so.

"Mama!" Both girls let out a chorus of laughter, and Colonel Fitzwilliam chose to stand, wanting to place himself on the side of youth and thinking he might prefer to escape any ongoing family melodrama, of which he was as-yet unfamiliar.

"Colonel Fitzwilliam, may I present my sister," Elizabeth said, speaking through her laughter and into the silence with an enthusiasm that was catching. Richard smiled as the young lady beside her blushed and dipped in a curtsey, pausing as Lizzy whispered something to her that Richard could not quite catch.

"He is to join us for dinner this week," Mrs Bennet put in from behind him. "Aren't you, Colonel?"

"I look forward to it," he said, noticing another dance poised to begin and seeing the possibility of escape. "I do not suppose I might entreat either of you two young ladies to indulge me in dancing? It is so rare I am afforded the opportunity, I do not wish to neglect the chance."

"Oh," Jane began, but there was a kerfuffle behind her and almost entirely by accident, Lizzy stumbled into her, jostling her towards Richard who was poised to stop her tumbling any further.

"Jane would love to dance! I think I will sit awhile with you, Papa," Lizzy exclaimed, making a dive for Richard's empty chair, and leaving the two to smile awkwardly at one another.

Richard adjusted his mask, certain, if they were all free of them, that he would read embarrassment and annoyance on Jane's pretty face.

You do not know it is a pretty face, he counselled himself, although he fancied he had constructed a fairly accurate picture of both Bennet sisters, conjuring them in his mind and curious to see, come midnight, if he had been correct in his assumptions.

"Well, Miss Bennet, let us not dawdle, or we will miss the start!"

They hurried to join the other dancers and as soon as he could be confident that they were out of earshot of Jane's parents, Richard bent his head a little, speaking in a low voice designed only to carry as far as her ears.

"I trust you do not object to dancing? Please do not feel beholden to do so if you prefer to rest."

"Not at all," Jane said, her voice lilting and musical. "Although I feel I ought to apologise to you for my sister's engineering us together. She has a fancy for orchestration, does Lizzy."

"And has she managed the thing so terribly?" Richard feigned disappointment. "I see it now, you dance with me out of pity, only, just as I have been invited to dine at your house, from pity." He sighed, theatrically. "Poor friendless Colonel Fitzwilliam, reliant on the charity of strangers..."

Jane laughed and Richard felt certain he had never heard a more beautiful sound. He glanced towards the large clock that dominated one wall of the assembly room, silently counting the hours until midnight, when everyone might, at last, remove their masks and he might be permitted to see whether Jane Bennet's beauty matched that of his imagining.

I certainly did not foresee losing my heart this evening, he thought to himself, as they engaged in a lively dance, laughing and conversing as if they were old friends and not acquaintances of barely five minutes. He shook his head at his nonsense, wondering how foolish it was to consider his heart lost after so short a time - and to a young lady he had not even fully glimpsed! It is the festivity of the evening making everything rosy and bright, he told himself, amazed at how pleasant his future in Meryton looked now, compared to how it had seemed that morning. Gone was his annoyance at being redirected, despatched to take control of a regiment he did not know, on behalf of a man he was hardly fond of - for he and Colonel Forster had met several times and never become more than nodding acquaintances. Gone was his bitter disappointment over his latest battle with his brother, made worse by the realisation that the cousin he sought to connect with had chosen that very moment to leave Hertfordshire. Gone, even, was the crushing loneliness he had felt, coming to a strange place to be among people he did not know, nor wish to know. He looked at Jane Bennet, watching as she circled with her opposite number before returning to his side. The future felt bright, for the first time in a long time, and Richard eagerly anticipated year to come.