On the day of the Meryton assembly, the house was in an uproar. Elizabeth had been sitting with her father and trying her best to ignore the shouting coming from the parlor, but as Mr. Bennet sighed with annoyance once more, Elizabeth set down her book with a thud.
“I will quiet them, Papa,” she said reassuringly. Mr. Bennet did not reply, he simply nodded and turned another page in his book as she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
Elizabeth sucked in a breath as Kitty’s voice echoed down the hallway, and as she stepped into the parlor, she was almost knocked off her feet by Kitty as she chased Lydia around the room.
“Give them back, Lyddie! You cannot change your mind hours before we are meant to leave for the assembly!”
Lydia held aloft the ribbons that Kitty had chosen in town a few days before. “I can and I will,” Lydia crowed. “You see, Jane is already pinning my dress!”
“But, Mama, it is so unfair,” Kitty wailed, her eyes welling up with tears as Lydia beamed at her smugly.
“Oh, Kitty, you are making my head ache with your complaints. Lydia is quite right, Jane has already begun pinning up her dress so it is too late now.”
“Besides, Kitty, you would not listen to Mrs. Fairfax when she said that the color of the ribbon would compliment my complexion best... you are better suited to pale colors. It would look all wrong on you.” Lydia was very confident in her pronouncement, and Kitty’s shoulders slumped even more.
“Come now,” Elizabeth said, coming into the room and putting her arm around her younger sister’s waist. “We both know that Lydia will spill punch on herself almost immediately, and she will ruin the satin ribbon she has taken from you. I say that you will look very well with your dresses trimmed in white velvet.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially, and Kitty tried her best to smile as Lydia moved closer to be able to hear better.
“I will not ruin it, Lizzie!” Lydia cried. “Mama! Tell Lizzie that I will be careful!”
“Girl, you are trying my nerves, and I will not go to this assembly with a headache. Cease your shouting. Your poor father must be beside himself.”
“Yes, Mama, you are correct. Lydia, keep your voice down. Poor Papa is trying to rest.”
“I am sorry, Lizzie,” Lydia whispered loudly. “But you really cannot scold me for telling Kitty the truth.”
“The truth is not always kind, Lydia. Especially when wielded in this manner. Apologize to Kitty and go and sit with Jane while she hems your dress.”
Lydia pouted angrily and mumbled an apology before going to sit by Jane and help her with the ribbons she had taken from Kitty.
“I will help you with your dress, Kitty,” Elizabeth said, giving her sister a squeeze.
“But then you will not have time to fix your own dress, Lizzie,” Kitty exclaimed.
“I am not going,” Elizabeth replied simply. “Now, fetch my sewing box and we will get to work on your dress, you will be leaving in a few hours...”
“Why does Lizzie get to stay home, Mama?” Asked Mary sharply from her seat by the pianoforte.
“Lizzie is not staying home, Mary, she is coming to the assembly, and you are not to mention the possibility of staying home again,” Mrs. Bennet sighed.
Elizabeth looked up from Kitty’s dress and stared at her mother. “Of course I am staying here tonight. Who will look after Papa if we are all at the assembly?”
“Surely... Hill...” Mrs. Bennet stammered, clearly not having given any thought to the predicament they were currently facing. She could not stay, and Lydia and Kitty would never volunteer, which was a blessing in disguise as Mr. Bennet’s patience for the younger girls was very thin.
“You will not leave poor Hill to care for Papa,” Elizabeth said matter-of-factly.
“But Lizzie, Mr. Bingley will be at the assembly and he is bringing his guests...”
“Yes! Four ladies and seven gentlemen... that’s what Maria Lucas told me,” Lydia cried.
“Seven gentlemen!” Kitty exclaimed, “why that is one for each of us to have at least twelve dances with!”
“At least! But I shant be dancing with anyone who does not please me,” Lydia asserted.
“No, indeed,” Kitty agreed.
“Mama, I am staying home tonight,” Elizabeth said firmly.
Mrs. Bennet looked as though she was ready to argue, but then she nodded and dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief. “Of course, Lizzie. You are a very good girl and your father will be glad of your company. Mary, you are coming to the assembly, perhaps you will bring yourself to dance for once. Lady Lucas tells me that Colonel Forster’s son has come back from his schooling in Brussels. Perhaps you will charm him tonight.”
Lydia covered her mouth, but not in time to smother her laughter. Mary crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at her knees.
“Could you imagine? Mary dancing? I do not think she even knows any of the steps!” Lydia dissolved into laughter and Kitty’s cheeks pinkened as she struggled to keep her own mirth contained.
Elizabeth pressed her lips together and tugged at the ribbon in Kitty’s hands, pulling her sister’s focus away from Lydia’s terrible example. She might have been the youngest, but Lydia was forever leading Kitty astray, and was always the instigator in any disagreements that erupted among the younger Bennet siblings.
She would learn nothing from the constant scolding she received, and as Elizabeth had told Jane on many occasions, it was easier just to let Lydia have her way, for the fight that would accompany any resistance to her schemes was too exhausting to bear. Her bad habits had already settled firmly, and no amount of admonishment would change her behavior. Perhaps if their mother were not so distracted by the pursuit of suitable husbands for her daughters, she would have paid more attention to how their actions might affect those intended matches.
There was little that could be done to correct it now, and all they could hope was to find Lydia a suitable husband who would not mind her wildness too much. Elizabeth knew that it was her mother’s plan to entreat upon Mrs. Forster, who had become an especial friend of Lydia’s since her arrival in Meryton with the garrison, to assist her in finding a husband very like Colonel Forster for Lydia. Surely, if someone of Mrs. Forster’s temperament, which was very much like Lydia’s, was able to find a steady husband, surely there could be a similar gentleman or officer in Lydia’s future.
“Come now, girls, we must waste no time, the carriage will be ready soon, and we must not be late!”
Elizabeth bent her head to her task, but not before sharing a smile with Jane. They were both well aware that their mother’s hopes for their future rested upon making a smart match – a gentleman from a good family, to be sure. Wealthy, but not too wealthy as to be arrogant, that was very important. Mrs. Bennet had been very specific in her description of the perfect husband for her daughters.
He should be kind, but not easily manipulated; generous, but not irresponsible; humble, yet possessed of an awareness of his great worth... the list continued in a similar fashion. In short, he would be a gentleman made out of the very best parts of every great mythical hero and biblical paragon. An impossible creature. A Prince Charming on a noble steed... ridiculous. Jane might have concocted her own image of the perfect husband, but Elizabeth had not. All she knew was that it would take nothing but the very deepest love to convince her to marry. Unluckily for her, considering the options Hertfordshire and her mother’s scheming had to offer, that day might never arrive.
With barely any time to spare, Kitty and Lydia’s dress alterations were completed and Elizabeth rushed up the stairs with Jane to the room they shared. Jane was breathless as she pulled her new gown over her head and gratefully accepted her sister’s help to fasten the ribbons that wound around her bodice and tied between her shoulders.
“How is any young lady expected to get ready on her own, or in a hurry?” Jane gasped as she searched frantically through her jewelry for the pearl studded cross she had received last Christmas.
“Any proper young lady would be attended by no less than two ladies’ maids and perhaps even a hairdresser,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “Sadly, until you are married to a fine gentleman, I fear that your retinue will consist of only your poor sister.”
Jane laughed lightly and pulled her sister into a tight embrace before turning back to her jewelry. Elizabeth plucked the necklace from under Jane’s fingers and fastened it around her neck.
“You are too nervous, Jane. Try to relax.”
“I am not myself this evening. I confess that Mama’s endless scheming and constant chatter about Mr. Bingley has mad me quite flustered. What if he does not want to dance with me?”
“Oh, Jane. What if he is hideous, or in possession of a terrible personality? What if he is short and greasy with a persistent case of the sniffles? What if he is utterly heinous and will not stop asking you to dance? What then?”
“Lizzie, you are too cruel to me!” Jane laughed, swatting at her sister lightly in protest. Elizabeth evaded her blows deftly.
“You must forgive me,” Elizabeth said through her laughter. “Mama’s schemes have a way of working out in no one’s favor at all... and so I will be more than astonished if this Mr. Bingley is indeed as handsome and kind as he is rich. Goodness knows you deserve every happiness, and I would not wish for anything else.”
“Thank you, Lizzie. I can only hope that—“
“Jane! You must hurry, the carriage is here!” Lydia’s voice echoed up the stairs and Jane looked into the mirror quickly, adjusting her carefully pinned curls before turning back to Elizabeth.
“You look beautiful, but you should not need my assurance for that,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “Go, and dance all evening. I will be waiting for your full report of every detail of the assembly, from what Mrs. Forster is wearing to how many glasses of wine Sir William hides from Lady Lucas.”
Jane pulled her sister into another embrace. “I will miss you tonight, Lizzie. And I know Charlotte will too.”
“Papa needs me,” she replied. “There will be other dances, I have no doubt.”
“Jane!” the shout from downstairs echoed again, this time it was Mrs. Bennet hurrying her eldest daughter along.
“Go,” Elizabeth said, releasing Jane from her arms. “If you do not set out now, Lydia will make the entire carriage ride miserable as she talks of all the dances she is missing and which officers she will not have the chance to flirt with.”
With one last smile, Jane left the room and dashed down the stairs to where their mother and sisters waited. Elizabeth followed more slowly. Lydia was already in the carriage, shouting for them to hurry. Kitty scampered through the door and crawled into the carriage to sit beside Lydia. Mary looked sullen and did not respond to the kiss that Elizabeth laid upon her cheek.
“Do not worry, Lizzie, I will bring back all the news, and will tell Charlotte and Lady Lucas that you are very sad not to be attending.”
“No, Mama, you may tell them the truth. I am not sad to be staying here to see that Papa is comfortable. However, you may tell Charlotte that I will call on her later this week.”
“Oh, Lizzie. If only Kitty were more like you,” Mrs. Bennet said. She laid her hand upon Elizabeth’s arm briefly before turning and walking swiftly towards the carriage as Lydia shouted again that they should be away.
Elizabeth stood in the doorway and waved as the carriage pulled away to take her mother and sisters to Meryton. The assembly would be very merry, she had no doubt, and the arrival of a cadre of new officers would be enough to keep Lydia and Kitty preoccupied for the majority of the evening while Mrs. Bennet worked to put Jane into Mr. Bingley’s line of sight.
Though she did not know the gentleman, Elizabeth could not help but pity him just a little. If he only knew what machinations were at work all around him. Longbourn was not the only house in Hertfordshire that was in possession of marriageable daughters, but it was the only one that came with Mrs. Bennet, and Elizabeth was sure that no other young lady had a mother as determined as she.
As the carriage disappeared into the gathering darkness, Elizabeth closed the front door firmly and went to her father’s study. Her night would be nowhere near as exciting as Jane’s, but Elizabeth had a feeling that her time was better spent in her father’s company than anywhere else.
It might have been the dullness of his eyes, or his sudden, surprising frailty, but Elizabeth worried that her time with her dear Papa was running out...