Lydia, the foolish girl! They should have known she might do something like this—the argument about keeping her at home was won far too easy. Elizabeth looked over and saw Kitty nervously biting her thumb.
“Kitty!” She exclaimed, giving her younger sister a hard look. “Do you know anything about this?”
Kitty glanced nervously at Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet was crying into a handkerchief, but Mr. Bennet waited for Kitty to answer. She looked scared under her father’s stern eye.
“Out with it, girl,” Mr. Bennet growled in a tone most unlike his usual self.
“She was upset that you wouldn’t allow her to come,” Kitty admitted slowly. “But she never said what she planned to do! She would hardly tell me anything,” she ended with a slight pout.
Elizabeth exchanged a worried look with Jane. They both knew their youngest sister was impetuous and driven to act without thinking.
“We must gather for a search,” Bingley suggested in a grave voice. “Darcy and I rode here, we can take the horses and quickly search along the road.”
Elizabeth saw Jane give her new fiancé a loving look and, despite the seriousness of the situation, she felt a leap of joy for the newly engaged couple. It was a pity that their celebrations were marred by such events, Elizabeth thought, annoyance towards Lydia rising within.
“I rode as well,” Mr. Bennet said. “I shall join you. I also sent out the men from the house to search while I came here.”
“A wise course of action,” Mr. Darcy said, his face still and calm in the face of the mounting crisis. Elizabeth felt a rush a gratitude toward him—both for agreeing to help and for his support of her father. “We should also speak to the stablehands about torches, and perhaps enlist some additional volunteers…”
“Kitty, Mary and I will question some of Lydia’s friends,” Elizabeth said, seizing Kitty’s hand as the men continued to plan the search outdoors. “Perhaps she made it here and we simply have not seen her.” She looked nervously around the room and at Mr. Darcy before adding quietly: “We shall be as discreet as possible. There’s no need to raise a fuss while we are still uncertain what is happening.”
“Good idea, Lizzy,” Jane said. She looked at Mrs. Bennet, who was becoming more and more emotional as the moments went by. People standing outside of their circle had begun to take note and Elizabeth knew the gossip was already beginning. “I shall take Mama and see if we can find a quiet place to wait, perhaps something to drink?” Jane took Mrs. Bennet’s arm and patted it softly.
“Thank you, Jane,” Elizabeth said.
Turning to Mr. Darcy, she looked up into his serious face. His dark brown eyes held onto hers and she felt her stomach turn nervously in a way that had nothing to do with Lydia.
She deeply appreciated that he had so quickly volunteered to join the search and had taken a lead in organising. Elizabeth loved her father dearly, but even in the best of times, he struggled with organising people. Now, with stress and worry so plainly painted upon his face, the struggle would have increased tenfold. But Mr. Darcy had stepped into the role in a gracious manner, in a way that did not shame Mr. Bennet in the least.
Elizabeth was a bit surprised by this, but not nearly as much as she would have been in the past. Mr. Darcy kept showing her, and everyone else, that he possessed a kind of humility that spoke to strength of character, and was not the arrogant brute she had long thought him to be.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, breaking their gaze. She felt her cheeks turning pink.
“We will find her,” Mr. Darcy replied, a certainty in his voice.
“I know,” Elizabeth said, though she was still fearful for her sister. She saw Bingley and Mr. Bennet standing together, waiting for Mr. Darcy to join them. “You had better go.” She dropped into a curtsy. Mr. Darcy bowed in return, and turned to join the other men.
“Oh, my poor girl,” Elizabeth heard Mrs. Bennet say as she watched the men melt into the crowd. She turned and saw Mrs. Bennet was allowing Jane to lead her away from the gathering. “If only we had let her come! None of this would have happened if she had been safely at my side.” She wiped her tears. “That girl will send me to an early grave! You know how delicate my nerves are, I do not know how much more stress I will be able to take!”
Despite herself, Elizabeth found that she was glad Mrs. Bennet was beyond noticing anything happening around her. She was in no mood to answer any probing questions about herself and Mr. Darcy—questions that Elizabeth would not know how to answer.
“Poor Mama,” Kitty said sadly, following Elizabeth’s gaze after their mother. “She’s had such a difficult few weeks.” Elizabeth glanced at Kitty in surprise: It was an unusually astute observation for her younger sister.
“Quite right,” Mary agreed. “However, I believe it would be better for us to conduct ourselves in a slightly different manner as we continue our search for our sister.”
Elizabeth agreed with Mary on this point as well. She felt a rising pride in her younger sisters—she had not anticipated that they might react to sudden crisis in so composed a manner. Yet they were keeping calm and collected and seemed to understand the situation at hand.
“Let us try Maria Lucas first,” Kitty suggested. “I saw her dancing last with William Morris, but she should be finished by now. And likely does not have another partner.” Kitty giggled in a somewhat cruel manner. “For it is amazing that anyone would wish to dance with her!”
“Kitty!” Elizabeth admonished. “There’s no need to be mean.” For all Kitty’s general improvements in the last few moments, she still had to make many improvements upon her character, Elizabeth thought with a sigh.
However, Kitty proved to be correct. As the three Bennet sisters entered the dancing room, Elizabeth immediately spotted Maria standing on the opposite end of the room, clapping along with the music. She wore a gown in a shade of purple that did nothing for her complexion, Elizabeth noticed. She stopped herself quickly, realising Kitty was not the only one who needed work on their character.
“I do not see Lydia,” Mary observed, studying the dancers. “If she were here, I would think she would be dancing.”
“I think you’re right,” Elizabeth agreed. “Or else making herself the centre of attention in some other way. But let us ask Maria in any case.”
They wove their way through the crowds, eyes open but not seeing Lydia among the gathered.
“Maria,” Elizabeth said quietly, touching the girl’s shoulder lightly as they reached her.
“Elizabeth!” Maria exclaimed, jumping a bit at the touch. “How are you? Are you enjoying the ball?”
“Yes, it is quite nice,” Elizabeth answered quickly. “I was wondering if you have seen Lydia this evening.”
“Lydia?” Maria replied, looking confused. “No, I thought Kitty said she wasn’t able to come. That she was still too ill.”
Elizabeth’s heart sank—it was always unlikely that Maria would know anything, but the confirmation was difficult to hear.
“Elizabeth, what is going on? Why did you want to know if I had seen Lydia?” Maria’s expression of confusion was quickly turning towards curiosity.
Elizabeth thought quickly about how to respond, but before she could decide, Kitty answered instead. “Oh, she is still ill. But you know Lydia,” Kitty said with a laugh. “It is nearly impossible to keep her from a ball!”
Maria laughed as well, and Elizabeth joined in a beat later.
“That is certainly true,” Maria said. “I’ll keep an eye out for her and let her know you are looking for her.”
“Thank you, Maria,” Elizabeth said. “But do keep it to yourself. We wouldn’t want Lydia to get in trouble—Mama and Papa said she couldn’t come, and well…”
“I understand,” Maria said conspiratorially. “What good fun! Sneaking away to a ball, it is just like Lydia to have such a good story.”
“Indeed, it is,” Mary said disapprovingly. “Elizabeth, Kitty, we’d better keep looking.”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said. “You’re right. Thank you, Maria.”
Maria inclined her head, and turned back to the dancers. The sisters hurried away. They walked through out the hall, stopping and attempting to question Lydia’s friends and acquaintances as innocently as possible, but no one had seen Lydia for weeks—since before her illness. More than one officer expressed their disappointment at her absence at the ball for, in their words, she made everything more interesting.
After a quarter of an hour, they were no closer to finding the girl. However, they had learned enough that Elizabeth knew Lydia needed a serious discussion regarding her behaviour! Her reputation as a silly flirt was far more established than Elizabeth had realised. But first, they needed to find her.