Chances Come, Ney Mitch [snow like ashes series TXT] 📗

splendor of Sir Aleck’s home, the dance was to begin, and all had been arranged.

For the first two sets, I would dance with Mr. Darcy. For the third set, I would dance with the Colonel, for the fourth, I would dance with Sir Aleck, and for the fifth, I would dance with Mr. Bingley.

Jane would dance the first two dances with the Colonel, the next two with Mr. Bingley and the sixth with Sir Aleck.

Kitty would dance the first with Sir Aleck, the second with Mr. Bingley, the third with the Colonel and the fourth set with Mr. Darcy.

I could not recall who Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst were all dancing with, and I did not care very much at all.

With much anticipation, I went to the floor alongside Mr. Darcy. The music began, he bowed, I curtsied, and we began dancing.

“Do you recall when we danced at Netherfield?” I asked him.

He gave me a half smile. “Of course I do. I recall it often.”

“It was a conversation where much was said, but not to each other’s satisfaction.”

“I had enjoyed myself mostly and found it all illuminating.”

“You did?” I asked. “That surprises me. For I had said little to bring you any sort of comfort.”

“First, you had the unenviable task of getting me to speak when I would have never taken the pains to speak. You found a way of getting me to converse. I admired that. You also made me aware of the fact that I was not very forthcoming in my speech. I was at the point in my life where I found that simply leaning my attention toward a woman was enough. Our discussion cast a light on the fact that a woman should not be flattered simply because I show attention to her, but I must earn her admiration.”

We separated briefly as the dancing began, and then returned back to each other.

“Also,” he continued, “you made me comfortable. Until you began speaking of Wickham.”

“Yes, and that was when the pain began. Not just for you to hear, but for me to remember. Do you know what it is like, to have once been friends with a man who was not what he claimed, and who was not worth respecting? I was entirely deceived, but I suppose I had let myself be.”

“As I said before, Wickham was possessed with happy manners and was certain to always make friends. Your choosing to enjoy his company was no different than when I once did, as with so many others.”

We turned in the set, then our hands met again.

I nodded. “But as we had discussed it was more than that. He showed attention to me, and I had craved it because you had not. It is a pathetic reason. Especially when, given my memory of our past, you had been taking more pains to become better acquainted with me for some time. I had let my first impression of you ignore every other encounter for so long. Sometimes, I still reflect on my past and wonder where my mind had wandered to. For, the destination it had originally gone to was such a strange place.”

“Do not hate yourself,” he assured me, “for we are here now.”

“Yes, we are. Do you know something, Mr. Darcy?”

“What?”

“You make me quite happy.”

He looked toward me, and then he genuinely smiled. And I actually saw a dimple in his cheek!

“And I have made you smile,” I professed. “Now, that is no small miracle.”

He chuckled.

“And now I have you laughing a little! Now that is a great accomplishment.”

“Yes, I suppose that it is. Also, I wish to thank you, Miss Elizabeth.”

“For what?”

“For being kind to my sister. You, Miss Bennet, and Miss Kitty are the precise sort of company that she needs. You make her happy and I am glad of it. If you were to remain more in our lives, I think it would make her joyous.”

“Would it make you happy as well? I do not wish to remain in your life if you gain no satisfaction of it,” I said quite openly.

“It would make me very happy, of course,” he replied, his eyes returning to their ferocious seriousness.

As the dance separated us, my heart jumped ecstatically into my throat. At last, we returned to each other again, and our conversation resumed. “Very well. Then we’d all love to stay. We have grown quite fond of you both. It is all so strange, for we are two different sorts of families with two different sorts of ways. I suppose, in this sense, our differences do quite complement each other.”

“Yes, they do.”

“And now that I have you in a happy situation, I feel like you are prepared for more serious discussions—discussion that we perhaps do not wish to face, yet we must either way.”

“Must we?”

“Yes, we must, for neither you nor I shall ever get another chance. With Mr. Bingley and the Colonel.”

Mr. Darcy rolled his eyes and looked ahead, but not out of annoyance. It was a look of understanding and preparing himself for what needed to be spoken of.

“Ah yes, that disturbance in our moments of peace,” he extoled, “and things were going so well before that happened.”

“Yes, it is there to remind us all, that no matter how much peace we obtain in life, that peace must always be bought at the expense of tension.”

“Precisely.”

“But I wish to know if I was correct in what I saw. Yes, the Colonel knows of Bingley’s feelings, but I felt, in one quick instant, that Mr. Bingley deduced the Colonel’s feelings to Jane.”

He nodded. “And you would be correct. His requesting Miss Bennet’s hand for the next two dances was not done simply as a means to show his affection. Yet, it was also done as a way of establishing dominance. For, you know how male horses must not only obtain a mare to breed with, but he also feels a desire to kill every male to get to her? Well, that is the way that