Suspense & Sensibility

'Oh! Yes — town has so much more to offer, doesn’t it?'

Mr. Dashwood acknowledged three more friends, one of whom bestowed a rakish grin on Kitty.

'You are keeping fine company tonight, Dashwood,' he said.

'Save the charm for your wife, Cavanaugh.' After they passed, he leaned toward Kitty and spoke in a conspiratorial voice Elizabeth heard only with difficulty. 'Only one week wed, and already the baron is back on the prowl.'

Kitty’s jaw dropped. 'Does his wife know?'

'I don’t think so. She’s been too busy this evening making eyes at his closest friend.'

Mr. Dashwood delivered the gossip as dispassionately as if reading a Times item about wholesale tea prices. The beau monde, with its endless intrigues and scandals, was a world away from the small Hertfordshire village where the Bennet sisters had grown up. It remained an utterly foreign culture to Kitty and a place Elizabeth would much rather visit than inhabit. But Mr. Dashwood was clearly in his element, moving through the intricacies of this society as easily as he navigated the busy rooms.

At last, they reached the tea table. Mr. Dashwood saw that they were served, but did not partake of anything himself.

'Are you not thirsty?' Kitty asked.

'Perhaps I’ll want refreshment after dancing the next set.'

Kitty’s smile faded. 'I didn’t realize you had engaged a partner.' She glanced round at several of the ladies nearest them and seemed disconcerted to discover many of them already regarding her.

'I haven’t. I hope to dance with you.'

Joy lit her face. 'I would like that very much.' She glanced again at a cluster of ladies nearby who spoke in whispers and avoided her gaze. 'Mr. Dashwood, perhaps you can explain something to me?'

'I shall do my best.'

'We seem to be drawing quite a bit of notice.'

'Correction, my dear miss. You are the one drawing notice. I merit attention this evening only because I am talking to you.'

Kitty shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny. 'Of what interest am I to any of these people?'

He paused, his gaze once more probing. 'Do you play at modesty, or do you truly not know?'

She shook her head.

'You are a new face at the Middletons’. Everyone is assessing your prospects in the marriage market. Within three minutes of your arrival, there was a report in general circulation that Miss Darcy has thirty thousand pounds, and within four, rampant speculation about which gentlemen would be leaving their cards at your house tomorrow.'

Kitty simply stared at him in confusion. 'But what have those thirty thousand pounds to do with me?'

His eyes sparkled with amusement. 'Of course, any lady wants to be courted for herself, not her dowry. But Miss Darcy, surely you realize how attractive your fortune makes you in the eyes of the ton?'

Kitty’s whole posture deflated as she absorbed the import of his words. 'I am not Miss Darcy,' she said in a small voice.

Now it was Mr. Dashwood’s turn to look confused. 'But when Lady Middleton introduced us — '

'Nor do I have thirty thousand pounds.'

Mr. Dashwood stared at Kitty. 'Then who — '

Kitty swallowed hard and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came.

Elizabeth interceded. 'It was not the clearest introduction. We were all distracted by Marguerite,' she said. 'Mr. Dash-wood, may I present to you Miss Catherine Bennet? She is not Mr. Darcy’s sister, but mine.'

Mr. Dashwood continued to regard her in stupefaction. Kitty looked away, struggling to contain deep disappointment and retain her composure with so many eyes upon her.

Elizabeth’s heart broke for her sister. To learn that the attention she’d been enjoying was intended for another! And to know that her own meager dowry was so paltry in comparison to Georgiana’s that she couldn’t possibly hold the fashionable Mr. Dashwood’s interest. It was all so mortifying that Kitty would probably want to leave as soon as Mr. Dashwood stammered out whatever excuse he could quickly invent to flee her company.

In the ballroom, the music drew to a conclusion. Kitty met Mr. Dashwood’s gaze once more. 'Georgiana’s set with Mr. Middleton is ended,' she said. 'I believe you wanted to dance the next with Miss Darcy.'

Mr. Dashwood at last recovered himself. 'No, I wanted to stand up with you.'

'But I’m not the person you thought you were conversing with. Doesn’t that change things?'

'It certainly does.'

Kitty drew a shaky breath. Elizabeth could tell she fought back tears.

'I shall now enjoy the distinction of being the first gentleman here to dance with Miss Catherine Bennet.' He held out his hand to her. 'If she will so honor me.'

Three

To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.

— Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 4

The expectation of one thousand pounds was all Elizabeth had brought to her marriage, all Jane had brought to hers, and all Mr. Bennet could afford to dower upon each of his remaining two unwed daughters. Elizabeth and Jane had made such advantageous matches that they had been willing to give up their shares to improve their sisters’ chances, but their father had checked their generosity. 'You are marrying good men whom I trust to take proper care of you,' he had said. 'But I want you to have something of your own.' Lydia’s scandalous elopement had required a larger settlement — to which Darcy had contributed considerably — to buy back her respectability. Fortunately, Kitty and Mary were not inclined to increase their dowries at such cost to themselves. Unfortunately, that left Kitty with a settlement one-thirtieth the size of Georgiana’s.

As gentlemen’s calling cards piled up in the silver tray on the hall table the day after the Middletons’ ball, Elizabeth couldn’t help but wish that at least one of them had been left for Kitty 'There are some here for you,' Elizabeth told Darcy as she fanned the cards out to examine the names. 'Including one from Lord Hartford.'

Darcy grimaced. 'An hour proved insufficient for him to complete his foxhunting saga. He promised to call upon me to share the remainder.'

'What a pity you were out. Now you shall have to hear it during the shooting party'

'I have no doubt of the full version being repeated then, too.'

Elizabeth set his cards aside and glanced at the others. The one she most sought was not among them.

Mr. Dashwood had promised to call that afternoon. After the revelation of Kitty’s true identity, he had spent the remainder of the evening proving himself as attentive a gentleman as propriety allowed. He danced two sets with Kitty and had no other partners save his cousin Regina, with whom a promise to his aunt had obliged him to dance one set. Elizabeth had no idea what Kitty and Mr. Dashwood talked of while on the dance floor, but she could see that he drew many smiles and occasional laughter from her sister. When he was not dancing, his conduct toward both Kitty and Elizabeth had been utterly charming.

For her part, Kitty had spoken of nothing but Mr. Dashwood for the entire carnage ride home, and she seemed to have risen from her bed with his name on her lips. Breakfast had been spent recalling his every look and gesture. That Kitty had danced with two other gentlemen, she seemed to have forgotten, though she did pause often enough in her adulation of Mr. Dashwood to compliment Georgiana on the handsome looks and manners of Miss Darcy’s many partners. Miss Darcy, however, had not been taken with any one of them to the extent that Mr. Dashwood had captivated Kitty.

Yet Georgiana’s entourage had found their way to the town-house this afternoon, while Mr. Dashwood had not. And Elizabeth could not help but reflect on why.

She sighed. 'The rest of the cards are for Georgiana.'