Page 24 of Shields and Roses

"Was it not? We have discussed before how much I despise the idea of my son entering the military. You know I have made provisions for him so there is no need for him to take up a profession. Yet you have persisted in encouraging him to follow his foolish dream of becoming a cavalry officer! He respects your opinion and yet you have come out on the side of foolishness. Have you spent so long hiding in this study that you have forgotten we are at war?!" Rand shouted the last sentence with a vehemence that made Bennet's reaction even more natural. The Master of Longbourn drew back in surprise.

"Rand? Please come in. Let us discuss this rationally. You know I am fond of Richard and have no desire to see him harmed. Let me explain why I have supported him."

"Discuss? That is all you do anymore. You sit in this study and discuss the world. It is all an academic exercise to you. I am sure you sat and calculated the odds of his survival or the time he would take to rise in the ranks, but this is life! He will be exposed to swords and bullets, illness and deprivation, and for what? Some dream of glory? Richard is not even quite eighteen years of age. He is too young to know what is best for him. You know that! You counseled him to accept Catherine's offer and to disobey me in the process. You have always encouraged him to be rebellious, but this goes beyond the bounds of friendship."

"Calm down, Rand. I know you are upset, but we can talk this out," Bennet said soothingly.

"Oh, I am upset all right," Rand said sharply, "and I came to talk, but not to discuss. I am here to tell you that you have gone too far for our friendship to continue as it was. I am not here to visit or spend the night. I am delivering a message. Stay out of my business, Bennet! You have come between me and my son, and I will not tolerate any more! From now on my only contact with this house will be to speak with my goddaughter. You had best hope I do not counsel Mary to foolish choices as you have done with Richard!"

Rand spun on his heel, breathing hard from the effort he had put into making the argument believable. He stomped back down the hall, glancing sidelong into the music room as he passed. Their play had gained the desired result if the looks on the faces of all four occupants was any indication. He did feel a strong twinge of guilt as he saw Mary start to scramble off the bench, but he did not stop or turn.

"No, Mary," he heard Miss Stanton say. She must have stopped the girl from chasing after him or running away. Bennet would explain to Mary and Lizzy later, but that would not help his goddaughter now.

'Blast Catherine anyway!' he thought, angry that they had to go through this charade just to keep his sister from causing worse harm. Bennet was right, they were shielding the younger generation from greater harm, but it was still a heavy price to pay. He would have to find a way to plant spies in her camp as well. The war was not just on the Continent. He and Bennet had one of their own to fight right here.

Chapter 15: Dancing

"You have it backwards, Mary. It is clap, clap and then turn left," fourteen-year-old Lizzy Bennet said, breaking off the lively tune she had been playing.

"I am sorry," Mary said. "This dance just seems more complex than the others we have learned. I keep getting the turns confused."

"It is complex, and that is why I need to practice," Jane said. "I need to run through this until I am perfect, so I need you to either be my partner or to play for us and let Lizzy do the dancing."

"Would you be so kind as to show Mary that sequence again, Jane? Perhaps starting from the spin? You know we are supposed to show our younger sisters the steps, since you and I are the only ones who had the benefit of working with the dance master."

"I suppose so," Jane said, making a slight show of reluctance. All the same, Lizzy knew her older sister liked to be appealed to as the expert, and this was no exception. She would help Mary now.

With deliberate grace, Jane demonstrated the troublesome sequence twice over, while Mary watched intently. Then Mary ran through it once before they returned to their places across from one another. They looked to Lizzy at the pianoforte.

"From just before the spin?" she asked. They nodded, and Lizzy began to play.

This run-through went far better than the previous one had. Lizzy could see the added confidence in Mary's steps just from having reviewed them once again. She and Jane easily continued dancing past that sequence and through another round of steps to the end of the dance. All three of them were surprised by the sound of applause as Lizzy played the final flourish. They turned to find Kitty and Lydia at the door.

"Miss Parks gave us a break from our lessons, and we heard you playing when we came downstairs. We just had to watch," Lydia explained to her sisters.

"It is such a lively dance. Will you teach me the steps? Please?" Kitty begged.

"Kitty and I have both learned that tune in our pianoforte lessons," Lydia added. "I will play for you so you can teach her while Jane and Mary continue their practice, if you will run through it with me afterwards. Then Kitty and I can practice on our own later."

"What do you think, Jane?" Lizzy asked. "You did say you wanted to practice it until you are perfect. It always helps to have a second couple with which to interact."

"That is true," Jane agreed. "I suppose we can break it up into sections again like the dance master did for us, so Kitty and Lydia can both see it and Mary can review the steps again. After that we can do two full runs with you dancing while Lydia and Kitty each take their turn to play it through."

Together Jane and Lizzy went through each segment of the new dance for their sisters, doing their best to remember everything the dancing master had taught them. Since shortly after Jane had officially come out, their father had hired a London dancing master to come to Meryton one day each month to keep the girls up on the latest dances. For more than two students, the man would double his fees, so the two older girls had been charged with passing on what they learned to their younger sisters, with Mary's training being the highest priority. The system worked out well overall.

Although they did not participate in the teaching sessions with the dance master, Miss Stanton and Miss Parks took turns chaperoning the all-day event so that each also had a chance to learn the new dances by watching the lesson. They practiced with their charges later, after the girls had all learned the steps from each other. Lizzy often chose days like this one, when Miss Stanton had her half-day off, to begin teaching Mary whatever new dances they had learned during the latest session with the master. Jane usually helped since it gave her more practice as well.

Jane had softened towards her younger sisters over time, particularly once she discovered that being the eldest Bennet girl did not count for much in local society. Although she was now sixteen and very beautiful, she was still the youngest of the girls in the area who were officially out. And while the Bennets were among the leading families in Meryton, some of their neighbors, or more to the point their husband-hunting daughters, outranked them. Jane quickly learned she would need both the support and the success of her younger sisters to lift her own reputation and make her more likely to succeed in finding a good match.

Spending a little time teaching her sisters to dance well was a small price to pay if it kept them in good humor so they would help her practice as well. Over time, what had started as a self-serving association softened into true affection, shallow though it might sometimes appear. She still sometimes needed to be cajoled into participating, but when she did, times like these strengthened the tender bonds between the sisters.

As Madeline had predicted, Jane was finding the society in Meryton limited from the standpoint of appropriate marriage opportunities. Miss Stanton had taught Jane to aim high. Unfortunately, most of those higher-ranking girls who were Jane's competition did not have brothers old enough or well-settled enough to make good marriage prospects. Most of the men who were single and of the right age were either not available or not eligible by the standards she had been taught. The discovery of her low importance in Meryton society prompted Jane to mend fences with her London aunt.

Previously limited to thank you notes and terse responses to her aunt's occasional letters, Jane's correspondence with the Gardiner household became a regular monthly missive. After the first few tentative exchanges, Jane learned there was more to like about her aunt than she had previously suspected. As it continued, she began to understand the constant affection Lizzy and the others expressed for Madeline Gardiner, even as she dropped hints to her sisters that a visit to London would no longer be unwelcome in hopes they would pass the message on.

To Jane's surprise, Miss Stanton discouraged such plans very firmly. The governess reminded all three of her charges that London Society expected far more of young ladies than Meryton ever could. Jane would need to polish her already graceful and demure manners, improve her dancing and conversation and build upon her accomplishments before she ventured into such deep waters. Madeline saw no reason to disagree with Miss Stanton and suggested Jane wait another year or two and do the work her governess suggested before coming to London for part of the Season. Fortified by the promise of London Society to come, Jane threw herself into her lessons with determination.

One thing Jane had not been able to fully overcome was her tendency to pick up on gossip like her mother did. She kept it tightly under control around others, but she still could not resist sharing the occasional juicy tidbit with her sisters. As they finished the first run-through of the dance steps together, she announced, "Mrs. Ansel told Mama that Charlotte Lucas turned down a proposal of marriage from Eben Tarleton. Apparently, Charlotte also slapped him for being too fresh when he made his proposal. Mrs. Ansel saw it happen just this morning in the village."