Page 17 of What Change Entails

Mr. Gardiner went to warm himself at the hearth before going toward the window. “There are people in Derbyshire. I believe some of them have been known to dance.”

“That is not an answer.”

“It is the answer of a cautious man.”

Mrs. Bennet sank back into her chair. “She would have danced every evening at Brighton.”

“And perhaps every morning too,” Mr. Bennet added. “We are cruelly depriving the south coast of a marvel.”

Elizabeth sent him a warning glance. He received it, looked momentarily chastened, and then wandered toward the bookshelf with every appearance of innocence.

Mrs. Gardiner rested one hand upon Lydia’s sleeve. “Lydia, I understand you are disappointed.”

“No one can possibly understand,” Lydia declared, though she did not pull away. “Mrs. Forster chose me. She wrote particularly. I was to walk upon the Steine and meet officers from every regiment, and now I must look at rocks.”

“Some rocks are very fine,” Mr. Gardiner offered.

Lydia jerked her head up sharply. “Uncle.”

He held up both hands and retreated.

Mrs. Gardiner’s expression remained kind, though there was a firmness beneath it Elizabeth knew well. “If you come with us, you must come as one of our party, not as a prisoner being dragged to execution. We travel for pleasure. That pleasure will include walking, visiting relations, seeing views, perhaps some shopping, and whatever society presents itself respectably. It will not include sulking in every inn parlour between here and Derbyshire.”

Lydia’s eyes widened. “I do not sulk.”

Kitty coughed into the ribbon.

Lydia kicked lightly at her sister’s skirt. “I do not.”

Mrs. Gardiner waited.

After a moment, Lydia dropped back against the sofa cushion. “I suffer. That is different.”

“It may be different in poetry,” Mrs. Gardiner replied, “but in a carriage, it often appears much the same.”

Elizabeth hid her face quickly to hide her smile.

Mrs. Bennet shook her head. “Poor Lydia. She has such spirits that confinement must be agony.”

“Then movement will do her good,” Mrs. Gardiner said. “We shall have a great deal of it.”

Lydia peered through her lashes. “Will there be shops?”

“In towns, yes.”

“With ribbons?”

“Almost certainly.”

“And perhaps officers?”

Mrs. Gardiner smoothed one crease from her glove before answering. “If we encounter officers, you will behave with propriety.”

The depth of Lydia’s sigh suggested the sofa had absorbed some of her despair. “That is what everyone says now.”

“It is what everyone ought to have said sooner,” Mr. Bennet remarked from near the bookshelf.

Mrs. Bennet gave a cry of protest. “Mr. Bennet!”