Jane and the Genius of the Place

by Stephanie Barron

  21 August 1805, cont’d.

  HOWEVER RIDICULOUS I MIGHT FIND THE GUARDS’ DECIsion to attend the Race Week Assembly, I could see nothing reprehensible in my own participation. I dearly love a ball. And the crowd that moves so indolendy through the smart Delmar’s Rooms, tho’ hardly as fine as the most select society of London, is nonetheless a glittering parade. There is that about the company—a liberality of means, a refinement of experience, an elegance of conduct and expression—that must lift the meanest participant to a more elevated plane. It is all too likely that such delights will prove depressingly rare in my future life; my father’s death can only reduce my modest fortunes still further; and as the decade of my thirties opens, I must be but too sensible of the continuing diminution of my looks. It is a melancholy picture—one that might thrust me entirely into despair, were I not possessed of those inner resources without which a woman is nothing. However retired my future days, I will have my wit to sustain me—the secret sarcasms of my pen, that must subject even the greatest to my power, unbeknownst to themselves. I shall have long walks in sun and shadow with my dearest sister, Cassandra. I shall have desultory hours of practise on a hired and indifferent piano. And on occasion, courtesy of Neddie and Lizzy, I shall have the illicit pleasure of a Canterbury ball.

  While life may still offer a good-size room, braced with roaring fires and a plethora of wax candles—while “The Comical Fellow” or “The Shrewsbury Lasses” still thread their delightful chords through the babble of conversation—while some hundred couples of a nodding acquaintance, and a full detachment of the Coldstream Guards, exist as it were for my pleasure alone—I cannot fail of enjoyment. Let melancholy be banished for another day, when I am too-long marooned in the rains of Bath, and the regrets of my vanished youth.

  And thus, heedless of murder and the threat of invasion both, I pinned the shoe-roses to my slippers this evening, adjusted my muslin shawl, and allowed myself to be borne away to yet another scene of dissipation. I had not been arrived five minutes, before I felt my morals to be thoroughly corrupted.

  That this was the result of gallantries easily paid, from at least three gendemen in my general acquaintance, might readily be imagined. I entered upon the scene in the company of the Godmersham party—Neddie, Henry, Lizzy, and myself—with every expectation of pleasure. I wore a borrowed gown, made over in respect of the current season, that became me almost as much as it had graced Lizzy two summers before; my hair had been cut and dressed in curls all about my forehead, courtesy of the obliging Mr. Hall; and despite the closing of that decade beyond which a woman is commonly believed to cherish few hopes, I knew myself to be presendy in good looks. I shall never again possess the bloom of eighteen; the bones of my face have sharpened of late, particularly about the nose, as tho’ the flesh is stretched too tighdy over it, and my complexion is coarser than it was ten years ago. But several months’ trial of the air of Kent, taken in daily doses through long country walks, will have their effect; and despite the worry of advancing French hordes, and a commensurate anxiety for the safety of my naval brothers, my eyes were as bright as though I were embarked upon my very first ball.

  “The Godmersham party! At long last!”

  Mr. Edward Taylor advanced upon us with arms outstretched, as befits a very old acquaintance. Those dark eyes I had so long ago celebrated, and mourned upon his betrothal to another, were alight with anticipation and scandal; littie else of his former self could be traced in the present figure. Age will take its toll, even among the wealthy of Kent; and the object of my girlhood dreams was become florid and balding. But his ample waistcoat was a testament to the excellent management of his household at Bifrons Park—and so I judged Edward Taylor happy, and excused his fall from grace.

  “You have had us all on tenterhooks, man! Thank God that you did not forgo the Assembly.” Mr. Taylor seized my brother Neddie’s arm. “Is the fellow Collingforth laid by the heels? The matter quite resolved already? Or shall you have recourse to the authorities in London?”

  “Don’t look so dull and stupid, my dear,” Lizzy murmured in Neddie’s ear. “He is enquiring about the Grey woman’s murder.”

  “I had perceived that much, Lizzy,” Neddie returned, and bowed to Mr. Taylor with careless grace. “You astonish me, Edward. I had hoped that at least you—who care nothing for horseflesh, and never venture farther than your own spring in such heated weather—might have escaped the tide of Race Week gossip. But if even Mr. Taylor is not immune, I must resign myself to being the object of every eye.”

  “So that’s the way of it, is it?” Mr. Taylor rejoined, not to be deterred. “You intend to tell us nothing?”

  “The ways of Justice, like the secrets of the marriage bed, are best enshrouded in silence,” Neddie intoned.

  Mr. Taylor merely snorted at this, while Lizzy laid a hand caressingly on my brother’s shoulder. “Poor lamb,” she crooned, “you shallbe led to the slaughter. I give you a quarter-hour, my dear, at the hands of your dearest friends—and then we shall see how enshrouded your tongue may be. Come along, Jane.”

  And so I fled in Lizzy’s bewitching train, bobbing and nodding to a multitude on either side, to take up a position just below the musicians, where we might observe the gathering company. I expected my sister Cassandra, and Harriot Bridges, among them; and was impatient to converse at long last with the former.

  Lizzy snapped open her ivory fan—a gift from my brother Charles, when Endymion was in the Mediterranean— and began to waft a humid air about our faces. I do not believe there is a lady living who can carry off dark grey silk so becomingly as Lizzy. The new gown—so long expected from her modiste—had been ordered a month previous, during a flying visit to London; and with its cap sleeves, fitted bodice, and extraordinary turban of jet and feathers, it looked admirably suited to the wardrobe of a queen. Lizzy is in the last days of mourning for her eldest sister, Fanny Cage, who departed this life in May; but her dark colouring makes even the dusky shades of grief appear to advantage.

  “Good God, it is hot,” she murmured. “Every sensible young lady will be slipping into the garden for a turn in the moonlight before the hour is out. How unfortunate that such a recourse is denied to me. You, however, might avail yourself—having neither a husband to detain you, nor an anxious regard for your reputation.”

  “And with whom would you have me take a turn, Lizzy?”

  “Anyone might do for a little moonlight,” she said, shrugging carelessly. “It conceals a host of sins, and lends an aura of grandeur to the most common physiognomy. Take my brother, Mr. Bridges, for instance—he can look quite well-made with a litde shadow to lend him substance.”

  “I understood from your sister Harriot that Mr. Bridges was indisposed. But perhaps it has passed off, if he truly intends the ball this evening.”

  “My brother is nothing if not inconstant. He considers it as chief among his charms—being of a turn to mistake an unpardonable weakness for an amiable disposition.”

  You are severe upon him.”

  “The Reverend Brook-Edward Bridges is the sort of man I cannot help but despise,” she rejoined sharply. “He believes the world exists to sustain his follies, and ask nothing of him in return. My brother was spoilt as a youth, and age has merely made him indolent. He sponges on my mother and my husband for the relief of his debts, and is foolish enough to believe that he might prevail upon an excellent woman to make his fortune in marriage. Yes, Jane, I am severe upon him—for he has disappointed me these fifteen years at least.”

  I smiled, catching at but a part of her diatribe. “And which lady is so fortunate as to deserve the honour of Mr. Bridges’s attentions? She cannot possess less than ten thousand pounds, I daresay—tho’ as the son of a baronet, he might endeavour to look still higher.”

  “Oh, Jane—have you not seen? Have you not understood?” Lizzy was too well-bred to cry out in exasperation, but the murmured words carried a singular vehemence. “My brother intends that either y
ou or Cassandra shall be his bride. If Cassandra’s visit to Goodnestone fails of the desired result, you shall be sent for next week, as a second string to his fiddle. It matters not to Edward which of your hearts he engages; it merely suffices to secure one or the other.”

  I could not reply for fully five seconds. My heart pounded in my chest with indignation, and the blood rose to my heated cheeks, while speech was left entirely at bay. Lizzy, for her part, retained the serenity of her air—I imagine she might as easily plot regicide behind that extraordinary countenance—and murmured a greeting to a passing acquaintance.

  “There is Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton,” she observed, “shockingly underdressed as usual. I cannot think what she finds to admire in the spectacle of her own bosom. Her husband certainly does not—he will already be settled at whist. And there is her daughter, the feckless Louisa—a not unpretty sort of girl, but distressingly wanting in understanding. I expect them to descend upon Godmersham tomorrow—did I mention as much? They always take us in on their return to Eastwell Park; it has become quite the Race Week custom. I shall have to order a good dinner, regardless of the threat of the French.”

  “You cannot have spoken seriously just now, Lizzy,” I muttered purposefully in her ear. “You can only have intended it as a poor sort of jest.”

  “—You would refer to my brother’s hopes? I should never sport with those, my dearest Jane. I find them too tedious to provide of much wit. But I suspect I have distressed you. I did not intend it. I thought that one of your penetration would have marked Edward out long ago.”

  “Mr. Bridges is certainly a gallant gentleman,” I managed, “but as for having the slightest pretension to the affections of either Cassandra or myself—”

  “I must confess that in making you both his object, my brother has not simply consulted himself. The alliance is my mother’s dearest wish—and this has, in great measure, served to guide him.”

  “Lady Bridges desires the match?”

  Lizzy’s superb green eyes glanced at me sidelong. “I perceive that you are all astonishment, Jane. But you must know that as to fortune, my mother is hardly particular. Her anxiety is all for Edward’s welfare. She fears he will end by fleeing to the Continent, pursued by his numerous creditors, does he fail to secure a sensible wife. Lady Bridges is aware that, however slim their resources, the Austens have always been possessed of sense. She could not fashion a better helpmeet out of whole cloth, did she even possess the power, than yourself or Cassandra.”

  “But we have barely a pound to spare between us!” I protested. “How can we be expected to secure Mr. Bridges’s fortunes?”

  “Ah.” Lizzy sighed. “How, indeed? I have represented as much to Mamma. But she will hear nothing against either of you. My brother’s circumstances, however presendy involved, shall be speedily arranged by Lady Bridges herself, once his betrothal is announced. Provided, of course”—and here the green gaze turned calculating as a cat’s—“that Mamma approves of his choice.”

  “Good God!” I cried. “Can it be possible? Mr. Bridges to marry an Austen, simply for the relief of his debts?”

  “Neddie gives the preference to you, Jane,” Lizzy said by way of reply, “because you are merely five years Edward’s senior, and because Cassandra is so tenacious in the single state. She might have had our good friend Mr. Kemble, of Chilham, these three years for the asking; and yet she shows not the slightest inclination to marry.”

  “And where do you place your wager, Lizzy?”

  “I consider that you are far less likely to be cozened by a popinjay than any woman alive,” she replied, “and from the accounts I receive of poor Edward’s progress with your sister, I cannot think that Cassandra will yield. It is a hopeless case, is it not? My brother must look to the Continent by and by.”

  I studied her narrowly. The beautiful face was serene and unruffled as always—but graced with a palpable gleam of humour. “You enjoy this too much, Lizzy.”

  “I suggest that you do the same,” she countered, “for my sister Harriot and the long-suffering Cassandra are even now entering upon Mr. Bridges’s arm. Forewarned is forearmed, is it not? Allow me to introduce you, Jane, to Mr. George Farquar, a gendeman of my acquaintance.”

  And so I took a splendid turn with the engaging Mr. Farquar, the second son of a baronet who, like most of the Fashionable World, had once loved Lizzy Austen, nee Bridges, to distraction. In honour of that vanished passion, he was kind enough to engage me for the next two dances—and in return I submitted to a maddening discourse on the finer points of racing. Mr. Farquar was mad for horseflesh in any form—kept a string of hunters and coursers himself—would be gratified to learn my opinion of Doncaster versus Newmarket, et cetera, et cetera. He had come up from London especially for Race Week, and would be gone again in a few days’ time for the next round of meetings at Epsom—and thus spared me the trouble of caring for him at all. With Mr. Farquar I might flirt with impunity, and little danger to either of our hearts. He was so obliging as to commend my style of dress and the manner of my dancing; and so we parted a half-hour later, with approbation on either side.

  The interval between the final strains of one dance, and the commencement of another, was marked by a little excitement—a ripple of conversation that went round the room, and died away into nothing, at the entrance of a gentleman and a stranger, dressed all in black. If I thought immediately of the elusive Mr. Everett, the comparison must be odious—for the stranger was possessed of considerable countenance, where Everett was not, and carried himself with an air of easy self-assurance that argued superiority of rank and fortune. Within moments of his appearance, a report was in general circulation about the room—he was Monsieur le Comte de Penfleur, the heir to a considerable French banking fortune, and raised as a brother to the late Francoise Grey. He had arrived only lately at The Larches, in readiness for Friday’s funeral rites; and despite the deepest mourning, had insisted upon seeing something of Canterbury society.

  Mr. Grey had not elected to accompany his guest.

  I watched him move across the room—a slim, elegant figure with a knife-thin nose, ash-blond curls falling across his brow, and disconcertingly pale eyes. There he stood near a potted plant, and bent low over the hand of a bashful young lady—there, by the table of ices, he clicked his heels at a puffed-up worthy—but correct and elegant as his appearance must be, I could not ignore the arrogance of his manner. Monsieur le Comte might move freely among the enemy, but he loved us not at all. Whatever his purpose in coming to the ball, he was under no illusion as to his reception; politesse from the English was all very well, but he had known Francoise Grey, and must be aware of her treatment at the hands of Kentish society. We should not be too easily forgiven.

  A quarter-hour of idling among the throng that lined the walls must bring the Comte at length to my brother, Neddie—and there, I espied a subtle change in the Frenchman’s manner and countenance. Gone was the supercilious air; a certain rigidity, as of discomfort, now marked his movements; he was become guarded and circumspect. I surmised an eagerness to speak that must be at war with a natural reticence; and knew him to be taking Neddie’s measure, even as my brother took his in turn. At length the two gendemen moved off towards one of Delmar’s anterooms, where the self-absorption of the card-players might serve as foil for conversation.

  Only one woman at the Assembly, I observed, had worn black in respect of the departed—young Lady Forbes, the bride of the Guards’ commanding general. She was a pretty litde thing, not much above nineteen, with the golden hair and sweet blue eyes of a china doll. But the innocence of her features was quite at variance with her dress—which was a daring costume more suited to a woman of the world. A circlet of black satin wound becomingly across her brow, and her dusky silk gown—as sheer as a mourning veil—fell in dramatic folds to the floor. She might have been Electra, or some other queen of tragedy, and a certain consciousness of effect was evident in the way she clung about Captain Woodfor
d. In one hand she held a square of lawn, the better to dab at her eyes; in the other, a vinaigrette, in event of sudden swoons. Of her husband Major-General Lord Forbes there was not a sign. Perhaps he was a slave to the card-room.

  Captain Woodford’s single-eyed gaze, now bent upon his fair companion, now roving the room in search of some means of escape, came to rest at last upon myself. He smiled in acknowledgement, and nodded; I returned the courtesy. Just then I espied Lizzy, with her sister Harriot in tow, idling along the edge of the dance floor near the Captain—and his attention was immediately seized. Woodford abandoned Lady Forbes with a bow, hastened to Lizzy’s side, and begged Harriot’s hand for the dance just then commencing. With a blush and an averted gaze—but no apparent disinclination—she followed him to the floor.

  “Miss Austen?”

  I tore my eyes from the interesting pair, and was presented with one of Captain Woodford’s fellow officers.

  “Might I have the pleasure of this dance?”

  To my delight and surprise, I discovered that I was much in request, and that full two hours went by before I had a moment to consider of the rest of my party, or indeed of my sister Cassandra. That she was less happy in her experience of the ball was evident from the pained expression with which she greeted Mr. Edward Bridges’s attentions. He had elected to station himself by her side, her constant and insidious acolyte; he would fetch her a fresh glass of punch, or see her well-supplied with muffin, and she was utterly martyred to his cause.

  The reason for my constant solicitation on the dance floor was soon made plain, however, by the repeated suppositions, cunning asides, and barefaced questions about Mrs. Grey’s murder to which I found myself subjected. Neddie’s role as Justice had rendered the entire Godmersham party the object of general fascination and enquiry. We were all to be besieged; no one was immune; and so, with an inward bubble of amusement, I set out to learn at least as much as I divulged.