Page 32 of A Matter of Murder

Mr. Bennet, Lizzie was unsurprised to see, was nowhere to be found. “What’s going on?”

“Lizzie!” came at least three shouts, and then Mrs. Bennet pulled her into the fray. “Come, Lizzie, tell your sister that she needs to invite the Hamiltons and Gardiners to her ball.”

“Mama, it’s next week! They can’t possibly come in time. And besides, we have nowhere to put them up!”

“In a house this size? Nonsense!”

“Not all the rooms are ready for guests!”

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” Caroline said. “A ball in a week’s time? It can’t be done.”

“It is an awfully tight timeline, Jane—are you sure you can’t put it off until later in the month?” Mrs. Bennet asked. “That way the Gardiners at least could join.”

Jane gave Lizzie a look that clearly said,This is all your fault. Lizzie smiled weakly and mouthed,Sorry. Although, announcing the ball in front of all those snobby women had felt good in the moment. “It’ll happen in a week because that’s what we told Mrs. Fitzgerald.”

“Jane, are there to be any young, eligible gentlemen at this ball?” Lydia demanded.

“Why? You’re too young to court,” Mary said.

“Am not! Mama, tell her—”

“Now, Mary, I would be happy to see any of my girls settled! Although it would be nice if proper birth order could be considered.” Mrs. Bennet said this with a significant glance to Darcy, who made a great show of studying the wallpaper.

“I intend on being next, before even Lizzie. And then I shall be addressed as Mrs. and Lizzie will have to follow after me into every room,” Lydia said, flouncing over to Lizzie.

Lizzie scowled and picked up Guy. “Being married doesn’t make you more important than anyone else.”

“It would make me more important than you,” Lydia said. “Socially, anyway.”

“Oh, stop it, you two!”

Lydia and Lizzie turned to look at Jane, Lizzie’s mouth dropping open in shock. Jane never raised her voice at her, but now she stared at them with a cross expression. “Lydia, enough taunting. There shall be a few gentlemen and—”

“A few?” Lydia screeched. “Jane! Surely you know more than afew—”

“I said enough!”

Lizzie sat down, cowed by her older sister’s firm tone. Even Lydia stayed quiet, shocked as well.

“I’ve decided not to invite the Gardiners or Hamiltons, Mama. This shall be a small, intimate affair for our closest neighbors. No overnight guests.”

Across the room, Lizzie, Charlotte, and Darcy exchanged glances, and she knew they were all thinking the same thing: if most people believed in the curse, they’d likely not stay anyway.

“It’ll hardly be a ball, then,” Caroline said. “Why bother?”

“Because we have a duty to cultivate a genial relationship with our new neighbors, especially given the tragedy that we’ve uncovered here,” Bingley said, coming to stand by Jane. “We ought to show them that Netherfield Park is turning over a new leaf.”

A fresh start in the country was exactly what Lizzie wanted for her sister. “I think that’s an excellent idea,” she said. “Jane,I know you’ll be able to pull off the most splendid ball—party? Ball.”

“We’ll open the ballroom,” Jane said with a sigh, and Lydia and Kitty squealed. “But it shall be a small affair!”

“If you say so, dear,” Mrs. Bennet said doubtfully.

“Did you discover anything of interest in the village?” Bingley asked Lizzie, Darcy, and Charlotte in a clear ploy to change the subject.

Lizzie looked back at Darcy, unsure of where to start. What they had learned was very interesting indeed, but she wasn’t sure quite how to break it to Bingley. Luckily for her, Darcy stepped up. “How much do you know about Honoria Bingley?” he asked his friend.

This was not what Bingley had been expecting. “Not much, admittedly. My great-uncle married her abroad and brought her back here, and then he died shortly after. My father never even met her.”