Page 6 of New World Tea Company
While his attention was on the others, Sir William stole a march and approached Thomas with the stranger at his side.
The gentleman declared, “Bennet, good evening.”
“Good evening, Lucas. How are you tonight?”
“I am well! Mr Chester from London appeared at Lucas Lodge and purchased the steers I had for sale. He paid top price for the pasture-fed stock and drove them off to market yesterday,” boasted Sir William.
“Congratulations. My dairy only produced heifers this year, and I hope Chester will return to purchase one or two before we slaughter them this autumn.”
“Yes…well,” the loquacious gentleman said, eyeing his companions. “Thomas Bennet, allow me to introduce you to Mr George Wickham, a prosperous businessman who has come to Meryton. Bennet is master of Longbourn, an estate of good size here in Meryton.”
“Business in Meryton?” asked Thomas. “Horses, sheep, geese, oats, and barley are the items most often for sale in Meryton, sir. Which do you purchase?”
“None, sir. However, I am glad to make your acquaintance. I visit for a short time with acquaintances in the militia; Captain Denny and I have been friends for several years.”
After the introduction, there followed ten minutes of platitudes and careful questions to elicit the state of the strongbox at Longbourn. After this conversation, Mr Wickham asked for an introduction to another of the neighbours, and Thomas took the visitor to Winston Goulding. Thomas noticed that Wickham and Goulding talked for almost twenty minutes. Only then did Goulding take the gentleman to meet Allan Rushing and William Saunders.
~~~
After the dancing had begun and everyone was engaged in conversation, games, drinking, or the thunderous march of heels of boots and shoes on the floorboards, there was a sudden call to attention and for quiet. The assembly halted when the doors opened to permit the entry of the much-anticipated gentleman–Mr Charles Bingley.
‘The man is tall and slender. Red hair and pale complexion,’Thomas thought as Sir William took Bingley around the room, introducing the gentlemen, their ladies and daughters.
‘The man smiles to excess,’Mr Bennet decided while observing Mr Bingley.
‘The sisters are in fashionable gowns–one is very displeased to be in Meryton tonight. The other–with her husband no doubt–is greeting the ladies,’Thomas observed. ‘I believe the Bingley family will find welcome in our homes.’
“Bennet! Attend me,” Lucas said, approaching with the second introduction of the evening. “Allow me to introduce MrCharles Bingley. He is our new neighbour who has taken the lease for Netherfield.”
Bennet and Bingley greeted each other while Lucas retreated; after three minutes discussing the assembly, Thomas Bennet decided that Mr Wickham’s conversation was more interesting. But Charles Bingley proved gregarious, and to detach the man from his side, Thomas took him to his wife, where Frannie made much of the handsome man before introducing him to Jane, their eldest daughter.
That introduction quickly led to Bingley taking Jane onto the dance floor, where they danced and talked. When Bennet noticed Bingley again during the evening, the young man was dancing with one or another of the young ladies from the other families or his own.
During the first part of the evening, his five daughters all danced with Mr Bingley. And after the interval when the performers took their rest, Mr Wickham joined the young men in leading ladies onto the dance floor. Thomas noticed that his daughters were not asked to dance by Mr Wickham though Lydia imposed herself on the man when Bingley danced with Kitty. The scowls on the faces of several matrons were matched by the frown on his wife’s face, and Thomas hoped Frannie would do something about their youngest daughter’s behaviour.
Thomas found Bingley’s brother-in-law more congenial when the two men sat around a table in the refreshment room drinking ale.
“And I hope we have some shooting,” Geoffrey Hurst said. “The steward at Netherfield promised to have some boys beat the bushes to see how many birds they can flush out.”
“Netherfield will have a few pheasants. The last leaseholder did not pay the gamekeeper to coop the hens with their chicks.My fields are full of birds, and I shall have you and Bingley over to hunt without inviting every gun in the neighbourhood.”
Hurst grinned, “That means more days of shooting for us when there are fewer guns.”
~~~
George Wickham’s face remained pleasant, and he gave every appearance of being engaged in each conversation with the young ladies he partnered with on the dance floor. The young women smiled happily when the handsome man was their partner for a dance. His eyes were bright, his smile made their hearts beat faster, and his voice made more than one girl blush brightly. The gentleman who had come to visit the officers in the militia made more friends at the assembly.
But George’s thoughts were distracted by the occasional glimpse of his true quarry tonight–the younger sister of Charles Bingley who possessed a rich dowry.
Wickham smiled at ladies and their gentleman companions while thinking,‘I need a new source of funds, and rich Miss Bingley is about to be shoved onto the shelf.’
Remembering his confederate, Edith Young, who often called herself Mrs Young, Wickham sighed with regret,‘Since Edith failed to get Georgiana away from her brother this summer, that fifty thousand remains out my reach. Perhaps I can meet Miss Darcy by happenstance in a year or two.’
He moved through the paces of a sedate dance with the eldest Miss Lucas–the old maid was close to his age–and continued to smile congenially while thinking,‘This was the first time that Mrs Young failed to get our target into place so I could swoop in to collect the gold.’
‘Edith fussed that this plan to steal Miss Bingley’s fortune is too complicated and involves too many persons,’George knew.‘But I do love a challenge.’
After dancing with Charlotte Lucas this second time, Wickham escorted her back to her mother when he asked, “Miss Lucas, would you do me a great favour?”
