However, there was a lady that would like to marry into the Bingley family. Caroline introduced her old school friend with a sickly sweet smile and a look in her eyes he remembered from childhood. It often preceded the breaking of his favorite toy. He had accepted the introduction to the blonde beauty, who was remarkably similar to Jane Bennet in stature and coloring, and then made his way to the outskirts of the group, feeling put out with Caroline’s manipulations and angry at himself for falling for it once again. Would he never learn with her?

He so sincerely wanted her to be nice, wanted her to have good motives, wanted her to actually care about his happiness and be kind to those around her. Was that so ridiculous? He was beginning to think it was. It might be a nice imagining, having kind sisters instead of catty ones, but it wasn’t reality, and perhaps it was time to let the dream die. He felt an ache at the thought of it, but also relief. Did not hope deferred make the heart sick?

And then, just as he was deciding he had had enough of his pernicious sister, the crowd parted and he saw an angel. Or rather he saw Jane Bennet. But was it any wonder he thought her an angel considering the harridan he had grown up with? Without a moment’s delay and not a word to his sister, he made his way to her. Perhaps this night would not be a waste, after all.

~

Poor Jane. Just as she was accepting that she would have to choose a man to marry, and that said man would not be Mr. Bingley, who should sit next to her at a concert? Who should be so alarmingly close that his coat sleeve would brush against her arm so many times? Who would look at her with the sweetest, most guileless look in his eyes when the music was particularly pleasing? How was her heart to stand it?

She was so tired of the confusion, of the people who said one thing while meaning another, and the relatives trying to make her see the world as she sincerely hoped it wasn’t. Mr. Bingley’s artlessness was a relief and made her heart soften. But before she could allow the sweet softness to take over, she remembered her anticipation at seeing him after the ball in Hertfordshire, and how she had waited for him to come and then received his sister’s horrid letter, destroying all her hopes. He had left her, heartbroken and humiliated in front of her neighbors, whispered about behind fans and sniggered at when she left the room.