Chapter 1 A Test of Fire

The Assembly Rooms in Meryton pulsed in joyous celebration for the end of the harvest season. Years of struggle had fallen away for the small hamlets of Meryton, Netherfield, and Longbourn with many farms in the area enjoying the best crops in recent memory. The dancing, revelry, and card games began promptly at eight o’clock in the evening. Elizabeth Bennet, the second eldest daughter of the Bennet family of Longbourn, stood most curious by the party accompanying the newest resident of Netherfield Park, a Mr. Charles Bingley.

The gentleman, Mr. Bingley, she assessed to be jovial and kind. The man danced a set with her sister Jane, and also her friend Charlotte Lucas. Elizabeth respected that Mr. Bingley, as the newest bachelor in the village area, offered dances to the eldest daughters of each prominent family. He was now standing up with Mrs. Long’s niece, Harriet. Mr. Bingley’s sisters were another matter altogether. The two of them remained noticeably close to the other gentleman that had arrived with them, a Mr. Darcy of Derbyshire. When Mr. Darcy stood up with Miss Bingley, Elizabeth passed by Mr. Bingley’s eldest sister, Mrs. Hurst, to overhear a harsh criticism of the outdated fashions in the room spoken to her husband.

Having to sit out sets due to a shortage of gentlemen, Elizabeth made it her new mission to learn more about Mr. Darcy, who she had noticed spoke to no one outside of his party. His behavior struck her as strange. As she neared his person, Mr. Bingley approached him, encouraging him to. Elizabeth smiled as she heartily agreed with Mr. Bingley finding fault with his friend when there was such a shortage of partners in the room. What she did not expect was Mr. Bingley incorporating her proximity into his plans of scolding.

“Come, Darcy,” said he,” I must have you dance. I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better dance.”

Elizabeth found herself nodding with Mr. Bingley’s good sense.

“I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. It’s such an assembly as this, it would be insupportable. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room, whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with.”

Elizabeth caught herself in mid-squawk at the man’s rudeness matching so closely to Mr. Bingley’s elder sister. It wasn’t until that moment she realize she was hoping Mr. Darcy was merely shy. Instead her highest hopes for the man we shattered but his utter disdain for every lady in the room.

“I would not be so fastidious as you are,” cried Bingley, “for a kingdom! Upon my honor, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life, as I have this evening; and there are several of them you see uncommonly pretty.”

Elizabeth giggled at Mr. Bingley’s assessment, catching the eye of her friend Charlotte Lucas across the way. Charlotte silently scolded Elizabeth with a look of disapproval as she knew quite well what her friend’s game aimed to accomplish.

“You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,” said Mr. Darcy, looking at the eldest Miss Bennet.

“Oh! She is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld! But there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I dare say very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce you.”

“Which do you mean?” and turning round, Mr. Darcy looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye.

Elizabeth found herself short of breath and utterly captivated by the twisted look of pain on the man’s face. Her sense of empathy shattered as he withdrew his gaze and coldly said, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”

Mr. Bingley shook off his friend’s negative attitude to rejoin the festivities and Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at the back of the man who had so thoroughly insulted her that she wished to thrash him. Her memories of cruel boys in her childhood and their boyish taunts led her straight to the safety of Charlotte Lucas and her brother, John. John had been one of those young lads that earned himself more than one injury at Elizabeth’s hands, growing up in the rustic countryside before they were all expected to join polite society. Thankfully, he had improved with age where Mr. Darcy had not.

“You shall not believe what Mr. Darcy just said of me to my very face. Apparently, I am tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt him to dance with me,” she recounted with a hug, crossing her arms in ire.

“Lizzy, serves you right for eavesdropping,” Charlotte admonished, but John laughed.

“Dueling pistols at dawn then? Clearly, his eyesight is not good. Though alternatively, we could get Father to command it that he dance with you,” John said, looking around for his father who relished his role as Master of Ceremonies at every assembly.

“Dueling . . . commandments?” Charlotte asked, mishearing her brother by only catching a few words.

Their group was soon approached by Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth realized the man was attempting to make amends for his friend, or else he had run out of eldest daughters and moved on to the second born. No matter how kind Mr. Bingley was to her, Elizabeth felt no desire for further attachment to him; that state she happily reserved for her sister Jane who could not stop looking in Mr. Bingley’s direction all evening long.

“Aye, Charlotte, we shall write ten,” Elizabeth said, confusing her friend even further, but earning a laugh from John.

“Miss Elizabeth, may I have the honor of this dance?” Mr. Bingley asked and Elizabeth accepted.

During the dance, Mr. Bingley did indeed apologize for his friend’s behavior but Lizzy laughed it off.

“He did say that he detested dancing,” she said as she moved with the steps to meet Mr. Bingley in the middle, and then return back to the line. “I can hardly hold the opinion of such a man defective in his social graces to high esteem.”

“Defective, oh, in his social graces, oh, I see, well done!” Mr. Bingley said, enjoying Miss Elizabeth’s sharp wit against his friend. He was much more accustomed to the universal deference and simpering his wealthy friend enjoyed than such a stern rejection.

Elizabeth smiled at the man in question as he watched her dance with Mr. Bingley most intently. Given the friendship between the two men, she did not suspect her words would not reach him after the conclusion of the dance. And that assumption is what began her second game of the evening: stay as far away as possible from Mr. Darcy for the duration.

This new game proved trickier than the last, for her sister Jane and Mr. Bingley soon found ways to speak in every interval between dances, and Mr. Darcy stood often near his friend. This prompted Elizabeth to constantly walk away from the party until she ran directly into John Lucas again.

“Shall I state you are handsome enough to tempt me, Lizzy? Shall we dance?” John Lucas teased his sister’s friend and Elizabeth laughed at the sentiment. She had long passed over any superficial desires for John Lucas back when he went away for school in London at 15, mostly because he returned with no marked improvement in his thoughts despite the training.

“Yes, we shall, but you need not flatter my vanity.”

“It is the Boulanger, perhaps we’ll find you a husband, yet,” John Lucas responded.

Unfortunately, they found themselves in a grouping with none other than Jane, Mr. Bingley, Mrs. Hurst, and her dance partner, Mr. Darcy, and her remaining sisters with their partners. The exact grouping she had hoped to avoid until she spied a telling grin from John Lucas, she realized he had led her directly to the group of her sisters on purpose! Elizabeth scowled as Mr. Darcy seemingly aided in the setup when he grasped her other hand and she was forced to skip and make merry dancing around a circle between the two men.

She stood stoically next to the offending man as Mr. Lucas happily took his circuits around the circle with half of the ladies in the ring. A pit in her stomach began to form as she counted ahead and realized due to the formation, she would have to twirl and spin with Mr. Darcy no less than two times per cycle that she resolved to not meet his eye. Of course, this mettle was tested the very first time they took a spin as he grasped her hands with gentle firmness, stronger than the other men, and she looked up in surprise. His dark brown eyes remained in pain and once again, her sympathy for the man came from a deep place in her heart, overruling her mind’s indignance over his existence.

“I hope I’m performing tolerably,” she called out as they had rejoined the circle and she followed behind him, knowing her words would reach him as she faced his direction.

The circle changed directions and she now had her back to Mr. Darcy, following behind John Lucas, holding hands with both men.

“Indeed, I am tempted,” Mr. Darcy stated.

Elizabeth caught her breath and blushed as she had to stand next to him again, appearing unaffected while Mr. Lucas took his spins with Jane and Kitty.

A shriek above and sudden abrupt end to the music paralyzed the dancing groups below as thick, black smoke began to fill the ceiling from the balcony. The adults playing cards above where they could safely look down and chaperone their charges were in an uproar, jostling the musicians in the balcony who all stood, holding their instruments as though prepared to do battle.

“Fire!” yelled a voice above stairs, and Elizabeth felt time suddenly slow to a stop.

At first, no one moved a muscle in response, until suddenly, everyone attempted to move at once! People thundered down the stairs, and couples grabbed one another to rush for an exit. John Lucas abandoned Elizabeth to search for his sisters, and behind her, a loud crash startled with the subsequent sound of shattered glass. Someone had thrown a chair at the wide, sashed windows in the front. More men picked up chairs to smash the windows, a deafening clatter until a few gave way.

The sudden gush of air fed the flames and more screams upstairs pierced the din. Elizabeth felt herself carried out the front door in the sea of people, feeling in her heart something was going terribly wrong. Within moments she stood outside with Lydia, Kitty, and Mary, but there was no Jane.

“Jane!” Elizabeth screamed as she coughed from inhaling the smoke. “Jane?” she searched all of the groupings of people around her as some of the men and women ran away, and others called for buckets to begin a brigade.

Elizabeth abandoned her younger sisters to rush back to the front door, but people continued to spill out, though fewer in number.

“Stop, Elizabeth!” a pair of strong hands grasped her shoulder, shocking her by using only her first name. She spun around to see Mr. Darcy keeping her from entering the building once more.

“But I must, my sister!” she screamed, stomping hard on the man’s foot to escape his grasp, she climbed back in through a smashed window, caring not that her gloved hand now bled freely from the cut glass.

Immediately, the thick smoke overtook her and she fell to her hands and knees, gasping for air. Crawling along the floor, littered with debris and glass, and now dotted with burning embers from the ceiling above, Elizabeth tried to search for her sister. The heat and lack of visibility proved too strong, and she managed only a few feet in, touching the hand of someone passed out on the floor. She willed her eyes to open, despite the stinging temperatures and smoke to see it was not Jane, but Charlotte Lucas.

Her feet suddenly burned with pain and Elizabeth kicked out and rolled, trying to pull Charlotte with her. But Charlotte would not budge but a few inches and Elizabeth tried to cry, but she had no tears. She was too late. Realizing she was about to match Charlotte’s fate, she let go and continued to roll, covering her face with her bloodied hands, in the direction towards the front door. Suddenly, someone lifted her from the ground as though she weighed nothing at all and her last thought was of angels lifting her away from the burning inferno of Hell.