Happy Valentine's Day! May you feel the warmth of God's love enveloping you today and every day of your life! And now, here's an excerpt from Volume Two of The Tale of Miss Lydia Bennet, wherein Lydia attends a Valentine's Day masked ball at Bingley's estate (she and Wickham are staying at Pemberly because Wickham fractured his leg in a carriage accident two months before, in December, and it's going to take a year to fully mend, so George and Lydia are now the Darcys' permanent house guests!) Lydia is at the ball, dressed as Venus, the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty whose husband, Vulcan, was lame- a nod to Wicky's injury! By the way, some of Jane Austen's other principal characters are at the ball, because they live on the neighboring estates (a little authors's liberty which I took!)
For the first dance, Lydia was partnered by Valancourt, the hero of The Mysteries of Udolpho , whom she soon guessed to be Mr. Tilney, because of his ready wit. "Pray, fair lady," said he, "may I conjecture your true identity?" "You may, noble sir." "Very well- why art thou in the costume of the goddess of love?" "Sir, I wear this garb because my husband has an injured limb." "Ah, a most proper guise for you, madam- or should I say, Mrs. Wickham?" "Aye, sir, you are correct," she smiled,"but pray don't tell my other partners!" "Your secret is safe with me," he grinned. The next dance was with Mr. Hurst, whose wife had bade him to make himself agreeable, so he had asked the nearest lady for the next two, and before Lydia could decline, he had tugged her to the floor, so she was forced to dance with a great, richly salmon coloured butterfly, and was extremely relieved when her next dance was claimed by Mr. Knightley. He was dressed, as was his wife, in a tastefully elegant costume representing a diamond, and when Lydia inquired why, he explained that he and Mrs. Knightley were not attracted to one another at first, for he was like her brother and very warm friend, yet when they realized they were in love, it burst upon them like a diamond glittering in the sunlight. The next dance was with Bingley, and the next with Darcy, and when it came time for the last before supper, she felt rather fatigued, so she contentedly sat, watching the happily married couples and those courting and taking an interest in one another, all waltzing in a beautifully unified way. Gracious me, she mused, love is a truly heavenly thing.
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