"That's a lovely color, Miss Elizabeth," Mrs. Booth, it turned out, was quite kind. She was a widow, and had been out of society for some time before agreeing to Mr. Darcy's request to accompany Elizabeth and Jane. There was something quiet and thoughtful about her that had put Elizabeth at ease the very first time they met.

She was no high-spirited woman, being older even than Mrs. Bennet, but she had helped her own niece prepare for her wedding in recent years so had a good idea of the best seamstresses and milliners to visit. Slowly, over a period of days, Elizabeth swore that Mrs. Booth had taken them to every popular seamstress in town at least twice.

The wedding dress was the only thing that Elizabeth had taken charge of, in finding the seamstress and the paying for it. It would not do for Mr. Darcy to pay for her wedding dress, and Mr. Bennet had sent along a letter of credit with her so she might get whatever she needed while she was in London. She did not intend to spend very much, wanting something simple for her wedding that would do as a travel dress and serve her afterwards for some time to come. That, and she did not want to stretch her father's purse strings past their breaking point by spending frivolously when he still had four other daughters to think of. Even though Mr. Darcy had offered up a large sum to add to each of their dowries, and some keep money to assist with the costs of their future weddings, the marriage had not taken place yet.

She was not yet Mrs. Darcy. Her sisters' futures were not yet secure. That happy event would only take place once she was his, in name, by law, in all ways. While she knew it was very unlikely he would back out of the plans for the wedding, she still had a thread of nervousness in the back of her mind. For someone who was dreading being married to Mr. Darcy, she was quite anxious that it would not happen.

She realized that Mrs. Booth was speaking to her, and she jerked back to the present moment with a gasp.

"I am so sorry, I was leagues away," she said, only to find Mrs. Booth smiling at her patiently. Jane was smiling as well, although hers was half-hidden behind a fan.

"Quite alright dear, it is fairly normal for young women to be distracted in the weeks advancing towards their wedding. Were you thinking of your fair groom then?" Mrs. Booth asked kindly and Elizabeth blushed. She had been, yes, but perhaps not in the manner that Mrs. Booth might have guessed. She opened up her own fan and used it to enjoy a cool breeze across her heated cheeks. "I was saying, is this color not darling? I think it would look well on you for the wedding, since you were wanting something practical as well it will be a serviceable fabric for afterward as well." Mrs. Booth was pointed to a brushed gray muslin that looked delightfully soft and plush. Elizabeth was tempted, and gave in to the urge, to reach out and stroke it. It was the color of a dove, a creamy gray that had a hint of purple in it, so that it would not cause her complexion to look sallow. Mrs. Booth had quite the eye for fabrics and colors. Elizabeth was grateful that she was along for these important buying trips. Her own mother would have seen Elizabeth decorated in so many ribbons and bits of lace that Lizzy would resemble the trim pile in a tailor's shop, but Mrs. Booth had a more refined and subtle fashion sense.

"I agree, it would look so well on you," Jane commented, petting the fabric herself and smiling at Elizabeth. They shared a secret grin for a moment, since both girls were fond of soft, cozy little fabrics that felt as if they snuggled you as much as draped about your body. Mrs. Booth nodded.

"Very sensible choice, I should think. Do you agree, Miss Elizabeth?"

"I do, thank you for pointing it out to me," Elizabeth said before turning to the shop assistant. The girl nodded, taking down the number of the bolt.

"A nice wedding suit will look lovely in this, Miss," the girl said before looking to a tray of pearls and small beads. "Perhaps some decoration, or ribbon trim?" she asked with a tilt of her head. Elizabeth hesitated for a moment but Mrs. Booth put a gentle hand in the small of her back.

"A girl deserves a little bit of finery. Your wedding should not be so austere as to make a monk proud! Let us look at ribbons, and at pearls," Mrs. Booth encouraged gently as Elizabeth walked up to the counter. Beautiful lace and velvet ribbons, brocades, and embroidered, all lay curled in their little boxes, and pearls of so many different colors and sizes the like she had never seen before. There were pink ones, and some that could even be said to be purple, although very few of those.

"Oh my goodness, Lizzy, the pearls," Jane gushed softly as she looked at them. There was a hint of sadness, although no envy, in Jane's voice. Elizabeth felt, unfairly, that it should have been Jane's wedding they were preparing for, not her own. Not yet. It was not right that she should marry, and not to someone she loved, while Jane remained unattached and desperately in love.

"We've got something quite lovely we've done with them pearls," the girl said, a hint of her lower accent coming out in her voice. She was a shop assistant, but she was skilled with her charcoal as she'd drawn out the sketch for Elizabeth's wedding dress. "Just last month we did a net for the bride's hair, all covered in the pearls there. Looked beautiful when it was all done and tucked into her curls."

The look of longing on Jane's face was enough to do Elizabeth's heart in. Again she felt that Jane should have been the one about to put down coin against a net covered with pearls, not Elizabeth.

She looked at the shop assistant, her mouth set stubbornly.

"What about pins, hair pins, decorated with pearls?" she asked, feeling the weight of the money she carried in her purse quite sharply.

"Oh yes, miss, it's quite a popular fashion with the upper set, the ton, you know," the assistant said with a conspiratorial wink. "They say it's good luck if your gentleman can winkle them all out of your curls before he-"

"Ahem!" Mrs. Booth cleared her throat from behind the two Bennet sisters, and the shop assistant turned a bright pink in the face. She fell quiet for a moment and then turned, pulling out a tray, laid under with expensive velvet, a sprinkling of be-pearled hair pins across it.

"Was these what you was looking for, miss?" she asked. Elizabeth saw Jane's fingers curl tight into themselves and she knew in that moment that she had to get them for her sister.

"Yes, a full set, if you please," she asked, then smiled at Jane. "If you're standing up for me, then I must get you a gift to thank you," she said. Jane's eyes widened.

"Oh Lizzy, you can't," she protested, "the expense-"

"I'll be Mrs. Darcy before you know it," Elizabeth said with a breezy air she did not feel but was going to pretend at to improve her sister's feelings over it. "A few pearls will be nothing to me then."

"So it is true," a hateful voice rang out across the shop, and Elizabeth felt the cold trail of invisible fingers down her spine. She turned in a rustle of skirts and saw Miss Caroline Bingley standing at the entrance, accompanied by another young woman who was clearly of the ton and by the look of her face thought about as little of the Bennet sisters as Miss Bingley did. "You've come to London," Miss Bingley continued, and then let out a little laugh, fluttering her fan against one cheek, "to put together your trousseau, oh how droll, don't you think Miss Beckworth."

Mrs. Booth frowned at the two girls, and drew her shoulders back, clearly offended by the lack of introduction before the claws were out.

"I do not believe we have been introduced to Miss Beckworth," Mrs. Booth said in such a cold voice that both of the newcomers startled.

"Mrs. Booth," Miss Bingley clearly knew Mrs. Booth from some prior engagement or event, and then curtsied briefly, Miss Beckworth following her move. "Miss Amelia Beckworth, please meet Mrs. Booth. Mrs. Booth, this is Miss Beckworth, a dear friend of mine."

Mrs. Booth made a low noise and then nodded to the younger woman, curtseying as well.

"And have you made acquaintances known to Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth?" Mrs. Booth asked in a severe manner. Miss Bingley looked at the two Bennets with carefully concealed dislike, hiding it all behind a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.

"Miss Bennet, Miss Eliza, please meet Miss Beckworth. I am sure you will run into her, or her brother, Mr. James Beckworth, at some event or party here in London," Miss Bingley said, although from the tone of her voice it was clear she didn't think that either girl would be invited.

The shop assistant had come up with Elizabeth's purchases neatly packaged in a box, then wrapped up in cloth.

"Thank you for your custom, miss," she said with a bob and a smile. She moved to take the parcel to the footman who waited just inside the door but Elizabeth stopped her, accepting the small package for herself.

"Thank you very much," she said, and then swept by Miss Bingley and Miss Beckworth with the barest of curtsies so as not to upset Mrs. Booth. She would carry her own things. If that upset the ton, well, that was quite frankly, too bad for them.

To my dear readers: your comments and kind words of support and prayers have been so, so very welcome. I have been reading them aloud to my father as he is on bedrest for now until his radiation treatment is finished and then we hope we will have another few good months with him. Your notes of support have really lifted his spirits, and mine. He likes me to read to him from Jane Austen's works, and also mine as well, so it's wonderful to have the sweet words from fellow Janeites. I hoped you have enjoyed this chapter, and I will try to update with another one by the end of the weekend as a small way that I might say thank you!

With all my love and gratitude,

Nora