Sanditon: Episode 9

2

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love, and that was true for Charlotte as well. Although she hadn't liked London during her first visit a few weeks before, her spirits returned in Lady Susan's company. Her friend resided in a great house in Mayfair, and Charlotte was free to join her in her outings – and as free to stay at home or visit a book shop if she wished to. Within a week her eyes had regained enough of their sparkle to make Lady Susan ask her whether she would accompany her to Mrs Maudsley, who held one of her famous masked routs that very night. Charlotte, the memory of Mrs Maudsley's last rout suddenly fresh in her mind, hesitated. »But ... what if they are there too?« she asked.

»Well, first of all, you are going to wear a mask, my dear.«

»That's very little protection,« Charlotte said.

»And apart from that, I've heard that they have gone to visit friends on their estate.«

»I thought they were busy with their ... wedding preparations.« It was hard to speak those two words, but once they were out, Charlotte felt better: The facts were undeniable, and the earlier she got used to them, the better.

»Apparently he asked for a time-out to see a friend. We may interpret that as it suits us, my dear.« Charlotte realised that it didn't suit her at all, because it meant that Sidney didn't rush the marriage because he was unhappy, and that was the very last thing she wanted him to be. But then on the other hand she didn't want him to be married to that lady either. Heartbreak, she realised, had in fact the potential to make one go mad.

At Mrs Maudsley's it was as hot, crowded and noisy as Charlotte remembered it from her last visit, but this time she enjoyed wearing her mask, hiding behind a piece of cloth that transformed her from a gentleman farmer's daughter into a mysterious young lady who could be anyone: A rich heiress from the West Indies – a duke's lovechild – a foreign princess in disguise. That is, she enjoyed it until the very moment a slim gentleman with rather unruly brown curls turned up in front of her, breathed out a cloud of brandy and said in a somewhat shaky voice: »I daresay, you are the spitting image of Charlotte Heywood.«

»That is probably because I am Charlotte Heywood, Mr Crowe.«

»No way!« Mr Crowe, instantly sober, took a step back. »Miss Heywood! That's a surprise! We all thought you'd crawled back to that rabbit hole where you'd come from.«

»Going home was merely a stopover on the way to London.« Talking to Mr Crowe was easy. He never took offence and always showed the honesty of drunkards. »Are you not here with your friends, Mr Crowe?« she asked. There had been a time not too long ago when Mr Crowe had never attended an event without Lord Babington and Sidney Parker by his side.

»Oh, my friends! They've moved on to become ordinary and very boring and respectable husbands and fiancés with no more time and interest in carousing and drinking.«

Charlotte wasn't sure about how much Mr Crowe knew about her attachment to Sidney. Lord Babington had been in the secret at the midsummer ball, she knew that, but Mr Crowe had been absent that very evening. Apart from that he wasn't the best person to be trusted with matters of the heart anyway. »I think Lord Babington and Miss Denham are exceptionally happy together,« she carefully said.

»And happy as lovebirds they may be. I don't expect as much for Sidney and his treasure chest. Do you?«

»I ... I find it difficult to judge on such intimate matters.«

»Sure you would.«

»So you don't expect to see them here tonight?« She had to make sure.

»No. They've all gone to Babbers' estate and forgotten to take old Crowe with them.« That fitted exactly with what Lady Susan had heard about seeing friends in the countryside. Charlotte felt quite relieved. Whatever Susan said, facing either Sidney or that lady unprepared would re-open a wound that had left her deeply scarred already.