Jane Actually

and Albert followed Stephen and Mary as they joined a line, and at the insistence of the caller, they were moved to the front.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” the caller announced, “we have the pleasure of dancing
Mr Beveridge’s Maggot
with Miss Jane Austen herself.” She bowed to Mary, who returned a nod of suitable condescension.
    “Oh great, everyone’s watching and I don’t have a clue how to dance this,” Stephen muttered.
    “Don’t worry,” Mary whispered to him. “Every savage can dance.” 2
    He smiled at the reference and said, “Thanks, that actually helps.”
    Fortunately the caller, perhaps recalling Stephen’s previous performance, led them through two practice rounds.
    Albert did his best to follow Stephen’s inexpert steps. Jane followed Mary’s practiced steps with little difficulty. Not much conversation passed between any of the four during the practice, although Mary silently asked Jane if she and Albert were dancing with them.
    She was a little reluctant to ask because they’d said hardly anything to each other on the way down to the ball. So her anxiety was understandable as she waited several seconds for Jane to reply, “Yes,” and then after a few more seconds, “thank you.”
    Mary was still trying to decide how to respond to that when Jane said, “The choice of dance is fortunate. You know it so well.”
    “Too bad Stephen doesn’t.”
    “Oh, he does not do so badly.” Mary thought Jane’s comment encouraging, but little more could be said because the dance was about to begin.

    Stephen bowed deeply at the beginning of the dance—perhaps, because of his height, a little too deeply. Mary curtseyed perfectly and then stepped forward to offer her hand, prompting him to take it. They rotated around in one direction and then the other and then again until he was little unsure if he should have been in his starting place.
    Then he realized that Mary was prompting him to go around the next couple in line. Somehow that motion reminded him of Darcy and Elizabeth, or rather Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in the adaptation he knew best. He now acquired some confidence for the next set of exchanges, although he failed on his first attempt of exchanging back to back with Mary.
    Where it all suddenly clicked into place was the back and forth with two couples abreast that was so emblematic of the dance. Slowly a smile formed on his face and he stopped looking down at his feet.
    “Thank God he’s lost that look of deadly earnest,” Albert remarked.
    “Excuse me?” Jane asked after a few seconds. Albert realized Jane was playing the game and that he’d spoken out of turn. He waited until Stephen and Mary were reunited.
    “I said that Stephen has improved.”
    “Yes, he shows promise. It’s a pity Mary has no more regard for him than friend, for I think he wishes for more than friendship.”
    “It’s a little complicated …” he had to pause while Stephen and Mary separated. He was about to explain further when they rejoined but Jane spoke first.
    “Love is always complicated,” she said, perhaps wilfully misunderstanding him. “Or rather, people make it complicated, with layers of misunderstanding and … deception. It is a novelist’s stock in trade. Albert you must know how deeply I am ashamed of my deception and I beg your forgiveness.”
    But Albert had obeyed the rules of the dance and had “lost” connection with Mary’s terminal.
    “What did you say?” he asked as Stephen and Mary rejoined.
    “I said I am sorry to have deceived you,” Jane replied quickly. “Please forgive me.”
    “Only if you’ll …” He paused until Stephen and Mary reunited. Fortunately they had just reached the end of the line and Stephen and Mary must wait a turn.
    “… forgive me my insensitive behaviour. I don’t know why I acted so stupidly toward someone I … care for.”
    Jane paused to consider her next words. “‘Care for?’ How timid that sounds. I doubt I would have been so upset with someone I just care for?”
    “It’s true we have never spoken of any deeper affections Jane. Perhaps we’re too sensible to entertain thoughts of love.”
    It was time for Stephen and Mary to progress through the line and Albert and Jane effortlessly followed them.
    “But love requires hands to hold and lips to kiss,” Jane said.
    “‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments,’ 3 as the man said,” Albert said in response.
    Stephen and Mary again