“OughtI be jealous of Plato and Plutarch? Will they steal your heart away from me through an excess of gentlemanly offense?”
Elizabeth giggled and patted his hand. “I am attached toyou.”
“What did the ancients say which offended you so? I can only rest easy once I know the particulars.”
“Plutarch is my favorite, I confess. For sheer…effrontery he exceeds all. He wrote, in an essay to advise young brides and grooms, that should you engage in a ‘peccadillo’ with a maidservant, I ought to feel respected, as respect for me leads you to share your wantonness and licentiousness with other women.”
Darcy drew his lips into a sour expression.
“Mr. Darcy, this is to be a marriage of equals.” As Mrs. Bennet was studiously not paying the slightest intention to them, Elizabeth dared to place her hand upon Darcy’s thigh and squeeze it. “When you engage in drunk, wanton, and licentious behavior, I am entirely prepared to be wanton and licentiouswithyou.”
Elizabeth delightedly enjoyed the way Darcy coughed and blushed.
“Ought we,” Darcy replied when he recovered, “add this to the settlement documents?”
An image popped into Elizabeth’s mind: Her dressed in a light billowy dress explaining to their barrister, dressed in a dark, heavy wool coat, how Darcy mustabsolutelyinclude her inallhis licentious activities.
“I can see from your smile,” Darcy said, “that we ought.”
“If only I could rewrite the Church of England services, I would have you to swear it as part of the marriage vows.”
“Along with my promise to always listen to you, and to give you reign to make the final decision in any matter which principally affects you?”
“Every occasion and situation specified! In sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, etcetera, not exhaustive.”
“I believe that ‘till death do us part’ is intended to cover youretcetera.”
“Had I written the marriage service, it would include: And these vows shall be understood to hold all conceivable situations, including those not specified elsewhere.”
“The darkest misfortune of England is that the book of common prayer was written by theologians with a bent for poetry, rather than lawyers lacking one.”
Elizabeth pinched Darcy’s side. He imperturbably continued to smile. “Fitzwilliam, but should we someday feel we are only possessed of a sufficiency, and that we both are in indifferent health? Then the vows would no longer hold, as written by the church.”
“I,” Darcy replied in a gallant manner, “would continue to hold you close to me as my wife in such a case, motivated solely by the deep affection I hold for you.”
“And, I,” Elizabeth replied, “would still honor and love you, but would entirely cease toobey. I quite would prefer if men also were required to obey in the marriage vows, and then we might order conflicting things, and order the orders to be revoked, and fall into an unending regress.”
“Aha! And we return to philosophy.” Darcy dared a kiss upon Elizabeth’s cheek, in spite of her unattending mother. “Might I answer your question about how I have been counseled by philosophy upon marriage?”
“You might,” Elizabeth replied primly, sitting up stiffer.
“You, Lizzy, are not the only one of us who has been thinking upon this subject of late. How to avoid dangerous errors, and how to ensure that we remain happy and that our bond remains intact through the storms, vicissitudes, and quarrels which shall erupt betwixt us.”
She grinned at him. “You as well? We think alike!”
“Plutarch’s advice comes from the great gentlemanly mistake that you rebel against, that a gentleman knows better than his wife what will constitute her happiness — amongst my peers I know some who hold to Plutarch’s philosophy without irony. You have lived enough to know that solely because a man swears vows before God that does not mean he ceases to seek pleasures elsewhere — many such men consider they do no disrespect to their wife by such.Sheis the one they ‘love’, and have married, and her children shall inherit.”
“I will not take the part of my sex to be horribly offended by such persons. It is not a form of marriage I would enjoy, but for a woman whose principal goalwasto gain a respectable establishment, so long as he does not compromisethatshe receives the respect she demanded.”
“Hmmm.” Darcy smirked adorably at her. “I understand what you mean to say — I can compromise the name of the Darcy family ever so much as I want, so long asyouare my partner in offending the shades of Pemberley.”
“I expect these shades to raise mighty rebellion against the pollution we bring.”
They looked at each other with close kissing eyes.
“My dearest,” Darcy replied, “simply because the best interest of the beloved motivates a man, that is insufficient. A man will twist what he sees according to his beliefs and prejudices. I cannot be trusted with your happiness or Georgiana’s and barely even my own. You know more about yourself and your own happiness than I ever could.”
“Quitea different tune to which you dance now.”
