“I do not care about rumors. I would not be moved by them in any way.”
“Oh. Oh! — you were just eager?”
“I confess that I of course very much wanted to be bonded in Holy Matrimony with mywifeas soon as she was chosen as the companion of my future life. That was one reason for our haste,” Darcy replied. “Of equal significance, I had been away from Georgiana and Pemberley for too long. And I wished to ensure we could be settled into the estate for at least a week or two before family descended on us. Perhaps we can have a ball organized while they are present for the New Year, and to introduce Mrs. Darcy to the neighborhood.”
“A ball! Very eager. See that was something you ought to have told the lady about when she asked if you had other plans.”
Darcy grimaced.
“I am envious. You were in a position to act simply on your own judgment, and you did so.”
His own judgement.
Darcy tried to control his face so his cousin would not realize what a mockery he had made ofthat.
And yet… he wanted to explain everything to Colonel Fitzwilliam. Bingley was the only other friend he held so close as his cousin, but Bingley was in experience and wisdom his inferior, while his cousin was both family, his older by a few years, and he had a strong measure of good sense and personal conviction — though he expressed it differently than Darcy did.
“So, I see that despite the obvious attractions of your wife, there is something amiss with the marriage. I strongly suspected that when I heard how quickly you’d gone from engagement to marriage. Not to mention that I would not have expectedyouto marry at all, let alone to enter a marriage that would expose you to the ridicule of your fellows.”
“What is the point that you mean to make?”
Colonel Fitzwilliam shrugged. “I was curious, that is why I descended upon your breakfast with your bride. I’d rather hoped to hear a long scandalized story from Mrs. North about how neither of you had stirred out of the bedroom since you arrived the previous night. But I think the curiosity was equally satisfied by watching the two of you banter.”
“And what conclusions did you draw,” Darcy replied crossly. “You know I do not like to be made the object of sport.”
“And you know,” Colonel Fitzwilliam replied, “that no matter how much taller than me you’ve grown, I can knock you over the head if we must participate in a bout of the noble art.”
Darcy swatted at the back of his cousin’s head, and Colonel Fitzwilliam ducked, grinning. “I hardly like fisticuffs. Fencing is my preferred sport. Beat me at that, or at billiards if you wish to brag.”
“Ididbeat you at billiards last Christmas.”
“One game out of fifteen.”
“A win is a win.”
“What did you think of Elizabeth? Will she stand up in our circles?”
Colonel Fitzwilliam stopped walking and looked at him with a deep frown when Darcy turned back around to face him after walking several feet further on. The officer shook his head and then continued on the road.
“You think she will shame me?”
“I think you are a fool, and what is worse, too much of a fool to see that you are. She hardly knows what to make of you — that is my guess — you ought to worry about how to convince her of your virtues, not if the nonsensical members of our family will like her. You made the choice to marry a poor girl, by George, you’ve a duty to every consideration you ignored in doing so to make it a happy marriage. That is not what the conversation I witnessed this morning portends.”
“They’ll watch her. Lady Catherine is a doomed case. She’ll never forgive the slight I gave her and Anne. Even if I made an exceptional match, a diamond of the first water, she’d have been unhappy. But now, she is incensed. But there is some hope with your father. And I always cared far more for his opinion than Lady Catherine’s.”
“I hope that is not a high compliment to my father.”
“And was that meant to insult our aunt?” Darcy laughed. “There is much to admire in Lady Catherine — her certainty, her willingness to advise anyone, and the serious manner in which she takes her duties. But she is… wrong so often, and incapable of confessing when she is.” He shrugged. “The high compliment to your father is that I do love him, I do respect him, and I think he is often wise. He at least can confess to his own errors.”
“Bravo! I’ll tell Papa what you said.” Colonel Fitzwilliam clapped slowly. “If you wished to make love to him, you’d do a far better job than you seemed to manage with yourwife.”
“They’ll look for every way to judgeme, and to cast scorn on my judgement in marrying her. She needs to be… she needs to sparkle. To be perfect. To be exquisite. To be someone whoseevery motion makes it clear to your parents that ‘ah,thisis why he married her despite the disadvantages’.”
“You, my friend, are a fool. If you cared the slightest aboutthat, whydid you marry her in the first place?”
Darcy did not reply.
A gust of wind tried to take his hat away, and he grabbed it with his hand to hold it on his head.
