“I will dress myself as I choose.”
“Why can you not just understand my point? That this is of importance.”
“Perhaps you ought to have considered that before you entered this marriage you clearly regret.”
Darcy felt a flash of hurt. “You are the one who ought to have considered what would be required of you. This is part of your duty — and I do not understand. It cannot be a burden to buy dresses from a famedmodiste.”
He did not regret marrying her.
Strange as it was, he did not.
That reminded him of what Colonel Fitzwilliam had advised, that he talk to her. “Did you go to the bookstores? Buy anything interesting?”
“That is my plan for tomorrow now,” Elizabeth replied. She fiddled with a piece of sliced ham that she’d placed on her plate, pushing it around in a circle. “I called on my aunt across town.”
“The one in Cheapside?”
“Gracechurch Street,” was her instant reply.
“That is Cheapside.”
“No, it is near Cheapside — oh I do not care.” She pushed the plate away from her.
“Your uncle is a tradesman. But of course, you would wish to visit him.” Darcy frowned. This was exactly what he had feared. “You went in the carriage I imagine.”
“I was told that it would be ridiculous for Mrs. Darcy towalkthrough London. Though I assure you that Miss Elizabeth Bennet had been capable of such an act.”
“It is what it is. Nothing to be done.” Darcy sighed. “And they are your relations. Just, I’d beg you not to visit too often. They should not expect more notice than is reasonable, and you’ll—”
“Andhow oftenprecisely is reasonable?” Elizabeth had not gone back to her food, and she was quickly drumming her fingers on the arm of the sofa.
“Perhaps…” Darcy shrugged. At what point would he start receiving the scorn of his friends — more scorn — due to the closeness of his wife to her Cit relations. “Not too often? Once more for a short parting visit before we leave, then maybe once a month next time we are in London.”
“Ah. Once a month. That is how often I am to see my beloved aunt and uncle? My little cousins. How often I should—”
“Jove! Cousins. How many? I promise, while I will do what is reasonable to promote them, I will not go beyond what is reasonable.”
Elizabeth glared at him, her nostrils flared, and her fists clenched.
He rather suspected that he had said the wrong thing.
“I… Elizabeth, it does pain me to see you unhappy in this way. But you must understand that your position has changed while theirs has not. You are no longer Miss Bennet, but you are now Mrs. Darcy, and you must learn to act as such. That is part of what you agreed to take on when you chose to marry me.”
“I see,” she replied harshly. “And if I do not always remember that I now am too far above my dearest friends to see them more than once a month, what will happen?”
“Are you angry? — Elizabeth,youchose to enter this life. It is part of what is involved.”
“So, I must accept the consequences of my choices?”
“I did,” Darcy snapped back sharply. “That is why we are married. You brought me in a moment of uninhibited weakness to act contrary to my character and throw away my better judgement, and I was honorable enough that I accepted the consequence.”
No reply.
Simultaneously so beautiful and so frustrating. He wanted her more than ever. Desperately. Now he knew what it felt like to be with her, to hold her, kiss her, to make her fully hisown.
For a while neither of them directly looked at the other.
Then Elizabeth said hesitantly, “Would you… you might like my aunt and uncle if you met them. Would you perhaps… visit them when I call again?”
