He still had the serious noble mien, the reserved manners, and the intrinsic quietness and stability that was part of his basic nature. But he smiled often with Elizabeth, and he laughed sometimes. And he showed a deep pleasure in keeping her on his arm, in walking on the side closer to the road to guard her from anything splashed by passing carriages or pedestrians. His whole being seemed to be satisfied.
“They make a handsome couple,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said suddenly when they’d gone nearly the whole three quarters of a mile walk to St. Paul’s, and were entering under the leafy boughs of the trees in the park around the cathedral.
Caroline startled at his voice, since he had not spoken in ten minutes. “They match each other well, but in odd ways. Elizabeth is so expressive, while Mr. Darcy…”
“He is sensible, but less loud. But they seem to complete each other. I am happy for my cousin. Very happy for him.”
“And I am delighted for Elizabeth.”
He looked at her with a smile.
Caroline flushed. “Surely you do not think that I am so petty as to be unhappy that she will marry a man who I once wished to? My behavior then was… unreasoning. And—”
“No.” Colonel Fitzwilliam placed his other hand softly over hers on his arm. “I fully expected to hear that you are happy for her.”
Elizabeth and Darcy had ranged rather ahead of them, and they waved back to the two of them. When the groups rejoined, Darcy said, “We have determined to go in, and perhaps climb into the dome.”
“Planning to whisper confidences to each other from opposite sides of the whispering gallery?” Caroline asked Elizabeth. “You’ve always liked that.”
Elizabeth flushed. “Not secure enough for anyimportantconfidences.”
“For my part,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “I’ve no notion toclimba hundred stairs if I’ve not been ordered to by a general — Miss Bingley, might you make the circuit of the church yard with me, while those two madmenclimba tall set of stairs when they do not need to?”
Caroline flushed. “In a battle between your company, and climbing stairs—”
“I am not so repulsive as to losethatcontest.” He laughed and winked at her.
Darcy and Elizabeth went into the cathedral, and Colonel Fitzwilliam fell briefly into his silence once more. The two of them walked under the trees and around wooden benches.
Caroline commented, “I do not think they can get into any great, ah, trouble in the cathedral.”
Laughing suddenly, Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “Your imagination is insufficient. But as Mr. Darcy’s imagination is also insufficient, they likely are safe.”
Caroline giggled. “If it is a matter ofimagination, Elizabeth can certainly manage the task.”
“Then we must trust in their morals.” Colonel Fitzwilliam shrugged. “In the end that is all we can trust with anyone.”
They walked past a street artist begging to paint the portraits of passing gentlemen, and turned one of the corners. Colonel Fitzwilliam’s steps slowed. She could perceive that he seemed to feel some sort of stress. Then he suddenly stopped, and clapped his hands together twice.
“By Zeus!” he exclaimed. “I am a great sight more nervous than I ever can recall being. Not a pleasant sensation! Miss Bingley, Caroline, I admire you exceedingly, and like a simple soldier I’ll simply tell you.”
“But—”
“No buts about it. I do like you. I can hardly explain it to myself. So do not expect me to explain it to you. I am a simple man, and I like the look of you, the smell of you, and the way you speak, and even the way you think. Well. There. Spoken.”
Caroline felt flushed through, and as she looked at him with a smile growing across her face, she thought that this feltright. Much, much better than if she’d managed to snatch Darcy. Besides, she had found she now liked Colonel Fitzwilliam far more than she’d ever liked Darcy.
As she opened her mouth, he raised his hand. “No answers. Not yet. Let the idea sit around a while in your head. A rather sudden request —Ihave not forgotten you, and you turned round in my mind a great many times since we met last at Netherfield. But I do not expect—”
Elizabeth’s tale of how she had prompted Darcy’s second request for her hand gave Caroline the solution to the excess of words coming from Colonel Fitzwilliam.
She kissed him.
Her kiss was a rather soft and hesitant thing, but his lips seemed to know exactly what to do. He placed a hand behind her head, and his kiss left her breathless and shaky.
He then laughed. “Now kissing men in the churchyard of St. Paul’s? What else will you try?”
“It seemed to me,” Caroline replied tartly, “that the moment was appropriate.”
