“I…I think that my admiration of you drew me to see that it would be a matter of fulfilling a duty to marry you. That made the decision easy. Had I been in a position where my only reason to marry you was to please myself, there would have been a conflict within my principles and in my judgement. I do not know what I would have done then—but you needed aid, and my sense of rightness demanded I give it.”
“Very sensible.” Elizabeth agreed, “You were delighted that itwouldbe your duty to marry me, but a duty is still a duty, even if it is a pleasant one. But I still think that I must be annoyed with Georgiana forever, since she was right, itisromantic.”
“You need not tell her,” Darcy offered. He moved so that he could start kissing her neck. There was that in his manner of kisses that suggested to Elizabeth that even though she was becoming quite sleepy, she would notin factsleep for some time.
“Georgiana is like you,” Elizabeth complained, “she already knows—oh, yes, do that again.”
Mr. Darcy complied with his wife’s wishes.
Chapter Twenty Four
Colonel Fitzwilliam arrived the night before the rest of his family descended on Pemberley to discuss Georgiana’s situation.
Elizabeth was not particularly nervous about hosting an earl and his lady, but she still rather hoped that they would be far easier than Lady Catherine.
“Am I to expect a grand inquisition from the start?” Elizabeth asked Colonel Fitzwilliam as soon as he leapt off his horse. “In what mood do your parents plan to come—you need not tell me if it would violate confidence. I intend to be equally cheerful no matter the answer.”
They entered the house, and Colonel Fitzwilliam washed the dust off his face and hands with the water offered by the servants. “You need not worry about themsayinganything. Your husband has been quite pointed in his letters. Darcy, my poor father is more than a little annoyed at you for your apparent assumption that we’d all be calling Mrs. Darcy ‘the fortune hunter’ to her face if you did not say you would not permit it.”
“Oh, but do they call me the fortune hunter in the family circle?” Elizabeth grinned. The world just seemed like a cheerful place right now. She was sure some of this glow would fade, likely in a few years, but there was no point in not being delighted with everything right now.
“No.” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “Though of course they are most curious to meet you, butyouwould be curious and have concerns in their position. But they have Lady Catherine’s description of how Darcy will respond to an insult to your honor.”
Elizabeth took her husband’s arm and said, “My champion.”
“By Zeus! You both look delighted. Marriage suits you, Darcy.”
“Well, of course,” Darcy replied. “At least when one has made the right choice of partner.”
“I was right,” Georgiana said, “it is very romantic.”
Elizabeth laughed. “She has not ceased to say, ‘I told you so’.”
After they settled in the drawing room Colonel Fitzwilliam said to Georgiana, “I understand thatyouare facing some difficulties.”
“I do not…” Georgiana sighed. “I know that must be why you are here. To discuss what you all wish to do with me. You wouldn’t have left your business with the regiment to be here otherwise.”
Elizbeth hugged Georgiana. “What do you wish to be done? I have asked you already, but you do not say much about the matter.”
“I…I have made such mistakes. And this…affects the whole family. Not only me.”
“Georgie,” Colonel Fitzwilliam asked, “you sound as though you know what you wish, only you are frightened to say it.”
She nodded. “But Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth are too kind. I do not want to say anything upon the matter, until I know what the rest of the family wishes me to do. I will go into exile, if I must.”
“No,” Elizabeth said, “no exiles. You are my newest sister, and I like you, and I’m keeping you.”
“But…I know what people shall say. I would never wish to put myself forward. Your position in the neighborhood… you can’t mean to keep me with you.”
“People say,” Elizabeth replied, “a great many things. Believe me, they have been said about me.”
“I behaved immorally! I will accept the consequences of my actions—if you will not exile me, must I marry someone? An old widower with five children who wants my dowry? I am willing.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam replied, “Do youwishto marry an old widower with five children who only cares about your money?”
Georgiana silently shook her head no.
“What if,” Colonel Fitzwilliam asked gamely, “I managed to find a particularly ugly old widower. One with a hideous bulbous nose? And whose breath perpetually reeked of decay and whiskey? But a man from a particularly long-lived family, so you would not need to worry about losing the joys of the marriage bed soon.”
