He sat back and stared into the distance for a moment. Then he said, “I am grateful that our fortunes have improved. It has certainly made your mother more pleasant to be around. But there have been high prices to pay for such wealth. For one, Jane is clearly much less happy than she was before all this. For another, I will be losing you, and possibly Jane, so soon, andLydia is already married. I can only hope that your other two sisters take many years to find young men that please them.”
“You won’t truly be losing either Jane or myself, Papa,” answered Elizabeth. “Pemberley is only twenty miles from Lockwood, and Northdale is a mere thirty. Besides, we shall all be visiting London every winter where we will certainly be close enough to visit nearly every day.”
“Perhaps,” said Papa. “Though I have been thinking that once you girls are all married, your mother and I might retire to Longbourn. It is a much more comfortable size for just the two of us. She misses all her friends as well, though she doesn’t say so.”
“What will you do with Lockwood?” asked Elizabeth.
“I would not wish it to stay empty,” he said. “I suppose I could hire a caretaker to live there and make certain it is well looked after. If it were smaller, I would lease it out, but I can’t imagine anyone who would be willing to lease such a large home. But that is something to think about later. In the meantime, I suppose I should send a note around to Darcy to ask him to call. Or perhaps, considering you will do the proposing, you would prefer to call on him.” He grinned.
Elizabeth shook her head with a small smile. “I couldn’t even imagine doing such a thing,” she said. “The idea of proposing is strange enough, but to call on a gentleman in his own home seems rather presumptuous. It would be different if Georgiana were there, but she is staying with her Aunt Matlock while here in London.”
“Then, I shall send round a note asking him to call at his earliest convenience,” said Papa. “Hopefully, that will make it so you have as little time to wait as possible.”
He stood up from his chair and walked over to the desk, but before he could begin writing, they were interrupted by thebutler. “Mr. Darcy is here, asking to see Miss Elizabeth,” he said. “I was not certain she was ready for callers, so I asked him to wait in the blue salon.”
No one ever used that room as it was the darkest of the sitting rooms. Elizabeth decided to seize the opportunity. “I shall see him directly,” she said. As she stood, she noticed the butler glance at Papa to ensure he was complicit in her plan to meet a young man unchaperoned. Papa nodded.
She saw nothing else, since she was out the door and heading for the blue salon.
When she entered, Mr. Darcy immediately greeted her. “Good morning, Lady Elizabeth. I hope you have rested well after such a long night of dancing.”
“Of course,” she said with a bright smile which she hoped covered up her nervousness. “I always sleep like a baby after a ball, since the exercise invariably tires me out.”
“I am glad to hear it,” he said. “I have come to wish you farewell.”
Before Elizabeth could recover from her stunned state enough to respond, he continued. “I have decided to go back to Pemberley. It may be quite some time before we meet again.”
All Elizabeth’s plans came crashing down around her. “But why?” she cried.
“It is for the best,” he said. “I’ve had the joy of seeing you in your rightful place in society. Seeing you dressed as beautifully as you should be, shining like a beacon among those with whom you now belong, was a joy I could only imagine last spring. Now, it has come true. Your father no longer has need of me, and…” He paused as pain briefly passed on his face. “I don’t think I could bear to watch as gentlemen far more suited than myself vie for your favor and your hand.”
“But you cannot leave!” cried Elizabeth, much more loudly than she had planned. “If you leave, how will I ever propose?”
Mr. Darcy had been looking away from her, likely because he could not bear to see her distress, but at her words, he suddenly swiveled his head to stare at her. “You cannot mean that, Lady Elizabeth. I beg you not to toy with my feelings.”
“I can, and I do,” she said. “I even had a nice little speech planned that was to echo your speech from last spring. It was to conclude in the same way, that I beg you to relieve my suffering and agree to become my husband. But you have ruined it all by deciding to leave me so suddenly.”
The strangest expression bloomed on Mr. Darcy’s face. It was a mixture of confusion, wonder, and hopeful bliss. Elizabeth hoped she would remember it, because she was certain she would never see such an adorably complex expression on his face again.
“Lady Elizabeth, are you actually proposing to me?” he asked, though the hints of a smile that played around his lips as he spoke indicated that he knew she was.
“I just finished telling my father that I would. He was going to send a note to ask you to call so that I could make my proposal,” she said. Then, she cleared her throat and said, “Mr. Darcy, your stated intention of departing has thrown off all my plans. Even so, I would be most honored if you would marry me.”
More swiftly than Elizabeth could follow, Mr. Darcy stepped toward her and gathered her in his arms. After only a brief, “Yes,” as an answer he kissed her.
It no longer mattered that nothing had gone to plan. Nor did it matter that Mr. Darcy had, only moments ago, declared hisintention of leaving London. All that mattered was the feel of his arms around her, his hands on her back, and his lips on hers.
When he finally pulled away, his first word was, “When?”
Elizabeth laughed. “You aren’t particularly loquacious, are you?”
“I suppose not,” he said and grinned briefly. “Have you thought about when you would like to get married?”
“I think it must either be very soon or in a couple of months,” she said.
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“I still need to establish my identity here in London,” she said. “So, it either needs to be very soon so that the identity I establish is that of Mrs. Darcy, or we should wait until all our acquaintances are quite used to me as Lady Elizabeth before I then change my name.”
