Her breath catching, she responded, hesitantly at first but growing in confidence the longer she spoke. “Yes, Fitzwilliam, I would be honoured to become your wife. I have discovered I quite love you and desire to spend all my time with you. I have hated every moment we have not been together, and I confess I was rather agitated since I could not see you before this evening. I have missed you terribly.”
He brought her hands to his lips and kissed them. “You torment me, woman,” he breathed into her ear. “You could not have worn that necklace any of the afternoons I have visited you at your uncle’s house? Or the night we had dinner at Darcy House? At either of those locations, I could have sneaked away to steal a kiss, but here, half of London would see us if I did so.”
She laughed merrily. “If I promise to marry you in a fortnight, will that soothe your frustrations, Fitzwilliam?” she inquired.
He sighed and ran his hand down his face. “I believe it will do much to help, but all it does is lessen the length of time I will be in this state. I am not even escorting you home, as Mother insisted I escort her, and I will have to accompany her to Darcy House when the performance is over. At least we can hold hands during the performance. Might I speak to your uncle when he arrives?”
“Please do. I apologise it took me a bit longer to determine my feelings. Had I accepted you when you began to discuss marriage …”
He interrupted her. “You needed time to sort out your feelings, and I cannot fault you for that. I prefer you to be certain when we wed and not have any lingering concerns.”
“You are a very good man, Fitzwilliam,” she replied, caressing his cheek. “I look forward to spending my life with you.”
The two stepped apart when the curtain to the box opened, and Lady Anne and the Gardiners entered. Immediately, Fitzwilliam approached her uncle. The ladies went directly to Elizabeth.
“Well?” her aunt asked. “Are we to offer our congratulations?”
“We are engaged,” Elizabeth replied and was immediately pulled into her aunt’s embrace.
“Congratulations, dear,” Lady Anne said as she hugged her soon-to-be daughter next. “I welcome you to our family and am thrilled to gain another wonderful daughter. The Darcy women will outnumber the men in our family for a time, or at least until you give me a grandson.”
Elizabeth coloured at this thought. “Please, Lady Anne, might we marry before you speak of grandchildren?”
“Elizabeth,” Lady Anne began, taking a new level of familiarity for granted, “would you mind calling me Mother as my children do? For you are my daughter now, and although you are not yet wed, I intend to go ahead and adopt you as my own.”
“Thank you, Mother,” Elizabeth said hesitantly. Darcy approached just then and grinned widely at hearing the woman he loved referring to his mother in such intimate terms.
“Elizabeth has shared our news?” he inquired of the ladies.
“It was fairly obvious, but yes, she did. Congratulations, Mr. Darcy,” Mrs. Gardiner said. “We will begin making plans tomorrow; will you join us for dinner?”
Lady Anne interjected, “Perhaps you ladies will join me for tea in the morning. We can then begin shopping for Elizabeth’s trousseau.”
Elizabeth protested. “Have we not shopped enough yet, Mother? We have commissioned many dresses already; surely I do not need more.”
“You still need more items, particularly a wedding dress,” Mrs. Gardiner answered.
Elizabeth was saved from having to hear any more about plans for shopping by the bell signalling it was time to be seated. Once again, Darcy arranged the seats so he and Elizabeth could hold hands surreptitiously. It was slightly more difficult since the lights were not completely extinguished, but they hid their hands within her skirts, and the others merely smiled at the couple and turned a blind eye to the impropriety.
It was an enjoyable evening. When the performance ended, Lady Anne invited the Gardiners and Elizabeth to Darcy House fora late dinner. Darcy was pleased by this and managed to steal Elizabeth away from her chaperones for a moment to steal a kiss. They returned from this interlude slightly breathless and a little dreamy, and their relatives were amused at how often they both lost track of the conversation afterwards.
CHAPTER 11
Making Plans
The time between the engagement and wedding alternately flew by and dragged. When Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth were together, time flew by. However, the time they were apart seemingly lasted forever. Unfortunately, it seemed they were apart during this time, and those times lasted much longer than either desired. The necessary business of planning a wedding, even a small one, in such a short time kept the couple apart frequently. When they were apart, it seemed to them those times lasted much longer than either could tolerate and made them wish the time away.
While Elizabeth spent many mornings shopping for her trousseau with her aunt and future mother-in-law, Fitzwilliam spent his time arranging for the marriage. One of the necessary tasks had been to arrange for Elizabeth’s marriage settlement. Elizabeth’s dowry was to remain in her control, and for the moment, it was invested in the five per cents. The income from this would be hers to spend as she saw fit, and she would receive a minimum of two hundred fifty pounds each quarter as her pin money. Of course, Darcy would supplement this if she needed more, but Elizabeth had already claimed the amount to be far too much since, at Longbourn, she had only received fifty pounds a year for her allowance. The settlement outlined other details, including financial arrangements for any future children. Elizabeth would retain the right to live in their estate during her lifetime, and their eldest son would inherit upon Fitzwilliam’s death, although it would remain in trust withElizabeth until the child had reached his majority. Elizabeth was present with her uncle when the settlement was reviewed, again demonstrating Fitzwilliam’s desire for the two to be partners in life.
Fitzwilliam also met with Lord Matlock several mornings to discuss the legacy left to the younger man. Richard also joined several of these discussions since Lord Matlock had agreed his son deserved to know. Lord Matlock had also persuaded the rector at St. James’s Church in Mayfair to allow the couple to marry there after his wife and sister had suggested it. While it had not been what either Fitzwilliam or Elizabeth would have preferred, the news of Fitzwilliam’s engagement had spread quickly throughout thetonafter Lady Thornhill had heard of it. This also delayed the wedding date by an entire week, as arrangements had to be made for a wedding breakfast to be hosted at Darcy House and to wait for the church to be available. It had taken Lord Matlock promising a substantial donation to the church to persuade the rector to allow the wedding since, technically, neither participant was a resident of the parish.
Despite all of these things, the couple were able to at least spend their evenings together in company with each other, most often at the Gardiners’ home. Still, they did have dinner at Darcy House three times during that period and once at Matlock House, where Elizabeth was introduced to others in Fitzwilliam’s extended family.
Elizabeth had met Darcy’s family, other than his aunt and cousin in Kent, and was well pleased with them. The earl had been standoffish, but he had gradually warmed to Elizabeth, and Lady Matlock was kind. The viscount, the earl’s eldest son, was something of a rake according to her intended but had been pleasant enough, and his younger brother, a major in the horseguards, was amusing. There was one Darcy relative, a great uncle, a retired judge who was just a touch eccentric now, and he had been at one of the dinners at Darcy House Elizabeth had attended during her engagement period. He was a kind and charming elderly man who had kept the party nearly in stitches with his comments during the meal.
Upon their first introduction, the Matlocks had been ambivalent toward the Gardiners, although the earl had been intrigued by Fitzwilliam’s account of his investments with the man. The funds Darcy had invested with Gardiner had grown by half, earning him an additional five thousand pounds over his initial investment of ten thousand pounds. However, Lord and Lady Matlock had liked Elizabeth well enough and, after learning her dowry was at least twenty thousand pounds, felt she was a good match for their nephew. Darcy was pleased they liked her; however, he would have preferred they liked her before they learned the amount of her dowry. It mattered little to Darcy since the estate he would inherit and its income would enable them to live well.
George Darcy seemed to like Elizabeth well enough when he met her during the second dinner at Darcy House, and his behaviour had frequently bordered on the flirtatious with her. This had caused his brother to bristle repeatedly during the meal, and it took some effort on Elizabeth’s behalf to calm his temper. She had not responded to the flirtations and instead had fixed Mr George Darcy with such a stern look he eventually quit these efforts. For some inexplicable reason, this had caused him to smile, his first genuine smile directed toward his brother’s fiance.
