“But Darcy…”
“Remember that I hold your debts, Wickham. If you marry Miss Lydia, I shall decline to call them in, and you may thus avoid debtor’s prison. I suppose that marrying Miss Lydia must surely be preferable to spending the rest of your life in Marshalsea?”
“Darcy—do you mean to say that you shall forgive my debts?”
“No, Wickham.” Darcy spoke with a cold hardness. “If I were to forgive your debts, I would have nothing left to ensure your compliance. I shall simply continue to hold them. You must know that I am a man of honour, for you have taken advantage of it on many occasions. If I say that I shall not call in your debts so long as you live a life that is beyond reproach, you may take me at my word. But should you stray from that path, you also have my word that I shall consider our agreement to have been nullified, and I shall act accordingly.”
Elizabeth gasped. She had only just begun to trust MrDarcy’s professions of love.The only possibility I can countenance is that he is forcing MrWickham to marry Lydia to protect not just my family, but specifically my own reputation—to secure our ability to marry without scandal. This man would surely move Heaven and Earth to protect me!
Elizabeth steeled herself and strode into the room, her eyes sparkling in awe of MrDarcy’s clever manoeuvring. “Lydia, am I to wish you joy?”
“Lizzy!” Lydia cried, running to embrace her sister. “Why yes, you are! La! I shall be the first of us to be married!”
“I wish you every happiness, but I cannot say with certainty that you shall be first.”
After Darcy paid the curate and Wickham and the bishop signed the licence, Lydia seized Wickham’s hand, hastening him out of the door. “My darling, let us take a stroll along Fleet Street so that I may find a dressmaker to make my wedding gown!”
After Lydia and Wickham left, Darcy informed the curate that the bishop had approved their licence. Once the necessary signatures were in place, Elizabeth said to Darcy, “Now that we have secured the licence, let us celebrate with a walk in Temple Garden, along the River Thames.”
“That is a splendid idea,” he replied, taking her hand in his.
When they arrived at Temple Garden, they were met by a gaggle of geese. Darcy immediately stiffened, and Elizabeth stifled a laugh. However, one particular goose evidently had something else in mind, as it was in hot pursuit of another man who ran as if for his life. When the man shouted for the goose to begone, Darcy, realising that its target was none other than George Wickham, broke into laughter. “That goose could not have found a more fitting target!”
Elizabeth laughed alongside him. “My grandmama once said that geese only bite those who deserve to be bitten.”
As they walked back to Gracechurch Street, she asked, “When you coerced MrWickham into marrying my sister, did you do that for me?”
“Whilst I did it partly to protect your family, my thoughts were only for you. It will preserve your reputation. I want only the best for you, no matter what. I wish to marry you, but I shall do so only when you tell me that I have your love. Now that we have the licence, you have time to consider.”
That night, Elizabeth was unable to sleep.I have always said that I would marry for the deepest love. But can one ever know the precise moment when one has found it?It is not as if love arrives with a calling card, to be presented on a silver salver by a butler. As she pondered whether or not she truly loved MrDarcy, or whether she might come to love him someday, her heart beat the truth: she already did.When I imagine my future, William is in every thought, and I am ever grateful for his presence.
Darcy poured himself a glass of brandy and paced the floor of his library.
I can no longer imagine a future without Elizabeth as my wife.
His agitation increased, thinking how quickly she doubted him, how devastated she had been, believing he would not marry her because of her sister and Wickham.
But I need Elizabeth to be as certain of my feelings as I am.He descended to his library. Perhaps his shelves might contain a book about how to have a successful marriage? Or at least one that might help him sleep. Lord, how he needed a good night’s rest.
Darcy found a promising title:The Morning Afterby Melissa Anne.It is a truth universally acknowledged that those who experience the same moments again and again, each time with a different result, will thereafter awaken with a profound incredulity of the world around them.
He furrowed his brows at the words.
Chapter 21: The Morning After
by Melissa Anne
Rosings Park, Kent
Wednesday, the 8thof April, 1812
To say that Elizabeth soughtanyoneto help her make sense of her dreams would not be entirely true.
She walked through the grove at Rosings Park, the cool stillness of the early morning broken only by the faint rustle of leaves overhead. As she wandered along the path, she noticed little of the morning, for her thoughts wholly occupied her mind.
In truth, there was only one person she hoped to encounter: Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Through all manner of curious dreams, she had come to know him better—or at least she considered she had. So much of what she could remember was hazy, but if anything had remained constant, it had been MrDarcy. And several different versions of a proposal of marriage, some of which she had refused vehemently, but a few she had accepted, for various reasons.
