Her effusions were clearly making his Elizabeth –hisElizabeth! – uncomfortable, so Mr. Darcy asked if the two of them might walk in the garden.
“Oh, yes, of course! And no chaperone is necessary, since you are engaged!”
“We will stay in view of the house nonetheless, Mama,” Elizabeth said.
“Can you forgive me, Elizabeth?” Mr. Darcy asked, the moment they were outside.
“Yes, but…”
“But?”
“I still feel that we do not know each other well, Mr. Darcy.”
“Will you not call me by my given name?”
“I do not know it.”
“Fitzwilliam.”
“Is that not your cousin’s name?” She sounded puzzled.
“It is the Darcy custom to name the first boy after the mother’s family name.”
“I see; Fitzwilliam it is then.”
“Or William, if you prefer it.”
“I do, actually, as Fitzwilliam is rather a mouthful. Very well, then, William; your mother will be furious.”
He allowed that this was so.
“So I am to go into this marriage knowing that my husband’s family already disapproves of me! I know this is occasionally the case; Caroline Bingley certainly did not approve her brother’s choice of Jane, but the two do not normally live together. Will your mother live with us?”
“I believe she has an estate that was part of the marriage settlements,” Mr. Darcy said, uncertainly.
“You sound hesitant; but that is the normal course of events, is it not? The master of the estate marries and the mother goes to live elsewhere, if that is possible?”
“It is the normal course of events, yes.”
“Yet you are not sanguine; I hear it in your voice.”
“She has not been herself since my father passed on.”
“I see; how long ago was that?”
“Three years.”
“I am sorry for it, of course.” Elizabeth did not know how to say that three years was long enough for a woman to accustom herself to widowhood.
“Elizabeth, I will do everything in my power to be a good husband to you.”
“William, you quoted Genesis when you spoke with my sister Mary about Eve being created from Adam’s side. Now allow me to quote Genesis as well:Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
“That is absolutely my intention,” Mr. Darcy vowed.
***
“He is betrothed, Caroline.”
