“Mama,” Elizabeth protested. “Mr. Darcy can hardly be interested in the health of our cook’s assistant!”
Mr. Darcy smiled at her. “I am interested in anything that has to do withyou, Elizabeth.”
“Oh, very well-spoken!” Mrs. Bennet cried. “Very well indeed!” Then she leaned forward, her eyes intent on his face. “Are there any special guests coming to the wedding?”
He would not pretend to mistake her meaning. “The Earl and Countess of Matlock will attend; they will stay at Netherfield.”
Mrs. Bennet was overjoyed. “Oh, my! This is beyond anything I ever imagined!”
The two younger girls tittered, but Mary was paying no attention to any of the goings-on around her, and was – as usual – intent on her book.
“Miss Mary, I see you are reading again. Dare I hope that you have abandoned the Reverend Fordyce?”
“I have heeded your counsel, Mr. Darcy.” She showed him her book.
“Ah!A Vindication of the Rights of Woman! And what think you, Miss Mary?”
She frowned in puzzlement. “Everything she writes makes so much sense, but I cannot help feeling that her beliefs are in direct contradiction to the word of our Lord.”
“That is likely a result of you encountering Fordyce first. Imagine, now, that you had read Miss Wollstonecraft first, and then picked up the Reverend’s work. What would you think then?”
She considered it, brow creased, and then looked up at him, her face open and smiling. “Why, I would think his work to be the veriest nonsense! How very clever you are, Mr. Darcy!”
“We are to be brother and sister; I hope you will call me William,” he said, colouring at her praise, and thinking that she was not so plain after all.
“Very well; then I am Mary,” she replied, shyly.
“And I am Kitty!” came another voice.
“And I am Lydia!” said yet another.
“And you may call me Bennet,” a deep voice from the doorway said, with amusement.
Mr. Darcy rose to his feet. “Bennet, I have documents for you to review. And perhaps, after that, Elizabeth and I might walk together in the garden?”
***
Mr. Darcy had been exceedingly generous with his betrothed, so there was little to do in the study except to assure Bennet of his ability to afford such pin money, dowries and inheritances. Thus, it was not long before he found himself in the garden with Elizabeth on his arm.
“Did you miss me?” she asked, shyly.
“Every moment of every day,” he vowed. “Dare I hope that you missed me as well?”
She assured him that she had, saying, “I have come to quite depend on your daily visits, William.”
“Soon we will be living together, not visiting!”
“It seems strange, does it not?” she asked.
“To be living together?”
“Well, yes. But, truly, the whole system is strange. We women spend our girlhoods in our parents’ homes, if we are fortunate enough to have both parents and homes, and then we are suddenly uprooted and moved far away to spend the remainder of our lives elsewhere, living far from our family.”
“Of course, many ladies marry quite close to home; you are simply unfortunate in your choice of husband.” His voice was teasing, but there was a note of questioning in it. Would she be unhappy far away from Hertfordshire?
She stopped him then, slipped her hands into his and said, softly, “I cannot imagine beingmorefortunate in my choice of husband, William.”
He kissed her then, softly, as he had been yearning to do for so long. She met his lips with her own, increasing the pressure. He pulled her body close to his, groaning into her mouth. But far too soon, he pulled himself away, trying unsuccessfully to control his rapid breath. “Soon, my beloved,” he whispered to her. “Soon…”
