"There," she said, stepping back with satisfaction. "I believe we have done all we can."
Jane joined her sister at the window. "Are you happy?"
Elizabeth smiled. "Very."
Jane slipped her arm through hers. "I never imagined we should be married together."
"Nor I. If somebody had told me a few weeks ago that I should marry Fitzwilliam Darcy, I should have laughed in their face."
"And now?"
Elizabeth looked down at the gardens where they had played together as children. "Now I cannot imagine marrying anybody else."
???
Darcy had attended enough weddings to know that grooms were expected to wear a particular expression. It was one hehad often observed in other men—a look of absent-minded happiness, as though they had ceased to notice the congregation entirely. He had always supposed it an indulgence of romantic excess, assumed for the benefit of admiring relations and sentimental ladies.
He now owed every one of those gentlemen an apology.
Colonel Fitzwilliam had been speaking to him only moments before, offering some cheerful observation which, under ordinary circumstances, Darcy would certainly have answered. Bingley had asked a question about the order of the service. Somewhere behind them the church continued to fill with neighbours and acquaintances, the low murmur of conversation echoing gently beneath the ancient stone roof.
Darcy heard none of it. His eyes remained fixed upon the church door.
"Darcy."
He did not answer.
Fitzwilliam tried again. "Darcy."
"Hmm?"
"I merely wished to discover whether you had abandoned the power of speech altogether, or whether you intended to recover it before the vows."
Darcy glanced sideways. "I beg your pardon."
"There is no need. I have been amusing myself by conducting both sides of the conversation."
Bingley, who had spent the last several minutes attempting to smooth a crease from one glove with very little success, looked anxiously between them.
"Do you suppose they have been delayed?"
Fitzwilliam smiled. "My dear Bingley, there are two brides, one Mrs Bennet and at least three younger sisters involved in the proceedings. I should think punctuality would be nothing short of miraculous."
Bingley appeared to consider this. "Yes," he admitted. "I believe you are right."
The colonel looked back at Darcy. "You see? Between the two of you, I feel positively composed."
Darcy's mouth twitched despite himself. Before Fitzwilliam could continue, the quiet murmur that filled the church changed to hushed expectation. Conversations faltered, heads turned towards the west door and then, quite naturally, silence spread through the congregation.
Darcy's heart gave one extraordinary, painful beat. The doors had opened and the organ began.
Mr Bennet entered first, Jane upon one arm and Elizabeth upon the other. Jane was, as she had always been, exceedinglylovely. Her happiness became her, softening every feature until she seemed almost luminous. Yet the moment Elizabeth met his eyes, Darcy forgot that another bride stood beside her. The whole church appeared to narrow until there was only one woman walking towards him.
Afterwards, if anybody had asked him what Elizabeth had worn that morning, he doubted he could have answered with any certainty. There had been white silk, certainly, and flowers somewhere amongst the soft curls that framed her face, but those were details that scarcely seemed to matter.
He saw only Elizabeth. Her eyes were bright with happiness and her cheeks glowed with a colour that no London jeweller nor Paris dressmaker could ever hope to improve upon. She smiled as though there were nobody else in the church but the two of them, and he felt in his soul that he had never before understood what beauty truly was.
Years would alter them both. Time would silver her hair as surely as it would his own, laughter would leave its gentle traces about her eyes and life would change them in a hundred ways neither of them could yet imagine. It did not matter. However many years were granted to him, however the world might alter around them, he knew with complete certainty that Elizabeth Bennet would always be the most beautiful, the most precious person he would ever behold.
