Page 72 of Mr. Darcy’s Fiery Passion

Mrs. Bennet came in still talking, with Jane and Kitty and Lydia behind her and Mary last. "Mr. Bennet! Mr. Bingley was all smiles and would tell us nothing at all. And he would not let us leave before two, though I begged..." She saw Darcy, and stopped.

"My dear," said Mr. Bennet, "Mr. Darcy has asked Lizzy to marry him. I have given my consent. And Lizzy, I am told, has given hers."

There was a terrible silence.

Mrs. Bennet put a hand to her brow. She swayed, very slowly, to the left. "Hill," she said faintly. "Hill, I am going to swoon. Kitty, my salts. I am going to swoon this instant."

Kitty fumbled in her reticule.

Mrs. Bennet put out a hand to the newel post and swayed back to the right. She did not swoon. "Good gracious! Lord bless me!" she cried. "Only think! Dear me! Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it? Ten thousand a year, and very likely more! Oh, Lizzy! A house in town!"

"Mama," said Elizabeth.

"And a special license! You must and shall be married by a special license!"

"A common license will do, ma'am," said Darcy. "If you will allow it. I go up to town for it tomorrow. I hoped we might be married on the nineteenth, at the same service as Miss Bennet and Bingley."

Mrs. Bennet stared at him. Then she let go of the newel post. "Two daughters," she said, in a voice of reverence. "Married in one morning. Mrs. Long will never get over it." She turned on her husband. "Mr. Bennet, you must write to my brother Gardiner this very night. They must come down early this year, and stay through Christmas."

Jane had not said a word. She came past her mother and took Elizabeth's hands, and held them tight. She was crying. So was Elizabeth.

Darcy stayed to dinner. Mrs. Bennet put him on her right and helped him to every dish on the table. He cut his own meat. Elizabeth watched him do it from across the table, and he caught her watching.

It was dark when he left for Netherfield. His horse stood at the foot of the step with the lantern on the saddle. Jane lingered in the hall, very slowly, over her shawl. She went into the drawing room and shut the door behind her.

Elizabeth stood with him on the step in the cold.

He took her hand and pulled off her glove, and then his own. He held her bare hand in his. "Nine days," he said.

"Eight," said Elizabeth, "if you count tonight."

20

"Hold still, Lizzy," said Jane. "I cannot get the last pin in if you keep turning round."

"I am not turning round. I am looking at you."

Jane laughed and set the last pin. She turned her sister to the glass by the shoulders, and they stood and looked at themselves by candlelight.

Aunt Gardiner had done their hair an hour before. The Gardiners had come down from Gracechurch Street on Tuesday, a week ahead of their usual Christmas visit. They had brought all four children. Elizabeth's aunt had taken one look at the household and quietly taken charge of the brides.

It was not yet eight, and still dark outside. They were both in their best. Jane wore lilac silk, new for the day. Elizabeth's gown was pale blue, made up in a week by the Meryton dressmaker. Jane looked serene. Elizabeth looked tired, and she was. She had lain awake half the night, listening to the new roof creak in the frost.

Below them the house was in uproar already. The wedding was at nine, but the breakfast was at eleven, and the breakfast was what mattered. Mrs. Bennet had been up since five with Hill and the cook. Half the neighborhood was coming to eat it.

She had not quite forgiven Mr. Darcy for the common license. A special license would have let her girls marry in her own new drawing room.

Elizabeth walked to church.

It was not far, only across the lane and up the path under the yews. The sky was going gray over the fields. Her mother wanted the carriage. Elizabeth walked on her own two feet in her new half boots. She had left the crutch leaning in the corner of her room. She never expected to see it again.

The church was cold and almost empty. Only the families were there, the Gardiners among them, with the Lucases and the Phillipses. Charlotte gave Elizabeth a small, sly smile from the second pew.

Darcy stood at the front beside Bingley. Georgiana sat in the front pew with Mrs. Annesley, very straight and very pink. She had come down two days before and was to stay at Longbourn through Christmas. Mrs. Bennet had insisted.

Mr. Bennet gave both his daughters away, one on each arm. Halfway up the aisle he bent his head to Elizabeth's ear. "I have had a very trying week," he said. "Your mother has wept eleven times. I have counted."

"Papa. Hush."