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“Well, he seemed to be doing fairly well just a moment ago!” Lady Catherine spluttered.

Lying behind her on the pillows, Darcy kissed the back of Elizabeth’s neck. She smelled so sweet, like honey and musk. He heartily wished his relatives would disappear so that he could be alone with his wife.

“Come away now, Catherine, and leave the young people alone!” said the earl. “Has not Darcy suffered enough? Come! You will be hard-pressed to make Kent before sundown at this rate, and you know how you hate travelling in the darkness...”

Lady Catherine vented her frustration with an animal-like shriek but deigned to allow her brother to escort her downstairs.

With relief, Darcy heard the footsteps retreat.

“I am so sorry for that indignity, my love!” he murmured to Elizabeth. “I had hoped her sensibilities would prevent Aunt from entering the room. Clearly, I was mistaken! But it is better that she made a scene up here rather than in front of your relatives. Hopefully my uncle can whisk her out the door before she offends anyone else!”

Lizzy twisted round in his arms to kiss Darcy’s nose before settling comfortably on the pillows beside him. Feeling her shift, Darcy hugged her tightly, nuzzling her ear. When he finally released her, she gave a nervous laugh. Before she could stop herself, hysterical laughter burst from her mouth as from a broken pipe.

Aghast, Darcy stroked her arm to calm her. “Hush, hush, it’s over. Are you all right?” he asked with concern.

But Lizzy was not overset in the manner Darcy imagined. “How medieval!” she crowed, trying to get herself under control.

Seeing the comical side, Darcy burst into a full-throated laugh too, glad she had not been offended by his aunt’s inexcusable behaviour or the unorthodox means he had adopted to outwit her. Grateful, he hugged Elizabeth tightly again, enveloping her in his strong musky scent.

“Well,” said Elizabeth, pecking him on the cheek once more as she ran her fingertips along his jaw, “I suppose we should preserve the fiction to our guests that you retired because you were fatigued. Would you like me to read to you?”

“I would like that very much!” said Darcy, reluctantly allowing her to climb out of the bed.

Having noticed Lizzy and Darcy disappear, the remainder of the guests had enjoyed Georgie’s piano recital for an hour. After the clergyman who had performed the ceremony bid them a polite goodbye, the Gardiners decided they had best return to Gracechurch Street. When they enquired discreetly of the colonel whether their niece would be accompanying them home, he invited them upstairs as Finn had quietly bade him do, when it was convenient. The whole party then trooped up to Darcy’s bedchamber.

They arrived to find the master in bed in an enviable dressing gown. Beside him on a chair sat Lizzy, still looking immaculate in her wedding gown, reading the end of Sense and Sensibility. Finn had cleverly repaired the slight damage that had been done to her coiffure during her adventure. Mr and Mrs Gardiner exchanged amused glances while Jane stared round at the elegant furnishings of Darcy’s bedchamber.

“Mr and Mrs Gardiner,” said Darcy after Finn announced them. “I wanted to thank you for the exercise machine. Richard tells me it is a sight to behold!”

“Indeed, my wife insisted on tying a cream-coloured ribbon to it!” joked Mr Gardiner modestly.

“If you have time tomorrow, I would be honoured if you would induct me into its use.”

“It is much the same in principle as the other, but if you are inviting me, I will not hesitate to puff off some improvements I have made.”

“Excellent! Perhaps you could all join me after church for lunch?”

Thus, it was decided that all the Gardiners, even little Timmy, should return for lunch the next day. Mrs Gardiner worried about the presence of her children in the saloon, which was decorated with so many expensive objects. But the four young ladies, not having any children of their own, insisted they could keep the youngsters well in hand, something Mrs Gardiner seriously doubted.

After a prolonged farewell, Darcy sadly bid goodbye to Elizabeth, thinking that her presence the next day could not come too soon. He had reluctantly agreed when Elizabeth suggested they continue to live separately until after Mary’s marriage. But before Darcy could subside onto the pillows in melancholy, Georgie and Brunhilda returned from seeing the carriage off, demanding the story of Aunt Catherine’s intrusion.

“I do not think the Gardiners noticed when Aunt poked her head into the saloon,” said Georgie. “I swear I held my breath until she disappeared again. I had just finished Quasi una fantasia when I heard her shriek upstairs and quickly started Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to cover it.”

“Good Lord, Georgie!” laughed Fitzwilliam. “Beethoven’s Fifth at a wedding party! What must the Gardiners think?”

“Nonsense!” said Hildie. “Well done, Georgie! I do not think they suspected a thing! They merely thought you an admirer of Herr Beethoven!”

Brunhilda then demanded a full explanation of the events, which her betrothed duly supplied, slapping his thigh as he explained Darcy’s stratagem. Darcy was dismayed, having hoped to keep the worst of the imbroglio from his little sister’s ears. But when Georgie burst out giggling as Richard described dragging his resisting aunt out of the room as if she had been a wax statue in Madame Tussaud’s museum, Darcy relaxed and laughed also.

The champagne and the remainder of the croquembouche were transported upstairs by the servants. The celebration continued into the night before Georgie saw her brother’s eyes drooping from fatigue. Feigning a yawn that soon turned into a real one, she suggested they all seek their beds. Darcy was given little time to dwell on the melancholy of spending his wedding night without Elizabeth.

On the way home to Cheapside, the Gardiners discussed the merits of French wedding cake and the appropriateness of loud symphonies to wedding celebrations regardless of the merits of the pianist. Jane thought wistfully of the fine furniture and genteel interior of Mr Darcy’s townhouse while Lizzy daydreamed of her husband’s chest.

Chapter 48: A night at the opera

After the excitement of her wedding, Lizzy spent a disturbed night, particularly overwhelmed by the events of the faux consummation of her marriage. The physical sensations of seeing her husband half-naked, having his weight upon her and whispering in her ear had elicited such strong reactions; it had scared her. At the time she had scrambled from his bed Lizzy had told herself it was simply the rational thing to do after their close encounter with Darcy’s Aunt Catherine. She had been so relieved that his aunt had gone away, taking Mr Collins with her. Lizzy had heard her cousin berating the colonel in the hallway. She could only be glad she had avoided the shame of being discovered in Mr Darcy’s bed when she should have been in Hertfordshire. Reading to her husband afterwards, so calming and familiar, had been like a balm to her.

But her dreams had laid bare Lizzy’s anxieties. She was woken in the morning by Jane, having been chased through the Darcy townhouse half the night by her cousin who demanded that she marry him. In a bizarre encounter in the study, Mr Collins had even threatened to take off his shirt. Somehow, she had evaded him. But as she fled down the stairs in the darkness to the cold chequered floor of the vestibule, another figure approached her. In the dimness she recognised her husband walking towards her, a moonbeam illuminating his chin and pale chest. He was naked and beautiful, and when his arms twined round her Lizzy knew that the two kisses she had previously shared with him had been just the beginning...