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“No, we mostly toured the working area of the house downstairs.”
“Will you permit me to show it to you now?”
By this Jane understood they were to end up in his bed rather than hers. She felt curiously giddy when she breathed her acceptance.
His room was very masculine, full of wood and leather. The furniture was practical but not unhandsome. Jane fancied she might even be upon a ship. Thorne laughed when she said so because his room was rather large—certainly nothing like a cramped captain’s cabin—but he understood the allusion. He waltzed Jane backwards to the bed, stripping off his coat as he went. Removing Jane’s gown, he encouraged her to sit on the edge of the mattress while he divested himself of his waistcoat before removing her slippers and stockings. Thus, it continued—something of hers, something of his—with Thorne doing all the work and Jane watching him with glassy eyes as his hands touched alternately her and himself. When at last he encouraged her to lie full length upon the bed, he suspended himself over her on his palms, then slowly descended so they were skin to skin.
The bed smelt deliciously of him. Jane felt her heart skip a beat as his manhood poked into her belly and she wriggled upwards to align themselves better. His bed was much sturdier than hers and they enjoyed a rough tumble without the bedhead hitting the wall a single time. Thus was a pattern set for their marriage: he was rough in his bed and gentler in hers; and if she was feeling a little delicate for whatever reason, she only had to suggest she would like to sleep in her room that night for him to understand.
Thorne left in the morning at eight. Once he had bid her goodbye, Jane gratefully donned the dressing gown he loaned her to creep back to her own room. Hendy was patiently waiting for her, sewing by the light of the skylight in the dressing room.
Jane was not the type of person who enjoyed her own company, even for half a day, so she was looking forward to her sister’s visit. When Thorne arrived home for a late lunch, he revealed his plans for the Darcys’ entertainment, brandishing tickets for a recital that night and the key to a box at the Theatre Royal, which a business associate had loaned him for the performance on the morrow. All day, Jane waited in joyful anticipation for her sister’s advent. But when the Darcys had still not arrived an hour and a half before the performance, Jane reluctantly conceded that Lizzy might have been delayed—possibly having decided to take an extra day on the journey for Darcy’s sake. Disappointed, she went upstairs to dress.
Hendy had just added the finishing touches to her coiffure, which included the aquamarine comb, when Jane heard a carriage enter the square and jumped up to run to the window. She was excited to see the belated arrival of the Darcy carriage. She ran down the stairs to greet them.
Chapter 59: Adventures in geometry
“Jane!” cried Lizzy as she stepped briskly from the carriage to hug her sister. “I am so sorry we are late! We came upon an accommodation coach that had just overturned near Keynsham and stopped to render what assistance we could.”
Behind her, Darcy stepped deftly from the coach wearing his rose-pink glasses before feeling for the front doorsteps with his cane.
“Oh, dear!” cried Jane. “Was anyone hurt?”
“The horses had the worst of it,” said Lizzy. “Finn had to shoot one with a broken back and another with a broken leg.”
“Heavens! Was it a shattered wheel?”
“No, the coachman drove it into the ditch at the side of the road! Both he and the guard was as drunk as wheelbarrows.”
“Shameful! They ought to be turned off!”
“No doubt they will be! But Darcy was a real hero, getting the other horses under control!”
“My dear!” said Darcy dismissively. “My grooms got the horses under control. I merely held them while they were untangled from the traces.”
“To be sure, the grooms got them by their reins, but you were the one who calmed them down! I could see the whites of their eyes before you started talking to them.”
Darcy smiled and shook his head at what he perceived to be an undeserved compliment. His modesty could not endure any more; he found Lizzy’s arm, followed it to her wrist, and gave her glove a squeeze in a plea to silence her.
“Darcy and the grooms led the other horses up the road so they would not be spooked when the two badly injured ones were shot,” said Lizzy, determined to give the story its due.
“Oh dear!” cried Jane. “And the passengers, were they much hurt?”
“A boy was knocked unconscious and there were a few other cuts and bruises. I tore up one of my chemises to bind a man’s hand that had been cut by glass. We took the boy and his mother up in the carriage to Keynsham. The boy revived on the journey and we merely left him in the care of the local physician, much to his mother’s protests.”
“Was she overset by his injuries?”
“No, quite the opposite! She did not want to pay for the doctor once she saw her son could speak! But Darcy took care of all,” she said, giving an admiring glance at her husband.
When Thorne belatedly descended the stairs to greet his guests, he hailed Darcy and they shook hands. “Jane and I had hoped to take you to a recital tonight, but it sounds as if you had a harrowing journey. No matter. We can still attend the opera tomorrow if you will.”
“Have we made you late for the recital?” asked Darcy.
“Do not think of it. I merely got the tickets for your enjoyment. There will be another next week, should you care to attend. I’m sure Jane would rather sit down to dinner with her sister,” said Thorne.
“Oh, no!” said Lizzy. “I would not deny you or Jane any pleasure in your honeymoon for anything! Is there still time? I assure you, I can be ready in a trice!”
Thorne looked at Darcy for his opinion and as he was merely smiling at his wife, took this as acquiescence. “We had hoped to set out within the next half-hour. Having not been to many of these recitals, I cannot recall if they bar late entries until the interval. Our seats are near the front.”
