Just a little one-shot for a change :)

It was Christmas Eve and Elizabeth had drifted off into a deep sleep, whilst waiting for her husband to come to her. She knew that he would be quite a while, as he had mentioned his desire to shave and understood this took a ridiculous amount of time, to ensure his side whiskers were trimmed to an inch of their lives and symmetrical upon his face. She chuckled to herself when she remembered the time that the valet was urged to make haste and William ended up with odd whiskers and was not aware of it until after he had taken tea with Lady Catherine.

As she was about to start a wonderful dream, she was awoken by his gentle beckoning. "Darling, wake up. I am sorry I was so long. I know you do not like the roughness of my face, if I do not shave before hand."

"No, that is fine, William. I am a little tired, but not too much so that I cannot make love to my husband," she smiled sweetly.

"Good, for I have been wanting you since we sat down to dinner. The dress you wore tonight was rather lovely, I must commend you on your taste in fashion as well as being conscious of what a man desires in a wife."

As she lay there gazing into his soft loving face, she felt his hand moved to the hem of her night dress. "Will you raise your hem for me, my love?" he asked, "In fact, take the garment off, for I want to see you in all your glory. You know how much I love to see my wife's swollen belly," he said as he kissed her stomach.

"Oh William, I am sure it is a boy, I can tell."

"How so?"

"He does kick and punch so, as though he is having a fight," she laughed.

"So our child will be a fighter? I do not know if I agree with that, but I do agree that it would be wonderful to have a boy. A girl is fine, but we want at least one boy. I am sure you can do better than your mother."

"Yes, she was not very successful with her duties, but you would not wish her to have all boys, for I would not be here in your bed, if she did."

"No, I can at least thank her for that. Now, my darling, turn to face away from me," he bid as he moved to spoon her from behind.

Elizabeth turned to face away and she felt him enter her from behind. His hand came around her body and he started to play with her wet soft folds, where he titillated her swollen pearl. The presence of her belly made it almost impossible for William to make love to her in the usual position, he longed to gaze into her eyes as he moved within her, but for the time being, he had to be satisfied with holding her close and nibbling at her ear and once he had finished, Elizabeth fell to sleep in his arms. William, however, made it a temporary rule to return to his bed, in case he rolled on top of her in his sleep and squashed the baby.

As dawn broke over the horizon, Elizabeth woke. She gazed over to the empty side of the bed and sighed her frustration. She knew that William had taken to returning to his bedchambers for a good reason, but it did not help her cold feet, for she surely wished to warm them on him. Just as she was about to get up to call for a maid to stoke the fire, he came into the room. "Ah, you are awake. Good," he grinned as he jumped into bed and as soon as his naked body made contact with hers, she let out a trembling shudder. "You are cold, let me warm you," he said as he rubbed her bosom with his palm. "Did you sleep well, my darling?"

"Yes, very. I have just been lying here thinking of how our engagement was so quick. A month in full, between proposal and the marriage bed. Now eight months later, look at me!"

"Yes, I am looking at you," he breathed heavily with lust.

"I feel very satisfied that you will cater for mother and my sisters, when papa dies. I did wonder if you would see that they are well looked after."

"I said I would, did I not?"

"Yes, of course William, and I am thankful to you."

"I am glad to hear that Mrs Collins, now where was I?" he said as he proceeded to suckle on her engorged bosoms.

Elizabeth lay back and allowed her husband to take his pleasures once more. She was surprised at how the parson of little stature was able to be such a wonderful lover, for there had not been a day that he did not pleasure her in some way.

Darcy woke up in a panic. His head automatically turned to his wife's side of the bed and noticed she was not there. The lavender scent that was so familiar to him did not fill the air and as he bent down to smell her pillow, he could not detect any trace of the flowery fragrance, nor her womanly scent. "No! It cannot be, surely I am married?" he cried out in frustration. He had knowledge of her body, surely that was her body and not something he had conjured up in his mind? He knew that he was married, for he had laid with her for the previous eight months after they wed the previous May. He tried to picture her small freckles upon her thigh, the small marks set a trail, where he would kiss before coming to her core. There he would take delight in pleasuring her, but in his hazy state of confusion, he could not remember any of it. "Why can I not remember, I must remember, I must remember," he chanted as he got up from the bed to pace the room. "Surely she is Mrs Fitzwilliam Darcy and not Mrs William Collins."

As he walked back and forth, trying to clear his head, he heard a familiar sweet voice coming from the dressing room. "Lizzy!" he cried out as he run to her. On entering, he saw his wife laying in the bathtub, singing a sweet song that she had heard at the opera a few days previous. He sighed a deep breath of relief and walked towards her and took a seat on the edge of the bathtub. He gazed down at her belly, indeed it was full, as she only had another month to go. "There you are darling, I had the most horrific dream, you were married to that idiot, Mr Collins."

"I still am," she laughed as she sat there smiling up at him. As Darcy tried to come to terms with what she had said, Mr Collins appeared from under the water and spat out a mouth full of bath water, as though he was a fountain. "Ha, she is mine. I got there first, Mr Darcy!" he boasted.

"No! What the hell is going on? This cannot be!" he cried, as he got up and walked backwards towards the door with his head in his hands. He thought he was going mad, would he have to be committed to Bedlam? He shook himself, hoping that he could shake the reality from his mind and continue to live in his dream of being with the one woman he had ever loved. "No!" he cried once more on seeing Mr Collins move closer to his wife… No! Mr Collins wife?!

"William! Wake up!" a soft, but firm voice called.

"What!" Darcy gasped as he sat bolt upright in bed.

"Lizzy? Are you real this time?"

"Whatever do you mean, of course I am real," she laughed.

"There is no Mr Collins hiding under the bed, or in our bathtub?" he urged as he went to bend over the edge of the bed to take a look.

"Mr Collins? Why would he be here, William? Are you ill?"

"No, I need to make sure he is not under the bed," he said, as he tried to untangle himself from the sheets that had wrapped around him during his nightmare. "God, this is so annoying, why so many sheets on the bed?" He managed to scramble out of the tangled mass of bedding and onto his knees in order to look under the piece of furniture.

"I do not know what you are thinking, but Mr Collins is probably wrapped up in bed with Mrs Collins."

"And that is not you?"

"William?" she sighed, "I take it you have had rather a bad dream. Charlotte is Mrs Collins and I am your wife," she smiled.

As he breathed out his relief once more, he gazed up at his wife's belly, for it was not fully swollen and ready for delivering the next heir. "No baby?" he sighed as he sat down on the edge of the mattress, the sadness did not go amiss on Elizabeth.

She sat there stunned. Why had he asked if there was no baby? She had yet to tell him of her condition, but thought he would have already guessed that she was with child. She was sure now as she had felt it quicken the day before, so she was able to put his mind at rest, "Darling, there is a baby, it will be here in the spring," she grinned.

"Oh Lizzy, that is wonderful news," he declared.

"So it seems you had a nightmare, was I really Mrs Collins?" she frowned, "Oh Lord, what an awful thing to dream about."

"I think I guessed a while ago that you may be with child, but was waiting patiently for you to tell me. I suppose it just played on my mind and it ended up being a nightmare with you having Mr Collins love-child." He shuddered on recollection of that man's hands on his wife's body. "I do not know if I can ever look that man in the eye again."

"You will have to, for are we not travelling to Rosings next week," she laughed.

"Dear lord, give me strength!"

:D