As some have requested it, I have tagged the original story at the end. This has not been altered in anyway from what was previously on here, so all grammatical errors and whatnot remain.
Title: Bewitched and Beguiled - COMPLETE
Category: Books » Pride and Prejudice
Author: PP-FSOG-DJC
Language: English, Rating: Rated: M
Genre: Romance/General
Published: 12-31-15, Updated: 02-14-16
Chapters: 22, Words: 51,024
Chapter 1: Childhood
Destiny is a matter of choice, but also a matter of chance. It can be of our choosing that we wish to go along that certain path, or it can be forced upon us. Even the smallest things that are out of our control can change the course of lives of those around us.
1796, was such a year of great change. Mr Bennet had been a widower for five years following the passing of his most beloved wife, who had died giving him his second child.
He knew that he would not marry again, they had been deliriously happy during their four years of marriage and knew that he could not bring himself to love another as he had his beloved Blossom. His marriage had been fortunate that it was one of a love match and did not want to taint her memory by getting a replacement. Having already lost one child to a fatal illness and then losing his wife two years later, Mr Bennet poured the remainder of his affections into the sole remaining member of his family, his baby daughter, Elizabeth.
He had come to terms quite early on that his home at Longbourn would pass to his nephew, Mr Collins. Even though he was supposedly a man of the cloth, he had a reputation for being ill-natured and crabby. The terms of the entailment saw that the estate and contents of his home would pass down through the male members of the family, meaning Elizabeth would be made homeless on his demise.
Mr Bennet was becoming increasing unsettled, knowing that any money he ploughed into the estate would benefit his cousin more than himself, as new initiatives instigated now would only become profitable in years to come, long after he had gone. He therefore decided that whilst his steward could oversee the estate for a few months, he would take a tour of the countryside with his daughter.
Making his way up to her bed chambers where she was playing with her toys, Mr Bennet asked, "Sweetheart, would you like to go on an adventure with me? I think we are in need of a trip."
Elizabeth looked up from her toys and answered in the affirmative and queried if Mrs Hill, the housekeeper, was to accompany them, or her friend, Charlotte Lucas. Her father responded, "No, I don't think Mrs Hill will be needed, we will stay in a special place during our trip called an Inn, they have servants there already, Mrs Hill can stay behind and look after Mr Hill as he will not know what to do with himself in her absence. Regards to Charlotte, I think her mama and papa need her at home and she cannot take time away from her studies, her governess will not allow it."
Elizabeth furrowed her brow in deep thought and then chirped, "When do we go? Can we go now?"
She was all excitement, she proceeded to get all her clothes and toys out of the closet in anticipation to pack. To Mr Bennet's amusement, this included her special jar she used to keep insects in when she ventured out onto the estate.
Mr Bennet chuckled to himself as he observed his child scampering about the room looking for things to take, he didn't wish to but had to stop her before she had the whole room in chaos, "Do not be too eager Lizzy, we have yet to get the trunks sorted out, we can go on the morrow, after breaking fast. I suggest we write a note to Lucas Lodge to let Charlotte know you will be going on vacation for a few weeks."
With that Elizabeth smiled, grabbed her skipping rope and went into the garden, leaving Mrs Hill to tidy her things away again and her father to write the note to the Lucases.
It was early morning, about six weeks into their excursion and whilst touring the neighbourhood of Derbyshire that they came upon a group of highwaymen on a secluded road in the woods. A large imposing carriage stood about two hundred yards in front of them, the highwaymen had stopped it to lighten it of all the fineries that were on board.
Mr Bennet was outraged at seeing this, their carriage had already pulled over out of sight some distance from the vehicle in front and he stepped out to assist. He turned to Elizabeth who was still in the carriage and whispered, "Elizabeth, I am just going to get out for a while, please can you get under the seat and pull these blankets over you, don't make a peep."
"Why papa?" Elizabeth questioned in the same whispered tone, "Is this a game?"
"Yes Lizzy, it's a sort of game of hide and seek, but you must hide and do your best not to be discovered, I will be back shortly."
With that, Mr Bennet left the vehicle instructing his driver to remain and keep the horses quiet and ensure Elizabeth did not leave the confines of the carriage. He cautiously made his way towards the group ahead of him and pulled out his pistol, which he had recently taken to carrying. Aiming for one of the villains, he took a shot, but as he was getting old and his eyesight was failing, he missed and it ricochetted off of a tree nearby. The blackguard's horse was startled and the highwayman, in a panic, took a shot back at him and fled along with his associates back into the woods. Luckily, the horse had been thrashing around so much that the aim was poor and Mr Bennet was left, collapsed on the ground with a bullet to his leg.
The owner of the imposing carriage was a Gentleman, owner of the Pemberley Estate in Derbyshire. Mr George Darcy was a proud but pleasant sort of man, having recently been widowed himself and left to bring up his two children, Fitzwilliam who was thirteen and Georgiana who was but one years old. His wife had passed away six months previous of influenza, she had become weak after a difficult pregnancy with Georgiana and was unable to fight off the virus.
As soon as the highwaymen were out of sight, Mr Darcy, after ensuring his son was left in the charge of a man servant, sprung from his seat and went to assist his rescuer. Mr Bennet was at this point rolling around on the floor in agony, the coachmen were rallying around after him, worried for his safety. "Sir... Mr Darcy, you must return to the carriage, it's not safe out here, they could still be lurking in the trees and come back out when you are in such a vulnerable state."
Mr Darcy was truly annoyed at the servants trying to get him to return to the carriage, he snapped back at them, "By Jove man! Get off me, can you not see he has taken a bullet for us, help me get him to his carriage so we can see the extent of his injuries."
They helped poor Mr Bennet back to his small carriage and upon opening the door they heard a little cry coming from a bundle of blankets in the corner. Mr Darcy pulled away at them to reveal a little brown eyed angel with a head full of mahogany ringlets. Seeing the surprised look on the gentleman's face, Mr Bennet made the introduction, "That is my Daughter, Elizabeth, we were touring the area when we happen to come upon you."
Seeing that Mr Bennet was conscious and that the wound seemed only to be a flesh wound, Mr Darcy suggested they return to his home and seek assistance, "Sir, as you are injured and in need a physician, I urge you and your daughter to accompany me to my home, which is some four miles away, it is the least I can do for you."
Mr Bennet agreed to this, "I think that would be best, for I cannot continue on the road as I am and my daughter is somewhat distressed over the whole incident, although I do think it's seeing her papa in such a state that is the main culprit of her emotional well being. Not to worry, my angel, papa will be fine."
Mr Darcy and his servant made Mr Bennet comfortable on the forward facing seat and instructed his driver to follow them. He returned to his carriage, where the elder of his two children sat, frozen in place from the earlier incident, "There, there Fitzwilliam, all the bad men are gone and we are now set for home, Mrs Reynolds will be wondering where we are. I will arrange for some strawberries to be collected from the hot houses so you can have a special treat for being so brave today," he said calmly in an attempt to sooth his son.
"Thank you papa, is the man in the carriage behind all right? It is fortunate he was here when the highwaymen stopped us and that he had a pistol. Those things are loud! Can I have one for my birthday?" Fitzwilliam asked, ever hopeful his father would relent and allow him one.
Mr Darcy shook his head, "I don't think so Fitzwilliam, maybe when you turn sixteen you can have a hunting rifle and only under strict supervision will you be allowed to use it."
Once settled at Pemberley, the physician arrived and saw to Mr Bennet's wound. He cleaned, stitched and dressed his leg the best he could and advised, "You are lucky Sir, the bullet went in through one side of your calf and out the other without hitting any of your bones. This will make for a speedier recovery and will not have any lasting effects."
Mr Bennet sighed in relief, he inquired how long he needed to convalesce. The Physician responded, "I would say about a month in full, but the first two weeks of that I do not want to see you exert yourself whatsoever and I highly recommend bed rest. I have left you some Laudanum to ease the pain, I will return in a fortnight to remove the stitches but will instruct the housekeeper that the wound will need cleaning and dressings changed daily."
With that the doctor left, Elizabeth was then brought into his chambers to see him, Mr Bennet requested that a separate cot be brought in for his daughter. After this recent incident he did not want her out of his sight.
That summer, George Wickham, the son of Mr Darcy's steward had recently been orphaned as his father had passed away. As Mr Darcy agreed to be the boy's godfather, he had contemplated on bringing him to stay at Pemberley. However, due to the unforeseen arrival of his now ensconced guests, he decided that boarding school would be more beneficial and as the boy was already fifteen years old he felt that a couple of years education would do him the world of good, after which, he would give him a few hundred pounds and send him on his way. Elizabeth never met the boy and Fitzwilliam was little moved by the quick decision to send him off, the two boys paths had only crossed a few times and no real friendship had occurred.
It took the entirety of the summer for Mr Bennet to regain full use of his leg as age had slowed down the healing process, somewhat. During that time, Elizabeth had become firm friends with Fitzwilliam, even though there was an age gap. Fitzwilliam bonded with her as a great friend for outdoor adventures and though she was an angelic creature, she loved to roam the parks and woods around the estate, climbing trees and frog spotting was a common pastime whilst at the great estate. There would be many times they both would return to the house caked in mud and covered in pond slime, thinking it all very funny.
Mr Darcy was happy to see the youngster enjoying herself and even more happy to see his son acting his age again, Fitzwilliam had been rather out of sorts since his mother had passed away and his guests were a welcome distraction for him. Elizabeth's father on the other hand was rather embarrassed at his daughter's lack of decorum, "I am so dreadfully sorry George for how my daughter is behaving. I believe it is my fault, she has not had a female role in her life to guide her and I have not checked her enough."
Mr Darcy was in good humour, "Nonsense Thomas, she is but five years old, let the child have her adventurous fun now whilst she still can, the time will come around soon enough when she will have to conform to proprieties and act accordingly. Besides, her company has done wonders for my son, who has been of late not himself."
Mr Darcy had also enjoyed Mr Bennet's company immensely. Mr Bennet and the master shared common interests and there were many an evening after the children had retired to bed that they would discuss books or politics of the day, a firm brotherly bond had formed over the weeks.
On the last week of their stay, Mr Darcy called his friend into his study. Mr Bennet could see that something was on his friend's mind, Mr Darcy had taken to pacing up and down the room, his face contorted as though he was trying to piece together a speech in his head, after a long pause he turned to Mr Bennet, "Thomas, I wish to discuss with you a matter of importance. It has come to my attention that Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth have formed some sort of alliance together. I know you told me of the entailment of your estate away from Elizabeth and wish to help out."
Mr Bennet sighed, "How so George, there is nothing that can be done, we have looked into the paperwork and it cannot be broke. If I had fathered a son, then all would have been well, but poor Mrs Bennet, god rest her soul, died giving life to my angel."
Mr Darcy looked slightly hesitant before he spoke again, "I mean to suggest a pre-arranged marriage between our two children, Fitzwilliam to marry Elizabeth and so securing her future."
Mr Bennet was startled at this proposal and requested that he would be allowed to think about it. That night Mr Bennet could not sleep, he looked at his daughter in the cot across from his own bed and thought about how her life would be like without him around, there was no-one to entrust her to when he was gone, anything could happen to her. He knew that his late wife's family may step in but there was no obligation to do so and was only an assumption that they would assist when the time came, besides, he had rarely seen them in the past few years as seeing his brother-in-law's resemblance to his late wife was too greater ordeal. The funds he had saved for Elizabeth were substantial but they were not enough to last her lifetime and eventually she would run out of money.
During the course of his sleepless night, he decided to agree to Mr Darcy's offer that their son and daughter be betrothed to each other, this would guarantee her security, however he wanted a clause to say that the final decision was Elizabeth's and she could walk away with a clear conscience.
On the morning of their departure, Elizabeth was inconsolable, she didn't want to leave Pemberley and Master Fitzwilliam. They had become close allies and vowed to write to each other. Mr Bennet gave Mr Darcy the directions of Longbourn and said that he would be returning home immediately.
Chapter 2: NEW-Lady Catherine Pays a Visit
It had been a little over a month since Mr Bennet's departure from Pemberley. Mr Darcy was in his study looking over some plans for one of the tenants properties when he heard a commotion in the vestibule. A voice that he had come to recognise and coil in dread at it's resonance had just pierced his ears. Lady Catherine de Burgh had entered the building and was demanding to see the master immediately. Oh god what does she want, Mr Darcy said as he felt his stomach sink.
Without giving the footman time to announce the visitor, she barged into the study, bringing with her a thick uneasy atmosphere.
"Where is he? Where is my brother?" she shouted, looking around as she walked into the room.
"Ah! There you are, I would appreciate it if you would favour me with some of your time. I wish to discuss a matter of great importance, it cannot be delayed."
"Yes Catherine, please sit down, is Ann not with you?"
"No, I have left her at Rosings with her governess, she does not need to bear witness to this discussion, where is Fitzwilliam?" Lady Catherine said looking about the room in displeasure.
"He is out in the grounds somewhere, probably up a tree."
"Good, then we will not be disturbed," she said as she sat down. "I have heard reports of an alarming nature that reached me this very morning that you have arrange for Fitzwilliam to be married to a country girl from Hertfordshire. I have come with the intent of having this report entirely contradicted."
Mr Darcy looked at the lady sitting before him, wide eyed and a face like thunder. Oh heck! She is not going to be pleased with what I have to say.
"Whoever told you that?" he said with a quivering voice, God! she is angry, how can I get out of this? I will have to just tell her.
"It does not matter where the information came from, but if you must know it was my pastor who advised me. Apparently he is a distant relative of this so called family you have tied your son to, so is it true or not? I insist on being satisfied that this is not the case, George."
"I am sorry to have to tell you that your pastor is correct," he flinched, closing his eyes as he put his head down waiting for the impact of her wrath.
"So you admit that this betrothal has been agreed upon! Even though you were in the knowledge that Susan and I planned our childrens' engagement from their infancy."
"I have no knowledge of this fact Catherine, other than your insistence on telling me time and time again. Susan did not divulge any details of this arrangement and I have in recent months come to the conclusion that this is a ridiculous notion, one which you have concocted. It seems coincidental that you have only repeated this on numerous occasions after Susan passed away. "
"What! I shall not endure this from you George, I expect you to revoke your words immediately!" she exclaimed, "How dare you insinuate that I have made this whole thing up, like a scheming fishwife. Now please tell me you will make things right and break with this agreement."
"I will do nothing of the kind Catherine. Fitzwilliam is my son and I shall decide what is to happen to him, not you. Even if it was such that Susan had agreed to this scheme, I would not have and as I am head of this family, my word is final. Ann is a sickly child and I doubt she would be able to give my son an heir. He needs a strong wife who will be able to give him children, you know full well that Ann has a weak heart, which she has had from birth and it cannot be fixed. I will not be swayed from my decision." Mr Darcy said with a surge of courage.
"This will not do, it cannot happen. Are you to go against the dear wishes of your late wife and her sister. The arrangement has been in place for years. I cannot, I will not accept this."
"But you have to accept it Catherine, as this is my wish. As Fitzwilliam's father I have the final decision on the matter, not you, his aunt," he insisted.
"I will not accept it, you have not heard the last of me George, I will fight you over this."
"I don't think you will Catherine, there is nothing you can do. I suggest you leave and think about what you have said and more importantly what I have said. I will not budge on my decision, Fitzwilliam is indeed betrothed to Miss Bennet and there is nothing you can do about it. I may add that if you see fit to approach the Bennet family, I will see that it is within my powers to have you committed. This is a scheme that has got out of control Catherine, it is unhealthy for you to constantly speak of this matter, I hear you have discussed this at every opportunity, to anyone who will listen, since Susan died. You need to take control of yourself before you end up with hysteria."
"I am outraged at this George, I can see no other option than to cut all ties with you and your family. It is obvious that I mean nothing to you as you have shown monumental disrespect towards myself by going against my wishes. I can only hope that Susan is not turning in her grave, dear god, if she was alive today she would never forgive you," she shouted as she stormed out the door, "I am most certainly displeased."
Mr Darcy, sat down with a sigh, deflated of all his energy from one woman's scorn. He did not wish for the family to break up over such matters but he was adamant that he would not give in to his sister. The notion of this arrangement was no more a fantasy she had conjured up, it was a farcical, he knew his wife would not have agreed to such matters without talking to him first. No, he must stick to his guns and if Catherine was never to see them again, then so be it.
Chapter 3: The Will
Over the next year or so, Elizabeth, with the help of her father, wrote to Fitzwilliam a great deal telling him of the butterflies that she had started collecting. However, during the latter months, Fitzwilliam's letters became increasingly sparse. Mr Bennet tried to explain to Elizabeth that it was probably due to him now being of age where he had to attend to his studies more and probably didn't have the time to write letters. Elizabeth wrote a few more times but then gave up. In reality, Fitzwilliam was now of an age that he had nothing in common with a seven year old girl, he was now fifteen and doing what normal boys of that age were doing, pulling pranks and innocently flirting with the local young ladies about the village of Lambton.
Over the next few years, the Bennet house was a peaceful and calm place to live, Elizabeth was growing into a beautiful young lady. Mr Bennet did not divulge to Elizabeth the agreement that Mr Darcy had with him over the betrothal to Fitzwilliam and thought, Let her not worry as to what her future may bring. Although Fitzwilliam had stopped writing to Elizabeth long ago, Mr Darcy had carried on his communications with his friend and in such communications reiterated on several occasions as to their agreement and that it was still his wish for their union.
In 1806, Mr Darcy passed away suddenly of an unknown illness. Shortly after his demise, the family solicitor contacted the new Mr Darcy in order to gather the remaining family members for the reading of the Will. Mr Darcy in turn contacted his uncle, aunt and Richard his cousin.
The family gathered to hear the reading the following Wednesday, the solicitor listed the following,
"To The Earl and Countess Matlock, I leave the Chippendale Armoire from the blue room, I know that the Countess has had her eye on that particular piece of furniture for a long time, I hope you enjoy it, Cecilia." To this the Earl pulled a face as he hoped for the content of the Pemberley Cellars.
The solicitor continued, "I also leave my Horse, Cyclops to the Earl. Henry, he is a beast of an animal, please pay particular attention when you are atop him, otherwise he may go mad and throw you off." To this, the Earl chuckled thinking he could easily handle that Thoroughbred.
The reading continued, "To Richard Fitzwilliam, my nephew, I leave my trusty fob watch in the hopes he would keep better time. Richard, the time spent in the army has not made you any better at not being late for events."
Captain Fitzwilliam smiled remembering the day when he was so late to a Pemberley function that he turned up the following day. It was months before the family ceased teasing him by discussing the whole fiasco in the presence of guests at dinner parties, by this time Captain Fitzwilliam was getting rather fed up with the whole thing. This last little dig by his late uncle, however, made him smile.
"It is also my firmest wish that he along with my son, Fitzwilliam Darcy, be co-guardian of my daughter, Georgiana Darcy, until she reaches her majority, or takes a husband."
Richard and Fitzwilliam were in agreement and nodded their acceptance to each other, they were very close as cousins and both had Georgiana's best interest at heart.
Now the solicitor turned to Georgiana, who was sitting quietly next to her brother, "To my daughter, Georgiana Darcy, I leave a small selection of the family jewels, of which, are listed in appendix one of this Last Will and Testament. The rest form part of the remainder of the estate. She will also receive Thirty Thousand pounds as settlement upon her marriage or when she reaches her majority, if she still is unwed."
Georgiana started to cry, she knew that the jewels included her mother's favourite ring, one of which she had admired whenever her father would get the jewellery out of the safe to check. Fitzwilliam comforted her as best he could but he was barely holding it together himself.
The ending of the Will was read out, the last being the main estate, "Lastly, to my son Fitzwilliam Darcy, as previously stated, I leave co-guardianship of Georgiana Darcy along with Richard Fitzwilliam, my nephew. The remainder of the estate is entailed to Fitzwilliam Darcy on one condition."
Fitzwilliam's head sprung up at hearing this, which startled Georgiana, he was not aware or expecting any sort of criteria levied upon his father's Will. He listened carefully as the solicitor continued, "It was agreed many years ago of a union between my son, Fitzwilliam Darcy and a Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn. The union was discuss and agreed with both myself and Miss Bennet's father, a Mr Thomas Bennet, during his stay at Pemberley in 1796, following an incident where Mr Bennet was left wounded, by gunshot.
That man saved myself and my son from highwaymen and I have been indebted to him ever since. As his estate is entailed away from his only daughter, I suggested the union in order that she would not be made destitute on his demise.
Fitzwilliam, Miss Bennet's future happiness is in your hands, if it wasn't for her father I would likely have been killed, there was also a probability that you would have perished along with me. Mr Bennet drew a gun on the man and for his bravery, he was wounded, I am sure Miss Bennet will make a fine wife. I have been in correspondence with Mr Bennet over the past several years and understand that she has turned into a wonderful accomplished young lady. Please note that Mr Bennet has a copy of this Will in his keeping, so he is aware of the contents.
If in the event she should wed another of her own choosing or refuses your hand, then this clause will become invalid and the estate will remain your property. However, Miss Bennet will have to be contacted in order to sign an affidavit to confirm she had not been coerced into her decision or her marriage with another. In the event of her demise, the clause will become null and void."
Fitzwilliam just sat there staring at the solicitor, not knowing what to say, he was just about to complain when the solicitor continued, "If you see fit not to honour my agreement with Miss Bennet's father, then the estate will be transferred to Georgiana, on your thirty fifth birthday."
Fitzwilliam shot to his feet, "That is ridiculous, how am I to wed someone I don't know, for all we know she may have little enticement, she may have no accomplishments, no connections and be of inferior birth and be an absolute bore, heaven forbid she has a face like a badger's arse and she is to be the new mistress of Pemberley?"
The Earl shook his head in disbelief, "Fitz, language, there are ladies present. I don't see why you are saying you do not know her, as you do. If she has no connections or inferior birth they meant nothing to your father, she is a gentleman's daughter, if my memory is correct, so you are safe in the knowledge you will not be marrying outside of your circle. Whatever dowry she has will mean nothing to you in the realms of things, you have enough income to enable you to live as you please three times over. Don't be so proud and dare I say stubborn, you have yet to meet the girl as she is now, she may have turned out very pleasing indeed.
I seem to remember you being quite happy during those months she and her father stayed at Pemberley, you had previously drawn into yourself following your dear mother's passing, but Elizabeth bought you back to life again. I believe you wrote often to her for a year of so afterwards, until your most trying age, which I do believe you are still showing signs of," he said as he raised an eyebrow. Darcy was so angered by the clause in his father's Will that he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
That night, Fitzwilliam lay in bed going over the events of the day, he was only twenty three, how could he marry a woman he knew nothing about, he couldn't even remember what she looked like other than the mass of dark curls. He hoped that in time she would decide to wed another and therefore make the whole issue redundant.
Throughout the years, Mr Bennet paid particular attention to Elizabeth's accomplishments, knowing that she was destined for great things. He ensured she had the best governess he could afford along with a decent dowry of fifteen thousand pounds.
He was aware that the late Mr Darcy's Will had been read and that his son knew of Elizabeth's future but had yet to be contacted. He, however, did not consider this a problem as both were still quite young and knew that the young man was probably going through some sort of adolescent crisis with the new knowledge, so thought best to let be for the time being.
Chapter 4: Papa, Aunt and Uncle
In late summer 1811, Mr Bennet's life was drawing to a close, he had been ill for the previous three year's with various ailments connected to one of an elderly status, his mind had been wondering for some time and on some days did not even know his own name. Elizabeth had taken to caring for him in his final months and he passed away in October of that year and laid to rest in Longbourn Cemetery.
Elizabeth was distraught at not only losing her dearest papa, but not knowing how she would now fend for herself. She was still unaware of the betrothal that her father had agreed to, his mind had started to waver a few years prior to his demise and he had forgotten about the whole arrangement and therefore did not contact Fitzwilliam Darcy, as he had planned. The documents sat, untouched and locked away in his study, waiting to be found after he was gone.
Elizabeth's dear friend, Charlotte comforted her in her hour of need, knowing that her friend was distraught she requested that Elizabeth go with her, back to Lucas Lodge and not return to the now empty house, she called home, "Elizabeth, why don't you return with me and stay a few days, we have plenty of room, mother and father wouldn't mind having you as a guest."
"Thank you Charlotte, you are a dear friend to me, but I don't think I can, I feel I need to stay here at home, heaven only knows how much longer I may call it that."
Charlotte knew there was no point in arguing the case, she knew her friend very seldom relented once she had made up her mind, "So long as you are not too distressed, I will leave you but will return to see you again tomorrow, before the funeral," with that Charlotte kissed her friend on the forehead and bid her goodbye.
The day of the funeral was the worst day that Elizabeth had ever experienced, supported by her good friends, she managed to get through it. At the end of the service, Charlotte tried to persuade Elizabeth back to her home, "Elizabeth, please come back to our house for a bite to eat, you look so pale and I understand from Mrs Hill that you have not been eating. At least let me ensure you have a good meal inside you, then I will ask father for the carriage to take you home."
"Thank you Charlotte but I must decline, I need to be alone, I cannot face anyone at the moment."
"I will allow this just the once, but please eat something, Lizzy."
The day after the funeral, Mr Collins was at the door gaining entrance to the house, as it was now his home. Elizabeth was shocked at the untimely intrusion, however, it was well within Mr Collins' rights to take over the place, as he so put it. He was a cantankerous pompous sort of man with a huge belly and Gout, he was obviously used to an extremely rich diet, which was likely due to his patron, who fed him up like a pig on more days of the week than not. This in combination with a sedate lifestyle made him of an over bearable stature.
Elizabeth could not remain in his company for more than ten minutes. She therefore had no choice other than to pack up her belongings, including her father's papers and flee, within a matter of a few minutes she had arrived at Lucas Lodge. Banging on the door, the butler let her in and she ran to the parlour, where Charlotte sat, embroidering a handkerchief for her father.
"Charlotte, he has come." Elizabeth exclaimed.
"Who has come?"
"He has already gained entrance to the house and has moved in, what am I to do?" She blurted out in a breathless rush.
Seeing Elizabeth in such a state, Charlotte insisted on her sitting down and asked her to calm herself before proceeding any further.
"Mr Collins has taken Longbourn over already Charlotte, he came this morning with all his trunks and furniture, I couldn't stay in there one moment longer, he is a dreadful example of a man. I packed all my things and managed to get father's personal papers and just left. The servants are not sure what will happen to them, I do hope that Mr Collins decides to keep them on, how long for I do not know as I am sure Mrs Hill will not tolerate him, he is despicable."
"Oh Lizzy, what are you going to do, I'm sure you can stay here."
"Thank you again Charlotte for your kindness, I don't know what I would have done over the past fortnight, you are the best friend one could hope for, but I cannot intrude on your family like this. I have already decided to go to London and take refuge with Aunt and Uncle Gardiner, I will give him father's papers as he will know what to do with them, I must admit that I do not have a clue. The coach leaves in an hour and I must be upon it. Charlotte, I will write to you within the month to let you know what will happen, at this precise moment, I have not the foggiest notion."
Mr Gardiner was the only surviving relative of Elizabeth's late mother. On Elizabeth's arrival to their home, the Gardiners comforted the young lady and soothed her brow, they had only met her a few times but felt they had no choice other than to take their late sister's only child into their home.
They escorted her into the parlour and rang for tea to be bought in, Elizabeth started to explain through her tears.
"How could such a man force his way into the only home I have ever known, father isn't even cold in his grave and he is already changing the drapes in the drawing room. I managed to gather my personal belongings and a few of father's papers he told me he had hidden in his study years ago and left. Can I stay with you until I have worked out what I am to do with myself, I know father has saved a dowry for me, so maybe a few balls in London and the knowledge of the money might draw in a suitor."
After she partook of tea, Mr Gardiner ordered her to bed as she looked exhausted. He decided to look over the late Mr Bennet's papers to see what could be done, if anything. Elizabeth gave him a small locked box along with a key she kept around her neck for safe keeping, she knew it contained his Will and other papers not relating to part of the estate, which now belonged to Mr Collins.
Mr Gardiner spent the evening along with his wife going over the documents, which included the Will of the late Mr Darcy. He was astonished at reading the details over the betrothal, he knew of Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy as he was a well known gentleman of late in town. He wondered if Mr Darcy was aware of this agreement, but quickly came to the conclusion that he must be as it was part of his father's Will and he had passed away five years previously.
He thought it best to contact him to advise of the situation now prevailing in his household. A letter was written that evening and hand delivered by a servant to Darcy House.
October 21st 1811
Gracechurch Street, London
Dear Mr Darcy,
Please accept my apologies for this correspondence. I know this is not proper to introduce oneself by letter, however, it is of great importance that I contact you.
I am the Uncle of Miss Bennet, formerly of Longbourn Estate in Hertfordshire. It has just come to my attention, the contents of your late father's Will. Miss Bennet is now staying with us after her father's passing as she has nowhere else to go and we are the only family she has left. She came to us yesterday, most upset, with her father's papers, which she handed to me, this included a copy of your father's Will. She is not aware of the betrothal between you and I wish to discuss your intentions before I break the news to her.
I think it would be best if we met as soon as possible.
Please reply at your earliest convenience, with a time you will be able to visit.
Yours truly
Frederick Gardner
On receipt of the letter, Darcy's heart sank, the time had come to meet the issue head on and knew it could not be postponed any longer. Darcy was a respectable gentleman and although reluctant to do so, he knew he would honour his late father's wish and marry the young girl.
He stared at the letter for what felt like an eternity, a reply was required that evening, he wrote back to Mr Gardiner advising him that he would visit the following morning at around ten.
The Gardiner's household was busying themselves to make the place presentable. Mrs Gardiner had kept a neat and tidy house but she worried over the fact that a gentleman of the higher circles was going to call upon them, flowers were arranged in various vases around the parlour, cushions were plumped, rugs beaten and the best silver tea service was polished to an inch of it's life.
Ten o'clock arrived and Darcy descended from his carriage and took the steps of the Gracechurch Street home. The butler showed him into the parlour, where he was announced to Mr and Mrs Gardiner. Elizabeth was not present as she had been sent out on an errand by her aunt in order to get her out of the house when Darcy was in attendance.
After initial introductions were made, Mr Gardiner came straight to the point, "So Mr Darcy, it has come to our attention recently that your father's Will, some years ago, was read and it contained a clause within it regarding our niece's future. This has only recently come to light as Elizabeth's father has not long passed away. Elizabeth herself is not aware of this agreement as we believe her father kept it from her. She has come to us with the papers bestowed to her and she has given them directly to me to look at."
At this, Darcy got nervous and looked about the room. Mrs Gardiner realised he was looking for her niece, "Don't worry Mr Darcy, she is not here at present, I have sent her on an errand to get her out the house, we needed to know your thoughts on the matter before breaking the news to her, it is only fair."
Darcy relaxed somewhat, trying to find the correct words, he said calmly, "I have known of the betrothal for the past five years but decline initially to do anything about it, I had time ahead of me to decide what I was going to do, I was not in a position at twenty three, being my age when my father died, to make such a decision in life, I had a lot of growing up to do.
In the past five years, I have worked hard to increase the estates wealth, investing in several properties which are leased out and partaking in business adventures. I do not want to lose that now due to a clause in my late father's Will. I am an honourable man and therefore resounded to the fact that I will indeed marry your niece, if she will have me."
Although Elizabeth, now at the age of twenty had yet to reach her majority, the Gardiner's had taken it upon themselves to act as guardians. Mr Gardiner knew that Darcy was of a good breeding and had an income to envy most gentlemen. He agreed to the betrothal and requested that Elizabeth would be introduced to her intended the following evening, therefore Darcy was invited back to dine with them at Gracechurch Street.
The following day, Elizabeth was called into her uncle's study. "Sit down Elizabeth, there is something I need to discuss with you as a matter of importance. I have read through the papers that you gave me and I am not sure you are aware of all of their contents."
Mr Gardiner paused looking at Elizabeth for a reaction. Elizabeth's expression showed confusion, "Uncle, I know they contained my father's Will, which only deals with a few items of little value. I already know the estate is no longer under the Bennet name but that of Collins, there is nothing to be discussed."
"On the contrary my dear," Mr Gardiner responded, "There is a great deal, were you aware it also contained a copy of the late Mr Darcy's Will? You and your father stayed with him for a time whilst you were a youngster, do you remember?"
Elizabeth sat for a moment to recollect her childhood, "Yes... I vaguely remember, there was a boy called Fitzwilliam, we rambled over the woodlands and climbed trees together. I wrote to him when I returned to Longbourn, but it was short lived as he stopped writing back. What of it Uncle?"
With a deep breath, her uncle advised her of the details, "Elizabeth, your father had agreed back then with the old Mr Darcy that you would, when the time was right, marry his son. He did stipulate though that you had the final decision and would not force you into anything you did not want to do, but Elizabeth, you need to think seriously about this decision and bear in mind your present circumstances, if you say no there will be no going back if things do not turn out good for you."
Elizabeth's reaction was to laugh, "That is absurd, why would a gentleman of a great estate wish for that?"
"Because my dear, your father saved his life and Mr Darcy felt indebted to him, during his convalescence your father had disclosed the entailment of the estate, which concerned Mr Darcy. He saw how his son was with you and thought it would make a good match. Your father has spent a small fortune on making you ready for that role as mistress of a large estate, it is all here in his journals, which were in the box you gave me the other day. Had you not wondered why you had all the teachings anyone could throw at a young lady?"
Elizabeth was saddened, remembering the times where her father found difficulty to make ends meet financially, "I don't know what to say, so father all these years knew that I was to marry someone of high standing and he didn't tell me. Has Mr Darcy been informed of this? Does he know?"
Mr Gardiner smiled and replied, "Yes my dear, he is aware, we had him to tea yesterday morning whilst you were at the shop for your aunt. He seems a nice enough chap and is willing to honour his father's wish, your aunt certainly took a liking to him, I do believe she swooned a little when he was introduced."
At this stage, Mr Gardiner was reluctant to divulge the clause in the Will, knowing that Elizabeth would feel that Darcy was being forced into the marriage. When Elizabeth inquired when they would meet, her uncle stated that Darcy had been invited to dine that evening.
Elizabeth spent the rest of the day with her aunt, readying herself for the dinner party. She managed to fit into one of Mrs Gardiner's dresses, which showed off her voluptuous figure. Her hair was formed into a soft bun with lose curls about her face.
At eight o'clock, Darcy arrived promptly and was shown into the formal parlour. Mr Gardiner greeted him saying that the ladies were still upstairs getting ready, "You will soon come to realise that a lady takes five times longer to dress herself than a gentleman does."
Darcy just looked at his host in bewilderment, nerves had got the better of him at that moment and humour had escaped his lateral thinking, little did he realise that his host was jesting.
A few minutes later, Mrs Gardiner entered the room with Elizabeth following. On seeing the young lady, Darcy froze...
Chapter 5: Bewitched and Beguiled
On seeing the young lady, Darcy froze, Bloody Hell! What a beauty, he thought. Staring at the vision in front of him, he cleared his throat and greeted Elizabeth as any gentleman should. Elizabeth felt uneasy at his initial reaction and couldn't bring herself to look upon his face, but felt herself more at ease when he regained composure and greeted her warmly, "Good Evening Miss Bennet, it is a pleasure to meet you again, after all these years."
She slowly looked up to make eye contact, Darcy was transfixed on those beautiful chocolate brown eyes that seemed to burn into his beating heart. After a few moments he recollected himself and realised there were others in the room and turned to greet Mrs Gardiner, who at this point could see that Darcy had been stunned by her niece's beauty, This will work out just fine, she pondered.
The initial meeting at dinner went well, they discussed his homes, he had the estate in Derbyshire and the house in London, but also had acquired several properties in England which were leased out, those properties bought in a tidy sum on top of his already generous income.
Mr and Mrs Gardiner decided to leave the room for few minutes, to allow the young couple to have some time alone, however for propriety's sake the door was left ajar and the older couple were only in the next room, out of earshot of general conversation. Darcy seemed nervous but pulled enough courage from somewhere to break the awkward silence, which had begun to form. He sat down in the chair opposite the sofa that Elizabeth was occupying, "Well Miss Bennet, it looks like we have been thrown together again, first time when we were children and now it seems we are destined to marry. What do you say to that?"
Elizabeth sat there looking at her hands as she responded with a delicate voice, "I don't know what to think Mr Darcy, I only found out this morning and to be truthful, my mind is a whirlwind of thoughts. So much has happened in the past fortnight I would fear myself go mad and be committed to Bedlam."
Darcy knew to some degree what she was going through, having lost both his parents as well he could understand her grieving, "Yes, I am sorry to hear of your father's passing, my deepest condolences, the feeling of loss will become easier in time."
"I know, but it's all the heartache of leaving my home with all the fond memories I had there with him. I suppose this is the start of the rest of my life, with you." She looked up with tears in her dark orbs at the last few words and gazed into Darcy's eyes. Darcy's throat restricted at the sight of this goddess in front of him, so unhappy in the circumstances at present, yet at the same time so beguiling.
Darcy tried to reassure her as best he could, he was not himself at all but had to comfort her, "I am sure we will be happy, Miss Bennet, you will be comfortable at Pemberley and I will do my utmost to be a caring husband, you will want for nothing."
Darcy's heart was pounding in his chest and he knew that he needed to change direction of the conversation and keep discussions flowing or be at risk of wondering off into another day dream, he recollected, "I seem to remember you were fond of climbing trees."
Elizabeth wiped away her tears and replied, "Yes, of course I don't do that now, I do love walking though, on occasion for miles at a time. Father used to chastise me when I came back with my petticoats six inches deep in mud, but I always got away with it stating that it was a healthy pastime."
"Well, the estate is vast and there are plenty of walks you may wish to go on and as mistress, your petticoats have permission to be as caked in as much mud as they wish to be," Darcy said, trying to lighten the conversation somewhat.
Elizabeth smiled at him, which caused a tingle to his appendage, Oh look at that face, he thought, Oh those lips look so soft and inviting, so kissable. His eyes wondered down her neck and across her throat thinking, Oh I wish I could run my tongue down that pretty neck of hers. He then realised where is eyes had wondered and snapped out of his trance, Stop it Darcy, get a grip of yourself!
"So are you in agreement with the arrangement?" Darcy asked, breaking the silence between them again. He looked at her with a desire for her to affirm, his heart was racing and felt like it was about to jump up and out of his chest. Please say yes, dear Miss Bennet, I am sure I can make you happy, you will certainly make me happy, he thought.
"Yes, I think so, although I must admit that I am rather nervous of the whole situation, but I believe in father's judgement on the matter."
"I am nervous too, but we have our whole lives in front of us to achieve happiness and I believe it will not be long before we are both in that situation," he said, forever hopeful.
Darcy at this point was so overcome with desire, he nearly leaned forward to touch her cheek, which was still dewy from her earlier tears, he wanted to kiss her but had to stop himself. Standing up he walked over to the other side of the room and looked out the window in order to compose himself as he felt his breeches start to tighten. This was not a good time to be affected in such a way, in close proximity to a maiden and with nothing to cover his ever expanding appendage. He wondered in bewilderment at the strong reaction he was having towards Miss Bennet's presence as a woman had never affected him this way before.
Elizabeth's thoughts as to why Darcy was acting strange were interrupted by her aunt and uncle returning to the room, "Is everything sorted?" Mr Gardiner inquired.
Now calmer, Darcy acknowledged that it was and that they had discussed and agreed to the marriage, the remaining question now, was when. He had to return to Pemberley in two weeks so he would need to obtain a special license and have the settlement papers drawn up if Miss Bennet was to return with him. The other alternative was that it would be late spring, the following year, on his return to London. There would be no contact in that time frame due to the distance and his commitments so he did not wish for that even though Elizabeth was in Mourning. He was not willing to entertain the chance that she may meet with another during this time and break off their agreement, now that he had met her, he wanted her.
"To some extent, we have agreed we will indeed be wed, the remaining question now is when and where. I have to return to my estate in Derbyshire in a fortnight's time and will probably not return for another six months, so wish that we be wed within a fortnight. I know that Miss Bennet is still in Mourning, but under the circumstances I hope the rules can be bent to some extent," Darcy said looking at Elizabeth for some sort of acknowledgement.
Elizabeth just stared at him not knowing what to say, she knew that society expected her to be in Mourning for at least 6 months, she then looked across at her uncle, who was rubbing his chin in thought.
"Mr Darcy," Mr Gardiner said, "I have been thinking about this issue. I have been looking over Mr Bennet's papers again and it seems that he put something in writing regarding this. Knowing that his daughter would seek you out at some point after his demise, he had put in a request that Elizabeth be relinquished from her Mourning Period after one full month, at which point if she wished, she could go into Half Mourning for however long she wanted. If you wed in a fortnight's time, then this would be within his request. Elizabeth, it will not be disrespectful to your father to accept this proposal, he knew what the situation would be after he was gone and safeguarded you against any repercussions that society may throw at you."
Elizabeth looked between the two gentlemen in front of her, one who seemed to be pleading with his eyes and the other with a soft smile on his face. She nodded to accept the proposal that they would be wed in two weeks, which delighted Darcy. The two gentlemen shook hands and Aunt Gardiner gave Elizabeth a hug to congratulate her.
Elizabeth looked at Darcy and thought to herself that she would definitely be happy with this handsome man.
When Darcy left the Gardiner's home that day, he headed straight to Matlock House where his cousin, Richard, had just finished having dinner with his father, the Earl. Darcy made some sort of excuse that he wished to discuss matters with his cousin regarding business, which he knew the Earl would not want to be part of. The Earl excused himself, but not before grabbing a large tumbler and filling it to the brim with brandy.
"So Darcy, what has you in such a tizzy, as soon as you stepped into the room I knew that there was something up," Richard proclaimed.
"Richard, do you remember the terms of my father's Will? Regarding the betrothal to a Miss Elizabeth Bennet?"
Richard smirked and said he had remembered and that he wondered what was to become of the situation as it had been a cloud hovering over Darcy's head for best part of five years.
"Well I made her acquaintance today," Darcy said looking down into his brandy glass that Richard had just handed him. Richard stood there watching Darcy swirl his liquor around in the tumbler, waiting for him to continue.
"Well Man! Are you going to enlighten me further or did you just come here to tell me that?" Richard said frustratingly as to the lack of additional information.
"She is breathtakingly stunning, the sweetest creature I have ever met," Darcy said with a smile.
"Well, well, well, that is a turn up for the books, old chap. You were lucky she didn't have a face like a sow's arse or was it Badger's arse?" Richard teased.
"Richard! That is no way to talk about a lady, especially if she did have a face as such, it's not gentlemanly," Darcy infused.
"But she hasn't Darcy, so what happens now? Will you be seeing her whilst you are in London, I know you have to return soon to Pemberley and you don't usually venture back to town for a few months when you're home."
Darcy looked up and grinned, "We will be married before I leave."
With that Richard stood up and roared his congratulations to his cousin. With all the commotion going on the Earl decided to return to the room with his now half filled glass, "What's going on?"
"Father, Darcy here is getting hitched, to that girl from Longbourn."
"Well, Well, Well nephew, I'm glad you came to your senses, I hope she's a pretty spirited little thing," he said with a wink.
"God! It's like father like son," Darcy stated, "Yes she is very beautiful uncle, breathtakingly so."
For the rest of the evening, the three gentlemen partook in finishing off two bottles of brandy. The Butler managed to get Darcy into his carriage to take him home as he was worse for the drink and ordered the driver to ensure he got inside before heading off to the stables to retire the horses.
As Darcy flopped into bed, he lay there in a drunken state staring at the ceiling, his thoughts went back to his lovely Elizabeth, he realised that within moments of seeing her that he was completely and utterly in love with her, she had bewitched him with her enchanting eyes, her rosebud pink lips that were so soft and lush and her pure unblemished porcelain skin that was enhanced by the darkness of her attire. On entering the parlour she had looked at him, into him and taken his soul and placed it into her heart. Could this end up being a love match? Did she reciprocate the feelings he had for her and if not could she grow to love him?
He sighed a deep breath and closed his eyes thinking of her underneath him on their wedding night, touching her, kissing those soft lips and holding her close, moving to between her legs and entering her for the first time, feeling the barrier and pushing his way through into euphoria.
He had become increasing aroused, even under his inebriated state, he stroked his yard until it was painful, his breathing heavy with excitement and within a few strokes he released his seed onto his bedding, calling out her name.
After calming somewhat, he pondered at what had come over him, he hadn't done anything like that in a long time, definitely not since his father passed. Then realised that he had no cause to as he had thrown himself into work since his papa's death and had no time to want a woman let alone have his head turned by a pretty face, but the situation with Elizabeth was thrust upon him unexpectedly, he was unguarded and unrestrained and the instant attraction had taken him over.
The following morning, Darcy woke up with a hangover, he was not used to drinking large amounts, but when in the company of the Earl and his cousin, it was difficult to say no. Staggering out of bed he noticed the state of the once pristine blue sheets, which were now stained with his seminal fluid, Oh Dear God, the chambermaids will see the mess and know exactly what I have done, he cursed to himself. In a panic he proceeded to get the jug of water from the side table and poor it over the stains, rubbing the liquid around so that the stains diminished and blended in. He would then tell the valet that he accidentally spilled the water jug during the night, whilst drunk, in an attempt to get a drink.
Walking in the park, he met his cousin again who had the same notion that air would remove the aftermath of the night before. The two discussed the wedding plans, a special licence was to be obtained and the wedding was to be held within a fortnight with a small wedding breakfast afterwards. The couple would leave for Pemberley the following day after spending the wedding night at Darcy House.
He had made arrangements to visit Gracechurch Street that afternoon to let Elizabeth know his plans and whether or not it was agreeable. He called at two in the afternoon with Richard in tow, his cousin was not going to let up a chance to meet the ever beautiful Miss Bennet, so invited himself along. Darcy wasn't too pleased as knowing Richard's teasing tendencies he was opening himself to his mocking, but agreed in the end.
The two gentlemen were shown into the parlour where Elizabeth and her aunt were already taking tea and welcomed the young gentlemen in. Richard, on seeing Elizabeth smiled broadly and winked at Darcy who just rolled his eyes in reply. Knowing that Richard took after his father in that he loved the ladies, Darcy knew exactly what he was thinking.
During their visit Darcy and Elizabeth had agreed the exact dates, times and places for the wedding day. Aunt Gardiner decided to have a quiet word with Darcy before they left and asked if he could return in the morning to discuss the financial matters with Mr Gardiner, the settlement papers were yet to be signed and the dowry discussed, he agreed saying he would return at around ten the following day.
It had been a busy few days and Darcy had yet to inform his sister of the impending marriage, he wrote a letter which was sent express requesting that she came to London. There was no need to remind her of the details of the Will, it was unlikely that she would remember as she was so young at the time and thought it best to let sleeping dogs lie.
28th October 1811
Darcy House
Dear Georgiana
You will not believe what I am about to portray, but believe it to be the truth.
I am to be married on 7th November to a Miss Elizabeth Bennet, lately of Longbourn in Hertfordshire. I met Miss Elizabeth many years ago and we have been reacquainted, recently.
I would therefore, dear sister, request that you come to London, post haste and bring enough with you to last the month as you will be staying with Richard for the duration of the honeymoon.
I look forward to seeing you in a few days.
Yours lovingly
Fitzwilliam
During the fortnight before the wedding, many meetings took place between the couple, Darcy's affections were increasing by the day, not only was she breathtaking but very intelligent and was able to hold a conversation on all manner of topics. He couldn't wait for the day when he could make her his.
On one such meeting about a week before the wedding, Elizabeth was sitting in the parlour with her aunt and Darcy, her uncle had business and was unable to be present.
"Mr Darcy, can I ask if it would be possible for the servants from Longbourn to take up service at Pemberley? I left them behind and I don't think any of them will be employed long by Mr Collins, who is now master. Either he will get rid of them and bring his own in and if not I am most certain Mrs Hill and even Betsy will not last long under his employment and wherever Mrs Hill will be, Mr Hill will certainly follow."
"What are their positions, I am sure we can do with more staff."
"Well, my father wanted to keep a simple house so we only had three servants and they had an assortment of duties, Mrs Hill was housekeeper and cook, Betsy did all the chores, cleaned the house, assisted me as a lady's maid and helped Mrs Hill. Mr Hill was in charge of the stables, carriage and the gardens, oh and any manual household duties."
"Well, I can do with another hand in the gardens, Mrs Hill can help cook as we will be more at home, I believe she will require additional help, Betsy can fit in somewhere I am sure. Although she has helped you as a lady's maid, I already have someone in mind for that role, who is more qualified, but you may wish to choose another if you do not feel comfortable with the one I have chosen."
"Thank you Mr Darcy for your kind generosity, I was worried about them, although they are servants who were in my father's employment, I had over the years become rather fond of them."
"I will write to Mr Hill today, so that I can put the proposal forward to them and hopefully they will be ensconced before we head home."
The word home gave Elizabeth a fluttering in her belly, she had always thought of Longbourn as her home but now she must start a new life with this man beside her, a life she was actually becoming excited about. She looked up at her husband to be and saw such a kind and generous face looking back at her, she wished that her father had been alive to see the day she bore the Darcy name.
The day before the wedding, Elizabeth and Darcy were allowed some privacy whilst Aunt Gardiner busied herself with household duties and sat in the room opposite, she thought it time she allowed the couple some alone time together. What could go wrong in the course of the afternoon, when they were to be wed the next day, she thought.
"How are you feeling Mr Darcy, with tomorrow almost upon us?" Elizabeth enquired with a sweet smile.
"I am feeling rather excited, although I do think now is a good time to abandon with the Mr Darcy, please call me William."
"Oh, of course if you wish, William," she said trying his name out for the first time. "But if I call you by your given name, it is only fair that you do likewise."
"Elizabeth... Elizabeth... Lizzy..." he said huskily and closed his eyes as the sound emanated from his lips.
Elizabeth observed him as he repeated her name and the hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention when he breathed the last word. She reached out her hand and gently stroked Darcy's face, paying particular attention to his side burns and sinking the tips of her fingers into the hairs. He opened his eyes and looked at her longingly, his hand reached up to cover hers, which was still caressing his cheek, he in turn caressing the back of her hand, he wanted to kiss her, he needed to, "Lizzy, may I kiss you?" Darcy enquired with a pleading tone to his voice. Elizabeth nodded and within seconds Darcy's lips came in contact with hers, a soft gentle kiss, not passionate by any account but a lingering one all the same.
Elizabeth felt herself swoon at his touch and her breath hitched. His free hand came up and wrapped around her head, gently holding it in place, the other left hers to be placed around her back, he pulled her into an embrace and kissed her repeatedly. All too soon he pulled away slightly only to rest his forehead against hers. He knew he had to stop before he compromised her, "Thank you for agreeing to marry me," he whispered as he gazed into her eyes.
Chapter 6: Dearly Beloved
The small intimate wedding was to be held at a church near Darcy House, followed by the wedding breakfast at the Gardiner's home in Gracechurch Street. There would only be a handful of guests as Darcy wished for a quiet occasion, he did not want the Ton in uproar due to the most eligible bachelor no longer being available, they could do that after he left London.
The Gardiner's home was a hub of activity, the seamstress had arrived to do the final fitting for the dress and the maid was also hovering about trying to ensure Elizabeth's hair was perfect.
After everyone had gone, Aunt Gardiner sat Elizabeth down on the chaise in her room to have The Talk.
"Now my dear, you do realise that a man and woman's bodies are different in a lot of ways, a man's general appearance is one of strength and stamina and a lady's more rounded and soft with wide hips for childbearing." Elizabeth nodded in her understanding whilst her aunt continued.
"The main difference is that down below, you have what is called the reproductive organs and this is where any child will grow and be born from, you may have noticed, where you bleed from each month, that there is a sort of entrance. A man does not have this but has an additional appendage which he uses in the act of love making. It's general appearance is quite soft and floppy, but when aroused it stiffens and stands proud from his body. This has to pass through your entrance and a seed is released into you which in turn will make you with child."
Elizabeth was shocked at this revelation, but wanted to hear more. "Aunt, but how does it get stiff? You say aroused but how does that happen?"
"It is difficult to say Lizzy, a man's emotions become excited just thinking about the act and the sight of a pretty woman with a pleasing figure helps exceedingly.
You will also become aroused if your husband pays particular attention to your needs, by touching and kissing you. You may find you get rather wet down there, which is normal.
He will place his appendage into your entrance and push in and out of you repeatedly until he releases, the rubbing action on his manhood will make him come to completion and you will find it a heavenly feeling too Lizzy, so long as he is gentle and attentive, you will feel great pleasure.
I will not lie, the initial act will be painful for you as he will need to break through a barrier that you have in order to sink himself into you further, this is called deflowering. Note that this will only be the first time, after which you will find it an act you will want to repeat time and time again.
I must add some marriages follow the theory that the marriage bed is purely to get an heir and the husband will visit seldom and after enough offspring are born he will cease his attendance. Some, however, see the marriage bed a pleasurable activity and it will happen more often, even after you have a brood of children. I am almost certain that the way Mr Darcy looks at you, he will make you very content in that department and visit often."
Elizabeth knew of a man's anatomy from paintings, but was not aware until the talk what the additional body parts of a man were for. The description of the act had Elizabeth squirming in her seat but her aunt reassured her that it was the most natural thing possible and not to worry.
At a little after two thirty in the afternoon, Elizabeth along with the Gardiners ascended the carriage to take them to the church. During the ride Elizabeth was in turmoil, she thought over and over again at what her aunt had said about the marriage bed. She was brought back to the present by the carriage making a very jerky stop outside the church. Elizabeth got out of the carriage with the help of her uncle, she was glad he was there otherwise she feared she would collapse on the floor with worry.
On entering the church she spotted Darcy, standing next to his cousin, smiling back at her from the alter, Elizabeth was now having an anxiety attack. Pulling her aunt over to one side she said, "Aunt, I don't think I can go through with this, after your talk this morning I cannot bring myself to do those things, I don't mean with just William, I mean with anyone."
During this speech she kept looking back at her future husband, he was watching the rapid conversation between the two ladies and was getting worried that Elizabeth was unwell, "Richard I am just going to talk to Elizabeth, she seems rather agitated."
On reaching his bride, Darcy asked, "Elizabeth, what is the matter, are you ill?"
"Oh William, I need to talk to you in private," she said walking towards the door to a side room.
"I can't go through with it, William, I don't think I can be your wife," Elizabeth said amongst her cries. Darcy went stiff and at this declaration, why was she having second thoughts when she was looking forward to it the night before, "Why do you say that? What has changed your mind, you were fine yesterday, more than fine."
"I had the talk with my aunt this morning and it has shocked me beyond belief, I can't see myself being a good wife if I am to do that," she blurted out still blubbering away.
Darcy just stood there and grinned, knowing that this was just a blip in the proceedings, lifting her chin he looked into her eyes and said, "Darling, I know it is a big thing to hear, but believe me it will be fine, I am nervous as well if that is any consolation. We will take it slowly if needs be and I will not pressure you into doing something you are not comfortable with, but sweetheart it is natural, if it doesn't happen tonight then we have the rest of our lives to get through this, but to be honest, I think you will be just fine so long as we take it slowly."
"But what if it is not?"
"Lizzy, when we were kissing yesterday, did you feel anything?"
"Yes, it was heavenly, but my body was reacting in an odd way, I was out of breath and had flutterings, but I enjoyed it all the same."
"Well magnify that by ten and you will get some sort of understanding at how pleasurable tonight will be."
"Oh," was all that Elizabeth could muster.
Darcy wiped the tears from her cheeks, "Now Miss Bennet, will you do the honour of now becoming my wife, we have the vicar waiting."
So, Elizabeth Bennet became Mrs Fitzwilliam Darcy that afternoon. When the vicar declared them man and wife Darcy leant in and placed a gentle lingering kiss on Elizabeth's lips. When he pulled away to look at her he noticed she had turned bright crimson, thinking about what had been said earlier.
A pleasant wedding breakfast was had and was now drawing to a close. The wedded couple left to return to Darcy House at round eight in the evening, Georgiana and Richard were to stay as guests at Gracechurch Street.
On arriving at Darcy house, the newly weds were greeted at the front door to their home by the housekeeper, who helped the master and mistress out of their outdoor garments. Mr Darcy, eager to have his wife, showed her immediately to her chambers. When they reached the door he inquired how long she would need to ready herself, an hour was agreed and that Darcy would come to her via the adjoining door, he then left his wife with a gentle kiss and a promise to return.
Darcy was not ignorant to a woman's touch, his father, like most gentlemen in the area, had arranged for the local cyprian to engage with his son so that he could learn everything there was to know about bedding a woman. The lady in question was known for this discrete service amongst the gentry, being unable to bear children herself and unmarried and no other family to shame, she put her situation to good use and earned quite a fair income from the gentlefolk around the district.
Her services were overlooked by the law as it was deemed to be of educational purposes and an essential act of initiation into manhood. The fact that the magistrate and high ranking gentlemen of the area had use of her for their own son's, and on the odd occasion for their own use when the need for a refresher course was required, which oddly happened quite often. She was the only woman that Darcy had ever laid with, which had been nearly a decade previous.
Chapter 7: Champagne
As soon as he was in his chambers, his pace increased rapidly, he dis-robed and saw to his ablutions in record time, his valet had to chuckle to himself at the eagerness of his master. Darcy decided to not bother with a night gown as it was an additional hindrance to have to deal with later on and just put on his robe, tying it securely around the waist so that nothing was visible. He then had realised that in his haste he had a spare half an hour to wait until he could join his wife, Oh why didn't I say half an hour, he thought.
Dismissing his valet, he took to sitting on his bed hatching a plan for the evening, he needed to make her feel at ease but he was most eager that it happened tonight as prolonging it would make things more difficult, he would have to seduce his wife.
Whilst Darcy was in his room contemplating his strategy, Elizabeth had also readied herself ahead of time. Noticing a bottle of Champagne on the side dresser with two glasses, she decided to have a drink thinking it would give her courage and calm her nerves. She had never taken much alcohol in the past but as it was in her room she thought it would not harm.
She downed a glass which burnt her throat, then another and then before she knew it she had drank half the bottle. She was feeling rather warm at this point and her vision was getting a little cloudy, so she decided to sit down on the bed, but within five minutes she had flopped back onto the bed swinging her legs to and fro, which were hanging over the edge.
Elizabeth regained what senses she had under her drunken state and lifted her head from her mattress, looked about the room trying to take her mind off the impending event, she noticed the adjoining door to the master's chambers. She realised that Mr Darcy could elicit conjugal activities as and when he chose, even during the course of the night, whilst she slept. She thought, If that happens, I hope he will allow me to sleep in late in the mornings to compensate for lack of nocturnal rest, and with that her head fell back down onto the mattress with a bounce.
The hour was up but Elizabeth in her state did not realise, the door opened and her husband came into the room. Standing there in his robe he looked over at his wife, whom at this point was still lying on the bed and swinging her arms and legs around as if she was dancing like a fairy in the air. With no words spoken, he moved closer and wondered why she was like this, then spotted the now half a bottle of Champagne.
"Oh, Lizzy," he said "What have you done? Well I suppose you are relaxed now and I will not have to pretend to be Casanova." Darcy had determined the amount she had drunk and wondered if she was fit enough to continue.
He grabbed her hands and pulled her body to a sitting position Elizabeth smiled widely at him, "Hello husband, have you come to do your duty and deflower me with your pokey thing?" she said wiggling her finger in the direction of Darcy's yard, "I must warn you though that I am rather full on your Champagne, I've left you some." She leaned against him with her face on his chest and snorted a laugh, which vibrated through his body.
Darcy gently wrapped his arms around her back, holding her to him in case she fell sideways or back onto the bed. He found this all quite endearing, especially what she had called his yard.
"Come, come Mrs Darcy, what have we here, you are a happy little cherub aren't you."
" Mm," she sounded nuzzling his chest and smiling to herself.
"My Darling, are you aware of what is going to happen tonight?" Darcy asked hoping she was still up for the event, but had to ask just in case things progressed and she got scared or blacked out.
"Yes Husband, I want to become your wife in every sense, William, make me yours," she pleaded as she looked up to him, cross eyed.
"Before we do anything I want you to drink some water and lay back for a while and have a nap, I don't want you to pass out on me half way through." Darcy gave her a large glass of cold water, which she guzzled down quickly.
Sitting back in the chair with his own glass of Champagne, he watched his wife resting for a good hour until she woke, startled.
"What! Where am I?" she questioned in a panic.
"Sweetness, you are in your bed chamber at Darcy House," her husband said softly as he moved across to sit next to her on the bed.
"Has it happened yet, have we consummated the marriage? Am I yours?" Elizabeth said in a flurry.
"No no, of course not, I want you to be responsive Lizzy, not in a state of comatose, I don't really wish to make love to a sack of potatoes," Darcy said in good humour.
Seeing that his wife had sobered up somewhat Darcy placed a soft gentle kiss upon her lips and stroked her cheek. Pulling her to a standing position and with shaking hands he pulled down her delicate gown over her shoulders. Seeing her bare skin, he kissed every inch of her exposed flesh, this made Elizabeth's head flop to one side and go limp in his arms. Worried that she had fainted, Darcy stopped, "Lizzy are you unwell, are you still with me?"
"Yes, it feels so nice William, pray continue."
Darcy was glad that she was still relaxed, how different she was compared to earlier in the church. With shaky hands, he pulled down her gown, letting it fall to the ground of it's own accord, there she stood in front of him without a stitch of clothing on. He took in every detail of her curves, her soft delicate skin and ample bosom. He could not stop trembling when he placed his hand on her breast, squeezing softly. Good Lord! I have never seen anything so exquisite and she is mine, Darcy thought.
Darcy knelt down in front of her which allowed him easier access to her bosom. He commenced suckling her mounds with his moistened lips until her nipples were hard, then circling them with his thumbs making them stand out even more, Elizabeth's head flopped back and she groaned as she exhaled. He thanked god for his father's decision all those years ago.
Elizabeth, was now clinging onto her husband's shoulders in fear she would fall back onto the bed, she was beginning to feel hot and had a tingling sensation in a place she did not want to think about, "Husband, I do not know what is happening to me, but I don't feel right, I am getting fluttering and a sensations all over my body."
Darcy stopped and stood up, caressing her cheek he said with heavy breaths, "What you are feeling is normal... and... to be expected Lizzy, I feel the same, it is not improper... or wanton to feel this way, I give you leave to surrender, and allow these feelings to envelope you."
Still wearing his dressing gown, Elizabeth felt quite courageous and thought she would take matters into her own hands and disrobe him of his single garment, considering she was without a stitch and felt rather exposed. She could see that the robe was rather bulky at the front and knew that he was stirred, so with an inquisitive mind she started to untie the belt that was holding his attire shut, Darcy took a sharp intake of breath as he was still conscious of what lay underneath and his wife's reaction. Halting Elizabeth temporarily he said, "Lizzy, I am not sure what you are expecting but please do not be frightened as to what you will find underneath."
Looking deep into her husband's eyes, she revealed with a false sense of courage, "I am not nervous husband and my aunt has given me some insight into what to expect. I do want it to be perfect for us, I want to be the best wife I can, please show me how."
With that, Darcy allowed his wife to untie his belt and pushed his robe over his muscular shoulders, to the ground. She stood slightly back and looked at her husband in a dizzy haze and gasped, "Oh William, it's so big and there seems to be two!" Elizabeth covered her face with her hands to hide the sight in front of her.
Darcy, whilst in a fit of laughter, prized them off of her face and placed them on his chest, Elizabeth opened one eye only and looked at her husband whilst he explained, "Elizabeth, there is only one, you are probably seeing double."
"Oh, but it's not like the paintings that I have seen, it's huge! Aunt didn't warn me of the magnitude of it." Taking a closer look at his instrument she continued, "Now I can see there is only one, but William I doubt it will fit!" Elizabeth started with worry as she stared at the angled appendage, tilting her head back and forth.
With a degree of courage, Elizabeth reached out and touched her husband's erection, pushing the end down with her index finger and letting it go, making it ping back up with a wobble. Darcy was rather taken back by the forwardness of his wife, but started to relish the feeling when she commenced stroking it's length with a gentle finger, not wishing to cause him discomfort, she found it rather intriguing. Darcy groaned at her ministrations so she started to run all four fingers along it's length and then continued whilst wrapping her digits around it's circumference, but within a few strokes Darcy had to stop her in fear that he would ejaculate his seed all over her.
"Lizzy, please... that was heavenly but I... I was in the verge of..." Darcy didn't know how to explain what would happen if she had continued, he looked at his wife who was looking up to him with those eyes, so innocent.
After a moment of stillness between them, Darcy requested that she go back to the bed, she complied by pulling back the covers and climbing on top on all fours, which gave him a nice view of her round bottom and a small glimpse of her lady parts, which he could see were glistening with arousal. He was determined to have her that night so whilst in that position, he climbed in on top of her, engulfing her with his body. She jumped at the prickly sensation of the contact of his chest hairs on her back and his manhood touching the inside of her thigh, she quickly turned onto her back under him.
Face to face they found themselves, two pairs of brown eyes connected. Darcy's lips came closer to Elizabeth's in a painfully slow manner, he kissed her gently, his tongue teasing her lips apart to gain access so that he could deepen that oral caress. Elizabeth gasped at the feeling of his soft wet tongue playfully sliding over hers, her breath quickened and she was beginning to feel rather faint and tried to gain more air into her lungs.
Darcy was taken aback when Elizabeth pushed him away from her, "What is the matter my darling? You are not offended, are you?"
"No, please do not thing that, I am rather overcome with sensations, please do not think that I am affronted by anything you have done, it is all rather lovely, I am just a little out of breath."
Darcy grinned back, proud of himself that she seemed to be accepting the situation so he kissed her once again softly and gently. He began to roam her face feathering kisses over her neck and shoulders. He held her in his arms, enveloping her in his warmth, his chest hairs tickled Elizabeth's nipples so much that they were hardening from the stimulation, he could feel them pressing into his chest which made him throb painfully. A hand left it's confines of their embrace and came around to feel her bosom, stroking and kneading her mound and flicking her nipples, making them even harder, she groaned. His hand was replaced by his mouth, suckling, licking and biting gently whilst his redundant hand moved further south to her thighs and then her fleshy bottom, where he firmly pressed her against himself.
At this stage, he was making the most almighty grunts and groans, he didn't seem gentlemanly at all, but to her horror, Elizabeth found this rather pleasing to hear, she was losing herself in the pleasure that he was bestowing on her, little had she realised that her body was capable of such feelings.
Darcy gently prized his wife's legs apart to allow him to get into position, the time has come Darcy, do your duty and don't cock it up, he thought. He got hold of his yard and stroked the tip along her wet, lush crease, Elizabeth groaned loudly, yes she was ready. He placed the tip into her opening, he pushed in a very short way, feeling the barrier at the head of his phallus, he knew he had to push through it to complete their coupling, he knew it would hurt her but there was no getting around it, so with all the courage he could muster, he thrust himself into her, where he stilled.
"Ow!" she cried, coming back down from her high. She felt something in her, stretching her insides, had he placed himself inside of her already? She looked down and found Darcy between her legs and panting like a rabid dog, he was tense with his face scrunched up, he looked as though he was in pain. "Are you all right?" she inquired.
Darcy's eyes flew to hers and panted, "Surely I should be the one asking that." He grimaced and then continued, "Please give me leave to move, I cannot control myself much longer, I have such a desire to move, Lizzy, please?"
Elizabeth nodded and he started rocking against her moving back and forth, grinding himself to the hilt. She was initially sore but within a few movements pleasure smothered the pain and she found herself making the same god awful noises her husband was making in response to the unusual, yet heavenly feeling of her husband's actions.
It didn't take long before Darcy tensed up and pushed himself into her one last time, crying out, "Dear God! Thank you!" Elizabeth was worried the servants would hear and be concerned enough to knock down the door to ensure their master was not injured, but nothing happened.
Darcy, with hesitation, withdrew and rolled off and to his side of the bed as he did not want to collapse on top of his wife. He was out of breath and in some sort of daze murmuring something which sounded similar to, "See, it fit," he looked very pleased with a silly grin on his face.
Understanding that the act was now over, Elizabeth was in a happy state thinking about what had just occurred, it was done, the bond had been made, she was his, for life, had it been so bad? She thought not. She settled down cuddling her pillow and fell asleep.
Darcy rejoiced in himself that he had made love to his new wife without any major issues and that she didn't run from the bedchamber screaming or that he had forgotten what to do. He was so in love with her now but did not wish to tell her so soon and desired that Elizabeth's emotions needed to evolve at their own pace, he wanted the chance to woo her at every opportunity, let her fall in love with him without the pressure of knowing he was in that happy state already.
As Darcy calmed down, he realised that he was already longing to take her again, but knew he should not, she was sore and he would be a brute to demand attentions again that evening, however much he wanted it. He then realised that in his haste to have her, she had not reached that pinnacle of pleasure, she had only reached a certain point before he completed and removed himself from her. He was determined that the next time he would make it up to her and ensure she took pleasure before him.
His turned back to his wife, only to see she had fallen asleep already, so he held her close to his chest, where he fell asleep with his wife in his arms.
An hour later, Elizabeth stirred, she woke cocooned in her husband's embrace, being half asleep she flinched not realising what was happening. This made Darcy stir, he pulled her tighter into him, "It's all right Lizzy, go back to sleep," he soothed. He kissed her shoulder whilst still half asleep himself, which made her relax back into him. She drank in the warmth his body emitted, she felt a weird sense of calm, in the arms of her lover, her protector, her husband.
Chapter 8: Flies and Feathers
Elizabeth was stirred from her sleep by a tickle on her nose and however hard she tried to swat that fly away, the pesky thing kept coming back. She had had enough after it returned for the fourth time so opened her eyes to find her husband gazing at her with a duck feather from his pillow in his hand, he had been tickling her nose with it for the past five minutes.
"Oh! it's you," exclaimed Elizabeth as she rubbed away the itch from her nose and nervously pulled her bed covers up under her chin.
"Well you wouldn't wake up, I had to take drastic measures to try and stir you. You are a very heavy sleeper Lizzy and the snoring was atrocious, I nearly put a pillow over your head at one point."
"I do not snore William, take that back!" she exclaimed. Darcy was laughing at his apparently affronted wife, "I am sorry my sweet, I couldn't resist, no you do not snore, you mumble though," he said with raised eyebrows.
"I know, my father had told me that I do but apparently it is not clear enough to understand."
"No it is not but it was endearing to listen to, even if it was for half the night," and with that Elizabeth got hold of her pillow and bashed him round the face with it making Darcy fall off the bed in hysterics.
Getting up off the floor, he stood there naked with his yard at half mast, on seeing this Elizabeth averted her eyes. Darcy got back into bed with a wanting look on his face, "Lizzy, are you still sore?" he asked as he kissed her neck just below her ear lobe in the hopes that she was not and allow him to take her again.
"I don't know," came a whispered answer.
Darcy's hand moved under the covers and slowly trailed his fingers down her body, Elizabeth tensed up as the initial contact, "Breathe and relax, it's all right, really," he said trying to calm her down. He got to her core and stroked her crease softly and gently, making her whimper. She started to relax into his side as she began to enjoy his touch but as soon as his fingers entered her she let out a cry and buried her head in his shoulder, she was sore.
Darcy stopped and held his wife, apologising for hurting her, last night had been a necessity to complete the marriage, but now she needed time to heal, he had to give her that at least. After a few moments he returned his hand back to her mons pubis, stroking and drawing circles around her bud with his fingers in the hope that he may arouse her. Elizabeth flinched at her husband's touch and on seeing this he quietened her with reassurances that he would not venture any closer to her soreness and wanted to give her pleasure.
Elizabeth kept tensing up at her husband's touch, "Try to relax my darling, I will not hurt you, I promise but you need to let your body react to my caresses." Darcy recommenced his tender kisses, which helped his wife's body melt as she allowed herself to accept his attentions.
It wasn't long before Elizabeth was beginning to tremble and jerk, Oh heaven's forbid, why am I shaking so much? she thought, so intense!
Darcy could tell she was close and needed to bring her to her peak quickly as his desires would soon take over, he had kept his baser instincts in check up until now but was in fear it would engulf his self-control. In an attempt to speed things up, he latched his mouth to her bosom and flicked her nipple with his tongue making her back arch up into his face. He continued for a short time before Elizabeth's breathing hitched and she screamed out her release moments later as she convulsed beside him, this nearly sent Darcy over the edge.
Elizabeth realised that she had screamed so loud that not only was she afraid she had burst her husband's eardrums but that the entire household would have heard her cry out. She grabbed the counterpane and pulled it up over her head, hoping that she could shrink into obscurity.
On seeing this, Darcy laughed, "Lizzy, what are you doing?"
"I am mortified! What just happened? I have never made a sound like that in my life and why did my body react like that?"
"Well, I gave you pleasure for a start and there is plenty more where that came from if you let me," he said whilst stroking her stomach with the tips of his fingers.
"It was so intense William, I have never felt anything like that before. Why did I not know about this?"
"Because it's one of those secrets of the marriage bed that is kept from unwed maidens such as you were up until yesterday. You enjoyed it, didn't you?"
Elizabeth came out from under the covers and smiled at her husband which told him she did, he was pleased that she had liked what she felt.
Now that she was calmer, Darcy pulled back his side of the bed covers to reveal himself and took hold of his wife's hand, placing it on his own intimate area. He curved her fingers around him and held her hand in place, she squeezed him instantly and he closed his eyes as he took a sharp intake of breath. Elizabeth wanted to continue so she propped herself up onto her elbow and started to stroke him tenderly along his length.
Darcy fell back onto his pillow and surrendered to his wife's movements, his yard growing bigger and firmer on each stroke and now stood perpendicular to the rest of his body. It was not long before he was on the brink of release, his hips jerked upwards a few times and his seed spurted out only to land on his stomach and his wife's arm. Calming down he looked over to Elizabeth, smiling at her he said, "I believe that I have married a wanton woman, Mrs Darcy."
She was astonished at that declaration, on seeing this he elaborated, "There is nothing wrong in wantonness in here, I want you this way and I do not want you to think that anything we do in here, or indeed my chambers, is improper or shocking, it is all acceptable so long as we both enjoy it." Elizabeth nodded at this and lay back down beside her husband.
Looking at the ejaculate on her arm she asked, "William, what just come out of you?"
"It is the seed that impregnates Lizzy, last night I released the same into you, this in turn may make you with child but I do not anticipate that it will be immediate."
With this knowledge, Elizabeth lifted her side of the covers and looked down between her legs, she had felt wetness there the night before but didn't realise it had been her husband expelling his seed into her. She gasped at what she saw, the bedding was red, she had bled in the night.
Putting the bedding back down she turned to her husband, "I think I have started my courses early, please can you leave the room so that I can sort myself out."
Darcy pulled the bedding back to look, but Elizabeth had a tight hold of the covers and wouldn't let him, eventually he managed to prize the covers from her and viewed the stain. "This is not what you think, remember I broke your barrier last night and you bled from the wound, that is why you are sore."
"Oh, what will the chambermaids think when they see the sheets?" she said frantically.
"I would imagine they are expecting it, the ones who attend this room are married and probably been through the same situation themselves," he said matter of factly.
"Lizzy, is there anything else you wish to ask before we get up for breakfast, I know this is all new to you and I would imagine you have a hundred things going around in that pretty little head of yours."
"Yes, how often do you think you will come to me? My aunt said some husbands visit seldom until the wife is with child and then stop until another heir is wanted."
"Bored of me already? I wish to bed you every night regardless if you are with child or not. The marriage bed is not purely to get an heir, Lizzy, it is for our pleasure also, you enjoyed yourself this morning, didn't you?"
Elizabeth nodded and looked at her husband with a shy smile, "I enjoyed it exceedingly."
"Well, we can do this again and again but first you must heal. In a couple of days we will be at Pemberley and can try coupling again, we could try tonight but I do not wish to take you at the travellers Inn. Now we should rise as we need to be on the road by nine o'clock and it's seven now," he said as he got up out of bed.
Elizabeth watched her husband walk to the other side of the bed to collect his robe, she could see his body was very muscular like the paintings she had viewed, she let out a gentle sigh and thought to herself how lucky she was with such a handsome man in her life.
"I am going to get ready, I will see you downstairs for breakfast shortly," and with that he blew her a kiss and returned to his room via the adjoining door.
Elizabeth found and used the chamberpot, which she was so desperate to use since awakening and wiped away the residue of her husband from her arm then pulled the bell cord in order to summons her maid. Five minutes later, the maid arrived and curtsied, "Good Morning Ma'am."
Elizabeth smiled and greeted the new maid, "Good morning Hannah. I would like to take a bath this morning if it is not too much trouble."
"No trouble at all, I believe the kitchen has already prepared the hot water for both yours and the master's bath, they will bring it up shortly. Would you like me to tidy your hair so that it doesn't get wet?"
"Yes please Hannah, I must look a mess this morning, I do hope you have the patience of a saint as my hair does tangle terribly."
It took ten minutes to get all the tangles out of Elizabeth's hair and by this time the bath was ready. Hannah placed some bath salts into the tub knowing that her mistress would be tender. Elizabeth relaxed in the water soothing her aching bones and her sore nether region. Thinking back over the past twenty four hours she realised how much of a whirlwind it all had been, yesterday she awoke a maid at her aunt and Uncle's house with little in the way of possessions. Today she woke a wife of a very rich and illustrious man, "Mrs Darcy," she said under her breath and smiled to herself.
Elizabeth had decided to come out of Full Mourning and into Half Mourning, so Hannah helped her dress into a muted lavender gown with black trim and a small round eared cap which covered a simple bun hairstyle.
"So, Hannah have you been working at Pemberley long?" enquired Elizabeth.
"Around five years ma'am, I used to work as a servant at The Bull Inn at Lambton and serve as a ladies maid when guests would come. My brother is an under-gardener at Pemberley and he was made aware that there was a vacancy for a maid for Miss Darcy, so he put my name forward for the job. Mrs Reynolds interviewed me and I started work straight way. When the master had informed Mrs Reynolds that you were to be married, she requested that I move from Miss Darcy to yourself. She is to have a new maid, I believe it is one of the servants from Matlock."
On Elizabeth's entering the breakfast room, Darcy looked up and smiled, you look even more beautiful out of black, he thought. Putting the paper that he was reading down, he rose to greet her with a warm tender kiss on her cheek.
"I forgot to ask this morning, how is your head?" Darcy enquired.
"It was a little fuzzy when I woke but somehow I seemed to had forgotten about it quite quickly." Elizabeth teased, Darcy just grinned at her like a cheshire cat.
Elizabeth sat to the side of her husband who was at the head of the table, she did not want to sit at the opposite end, the table could easily sit twelve people and she didn't want to be that far removed from him. The footman moved her placing from where it sat at the end to where she was. Elizabeth looked at the spread on the table in wonderment. Is this food for just two people?
On seeing his wife's quizzical look at the offerings, Darcy stated, "I didn't know what you liked, the remainder will probably be eaten by the servants or parcelled up for the tenants. Terrence here will probably eat half of it once we move to another room," he said in humour looking at the footman behind his wife, the footman's only reaction to this statement was a trace of a grin across his face.
Elizabeth took some bacon and egg with a slice of toast, remembering that this was her father's favourite dish on a Sunday. They ate in comfortable silence, however Elizabeth was being a little mischievous, she could feel her husband's foot in front of her and so run the front of her foot along the back of his calf. This made him splutter onto his plate. "Lizzy, not in front of the servants," he whispered but there was a smile behind the chastisement, making her giggle.
Luckily the table was clothed down to the ground so the servants couldn't see what was happening so she did it again, "Oh sorry William, I didn't realise your leg was still there," she said stifling a laugh. Darcy bent down and grabbed her leg under the table, removed her slipper and placed her foot in his lap, holding it in place and stroking her instep, now she felt uncomfortable and Darcy had one up on her.
The footman was instructed to leave the room to carry on with his duties elsewhere, in private Darcy started to discuss the previous night, "I must say I was a little taken back at your condition when I came to you last night, I was concerned as you were swaying all over the place," he said wanting a reaction.
"Oh no! What did I do? Oh I am mortified, I hope I didn't do anything embarrassing."
"On the contrary my sweet, you were a darling, a little giggly I must admit but you were so at ease for most of the time."
"Yes I remember what happened, well my fuzzy version, I must have looked a state."
"No you looked divine, do not worry about it, you pleased me beyond words," he said reassuring his wife. "Oh, before I forget, are you comfortable with Hannah as your maid?"
"I found her very charming, I felt at ease with her immediately, she reminds me a little of Betsy."
After finishing their breakfast they readied themselves to leave to visit Gracechurch Street before departing for Pemberley.
Chapter 9: To Pemberley
They reached Gracechurch Street at around half past eight, the whole household was up and finishing breakfast when they entered the vestibule. Mr and Mrs Gardiner greeted them and invited them into the parlour for some refreshments, Richard and Georgiana would follow them in once they finished eating.
Mr Gardiner eased into a conversation with Darcy, which gave Elizabeth chance to talk to her aunt before the others arrived. She ventured over to the other side of the room where her aunt was preparing the drinks to have a whispered conversation.
"How did last night go, Lizzy?" her aunt enquired.
"Oh Aunt, I got rather tipsy, Mr Darcy had a bottle of Champagne placed in my room, I am assuming to enjoy together but whilst I waited for him I drank half of it and became a little drunk. Mr Darcy made me drink some water and take a nap, then when I woke things progressed and I'm sure it was agreeable to him," then added to correct herself, "Yes it was agreeable, he said so this morning that I pleased him."
Elizabeth recollected the evening and divulged, "I am sure he was laughing at me at one point during my drunkenness but was very attentive and loving towards me."
At that moment, both Richard and Georgiana entered the parlour, "Good morning, brother, sister," Georgiana said whilst giving both a peck on the cheek.
"Morning Georgiana, how was your night here at Gracechurch Street?" Elizabeth asked.
"Oh very pleasant, your aunt and uncle are wonderful hosts, they let me play for them on the pianoforte after you left. I hear you play Elizabeth, we must do a duet at some point."
"Oh, that would be lovely, I must admit that I don't think I am as proficient as you are but I play well enough."
"Nonsense," Darcy interjected, "You play beautifully Elizabeth and your voice is like that of an angel, your rendition of Mozart's Voi che sapete was enchanting."
"Oh, we must play that together, Elizabeth, I love that piece but my voice will not carry the tune," Georgiana said eagerly.
"Once you are back at Pemberley in a month's time, we can then have an evening of entertainment for your brother and maybe Richard can join us?" she said looking over to her new cousin.
"I would be delighted to attend," Richard said in acknowledgement of the invitation.
They all sat and discussed arrangements for when Georgiana would return to Pemberley, she was to stay with Richard and return in a month's time, after the honeymoon period. Richard already had an open invitation but Darcy warned him that he was not welcome for at least a month and only when Georgiana had settled back home. At this, Richard smirked and winked at Darcy, "Don't start Richard," exclaimed Darcy, under his breath.
"What do you mean cousin? Cousin Elizabeth, do you know what your husband meant by that? I surely don't." Richard mocked.
Darcy just shook his head and told Elizabeth not to bother replying as Richard was making fun at his expense. Richard just snorted a laugh and attempted to hush himself as he didn't want to embarrass his new cousin.
"Enough, Richard!" Darcy admonished and at this Richard took in a deep breath in order to calm himself. Mr and Mrs Gardiner just sat there watching the scene play out, thinking it was all rather funny.
Half an hour later, the couple readied themselves for the journey North. Once in the carriage, Elizabeth questioned her husband's interaction with his cousin, "William, what was that all about with you and Richard?"
"Richard loves to tease me as he is the only person who can wind me up and he knows it. When I said he wasn't to visit for four weeks he smirked and winked at me. I don't think anyone else saw it but I knew his full meaning, by doing this he insinuated that we were not to be disturbed as we were going to be doing what we did last night for the full four weeks, I think the term is 'breed like rabbits.' "
Darcy's words left Elizabeth speechless so he continued in the hope of putting Elizabeth's mind at ease. "Darling, do not worry, he does this to me at every opportunity, I must admit that I think he realised after I told him to hush for the final time that he had to for your sake, by winding me up he also realised he would be hurting you and I do believe he had no intention of doing that, if he did then I would have his guts."
Darcy moved from the rear facing seat to that next to his wife. He took hold of her left hand and kissed the ring that he had given her the previous day, whilst looking at her he added, "I think I am going to be the happiest of husbands, Lizzy. I have only known you a short while but already have come to the understanding that we will get on just fine, as you can see I am already protective of you. I will not let Richard anywhere near you if he has teasing in mind, I will kick him out of the house if he starts that up with you."
Elizabeth felt a little tease coming on herself, "So will we?"
"Will we what, my dear?" Darcy questioned as he continued to kiss her palm.
"Be breeding like rabbits?" Elizabeth struggled to hold back a laugh in the hopes of looking as an innocent, she quickly sobered up though on Darcy's next words.
"Only if you wish to dearest, I wouldn't mind in the slightest, shall we start right this minute?" Darcy said longingly and on those words moved closer to steel a kiss.
The kiss was followed by another and soon enough they were in a passionate embrace. Darcy without realising moved his hand down to the hem of her skirts and started to ruck them up, at this Elizabeth pulled away.
"William, we cannot do that here, it is not proper, someone will see through the windows."
"No one will see us, I had lace drapes put up for privacy, we can see out but others cannot see in. No one will hear us either, the horses and carriage are making far too much noise for the servants to hear. I just want to feel you, stroke you, like earlier, please Lizzy?" he pleaded with puppy dog eyes.
Elizabeth relented and his hand moved higher into her bloomers as he kissed every inch of her bare neck. Darcy hoisted her leg across his lap and in doing so her thigh pressed into his manhood and the jostling of the carriage intensified the feeling. Elizabeth was beginning to feel a familiar sensation that she had first experience that morning and the wetness had returned. Her husband's hands were way up under her skirts and in her bloomers and stroking her between her legs, so gentle was his touch that it almost felt like a tickle, but as time went on the sensation intensified and within minutes she knew she was getting to a point of exquisite pleasure, Darcy could feel this about to happen and just at the right moment he kissed her deeply on the lips to absorbed her evidence of release.
After coming down from her high, Darcy pulled away slightly, "I think we need to stop, I want you so desperately now, I think I need to calm down before I take you on the floor."
Elizabeth quickly agreed and pulled away, signalling for her husband to move to the opposite seat and therefore putting as much space between them as physically possible. Elizabeth took the opportunity to straighten her skirts and re-adjust her bloomers.
In a haze of erotic thoughts, Darcy remembered the chess board that he installed into the carriage. "Do you know how to play chess?"
"Yes, father taught me, why?"
Darcy proceeded to unlatch the door to the cubbyhole under his seat and withdrew a box, he then removed a small fold-able table with a built in chess board and erected it between them, fastening the legs to the clamps on the floor so that it did not move. He placed the box on top and opened it, it was the chess pieces, Elizabeth's eyes lit up, "Oh a chess set, but wont it fall all over the place with the movement of the carriage?"
"Not this one, Lizzy, I had it specially made in Town, the board is part of the table which is bolted to the floor and has small holes in each square and the pieces have small plugs sticking out the bottom, so they fit in the holes, see it doesn't move." Darcy proceeded in showing Elizabeth what he meant, he placed a piece on the board, plugging the hole and flicked the top, it did not move.
"Oh how wonderful, shall we play now?"
Later in the afternoon Elizabeth yelled out, "Checkmate!" Darcy had been beaten. Looking out the window he realised that it was beginning to get dark and the inn where they had a bed for the night was soon upon them.
"I think we should pack this away for now my dear, we are nearly at the Inn, I took the liberty of only getting one room, I want to stay with you if you don't mind."
"No, not at all, I would prefer it, these Inns can be rather spooky at night," she said.
The following morning, they had breakfast and commenced their last leg of the journey home. Elizabeth invited her husband to sit back next to her, their cuddles and petting were to continue during the journey with several chaste and not so chaste kisses. The rest of the journey was spent in pretty much the same manner as the day before but Elizabeth, however, was beaten at the game of chess, but pleaded that her mind was so distracted on seeing her husband's bare neck, he had abandoned his cravat just before the end of the game in an attempt to sway the winning move from her to him.
During the last hour of the journey, Elizabeth began to get nervous the further they travelled into the estate, she hadn't realised the extent of how grand it was.
As a child it didn't register as to it's scale, it was several miles wide as it was long, Longbourn had only been about mile in both directions. On one hand it was a daunting prospect but on the other she relished the walks that could be had in the grounds. All Darcy could think about was that it would be a matter of a few hours before he could join her in her room again.
Drawing up to the front of the house, Elizabeth looked out of the carriage window in amazement, the house was not old but very imposing. The sand coloured stonework and style showed that the house was fairly new.
The servants had assembled at the entrance to greet the master and new mistress, Darcy descended from the carriage first and helped Elizabeth out, she was thankful for the help as her legs felt weak with nerves.
Introductions were first made to Mrs Reynolds, the housekeeper, who had worked in that position since Darcy was a child. The new mistress greeted the housekeeper, "Good Day Mrs Reynolds, delighted to meet you."
Mrs Reynolds smiled back and returned the greeting, "Good Day Ma'am, I believe we meet again, I do remember you from when you were a little girl, staying at Pemberley. I was Housekeeper back then to the old Master."
In recollection Elizabeth said, "Oh, yes, I think I remember you, you used to give me fruit sorbet in the morning to cool me down after we had been running out."
Darcy on hearing this was not happy that he missed out, "I don't remember that!"
A look of horror fell onto Mrs Reynolds face, "Oh sorry Sir, the Old Master wouldn't allow me to give them to you, but he didn't say anything about not giving them to the Mistress," she then smiled sweetly.
With that Darcy laughed and thought typical of his father, who was fastidious on his healthy eating regime.
The other servants were introduced including Hannah, who had arrived a few minutes after the Darcy's carriage. She turned to look further along the line and saw the Hills and Betsy. Turning back to her husband in a happy state she said, "Oh William, you persuaded them to join us here, oh thank you."
"It was nothing, Elizabeth, it turns out that Collins was about to throw them out of the house. I managed to send the letter in time before they departed, had it arrived a day or two later they would not have got my request."
Elizabeth beamed with delight and walked further along the line of servants greeting each as she went. When she reached her old staff she greeted them warmly, she wanted to ask all that had happened back at Longbourn, but knew that this was not the right time to enquire.
They entered the house and dis-robed of their outerwear, the weather now turning decidedly chillier than a few weeks ago. Darcy showed her into the parlour where a fire had been lit, Elizabeth moved over to the fire to warm herself. Darcy had to attend to something so once he saw Elizabeth was settled he announced that he needed to go speak with Mrs Reynolds with regards to dinner and would be back momentarily where upon he would take his mistress on a very small tour of the house.
On the tour, he advised her that he would only show part of the house, as the manor was so large it would take hours to show every room. They ascended the staircase to the second floor, Elizabeth's heart started beating heavy in her chest in anticipation, knowing that this must be where the bed chambers were and that her husband would want to seek her company again that evening.
Darcy stopped by an impressive set of double doors, heavy in their mouldings, he advised that this was his bedchamber and that the next door was hers, the set up inside was very similar to that of Darcy House with a sitting room in between and bathing areas to the side of each chamber.
Darcy took Elizabeth's hand and escorted her to her door and opened it. Elizabeth gasped at the grandeur of the room, it was very large but not imposing in the slightest, soft colours adorned the walls and furnishings making the room very feminine.
Hannah, her new maid, was busying herself in the room to the side, filling her bath with piping hot water in readiness for when her mistress would care to tidy herself. Darcy on seeing this, made his excuses to leave saying that dinner would be ready in an hour and that he would meet her downstairs.
Chapter 10: Dessert Tastes Better This Way
After dressing for dinner in a rather stunning maroon evening gown, Elizabeth went down to meet her husband who was standing at the bottom of the stairs.
As she approached him, Darcy looked at his wife, Oh my word! The little Minx, has she done this to tempt me? he thought whilst staring at her breasts, which were bouncing in the confines of her dress with each step.
As no one was around, he ran his index finger across her left bosom dipping it down, deep into her cleavage, "Tease!" he exclaimed.
"Mr Darcy, behave yourself!"
"I love the dress," he whispered as he gave her a tender kiss.
Throughout the meal, Elizabeth realised that her husband had requested the salt cellar from her no less than six times. "Haven't you rather a lot of salt on your food, William? You will ruin it."
"No," came an innocent reply, however he was scuppered by the formation of a grin. "I like my food salty," he continued trying to stifle a laugh.
She then realised her faux pas, he had been requesting her to pass him the condiments all evening with the intention of watching her bend forward so that he could gawp.
"William, you are insatiable!"
"Do not tell me you are affronted, you knew full well what you were doing when you put that dress on."
"No I did not, it's not my fault you cannot keep your eyes to yourself."
"Of course I cannot, not when you are dressed the way you are," he said waving his fork in the region of the orbs in question. Elizabeth just shook her head in dismay, tutting to herself whilst her husband just grinned at her.
After the final course was served, Darcy dismissed the servants for the evening, he got up and knelt by Elizabeth's chair, pulling her to him. He suckled the soft flesh whilst dipping his tongue between her breast, licking along her cleavage and sending shock waves though her body. "Oh Lizzy, you have driven me to distraction this past hour," he said whilst nuzzling her.
Darcy took his fingers and scooped out some ice cream from the dessert bowl, ready to spread it over his wife's décolletage. "William! What are you doing with that?" she said in a panic as he smothered her with the sweet cream, "Ah! It's cold!" Darcy chuckled as she gasped at the chill, making her bosom heave up and down.
"Such a wonderful way to eat dessert, don't you think?" he managed to say whilst licking her clean. This carried on until he had emptied the bowl and Elizabeth was a sticky mess.
"We must try this again in the privacy of our chambers, Mrs Darcy."
"Oh! But I have yet to partake of mine," she said with a raised eyebrow indicating an offer he couldn't refuse.
With that, Darcy picked up the full bowl and gave it to his wife, he then picked her up and carried her into the hallway and up the stairs to her chambers, all the while Elizabeth was cursing and giggling.
Entering the room, Darcy placed her back on the floor, he returned to lock the doors to the hall and sitting room, Elizabeth put the bowl down on the bed side table.
Darcy quickly returned to his wife, in a frenzy he started to undress her, nearly ripping her clothes. He was so eager that he didn't think about the condition of the dress. Lizzy started to undress her husband in the same manner, ripping the buttons off his waistcoat and shirt and yanking his cravat off of him, nearly strangling him in the process.
Finally they were skin on skin, Darcy pushed his wife back onto the bed where she fell back with a bounce, picking up the now melted dessert, he tipped it out from a great height across her body, where Elizabeth commenced to rub it over herself, Darcy growled in response to what she was doing.
Eagerly climbing on top of her, he commenced to lick and slurp the sweet nectar from her. Lizzy was so overtaken with lust, whimpering and groaning at every attempt her husband made to vacuum up the ambrosia from her skin. She moved her arms around his back and proceeded to claw at him with her fingernails sending Darcy into a new level of delirium.
Darcy's hands reached down into her crease and he could feel she was wet, he wanted to taste her but had to stop himself, No, that is for when we are making true love, I will not indulge now but Dear God! How I want to, he thought chastising himself.
He moved to between her legs whilst rubbing her with his fingers and entered her at the same time, it was difficult to keep balance with only one arm holding him up, but Lizzy could see the struggle and supported his chest with her forearms whilst placing her hands on his shoulders, this allowed him thrust into her with more vigour.
Elizabeth reached her peak first emitting a loud groan, which pushed Darcy over the edge in quick succession, he had never felt a woman contract around him before and as soon as he felt her tighten, he was lost in a cloud of ecstasy. Still inside her, he looked down at his wife as they both calmed down from their highs, he saw the most ethereal vision he had ever seen.
Now that they were calmer, they surveyed the state of the bed, realising that it was in such a mess they removed themselves to Darcy's chambers, where they washed the residue off their sated bodies and fell asleep in each other's arms until morning.
Chapter 11: What the Chambermaid Saw
It was early when Darcy woke Elizabeth, "Wake up Lizzy, it's six o'clock, I am just about to get up. That's it… open those pretty eyes of yours, come on sleepy head."
Darcy nudged her shoulders to wake her from her slumber, "Mm... it's too early, go away," Elizabeth grumbled.
"Oh my, we are a grumps first thing, I have to deal with some estate matters today and thought you would want to say morning, before I left."
As his wife did not stir, Darcy decided drastic measures were called for, he moved his hand under the covers to give her left nipple a tweak, this woke Elizabeth up with a start.
"Oh William, I did not realise you wanted that sort of greeting. Do you wish for intimacy now?" she inquired in a fluster.
"No, I just thought it might bring you to your senses, are you going to get up with me? We could take a walk in the gardens before my meeting with the steward. It's chilly, but a cloak should be fine for a short stroll around."
Darcy nudged her again and Elizabeth sat up in bed realising she wasn't going to be left alone, this made the bedding fall to her waist, exposing her bare bosom. On seeing this, Darcy declared as his eyes wandered over her body, "On second thoughts."
During the most crucial moment, one of the chambermaids entered to room, Darcy caught sight of her at the corner of his eye, "GET OUT!" he screamed between grunts, he stopped and immediately covered himself and his wife with the sheets. The chambermaid gasped on realising the room was occupied and run out crying. Darcy buried his head in Elizabeth's neck, "Well that has well and truly put a dampener on things," he said as he rolled off of her, "I will have to dismiss her now."
"Do not be so tough on the girl William, the servants probably thought we were in my room, the door is locked, remember? They were not to know we moved into this room during the night. I doubt she saw much anyway. Do you want me to talk to her?"
"She saw plenty, oh hell, I was grunting like a pig as well!" Darcy stated as he put his hand over his face, "No, let her stew and think about what she did, she should have knocked regardless Lizzy, one rule in this house is servants knock before entering, if they don't hear anything it is assumed the room is empty and they can enter."
"But William, you were rather preoccupied, maybe she did knock, I will have a word with her to ensure she knocks in future. It will be easier, woman to woman to discuss the matter, but please do not give her her marching orders when it was probably a simple mistake."
"If you insist, her name is Mary, ask Mrs Reynolds to have her come to you, I still think she should stew on it though," Darcy said begrudgingly.
Having both fallen back to sleep after the abrupt ending to their coupling, Darcy awoke an hour later. He left a note for Elizabeth on his pillow to apologise for leaving her but duties called, he added that he would be back in time for luncheon.
On waking and seeing the note, Elizabeth decided to take a tour of the gardens and surrounding grounds. The Gardens were, for the time of year, still very beautiful, the summer flowers had died away and were replaced with autumnal shrubs and late flowering plants, all filling the air with a sweet perfume.
Whilst walking, she came to a bridge that crossed the lake situated in front of the house. Elizabeth thought it was a magical place, the rippling water was very soothing and the general atmosphere of the crossing was magical with the billowing willow tree, which partially overhung the pathway. The bridge looked like it had been build around the same time as the house as the stonework was very similar. The lake itself seemed to be very well situated.
Elizabeth walked further along the path towards the trees which surrounded the open grounds, when she got close to the edge of the wooded area, she noticed something on one of the trees. Venturing over to the trunk in question she was surprised to see the initials, EB and FD engraved into the bark around four foot up from the base, it was weathered some but still easily legible.
She studied it for a few minutes and decided to return to the house to question her husband. On finding him in his study she enquired, "William, I just found our initials on a tree along the far pathway."
"Oh yes, I forgot about that, I carved that just after you left here in '96, I was saddened to see you go," Darcy recollected as he pondered those childhood days.
Bringing himself out of his memories, he continued, "I'm afraid I have to go back to see Harvey after lunch, I suggest you get familiar with the rooms, I have a set of keys here that Mrs Reynolds had cut, they are in a muddled bunch at the moment but I can ask Mrs Reynolds if she has a spare chatelaine, if you want it."
"Oh I can do that, William, I have been contemplating on going down stairs to the servants areas later this afternoon, so that I can better acquaint myself with them and their roles in the house and I need to talk to Mary."
"Have her come to you, you do not need to go below stairs."
"No I do not, but I wish to go below stairs. It will make the servants more at ease in their own environment and I wish to talk to Mary without any fuss, if they know she has been summonsed up to see me, they will gossip. I might also see if Mrs Hill or Betsy are down there."
"Very well, but do not be too long, they need to get on with their work."
"I will bear that in mind," Elizabeth said, kissing her husband on the cheek.
About an hour after lunch, Elizabeth went in search of Mrs Reynolds to see if it was a good time to visit the servants. Mrs Reynolds was found in her room, which was situated on the ground floor just near the stairs leading to the kitchens. Elizabeth knocked and entered, Mrs Reynolds was taken aback at seeing the mistress in that part of the building, "Ma'am! What brings you here, is there anything wrong?"
"Oh, no Mrs Reynolds, just a couple of things, firstly do you have something for these keys, Mr Darcy recommended a chatelaine, if you have a spare."
Mrs Reynolds started to rummage around in her draw for a spare set of chains, "Here you go ma'am, they are not very decent, I think maybe master should have a nicer set made for you by the jeweller."
Elizabeth nodded, then said, "And I was just wondering if it was possible that I could have a private word with Mary, the chambermaid?"
"Yes of course," she said with a worried brow forming.
Seeing her expression, Elizabeth elaborated, "Everything is fine Mrs Reynolds, I just would like a little talk, if that is agreeable."
Mrs Reynolds left to get the maid and five minutes later Mary entered Mrs Reynolds office with tears in her eyes, she shut the door behind her to allow for privacy. "Sit down Mary, don't be upset, I am not angry with you but need to understand why you came in this morning, whilst we were there."
"I am really sorry Mrs Darcy, I was told you were in the other room and I did knock but there was no answer so I entered, it's the done thing."
Elizabeth looked at the girl and noticed her hands, which were so cracked and sore. It was difficult to imagine her being able to hold anything let alone do manual work.
"What has happened to your hands Mary?"
"I have a skin disorder which is aggravated by the soap we used to clean."
"Knock on this desk, will you," Elizabeth requested.
Mary tapped gently on the desk as her hands were so sore, anything more would be painful.
"Is that how you knocked on our door this morning?"
"Yes, I cannot do it any louder due to the open wounds," Mary replied.
"I am going to request you see a doctor to see what they can give you, you cannot go through life like this if it can be helped, I will let Mr Darcy know the situation. I am sure he will be understanding once he knows. However, I would ask that you stay well out of his way for a while, he was not happy at all this morning and I managed to stop him from dismissing you. Oh and another suggestion is to tap with the tip of your boot in future if you need to enter a room."
Mary nodded and thanked Elizabeth before returning to her duties. Elizabeth asked Mrs Reynolds to have the doctor see to Mary's hands immediately but for the time being she was to be given lighter duties. She also requested if she could go downstairs to meet some of the other servants.
The kitchens were a hive of activity when the mistress descended the stairs, they were not expecting her and when cook saw her she almost dropped the large copper pan she was holding onto her foot.
"Mistress, what brings you down here?" the cook said as she curtseyed.
"Hello Julia, I have just come to acquaint myself with you all and have a look around, if that is acceptable."
Julia, the cook, just nodded her head in approval and showed the mistress around the kitchens and pantry. She reintroduced her to some of the other servants, who were mainly based in the kitchens and did not venture upstairs.
"Do you know where Betsy and Mrs Hill are?"
"Oh ma'am, they are out at the moment getting some items from Lambton, the shopkeeper got our orders wrong this morning and did not deliver all the goods, they have gone to collect them with one of the footmen."
"Oh what a shame, I wanted to talk to them, maybe some other time."
Elizabeth spent a further half an hour talking to the servants and then returned back to the main house.
Downstairs, Mrs Darcy's visit was the topic of conversation around the table at supper.
"So Julia, what did mistress say to you?" said Sarah, one of the chambermaids.
"I showed her around the kitchens and the pantry, I will need to find out from someone what her favourite meals are, maybe when Mrs Reynolds discusses the weekly menus with her, she can ask."
"How did you find her, Hannah said she was very down to earth and approachable," asked another maid.
"Yes, very, I was surprised she came down here, I don't think she is one of those ladies up in town, she seems very aware of what happens below stairs, unlike those of the so called Ton," Julia said, wobbling her head at the word Ton.
"Yes she is," Betsy interjected, "I, along with Mr and Mrs Hill were her servants at Longbourn with old Mr Bennet. It was a very small estate and there were only us three servants, but Mrs Darcy used to engage us everyday and help with the chores, she is not shy of a hard day's graft."
"I didn't realise you were under her employment, I just thought master had employed you as additional hands because of his return on a more permanent basis," said Julia.
"No, we were the old servants at Longbourn, it was such a sad occasion when Mr Bennet passed and Mrs Darcy was virtually thrown out of her home, the property was left to a distant cousin, not by Mr Bennet's choice I may add. We realised quickly after he moved his things in that we were for the chop too, as he had bought his own people. Luckily, the mistress had already asked the master to take us on and so here we are."
"Oh that poor thing, having to lose a parent and then her home, I am so glad she found the master and she can start a new life here," Hannah said.
"Well I think she will make a fine mistress here," Mrs Hill said, "She oversaw everything at Longbourn for best part of five years for her father, she kept the books straight and never spent more than what was necessary, she was able to account for every penny."
"Well, I am glad master married her, she will do very nicely as our mistress," Hannah concluded.
With that the servants conversation then progressed onto the normal gossips such as who was seen in the village holding hands and if Mrs Dreyfuss, the butcher's wife, was knocked up again.
Meanwhile, back upstairs, Elizabeth explained to her husband the situation with Mary, "I requested a doctor come and see her William, her hands are raw and bleeding. Mrs Reynolds advised me later this afternoon that the doctor has given her an ointment to use daily and recommended she wear some special gloves in future when doing her duties, I have given Mrs Reynolds permission to purchase two sets of gloves for the time being as they are rather expensive."
"I shouldn't have been so hard on her when I shouted, but it was a shock to see her standing there. I suppose we were lucky it was not Roger, I would have thrown him out on his ear if he saw you naked."
Elizabeth shook her head in dismay, "I told Mary to keep out of your way for a while, so you should see less of her."
"Oh Lizzy, you are such a diplomat when it comes to this sort of thing." Then Darcy lent in and kissed his wife, "Shall we retire and pick up where we left off this morning, my dear?"
Elizabeth nodded and they went upstairs to her chambers, locking all doors behind them.
Chapter 12: Bathtubs
During the night, Elizabeth got up to use the chamberpot to find that her menses had started. She discretely advised her husband the following morning of this to save him the embarrassment of coming to her, whilst she was indisposed.
Darcy advised Elizabeth that Mrs Reynolds had some Laudanum locked away if she wanted any, he explained that an old servant became addicted to it a while back and since then it's forbidden anywhere in the house other than Mrs Reynolds' room, where she has a lockable box.
It was reluctantly agreed that, for the time being, he would not intrude on her and as it was only for a couple of days, he would return to his chambers to give Elizabeth a bit more room in bed and get comfortable.
On the second night, Darcy felt the loneliness in his room, it had gone midnight and he was still awake tossing and turning in bed. He made his way to his wife's chambers and knocked on the door and entered, Elizabeth was asleep in bed already.
"Lizzy, can I sleep with you tonight?"
"William, I still have my courses," she stated sleepily.
"It doesn't matter, I just want to hold you and be with you. It's lonely on my own."
Elizabeth heard a boyish plea from her husband, in hearing this she pulled back his side of the bed covers and patted the mattress to invite him in. He jumped at the chance and got into bed, they snuggled down together and fell asleep.
The following morning, Elizabeth got up to use the chamberpot. Noticing that the bleeding had virtually stopped, she tidied herself and called for Hannah to have the bath filled for both herself and her husband in her bathing area. Darcy was still resting so she went back to bed instructing Hannah to just tap on the door when it was ready and to leave. Twenty minutes later she heard the knock.
"William, wake up," she said with almost a tuneful tone to her voice.
"Ergh, what time is it?"
"It's seven thirty, time to get up and have a bath."
"What do you mean have a bath? You're turning into Roger," he said sluggishly.
"No, I thought we could share a bath in my dressing room, it's all filled up, piping hot. We can have some time together, alone, in the bath."
That woke Darcy up, he sprung out of bed and run into the dressing area, nearly tripping up on the way. Yanking off his nightshirt, which he flung to the floor, he shouted out, "What are you waiting for Lizzy, get yourself in here, at once."
By the time she got out of bed and enter the room, Darcy was already immersed in the tub, smiling up at his wife.
"God, you are like a child at Christmas waiting for your present."
"Yes, and what a gift, now get in here at once," he said sloshing the water with his hands.
She sunk back onto his chest resting her head in the crook of his neck, she could feel his appendage poking up between her thighs and grinned when she looked down and saw the tip sticking out from just below her hair.
"Oh heaven, how I have missed you, I have been one frustrated man all weekend."
"It's been two days William, you are lucky that mine is so short, some women bleed for a week. What did you do before I came along, anyway?"
"That's another life Lizzy, it's a case of don't know what you want until it is missing, although I did spoil the sheets during the night following our first meeting," he said recollecting their introduction.
"What! You mean to say you did things to yourself after our dinner party?"
"Yes, I am afraid to admit it, I must add though that after I left you I went to Richard's and by the time I had got home from there I was totally drunk. Once I was in bed you were all I could think about, and then things, sort of happened."
With his recollections came his ardour, Darcy pushed his knees up between Elizabeth's legs and parted them which spread her limbs apart, he grabbed her calves and placed each one over the edge of the bathtub so that they dangled, dripping water onto the floor, this way Elizabeth was spread-eagled.
Darcy started to stroke her thighs, small circles to begin with and then he moved to her inner thighs, which were more sensitive. With this she went limp against his chest and started to breathe laboriously, Darcy proceeded to touch her crease and found her sensitive bud, doing this made Elizabeth whimper, which turned quickly into groans.
"That's it Lizzy," Darcy whispered to her softly.
"It's so intense," she cried.
"Hush now, feel my hands on you and my lips kissing your pretty neck," he said whilst moving his other hand to Elizabeth's bosom and gently kneading her until her nipples stood to attention.
Elizabeth's body started to jerk and tense in response to the sensations, the position of her legs stretched over the bathtub restricted her movement and she had no option than to submit to her husband, "Don't fight it, Lizzy, surrender to me."
With a few more stokes and kissing, Elizabeth cried out as she reached her climax in her husband's arms. At this point, he ceased his ministrations, lifted her up and impaled her on his erection, where he stilled, resting his head on her back in order to calm himself.
Once he had calmed down, he grabbed his wife's bottom and proceeded to lift her up and down on his member, Elizabeth grabbed the edge of the bath where she took most of her weight, however as the pace quickened he felt that he needed more leverage.
Whilst holding her body to his and still inside her he managed to get up and turn around to kneel in the bath, Elizabeth found herself on all fours. Darcy was able to plough into her over and over again, but stilled when he was about to release, then commenced again once he had pulled himself back from the edge and calmed somewhat. He was able to keep this cycle up for a while by which time Elizabeth was groaning again and on the verge of another climax. Darcy could feel her insides restricting around him, which only heightened his pleasure and soon they were both reaching their release simultaneously.
Darcy quickly grabbed his wife around the waist so that she didn't collapse into the water, Lord! that's the last thing I need, a drowned wife in the bathtub. Pulling her up, he held her tight, her back to his chest, rocking her back and forth not wanting the moment to end, Elizabeth relaxed back onto him, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder. There they stayed until the bath water cooled, forcing them to get out.
Later that day, as her husband busied himself with estate matters, Elizabeth decided to write to her aunt, it had been a week since she left London and there was much to tell.
13th November 1811
Pemberley Manor
Derbyshire
Dear Aunt
I hope this letter finds you both well.
I cannot believe it has only been a week since I left London, time has flown by but it feels like an age since I last saw you.
Firstly, may I say both myself and William are happy and in good health.
Pemberley is such a magical place, and indeed very large. I have only ventured out once into the grounds here, most of my time is in the company of my husband, who is determined to keep me to himself, selfish reasons I must admit that I am enjoying immensely.
Georgiana is due to return at the end of the month and Richard will not be far behind, I hope that Richard will be able to stay at Christmas. I know that you both are unable to join us here this Christmas due to your prior commitments, but I do hope you will be able to visit soon, business permitting of course.
Have you heard at all from that ogre Mr Collins? I wonder if he has changed anything at Longbourn, I do hope not. I would hate to think that someone has come along and taken out all the love that was in the place, but then that was lost when papa went and only left behind material things.
Today William is busy overseeing some sort of construction they are building in one of the fields, I believe it may be a community type building for the tenants. William said that it would be a great place for them to congregate, the only other places are the church and local Inn, neither are ideal for families to socialise.
The servants here are all wonderful and he managed to hire the three servants we had at Longbourn. Everyone dotes on William, I suppose that shows how much a great master he is to those working for him and his tenants.
Give my love to Uncle and write soon.
Yours lovingly
Elizabeth
Elizabeth put her quill down and turned to see her husband standing behind her, "Is everything as it should be, I thought you were out all day."
"Yes I have been out and will be going back again in a few minutes, I just came back for some blue prints from the study, I wonder if you would care to join me and meet some of the tenants?"
"Oh yes, I would love that, although I should really change my shoes, my dress is fine for walking out but I don't want to ruin these delicate pumps. I have my walking boots upstairs, if you could wait for me I will go change," with that Elizabeth ran up the stairs, two steps at a time. William looked on and thoughts of their childhood came into his mind, seeing his Lizzy go running up the stairs in such a manner had reminded him of their gallivanting around the woods, he smiled thinking how carefree she looked.
The couple walked to one of the adjacent fields to the construction site where several tenants stood, including wives and children. Whist Darcy was discussing construction issues with the menfolk, Elizabeth went over to the women to introduce herself. She had advised them that she would start calling on them in a few weeks once she took up her duties properly. One of the little girls asked, "So are you the new housekeeper then, missus?"
"No I am the new mistress, why do you think I am the housekeeper?"
"Cos Missus Rainholds used to come, but if you are now you must be doing her job."
Elizabeth laughed, "No sweetheart, I am the mistress, I am married to Mr Darcy and Mrs Reynolds was helping out until I came along to take over."
"Oh, so will you be bringing us cake then, Missus Rainholds did, it had loads of seeds in it."
"I suppose I can manage that, I will have to discuss with Mr Darcy if we can spare so much seed for the little birdies around here," she said pinching the little girls nose and making her giggle.
On the way back, Elizabeth asked, "William, do we have a school here at the estate where the children can go? I noticed that there were a lot with their mothers that are of schooling age, it's a shame they will grow up not knowing how to read or write.
If we could use the building you are erecting now during the day I am sure we can get a teacher in to help teach the children the three R's. Am I right in assuming the building will be unused during this time as the adults will be labouring on their farms?"
"Yes it will be and that is a grand idea, however I am not sure how many tenants will take up the offer, I assume a fair few will, as things are changing and people can no longer rely on just working the land. With machinery and factories setting up there is a need for trained labour, it only follows that people will need to know the basics."
"Let me ask when I go visiting, I am sure I can persuade them," Elizabeth suggested.
Darcy thought for a few moments then agreed, "As it is your idea I will leave it in your capable hands, once we have a number of pupils and the building is erect we will advertise for a teacher for maybe three days a week to start. I don't think the parents will stretch to six days as the children tend to help at home, but if things go well we can increase the school hours."
The following day, Elizabeth went back to her desk to continue her correspondence, she had yet to send her aunt's letter, preferring to send all letters together, this communication was to her dear friend, Charlotte.
14th November 1811
Pemberley Manor
Derbyshire
Dear Charlotte
Do not be surprised at the address on this letter head for I am indeed now ensconced in Derbyshire and a married woman.
Very shortly after I reached London, I met with a Mr Darcy, who is a gentleman of twenty eight years and owner of a very large estate in Derbyshire. Unbeknownst to me, my father and Mr Darcy's father had arranged our marriage when we were children, it was only discovered when Uncle Gardiner read through father's papers. I don't know how they realised this but father and old Mr Darcy must have been able to look into the future to witness our happiness as we are both very happy in our situation.
What news from Hertfordshire? Have you been introduced to that Mr Collins yet? I cannot believe that he is now your neighbour, I do hope he has not changed too much in the house or thrown out the furniture, I was quite fond of several pieces. I am sure he will annoy every tradesman in Meryton with his pompous attitude, how will you tolerate his company, poor Charlotte.
I hope you write soon dear and maybe visit me in the summer.
Your friend
Elizabeth
Chapter 13: Georgiana, Richard and a Consequence
Later that week, Elizabeth ventured into the library to acquaint herself with the hundreds, if not thousands of books that adorned the walls. Darcy was on estate business again and Elizabeth had the whole day to herself so thought it was a good place to spend it reading.
She was in the science section when she came across an odd looking book, she pulled it out to read the title, The Kama Sutra it looked like it was from India with drawings of couples in weird positions, there was writing under the pictures, which she did not recognise and under that an English translation written by hand. She realised the subject was on marital activities.
Oh my word, they have books for everything now days, she thought. She moved the books around where the book once sat in order to hide the gap it's absence had created, she placed it under her shawl thinking to herself, I'll study this at some point.
She quickly returned to her chambers where she deposited the book into her lockable box and stowed it under the bed for safe keeping, she then returned to the library to peruse a more sedate collection of material, however thoughts went back to the literature she had just hidden from her husband, would he be mad at me if he found out I stole the book, she thought mischievously.
The following week, she got a reply to both of her letters. Aunt Gardiner was glad that things were settling at Pemberley and had news that Uncle Gardner's business had received a boost in trade and was likely to expand, so he was extremely busy at the moment with additional meetings.
Charlotte's letter was less pleasant and caused Elizabeth a great deal of angst. Charlotte had written to say that not only had she been introduced to Mr Collins, but that within a week of their introduction he had asked for her hand in marriage and Charlotte had accepted.
Sitting in the library reading this, Elizabeth collapsed onto the sofa in floods of tears. Darcy, who was in the study next to the library, heard and rushed to her side, "What is the matter Lizzy, are you hurt? You look very distressed, what in the god's name has happened?"
"I have just received some dreadful news for Hertfordshire, Charlotte has received a proposal from Mr Collins and she has accepted him. She knows how I feel about that man and yet she has agreed to be his wife, she will be the new mistress of Longbourn."
"Oh Lizzy, I suppose there are people in this world who have to accept the first proposal they receive as it may well be the only one they will ever get. From what you have told me Charlotte is already eight and twenty and virtually a spinster, so I would imagine she had little choice in the matter. Not everyone can be fortunate in their match," he said whilst wiping away her tears.
Elizabeth calmed herself down, thanking him for his take on the matter. Yes, Charlotte was not in a position to pick and choose who she would wed, being not far from thirty years old she was already a hindrance to her parents who were increasing with age. To have a daughter still living at home when they reached their sixth decade was a worry. The estate was such that it would pass to Charlotte's brother but she could not assume he would support her for the duration of her life. She had to find her own position in the world and if that was with Mr Collins then so be it, at least she knew that Longbourn would be looked after properly. She did, however, make one promise to herself that if Charlotte should ever come to Pemberley it would be an invitation for her alone, Mr Collins would not be allowed to set foot on Pemberley grounds.
A month had passed since their marriage and Georgiana was due to return that morning.
As the carriage drew up, Elizabeth and Darcy went out to greet her, "It's good to see you, Georgiana, I hope you had a pleasant trip?" Elizabeth enquired.
"Yes thank you Elizabeth, I went most of the way with Richard, we left him at Matlock Manor. He will be along in a couple of days to pay a visit. Oh brother, he reminded me to tell you to make sure you have enough brandy out, the good stuff," she said as she kissed him warmly.
Typical, thought Darcy, he knew his cousin well and knew he would get through three bottles of good stuff in no time, but Richard only had a Colonel's salary and he would not begrudge him a treat of his favourite tipple once and a while.
They entered the drawing room where they had tea prepared. Georgiana proceeded to tell them about her stay with her aunt and uncle, "I enjoyed it there but something happened in the second week of my stay, I kept getting ushered out of the room on several occasions. Most likely it was a case of Aunt wanting to chastise Uncle for his disappearing acts he would do during the day, which were often. I did overhear it said that he was visiting a young lady in town, but I don't think that would be the case, why would he need to go visiting ladies who were not in the family circle."
Darcy looked over at Elizabeth and rolled his eyes, she realised what type of lady this woman was and this made her feel uneasy and was not comfortable at all with this knowledge. She had recently discovered that it was general practice for a gentleman to take a mistress after marriage, could her husband do that to her in the future when he grew bored?
This thought quietened her, which Darcy noticed instantly. Elizabeth at this point was in turmoil, she could not shake the thought of her husband with another. She made her excuse to retreat to her room, faking a headache.
Within ten minutes, Darcy had made his way to his wife's room and gently knocked at the door, "Lizzy, can I come in for a minute, I think we need to talk."
She didn't want his company at that particular time and she certainly didn't want to talk, but knew he wasn't going to go away so allowed him to enter.
"I could not allow you to come up here and wallow in your thoughts. I know what you are thinking Lizzy, I could tell straight away what was playing on your mind.
My Uncle is a cad, he doesn't care about his marriage vows, but I do." Elizabeth looked up at him wide eyed and then back down to her hands, which were placed in her lap. He continued, "I cannot say you are the only woman I have laid with as that would be a lie. However, I can say for sure that there was only one other woman when I was nineteen, my father had purchased her services over the course of a weekend to teach me how to... lay with a woman. I do believe he expected me to take up a mistress straight away, but I was not prepared to do that. The woman was an instructor and nothing else and to be honest I found the whole thing degrading and embarrassing. Please believe me in saying that I will never ever make you a Cuckquean, you are too precious to me to do that."
"I guess I over reacted, it's so early in the marriage William that I feel a little vulnerable in my situation."
"No, God No! You must never think that, you are my wife and I will treat you with respect. I know our marriage was arranged but that does not mean that I will respect you or our vows any less for it," Darcy said, hoping his wife would accept his declaration.
They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, "Elizabeth, please say something, talk to me, I need to know how you feel, your silence is killing me."
"Do not worry, I am fine with what you have just told me, I knew that there was at least one person before me, no innocent would know how to do the things you have done to me over the past few weeks, I knew that you must have had some experience in the bed," then Elizabeth added, "Do they really have tutors that teach that sort of thing?" with that she burst out laughing.
"Yes and if you have the nerve, Richard can vouch for it, the Earl bought him a two week course," he confirmed with a throaty laugh.
Darcy was relieved that his wife was not upset with the truth, again he reassured her that he would never act like his uncle and left her to take a nap with the intention of returning to his sister, whom he left in the parlour.
Georgiana had been home for a few of days when she was out in the gardens and saw Richard ride up on his horse.
"Richard, you have come," she cried out.
"Hello Georgie, didn't think you would be that glad to see me, it's only be a couple of days," he said laughing as he dismounted.
"Oh come into the house, Elizabeth and William are having breakfast, they got up late again this morning, I feel they spend too much time at night talking and not getting enough sleep."
Richard thought, More likely they are bouncing around on the bed, enjoying themselves.
Richard walked into the breakfast room with Georgiana, announcing his arrival with a jibe, "So can I have some late breakfast?"
Pointing at the empty chair next to his wife, Darcy invited him to sit, Georgiana sat opposite Elizabeth, on Darcy's other side. Richard observed the love birds and noticed that Elizabeth was beginning to blush, "Morning Elizabeth," he said turning to his new cousin, "Oh what's the matter, you look rather flush, are you hot?"
"Stop it Richard, that's enough, you have just walked in and started up already. Elizabeth, ignore him."
Richard grinned and put his hands up to surrender, "Fair enough Darcy, I will behave myself, I'll be a good little boy, I apologise Cousin Elizabeth."
He continued, "I see you are building something in the next field along, what have you got planned?"
"It's going to be a gathering place for the tenants, oh and a school during the day. Elizabeth had a good idea to use the building in the daytime, when it's not being used it will be set up to educate the children on the estate. We are to advertise for a position of teacher, it's early days yet but it all looks promising."
"That's a darn good idea, most of the labourers do not have access to schooling, but times are changing and think it will become a normal way of life."
"Yes, that's what myself and Elizabeth concluded, everything is moving so rapidly in industry, who knows what will happen to farmland in a few years time, I have already got other projects on the go since father died."
"That's right, you got your fifteen estates you purchased, are they all filled yet?"
"Yes, but one of the gentlemen plans to not renew his lease at the end of next year, he originally took it for five years and it's due to expire in October, he wants to move to the coast as he's getting on and feels the sea air will benefit his health."
Elizabeth was quietly listening to the conversation going back and forth between the two gentlemen, she was shocked to hear he had fifteen other estates, not including Pemberley and his house in town and all brought in an income. He had mentioned it on their first meeting but didn't realise there were quite so many.
"William, do you mean to continue to buy properties in order to let them out?" Elizabeth enquired.
"Yes, I think there is a great deal of money in that part of business. Most of my tenants are not of the gentry, but of high ranking officers such as Captains or Generals, all have acquired wealth and wish to improve themselves by running an estate. The estates I have are nowhere near the scale of Pemberley, they are a lot smaller, which the officers can afford. I can get more income from two smaller estates than one large one."
"Isn't that what Bingley is doing, Darcy? Trying to find himself an estate to buy?" Richard asked.
"Who is Bingley?" Elizabeth interrupted.
"He is an old friend I met at Oxford, I have known him nearly ten years, he is a gentleman but his money originally came from trade, his father built up a business so successful that he was able to put a significant sum into investments and put his son through university, he is new blood."
"Where is the old chap anyway, he used to be on your coat-tails most of the time, along with his pretty little sister."
"He's been touring the country trying to find an estate to buy, I said I would help but he insisted on doing it by himself, so he's been travelling with his sister for the past few months." Darcy declared.
"Brother, I would have thought that Miss Bingley would have grown bored of that by now, so she is still with him?"
"Yes as far as I know, I have not heard from him for a couple of months, last time I saw him was in September, in London."
"I am not sure if I like Miss Bingley or not, brother, she seems very uppity to me. Do you know she snubbed Mrs Reynolds last time she visited," Georgiana proclaimed.
"Now Georgiana, you shouldn't go around talking about acquaintances like that."
"But brother, I have heard you say things about her."
"No I have not, you must have heard wrong," he said, worried that Georgiana would relay what he said about that woman. Changing the subject he asked, "Georgiana will you play for us later today?"
"Oh yes, we were going to have a duet Elizabeth, remember?"
"Yes, we can practice this afternoon and then after we have eaten we can give our rendition for the gentlemen. No Singing along William, I heard you last time I sang, you hummed all the way through it."
"Oh come now, you would not begrudge me to sing along with my wife, would you?"
"Well I wouldn't if you could sing, but William, you are tone deaf."
"I am not!"
"You are Darcy," Richard added, "Have you not noticed that I always stand behind you in church."
"Oh brother, do not let him upset you, you can't be good at everything." Georgiana said, trying to sooth the situation.
"Well I wont join in from now on," Darcy said with a sulk.
"Here, Here!" Richard jeered.
At that moment, Elizabeth took Darcy's hand and held it, he looked up at her and could not help but smile. "Do you still wish for me to sing this evening, William?"
"Yes, Elizabeth, nothing will give me greater pleasure than to hear you sing."
Richard nearly choked on his toast.
Later that day after her piano practice with Georgiana, Elizabeth approached Darcy in his study. "William, can I put a suggestion to you? You may say no, but it would please me if you did not," she said sweetly.
Darcy looked up at his wife with a look that made her melt, "What is it and I will try and accommodate you."
By now Elizabeth was sitting on his lap playing with his sideburns, "Well, you said earlier you buy estates and lease them out, could you bring yourself to purchasing Longbourn?"
Darcy moved his head back slightly to look at his wife, "Whatever has brought this on? I thought you had resolved yourself to the fact that your friend will soon take up residence as mistress."
Elizabeth explained whilst her fingers carried on brushing his cheeks, "I know, but after you mentioned the properties earlier it got me thinking, I would dearly love for you to own Longbourn and maybe one day it can be given to one of our younger children who will not rightly inherit Pemberley, maybe one of our daughters?"
"You're thinking very far ahead, but suppose it's the best time before Mr Collins is settled and attached to the place, I shall see what I can do, but no promises. Now Mrs Darcy, what are we going to do about your roaming fingers."
Elizabeth giggled, "What were you thinking, sir?"
As there were now guests in the house, he could not just lock the door to his study and remedy the situation across his desk. "Go upstairs, Lizzy, I will be along in a few minutes."
With that Elizabeth removed herself from his lap and run out of the room and up the stairs. Darcy calmed himself for a minute or two so that the evidence of his state was not so noticeable, he quickly followed her footsteps to her chambers, where she was waiting.
The couple emerged, relaxed but hungry when dinner was ready. On entering the dining room, Richard could tell immediately what they had been up to, but as he had already been warned of his teasing, he kept quiet in the whole, but he could not help give Darcy the odd raised brow when the ladies were not looking.
Later, they withdrew to the drawing room, where the pianoforte stood. A joyous time was had by all, Darcy had managed to not sing throughout his wife's rendition of Voi Che Sapete, whilst Georgiana accompanied her on the instrument.
They played a game of consequences, it read,
A tall distinguished gentleman one day was strolling in the park
His name was Rufus
He was in love
Her name was Bridget
He met her there earlier in the week
He was in his Sunday best
She was dressed in her work clothes
He asked her the time on her watch
She said she didn't have one
They parted company without further ado
The onlookers did not notice them, but Rufus noticed her.
Elizabeth frowned at the story, "Poor Rufus, I hope he sees her again, that is sad."
"Cousin Elizabeth, it is only a story, you should not think too much into it."
"I know but all the same, it's sad,"
The whole party burst out laughing. The remainder of the evening was spent between more consequences and card games, by the end Richard was worse for wear on Brandy so Darcy's valet, Roger, had to put him to bed.
Chapter 14: Wind in the Willows
A week later, Darcy was deep in thought in the gardens, Richard approached him, "Penny for your thoughts cousin," he enquired as he handed him a stiff drink and sat down beside him on the steps, bottle in hand.
"I was just thinking about my wife," he said with a sigh.
"Aren't you always Darcy, you got it bad, anyone can see that, your puppy dog stares are a permanent fixture on your face when she is in the room."
"I don't know what you mean, am I not allowed to look at her."
"Yes, of course you are, the way you look at her shows how deep you feel towards her. Darcy you are besotted, I could see it from as early as our introduction in London."
Darcy's head flopped forward into his hands, "What am I to do Richard, I love her so much but I fear she does not return it, she is amiable enough when we are alone but that isn't enough, I want her heart, I want her to want me, need me, not be able to live without me, is that too much to ask?"
"Not in the slightest," Richard said pausing for a moment before continuing, "Well the only way to find out, my old chap, is to just ask her how she feels, I assume you talk to each other?"
"Yes, but never about emotional stuff, I am too scared to approach the subject. You know I have had little interaction with women, well none in fact when it comes to discussing important matters of the heart, I don't consider small talk with the harpies in town relevant experience, most of the time I have spent trying to escape their claws."
"Ha-ha! Yes they can be a vicious bunch, but you? scared? Darcy, it may have dropped your notice but you are the master of Pemberley, scared should not come into your vocabulary. Just sit down with her before you go to bed and talk to her, she probably knows how you feel about her, if I have picked up on it, I am sure your wife, who you are intimate with, has."
Darcy smirked at his cousin, he knew he was being stupid, "I will speak with her tomorrow, I cannot do it now, it's too late and I have to think of what to say, I can't just blurt it out."
"Psych yourself up, more like."
"Yes I suppose you are right, again." Darcy said raising his glass to clink Richard's.
"Here's to love, devotion and happiness."
"Here! Here!"
That night, he joined his wife as he had previous nights and something so small, yet so significant happened between them, something that would surely change them forever.
The following morning, Darcy decided to take a ride around the grounds to clear his head from the half bottle of brandy he consumed with Richard. The weather had turned decidedly bad overnight and winds were beginning to pick up, however he dismissed this as an issue, he had ventured out in worse conditions than this.
Elizabeth was still in slumber, he had gone to bed in a drunken but happy state the night before and kept on at his wife well into the early hours with his attentions, waking her up several times during the night for relief to his throbbing yard. Elizabeth didn't get much rest and so Darcy left her sleeping in, he himself had a bad head from the effects of the alcohol so decided to get up and get some fresh air.
He left a note on the pillow next to where she slept,
My Darling, Lizzy
I have woke to you still in rest, I could not bring myself to wake you again, you looked so beautiful.
I am sorry for having continuously disturbed you in the night, I had rather a lot to drink and my cravings were not tamed from it's effects.
I leave you with your dreams as I mean to go out for a ride to clear my head of it's fogginess. I wont be more than a couple of hours so I should be back by ten, we can then have a late breakfast together.
I will see you later, my sweet.
Dream of me.
William
By twelve o'clock, Elizabeth was beginning to worry, she summoned Mrs Reynolds, "Mrs Reynolds, do you know if Mr Darcy has returned from his ride yet?"
"No ma'am, I don't believe he has, he usually comes back into the house via the boot room to decant of his riding gear. His crops and outerwear are not there so am assuming he is still out riding."
Elizabeth was now more worried, she had expected him back before ten and the weather turned decidedly stormy as the morning wore on. It was now in the middle of a storm and the winds were making the windows shake.
She requested that Harvey join them, "Mr Jones, can you please arrange for a search party to go out and look for the master, I know it maybe a bit premature but the master stated he would be back by ten and it's now nearly one o'clock, I have a strong feeling something has happened."
"Yes Mistress, at once," said Harvey, "I will call on all the male staff and tenants to do a blanket search of all the fields and pathways around. If Colonel Fitzwilliam can also join us that would be of help, his knowledge of the master's regular routes and his training in the military may give us a better chance of finding him before nightfall."
All the residents and staff congregated in the vestibule, a few more trusted men were given hunting horns or pistols so that if they spotted him they could send a message to the rest of the party.
At the same time, Darcy's horse appeared at the stables, the stable boy run back to the main house announcing that the animal had returned without the master.
Elizabeth nearly fainted at this new information, Mrs Reynolds had to get a chair for her and tried to calm her down with reassuring words whilst the search party, headed by Colonel Fitzwilliam, went to look.
With all the commotion that was going on in the hallway, Georgiana came out of the music room wondering what was going on. Elizabeth wanted to keep her new sister ignorant of the situation so as not to worry her. However Georgiana, on seeing all the activity and Elizabeth's stance, knew that something was terribly wrong.
She sat down beside her, "What has happened, where is my brother?"
Elizabeth looked up into the same eyes as her husband's only to say, "We don't know," before she broke down in tears.
Mrs Reynolds continued, "Mr Darcy went for a ride on his horse this morning and has not returned, the horse however has just come back to the stables, alone."
Georgiana took a sharp intake of breath, "What is being done to find him?"
"Georgie, we have a search party out including cousin Richard, there are at least a hundred people out looking for him, hopefully they will find him before dark," Elizabeth managed to say before breaking down again.
Georgiana and Elizabeth both sat there just holding each other, each trying to console the other. Mrs Reynolds ordered a pot of strong sweet tea for the shock and gently coaxed them into the parlour, where they sat for hours awaiting any small amount of news.
The search party was out for most of the day, it was mid winter and the light had started to diminish early but they continued into the early hours of the morning knowing the master might not survive the December temperatures.
At around two in the morning a horn was heard from one of the tenants in a field about a mile from the main house, he had found Darcy face down on a makeshift pathway around the edge of the field, there was a large branch nearby, which had fallen from one of the trees.
Darcy was hoisted onto the back of a cart, which had just arrived and was taken back to the house at speed.
There was a flurry of activity as the men got Darcy into the vestibule, Elizabeth's heart jumped when she saw the state of her husband, lying there motionless. "Take him up to his rooms, Mrs Reynolds please can you show the men the way." Darcy was placed onto the bed and the stretcher removed, all but Elizabeth, Mrs Reynolds and Roger were ushered from the room.
"I have called for Dr Evans already ma'am, a boy was sent to get him not a half hour ago when we knew of the master's whereabouts, he will be here any minute. I feel that he should not be disturbed until the doctor has seen him, any additional movements may cause more damage. Roger, just put some blankets over him for the time being to keep him warm and as soon as the doctor has seen him and is in agreement, you may clean the master up and cloth him in his night attire, also we need to stoke the fire and keep it warm in here."
The family stood silently in the private sitting room between the two master chambers, whilst Dr Evans carried out his examinations. He entered the room where the family and Mrs Reynolds were sat, waiting patiently, "Mrs Darcy, I cannot see any other injury other than maybe concussion, he does not have a bump and I do not suspect a head injury as his pupils are dilating in response to light. It is more than likely the branch fell in front of the horse, startling it and Mr Darcy fell as a consequence, the fall probably knocked him out, let's just be thankful that he fell on soft grassy soil.
I must warn you that the length of time he has been out in the open could result in him getting a chill or a fever, but this is only a possibility. He is a strong healthy man of few years so should be able to fight it off.
I will call back tomorrow to see how he is, if his state changes before then, please have a servant fetch me straight away. Other than that it is only a matter of waiting for him to come around, then we can assess him further."
Elizabeth was beside herself, but kept a control on her emotions until the doctor was excorted from the room. Once he had exited, she broke down in tears and collapsed to the floor. Richard, being the closest, helped her to her feet and over to the chaise, calming her as he went.
Richard insisted that Georgiana go to bed, saying that there was little she could do and that Elizabeth would want some time with her husband.
"But cousin, I wish to stay too," Georgiana pleaded.
Richard's response was adamant, "Now Georgie, there is nothing you can do at this moment in time, once he wakes then you can sit with him. He will probably have to stay in bed for a time and will quickly get bored and grouchy, so company will be desperately needed. Besides, it's very late and you have had no sleep. Go to bed, you will need your strength for when he wakes."
Mrs Reynolds instructed Hannah to escort her back to her room and told Richard that it would be best for him to also get some sleep, leaving Elizabeth on her own with her husband.
Chapter 15: Into Darkness
Elizabeth returned to her husband's bed, he had been dressed in his night attire by his valet, who had already vacated the room. She managed to disrobe of her clothes and dressed in her nightgown, which had been laid out by Hannah earlier in the day. She lay down beside the still body of her husband and just watched him, hoping for him to wake up.
It seemed like hours that she lay there staring at him, watching him in his silence, "William, please wake up, you cannot leave me now, I have only just found you, I don't think I could cope without you by my side. You are my light, my love, my happiness," she whispered to him.
Realisation then hit her, she was in love with him. How could she have missed how she felt about him, he was her saviour, her knight in shining armour that came bounding along to rescue her at her hour of need.
As she lay there she recollected his many looks at her, looks of, could it be love? He had shown from early on his caring side, his playfulness, his protectiveness of her. The gentle touch he bestow on her, which sent tingles down her body.
She placed her hand on his chest so that she could feel his reassuring heartbeat and fell to sleep next to him, exhausted from the day.
Elizabeth was awoken the following morning by her hand being covered with another. She recognised the touch, her eyes sprung open and she sat up, looking down at him she saw that he was stirring but still had his eyes closed, he groaned and squeezed her hand.
"William, it's Lizzy, please wake up."
"Ah, what happened?" he said as his other hand went to his brow. "Why does my head hurt so much?"
"You have been in a riding accident, a branch came down in the storms and we think it startled your horse which made you fall off, you've been unconscious for nearly twenty four hours."
Darcy opened his eyes very slowly, blinking as he did, "Why have no candles been lit, Lizzy, why are you sitting with me in the dark?"
"What do you mean, it's bright sunshine in here."
Darcy was quiet for a few moments, "Lizzy, I cannot see," he said with increasing anxiety.
Elizabeth gasped at her husband's exclamation, "The doctor needs to be called, do not panic," she said trying not to show her own worry in her voice.
With that she rung the bell cord for the housekeeper, when Mrs Reynolds came to the door, Elizabeth moved herself over to where she stood and quietly requested that Dr Evans attend immediately and that Mr Darcy had awoken, but all was not well. She saw the shock on the housekeepers face, but would not divulge any more information.
The doctor attended in the presence of Elizabeth, Darcy did not want to be left alone with the physician. She sat beside him holding his hand throughout the whole examination, this did not go amiss with the physician.
"Well Mr Darcy, I have looked into your eyes and I cannot see any cause, there is no trauma to the optic nerves, so the blindness will be temporary."
Elizabeth could see that her husband was still distraught, after the doctor took his leave she lay down next to him and held him firm and rocking him in her arms, "Close your eyes, I am here, all will be well."
"Lizzy, what happens if my sight does not return? I will no longer be able to run the estate, see your lovely face," he stopped hesitantly then added, "Or our children grow up."
Elizabeth could hear the trembling in his voice, she paused to think, What if he does not recover fully, what would happen then? Remembering what the physician said, Will be temporary,she had to concentrate on those words. "Do not say that William, you heard the doctor, he said it will return and is only temporary, it will just take time."
Over the next few days, Darcy was made to stay in bed, his wife was constantly by his side and both Georgiana and Richard spent time with him. Georgiana would also play her pianoforte in her private sitting room down the hall, leaving all the doors open so that Darcy could enjoy the tranquil melody, whilst she played.
About a week after the accident, Elizabeth awoke with a start at the sound of the thud as Darcy fell to the floor. Looking up from her pillow, she could see his still body in the dim light of the candle, she jumped out of bed and ran over to where he fell, trying to wake him, but he stayed silent.
As Mrs Reynolds had temporarily taken up residence in the family quarters the previous week, in case of an emergency during the night, she was able to get to the master chambers within a matter of a few moments after hearing Elizabeth's cries for help. On entering she immediately saw both the master and mistress on the floor, she could see the master was out cold and the mistress hovering over him.
"Ma'am, we need to get him back into bed and call the doctor, I will get Roger to help, I suggest you put something on to cover yourself."
Elizabeth grabbed and put on her robe, which was at the bottom of the bed, just as Roger came into the room. He was a very large strong man and had no trouble in picking his master up like a limp rag doll, carefully placing him back onto the bed.
When the doctor came, he examined the patient and confirmed there were no further injuries and he would awaken in due course. He was however rather concerned that the master had tried to venture from his bed during the night without anyone knowing.
Elizabeth said that her husband was being unhelpful in co-operating with anything she suggested and when she had threatened to have someone stand guard during the night, whilst they slept, Darcy had an almighty meltdown so she relented and allowed them to sleep alone.
"Do not worry Dr Evans, I will be having a firm talk to him when he wakes up," Elizabeth said in annoyance at her stubborn husband's antics.
The following morning Darcy woke, he could just make out the light from the windows, he turned to see his wife in the faint glow of the morning sun, he moved across the bed and kissed her tenderly, this made Elizabeth awaken. "Oh, William!" she exclaimed in shock.
"Lizzy, I can see you, only just, but I can see the light from the window as well, I think it's returning," he said with every bit of relief.
"Oh, can you really see? I'll call for the doctor, we had a bed made up for him as he was called a few hours ago."
"Why was he here in the middle of the night?" Darcy said with an air of confusion.
"Do you not remember getting up out of bed last night? My dear, you walked across the room and knocked yourself out again, I think you walked into the wall, the doctor was called immediately."
"Oh I don't remember that, maybe the knock bought my eyesight back," he said with a chuckle.
"William, it's no laughing matter, you could have been seriously hurt, heaven forbid you ventured too close to the fire and caught yourself alight!" At this Darcy's face dropped, he could just make out the look on his wife's face and how pale and tired she looked, the last week had taken it's toll on Elizabeth, but for obvious reasons he was oblivious to this fact.
"I am sorry my darling, I know I was an ogre this past week."
"I understand the stress you must have been under and your stubborn streak took hold, I was going to give you a lecture this morning and threaten with having you watched over at night by Roger, while I slept back in my own bed."
"No! you can't do that Lizzy, we have not slept apart for weeks," Darcy said in a panic.
"Well it's a good job you have your sight back, you must however not get out of bed until the doctor comes in to check on you. I will wait until he is up, no point in disturbing him again at this hour."
"Yes, my sweet," is all that Darcy could say, knowing he had behaved foolishly.
As agreed, the doctor was called back when he rose for the day to examine Darcy, Dr Evans could see nothing wrong and therefore gave him a clean bill of health. Darcy proceeded to ask if activities could be resumed as normal, the doctor knew exactly what he meant even though his wife did not pick up on the meaning. He said it was but not to over extert himself and to stop whatever he was doing, if he felt ill.
"You will not be going horse riding for a while William, I am insistent that you will not get back into your saddle for at least a month, and if I had my way it would be much longer, but I know you would not agree to that," Elizabeth said with a firm tone.
Darcy just nodded to his wife, smiling at how protective she had become. Pondering over her caring attentions the past few days, he thought of how she would be as a mother, such a caring yet firm side to her.
It was New Year's Eve and the family had just finished a wonderful dinner and decided to venture out into the gardens to welcome 1812.
Darcy, uncharacteristically, held his wife in his arms in front of the everyone and planted a slow kiss upon her lips, "William, not here."
"Mm? What is that my dear, I can't hear you?" he said kissing her again.
"You lost your eyesight, not your hearing, think of your sister," she managed to say between his steady stream of affectionate kisses.
"I'm sure Georgie doesn't mind, she's too busy watching the display to be concerned with us," he said as he brushed his lips over hers.
As they held each other, a loud bang was heard over head, then another, Richard had arranged for a fireworks over the lake in front of the house, which reflected in the water, the result was spectacular. Georgiana had never seen anything like it and was jumping with glee at the view in front of her.
Both Elizabeth and Darcy were caught off guard at the noise and watched for no more than a fleeting moment before their eyes quickly returned to each other and recommenced their slow tender kisses. The rest of the onlookers, including servants who were allowed to venture outside, were too engrossed in the theatrical display in front of them to see what the master and mistress were up to in the dim light.
Without anyone realising, Elizabeth and Darcy left the show and retired to their bed chambers, in need of some alone time.
Chapter 16: Declaration
Elizabeth woke up suddenly during the night to a loud vibrating noise, within a matter of moments she realised it was her husband snoring. He was so loud that the sound was resonating around the room making the walls vibrate.
She nudged him a little in the hope that he would shift onto his side but he would not move, "William," she said in a sleepy voice, "Wake up, you are snoring," but Darcy did not stir.
Elizabeth took drastic action, she proceeded to straddle her husband, who was lying flat on his back, in order to shake him, "Wake up!" she said in a more demanding fashion.
Darcy opened his eyes and sat bolt upright nearly knocking his wife backwards, "What! What is happening?" he said whilst trying to work out the situation.
"You were snoring, I tried to wake you but you would not."
"Oh," he said, "Lizzy, why are you on top of me?"
"I had to shake you to wake you up, it was the easiest way."
"You look very beautiful in the moonlight," Darcy said looking at his wife with the cool light from the window illuminating her feminine form.
Elizabeth could feel twitching between her legs and her husband's heartbeat beginning to race against her breasts, her own breathing began to quicken.
Darcy held her close and kissed her gently at first, but this rapidly became more urgent. "Put me inside you, Lizzy, I want to feel you around me," he whispered.
Elizabeth took hold and placed him at her entrance, she slowly sank down onto the now rigid form which tickled her insides. She began to grind against him with a slight rotation of her hips, making her rosebud rub against him at the same time.
Darcy's hands moved down to her bottom and he pulled her in tight against him and held her in place with his firm grip. Elizabeth gasped at the sensation that this caused, she could feel him hit her most deepest point. She wrapped her arms around his back, moving one hand to the back of the head where she fisted his hair. The vice like grip that both had on each other meant that there was little movement between them, the pressure of their bodies against each other caused such a reaction that the small rubbing sensations were enough.
Elizabeth's head flung back as she tensed under her release, Darcy felt her multiple contractions squeezing him, making him follow quickly.
"Lizzy, I… I..." Darcy stuttered, nearly declaring his love for her. No I cannot tell her now, this is not the right time, I need to prepare myself, he thought. "I'm sorry," he continued to cover his initial words
"Sorry for what?"
"Snoring."
"Are you?" she said with a raised eyebrow, "Are you sorry for what just happened as well?"
"No, you can wake me any time," he said nuzzling her neck.
Before things got heated again, Elizabeth dismounted her husband and they settled back down in order to sleep, within 5 minutes, Elizabeth began to hear the gentle purr of her husband's more sedate breathing.
Elizabeth, uncharacteristically awoke before her husband and decided to rise, leaving him with his dreams.
She went to her dressing room and quietly closed the connecting doors and summoned her maid, Hannah appeared at the servant's entrance to the dressing area.
"Hannah, we need to be quiet, Mr Darcy is still sleeping but I wish to get up now and go for a walk, can you have the bath filled please."
"Yes ma'am, straight away," Hannah said.
Elizabeth managed to bath and dress without waking her husband and went downstairs to the breakfast room where she met Georgiana. "Good Morning Georgiana, you look well this morning."
"Thank you Elizabeth, I am in fine spirits today. The firework display was wonderful last night, I enjoyed myself immensely. Where did you go? I turned around when it was over and you both had vanished."
"Oh, we were both exhausted, so decided to retire. I am thinking of going for a walk after breakfast, would you care to join me?"
"Yes, it looks so peaceful outside, I think the winter months can make Pemberley very beautiful."
Within the hour, they had reached the pretty little bridge that Elizabeth had come to love, "This is one of my favourite spots, Georgiana. It is very tranquil here, do you now who designed this part of the grounds?"
"Sorry, I do not, I think brother has some papers from when it was constructed. Father had the house built not long after he married mother, I think that was about thirty years ago. Before that they had to live in one of the cottages until it was complete, by that time mother was with child and expecting William."
"I thought the house did not look that old."
"No, but the grounds have been in the Darcy family for generations. The previous house, which father demolished was built in the reign of Henry the eighth, it was a Tudor manor house but it was falling down, so father decided to rebuild in stonework."
"It is indeed very impressive, I would like to paint it one day, maybe in the summer when the colours are more intense."
"Oh, do you paint Elizabeth?"
"Yes, although I do not have any tools for it, I left them all behind. I need to get some, I would like to paint William also, but not sure he will sit for me."
"He has sat for artists in the past, although he does get fidgety due to the time it takes, but I am sure he will be fine with you, you must ask him."
"I will, I would quite like to paint him with the light coming in through the window, as he stares out onto the grounds, I have seen him in that stance before and he is breathtakingly handsome."
"We should venture into the village at some point to purchase your paints and canvases. There is a merchant who sells such items, I have not been there myself as I do not draw but believe that father used to procure his sketch papers from there."
They walked further along where Elizabeth showed her sister the carvings on the tree. Elizabeth however noticed that there was something slightly different about it, the wood seemed to be cleaner than she recollected.
Later that day, Darcy concluded that he could take it no longer, he had to tell his wife how he really felt. Not having any experience in the declaration of love, he realised it was going to be harder than he had first thought. Yes, he could just say I Love You, but he realised he also needed to explain about the clause in the Will, he felt he no longer could keep it secret from her but how was he to approach such a subject?
He went to his study after dinner to think and pulled his father's Will from the Vault. He spread out the documents over his desk, reading them repeatedly waiting for a eureka moment, but there was nothing.
It was getting late and the candles were burning low. Knowing that there were newly lit candelabras in the library, he decided to retrieve one to continue. As he left through one door, Elizabeth entered through another.
Seeing that he was not around she ventured over to his desk wondering what was keeping her husband away for so long. She perused the papers and noticed the heading George Darcy, Last Will and Testament. She started to read the contents and was absorbed enough to not notice her husband returning. In a shock reaction he shouted at her, "Elizabeth, what are you doing, those are private!"
Elizabeth jumped at the outburst, stunned into silence she started to walk out of the room, Darcy called in a remorseful tone,"Lizzy?" but she did not wish to acknowledge him. She quietly walked out and went upstairs to her chambers and locked the doors.
Has she read enough to know? he thought in a panic. He left the study and went upstairs to talk to her, he went to the adjoining door and knocked but heard nothing, when he knocked again Elizabeth said, "William, I am sorry that I disturbed you, I only meant to bid you goodnight, please go back to your work and do not worry about me."
Darcy was reluctant, but left. Pacing the floor he was now trying to come up with an apology for his abrupt outburst. If she had read the paperwork she was keeping it to herself, anyone who was in that position would have started an argument, wanting answers straight away, but she had not.
It was not long before he gave up and decided to retire for the night. On checking his wife's door he found it still locked, so he took to his own bed alone. He was unable to sleep and he lay awake with so many questions, Why was I so stupid to get those papers from the safety of a locked vault? Why did I leave them unattended on my desk of all things? His thoughts plagued his mind for hours until he finally fell to sleep just before daybreak.
Darcy woke late the following morning, after dressing he went down to breakfast only to discover that his wife had already eaten and taken the carriage with her maid into the village.
"Mrs Reynolds, where is Mrs Darcy this morning?"
"Oh Sir, she has gone to Lambton with Hannah, I thought you knew."
"No, I was not aware, do you know how long she will be as I need to discuss something with her of great importance," Darcy eagerly enquired.
"No she did not stipulate how long she was going to be, would you wish for me to send a footman into the village to request she return?"
"No that will not be necessary, I will see her when she comes back," Darcy said as he finished his meal. "I will be in my study, if you would advise me when she returns, it would be appreciated."
Elizabeth returned from her trip around three in the afternoon. She had bought many things, which were carried into the house by the footmen. She felt a little better having spent, in her eyes, a small fortune of her husband's money on things she did not care about or need. Once they had been carried up to her chambers, she locked both doors and instructed the servants that she was not to be disturbed.
Mrs Reynolds went to the master's study to advise him that his wife had returned, however, she neglected to advise him that his wife was not to be disturbed, "Sir, Mrs Darcy has just gone to her chambers."
"Thank you Mrs Reynolds, I will go see her in a few minutes," Darcy said as he finished his correspondence.
He left his study and ventured upstairs, he knocked on the hallway door but there was no answer, he knocked again but still no answer. Trying the door he realised that it had been locked from the other side. Not wanting to talk to her through the door in the hall he ventured into the sitting room and attempted to open the adjoining door, but again it was locked.
He suddenly realised the extent of his faux pas from the night before, was his wife still angry with him to the point of not wishing to talk to him?
"Elizabeth?" he said trying to sound calm, but as there was no answer he knocked again, "Elizabeth, please open the door," he said with a firmer tone.
"Go away! I do not wish to talk to you, leave me alone."
"I will not leave you alone, I wish to talk to you, open this door." Darcy was now getting extremely worried at the fact his wife was refusing to talk to him, he had no doubt now, she knew.
"No I will not open the door, leave me alone, please William," Elizabeth said on the brink of tears.
Darcy could hear the emotion in his wife's last statement, now feeling remorseful he continued, "Lizzy please, I am pleading with you to open this door, we need to discuss this."
"William, I cannot discuss anything at the moment, I am too upset, give me some time, please?"
Darcy just stood there not knowing what to do. He wished the last twenty four hours had not happened, if only he could wind back time and relive it differently.
"Very well, I will leave you, but we need to talk about this, I will ask Mrs Reynolds to bring you up a tray as you need to eat," he said with a softer approach.
"Thank you William," came a relieved reply.
Darcy spent the evening in his study, head in hands churning the whole matter over in his head. He had to confess all to her, he felt this was the only solution to his stupidity. He wished that Elizabeth would come to her senses and come downstairs so he could explain.
For a second night, he retired to his own chambers, but was unable to sleep. On rising the next morning, he discovered that his wife was still in her rooms and had given instructions that she was not to be disturbed. Darcy was out of his mind with worry that his marriage was now broken. She will never talk to me again, am I to be estranged from my wife? he thought, then he shuddered on realising she could very easily walk out and leave Pemberley. He needed to go for a ride to clear his head as he was no longer thinking logically.
Elizabeth was gazing out of her window when she spotted her husband galloping into the distance across the lawns, she sighed a heavy breath feeling that her marriage was all a sham. How could this be? I thought he loved me, the looks, his attentions, his touch spoke of his love even though it did not come from his lips. Was it all in my head? Am I so in love with him that I can not see his true self, but a reflection of what I wish to see?"
Knowing that he was not in the house she decided to read in the sitting room. She took one of the books from the small library they had and sat down on the settee with the intention of reading, however she stared at the same page for over an hour before she was brought back to the present by Hannah busying herself in her bed chambers.
On hearing her maid, Elizabeth ventured back to see if she had heard anything from downstairs, any small amount of news. Eager to speak to her maid, Elizabeth had forgotten to lock the door to the sitting room.
"Hannah, do you know where Mr Darcy has gone? I saw him ride off across the grounds earlier," Elizabeth enquired trying to keep her tone level in her voice.
"No ma'am, I would imagine he is on estate duties, I could ask Mrs Reynolds if you wish?"
"No, that will not be necessary, did you see him before he went?"
"Yes, I saw him downstairs in the corridor as I was sorting out the linens."
"And how did he seem?" Elizabeth asked eager to know how her husband fared.
"He was not himself ma'am, I am not sure what has happened, but the master was in a strange mood this morning and looked like he hadn't slept a wink."
At this Elizabeth started crying, "Ma'am, whatever is the matter?"
"Oh, Hannah, I know I shouldn't be discussing this with you but I need to tell someone. I found a document on his desk the other night that indicated he had to marry me, he found me in the middle of reading it and shouted. I haven't spoken at any length to him since. I am so upset over this, seems he was forced into marrying me."
Elizabeth was now inconsolable, Hannah, ignoring her rank as a lady's maid, sat down beside her mistress and held her in her arms whilst she sobbed.
"Ma'am, can I just say that the whole of the servants quarters has observed how the master is with you and what a delight it is to see him so happy. He is smitten with you, I cannot believe that he married you under such duress, are you sure you read the documents right?" Hannah tried to enquire without sounding as though she thought her mistress completely wrong.
"Yes, they were what they were, if he did not marry me then he would lose Pemberley to Georgiana, he didn't have a choice."
An hour into the ride, whilst Elizabeth was having her tête-à-tête with her maid, Darcy met with Richard, who had rode in from Matlock Manor on a visit.
"Morning Darcy, why the long face, you look like you have just lost a thousand guineas on a bet?"
"Morning Richard, it has been a terrible couple of days, Elizabeth is not talking to me," Darcy said with a sigh.
"Whatever has bought this on, Elizabeth not talking to you? Heaven forbid!"
"She's pushed me away since night before last, she has locked herself in her rooms and refuses to let me in. Oh Richard, I have been such an idiot," Darcy said with regret.
"What have you done, it can't be that bad, can it?"
"She saw father's Will and she now wont talk to me, I am sure she managed to read the clause before I discovered her. I also shouted at her which made things worse, I didn't mean to, it was just a spontaneous reaction to seeing her standing over the papers. I don't know what to do, she wont let me put things right."
"She will calm down and when she does this whole misunderstanding can be resolved, anyone can see you were in love with her from the start, I can vouch for you if needs be."
"Thank you Richard, I'm hoping it will not come to that and I can solve this myself."
"Do you wish for me to take Georgiana back to Matlock Manor for a couple of days, to give you space to sort things out?" Richard enquired.
"Yes, I think that would be best, if things get out of hand, which I am hoping they will not, then at least Georgie will not be witness to it."
On their return, they found the situation had not changed and Elizabeth was still ensconced in her rooms, feigning a headache. Richard did not stay for dinner as he had hoped but only long enough to request that Georgiana accompany him back to Matlock for a day or two.
That evening Darcy retired for the third night to his chambers, this was now the longest he had been away from his wife since their short marriage, he longed for her and wished she would see sense in at least giving him an audience, so he could explain.
Knowing that he was still restless, he went to the sitting room and selected a book in the hopes that reading would draw in the desire to sleep. The room was well lit with numerous candles, so reading was not going to be a chore in the provided light.
Quietness filled the room and Darcy felt his eyes begin to droop shut, so his thoughts turned to retiring. As he got up he heard a faint cry from his wife's room.
He put his book down and wandered over to the door to listen further to her state, No, Lizzy, please don't cry.
He tried the door thinking it would be locked, but to his surprise it was not, he very quietly entered the room, which was dimly lit with a single candle sitting on the bed side table.
He looked about the room and saw Elizabeth laying on top of the counterpane, curled up almost into a ball, he slowly and cautiously moved over to where she was. Looking at her, his heart sank with despair, her puffy eyes were closed shut with tears streaming down her face, the light from the candle reflected the wetness upon her cheeks. He moved forward, kneeling by the bed and cupped her face in his hands. Elizabeth was startled at this as she hadn't heard him approach, she opened her eyes to see her husband looking at her forlorn.
"Elizabeth, please don't cry. I am so sorry for upsetting you, it was not my intention to reprimand you in such a way, but I panicked at… well I didn't want you to see the contents of those documents, they are private."
Through tears and a runny nose she insisted on knowing, "Why have you kept them secret from me, I am your wife and by the looks of it, it is only because I was forced on you by your late father."
Darcy stiffened at this and closed his eyes hoping the world would swallow him up, "That is not the case, it may have been until I met you but as soon as I saw you, the Will meant nothing."
"What do you mean by that? I don't understand, you were forced to marry me or lose your home."
Fitzwilliam moved closer to her and sat on the edge of the bed, he bent over her to kiss her cheeks where the tears had stained her skin, Elizabeth was just frozen, not understanding the situation and what her husband was saying. He gazed into her swollen eyes, It's now or never, Darcy, courage man and tell her how you truly feel, you have no other choice.
"I have a confession to make, the other night when you came to my study, I had been pacing all evening trying to come up with the right words to tell you, but the only way is to just say it. I love you Elizabeth, you have bewitched me from the very first moment I saw you in your aunt and uncle's parlour. You took my breath away then and ever since I have longed for you day and night. I cannot get you out of my thoughts, you are my nectar, my lifeline, I cannot function if you are not there. What I meant by the Will was that it was meaningless within five minutes of seeing you, I had already decided that I could not live without you, I needed you in my life.
I got the papers out of the safe with a view of reading them again to see if I could explain the situation to you, I didn't want this kept from you but felt scared to divulge the information for fear you would hate me, please do not hate me, Lizzy."
Elizabeth sat in silence taking in all that was said, she quickly regained her senses when she saw his expression, which at this point was longing, pleading, for a reply to his declaration, hoping she would return his feelings.
"Please tell me you forgive me," he pleaded, "This is driving me to distraction, you have no idea how I have been feeling since you walked away from me the other night, I have been frantic with worry that I will lose you."
Elizabeth gazed into her husband's tear filled eyes, she softly whispered, "I, I love you too, William."
Darcy sat there staring at her in astonishment, he pulled her into his chest and began to sob in relief, his body trembling as he let out all the built up emotions of the last few days. Elizabeth melted into his warmth, Darcy continued, "From the first moment I saw your face, you looked up and when our eyes met, I knew then. Do you not recollect how I behaved on our first meeting? I was lovestruck."
" I must admit that I did notice your behaviour."
"And you Lizzy, when did you know for certain?" he inquired.
"For certain? When you was lying in bed after your accident, you would not wake up and I pleaded with you to, but you just lay there, silent. Knowing I couldn't carry on if you weren't by my side I realised then that I loved you. Thinking back, there was an instant attraction to you, even though you unnerved me at first, I could see you were very handsome and well mannered. Your proximity to me and the way you looked at me sent shivers down my spine."
"I was not myself that first evening we met, you aroused me beyond anything that I had experienced, it took all my strength to not kiss you, when we were left alone."
"I would not have pushed you away, William, kiss me now, love me forever," she whispered.
He lent in to take that kiss but before doing so, he proclaimed, "You are the most precious thing to me, my love. Pemberley can burn down for all I care so long as you are safe. I cannot live without you, Lizzy."
They sat in a healing embrace, quietly absorbing all that had been said. Elizabeth then remembered her trip the day before, "William, I have a confession to make, please don't be angry with me," Elizabeth became worried and started biting her lip.
"What is it, Lizzy, I will not be mad."
"I spent fifty pounds yesterday on things I had no care to own, just to get my revenge, I am sorry," she admitted.
Darcy just smiled and held her close, "There is no need to worry yourself, it does not matter, I will settle up with the merchants, just make a list and I will send someone down to settle the bills."
Exhausted from the trials of the past few days, Darcy laid down with his wife, both quickly falling into a deep sleep.
–
The following morning, Darcy woke with the birdsong. Looking over to the window he could see the light flooding into the room, where the curtains had not been drawn the night before. He looked back to his wife who was still wrapped up in his arms, sound asleep.
He lay there for a full half hour watching her, listening to her endearing mumbles he had grown accustomed to. He moved his hand up to her lips and trailed the tip of his index finger across her bottom lip, back and forth. On doing so Elizabeth stirred and opened her eyes, looking up to gaze onto her handsome husband's face.
"Morning, my love" Darcy said with a glorious smile, he moved to kiss her gently on the lips, feathering kisses over her face and neck.
"Tell me again, William, tell me how you feel."
"I love you, Mrs Darcy, I love you so much!" he proclaimed.
"Oh, I love you too, my darling," she said, "But, please no more secrets."
"I will never keep anything from you again, Lizzy. I have hated the fact that I kept this from you. I initially thought it was for the best but then it felt like it was burning a hole in me not telling you."
Trailing his hand down her side, past her waist and hips, he pulled her nightclothes up and over her head, this was quickly dis-guarded. Darcy also dis-robed and returned to his wife, giving her the attention she deserved.
He wanted to make sweet love to her, showing how much he loved, cared, cherished and worshipped her. He kissed her with tenderness and whispered words of love. His ministrations were slow and torturous, gradually arousing his wife at a leisurely pace, she wanted her release but he was not ready to give it.
He moved down her body, paying attention to every inch as he went. Elizabeth whimpered pleading for him to hurry, but he would not.
He was nearing her most private area, that place he had longed to taste. Soft dark hair covered her divine femininity, her intoxicating scent filling his nostrils, it was his Elizabeth, he was home. He parted her lips and proceeded to lick her core, her swollen lips and soft wet rosebud, which made his wife groan.
Elizabeth was lost in euphoria, the softness of his tongue bought her closer to the edge with each stroke, her hips bucked into his face with every wave of desire that took over her body.
Knowing she was not far from her release, he parted her legs further to accommodate himself. With one excruciatingly slow movement he sunk himself into her until the tip of his manhood could go no further. He slowly moved within her sleek walls, trying not to rush things. Both bodies were moving in synch and the sound of their coupling filled the room as their bodies moved, like an adagio in a symphony.
Darcy was still going at a slow pace when he felt Elizabeth tighten, it took all his might to not quicken, he felt a connection of souls as his wife surrendered beneath him.
With their eyes locked just inches apart, Elizabeth whispered, "William, I love you so, so much," as she climaxed around him. Darcy was seconds behind with his completion, he spent his seed and collapsed into her arms.
Love making was the only thing on the couple's mind, they did not venture outside of their chambers for the rest of the day and saw no-one other than the odd servant who had been summonsed to either bring them some food and wine or fill their bathtub.
Chapter 17: The Book Under the Bed
The following day, Elizabeth found herself having a rather lazy day in her chambers as her husband had been called away on estate matters, this left her restless with nothing to do. Georgiana was due to return to Pemberley the following day as Richard had decided to allow them a couple of days alone.
Gazing out of the window in a day dream, Elizabeth remembered the book that she had sneaked out of the library some weeks previously. She had forgotten that it was hidden under the bed in her keepsake box. Should I get it out and have a look, I feel rather naughty for taking it, she mused as she bit the tip of her finger.
After Hannah had finished putting away her gowns in the Armoir, Elizabeth requested to be left alone, "Hannah, I wish to take a nap as I have a bit of a headache, can you let Mrs Reynolds know that I do not wish to be disturbed for the duration."
"Yes, of cause ma'am, I will tell her straight away," Hannah said as she left the room.
As soon as the door closed, Elizabeth eagerly pulled her box out from under the bed, she unlocked it and retrieved the book, which had been sitting there idol. She settled back down on top of the bed ready to learn. What fun it will be to see William's face if I were to do something he was not expecting, she thought.
Time had passed quickly but Elizabeth did not realise, it was early afternoon when her husband burst into the room, "Lizzy, are you all right? Hannah said you was ill."
Elizabeth jumped and pushed the book under her pillow, "Oh… erm... yes, it was nothing, I am fine now."
Seeing her actions Darcy enquired, "What have you just hidden under your pillow?"
"Oh, just a book, nothing special," she said innocently and hoping her vague answer would satisfy and that he would not notice her reddening, which she could feel on her cheeks.
Darcy eyed Elizabeth with suspicion as he did notice her evasive response and her blush, but chose not to question her. "Do you want to come down for some lunch? I believe it will be ready soon," Elizabeth agreed and left the book where it was under her pillow, she accompanied her husband to the dining room, where luncheon was served.
On retiring that evening, Elizabeth was fussing around with her hair at her dressing table when Darcy got into bed. "Why can I not get these tangles out of my hair," she fretted, "You should not have ushered Hannah out of the room so quick William, you are too eager these days to get rid of my maid," she said with a chuckle, "Now I have to contend with removing these tangles myself."
"Do not worry about that now, come here," Darcy commanded.
"I have to deal with this now, William, or it will be worse in the morning and I will look like a scare crow and frighten you off."
Just as she was about to give up, she saw the mirror reflection of her husband pulling the book out from under her pillow. Elizabeth gasped and rushed over to the bed, trying to grab the book away from him before he could read the cover.
"William, please give me the book!"
"Why? What are you hiding from me Lizzy, I saw you reading this earlier and I noticed you blush when I asked what it was, you have me intrigued now," Darcy said in good humour.
"No! Please don't!" she said in a panic.
"Oh my word, Lizzy, you are a naughty girl, where did you get this?" Darcy said, looking up at his now crimson flushed wife.
"It was in the library, I just happen to come across it when I was perusing the science section. William, do not think bad of me, I was just curious, that is all," she said twiddling her fingers and not knowing which way to look.
"Curiosity killed the cat Lizzy, but I am sure my little kitten has another 8 lives left, do not worry as your secret is safe with me. So, Mrs Darcy... you are seeking better knowledge for our bed?" He asked whilst pulling Elizabeth closer.
"Erm… I don't know, I really didn't think about it when I took it but I did think earlier that it would be nice to know more and therefore give you more pleasure."
"You give me plenty my love, maybe we should look at this together?" Darcy asked as he planted a kiss on her neck. Returning his attentions to the literature in front of him he added, "You do realise that now I have seen this, we are going to have to try some of these positions out."
"Oh, tonight?" Elizabeth said with a slight hesitation.
"Why not? It is a good a time as any. I will not force you into doing anything you do not wish to do, but I think it would be fun to try some different things out, don't you?"
Darcy returned his gaze to the book, he flipped a few more pages and found just the thing, "Oh, now Lizzy, what about this one? Do you think you are up to the challenge?" Darcy said pointing at a rather explicit picture.
"William, they are standing up and she has her leg in the air, how am I supposed to do that?"
Darcy flung the book to the floor, "Think we need to give this a try, come!" he said as he grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her to her feet.
"William, I will lose my balance, at least place me against the wall or something for support."
Darcy managed to walk his wife backwards to the nearest wall whilst striping her of her robe but came to an abrupt halt when Elizabeth's heel caught the wainscoting. Darcy broke away only long enough to remove his own robe, which ended in a heap on top of his wife's.
"I love you so much Lizzy, please trust me with this," he said feeling a slight tension in his wife's body.
"I do William, I am just a little worried I will fall."
"You will not, I will hold you."
Elizabeth remembered her earlier idea of surprising her husband and recollected something from the book that morning. Before Darcy had time to think what was happening, she spun him around so that he was placed against the wall and dropped to her knees. She took hold of his yard and started to lick the tip. Darcy cried out at the feeling of his wife's tongue and then groaned as she placed him into her mouth and sucked hard, "Ah… Lizzy…. not so hard... I do not wish to come in your mouth... please ease up my love," he managed to say between gasps. He looked down at the vision of his wife on her knees, giving him pleasure. Her groans vibrated along his shaft pushing him further to the edge, he realised that he had to stop her for fear he would erupt in her mouth, "Lizzy, you need to stop, I am about to release." But she did not wish to stop, she sucked and licked harder still and forced him into the back of her throat, where he spurted his seed.
Darcy watched as the sticky substance ran out the corner of her mouth and down her chin, he fell to his knees, "Good grief woman! You will be the death of me!" he said as he kissed her with all the passion he could muster. He was drained but still wanting more, he licked the residue of himself off of her face and demanded she stand, "I need to taste you," he said whilst pushing her against the wall, he parted her legs slightly and pushed his face into her most private area.
Elizabeth started to groan as her husband played with her most intimate area with his tongue, she did not realise but she had started to fondle her own nipples. Darcy peered up to look at his wife playing with herself, this bought on a second wave of desire and to his surprise his yard went stiff again. Trying to ignore his returned ardour, he continued to flick her bud and suck on her luscious lips, which were now engorged and swollen. She was so wet that he could see it glistening on the insides of her thighs where it had dripped down from her womanhood.
He pushed his fingers into her and thrust them in and out whilst continuing his attack on her most sensitive spot. As she approached her release, Darcy could feel his fingers beginning to get squeezed and knew it was time. He stopped and stood up, he lifted her leg and plunged into her, forcing her back to the wall.
Due to the height difference, Darcy had to squat initially, but grabbed her bottom and straightened back up again, which lifted Elizabeth off the floor. Now he had his wife in his arms and wedged up against the wall with only his body for support. Elizabeth instinctively entwined her legs around his waist with a vice like grip and he started rocking against her warm, wet body.
Elizabeth could do nothing but surrender to his actions, with each move he would rub against her making her bud throb. She was so aroused that her wetness caused such a sound every time he moved within her, "Oh Lizzy, you are so wet for me!" and with that Elizabeth shuddered in his arms, her contractions around his yard were so strong that they nearly forced him out of her body, but he pushed in one last time and reached his completion, whilst her insides massaged his length.
Still in his arms, Darcy carried Elizabeth back to bed, "I love you Lizzy, so so much, never doubt that, darling," he said whilst caressing her face, which was still dewy from the recent exertions.
Settling down into bed Elizabeth continued, "I do not doubt you William, I think you have shown how much you love me since we have been married, I just did not recognise it, thinking back I should have seen all the signs."
"Richard did think that you would have realised, he could see my state from as early as London."
"Richard does not miss anything, I am at a wonder how he did not tease you openly of this."
"Oh, he did a couple of times, but you did not pick up on it. He played safe in those instances and made the dig so obscure only I would have known."
"Well if Richard had been a little more obvious, then we could have got to this point a little sooner," Elizabeth said with a smile.
"Oh, I was in turmoil, but you were worth the wait, my kitten." he said smiling.
"William, is that now a new pet name for me? I hope you do not call me that in front of anyone else. Please, only for here when we are alone."
"Of course, I will only use it when you are purring, which I hope will be often."
Elizabeth's heart melted when she continued to listen to her husband, "You are my soul mate, we were put on this earth for each other, our fathers could see this and ever day since I met you I have thanked them in my prayers for bringing you to me. My love for you is so overwhelming that it is almost painful when you are not there."
"I am not going anywhere, my darling husband."
They made love one more time, in the comfort of their four poster bed and fell to sleep wrapped in each others arms.
The following morning, Elizabeth awoke before her husband, seeing he was still asleep she got out of bed and retrieved the book from where it had landed the night before. She put it back into the box and locked it away, pushing it back under the bed for the next time they desired something a little different.
Chapter 18: Little Feet
Three weeks later, Elizabeth was discussing the winter months at Pemberley with Hannah, her maid. Hannah has been in service there for a few years and had seen many occasions where it had snowed, covering Pemberley with a cold white blanket and freezing the lake, "Master allows everyone to skate on the lake when it freezes over ma'am, it is so much fun, we all have skating boots which he bought us around five years ago, I believe it was his first winter as master after old Mr Darcy passed away."
"Oh I am not sure I would like to go skating, knowing my luck I would fall and break my head."
"I can understand your concerns, it is risky but very much a fun activity, when you have children you will not be able to stop them from getting up on the ice, even in shoes it's fun as you just slide about everywhere."
"Oh there is plenty of time for children," Elizabeth said, but then stopped thinking about what she just said, time? "Hannah, can you remember when I last had my courses?"
"Oh ma'am, it was well over a month ago," Hannah said in surprise.
"Oh, why did I not remember, it was early December, I should have realised."
"If I beg your pardon ma'am, there has been so much happening over the past few weeks it is understandable that this would slip your mind, do you think you are with child?"
"Yes, my courses come early but never past the Luna month, they were due nearly three weeks ago," Elizabeth said in a rush, "Can you ask Mrs Reynolds to make a discrete request for Dr Evans to attend me straight away, whilst Mr Darcy is out riding, I don't want him to know until it is confirmed. Please do not mention it to anyone Hannah, I want to tell my husband first before anyone else knows."
Hannah agreed and left to talk to Mrs Reynolds in her office, within an hour Dr Evans was in attendance confirming that indeed Elizabeth was with child.
As Dr Evans left in his carriage Darcy rode up on his horse, he jumped down and run into the house. On seeing Mrs Reynolds he enquired what had happened, Mrs Reynolds didn't know what to say and said to ask the mistress. Darcy panicked thinking something had happened to Elizabeth and run up the stairs to her chambers, he burst into her room, "Elizabeth! What's happened? Why was Dr Evans just here?"
Elizabeth was standing in the bay of the window looking at the water features in the gardens, she turned around displaying a big smile on her face, she held out her arms to him, Darcy did not waste any time in accepting her invitation.
"Darling, nothing is the matter, in fact everything is wonderful," she said playfully.
"But, I just saw the doctor leave here in his carriage, something must have happened."
"Yes it did, right there," Elizabeth stated as she gazed over to her bed.
Darcy froze, "You are with child?" he questioned, as tears filled his eyes.
Elizabeth smiled and nodded enthusiastically, "Dr Evans confirmed it just now, he thinks it's still early days but he is almost certain I am indeed with child."
Elizabeth watched her husband deep in thought, "William, are you all right?"
"Oh Lizzy, I am so proud of you, you cannot imagine how happy you have made me, a baby! I'm going to be a father!" he said ecstatically wanting to shout it out loud from the roof tops.
"Shoosh! William, I do not want everyone to know just yet, I have let Hannah and Mrs Reynolds know of my suspicions but have not confirmed it, I wish for them to know so that they can help me along the way. I don't want anyone else to know just yet except for Georgiana, we can tell her together if you wish."
She then stopped to observe her husband, who had started to weep, "William, why are you crying?"
"I am just so happy Lizzy. A year ago I was destined to be a very lonely man, I threw myself into work after my father's death and didn't stop for anyone. I hid myself away for more months than not in this large mansion with only my sister for company, she would eventually leave once she married, leaving me all alone. Now I have you and a new life will be here before this year is out, I could not have wished for a happier situation, oh I love you so much."
"I love you too," she said as she kissed his tears away.
Darcy could not remove the smile from his face for the rest of the day. By the time they had finished dinner, Georgiana could take it no more, "Brother, why are you so happy? Something has happened? Please tell me."
Darcy instructed the servants to leave them until called for then looked at Elizabeth who nodded in agreement, before turning to Georgiana, "Georgie, we have good news, Elizabeth is going to have a baby, she is with child."
"Oh, that is wonderful news, I will be an Aunt. Do you know when it is due?"
"It is anticipated it will be early autumn."
"I hope you have a girl, I would love to have a little girl running around, we can dress her up in all the frilly dresses and make lots of tiny bonnets for her," Georgiana said.
"Well I don't care what it is so long as it has all ten fingers and ten toes," Darcy exclaimed.
"Eight fingers and two thumbs, darling," Elizabeth said, correcting him.
"So long as it is healthy, I do not have a preference. Wont be long before we have a dozen of the little ones running around," Darcy said, puffing his chest out.
"I hope not, William, that is a tall order to fill, let us take it one child at a time shall we," she said grasping his hand.
"So, how do you feel Elizabeth, do you feel any different?"
"Just so happy Georgiana, although I am also rather scared."
"Please don't say that Elizabeth, everything will be fine," Darcy said, trying to reassure his wife.
"I know I am being silly, I just need time to get used to the idea."
Georgiana could see that her brother was now tense due to what his wife had just said. Wishing to leave them alone, so they could discuss the matter in private, she decided to retire for the evening, "Brother, I will retire to my sitting room, I wish to play my new music scores. Congratulations to you both, I am so very pleased for you, I will bid you goodnight." She kissed them both and withdrew to her rooms.
Soon as the door was closed, Darcy said, "Are you really scared, Lizzy?"
"William, please do not fret, it is all a new experience and I don't know what to expect, that is all."
"Please talk to me if you are worried about anything, do not keep it to yourself. If you want, we can call back Dr Evans and discuss any concerns you may have with him."
"I will William, but I will be fine. Shall we retire, I am exhausted due to all the excitement of the day."
When they entered their chambers, Darcy beckoned his wife to join him in the sitting room. There, on the table, sat a gift, "This is for you, my love," he said as he handed her the box.
Elizabeth eagerly untied the ribbon and opened it to see a rather large piece of metal.
"What is it?" she asked with a puzzled look.
"Turn it over, look at the other side."
To her delight, on turning the object, she saw a metal replica of the tree initials. Darcy had commissioned a casting, made in silver.
"It's our initials!" Elizabeth said with delight.
"I had it made before the accident, I didn't know what you would want to do with it, so it is only part complete. We can have it mounted or framed, or something else if you wish."
"I think it would look splendid if it was mounted on a piece of the polished wood from the same tree, can we cut a branch without killing it?" she said as she ran her fingers over the lettering.
"I am sure that it will survive, it has stood there for thirty years and seems a sturdy specimen. I will arrange for that to be done."
"Now I know why the tree looked odd. I had shown it to Georgiana earlier in the month, it looked different, cleaner."
"Yes, the silversmith, whom I commissioned, had to removed the moss to get a good likeness, so you like it?"
"Yes, William, it is a wonderful gift, thank you."
Chapter 19: Miss Martin
By May, the community hall for the tenants had been completed, so Elizabeth advertised for a teacher to work at the school three days a week. Three of the strongest candidates were short listed and Elizabeth sent out letters to invite them to an interview, which would take place the following week.
On the morning of the final interview, Elizabeth saw a Miss Martin into the Library. Miss Martin was a well dressed woman in her forties, fairly well spoken and seemed well educated. The interview went very well and Elizabeth thought her to be the best candidate and offered her the post, to commence a month later.
The meeting was coming to an end when Darcy opened the connecting doors, not realising that his wife was still interviewing, "Oh sorry, I didn't know you were still here."
As he turned to leave, he saw the woman who had come to see his wife and froze, "Can I please have a word in private, Mrs Darcy," he said looking at his wife before walking back into his study.
"I'm terribly sorry, Miss Martin, please excuse me, I will be back momentarily," Elizabeth stated and then closed the door to the study behind her.
"Do you realise who you have sitting in that room, Lizzy?" Darcy asked.
"Well it is Miss Martin, she has come for the job of teacher at the school, why?"
"She will not be teacher, she needs to leave," he said forcefully.
Lizzy furrowed her brow, "Why?" is all she said.
"Because, my love, I do not want her on Pemberley grounds, she needs to go."
"No, that is not a good enough reason," Elizabeth was getting rather agitated at this point.
"Lizzy please, I do not want to argue with you."
"Then tell me."
"Fine, sit down please," Elizabeth sat on the sofa opposite his desk whilst Darcy paced about the room, then he walked over to her and sat down beside her, holding her hands. She panicked at her husband's actions thinking he had some dreadful news.
"Darling, Miss Martin is the cyprian from Lambton."
Elizabeth took a moment to digest what her husband had said, "The tutor, the lady you went to see when you were nineteen?"
"Yes, that is her sitting in the next room, she cannot work here."
"No, she cannot, I'm sorry William I had no idea, I have already offered her the position."
"Then I will go in there and withdraw the offer and ask her to leave, she will not question my judgement."
"That will be acceptable, but I want to be present if you are in agreement."
Darcy agreed and they made their way back to the library, where Miss Martin was still sitting.
"Miss Martin, I have made a decision and am withdrawing the offer of the job and will now ask you to leave the premises and not return."
"But Mr Darcy, I need to earn a living, otherwise I will starve."
"Then I suggest you remove yourself far away from Derbyshire and set up a new life elsewhere, where people do not know who you are, no-one will employ you around here.
You have put my wife in an awkward position. You, being here would cause a tremendous amount of gossip and alienation from people, which will cause a lot of stress for Mrs Darcy, who is with child, I will not allow it. Now, once again, please leave before I have you escorted off the premises."
At this point Miss Martin was in tears, she run from the room never to return. Darcy turned to see his wife also upset, "Darling, I am sorry that I was so harsh, but I know for a fact she can be very manipulative. That is how she got on so well in that profession, she had a lot of patrons who gave her money and expensive gifts on a regular basis, she was not only a tutor for young men, she also was mistress to several gentlemen, including my Uncle. Even a few of my tenants saved up to pay for her to lay with them.
Please do not say anything to Richard as he does not know, but after his course finished, his father took up with her and visited once a week for two years. I do not know where all her money and jewels have gone, but if she had invested well she would have had enough to live off the interest."
"It's fine William, I understand what you did was needed."
"On the surface Miss Martin seems respectable, but she is very Machiavellian and greedy for wealth. Uncle's marriage nearly broke down because of her, she demanded more and more from him and Aunt Cecilia noticed the coffers going down. She had estimated that he had given her in the region of twenty thousand pounds by the end of the two years."
Elizabeth was thankful that her husband had walked in on the interview, "If I advertise again William, can I run the final list by you before I request interviews?"
"Yes, think that may be best."
Two weeks later, Elizabeth and Darcy were happy with their final choice of teacher. Miss Wigmore was a woman of around sixty, who had recently retired from one of the convent schools near Bath. She had returned to a small village nearby to stay with her cousins, who were both in their fifty's. The children loved the new school and the new teacher.
Chapter 20: The Bingleys
It was an early summer's day when Darcy received a message that his dear friend, Charles Bingley, was to visit him at Pemberley. He had not seen or heard from him since the previous September, when they were both in town.
Bingley had declared he wanted to tour the country in search of an estate, an impulsive thought but he was adamant he wanted to live as a gentleman.
Charles would be visiting with Caroline Bingley, his sister, who had been his travelling companion for the previous ten months. She longed to see Darcy and had put the idea into her brother's head, so that at least they could take a break from all the upheaval of touring the counties. There was another reason Caroline wished to visit, she was eager to recommence her allurements to entice Darcy into matrimony, little did she know he was already happily married.
Two days later, the Bingley carriage pulled up outside the grand entrance to Pemberley, Darcy came out to greet his guests, but Elizabeth was out walking with Georgiana. Darcy thought this was probably for the best, knowing how Caroline would react.
"Bingley, it's great to see you old chap, how are things?"
"Grand, Darcy, I thought I would visit for a few days, if that is all right with you, we were close by looking at the Blethney Estate across the valley. I am not sure about it as it needs a lot of work. To my surprise, Caroline liked it a lot, even though it is so run down, I wonder why?" he said smirking at Darcy.
"That is not fare Charles, it has wonderful prospects from all the south facing windows, where most of the living accommodation is," Caroline scathed. "Mr Darcy, it is so good to see you, we have not met since the 15th September whilst in town, I think it was Lady Chamberlain's Soiree. I hope that life is treating you well?" she said with a purr.
"Yes, it couldn't be better, shall we go in and have some tea, you must be parched."
The party settled in the parlour where afternoon tea was being served, "So what has been happening with you Darcy, you ventured into any new projects yet?"
"Oh indeed, I have one life long project on the go," he said with a grin.
"What do you mean by that," Bingley asked, "What investment could be lifelong?"
"A wife?" Darcy simply said with a smile.
"WHAT! you are married!" Caroline screeched at the top of her voice, making both Bingley's and Darcy's ears hurt.
"Caroline, calm down, I don't know why you are so upset over Darcy marrying, you knew it would happen one day and you were never destined for that role. He told you last year to stop pestering him." Bingley chastised.
Caroline at this moment in time was seething, her nostrils flaring and her breathing heavy, she was trying to control her anger, she felt like a woman scorned, How dare he marry another, Why not me! she thought.
"Can I congratulate you then, my friend," said Bingley as he held out his hand. He was happy that his friend was finally taking an interest in women, the thought had crossed his mind that he was otherwise inclined.
Darcy thanked his friend and furrowed his brow at the lady on the sofa, Will you ever learn Miss Bingley? he thought as he shook his head.
"So where is the little lady, have you hidden her away whilst you broke the news to my sister?" Bingley said.
"She is taking a walk in the grounds with Georgiana to get some fresh air. Elizabeth used to walk for miles before we wed, she is originally from Hertfordshire and the countryside there is very beautiful and walking across country is not a chore but a well loved past time. However, I wont let her walk too far at the moment, so she shouldn't be too long."
With that last sentence, Darcy could hear the ladies in the hallway and Georgiana entered the room. "You are here!" she said, happy to see her brother's dear friend. "Miss Bingley, it is a pleasure to see you here, I hope you are well?" Georgiana said in puzzlement at the scathing expression on Miss Bingley's face.
"I could be better my dear," was all she could say.
Georgiana felt rather uneasy at the reaction from Miss Bingley, so went to stand by her brother.
Moments later a very pregnant and very radiant Elizabeth waddled into to greet her husband and new visitors. Caroline on seeing the evidence of her pregnancy stood up and pointed, "She is with child!" then ran out of the room crying.
Elizabeth was surprised by such behaviour from someone she had yet to be introduced to, Darcy put his arm around her and held her gently to reassure her. Turning to Bingley he said, "I think you need to go after your sister and calm her down, she cannot continue to behave in this manner in front of Elizabeth, it is not healthy." Bingley nodded in full agreement and departed to the guest wing to find his sister.
After an hour of talking to Caroline and laying down a few rules, Bingley returned to the library where Elizabeth, Georgiana and Darcy were sat talking.
"She will come to her senses, eventually. I have left her resting, I think all the travelling and anticipation of seeing you, Darcy, magnified her reaction, she certainly was not expecting your news. Mrs Darcy, I do so apologise to you for my sister's behaviour, she has had an unhealthy infatuation with your husband, or should I say his wealth and status, for a very long time."
Elizabeth looked at her husband who nodded, "It is true Elizabeth, I told her last September that I was not interested, I haven't seen her since, I was hoping she would have calmed down by now, well she will have to Charles or her stay will be short." Darcy said firmly, "I will not have Elizabeth upset nor will I stand by and have her talk to her in that manner."
Bingley rubbed his head, "Yes I can see it will be a problem if she continues like this, I will talk to her again in the morning, I think a threat of stopping her allowance and sending her back to stay with her sister in London might do the trick."
The four sat down to dinner later that evening. Caroline was, as expected, indisposed so Elizabeth arranged for a tray to be sent to her rooms, hoping that she would make an appearance after she had eaten something. However, she did not venture down to join her hosts.
"So, Bingley, you viewed Blethney House, do you think it has potential? I had heard that it had fallen into disrepair some years ago when the old Mr Scotsleigh felt his money better used on gambling than keeping the holes in the roof at bay," Darcy said.
"On the surface things look fine, but repairs are numerous and they are not piffling little jobs either. The roof needs replacing in it's entirety, more windows than not need to be repaired and all the rooms need redecoration. It is, however, very well situation within it's grounds, which are beautiful."
"So it needs a complete overhaul, how much are they asking for it?"
"Five thousand pounds, it's a bargain but it will cost that again to put things right. Another thing Darcy is the proximity to yourself, I am sure you are happy with me living at a distance of ten miles, however, Caroline would be in residence for a while, until she eventually marries and I don't think that is a good idea." Bingley said looking at Elizabeth with an apologetic expression.
Elizabeth surmised, "I am sure she will come around Mr Bingley, she has just had her heart broken, probably in the worst way possible. Seeing someone she admires in a happy situation couldn't have been easy on her. I do wish I could go and talk to her so that I can put her mind at rest, but doubt there is anything I can do."
"No there is nothing you need to do, darling, you need not bother yourself with trying to get Miss Bingley to see sense, it is up to her to get to that way of thinking herself, if she cannot, then she will have to bear the ordeal on her own." Darcy soothed his wife, who was agitated by the whole thing.
"Mrs Darcy, please do not fret about it, Caroline has been told before to curb her enthusiasm for your husband, knowing that eventually one day he would marry, but she was ever so hopeful that it would be her in your position."
The evening was drawing to a close and everyone thought it best to retire to bed. Elizabeth, Darcy and Georgiana walked towards the family wing whilst Bingley went into the opposite direction of the guest quarters. Caroline on hearing footsteps, came out into the hallway to meet her brother, but as he approached she could see Darcy and Elizabeth behind him walking towards their chambers, she could see he had his arm about her waist, holding her close to him. On seeing this, Caroline burst into tears again and run back into her room, Bingley followed her to ensure she did not do anything stupid.
"Caroline, you have to snap out of this ridiculous mood, there is nothing you can do about it, he is married and has a child on the way, can you not see how happy they are together."
"Of course I can, that is why I am so upset, he is happy but not with me, I could have made him a good wife, Charles, I could have bore him his children, he didn't need some country bumpkin to do that for him. Did you notice when she came in her petticoat was covered in mud, she looked positively wild," she exclaimed.
"Caroline, she is in the country, she had just had a long walk in a rather long dress, of course her attire would be worse for wear on her return. She looked positively radiant to me if you must ask, positively glowing."
Caroline just fell back onto her bed looking at the ceiling, "Charles please go, I want to be alone, you are not helping the situation one bit." With that Mr Bingley left the room to retire to his own chambers.
The following morning, Miss Bingley requested to see her brother alone in her chambers, on entering Bingley asked, "What is the matter now Caroline, are you not coming down for breakfast?"
"Sorry Charles, I will not be staying, I sent a message last night to Louisa and advised her that I will be leaving your company to join her in town. I cannot stay under this roof any longer."
"Do not be so silly, Caroline. You knew that Darcy was not interested in you."
"But I thought I could win his heart, Charles, you know that I have admired him for years, I even put my life on hold for that man," she exclaimed.
"Well, he did not give you any encouragement and he told you last year that he was not interested, you should have pulled yourself together then."
Caroline started to weep, "I will be leaving in half an hour, all my trunks are packed and I am only waiting for the carriage to be prepared."
"Very well, if you insist. I hope you will be saying your farewells to everyone."
Caroline was not expecting to see the couple again before she left, however she felt it only polite to do so, "Very well, Charles," she confirmed.
Twenty minutes later, Miss Bingley's trunks were in the hallway, she came into the room where everyone was still enjoying breakfast to say her goodbyes. It was an awkward affair but she muddled through it saying it was for the best she left and that maybe someday they could be friends, but at that moment in time she was too hurt to even consider it.
Elizabeth felt bad for her but did not feel guilty, it was not her fault her husband had decided to marry her and not Miss Bingley, it was also not her husband's fault as he had given her no encouragement.
By ten o'clock, things had calmed down, Darcy and Bingley ventured out to the Blethney Estate. Bingley was interested in purchasing it, but needed Darcy's good opinion.
"The place looks fine for what they are asking Bingley, I would try to bargain with them though, try an initial bid of four thousand to see what they say, they may take it as it's been on the market for over a year."
"Yes I think that is a jolly good idea," Bingley said with enthusiasm.
"Now, we must return to the house, it's nearly time for luncheon and I don't want to keep the ladies waiting, Elizabeth feels faint if she has not eaten and she will not start without me."
A week had gone by and Bingley had enquired into Blethney Estate, the owners refused the initial offer, but accepted four and a half thousand pounds. The fact that Caroline was now ensconced back in London, unlikely to return to her brother until she had come to terms with the situation with Mr Darcy and his wife, meant that Bingley did not have to worry about the proximity to Pemberley. Darcy also offered to have him stay as guest whilst he oversaw the repair work.
It took a further three months for the property to be fully habitable, costing Bingley slightly more than what he paid out for the estate, however when completed it was valued at fifteen thousand, so he was happy with the initial outlay.
Chapter 21: Push
Elizabeth was in the gardens sitting down on a one of the benches near the ornate fountain, relaxing in the early autumn sun. She was watching Georgiana in the distance with her horse, practising her jumps. As she went to get up and go into the house, she felt a sharp pain and sat back down. She had experienced practice pains over the previous two weeks and the midwife had confirmed them to be such, however, these pains were a lot stronger.
She sat there for fifteen minutes, not knowing what to do, the pains were coming more regular and knew that it was time. She saw Hannah going to the hot houses a small distance away from her, "Hannah, please come here," she called out.
Hannah ventured over, "What can I do for you, ma'am?"
"Can you help me into the house and up to my chambers, then get Mrs Reynolds, I think it has started."
Hannah was all smiles, knowing a little one will soon be here. Helping Elizabeth to her feet she assisted her into the house and made her comfortable in her rooms, she then rung the bell cord for the housekeeper. When Mrs Reynolds entered the room, she did not need to be told, she could see that the mistress was in labour as Elizabeth was half way through a contraction and panting away the pain.
"I will call the midwife and also Dr Evans, ma'am," Mrs Reynolds said.
"Do you think there is a need for the doctor, Mrs Reynolds, the midwife is all that is needed."
"Ma'am, please forgive me but the master insisted on the doctor be called when the time came, I think he is very worried."
Elizabeth accepted this as she had seen her husband get more anxious over the past week or so, with every niggling pain.
"Can someone also try to get hold of Mr Darcy, I think he is over at Blethney Estate helping Mr Bingley with his paperwork."
"I have already sent Roger on horseback, it might take an hour or so though as it's a twenty mile round trip."
In little over an hour, Darcy was running up the stairs to his wife's chambers, as soon as he saw Roger he grabbed his horse and galloped back as fast as the steed could go. He burst into the room and looked around and found his wife in the dressing area where they had placed a birthing chair, something that Elizabeth had insisted on. She didn't want to have the baby laying down, saying it was apparently much easier to give birth sitting up.
Darcy ran over to where she was and knelt by her side, "Lizzy, I came as fast as I could, forgive me for venturing out so far at such a time, I should have known something like this would happen."
Dr Evans could see that he was worried, but it was no place for a husband to witness his wife giving birth, "Mr Darcy, I know you have only just arrived, but you must leave the room, it is not proper for you to be here whilst Mrs Darcy gives birth."
Darcy just scowled at him, "I will be here for the duration, I am not leaving my wife to deal with this on her own," he scoured at the doctor.
Darcy returned his attentions to his wife, who was in such pain. Darcy grabbed his handkerchief and ran the cloth over her face and neck where she was perspiring, pushing back her wet hair as he went, "My love, I am staying here, I want to be with you throughout this, I wont leave your side."
"Oh William, it hurts so much, ah!" she cried as another contraction took over her body, demanding that she push, this time her waters broke and a gush of fluid came out of her.
"Oh my god, what is that?" Darcy said.
"It is the baby's fluid, it is normal, it wont be long now," the midwife said.
"Oh I want to push, Dr Evans! ah! I think it is coming!" she exclaimed.
The doctor knelt down to have a look, Darcy wasn't happy about seeing the doctor peer between his wife's legs, but didn't say anything for fear of being thrown out. "Mrs Darcy, I can just about see the head, your baby has a head of black hair," he advised. Darcy was grinning, thinking that the baby had his colouring, Elizabeth's hair was deep reddish brown, Darcy's however was jet black.
"Ah why is it stinging? It really hurts and I need to push!"
"No, Mrs Darcy, do not push at this stage, the baby is crowning and if you push you may split, just pant for me," the midwife advised.
Elizabeth spent the next few minutes panting and breathing, until the burning sensation went. Now all she wanted to do was push on each contraction.
Darcy held her hand throughout, he did not realise how strong her grip was. As with every contraction took hold, she grabbed his hand like a vice until his fingers turned blue. Darcy, however, bared the pain without complaint, knowing his wife was in a far greater discomfort than himself.
The next half an hour saw the baby's head being born, the doctor looked at Darcy, "Sir, would you like to see your baby's face?" Darcy looked confused, not knowing what he meant.
"Come here and look," the doctor instructed.
Darcy shuffled forward and peered between Elizabeth's legs, he saw his baby's face, it was a surreal vision but he could see it as clear as day, it's eyes were shut but you could see the likeness to Elizabeth.
Darcy started crying as he looked upon his first child, still yet to be fully born, "Lizzy, the baby looks like you," he said as he looked at his wife.
The midwife quickly hurried to the other side of the room, grabbing a cloth in preparation for the full delivery. Elizabeth had one final urge to push and with all her might she pushed and the baby slid out, the doctor had asked Darcy if he wanted to hold the head and when the baby was born, Darcy was the one to support and eventually hold the child.
As he knelt there in front of his wife, holding their baby, he started to cry again. He looked up at Elizabeth who was watching him, "We have a daughter, Lizzy."
The midwife took the baby from Darcy, tied and cut the cord. She wiped some of the fluids from the baby, who was remarkably clean, and bundled her up and handed her to her mother. "There you go Mrs Darcy, a healthy baby girl."
Darcy moved back to his wife's side and just watched them together as they introduced themselves to each other, Elizabeth's instinct was to smell her child, "Oh baby smell, William, nothing better than the smell of a new born."
"You do realise Mrs Darcy, that you now have to share my love with another," he said to Elizabeth, with love in his eyes for both.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," she confirmed.
The midwife ask Mr Darcy to leave for the final stage of labour, he was however allowed to take his bundle out to Georgiana's sitting room where his sister, Richard and Bingley were waiting. Before he left the room, he turned to his wife, "Lizzy, are you still wanting the name you chose?"
"Yes, William, if it is all right with you."
"Everything is all right, my love," and with that he left.
He came to the door where the family were waiting, entering with his daughter in his arms. He announced, "Everyone, may I introduce you to my daughter, Miss Jane Elizabeth Darcy."
Georgiana run over to her brother and peered into the bundle of blankets, "She looks like Elizabeth, but has your black curly hair," she said. "Congratulations dear brother, I hope Elizabeth is well?" she enquired.
"Mother is doing fine, they ushered me from the room just now. I didn't realise how messy childbirth was," he said, realising his breaches were soaked from the waters breaking.
"Georgie, do you wish to hold her while I go change?" Georgiana nodded and sat down on the sofa waiting to be handed the bundle, Richard sat next to her to assist. Darcy run to his chambers and in record time, changed to a clean set of clothes and returned to the family within minutes. The baby was beginning to get restless at this point so Darcy decided to return her to Elizabeth, "Maybe she needs her mother."
Darcy knocked on his wife's door and within a few seconds Hannah opened it, "Is it all right to come back?" he said peering into the room.
"Yes Sir, we have just finished putting the mistress to bed, come in."
Darcy came in and went over to Elizabeth, who was resting in bed. He climbed onto his side and handed the baby to her mother, Elizabeth sat up a little and cradled her to her chest, instinctively she undid her top ties to her gown and allowed her daughter to latch on and suckle from her breast. Darcy was so emotional over the vision in front of him, his wife, whom he loved so much was feeding their new born daughter from her body, it looked so natural.
"I love you so much, Lizzy, I will treasure this moment for the rest of my life, with you and Jane."
After the baby fed from both breasts, Hannah checked for a soiled clout and changed the baby. Jane was handed back to Elizabeth, and all three fell into a much needed sleep.
Hannah, watched them for a few moment until Mrs Reynolds came up behind her. "Hannah, it is a very happy house today. A year ago we had worries the master would not settle, now look at him with his new family, yes it's a very happy house indeed." They both left the room behind the midwife and doctor, leaving them to sleep.
A week later, Elizabeth was allowed to get out of bed, she had nagged her husband until he relented and allowed her to get up for a short time. She was sitting out in the gardens with Jane in her basket, when Darcy walked up to her from behind.
"Lizzy, I have something for you, I wanted to give it to you last week after Jane arrived, but it was not ready."
"What is it William?"
He handed her a bundle of papers, which looked very official. On opening it, she glanced at the content, "You have purchased Longbourn?"
Darcy nodded, "Collins finally caved in, I don't think he had a choice really as not long after he moved in, part of the end wall started to move away from the building and he didn't have the money to repair it."
"Oh Father knew about that, he decided not to waste his money on it, he thought that Collins could see to it," she said laughing.
"So he sold it to me for a reduced price, I now have men working there, sorting out the wall. You can have it as another place to stay or you can lease it if you wish."
"Me?"
"Lizzy, look at the paperwork, it is in your name only, it is yours and when the time is right it will go to Jane, if you wish that to be the case."
They spent the rest of the afternoon, out in the gardens enjoying the fresh air. The baby asleep in her basket and Darcy holding his wife in his arms, thinking that life couldn't get any better.
The End
Chapter 22: Epilogue
Elizabeth and William Darcy
Darcy and Elizabeth were blessed with three more children, first came Fitzwilliam then Emily and finally George.
Elizabeth nearly died in childbirth with her final boy, the doctor had given her a slim chance of survival as she had lost so much blood due to the breech delivery.
Darcy was out of his wits with worry until a few days later when the doctor advised him that she was improving and out of danger. There was bad news though, there would be no more children as Elizabeth would never be able to conceive again due to the internal damage caused by the delivery.
Elizabeth was inconsolable, how could she be a good wife if she was left barren. She was only twenty seven and still should have had many more years ahead of her to have more children. Darcy on the other hand was silently relieved, he had watched his wife nearly die with little Georgie and he did not want that to ever happen again.
Around four months after George's birth, Darcy and Elizabeth lay together for the first time. It had taken her longer to heal than with the other babies and she had put it off further due to nerves. Her body had gone through so much that she was worried that her husband would not think her desirable any more.
Her nerves were soon quashed when her husband reacted to her in such a way, it reminded her of their first night together where things happened all too quickly. Darcy had so much pent up frustration due to his abstinence that his eagerness was truly obvious. After they made love they lay there in each others arms, "William, I feel that I am no longer a whole woman."
"Please my love, we have had this discussion before, I do not care if we can no longer have any more babies. You have given me four beautiful children, you have surpassed my expectations." He then paused for a moment before adding, "I will be honest with you and please do not get upset over what I am about to say, but I am relieved that you cannot conceive any more."
Elizabeth pulled away in shock, "How can you say that William, the whole role of being your wife is to give you children and if I cannot do that then I have failed."
"Lizzy, you have given me children aplenty and that is not only your role in life. Yes you are the mother of our children but you are also my friend, my confident and my lover so don't go saying you have failed, you have not!"
"But.."
"No Buts," Darcy interrupted, "If the doctor had said that you could have children but could die in childbirth, we wouldn't be here in bed. I would have had to have stay away from you until you were of an age you could not conceive. Do you think I could live with that, knowing I could not touch you? These last four months have been hell, I don't think I could survive decades where I could not lay with you. So, yes it is selfish of me but I am glad."
Elizabeth was silent and a tear trickled down her face, "Please do not cry Lizzy, this way we can still be man and wife without the threat that you will end up dying. I would rather this outcome than you keep having children until the inevitable happens. Every time we would lay together it would be like signing your death warrant."
Elizabeth accepted what her husband had said, it did however take her a number of months to come to terms with her infertility. Darcy comforted her in her times of need, those occasion where she saw ladies about town in an expectant way or small children running around, which made her all the more broody.
Darcy and Elizabeth had eight grandchildren in total. When the first was born to Jane, Elizabeth was so happy to have babies back in the house again, even if they were only visiting. Darcy and Elizabeth still enjoyed their shared bed well into old age, although things were taken at a much slower pace.
They decided to keep Longbourn as a home for the family, they would travel down to London and when Darcy had business in town, he would stay overnight at Darcy House and the family would be at Longbourn awaiting his return. They would then stay for a few weeks before returning to Derbyshire.
When Jane married, she and her husband, who was third son to a Duke, moved into the Hertfordshire estate, they had four children whom were all girls, the estate would eventually pass to the elder of the daughters.
Caroline Bingley
Caroline had her first season, following her return to London. She met with a very handsome gentleman who had recently come into a substantial amount of money. Her husband wooed her and they married six months later.
He could not get enough of Caroline initially, but quickly grew bored of her and took on a string of mistresses. Caroline didn't mind one bit, she was more interested in the riches he had and didn't need him in her bed, making a mess. She was happy that he took his pleasures elsewhere and not pester her each night when he came home drunk from the club.
One thing did upset the hardened lady though, on her birthday two months into the marriage, her husband gave her a diamond necklace.
On opening the box, she gasped, however it was not in a pleasant way, she was shaken to the core, to see her late mother's necklace staring back at her.
"Where did you get this?"
"Why Caroline, do you not like it?"
"This was my mother's, this is a one of a kind piece. Charles inherited it on her death when he was eighteen and it went missing shortly after."
"I came across it by chance, a lady I once knew had given it to me in payment for something I had done for her. I knew it was worth a few guineas so took that as payment, I thought it too nice to sell so kept it, I thought it would suit you," he said as he smiled handsomely at her.
Caroline accepted this and wore the necklace with pride, knowing that it had originally belonged to her mother. She did, however, question her brother later. Bingley blushed deep crimson, but did not give a reason. Little did she know but he had gifted it to a local beauty he had the pleasure of sleeping with during one summer break from university.
Caroline spent many a night in her lonely bed. Whilst her husband pleasured himself elsewhere, she was thinking of Mr Darcy and taking pleasure all on her own.
Charles Bingley
Bingley settled well at Blethney Estate, it wasn't long before he took a particular interest in a local beauty, who so happened to resemble Elizabeth. Her features were very similar, however she had guinea gold hair and a very quiet disposition.
Elizabeth took an instant liking to the new Mrs Bingley and bonded with the lady, there was something about her though that she could not quite put her finger on.
The Bingleys enjoyed many occasions where they would visit Pemberley with their ever expanding brood of children. This was initially difficult for Elizabeth, but as time went by, the feelings eased.
George Wickham
George felt a twang of jealously when he was not allowed to stay on at Pemberley in the year his father passed away, knowing Elizabeth and her father were to blame for him being carted off to boarding school. When he finally left the education system with the money that old Mr Darcy had given him, he decided to go to London to make a fortune. George was an astute, Machiavellian sort of man and was able to con and hustle his way through life.
He came into quite a wealthy sum after spending some months with a very gullible lady. Fleeing with all her wealth he returned to London and reinvested his loot before hiding low for a few months.
The following year he met up with a beautiful red head that he took a fancy to. He needed a wife for all the soirées he was being invited to so offered his hand, she accepted and it was bliss for a very short while, but he quickly grew tired of her. He could not stay in his wife's company for much longer than it took to eat dinner, then excused himself to go out and relieve himself with his latest big of tot.
He never had any children as he never slept with his wife after the first few weeks, she grew sour as the years went on wishing to spend more and more time alone.
Miss Martin
A year before that dreadful interview at Pemberley, Miss Martin had fallen in love with one of her new clients, a very handsome young man from London. He was only twenty nine years old at the time and she was forty two. He did not care that she could not have children and wished to marry her. He was rich, gifting her jewels and clothes and within a short space of time, they were betrothed.
As he was in the business of finance, he persuaded her to hand over her bonds worth eighty thousand pounds to reinvest at a higher return, he had friends in high places and they owed him a favour. She gave him the key to the safe, where her documents were along with twenty five years worth of gifted jewels, entrusting him with her entire wealth.
The following day he was gone, disappeared without a trace, the entire contents of the safe had vanished along with him, including a necklace she prized above all, it had been given to her by a young man she once knew, claiming it had belonged to his late mother.
She moved to London to try and track the rascal down but he was not to be found, so she returned to Lambton only to discover that in her absence a brothel had opened with new blood. So there she was, penniless, jobless and with no clients.
Two years later, Miss Martin was forced to move to the slums, still on the game she managed to make enough money to put food into her mouth, but little else. Long gone were the days she had gentlemen callers, now she would be lucky to get workmen callers, wanting a pennies worth of pleasure at a time. A year after her downfall, she was found dead in her bed, having overdosed on Laudanum.
Richard Fitzwilliam
Richard found love a couple of years after Darcy in the form of a young widow, who was partial to a uniform.
She was all but nineteen at the time and had only been married three months before her husband had been killed in battle the year before.
Richard had turned her head when he rode past in his full military attire, she dropped her hankie and being a gentleman he was stopped to pick it up.
They married eight months later and she bore him one child, a son, who eventually became the next Earl of Matlock. Richard's brother, who took over the Earldom after their father passed, did not have an issue. He was forced to take a wife but the marriage was never consummated as he preferred a more masculine lover, which he found down at the men's club. The title therefore defaulted to Richard's boy.
Georgiana Darcy
At the age of nineteen, Georgiana had her first season in London. She fell in love with a rather handsome gentleman worth as much as her brother. They married on her twenty first birthday and she bore him five sons. However, one died in infancy and Georgiana found it difficult to recover from her heartbreak.
The family were to spend the next two years at their coastal home, which overlooked the sea. She had turned sickly in her grieving process and her husband thought that the clean air of the coast would perk her up.
Within a year, she had returned to her old spirits and another year later had given birth to another child, a daughter she named Elizabeth.
Charlotte Collins and Mr Collins
After Mr Darcy purchased Longbourn, Mr and Mrs Collins moved back to Hunsford as he was able to retake his position as clergy for his old parish.
It took five years before Charlotte reacquainted herself with Elizabeth. They had been estranged for all that time as Mr Collins refused to let Charlotte out of his sight and would not allow her to write to her friend.
Charlotte soon realised not long after her wedding day, that Mr Collins was a very possessive man, his jealousy held no bounds and Charlotte had learned the hard way to not upset him and make him mad and his fists happy.
The twenty thousand pounds from the sale of the estate was frittered away in a matter of a few years. Mr Collins had a gambling addiction, which he was able to keep secret until the day come when the bailiffs entered their dwelling at Hunsford and took half the furniture and Charlotte's wedding band, causing her to snap and tell her husband that she had had enough.
She walked out on him that day with the few belongings she still possessed and travelled to see her friend, hoping to seek sanctuary at Pemberley. Elizabeth and Darcy were stunned at the revelations and they immediately agreed shelter.
Charlotte took up residence in the old dowager house on the estate. When the Darcy children were old enough to need a governess, Charlotte was employed as such. After the children were older and Charlotte's services were no longer needed, Mr Darcy allowed her to stay on as a personal companion to his wife.
Lucky for Charlotte, she was not in need of much funds to live on and her brother was able to provide a small allowance. When he heard about her ordeal with Collins, he started to send her monthly pin money to cover his guilt over her having to marry him.
Mr Collins was last seen begging by the roadside in a nearby village of Sevenoaks, still wearing his dog collar.
Aunt and Uncle Gardiner
It had been a very busy year for the Gardiners, the business at Christmas had taken them to great heights. They were unable to visit Pemberley until the following Christmas, when Jane was already three months old.
That year they had the family Christmas that Elizabeth longed for, Richard visited at the same time and with Georgiana, it made for a happy occasion.
The Gardiners were invited back each Christmas thereafter and they were also able to spend some weeks in the summer with their niece and her family.
Twenty years later, the elderly couple decided to sell the company and their home in London, making them very a tidy sum. Their niece and her husband offered them a well situated cottage on the estate that overlooked a small stream and parkland. Mr and Mrs Gardiner spent the rest of their days in the peaceful haven of Pemberley, spending most of their time at the big house enjoying the company of their beloved family.
Mrs Reynolds and Hannah
The housekeeper spent the next twenty years at Pemberley, retiring at the age of seventy. She was given a great send off as the Darcys had thrown a party before leaving to take up residence with her elderly brother in Lambton.
The role of new the housekeeper was given to Hannah, who had been shadowing the frail woman for the previous five years. Hannah thought back on her life, she started out as a maid in a run-down Inn in Lambton and worked her way up to be the housekeeper of the illustrious Darcy home.
Hannah watched as Mrs Reynolds was driven off in the Darcy carriage towards her brother's home.
"Pride may well be a sin, but today I am very proud of myself," she thought.
Thanks for taking your time to read this, especially if you made it this far. :)
