Thank you guys, for the endless support and kind reviews. To be very honest, you are by far my favorite people here, in all of my books (even, unfortunately, the new one- it seems to be getting some hate that is a little disheartening . . . )
When news of the engagement spread, there was no end to the flow of congratulations that came in. It seemed to Darcy that the whole of the local populace had heard of it by the next day after asking Mr. Bennet's approval.
Hardly a day went by without a visit to Longbourn and the joy that the daily meeting with Elizabeth brought to Darcy's heart was but slightly diminished at the fact that he (thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Bennet) had to bear with numerous visits from the neighboring families.
Darcy helped to spread the news further through his own efforts, and took great pleasure in writing numerous (if short) letters to friends and members of his family announcing his engagement to Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
My dearest Georgiana,
I have done my utmost best to fulfil your every wish, but your desire for a sister was rather difficult. However, I cannot contain my joy in informing you of the fact that Elizabeth Bennet has done me the greatest honour in consenting to be my wife.
She expresses her impatience in seeing you again and to continue the acquaintance that was unfortunately interrupted last summer at Pemberley. We are impatient for you to join us here in Hertfordshire at Bingley's estate at the soonest possible occasion. Elizabeth's elder sister Jane is also anxious to meet you.
Your brother is now ecstatically happy - a profound change from those days in London. Elizabeth loves me, and there are no two women I think more highly of or love more than you and her. After so many trials and hardships it is difficult to believe my good fortune. Surely the man I was merely months ago, does not deserve this. But I have not only Elizabeth to thank - you, dear Georgiana I am forever indebted to for your kind understanding and patience with me. I know, young lady, that Father and Mother would be proud of you.
Yours etc.
Cousin Fitzwilliam,
I am sure that you have opened this letter in a state of great anticipation, wondering perhaps if this missive is the harbringer of tragedy or joy. But cousin, put all your fears for me to rest for I have the greatest pleasure in writing to inform you that at long last, I am engaged to marry my dearest Elizabeth.
I know that you are smiling as you read this missive. You may indulge yourself in much-deserved congratulations in the part you played in bringing us together. Without your support of me even when I was rather difficult our engagement would not have been possible.
Your advice to me had been taken to heart. All I had to tell Elizabeth was that I loved her - that was all nothing else. And in return I heard the most wondrous thing - that she loved me as I do her. I have changed, and so has she. We both apologised profusely for our past disagreements, though I still believe that Elizabeth has nothing to be sorry for. The fault was all on my part. But that is all forgotten. We are to married at the same time as Bingley and his Jane. You must grant me the title of happiest man in the world, though Bingley strongly protests that the title belongs to him.
I thank you again and again. You must come to Netherfield as soon as you can. Elizabeth sends you her sincerest regards and all the love she can spare from me.
Yours etc.
P.S. It would be greatly appreciated if no word my engagement reaches Lady Catherine for the time being. I am still debating on the most diplomatic way on breaking the news to her.
P.P.S. You have my permission to break this news to W.
More letters of a similar nature followed to family and friends in Derbyshire, London and more. However Darcy hesitated over one of the most important letters.
How he was to inform Lady Catherine de Bourgh of his engagement to Elizabeth he did not know. However he phrased it, Lady Catherine would not take it well.
"Darcy," called Bingley from the door of the study. Darcy looked up from the blank sheet of paper, a small pile of letters, all addressed and waiting to be sent off beside him. There were three crumpled balls of paper near the inkpot - discarded letters to his Aunt.
"It is just before lunchtime - shall we go to Longbourn?" asked Bingley.
This news immediately brought a smile to Darcy's face and he quickly stood up. "Of course. These letters can be completed at a later time."
Bingley laughed. "There is no question as to the more appealing - writing tedious letters to people or spending time with Elizabeth is there."
"I heartily agree, but do you not think that you should write to your sisters and tell them of the latest developments?" asked Darcy as he took his hat from the servant.
Bingley sighed. "I suppose that it will have to be done sooner or later."
"But not now. After we return from Longbourn, and Jane and Elizabeth."
By now it was custom that the gentlemen come over to Longbourn practically everyday, usually for lunch and sometimes for dinner as well. After the midday meal, in which it was not unusual for Mrs. Bennet to bring a friend or three of hers over, the two gentlemen would go walking with their respective ladies for perhaps a more private conversation.
Today in the Longbourn garden, Elizabeth wished for Darcy to account for his ever falling in love with her, a subject that caused the gentleman much speculation, for he did not quite know.
"How could you begin?" said she, "I can comprehend your going on charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what set you off in the first place?"
Darcy laughed wryly at Elizabeth's description of 'charmingly'. "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."
This answer would not do for Elizabeth. She went into thought and then said, "My beauty you had early withstood, and as for my manners - my behaviour to you was at least always bordering on the uncivil, and I never spoke to you without rather wishing to give you pain than not. Now, be sincere," she said playfully, "did you admire me for my impertinence?"
"For your liveliness of your mind I did," answered Darcy.
"You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little else. The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking, and thinking of your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them. Had you not really been amiable you would have hated me for it; but in spite of the pains you took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just; and in your heart, you thoroughly despised the persons who ad so assiduously courted you."
Darcy was pleasantly surprised at Elizabeth's analysis of him, which was a near perfect reflection of him. Even more pleasing was Elizabeths recognition that he had always been noble and just throughout their acquaintance, even when he had realised he had perhaps not been so. "There," continued Elizabeth, "I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it; and really, all tings considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable. To be sure, you knew no actual good of me - but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love."
Darcy thought back to when he had thought Elizabeth to be less than perfect and to the occasion when she and Jane had stayed at Netherfield, in order to prove to Elizabeth that he had known some good in her. He was not a man who could easily tell a joke from seriousness.
"Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane, while she was at Netherfield?"
"Dearest Jane!" was her reply, "who could have done less for her? But make a virtue of it by all means. My good qualities are under you r protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be; and I shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last. What made you so shy of me, when you first called, and afterwards dined here? Why, especially, when you called, did you look as if you did not care about me?"
"Because you were grave and silent, and gave me no encouragement," said Darcy. He was not sure if he would enjoy being teased, and he was not about to give Elizabeth more reason to laugh at him by saying he had been under the impression she had been in love with his cousin.
"But I was embarrassed."
"And so was I."
"You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner," said Elizabeth in mock-reproach.
"A man who felt less, might."
"How unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give, and that I should be so unreasonable as to admit it!" exclaimed Elizabeth. "But I wonder how long you would have gone on, if you had been left to yourself. I wonder when you would have spoken, if I had not asked you! My resolution of thanking you for your kindness to Lydia certainly had great effect. Too much, I am afraid; for what becomes of the moral, if our comfort springs from a breach of promise, for I ought not to have mentioned the subject? This will never do."
As Elizabeth got herself into a state over her worry over the Lydia-Wickham affair being the basis for their current standing, Darcy stood and took her hands in his.
"You need not distress yourself," he said comfortingly. "The moral will be perfectly fair. Lady Catherine's unjustifiable endeavours to separate us, were the means of removing all my doubts. I am not indebted for my present happiness to your eager desire of expressing your gratitude. I was not in a humour to wait for any opening of yours. My aunt's intelligence had given me hope, and I was determined at once to know everything."
Elizabeth smiled at him, a loving and relieved smile that warmed Darcy despite the autumn chill.
"Lady Catherine has been of infinite use, which ought to make her happy, for she loves to be of use. But tell me, what did you come down to Netherfield for? Was it merely to ride to Longbourn and be embarrassed? Or had you intended and more serious consequences?"
"My real purpose was to see you, and to judge, if I could, whether I might ever hope to make you love me. My avowed one, or what I avowed to myself, was to see whether your sister as still partial to Bingley, and if she were, to make the confession to him which I have since made."
They sat again on the bench in the garden for some moments, contented with the explanations of the other, until Elizabeth spoke.
"Shall you ever have courage to announce to Lady Catherine, what is to befall her?"
"I am more likely to want time, than courage, Elizabeth. But it ought to be done, and if you will give me a sheet of paper, it shall be done directly."
No sooner was these words spoken than Elizabeth went to fetch writing materials out to the garden, as it was such a fine day.
"And if I had not a letter to write myself," said Elizabeth as she gave him paper and such, then sitting down beside him, "I might sit by you, and admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady once did. But I have an aunt, too, who must no longer be neglected."
Darcy's mouth twitched, Elizabeth giving him a side smile as she began to compose her own letter to Mrs. Gardiner. Reluctantly, he tore his eyes from her to return to the dilemma he had faced that morning. Finally, he wrote,
Lady Catherine de Bourgh of Rosings Park,
There is no manner in which I can put this news to you so that you can accept it in a sagacious manner. I am aware that I go through with this engagement without your approval, and that I risk severing contact between us for a considerable period of time, if not forever. I am aware of your arguments against this union, and of the consequences threatened by you. Please do not think that I have not given your words a hearing when you spoke to me. However, I have decided that the advantages considerably outweigh the disadvantages - what little that exist and that you have imagined, and so I have become engaged to Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn. I know that you will give my future wife every respect and the appreciation she deserves - and receives from me.
You are, of course, invited to the wedding, which will be shared with Mr. Bingley and Jane Bennet.
Yours, etc.
He finished this missive before he could begin to have second thoughts about what he had written. Elizabeth was still writing to Mrs. Gardiner and Darcy asked her to convey his gratitude and warmth of feeling to them, for he already considered them as his own family.
Drumroll (or review) for the final epilogue on Friday . . .
I'd love it if you could pop over to my new P&P book Never Doubt I Love if you ever happen to get the chance or the interest- and really, the new journey won't be the same without you all :)
