Author's Note:

Hi, guys! I hope you haven't forgotten me! I'm sorry for not posting for a whole month. I've been very busy with uni and work and although I enjoyed writing Pemberley's Guardians, I was exhausted by the end of it. I needed to recharge. I don't plan to abandon this story, but I'm very behind with my writing. I will do my best!

Stay safe!

Jen


"It is not as if you are an old married woman, Elizabeth. You are barely three and twenty."

"I know, but I really want Mary, Georgie, and Kitty to have that fairy tale experience I never had. They are to be the princesses of every ball this season."

"Perhaps," he smiled and whispered in his ear: "but you are my Queen."


54.

"It was preposterous! Unconceivable! Unforgivable!" Fitzwilliam exclaimed the next morning in Mr. Darcy's study with his parents and his wife.

He had been in a terrible mood since the night before, but fortunately, the younger girls were still abed after the ball and did not hear such a tirade.

"What were his exact words, Fitzwilliam?" Lady Anne asked, calmly.

"He took one look at Georgie and said that he was not in the mood to be introduced to another dull debutante."

"Who said this?" Mr. Darcy asked, horrified.

"Lord Grantham, the son of the Earl of Buxton," Fitzwilliam replied.

"Do you mean Frederick Blake? I know the boy, though I have not seen him since he came back from Cambridge."

"Who is he, Father?" Elizabeth asked.

"As Fitzwilliam said he is a Viscount and the son of Lord Buxton. I know his father, but I am not particularly acquainted with his heir. He must be around five and twenty now."

"He insulted Georgiana!" Fitzwilliam huffed.

"Sit down, Fitzwilliam," Elizabeth sighed. "You gain nothing by pacing so."

"How can you be so calm after he called Georgiana a dull debutante?"

"Perhaps he was having a bad day," his wife offered.

"That is no excuse! He must never be allowed in her presence again!"

"It was very offensive but hardly unpardonable."

"If he apologises in the future," Lady Anne added.

"I do not care if he apologises or not! The only reason why I did not call him out right then was that I was not master of myself and I did not wish to cause a scandal." Fitzwilliam stopped pacing and faced his mother and his wife. "He is no gentleman."

"Fitzwilliam," Elizabeth said as if she were scolding their son, her smile made him realise he was about to be teased mercilessly. And his suspicion was confirmed when his wife turned to his mother. "May I tell you a story, Mother, Father? It is quite unrelated."

"Of course, my dear," Lady Anne smiled back.

"There was once a girl who lived in a small community where she was very admired and loved by her friends, family, and neighbours. Since this was so, she grew into a very confident young woman."

Mr. Darcy and Lady Anne could not help but smile when they realised she was talking about herself. Her husband, however, was wary.

"One night, there was an assembly and it was rumoured that the supposedly handsome and eligible gentleman that had just arrived in the neighbourhood would attend with a party of friends. This, of course, excited the whole community for different reasons and when two of the party turned out to be handsome and eligible gentlemen, the whole assembly was desperate for an introduction. Our young lady... let us call her Miss Lisa, was excited, too, for she enjoyed the idea of dancing with a different gentleman than one of her usual friends and neighbours. You see, Miss Lisa was of a social and outgoing disposition and was always eager to make new acquaintances and if these gentlemen turned out to be handsome and eligible, who was she to complain?"

Lady Anne chuckled at the theatric way in which Elizabeth described the same event Fitzwilliam had described so long ago in a very different spirit. She could see her son's frown as he knew what was coming and she also saw that her husband was just as amused as she was.

"One of the gentlemen... well, I would not like to use their names, you see? Let us call this gentleman Mr. Cheerful. Mr. Cheerful was very amiable and willing to please and he recognised a kindred spirit in our young woman's elder sister. Miss Lisa liked him immediately, but when Mr. Cheerful tried to convince his friend... let us call him Mr. Grumpy..."

This last phrase caused both elder Darcys to laugh but Elizabeth merely smiled as she continued.

"As I said... Mr. Cheerful was trying to convince Mr. Grumpy to dance with Miss Lisa. She could hear them from where she was sitting and was excited by the prospect of dancing with what she considered to be the most handsome gentleman she had ever seen. You see, she was sitting because there were very few gentlemen available and she believed the youngest girls should get the most amusement. She knew, of course, that if Mr. Grumpy asked, she would say yes, and so she was astonished, quite offended, and then very much amused when Mr. Grumpy took one look at her and said..."

Elizabeth's expression turned serious and haughty. "She is tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me. I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men."

"Oh, my," Lady Anne chuckled.

Fitzwilliam covered his eyes with his hand and sighed. "Shall you never forgive me for those words?"

"I forgave you almost three years ago or I would not be able to tease you about it. I only mention it now so you are more forgiving towards Lord Grantham. After all, you, more than anyone, should know that a gentleman can sometimes say ungentlemanly things when he is cross."

"It is abominable behaviour whether it comes from him or from me," Fitzwilliam argued.

"It is, but not unforgivable or I would not be here, would I?" Elizabeth asked. "Actually, it was my own ability to hold a grudge which made me swear that same night that I would never dance with Mr. Grumpy even if he ever did condescend to ask such a tolerable, slighted woman."

"You did reject me twice, but why did you dance with me at the ball, then?" Fitzwilliam asked, surprised by such a revelation.

"You caught me off-guard. I did not think you would ask me and I could not think of an excuse soon enough. Besides, I did not wish to sit for the rest of the night. What really matters now is Georgiana. Did she hear him?"

"Yes, she did," Lady Anne replied, now serious.

"That's what I feared," Elizabeth sighed and turned to her husband. "I laughed in your face when you insulted me but Georgie might not be so confident in herself."

"I spoke to her last night. She was affected but not as much as I had expected her to be," Lady Anne explained. "I think you, Mary, and Kitty give her courage. Still, she would not tell me what had been Lord Grantham's exact words, only that he had offended her."

"I shall speak to her. After all, we, slighted women, must remain together," Elizabeth said with a smile, as she stood up and walked to the door. "Oh, and Fitzwilliam?"

"Yes?" he turned to her and noticed the mischievous smile on her face.

"If you think I shall not tease you about this for the rest of our lives, you are dreadfully wrong. I shall make sure to tell our children and grandchildren when they are old enough."

"Ugh," Fitzwilliam sat down and held his head in his hands as he heard his wife's laughter before she went away.


"What did Georgiana say?" Fitzwilliam asked that night as Elizabeth snuggled close to him in bed.

"She was offended, but she did not think his comment was aimed specifically at her, but to debutantes in general. Still, I do not think she shall be anything but merely polite to him."

"As she should."

"Mm-hmm," she hummed in agreement, nuzzling his chest as she tried to get closer.

He chuckled. "You are almost on top of me, Elizabeth. You cannot get any closer."

"Oh, we shall see," she smiled and moved to be on top of him. "Here, I shall sleep here."

"I do not think so, my love. Not when you are with child."

"Oh, yes," she sighed and returned to his side but kept her head, an arm, and a leg on top of him.

He took her playfulness as a good sign but as he played with the curls on the back of her head, he felt he still had to ask:

"You are not truly angry with me, are you?"

"Angry?" She asked, raising her head to look at him. "Why should I be?"

"For those horrible things I said?"

"What things, Fitzwilliam?"

He sighed. "About you being tolerable."

She laughed. "Of course not! My darling, I married you and conceived two children with you!"

"I know, but Mother said that Lord Grantham's words were only pardonable if he apologised and I realised that I never did."

"Well, it hardly matters now, because I have forgiven you either way."

"Still, I am truly sorry, Elizabeth. You are astonishingly beautiful and your willingness to sit a few dances shows your selflessness."

Elizabeth could not help but laugh again. "I think I know by now that I must be handsome enough to tempt you."

She said these last words almost against his lips, hovering just close enough for him to breathe in her scent. He put a hand on the back of her head and pulled her lips to his.

"You drive me insane. My own personal temptress."

"I will still tease you about that slight," she whispered.

He smiled. "Did you truly think I was the handsomest man you had ever seen?"

"I did. Although I never imagined you would fall at my feet and beg me to marry you, I hoped you would ask me to dance. I was very intrigued by you, until you opened your mouth, of course."

He sighed. "How different would things have been if I had not insulted you?"

"I do not know," she shrugged, resting her chin on the back of her hands which were resting on his chest. "Perhaps you would not have been intrigued by my constant rejection and the... disadvantages of your marrying me would have weighed more on you without my impertinence. Perhaps you would not have fallen in love with me."

"No, Elizabeth," he said softly, tucking a curl behind her ear and looking into her eyes with so much love and affection that she could have cried. "I cannot imagine a world in which I do not love you."


I do not own any Pride and Prejudice properties, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story.

Characters and situations, created by Jane Austen, are taken from Pride and Prejudice and from the Pride and Prejudice (1995) adaptation created by Simon Langton and distributed by BBC.

This story is released under the GPL/CC BY: verbatim copying and distribution of this entire work are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided attribution is preserved.