"What shall we do about Lydia, now that she's here?" asked Elizabeth, pacing through the center of their library while her husband leaned on the window.
"You should sit down and let me worry about Mrs. Wickham, Mrs. Darcy."
Lizzy paced faster. "Oh, please. You don't know my sister. It's going to take a lot more patience than you have to get any information worth having out of her, assuming she actually knows anything at all."
"Still, I do insist you sit," he stated, reaching out and steering her by the elbow to a seat.
"Very well, then. This is how we should approach Lydia; Jane and I will take tea with Lydia in the upstairs parlor. Should Mrs. Collins wish to join us, she may, but Mr. Collins cannot be permitted. We have to keep Lydia talking, and he would talk over himself if he could. Perhaps you could take him hunting? Although I'm not sure I trust that man with a gun. And Geogiana can't be allowed to be exposed to her like this. But if she told you that much just on the ride back to the house, I'm sure we can get everything she knows."
"I can't deny the logic of your plan, my love, but are you sure you don't want to take Mr. Collins with you to your tea? Perhaps one of his speeches on virtue would loosen Mrs. Wickham's tongue?" William smirked at his charming wife.
"Perhaps you're right, Mr. Darcy. I can't help but to think that the more I expose your unborn child to Mr. Collins, the more he will absorb his pious and sycophantic behaviors. What a virtuous child we shall have, modeled after such a delightful man!"
"My darling, someday you must tell me how you know exactly how to make me see your point." He leveled a dark gaze at her, ensuring that he locked eyes with her and kept the contact between them while he raised her hand to his lips and began running his lips across her knuckles, her wrist, and up her arm.
"It's a simple matter of always being correct, my love," she whispered
He leaned towards her and whispered, "Someday I'm going to make good that threat to spank you, my dearest, darlingest Elizabeth." Lizzy squirmed a little in her seat at the look in his eyes.
"I suggest you lock the door, William."