Chapter 14
When Elizabeth woke up the next morning she was surprised to see both the Darcy men waiting for her in the breakfast parlor.
"Miss Bennet, you are a feast for the eyes while we fulfill our appetites this morning. I take it you are an early riser?" Edmund greeted her with.
"Yes. At home I find the earlier hours of the morning to be more peaceful and often take an early walk."
"I too awake up and ready for vigrous activity. My preference is to ride when possible," Edmund told her, "But today I would be happy to escort you on your walk."
"You do not have to give up your morning ride on my account," Elizabeth assured him.
"It is no hardship. I do not have the right type of mount currently so would not be riding anyways. I plan on seeking some when I visit London. For this morning your charming company will be enough to content me."
"I will join you on your walk," Darcy said quickly. His uncle he knew planned on flirting outrageously with Elizabeth yet again. The sly innuendos Elizabeth did not understand luckily and he knew his uncle would never take it past flirting, but he wanted to ensure his uncle did not shock her with his flirting. His uncle, he knew, rarely rode a horse in the early morning and had been reffering to riding a female, but Elizabeth did not know that and his uncle would enjoy making sport with her innocence.
"You do that Darcy. I can regale this beautiful creature, who will be walking on my arm, with stories of my heroic exploits and daring do in His Majesty's Navy while you assure her of the truth of my words."
"So you do not intend to exaggerate? What a shame, I will assume you are doing so and if you tell me you single handedly caught a stolaway I will assume you have exaggerated and that this stolaway you caught was a ships rat, and not a dangerous foriegn spy."
"But a rat is a dangerous foreign spy. They sneak aboard, lingering in the shadows and stealing what they can. Does that not sound like a dangerous foreign spy to you, Miss Bennet?"
"It sounds like a small child, hidding in the pantry to pilfer fresh baked biscuits," Elizabeth said her eyes twinkling.
"You sound as if you are experienced in the pilfering of fresh baked biscuits. Darcy my boy, when Miss Bennet stole my heart as she stepped down from your coach yesterday," Edmund said with a wink, "I suspected you had brought a thief into my midsts, but now she has confirmed it with her own words. And here I thought you had been the one pilfering my cooks biscuits this morning."
"I believe Mrs. Wiffle was the one doing the pilfering this morning," Elizabeth said laughing.
"Darcy have you engaged such a nice woman as Mrs. Wiffle in your thievery? For shame, my boy."
"Is it thievery when you instructed your cook to make biscuits for us to take with us?" Darcy asked raising an eyebrow.
"I planned on trading those biscuits to you," Edmund said waggling his eyebrows.
"For what?" Elizabeth asked him laughing.
"A kiss!" Edmund proclaimed dramatically.
"I am not kissing you, " Darcy declared dryly.
"Not from you. From a fair maiden," Edmund exclaimed.
"Was Mrs. Wiffle aware she would be required to kiss you when she pilfered the biscuits this morning?" Elizabeth asked playfully.
"Mrs. Wiffle pinches my cheeks and pats my head. She is eighty, if she is a day. She is not the fair maiden I had in mind."
"Mrs. Wiffle is not eighty. She celebrated her seventy third birthday in Febuary," Darcy said.
"And considering she is playing chaperone I take it she once again declined to retire?" Edmond asked.
"Told me idle hands are the devil's play ground. Patted my head, pinched my cheeks and told me I should not have come all the way there just to deliver her birthday present," Darcy said in resignation.
"Well she certainly didn't let her hands sit idle last night. Mrs. Wiffle did a marvolous job altering some of Georgiana's old forgotten dresses for you, Miss Bennet. You look particularly fetching in that creation. It thankfully never fit our Georgiana like it does you," Edmund said with a wink.
…
Bingley glanced at his traveling companions and wondered just what Darcy would say when he showed up at Darcy's estate in Scotland with Elizabeth's angry uncle and Jane.
"Are you comfortable Miss Bennet?" Bingley asked anxiously.
"Yes, Mr. Bingley. I am just concerned for Lizzy. Mr. Darcy means well, but," Jane began.
"His plan is half-baked and hair-brained. Are you sure he is an intelligent young man, Mr. Bingley? If he is the smartest man you know, I fear for the intelligence found in those you surround yourself with," Edward Gardiner said with a shake of his head. "What kind of fool decides the best way to save my niece's reputation is to compromise it further by traveling alone in a coach, no chaperone, to Scotland with her?"
"His intentions are honorable," Bingley said.
"Elizabeth's honor may have prevented her from agreeing to an engagement, but she is under age. He could have approached my brother, Lizzy's father, with a betrothal contract and gained her hand that way. Lizzy would not have gone back on her word, it would have been her father that agreed to the engagement to preserve her reputation, not her, and her reputation would have been restored without the need to compromise it further first."
"Lizzy is very stong willed and can be vocal in her opinions," Jane fretted. "She is a treasure though. He must be very in love with her to act as he has."
"Aye, a complete fool in love," Gardiner said with a disgusted snort.
…
Col. Fitzwilliam shifted in his seat inside Bennet's coach. Mr. Bennet had spent the previous day interrogating him on Darcy. Once he had finished questioning him he had sat back in silence, his fingers steepled together, saying nothing. He had said nothing when they stopped for the night and nothing at breakfast. The silence was starting to be unnerving. Yesterday, and even this morning he had been determined not to be the one to break it, but he was reassessing that decision. He wanted to know what Elizabeth's father was thinking.
"He loves her, deeply and profoundly," Col. Fitzwilliam said into the silence.
"That is not surprising. My Lizzy I always knew would someday inspire an abiding passion in a gentleman of her aquitance," Bennet said. "You have satisfied me if he gets his way, she will be physically cared for by an exemplary gentleman. My daughter is a vivacious lively girl, her spirit a bright light. You speak of your cousin being a good master and conciounsess progressive land owner. I will allow that he may be all the things you claim, but in Hertfordshire he was a proud, disagreeable, cold man. Lizzy will not be happy if she cannot respect and esteem her spouse. Will he suffucate out that bright spirit? Slowly exsinguishing her warmth with his coldness? Physical care will be a hollow consolation if he crushes her spirit."
"Darcy will not crush her spirit," Col. Fitzwilliam said with conviction. "He will nurture it, opening up new vistas for her. Your daughter's spirit will thrive in his care. He is not very demonstrative but he is not a cold man with those he cares for. I have seen him with her after he recovered her from the post coach, she will never have cause to doubt his affection. He is incapable of treating her coldly. He cherishes her. I have seen it with my own eyes. "
"And I have not," Bennet said when the coach gave a lurch and began slowing to a stop.
The two men climbed out to discover what had happened. Once outside it was apparent that a large rut in the road had caused the coach to lurch at the same time one of the horses misstepped. The horse in question was favoring one of its legs, but after assessing it, the driver assured Bennet it would recover, but could not be expected to keep on today. An examination of the coach revealed that to travel further in it would not be advisable. The wheel that had hit the rut had been weakened and sustained damage, and while it was still functioning, it would likely fail soon and would need to be repaired.