GREEN

Dr. Warren's examination proved to be the perfect antidote to any malady that might have beset their moods.

"Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, I believe you are fully on the mend. I can detect no more primary symptoms, and your lack of strength is all that is really left. I must caution you that you are at the beginning of your ordeal and not the end, but there is no reason you should not enjoy a full recovery."

Elizabeth could not resist the temptation of jumping up to dance around the room before finally giving the good doctor a most indecorous, (and to be honest, somewhat sloppy), kiss on the cheek. That task performed, she danced over to her husband and barely restrained herself from giving him one that might send him back into remission. Instead, she gave him a mostly chaste kiss on the forehead, and then sat down to Dr. Warren's open laughter. She thought that after all that time she knew the man well enough to believe he would be amused more than embarrassed, so it had not been a terrible risk.

Warren said, "You do know how to celebrate, Mrs. Darcy, I can say that without fear of contradiction. I would beg you to never lose that to the pressures of society. If it comes to a choice of laughter or consequence, the former should win every time."

Elizabeth smiled. "You are a man after my own heart, doctor. Do you suppose you might introduce us to your wife?"

"It would be our pleasure, Mrs. Darcy. Perhaps when you return from Hertfordshire?"

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. The mention of Hertfordshire put a damper on the mood, but only momentarily. She knew she would be discussing it sooner or later, but she wanted to put it aside for a few more minutes.

Becoming more serious, the doctor said, "There are two important things I wish to discuss, pertaining to your recovery over the next several months – and I must caution you that I am not exaggerating."

Elizabeth perked up and paid rapt attention. While she thought a woman should be capable of anything, up to and including running an estate (as she had almost been obliged to do), she was presently looking forward to period of simply being a wife and mother – which mostly meant taking care of the health of her husband and children (or in her case, pesky sisters).

"First and foremost, you must be certain you do not get ill again. I do not mean just Typhus. Your whole body is weakened by the disease, and that includes its ability to fight off other illnesses. Do not let yourself get weakened by trying to do too much. You will be frustrated by your limitations, but do not allow that frustration to put your health at risk. Avoid crowds. Avoid anyone who has so much as a cold like the plague. Avoid your club for a while. Do not get in tight quarters with a lot of people under any conditions."

Darcy laughed heartily. "No balls. No routs. No society," then chuckled again and added, "I imagine I should be very careful for what – a year – two – three?"

Elizabeth swatted him playfully but did not deign to answer.

Warren laughed. "Mrs. Darcy shall determine the answer to that," then became more serious. "I should think three or four months. When you can promenade a full circuit around the park while keeping up with your wife at her normal pace, you can consider yourself safe I should think."

Darcy laughed. "I am not certain I could keep up with her normal pace before, but I do understand your meaning."

"The next part is hard, but you know that. You need to get your strength back, and I strongly recommend due seriousness on the task. There is no reason you cannot return to the same level of health you had before, but it will take some work. If you get lazy, you will probably never quite recover. Men who do that tend to slide into middle age early, which would be a shame."

Elizabeth said, "Fear not, Doctor. We shall not have that."

Warren continued, "The formula is the same as any strength increasing activity. Stress Plus Rest. Push yourself a bit, but do not overdo it. Rest adequately before trying just a bit more. You need to progressively push yourself, but it is imperative you allow plenty of time to rest in between. Most men either push themselves too hard with insufficient rest or not hard enough."

Darcy nodded, saying, "I will follow your advice – not that my wife would allow anything else."

Elizabeth wondered if he was teasing or not but did not feel the need to discuss it.

Warren said, "I have one more topic, but I fear it may lead to some acute embarrassment."

Elizabeth said, "Dr. Warren. I have let a half-dozen servants see me sleeping with my husband in my shift with my bare leg occasionally poking out of the blanket. I believe most of my stores of embarrassment have been consumed."

Warren looked like her stores might be exhausted but his were not; but he continued anyway.

"Most doctors would just leave you to figure things out on your own, but I feel that is remis. We must discuss, in broad outlines lacking all specifics, the marital act."

Elizabeth found that her previous assertion of having no embarrassment left had been widely overstated, and she felt like she was turning beet red, as was her husband.

Warren wished he had brought his wife for the task but decided to just get it over with. "In your present state, there is no impediment to full marital relations aside from your – err – lack of stamina."

Both members of the couple were lost for words, so he plowed on. "I will give you some advice that is beyond the usual remit."

Elizabeth said, "I appreciate that, Dr. Warren."

"There are two key points. The first is that anything you do together as a couple that is not hurtful is both allowed and encouraged. You will work out what that is, but I caution you to take your time and experiment, especially now when you are not completely yourself. You have your whole lives. Mr. Darcy, I assume you have the Kama Sutra somewhere in your library, and any number of other references. Do not be afraid to share them with your wife."

By now, all three of them were blushing furiously, and Warren decided to finish it.

"I would not ordinarily presume to advise you thus, but I believe you will be anxious about your illness. My advice is just a modified version of what I recommend for the rest of your lives. Take it slow, and then enjoy and learn from what happens. If nothing at all happens for some time, it will be perfectly well. You may not have the stamina for sustained activity, so do what you do have the stamina for."

Elizabeth managed to stammer. "That seems like good advice doctor. I thank you for it. That must have been difficult."

Warren stuttered a bit, then gave her to mean it was no trouble at all as he got up to leave.

As he was ready to walk out the door, he looked back at Darcy and said, "There will come a time when going slow will no longer be necessary, but it will always be correct. Take your time – always," then he ducked out the door, and was gone.

Elizabeth walked over to her husband who looked just about as spooked as she was. She sat down on the chair, pulled him around to face her, and clasped his head to her shoulder. It should have been awkward with his greater height, but somehow, she managed it. As she stroked his back, she said, "That was very brave of Dr. Warren to give us that advice. It would be a shame to let it go to waste."

Darcy leaned back and gave her a lingering kiss that made her toes want to curl, then leaned back to look at her, and say, "It shall not."

They sat in silence for a few moments, until they heard a discrete knock on the door. Elizabeth called for entry, and Noah said, "All is as you ordered, Mrs. Darcy."

"Thank you, Noah. We shall be down directly."

With a sigh, they both got up to refresh themselves one more time before starting their journey.


"What in the world is that – that –"

Fitzwilliam Darcy found himself completely unable to come up with a name for the horrifically ugly carriage that was sitting in the front of his house.

Elizabeth laughed. "Not the prettiest device I have ever seen, but it will get us where we need to go today."

Darcy said, "I thought we were going to Longbourn today."

Elizabeth scoffed. "And bring you in to face the fury of my parents after four hours in the coach. No thank you very much. We will sleep close to Meryton tonight and meet them in the morning."

Still confused Darcy asked, "We will stay where and do what?"

Elizabeth just raised an eyebrow. "Do you recall asking me to arrange everything?"

He scoffed. "'Asked' is a strong word for that context."

Elizabeth laughed. "Do not worry. I have it all in hand. You need not worry that pretty little head of yours."

He could not help but chuckle, and finally said, "All right, my lovely bride. You win! Now could you tell me what that thing is?"

Elizabeth laughed, very much appreciating the impertinent side of her husband and replied, "It is a modified ambulance carriage – basically a bed on wheels. I had Longman and Noah improve it a bit. This afternoon you will lay in bed, and I will read to you or talk, but in the end, I would prefer you mostly sleep. You were nearly dead less than a week ago, and I am loath to take you out at all. Are you certain you will not allow me to just handle this?"

He scoffed. "And ruin my fun – no, thank you, ma'am."

With a quick kiss, she led him over to the ambulance, where Longman and Noah helped him inside. He still looked very unsteady, so other than the confrontation with her father, which would require the formidable Master of Pemberley, she wanted him mostly sleeping or exercising. She would have put the entire affair off for a few weeks if her husband had acceded to her desires, but neither of them were willing to countenance having one of her sisters chained for life to a truly difficult situation because they could not be bothered to intervene.

The coach lumbered off, and Elizabeth, having decided to take Dr. Warren's advice, started reading a translation of the Kama Sutra to her husband. She made it less than half a page before deciding Shakespeare might be a better choice.

Fortunately, it turned out to be easy for Darcy to sleep, as the rattling and bumping of the hospital cart would have made for an uncomfortable journey, as it had for his wife. He was asleep within the first half-hour. Elizabeth held out for another half‑hour in the attendant's chair before deciding she was being stupid. She crawled into the tiny little bed with her husband, kissed his sleeping form, then surprisingly quickly, fell asleep along with him. Her last waking thought was some concern for the coachman and footmen who were probably being rattled more than usual, but she decided a bonus would probably remove any discomfort they may or may not feel.


She sounds of the wheels changing as the ambulance left the roadbed and entered the courtyard of the inn woke Mrs. Darcy from a sound sleep, and she had to admit that she felt – wonderful. She was lying in a cramped, dusty, flat, hard, miserable excuse for a bed, with her right arm in pins and needles from a bad position, and her posterior hardly any better. It was in every way untenable. However, she had her left arm draped over the man she loved, and he had not woken yet.

Darcy had the look of a little boy, that of innocence and wonder, which gradually went away as the master adopted the attitude that he felt necessary to manage his life. Elizabeth Darcy's greatest future challenge would be to make him keep that look of innocence and wonder when he was awake. She thought that Pemberley was probably the tonic he really needed, and considering how easy their present journey had been, she reconsidered whether they might just go there straightaway.

She gently shook him awake, whispering. "Fitzwilliam, we are here."

He groggily asked, "Can you be more specific, wife. Where is here?"

"The inn."

He grunted. "Still not very specific."

"My apologies, sir. The inn where we will be spending the night."

"Still not narrowing it down."

She had to laugh, wondering if they could carry on the silliness a bit longer, but a knock on the back door heralded the end of their tête-à-tête and she bade Noah to enter.

He said, "All seems in order, Mrs. Darcy. I suggest we trade places," but then blushed furiously at the suggestion, while Elizabeth just laughed. "I understand your meaning, Noah."

It took only a few minutes until she was standing in the courtyard, and Noah was helping Darcy up. He could probably have gotten himself out, but Elizabeth was not taking any chances. Too much depended on the next couple of days.

Darcy said, "You still have not told me where we are, Elizabeth."

She just smiled. "The circle is complete."

He scrunched his head. "Is this increased rate of inscrutability to continue all the way through our lives, or will it peak eventually."

She smiled. "It will all be perfectly clear to you once you are out of the ambulance and facing me as a good husband ought."

He turned around, slid down to the end of the ambulance, and stepped off onto the courtyard and gasped in surprise and wonder.

Elizabeth smiled. "Is this not perfect. I always thought we left something incomplete that day."

Darcy gave an enormous smile and pulled her in for a quick kiss. He knew he broke about a dozen rules of propriety per hour with his wife, but his staff was accustomed to it by now, and were unlikely to complain.

He was very gratified to find himself standing in the courtyard in Hatfield, in the exact spot where his wife had met him after yelling her 'Fair Warning' all those months ago on their wedding afternoon. That had seemed like an entire lifetime ago, but he had to admit that her suggestion made perfect sense.

In practical terms, he could see that they were close enough to Longbourn that he could go there in an hour on the morrow, and they both could appear quite rested and refreshed. They could even stop a mile or two from Meryton to refresh themselves, and he had very little doubt his wife had also arranged that. He would not have been surprised to find himself hosted by the family with the dog that barked at her during her daring escape attempt, since he seemed to be her oldest friend. To be honest, he would not be all that surprised to find he owned that farm already.

However, all that paled in comparison to the more personal observations. Fate had denied them their wedding night, and they had been stuck in the wedding afternoon for months. Mrs. Darcy was obviously of a mind that they should progress onward to the wedding night, and Mr. Darcy was a man who was most interested in acceding to his wife's requests – as any sensible man would.

With a great laugh, he said, "Aside from the fact that you might need to carry me across the threshold, I can readily see the wisdom of your plan, Mrs. Darcy."

With a huge smile, he gallantly offered his arm, even though both understood he was far more likely to need support than she was, and together, they walked gaily across the courtyard, retracing almost exactly the steps they had taken in December when it was not at all certain their marriage would survive the day, let alone 'til death us do part'. At that time, Elizabeth had been struck at the similarities between the mannerisms of her new husband leading her across the courtyard, and the same man leading her to dance at Netherfield.

The thought made her giggle, and her husband raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

She said, "The last time we crossed this courtyard, I was struck by how you offered your arm and your escort exactly the same as you did at the Netherfield ball, and I idly wondered if we would ever dance again – or speak again, for that matter."

Darcy was not in a mood to let remembrances of the past bring the couple down, particularly as his wife was replaying the memory somewhat playfully, so he said, "Do you talk by rule, then, while you are dancing?"

Elizabeth gave a great laugh, which her husband could not help but appreciate all the more with her good humor.

With a giggle, she said, "Sometimes. One must speak a little, you know. It would look odd to be entirely silent for half an hour together; and yet for the advantage of some, conversation ought to be so arranged, as that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible."

He did his best to stand up straight and speak in an overly pompous manner. "Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do you imagine that you are gratifying mine?"

She tried to continue, but they broke into bursts of laughter that both could not quite contain, which went on for some time.

As they entered the room, she took a momentarily serious break in her mood. "Tomorrow, Fitzwilliam, at Longbourn, we shall be serious. We shall expect to say something that will amaze the whole room and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb – but tonight – tonight – tonight is for us."

Feeling a burst of love for his wife, he simply pulled her closer and most indecorously wrapped his arm around her waist for a quick squeeze.

They found themselves greeted by the same innkeeper, and Elizabeth told him they were to have supper in the same private dining room.

In a burst of nostalgia, he found that she had ordered exactly the same food as on that long-ago day in the life that came before Typhus, although she wisely omitted the laudanum and willow bark tea.

When the meal was finished, they both knew full well they need not linger. There was obviously nothing else to do for entertainment at an inn, and he was unlikely to stay awake more than another hour anyway, so they immediately retired to their room.

Dr. Warren's advice turned out to be very useful. Elizabeth was apprehensive about what exactly happened, and it turned out that her husband had some experience, but none of it relevant, since being in love with your wife changed everything. They managed to fumble and stumble around for some time. The exigencies of her husband's weakness caused them to change the usual order, position, and direction of things, but all in all, it was a beautiful experience that both wanted to experience as long and as often as possible.

It was, in Elizabeth Darcy's humble opinion, the perfect end to the perfect wedding day – even if it did take several months.