Chapter 5: The interloper

Darcy chose to cut the season short, as per his usual pattern. He and Elizabeth traveled with the former Colonel Fitzwilliam and his new bride Isabel to Rosings for Easter. Fortunately, the women formed an easy friendship two years ago when the newlyweds were courting. While Richard would perpetually deny it, Elizabeth's approval was a deciding factor in his decision to propose to the granddaughter of a minor baron near Exeter. Family was always important to Richard, especially his favorite cousin.

Initially, the relationship between the residents of Rosings and Pemberley were quite strained after Elizabeth and Darcy's wedding. But like many things, a little time and a lot of grace went a long way to shorten the distance between the two great houses in Kent and Derbyshire. Defying all odds, Lady Catherine eventually extended the annual Easter invite that included Mrs. Darcy. It would only take intervention by Anne to make sure the couple was given adjoining rooms rather than the ones Lady Catherine originally requested. Somehow, the younger de Bourgh was convinced that her cousin-in-law deserved a suite in the family wing rather than at the far end of the guest wing.

Anne's health continued to fluctuate. Every winter, she became susceptible to yearly colds that often developed into severe pneumonia-like illnesses. And every spring, she rebounded from the brink to flourish with the warmth of the coming summer season. The rest of the family waited on bated breath to get the letter that would announce their cousin's demise over the winter holidays, only to celebrate her health with the vernal ones.

Adding Isabel to their party this year would lessen whatever tirades the great matriarch might try to sneak into the stilted conversation the party was bound to have. Of course, Lady Catherine's favorite target was Elizabeth, but her fear of limited familial interactions thanks to threats by Darcy and Richard (and Richard's father, her brother the Earl) forced her to be creative in her snide remarks towards the woman she still considered to be the interloper into the family.

But fear of being alone terrified her more than anything the daughter of a minor landowner and niece of a merchant could possibly bring to her house for a few weeks every year. Darcy made it very clear in his letter this year that any mentions at all regarding their lack of progeny would result in their immediate removal and permanent break in their relationship. Anne, as usual, was his biggest champion at Rosings. She truly loved Elizabeth. Elizabeth always showed her such kindness and genuinely saw Anne, when the lonely girl often felt invisible.

Isabel had the energy of Elizabeth's youngest sister but tempered with the refined manners of a quality seminary education. Darcy often wondered if this is what Lydia would be more like if she had access to education. In the three hours it took to travel from their home in Belgravia to Rosings, the four cousins and friends enjoyed a lively conversation.

Elizabeth had recently gotten over a bit of a stomach flu, which caused her to miss the last big dinner of the season. But Isabel and Richard had no trouble recounting the particulars of every foible and folly of the peers at this particular duke's dinner table. Elizabeth and Isabel rightly felt compassion for Lady Alexander, as she was unknowingly forced to attend the event with her husband and his mistress, who was the guest of a former classmate of Henry, Richard's elder brother at Cambridge. Apparently, everyone else knew that Lord Alexander had been keeping this particular mistress from his wife. No one had the heart to tell Lady Alexander of the situation, who found the younger woman quite charming.

Of course, this meant that Lord Alexander was highly uncomfortable and drank far too much brandy during the separation from the sexes to the point where he passed out in his dining chair and later had to be carried out to his carriage. The women agreed that Lady Alexander should have let him sleep in the carriage for his behavior. The men thought Lord Alexander got his just desserts, with Richard pointing to a rather scathing bit in the gossip column in this morning's paper.

Elizabeth couldn't help but think what her mother would think of the situation. In times such as these, when the peerage behaved like this, she felt a might justified in that her parents would never act this way. Darcy, for all his arrogance when they first met so many years ago, would agree with his wife. The one benefit would be that Mrs. Bennet would probably have somehow figured out a way to tell Lady Alexander what was happening and make sure that Lord Alexander got his due. Mrs. Bennet may often behave indecorously, but she certainly had a high standard for morality in marriage. She once discovered an affair between a visiting married man and his children's governess and orchestrated the entire town to cut him. It escalated to the point where shops were refusing service, and the man and his family were forced to cut their trip to the area short and never returned to Meryton, Hertfordshire, or the surrounding counties since.

While they were discussing the article in the paper, Darcy glanced to his left to find his wife sound asleep against the window. He gently maneuvered her so as not to strain her neck for the last hour of their trip to Kent.

"How far along is she?" Darcy's head snapped to Isabel's smiling face.

"Far along?" Darcy shook his head, not understanding her question.

"Exhaustion, picking at her food, her bout of stomach flu," Isabel's smile became a bit of a smirk, "her dress size shrinking."

Darcy looked down at his wife for a second before looking back at his fellow passengers. "She's not… she can't be… we already… it's not…"

"Oh, do you not know?"

Darcy leaned back into the cushioned seat back and exhaled slowly.

"Or does she not know?"

Isabel's question was innocent enough, but it forced Darcy to question enough of their recent history. Isabel was right. She had to be. All the signs were there.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Isabel leaned forward and gently placed her hand on Darcy's knee. "Is this not a good event for you two?"

"No, it would be a miracle," Darcy said with eyes closed, imagining all the possibilities, allowing himself to hope again. Isabel retrieved her hand and found Richard's, threading their fingers before he brought it to his lips for a tender kiss.

Richard nodded to his wife. He had informed her of the Darcys' infertility issues before their were married last fall when they were talking about their own hopes for a family. Richard had seen his cousin nearly fall apart from watching his own wife struggle through feelings of guilt and betrayal and grief, and he couldn't imagine the kind of strength it took to pull the two strongest people he knew from the brink. It was Isabel who pointed out that the power of the Darcys' relationship was in each other, that they drew strength from each other, especially in times of crisis. Isabel could only hope to have the kind of relationship she witnessed between the two people that now sat across from her, and the only person she was willing to try was sitting to her left and smiling at her as only Richard could.

Darcy's mind was racing. Did she really not know? Or did she and just didn't want to tell him? Does she not want to get his hopes up? He tried doing the math, but it wasn't an easy equation, especially not recently. She had never had a regular cycle, something several physicians warned could be part of their problem conceiving. And Darcy could not remember the last time she was, well, indisposed.

He couldn't remember her looking that much different, so she couldn't be that far along. But they'd potentially lost a few early on, though they couldn't be certain. The last one, last year was so much further along. It was different. They dared to hope.

Suddenly, Darcy sat up. He realized why he didn't know, why she didn't know.

She didn't want to hold out hope. She couldn't hold out hope. Hope meant too much. Dreams meant too much.

AN: Again, thanks for all the reviews! A Happy Mother's Day to my fellow Austenites who enjoy celebrating this day. However, Mother's Day is so very hard on far too many every year who, like Elizabeth, aren't mothers and so desperately want to be. It's also hard for those who've lost mothers or children or have terrible relationships with their mothers or children. I am lucky to have a great mother, but I do not have my own children and that is part of where I draw inspiration from for this particular story. It's a hard holiday. And so for those of you hurting today, I see you, and I am with you.

Guest responses: Brandy - I am so sorry for your losses. That you can love and mother so much in spite shows your core strength, and I hope you continue to show others how to love and remember. / Saralee - I always promise an HEA (Happily Ever After) and to keep Darcy and Elizabeth together. I'm not a big fan of when they don't. An author has to be truly outstanding to sell me on a story that doesn't end with ODC together in their own version of "happy". I think we all signed up for Pride & Prejudice fandom because Darcy & Elizabeth are our OTP. We want them to be together forever. I think we can mix up all the other couples in this story, but you got to keep our couple together in the end.

Thanks for reading!