Shame on them!
Chapter 27 Pemberley Magic
Derbyshire, Pemberley, night from Sunday to Monday.
"Fitzwilliam, it's ridiculous..."
She couldn't help but giggle. They had just passed under what Fitzwilliam called his "secret exit" and he was still holding her in his arms while walking through the wet lawn.
And his walk was not a sedate one. She was clinging to her fiancée with all the strength she was able to muster.
"No, it's not," answered he. "I swore I would do it and I'm going to do it..."
"It's more than a mile away, dear. You'll be exhausted..."
He stopped and looked at her.
They were not farther away from the manor than a hundred paces.
"Does it matter?"
She looked to the heaven and shook her head.
"Of course it matters! You already had a difficult day and I know your last night was rather short. What we are going to do is --some say-- better done when rested!"
She let out a real growl.
"We could already be in my bed and doing..." She hesitated and he felt her blush. "...It!"
She felt him smile.
"Indeed we could and I'm as impatient as you. But a word is a word. And I will not forswear my first oath to you..."
"Nobody spoke of carrying me the whole way to the grove, Fitzwilliam. I'm able to walk..."
"I do not doubt it for a second. But there's a part of me who wants me to carry you this whole way..."
She exhaled a long and heavy breath.
"It's nevertheless ridiculous. I could have walked most of the way and you could have carried me then last hundred paces..."
"It would not have been the same..."
"In that case, wouldn't it have been even better if you had carried me the whole way from Longbourn?"
He smothered a laugh.
"Indeed but I fear no man has such an amount of patience in him... I certainly do not. I will regret it my whole life but from the manor to the grove will be the whole of my penance this night..."
"Penance?"
"Of course, penance, dearest love. What I'm going to do, no real gentleman would even envision. It seems that your judgment in April was quite on the spot!"
"My judgment in April as I already said it, was foolish and moronic. I should have done what you wanted and didn't! I should have come up to you and kissed you. Then you would have jumped me and given me the proof that all your babble about family and conveniences was nothing than an excuse to satisfy your pride... I would have found the most delicate of all lovers and I'm sure I would not have had to dig very deep."
"We'll see very soon if there's such a person as a delicate lover within the very ungentlemanly person who is carrying you..."
With the hand which wasn't holding his neck like mad, she forced him to look at her.
"The man who is carrying me is the most perfect gentleman I have ever encountered and I really hope my awful words of last April will some day end coming back to haunt me..."
She heaved herself up and gave him a kiss.
"And I really would prefer you rested and in good shape..."
He laughed at her.
"That's the real reason of your being upset. You fear I'll be unable to do what we both know I'm going to do if I'm able not to fall immediately asleep..."
She joined both her hands behind his neck and placed her head against his chest.
"If you fall asleep, I'll roll you into the pond... I'm sure that will wake you up..."
"Than I hope very much that I'm not going to fall asleep. If I remember the last time I bathed in this pond it's very very cold even in summer..."
"I'll do my best to keep you awake..."
He had feared that he would have to let her go to crawl through the heavy brush.
But, this very night, for the first time since the death of his father, he had found a way to the grove without crawling on all fours.
This night he was able to bring her next to the pond without ever letting her go.
Deep inside himself he knew that it was what had to be done. What he, the master of Pemberley, had to do!
He brought her to the moss of their wedding bed and there, all idea of sleep and exhaustion forgotten, he began to let the delicate lover in him take the front.
Thousands of years the Grove has been a center of worship and magic. Thousands of years druids of both sexes have gone to the grove to worship nature and to receive the blessing of the sacred spring.
On some very special days, some very special guests were invited to share their first night on the moss of the pond and in the sacred energy of the grove.
For more than a millennium nobody has worshiped Her in her most sacred place in the only form She understood as natural.
Till this night of august 1801 where the master of the Land had brought his betrothed to present her to Her. And She took the gift of blood and love in Her and the Strength of centuries began to rage through the Grove.
Energies long hoarded in the millennia old Oak trees were unleashed and flowed freely for the first time in centuries. And both the lovers got what was the secret of this most sacred of Groves, the gift of endurance, strength and, at the end of the night, the gift of new life...
They slept longer than they could have believed. It was the sun of noon who stroked them out of Morpheus' arms.
They were in each other arms, naked as newborns and as pleased and satisfied as was humanly possible.
She purred her satisfaction into his chest and he purred back while stroking her luscious hair.
She was the first who recalled where they were and what had just happened.
"We will have to give some explanations..."
He sniffed his approval.
"And nobody will believe us..."
She looked at him and smiled.
"You should have let me take my things, you awful seducer. Now I'm here, more than a mile from my bedroom with only my night cloth and quite an amount of bruises everywhere on my body. I wouldn't have believed that love making was so..."
"Taxing?"
"Energetic..."
He laughed and kissed the top of her head.
"We had a rather spirited night, I must confess that I would not have believed we could be so inventive on our first night together..."
"That we were, Fitzwilliam. But what we are now is late and far away from where we should be. Our little night walk went quite well, but I'm fearing the way back to Pemberley will not go so unnoticed..."
He hugged her and marveled about the perfect way their bodies were matching. There was no longer a doubt that they were built to be the perfect match.
"I love, I love, I love you..." whispered he.
"So do I, Fitzwilliam and I thank you for the wonderful present of this last night..."
"The gift came both sides..." answered he. "I'm the most happy of men and I know how we will be able to went on unnoticed..."
She turned around and looked up at him while laying on him.
"Yes?"
He smiled.
"We stay here, we pass the remaining hours till midnight studying each other and tomorrow we reappear in our bedrooms as if nothing had happened..."
She smiled back.
"With studying you would not mean..."
"Loving? Of course I do..."
She shook her head while her hands played with his hairy chest.
"Even the heavy brushes of this Grove will not hush my cries enough to hide our occupations..."
He pulled her up till their lips joined.
"I do remember that you were quite loud in your exclamations, Miss Elizabeth."
"That's because you were quite accurate in your moves, Mr. Darcy. I did not suspect that I was going to marry a satyr and such an experienced seducer. You seem to have learned by heart every place of a woman's body where you could bestow pleasure and bliss."
"You are my inspiration, loveliest Elizabeth. I have had some experience with women but never before have I known with such accuracy where to stroke and kiss to be able to give pleasure. It was as if I had already known you for centuries..."
She bit him.
"Beware, this century old hag has still a few teeth..."
He tried to push her away and she retaliated with tickling him.
They were both in the giggles when they heard a voice calling...
They stopped laughing to listen.
It was clearly Kittie's voice.
"Lizzie! I heard you! I know you're here somewhere! And I know you're with Fitzwilliam and I know you have no decent clothes..."
There was a silence.
"But I have everything you'll need to keep up appearances... Even a brush and hairpins to help you keep up the story of our going out to picnic early this morning..."
There was a noise like two bottles colliding.
"I even have everything to organize a real picnic... I'm sure you're hungry after your..." She coughed. "...morning walk..."
There was a sound of feet crushing leaves.
"I'll wait at the Diana statue. If you're hungry there's where to look..."
Lizzie and Fitzwilliam looked at each other and very briskly stood up to collect their things.
"How did she find us?" whispered Fitzwilliam.
Lizzie could only shrug her shoulders.
"Probably followed us last night..." answered Lizzie in the same manner. "We Bennets are quite the curious tribe, you know. She probably saw us creeping out of the house. Of course she would follow us..."
"What do we do?" mouthed he.
"We negotiate, of course," answered Lizzie. "We have no choice, we need the clothes and we need the excuse. She has got the best cards of the game."
Fitzwilliam gave her a worried look.
"What is she going to want?"
"It will cost us in balls and parties," smiled Elizabeth.
She saw Fitzwilliam made a face.
"She's not so terrible as you remind her. When away from Lydia she is quite reasonable and should be easy to satisfy... And I'm sure Georgiana and her will soon become friends... And I'm really sure that Georgiana will have a soothing influence on her..."
"So what do we do?"
"You go out and get her... What else?"
She had retrieved her night gown --which was dry and fragrant-- and passed it.
"I'm stuck here till she comes and helps me dress..."
"I could..." said Fitzwilliam.
She could only laugh.
"Not yet, love! After a few weeks married life perhaps but right now, I fear you do not know half of what is necessary to dress a woman..."
He sighed and put his skirt in his trousers and sat down to put on his boots.
A few seconds later he stood up and kissed her.
"I'm getting her... I'll show her the way and I won't come back with her..." He hugged her a last time and turned toward the "door" in the brush.
Just before crouching he turned and smiled at her.
"Please hurry, I'll be waiting outside."
Fitzwilliam was more than surprised when he arrived at the marble bench next to the Diana statue.
Not only were there Kittie but she was accompanied by his sister Georgiana.
They looked at him and if Kittie's smile was a little mocking, Georgiana's was as it was usually when she looked up at him.
"Fitzwilliam, is everything well?"
He went to her and kissed her.
"More than well, dear. I fear I let my love for Elizabeth pull me into unknown excesses. I hope you won't be too disappointed with your brother..."
"Disappointed? Certainly not. I'm so happy that you and Elizabeth had found each other. I couldn't be happier if it was me who were in love."
"It will sooner or later happen, dear. And I hope that you'll find a man as interesting for you as Lizzie is for me."
Kittie winked at him.
"So that's what it is called? Interesting!" She laughed at him and grabbed a bag. "Is she more interesting nights or days?"
He choose to laugh at himself.
"Since last night I can only say that nights your sister is as interesting as days. Not in exactly the same manner but there is a lot to be learned about her in the night..."
Even Georgiana laughed at his relaxed manners.
She pointed the bag.
"Could you show us the way to her, brother? I'm sure that she will be very satisfied with what this bag contains. And with our help to put them on..."
"Come, I show you the way and meanwhile I'll organize our picnic near the trout pond. Just next to the great willow tree..."
"How is it that you were able to help me?" asked ELizabeth while Kittie was brushing her hair.
Kittie looked at Georgiana and raised an eyebrow.
"That's my fault," answered Georgiana. "I dreamt of you and Fitzwilliam".
Lizzie couldn't help but feel her cheeks begin to heat.
"And what exactly did you dream?"
"I saw you in need of clothes. Coming home with Fitzwilliam' jacket covering your night gown... And since I have had a good vision of where you came from, I decided to see if I couldn't help you. That's when I encountered Kittie in the Hall. She was there because she felt that she would be needed. We spoke..."
Kittie giggled while dressing Lizzie's hair.
"I convinced her to have a look at your room... Your bed was cold and all your clothes were there..."
Georgiana looked at her feet.
"And since Fitzwiliam was also absent, we concluded that..."
"You went for an early picnic..." concluded Kittie hastily.
"Indeed..." approved Georgiana. "An early picnic..."
"It's just a shame you forgot the basket," added Kittie. "Luckily we found it and were able to catch up with you..."
"Luckily..." smiled Lizzie.
"Indeed..." responded Georgiana.
They were eating dessert when Mr. Bennet and his brother came upon them.
Not a word was said but glances were exchanged which said enough to give Fitzwilliam the certainty that probably everybody on the estate knew what had happened between him and Elizabeth.
"We leave, Mr. Darcy," said Edward Gardiner. "Sergeant Kennedy has accepted to protect us till London and even beyond should we decide to go to Rosings. Everybody's ready but we would not leave without saying goodbye to the master and mistress of Pemberley."
Fitzwilliam looked at Elizabeth.
She nodded and smiled.
"We were lost in our own little world and I fear we have completely forgotten that you were already leaving."
He helped Elizabeth, Georgiana and Kittie to stand up.
"We're done here. I'll send some servants to collect the things. We will accompany you to the stables. I hope to speak a few words to Charles..."
They all came to the stables just in time to see Kennedy's men mounting their horses.
Charles who was already amounted dismounted and walked toward Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth.
He bowed to Elizabeth and shook hand with Fitzwilliam.
Elizabeth came near him and kissed the sad young man.
"Good trip, Charles. I hope you'll get another chance with Jane..."
He shook his head.
"I'm no fool, Miss Elizabeth. I've heard who is courting her. If what I know of his cousin is true also with him, I know I stand no chance..."
Elizabeth looked at him with surprise in her eyes.
"Whose cousin? Who are you speaking of? Who is courting Jane?"
She turned towards Fitzwilliam who made a face and smiled at her.
"There was indeed a reason I was looking for you yesterday evening..." His smile became impish. "And than I forgot... Sorry..."
Charles Looked at Fitzwilliam and his eyes showed longing.
"Please tell her when I'm out of sight, Fitzwilliam. I'm sure I won't like her glances when she hears..."
He bowed a last time and turned around and went back to his horse.
Just before he mounted Kittie joined him and handed him a little bag. A few words were exchanged. He looked at the bag, then at her and then smiled.
Ten minutes later all that was reminding them of the group who just went away was the dust cloud and Mrs. Gardiner's tears.
Next chapter : Dragon Breath