Where we see that the Bennet sisters know a lot about simple people.
Chapter 42: Pemberley Preparations
Derbyshire, Pemberley, Wednesday the twelfth August. Eighth day
"Miss Bennet, what a pleasurable happenstance..."
"Indeed Mr. Darcy... I do agree with you. Quite pleasurable..."
"I hope your morning has been as nice as mine..."
"I fear not, Mr. Darcy. While you were going in and out, taking pleasure of the sun and the morning dew, I was confined within and I spent long hours standing on a platform for the necessary fitting of a few new dresses. There's that heavy white one who needs so much fitting. I fear we will be short in time..."
"If it is not ready, we'll have to do without!"
"My, my, Mr. Darcy and what would you propose to replace it?"
"I really have an extremely accurate idea but I fear saying it out loud would be very unseemly..."
Lizzie couldn't help but laugh.
"Fitzwilliam, we are in the middle of Pemberley Great Hall in each others arms, your head disappearing in the hair you just unmade and we whisper love words to each other without even thinking of those who could be able to see us. What could be more unseemly?"
He took a deep breath of Elizabeth's Rose and Lilac perfume and purred in her ear.
"I don't know and I don't care," whispered he. "I'm in the only place I want to be and I want it to go on and on, and on..."
She smiled.
She was in the only place she wanted to be and, like him, she wanted it to go on, and on, and on...
"We're not reasonable, dear," said she after a very long time. "Even Mama who looks up at you as if you were the ninth world wonder..."
"And I'm not?" interrupted he without moving his head lying on her own head.
She chuckled.
"No, for me you're the sole world wonder, and you take great advantages of my belief..."
He purred louder.
"I love it when you say such nice things into my ear. Go on, I pray you..."
"As I say, even Mama will have to do something if we don't stop soon. And let's not forget that our behavior is very suspicious. Some nasty thinking people could imagine that we are more than just betrothed..."
He rubbed his cheek against her head.
"Let them... Even the reverend believes I took liberties with you. And I was innocent..."
"You were innocent for only a few hours if I remember correctly."
"Once innocent, always innocent," protested he. "I'm the victim here, and if I remember well you did nothing to reestablish your betrothed's honor in his reverend's eyes."
She shook lightly her head. She loved it when he played that particular role.
"I had to do something," went he on, "I could not have been able to survive with such an unjustified suspicion gnawing at my heart..."
"Oh, and to lighten your burden you did exactly what the reverend suspected you of having done and carried me to that lovely and intimate grove!"
He tore himself from her lovely hair and looked in her even more lovely dark eyes.
"It was a matter of personal survival, dear. I would have become crazy had I not given our love the perfect shrine..."
She smiled at him.
That especial little smile which was lovingly mocking. And her eyes were sparkling in the relative darkness of the great hall.
In order to be able to look at him she had had to lean back letting him holding her whole weight. And he could feel that she had no qualm to let him support her. If he opened his fingers she would fall backwards. But she knew he would do no such thing and that she was in the most secure position of the universe.
And he reveled in the feeling that she had such complete trust in him.
"And there was no trace of lust in your behavior?"
"Not the least, dear. It was as if a superior force was driving me. Lust had no role in my actions..."
She believed him. She had felt it too...
Not before the grove but the moment they entered she knew they had to do what they were here to do.
She exhaled and they were, once more, in each others arms... Everything around them disappeared and they were as alone as it was possible in an estate where everybody was finding shores that brought a necessary passage in or near the Great Hall.
And those who were not smiling before would do it just afterwards.
It was Kitty's and Georgiana's voices who came to touch their cloudy minds.
"Lizzie!"
"Fitzwilliam!"
They woke up to look at their very amused sisters.
"We are here because nobody else has the courage to remind you that you shouldn't do such things in public," whispered Georgiana.
"And that the lunch is about to be served," added Kitty. "And since we normal human beings are unable to feast on love and fresh air, it would be a real boon if you would be so benevolent as to give us all the opportunity to feast on the divine meals of Pemberley's chef."
Elizabeth shot a smile at Kitty who was, each passing minute, growing steadily into her new role of kind sister.
"Shall we go Mr. Darcy? I do believe we just lost the urgency of the needs of certain normal persons unable to feed on love and fresh air..."
"Indeed, Miss Bennet, I think you're right." He smiled at her and took both Kitty and Georgiana by an arm.
"Let's go Ladies. I'm impatient to know what recipe has pushed you to summon the courage to interrupt our little tête-à-tête."
"Where are we going?"
Fitzwilliam made a face and snorted lightly.
"To one of my tenants whose wife is pregnant and who wants to see you. But first we'll have to do a slight detour, dear. I have to see a man whose living habits are not what I would call honest. He is the greatest poacher of the whole Derbyshire..."
"Why are we going to see him?"
"I'm going to see him," interrupted he. "I need his help to prepare for..."
He stopped and gnawed at his inner cheeks.
"To prepare... Nothing you need to worry about..."
Elizabeth was very attentive to show neither her annoyance nor her amusement. She was discovering her fiancé and like everybody she knew he has his dark sides. Being overprotective and haughty was probably only the visible parts of his character.
It was clear that in this instance he was preparing something he deemed unwomanly.
"Why is he a poacher?"
Fitzwilliam looked at her with astonishment in his eyes.
"Why? Because it's in his nature... He is a dishonest weasel and..."
She interrupted him with a gloved finger on his lips.
"Did you know that when we were little girls Jane and I we had a friend we never spoke about to Papa or Mama?"
He glanced at her with suspicious eyes.
"He was the village's poacher and he learned us everything we know about the paths and the ways around Meryton." She burst out laughing. "I even know how to catch a rabbit with a bit of wire and a little stick. If one day you're out of meat, I'll get some for you..."
She looked him in the eyes.
"And he surely was neither dishonest nor dangerous. He was just a poor man who needed help. He was a poacher because his wife was ill and that was the only way for him to find the money to pay the apothecary."
She laughed again.
"Apothecary who, by the way, tended to his wife in exchange for rabbits and partridges..."
Fitzwilliam shook his head.
"This one has no good reason. He loves to hunt my game and to rob me..."
"And you still go to him to ask for his help?"
He sighed.
"He's a weasel and a thief but he is also the man who knows everything of the peaks and Pemberley. He probably knows my estate better than everybody else. Thanks to this knowledge, he escaped my hunters for years..."
"How old is he?"
"How should I know? He's father of two sons who follow him in his despicable business. Were it not for my father's express will, they would all have spent the last ten years in jail..."
Elizabeth looked at his fiancé who was showing a face she hadn't discovered yet.
She knew he was well loved by his people and tenants.
And he liked being well loved.
And, as he was just showing her, he hated being despised.
She felt guilty. Her words of last April had probably been even more hurtful than she had realized.
"How so? What happened to ensure him your father's good will?"
Fitzwilliam pouted and took a deep breath.
"When I was four I got lost in the Peaks. It was Wiloby who found me. My father always considered that he owed him my life..."
He looked up and shot a disbelieving glance toward her.
"I'm sure I would have found my way home. I was in no danger..."
Elizabeth could only too well imagine the desperation of Fitzwilliam's parent with their only son missing and lost in the most dangerous country of all England.
She too would have worshiped the man who brought him back.
Burt that's really not a thing a four year old little man was going to understand.
Of course he would have found his way home.
Of course he needed nobody.
She bend toward him and kissed him. She could see now that four year old boy in his eyes and she understood him even better.
"Wiloby..."
"Mr. Darcy..."
Fitzwilliam looked at the little sinewy man who was the most wanted poacher of all Derbyshire. And the Pemberley estate had the doubtful honor to be his home.
The little man was eleven years older than Fitzwilliam and his sons were doing their best to be as obnoxious as their father.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Indeed, Mr. Wiloby that's why I came here. To meet you and to speak."
"Rare thing that you come ourself, Mr. Darcy. Usually you sending your hunters. And they harassing me and me family..."
Fitzwilliam couldn't help but smile.
Never would Wiloby accept his situation. He believed himself as free as was possible and perhaps was he right.
"Times are a-changing Wiloby and I must prepare myself to what seems a coming war..."
"You needing soldiers? I'm not volunterring to be a soldier. I let that crap to manservants and gardeners. They foolish enough to die for rich parasites. I not!"
Fitzwilliam's smile disappeared.
His father has always defended the little man.
He could still hear him.
"What is the life of a man worth? A dozen rabbits a week? A deer a month? I don't think he's guilty enough to put him into jail. Alright he's a poacher and a damn good one, but it was him who found you when you were lost in that forest. His knowledge is invaluable and for me your life was worth a thousand rabbits and a dozen deers... I won't let him be arrested!"
But too much was too much.
"I won't listen to such nonsense! My men will fight with me and at my side because they believe it is worth to die to protect what is ours..."
But Wiloby was of a sterner stuff and could not be browed by the famous Darcy frown.
"I's all yours! They idiots to fight for your land... If you alone, you'd be beaten by Froggies and your Land could be their Land..."
Fitzwilliam looked up and saw Elizabeth's eyes on him.
She could see that he was gliding into a tantrum and her smile was impish enough to beat him back into serenity.
"Perhaps, but the most probable fate of my Land if we are beaten by the French is that a Frenchman takes it over and that they serve another master. A master who would, if confronted with it, not be so benevolent with petty poachers... Some of my pears do not hesitate to have such as you hanged. You could come to regret my presence..."
Wiloby glanced at Elizabeth who was sitting in the carriage.
The whole country knew of her and people with good informants, like Wiloby, knew even a little more then they should.
"Ye know what ye have and don't now what ye could get... I know... I'll think about it!"
Fitzwilliam stopped him with a swift gesture.
"You'll do more than that, Wiloby, you'll listen!"
His tone stopped his little opposite.
"The French are coming and we will probably have to fight them. And I'm perfectly aware that you are the man who knows this country the best. If you're not with us, I'll take no risk to see you ever working for the French and I'll do everything in my power to be sure that you'll never help them!"
"Ye threatening me?"
"Indeed I do!"
They looked at each other for a very long and very strained moment.
Nobody will ever know what was going to happen since Elizabeth's voice broke into their silent fight.
"I would say, you should stop it here or I'll have to send for dinner at Pemberley..."
They both looked at her. So were they immersed in their fight that they had not took notice of her coming.
"Let's admit that you are both very forceful and will powered gentlemen and that you're never ever going to accept the other's victory." She glanced at both of them. "Then what? Fitzwilliam will attempt to have you arrested and put into jail. You'll probably escape before the arrival of his men and being the master of Pemberley he'll have to save face and that will end with part of your family being arrested and, probably, being deported... You'll be upset and revenge hungry and you'll probably make one or more stupid attempts to kill him." She glanced at Fitzwilliam and he saw that she was worried. "And, if I'm unlucky you could even succeed. You'll probably be killed just afterwards but that won't give me my husband back..."
She took a long breath.
"So, please, stop being foolish males and begin to think of your families. The French will come and they will search to enlist you. The only way to stop them to try is your early disappearance. And what better reason to disappear than helping Fitzwilliam to get ready for their arrival?"
Wiloby shot her a distrustful glance.
"Why would I help him?"
"Because of your family, Mr. Wiloby. If you help us, you'll be comrades in arms and respected members of the community. Your sons could be something else then poachers. Even if they love their current occupation, don't you think they could be longing for something else?"
She put all the diplomacy she could muster in her smile.
"You're, if you want it or not, a known member of Pemberley estate. You could, by choosing to help us, become a respected member of said community. Won't you try, Mr. Wiloby? You choose your freedom over everything else, won't you help those others who will make that same choice in the following weeks?"
He looked at her for a long moment and finally nodded.
"Let's try it, but I'll have conditions..."
"No..." began Fitzwilliam.
"Problem..." ended Elizabeth while squeezing her fiancé's hand. "Let's just speak and than we will all decide..."
"He said 'yes', dear. That's what you came for..."
Fitzwilliam could only shook his head.
"At what conditions!"
"And then? He wants to be sure to be able to continue his trade..."
"His trade, haa!" interrupted he.
"...After the end of the war."
"It's preposterous that he asked you..."
She stopped him with a tender kiss.
"He liked it that I could speak with him in the same words he used..."
"He believes you were a poacher!"
"And then? Quite a few of the rabbits we ate at Longbourn came out of Jane's or mine snoozes. Technically we were poachers even if the game was already ours... And his belief granted you what you looked for. He accepted to show you everything in the Peaks. Wasn't that what you lusted for?"
The last two word had the desired effect.
The smile came back on his face.
"The only thing I'm lusting for is right at my side..."
She felt her cheeks heat.
"And there's nobody in range to see us..." said she.
He got the clue immediately.
Next chapter: London Farewell