Where we see that passion follows everywhere.
Chapter 44: Pemberley Explorations
Derbyshire, Pemberley and the Peaks, Thursday the thirteenth August. Ninth day
"Miss Bennet, what a pleasurable happenstance..."
She smiled at him and as soon as he opened his arms she found herself in their warm embrace.
After a few seconds reveling in each other's warmth she pushed herself back and her lips searched for his. They had no problems finding them.
The kiss was short if judged by the standards they had laid out a few hours ago but it was long enough for him to feel his loins fill themselves with the unbearable desire to lift her and to run to the next best piece of furniture.
She felt his desire and since it concurred with hers she was not really opposed to giving it a try.
She chuckled.
"Not yet satisfied, Mr. Darcy? I'm more and more convinced that the male part of the human race has only one thought in mind..."
"The rest of the male part, I don't know, but for us, yes, it's true. There's only that particular thought in my mind and I confess it's taking enormous proportions..."
She smiled and sighed just before letting her head rest on his strong and smooth chest.
This very morning she awoke in just that exact position. Her head on his chest, his hand entangled in her hair, and her leg around him in a desperate attempt to secure him forever.
And this morning when she had opened her eyes and looked in his she had seen that surprised look he had each time she smiled at him.
As if he couldn't believe he was having her and holding her in his arms.
"You should stop tousling my hair every time we meet. My maid will soon loose her patience with us."
"Don't be foolish. She'll worship you till the end of time. She won a race against every other maid in a hundred miles radius."
She looked at him with surprise in her eyes.
He smile back and nodded.
"They had all volunteered to be your maid. They were all very disappointed when you chose Anna."
"Better to choose an outsider than to ignite jealousy within a well working staff. And I liked her from the inn. She was always so friendly and open. And it's good that with the arrival of a new mistress a few new faces join in."
He smiled again and she sighed just before laughing.
His glance was loving and with a hint of surprise.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Because I love your smile and because it seems that you never stop smiling these last few days. The last time I saw you not smiling was that peculiar day when we came back from your reverend's home... You weren't smiling at all..."
"I had just been accused of something I had not done! I was vexed!"
"No? I would never had guessed," she laughed at him...
He tried to give her a stern look.
"Don't mock me. I was a victim of a perfidious slander. And if I remember well you made no effort to convince my pastor of my innocence!"
She looked at him and her eyes began to sparkle in the early morning sun.
"And had I known then what I know now, I would have been very upset that you had not done what I would have wished you to do much sooner..."
He frowned at her.
"That was a very complicated sentence for so early in the morning, dear. We should perhaps use only two- or three-word sentences."
"Like what?"
"I love you!"
"I love you too..."
"That's four..." said he while nibbling at her ear lobe.
"Should I retire it?"
"Never," whispered he. "But that was four again..."
"Let's go to six..."
"Let's stop talking..."
She agreed.
God was he happy...
And so full of regrets.
What could have happened this day in April had he not let fear and forewarning take over his desire.
She was so near and she had not stopped him approaching her.
Her cheeks were hot and shining. And so near. He could remember how her heat was flowing over him threatening to boil his mind in his skull.
She was more beautiful than ever and he had that overwhelming desire in his loins.
A few inches away her lips were begging to encounter his. And he had been so near.
So near...
Blinded by anger and indignation she had accepted his being so near.
He could have kissed her.
He should have kissed her.
He was going to do it. He was going to take what was his, to give those prefect lips the kiss they longed for.
A part of him –he remembered every second of this encounter- was shouting at him to do it, to take her in his arms and to kiss her, to kiss her, to kiss her till the end of all time.
And that other part, that awful and boring and gentleman like part was holding him back.
She would have to marry him but she would hate him to be forced into a marriage she was just there refusing.
'What's the matter?' had shouted that other part. 'She'd be yours! Yours! Don't stop, take her and let her be your wife..."
Both parts of him had fought and the ugly egoistical part was about to win when she withdrew and he had not found the strength to follow.
And that awful void that had taken place within him.
Till a week later...
"Fitzwilliam?"
"Hmmm?"
"Was there a reason for your stopping me in the middle of the Hall?"
"A better reason than this one, you mean?" whispered he.
"There's no better reason than this one, but it's not been a half an hour since we last saw each other. Couldn't it have waited a little longer?"
"I do believe there was another reason, but just now I'm unable to remember. You're filling me from head to toe..."
She purred her satisfaction at his words but then she felt him tense up.
"Indeed, there was a good reason..." said he after a few seconds. "Would you be free to accompany me? I'd like to show you some of the marvels of my domain."
"I would love it but let me remind you that I'm not a very good horsewoman. The horsewoman of the family has always been Jane. I'm more like a sack on a horse's back..."
"That's because of those awful lady saddles. I'll lend you one of Georgiana's secret saddles and then I'll give you one of the riding outfits I outgrew and we will disappear together into the mountains."
"I'd like that,"whispered she in return. "Let's go..."
She loved it.
For the first time in her life a horse ride was pleasant.
More than pleasant, exciting.
She could feel her horse's movements as never before and she could even feel what she was going to do before she really did it.
What a pleasure to ride in such conditions. And what a shame she had had to wait till twenty-two to get what every boy could have from the beginning.
Her anger didn't last.
After all, it was Fitzwilliam's gift to her. Trousers and a real saddle and a real horse!
She loved the spirited beast who was so eager to gallop and to canter as often as she liked it. And she liked the blood rush she got each time she let her cute little mare do what she liked.
Fitzwilliam was more than worried. He was at the brink of utter panic. Elizabeth was galloping on paths were he would have stopped and walked their horses side by side.
Finally he had enough space to overcome her and to stop her ridiculous behavior.
He was just going to scold her when she jumped at him and kissed him with a passion that left him out of breath and flabbergasted.
"Fitzwilliam, it's just marvelous! For years I haven't had so much fun..."
She looked at the sky.
"I'm feeling free and as if nothing could stop me..."
Fitzwilliam, who had feared just that same thing, had a few problems sharing his fiancé's enthusiasm. He decided not to show his worry and to bring her out of her stunts with the only thing he knew would calm her.
He leaned over and kissed her.
"If I could give you the opportunity to fly, I would do it..."
She kissed him back with all the exuberance he had learned to love these last nights.
"The last time I felt so happy was when I played bird in the tree with the Meryton children..."
"Bird in the tree?"
She laughed.
"You probably gave it another name, but in Meryton we call it so. It's easy: you climb the tallest tree till you come to the highest branch and there you try to stand straight in order to look over everything and you raise your arms over your head..."
Fitzwilliam whose head was spinning when he looked out of a window felt his stomach squelch in his belly.
"All the boys did it, they had to or they would have been called sissies. Jane and I were the only girls who played along and it was fun."
Fitzwilliam prayed to all gods that his voice would not stammer.
"Pray, tell me you didn't climb yourself. You were along only to look at the boys' exploits..."
She looked at him with surprise in her eyes.
"Of course, I climbed. And since I was much lighter than everybody else, I was always winning."
She sat straight on her saddle and raised her arms to the sky holding herself on the saddle by sheer inner balance.
"I was always the winner. No tree could stop me..."
She sat back, opened her eyes and looked at Fitzwilliam.
"I've seen a few very tall trees in Pemberley, I'm sure you did it here, I'd like to try it..."
He grunted a noncommittal sound and made a great effort not to look too shaken.
That his future wife had survived to join him at the altar of a church was a clear sign that guardian angels existed and that they had, in certain families, a lot of work.
"We'll see, dear," said he. "But meanwhile we are a few hundred yards from the special place I wanted to show you..."
He took the lead and was very satisfied that she could not see his face.
He would have to organize a climb on one of the trees. He would be roped and would have plenty of seconds to safeguard him. But he would climb as high as possible and he would try to look over the foliage.
And if one day she asked him if he had done it he would be able to say yes without lying.
Being called a sissy by his wife was not an appellation he longed for...
And then there was the little matter of their children. He knew he would have to guard the boys but he had had the secret hope that the girls would live a more demure childhood.
But it seemed that it would be as difficult with his daughters as with his sons.
He said a prayer to ask God to assign to them the same efficient Angels who insured the survival of his future wife. He would need them!
"Wiloby asked me to show it to you..."
Elizabeth looked around them and saw nothing.
"There's nothing here, dear. I see rocks and bushes and trees and that's all..."
He smiled, took her hand and pulled her toward an old oak that was battling against a great boulder and, looking at the angle the boulder was showing, winning his century-long fight.
"We'll have to crawl," said Fitzwilliam showing her a hole just under one big gnawed root.
He took two lamps out of his saddle bags.
He gave one to Elizabeth and lit them both.
Elizabeth already had her head under the roots when he caught her.
"I'll go first..."
"Why? I'm more slender, it would be easier for me..."
"I already know the path and it's tricky and dangerous. Wiloby said there are dangerous passages in some of the side trails. I would not like you to take more risks than necessary."
She hesitated and, finally, accepted and followed him.
He was right after all. If he knew the way it was smarter to let him go first.
She would have other opportunities to crawl in there.
Half an hour later he was helping her to stand up.
The journey had been difficult but the end result was worth all the strenuous progress of the last half hour.
The chamber, because it was a chamber, was full of sculpted walls where, remnants of paintings were still visible.
"It's Roman..." whispered Elizabeth hushed by the beauty of the scene.
"Probably," answered Fitzwilliam in the same tone. "And this is only one of a dozen chambers. There's even a spring in the middle of the complex and its water is marvelously fresh."
"Show me..."
They had visited the first six chambers and the various passageways that led from one chamber to the other. And in the last they were stopped by a cave in...
"Probably the old way in," said Fitzwilliam. "It's, with the crawlway, the only possible exit... Some day in the future I'll search where this passageway should come out and I'll send a gang to open it again..."
Elizabeth took hold of his arm and leaned against him.
"Some day in the future... For the moment it's our secret. Let it be so for some time..."
He nodded. He had no problem with that.
Even less than she thought.
"Come with me, there's more..."
"Yes, you spoke of a dozen."
He nodded once more and taking her hand he took another passageway.
Two minutes later they were entering a room with side colonnades and a big recess in one of the walls. And in front of them a statue of a bare breasted woman.
"I believe it's Gaia, the Mother Earth Goddess of ancient times. But it could be Venus. Specialists could probably tell us."
Elizabeth shook her head and advanced to the statue.
Her hand touched the clear marble and a bolt shot through her.
"She's beautiful," said she. "I feel her presence... It's as if she was looking at me."
"That's probably me looking at you," said Fitzwilliam who, meanwhile was at the recess. "I find it very difficult not to..."
She flashed him a smile.
"I don't know what it was in ancient times," said he. "But since Wiloby discovered it, he wanted to use it as a hunting camp. He even brought enough wood to build a bed. Till now he had no opportunity to use it..."
He looked at Elizabeth.
"So there's even a mattress..."
They shared a long glance.
"I looked with care, there's no vermin... And there's not the least chance of someone disturbing us. We could..."
Her eyes began to shine.
"We sure could, couldn't we?"
Next chapter: London departure