Font Size
Line Height

Page 55 of Beyond Pride, Past Prejudice

It was late at night when Darcy and the colonel exchanged a discreet glance, and the two men slipped away through a side door they had often used in their youth to leave the house unnoticed.

Laughing like a pair of schoolboys, they settled on a bench by the lake, though even there, the cheerful voices of their families reached them, for all the windows stood open.

“You have no idea how happy I am!” the colonel said.

“I suspected as much,” Darcy replied with a smile, though the emotion in his voice betrayed him. He was deeply grateful to his cousin and friend, who had never ceased urging him not to abandon the idea of making Elizabeth his wife.

“If not for you, I might not be this happy today,” he said at last.

“If not for your pride, you would have been married long ago,” the colonel chided him gently.

“Beyond pride I found her… However, the struggle only made this day more beautiful,” Darcy replied, at which the colonel burst into laughter.

“Only you could utter such nonsense. You nearly lost her—but what does that matter now? Still, you should know I was not the only one who conspired for the sake of your match.”

He spoke with certainty, for this time, it was no blunder but a truth Darcy was meant to hear.

“What are you saying?” Darcy asked, though he seemed only partly attentive, for Elizabeth and Mrs Gardiner had just appeared on the terrace.

“I am saying it was a complex scheme, with contributions from the entire family.”

“A scheme? Complex?” Darcy murmured, barely able to concentrate his mind on his cousin’s words, for Elizabeth’s laughter rang through the garden like birdsong, filling the night air with delight.

“Darcy!” said the colonel, attempting to bring him back to earth. “Did you hear what I said?”

Darcy turned to him with a laugh. “You all conspired to bring me together with Elizabeth again and again. While I did not oppose you. On the contrary, I even helped each time because it was precisely what I wanted—even if I could not admit it.”

∞∞∞

“Do you see him?” Elizabeth asked Mrs Gardiner, gazing at Darcy, who sat on the bench beside the colonel.

“I see him,” Mrs Gardiner replied with a smile.

“I look at him, and I still cannot believe that I shall be his wife in ten days’ time.”

“I look at the two of you, and I am certain you will be his wife in ten days’ time.”

Elizabeth laughed joyfully, and Mrs Gardiner thought to herself that the young woman beside her was no longer the same girl who had come to Derbyshire just weeks before.

Happiness had transformed her—given her a new radiance, slowly turning her into a woman, a wife, and the mistress of those enchanted lands.

“Thank you,” whispered Elizabeth, and her aunt embraced her. “Without you, I would have given up.”

“Without me and Miss Darcy, Lady Oakham, even without Lady Matlock, you mean.”

Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. “Yes—with all of you, with your plans…I passed prejudice to find him!”

“What will you do about Charlotte?” asked Mrs Gardiner, but Elizabeth only smiled indifferently.

She raised her hand in a wave to her betrothed, and in that instant, heedless of those who stood beside them, they both moved, drawn by the same unspoken impulse to meet as if it was their first encounter.

Darcy swept her into his arms as she reached the final step, and to a melody known only to their hearts, they began their first waltz in the gardens of Pemberley.

There, on the threshold of their home, they moved in perfect harmony while their family, gathered on the terrace, looked on in wonder, bearing witness to a joy too deep for words.