Page 32 of Gentlemen of Honor (Bennet Gang Duology #2)
And They All Lived Happily Ever After
Seated in his club, Darcy turned his glass of scotch slowly in one hand. He didn’t care much for strong drink, but Richard insisted. As it was the eve before his wedding, Darcy felt obliged to comply.
“I never thought this day would come,” Richard murmured.
“None of us did, you took so long about it,” Bingley said with a chuckle before leaning forward to swipe the decanter from the table. After pouring himself another fingerful, he held up the bottle. “Anyone?”
“No more for me,” Robert said, taking what Darcy suspected to be a pretend sip from what he already held.
Darcy shook his head, holding up his glass to show how much liquid remained. “Jane is not going to thank you if you come home reeking of drink. Elizabeth has elaborated quite extensively on how nauseating your wife finds the odor of alcohol while in her condition.”
Bingley merely grinned, pleased as always that his wife was once again with child. This would be their fourth, twice as many as Darcy or Robert had yet sired, which suited Darcy perfectly well.
“You cannot reek of such fine scotch,” Richard stated, holding out his glass to Bingley. “And Hargreaves is definitely having more, as this is all his fault.”
“Me?” Nathan eyed the amber liquid Bingley splashed into his glass. “What have I done?”
“Proposed to Miss Lydia, that is what,” Richard groused.
“And this somehow took you off guard?” Robert murmured.
“The entirety of England knew we were simply awaiting her twenty-first birthday,” Nathan concurred, but he did take a healthy swig of his drink.
Darcy imagined scotch went down easier for Nathan at two and twenty than it did for him at thirty-four. Or, rather, left less of an impression the following morning. Elizabeth, Darcy had found on the few occasions he’d over imbibed, had no sympathy when it came to how ill he felt after a night that included too much drinking. Nor did their son or daughter, though they were too young to understand such a plight.
“Yes, but what I did not know was that her younger sister becoming engaged would send Kitty into such a panic,” Richard muttered. “Do you know what she said to me? She said, ‘You will propose to me, Major General Richard Fitzwilliam, or I will marry the first rake who shows interest in my dowry.’” Richard shook his head. “Her dowry is nearly thirty thousand pounds now, you know, thanks to Mr. Gardiner’s keen investments. On top of that, she is stunningly beautiful and the sister of an earl. Any man would take her.”
“You have been stringing the woman along for six years, Fitzwilliam.” Bingley shrugged. “I am surprised she let you get away with it for this long.”
“You do love her?” Robert asked in his usual quiet way. “Mary asked me to find out.”
“I have loved her for years.”
“Then what is the trouble?” Nathan asked. With a grimace, he rubbed his right shoulder. “It is not as if she drags you out of bed at dawn to fence with her.”
Darcy gave the younger man a look of sympathy. “The formerly Bennet sister do enjoy their fencing.”
“They do.” Robert smiled a slight, secretive smile. “But we were speaking of why Fitzwilliam here took so long to tender a proposal to Kitty.”
Richard shrugged. “Change, I imagine. I feel too old, too comfortable, to change.”
Bingley slapped him on the back. “It will do you good.”
Darcy rather agreed with that.
Their celebration, such as it was, went later than he’d expected, leaving him a touch groggy the following morning at Richard’s wedding, but the wedding breakfast was still a fine occasion, filled with his wife’s sisters and their families, and including the new Earl of Pillory, ladies flocking about him for all he was not yet twenty. Georgiana was there, too, nearly as surrounded by suitors as Thomas. Someday soon, Darcy would speak to her about making a choice, but for now, at twenty-two, Georgiana seemed happily unattached and was certainly not old enough to begin to worry that she would find no match.
Not like Elizabeth’s dear friend Charlotte had been when they’d introduced her to the rector in Kympton, nor Miss Bingley, when she’d finally married a widowed Tobacco Lord a year ago. Darcy could see them across the room, for Bingley’s younger sister always managed to be invited to any event to which she had an even slight connection. It was for that talent that the Scotsman at her side had married her. Later, he would ask Darcy for money for his latest venture as he always did, no matter how many times Darcy’s reply was ‘no.’
The Scotsman started to turn his way and Darcy ducked into the crowd, moving to the right, then halted as he spotted his Aunt Catherine. She had never forgiven him for not marrying her daughter Anne, though Anne had never shown any inclination to wed him, nor Darcy her. Perhaps, if Anne had not married so far beneath her, Aunt Catherine wouldn’t carry such a grudge, but she had, and Lady Catherine did.
Darcy’s cousin herself, though, appeared sublimely happy where she stood with her husband, a former curate who always appeared stunned by the company he now kept, his eyes overwide and his smile bemused. Darcy had no notion what Anne saw in the man, who seemed to him in all ways exceedingly average. In fact, in a fit of rage, Lady Catherine had once admitted that the very reason she’d given the living at Hunsford, near her home of Rosings, to Mr. Avery, was because of all the people she’d considered for the position, she felt him the least likely to attract her daughter. Lady Catherine, who had kept Anne very sheltered, had always feared she would fall in love with the first man to pay her any attention.
A fear which had turned out to be well founded, but one Darcy felt his aunt had crafted herself. Regardless, he had no desire to speak with her. He turned back to his left, only to see the former Miss Bingley and her Tobacco Lord bearing down on him.
A warm hand slipped into his. With a gentle tug, Elizabeth drew him backward, behind a curtain and into a secluded alcove Darcy hadn’t even known was there.
“I thought the draperies along this wall were decorative,” he murmured, studying his lovely wife in the light of the single candle glowing on the wall sconce beside them.
“Most of them are. Thomas and Matthew showed me this one. They said that since I showed them all the secrets hidden in Dovemark, that it was only fair if I know the secrets of the Oakwoods’ London house.”
“Then there are more?” Darcy asked. Was that movement outside the curtain? Surely, even the former Miss Bingley and her husband would not be brazen enough to follow Darcy and his wife in here. After all, they could be doing anything behind the thick sapphire fabric.
And looking down at the mischief in Elizabeth’s eyes, Darcy could think of quite a few things to be doing .
“There is also this secret.” Turning, she pressed a detail in the molding, one that matched all the other carvings as far as Darcy could tell. A door swung open in the wall. Elizabeth plucked free the candle. “Follow me.”
“Anywhere,” Darcy murmured, plunging into the passageway behind her.
She triggered some sort of latch, for the door swung closed. Darcy followed her up a winding, spiral staircase hardly wide enough to accommodate his shoulders, and through another door. They came out onto a landing at what looked to be the top of a servants’ stair. Elizabeth set the candle in an empty sconce there.
She turned a brilliant smile on him. “Now you must make a choice.”
“Oh?” He hoped one of his options included kissing her. She was beguiling in a deep blue gown that flowed about her like water, covering a figure he’d once thought might be a dancer’s, but now knew remained honed by her love of fencing…or perhaps what she loved was how difficult it still was for him to ever best her.
“We may graciously return to the festivities via the main staircase.” She gestured to the door leading off the landing on which they stood. “Or, we could go down to the back hall, sneak out the garden door to where our carriage may or may not be waiting at my request, and return to Darcy House while it is completely unoccupied because Georgiana is here, safe enough with my mother and sisters, and our children are at Jane and Charles’ house, playing with their cousins.”
Darcy moved closer to her, certain that her eyes sparkled at least as much as the candle gleaming on the wall. “And what would we do alone at Darcy House?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “Fence, I imagine.”
“Fence?” he repeated.
“Certainly.” She stroked soft fingers down the side of his jaw. “You know how difficult it is to find time to keep in good form while in London.”
“And do I get a reward if I win?” He leaned down, bringing his lips inches from hers.
“I am certain I can think of some reward for you,” she murmured.
“Then the carriage it is.”
Coming up on her toes, she kissed him.
I hope you enjoyed this epic tale of Darcy and Elizabeth defeating villains and finding love.