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I t was hard to believe, but the six-month mark since Archy was called home was on the morrow.

Elizabeth stood before the mirror looking at her black dress.

When she woke in the morning Lettie would have clothing in muted greys, mauves, lavender, and various shades of purple acceptable to wear during half-mourning.

She would wear one of the dresses, but as a mark of her continued mourning, when needed, she would have a black shawl over her shoulders.

As she had planned, Elizabeth had not been to London yet.

Rather, she was holding fast to her determination to eschew the capital until her year of mourning was complete.

Half-mourning would allow her more leeway as far as activities went than when she was in full mourning.

That notwithstanding, she intended to be circumspect regarding what activities she partook in.

The Darcy parents had arrived the previous day, along with the Barringtons, an obviously pregnant Mary and her Richard, Jane—who had recently felt the quickening—and Charles.

All had come to be with her to pass the six-month mark.

Anna was at Longbourn with the two youngest Bennets and the Phillipses.

The Fitzwilliam parents were in London, not able to leave for another sennight at the earliest. Elizabeth was in great anticipation as Aunt Anne had told her she had a gift to give her, but on the morrow, before church.

As far as Elizabeth was concerned, it could only be one thing—another letter from Archy.

It was a logical assumption he would have wanted her to receive a letter on entering half-mourning.

For two reasons, Elizabeth could not wait for this night to pass. The letter she expected was the primary one, but she was ready to wear something other than black coloured clothing.

Already in her night rail, Elizabeth sat in front of her dresser while Lettie brushed out her thick, wavy tresses.

As she sat there, her thoughts went to William, as they often did of late.

Since the end of July when he moved to Falconwood, he had been wonderful with the children and all three of them were as happy as they had been with Archy alive.

Matty no longer had bouts of sadness, but he was, as was Elizabeth, very grateful that William always spoke warmly about their father.

She could see that Gracie and Winston were forgetting their late father, or would have had she, with William’s able assistance, not being keeping Archy’s memory alive for them.

Elizabeth spent no less time with the children than she had before William had come to live with them, so they never had to doubt their mother’s love and desire to be in their company.

The major change was how she viewed William. Slowly, inch by inch, he had taken up residence in her heart. Being in full-mourning, Elizabeth had given him no indication of her changing feelings. Besides, she knew not how he felt about her although she did suspect.

Propriety had always been maintained—they were never alone in any room they were in—but most evenings, they spent time in the library, debating, reading in companionable silence, or William attempted to give Elizabeth a good game of chess before she inexorably beat him.

He had managed to lessen the ease of her victories.

If there was nothing else, she would feel tenderness about William just because of the love he engendered from her three children, but there was so much more.

He was a man she could rely upon without any expectations of reward of any kind, one who would never ask her to place all of her holdings under his control, and he was extremely solicitous of her feelings.

There was also the fact that he was far more than just pleasing to view, especially when he allowed himself to smile and display one or both of his dimples.

Archy had been a handsome man, but—thankfully—they looked nothing alike.

William was taller, with dark hair, which was at times unruly—and she admired it when one or two curls hung down over his forehead.

Lastly, he possessed piercing blue eyes.

That he was less than seven years Elizabeth’s senior did not sway her feelings for him one way or the other.

Like with Archy, it had not been the age difference or lack thereof which would influence her, rather their compatibility, her heart opened further to loving William, as it had begun to do over the last month.

With her bedtime ritual completed, Elizabeth released Lettie to go to her husband.

It was not normal for a lady’s maid to be married, but she had fallen in love with Archy’s former valet, who had proposed a month after the death of his master.

Elizabeth had told her maid she would not dismiss her if she chose to marry, so after a week’s honeymoon, Lettie had returned to serve her.

It did not take Elizabeth long to fall asleep. Most nights she still dreamed of Archy, but on occasion, she would see William in her dreams as well.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Sunday morning Elizabeth was dressed in a lavender coloured day dress, a nice warm one given the drop in temperatures as the approaching autumn took hold.

She joined everyone in the dining parlour to break their fasts before departing for St Jude’s church in the Falconwood Village to hear a sermon delivered by Cousin William Collins.

Betsy would normally be seated in the parson’s wife’s pew, but as she was close to her lying-in with her first child, she would not leave the parsonage; Jane would remain at Betsy’s side.

Elizabeth greeted everyone, who all returned her salutations.

“Good morning, Lizzy,” Lady Anne stated as she smiled. “I left your gift on the table in front of your chair.”

Elizabeth was torn, she desired to go directly to her place at the table and see Archy’s handwriting on the outside of the sealed missive, but she needed to make a plate for herself from Cook’s offerings on the sideboard.

“Elizabeth, may I make a plate for you?” William enquired kindly. “I am aware of which foods you favour.”

“Thank you, William, that would be appreciated,” Elizabeth replied gratefully.

She hurried to her chair, which a footman had pulled back for her, and sat.

There on the tablecloth between the cutlery was a sealed letter.

She immediately identified the Hertfordshire seal; the same seal she used, and would do so until Matty reached his majority.

As they were to depart for the church directly after the meal, Elizabeth called the nearest footman over and asked that the letter be given to her maid who would know where to leave it for her. The man bowed and took the missive from her.

Thanks to the weather still being reasonable, those residents of Falconwood going to church made the less than ten-minute walk. Elizabeth found she could only listen with one ear. Her mind was back in her bedchamber with a letter she was itching to open and read.

After the service, William Collins greeted the residents of the mansion and apologised that he would not be attending the meal with them as he wanted to rush back to the parsonage to make sure his wife was well.

By the time they reached the manor house and, knowing she had more than an hour before the meal, Elizabeth excused herself and made her way up the stairs, to the master suite as quickly as her legs would carry her without actually running through the halls of her house.

The letter was propped up against the candelabra on the side table next to her bed.

Elizabeth threw her black shawl onto an armchair and plucked the missive up.

She sat in a comfortable wingback chair which overlooked the rear of the house, with a view over the hedge maze.

Elizabeth clutched the all-important sealed note to her heart as she looked at the trees beyond the gardens which were already a riot of browns, reds, and golds as the leaves prepared to fall.

Elizabeth broke the seal, unfolded the pages, smoothed them out, and then began to read.

12 March 1812

My dearest, darling, most wonderful wife,

Today is your first day of half-mourning. You may have thought me harsh to have you vow not to mourn me past one year, but I am positive that with the passage of time, you see the wisdom of my request.

My fervent prayer is that by now your grieving over my loss is less, and you are able to begin to move on with your life.

I know without any doubt that I will forever have a place in your heart, even when you love another and marry again.

Also, I am sure that no matter how young our children were when God took me home, you will not allow them to forget me.

Another thing I hope is by now you know that the man I believe will be a good father to our children and husband to you is William Darcy.

I know, given his ignominious beginning with you, it seems like insanity, does it not? However, it is anything but.

As you know William is honest to a fault, he is very honourable, and he is the farthest thing you will ever find from a social-climbing fortune hunter. True, those are attributes that one can find in a good number of men, but how many of those men already love you as William does?

Elizabeth stared at the words on the letter as if they were a snake about to bite her.

William loved her! Somehow Archy knew this before he was taken from her.

How could this be? She had never detected anything from William.

He had been entirely proper since his return from Scotland when he had made so many changes to his character.

Elizabeth knew that the only way she would receive the answers to her questions was to read on, so she dropped her eyes to the words on the page once again.