Page 60 of I Thee Wed (Pride And Prejudice Variation #2)

“Fitzwilliam!” She ran to him. “You are safe.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. He bent to kiss her; then he paused to look around the room.

He grinned. “We are alone.” He kissed her again; this time, he crushed her body against his.

She felt his muscles warm and hard, holding her pressed against him, and she reveled in the intimacy.

Then his warm lips grazed her ear. “I have missed you, Elizabeth,” he whispered.

He trailed kisses down her throat, then he straightened and set her away from him.

She took his hands in hers and looked up into his dear face.

He looked rakish, unshaven. “I need to clean up. Georgiana follows behind me in the carriage.” But then he took her by the waist and pulled her against him again.

“I rode ahead to see you, my darling. I could not wait a moment longer to hold you in my arms.” His lips grazed her eyes and nose.

“I love you so much, Elizabeth. Why did I wait so long to make you my own?”

That evening, over dinner, Bingley asked Darcy to recount the story of the North Kent gang's breakup. After he had answered all their questions, the talk turned to the wedding, and Elizabeth said, “I have engaged a maid, but Madame Yvette still employs her. Will you secure her for me, sir?”

He laughed, and Elizabeth saw that her betrothed had a dimple in his cheek. “It is my pleasure, Elizabeth. Is there anything else I may do to oblige you?”

Her eyes were full of mischief. “Not yet, Mr. Darcy, though I am certain to think of something once we are married.”

Jane laughed at her sister, and leaning in, she whispered. “Lizzy, you are staring at Mr. Darcy.”

Elizabeth colored, though she did not look away. Darcy’s eyes met hers, amused and tender, and for a moment she did not care who observed them.

When the ladies rose and left the gentlemen to their port, Georgiana slipped her hand into Elizabeth’s.

The young girl looked confused. “Elizabeth, when did my brother fall in love with you? The last I knew, he had insulted you twice and thought himself far too grand.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head with youthful exasperation.

Elizabeth laughed and drew the girl into a quick embrace. “I cannot point to any one moment, Georgiana. I can only say he is very handsome and very manly, so it is hardly a mystery how I came to fall in love with a man who could rival Prince Charming, or even the heroes of our favorite novels.”

Georgiana giggled, her shyness momentarily forgotten.

“But as for Fitzwilliam, I am certain magic is involved. I do not own a wand, but perhaps I have a fairy godmother who decided to do me a great favor.”

The girl giggled, and Elizabeth took her hand. “Come, dearest, tell me, do you still suffer from nightmares?”

Georgiana’s smile faltered. “Yes. I may sleep well for two or three nights, and then suddenly I wake up screaming and find Fitzwilliam has been sent for. By the time he arrives, I am awake, and I feel better. But while I am asleep, the nightmare feels so real; Wickham is in the house on the other side of the door, beating it down.”

Elizabeth grew serious. “Tell me about your most recent dream.”

Jane had drawn near and placed her hand on Georgiana’s arm. “If it is too frightening, you do not have to speak about it, my dear. We don’t wish to cause you more pain.”

Georgiana drew a breath and began to describe her dreams. Elizabeth considered a moment, then said, “Jane, do you have any writing paper? Perhaps Georgiana might draw what she remembers.”

Jane rose at once and returned with paper, pen, and ink. Georgiana took a book from the table to lean upon and began to sketch. When she finished, she looked at her work in wonder. “The real house was nothing like this one of my dreams.”

Elizabeth touched her hand. “Turn the paper over, then. Draw the real attic, the stairwell, and the door where you escaped.”

Georgiana obeyed, and after several minutes had produced a plain, sensible picture.

“It is really quite ordinary,” she admitted.

“The attic was filled with the usual rubbish any house might collect. I was fortunate it had cots and mattresses stored there, for I made myself a bed and slept soundly the first night.”

She drew a few more rooms, with oddments she had discovered, including a large planter she had been forced to use as a chamber pot. The girl blushed and laughed when she spoke of it, and Elizabeth and Jane joined in her laughter until the solemnity of the moment was eased.

When the gentlemen joined them in the drawing room, Georgiana had already finished discussing her dreams and was sitting at the pianoforte playing a new overture she had mastered.

She turned to Elizabeth. “Lizzy, will you sing The Fair Flower of Northumberland? I have been learning the accompaniment so that we could perform it together.”

Elizabeth consented, and the two women performed.

Then, Mrs. Hurst agreed to play one of Mr. Bingley’s favorite songs.

Afterwards, they all broke into smaller groups.

Darcy was being grilled with questions from Bingley, Hurst, and Georgiana, who were curious to hear more details of the raid.

Jane, Louisa, and Elizabeth seated themselves together in another corner.

Jane turned to Mrs. Hurst. “How is our sister? Did Charles find an eligible suitor?”

Louisa smiled, and Elizabeth could see that the woman was genuinely happy.

“My sister and James Bingley, our cousin, were sweethearts. My cousin is now a wealthy merchant, and because he still loves Caroline, he has agreed to marry her regardless of her condition. He will also stop actively working in trade and will remain only a silent partner, more like an investor. When we left him, James had already begun searching for an estate in Yorkshire. He plans to settle there as a landed gentleman, and their children will never work in trade. Caroline will see her offspring counted among the gentry. I believe you would like her now. She has been humbled in ways none of us thought possible. She was kind to Charles and me. Very different from her usual high-handed manners.”

Jane’s brows knit. “And the child?”

Louisa’s voice softened. “James has said that if it is a girl, he will claim her as his own. If it is a boy, he will not. They mean to put it about that the father was a soldier fallen in the Peninsula. James will not have another man’s son inherit or carry his name.

If it is a boy, they will give him the name Peter Harcourt, after Lord Dunwich.

I pray, for everyone’s sake, that it is a girl. ”

Elizabeth sighed. “Caroline must feel this deeply.”

Louisa nodded, her expression grave. “She does. She knows she brought the disaster upon herself, though both Hurst and I warned her. Yet she will be happy. She loved James with all her heart when she was a girl. It was not until she gained her high and mighty notions at the ladies’ seminary that she turned her back on him, and upon us all, and became insufferable. ”

Elizabeth listened in thoughtful silence.

The proud, arrogant Caroline Bingley had been brought low, yet because her childhood lover was prevailed upon to marry her, she was now to live a happy, respectable life as a wealthy woman.

Elizabeth marveled at how quickly one’s fortune could change and how completely pride could be humbled.

A thousand sermons could not have chastened Caroline, but one mistake had effectively changed the woman and her plans forever.

Elizabeth lifted her eyes to where Fitzwilliam sat, his dark head bent in earnest conversation with those who loved him.

She could have lost him when she refused his offer.

She shuddered. She, too, had been mistaken, but he had not turned his back on her, and now she looked forward to a future with the man she had come to love almost more than life itself.