Page 9 of Pride & Prejudice and Plain Speaking

Oakham Mount

A Week Later

Noon

Elizabeth looked fondly out upon the old familiar view, the fields patch worked with lanes and walls spread out below Oakham Mount. A brisk breeze tugged at her hair and her pelisse, and she took a moment to bask in it and be grateful. At her side, Mr. Darcy was a tall and silent and solid figure, and she glanced at him sideways before looking back out to watch a cloud shadow ooze slowly across green fields, casting farmers and their horses into the shade momentarily before they were once again drenched with sun. Meryton scurried with activity like an anthill stirred with a stick, while a man in a brown smock ambled casually down a lane nearer the Mount.

It was a beautiful day, and Elizabeth relaxed into it contentedly. It had been a week since Mr. Darcy’s confession of love, leading to their agreement to enter into a courtship. The first few hours had passed in a daze, and she found herself wandering around Longbourn wondering if it had all been some kind of bizarre fever dream. How could it be that Mr. Darcy, of all people, was in love with her?

It was not helpful that Mrs. Bennet, every time she saw her second daughter, insisted that Elizabeth accept Mr. Darcy immediately. Mr. Bennet, firm as he so rarely was, had stepped and told his wife that the choice was Elizabeth’s alone.

Jane had been gentler and more discreet in her encouragement, but Elizabeth could plainly see that her elder sister was taken by the idea of Elizabeth marrying Charles Bingley’s best friend. Elizabeth had laughed and allowed the possibility and retreated from her sister’s room not long after. In some ways, it had almost been a relief that Lydia had continued to complain about Mr. Darcy, though Mrs. Bennet, anxious to not endanger such an advantageous match, had spoken far more sharply to her youngest and favorite daughter than was her wont. Lydia had dissolved into floods of noisy tears and run to her room, although she had maintained a sullen silence after that.

Fortunately, Mrs. Bennet did not have much time to harass her second daughter; her focus was, necessarily, on her first. Jane’s nuptials had sent all of Longbourn into a flutter, with the maids and the cook and the beleaguered housekeeper working double time as Mrs. Bennet rushed from room to room delivering rapidfire and often contradictory orders and fretting about wedding clothes and new gowns in between. Elizabeth had made sympathetic sounds and slipped off to the library to ask – and receive – permission to spend much of her time outside, walking with Mr. Darcy or his sister or both at once. Mrs. Bennet had offered no objections when applied to, only a distracted, “Do mind your tongue to him, Lizzy, gentlemen do not like ladies who argue,” before rushing off after an afflicted Mary to pester her about the wedding breakfast.

Elizabeth had enjoyed those walks very much. Miss Darcy was a sweet girl and reserved, a restful contrast to Elizabeth’s own sisters. But Elizabeth liked it best when Mr. Darcy was her only companion. Though he was prone to lapsing into silence, she no longer perceived in it the heaviness of judgment, but merely the quiet air of a thoughtful man. Their conversation, when they were not walking in easy and silent amity, never ceased to engage her mind. He was a great reader and clever, and he challenged her thinking in numerous ways. She had always been quick, and to match verbal wits with a man of equal intelligence was a genuine pleasure.

She and Jane had visited Netherfield twice in the last week. Bingley’s sisters had not returned with him from London, but a cousin had arrived shortly to act as hostess. Mrs. Scofield was a widow, of comfortable mien and kindly temperament. Not a terribly clever soul, but capable enough in her role. Elizabeth liked her, but Jane got on famously with her. Miss Darcy had played the pianoforte for them both times, and Elizabeth was greatly impressed. If she and Darcy did marry, she was determined to work on her own skills on the instrument. It would be pleasant to play duets with Miss Darcy someday…

“May I inquire as to your thoughts, Miss Bennet?” Darcy asked.

“I was thinking about how much has changed in the last days and weeks,” she said, her eyes roving the distant horizon, which showed a bank of dark clouds. Perhaps it would rain later.

“For the better, I hope?”

“Yes, for the better,” she replied, turning to face him directly. “I know that Jane and Bingley will deal very well with one another, and as for you and I, perhaps we will make a match of it.”

He hesitated, his handsome face concerned, and said, “I wish to wed you, of course, because I love you. But I would not … that is, I hope you will not feel pressured to, erm…”

“Mr. Darcy,” she interrupted, reaching out her gloved hands towards him, which he took with surprised pleasure, “I promise you that I will accept your offer only if I wish to. I am a stubborn, selfish creature, you see, and could not bear to marry unless for true love and respect. Truly, I respect you already, and I do like you, but there is not yet love.”

He relaxed and said, “I would not call it stubbornness, Miss Bennet. You are determined and intelligent, and I am glad that you will not marry me unless you sincerely wish to.”

“Thank you,” she said, suddenly feeling shy, and pulled back her hands. “I suppose we had best head for Longbourn. Your poor sister is probably eager for your return. I fear my younger sisters are rather noisier than she is used to.”

He held out his arm for her to take, and they began slowly walking down the path.

“Georgiana is surprisingly content at Longbourn,” he said thoughtfully. “She is, as you have likely realized, a shy young woman, and has said that your younger sisters are sufficiently outgoing that she does not feel the need to speak.”

Elizabeth could not help but blush at these words, and she said, “I am well aware that Lydia, especially, is very boisterous indeed. She is also volatile and unrestrained in company. Truly, I confess to wondering how you came to fall in love with me given that my connections are poor, and my family’s behavior, on occasion, is even poorer.”

She cast an anxious look at her companion at these words and noted the slight frown on the gentleman’s face. To her surprise, she felt a flutter of distress. She had been confident that she did not love Mr. Darcy, but it seemed that she cared more than she wished for his good opinion, which was inexorably bound up in her own family’s reputation and respectability.

“Miss Bennet,” Darcy said a minute later, “I believe that we both benefit from honesty with one another, and thus I will confess that I was taken aback by your family’s exuberance and unconventional manners on occasion. However, and this is extremely important, I have come to realize that we do not choose our relations, and moreover, most of us have difficult relations. Lady Catherine is, I am sure you agree, a very tiresome creature, with her pride and insistence on directing the lives of all those around her.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “I cannot disagree with you about that.”

“She has been accustomed to her own way for her entire life,” he mused. “My uncle, Sir Lewis, was a quiet man, and my aunt ruled the roost throughout their marriage. Lady Catherine was also the youngest of her family and rather spoiled.”

“Like Lydia,” Elizabeth said with a sigh. “I do worry very much about Lydia, that someday she will do something so foolish that we are all ruined.”

“If I may suggest…”

“Yes?”

“I believe Miss Lydia would benefit from time away from Longbourn; perhaps with Bingley and your sister once they are wed or, if we make a match of it, at Pemberley, if your father can be prevailed upon to let Miss Lydia go, that is.”

Elizabeth halted on the path and turned to face her suitor in wonder. “You would truly be willing to allow my silly sister to stay at Pemberley?”

“Of course I would,” he responded immediately. “She is your sister, and you care deeply for her.”

She gazed intently into his face, as if uncertain, and then smiled gloriously. “Mr. Darcy, thank you. That means a great deal to me. As for my father letting her go, he most certainly would, as her presence is more or less irritating to him ... and usually more. I hope that Miss Darcy would not find her an unwelcome guest, though.”

Darcy smiled at her and held out his arm, and they began walking again. “Georgiana likes your family very well,” he said. “She finds Miss Kitty and Miss Lydia rather louder than she is used to, but my sister is a quiet young lady, and prefers not to have to carry the conversation. She and Miss Mary have quite a bit in common too, with their shared love of music.”

“I am glad,” Elizabeth said. “At least Mr. Wickham is gone.”

“Yes,” Darcy agreed.

She turned a curious look on her suitor and said, “I knew it; you had something to do with Mr. Wickham’s removal to Marshalsea.”

Darcy hesitated and then said, “I did in the sense that I collected various receipts for debts I paid on Wickham’s behalf, and I also retrieved the document Wickham signed wherein he gave up all rights to the Kympton living. I delivered all those paper to my cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, and he is the one who came to Meryton, spoke to Colonel Forster, and swept Wickham off to Marshalsea.”

“I cannot tell you how relieved I am to have Mr. Wickham locked away where he cannot cheat merchants and fool young women.”

“I am pleased too,” Darcy said.

The rest of the walk was carried out in silent cheer, which was dissipated when the pair stepped onto the gravel drive which led to the front door of Longbourn. A very familiar carriage was waiting in the drive, drawn by four chestnut horses, with a postilion on the front left horse and the driver up on the box.

“Is that…?” she began.

“It is,” Darcy said grimly. “We had best go inside as quickly as possible.”