Page 38 of Rumours & Recklessness (Sweet Escapes Collection #1)
Epilogue
F itzwilliam Darcy was worried. Elizabeth was nowhere to be found, though he had already sought her in all of her usual haunts. He clutched his letter more tightly in his gloved fist as he barged through the library door once more. Her usual chair, by the fire, was quite empty.
“Do you want to send the footmen out, sir?” Mrs Reynolds caught up to him, wringing her hands in her apron. She, like every other person at Pemberley, had fallen at once head over heels in love with the young mistress and was most vexed that the young lady had once again slipped from her watchful gaze.
Darcy clenched his jaw. “When did you speak with her last?”
“Just after luncheon, sir. The mistress was well. She just said she wanted a little air.”
“In her condition! What is she thinking of? And you did not send someone with her?”
“Why yes, she took Miss Darcy when they called on that new family in the cottage, but they said they did not need any other attendant. Miss Darcy returned over an hour ago, sir, and said as far as she knew, Mrs Darcy had gone to her bath!”
“She has not, and her maid has not seen her return.” Darcy’s fist tightened again, crumpling the innocent letter between his fingers. “She was not in the conservatory, and it is far too cold today for her to be out so long!” His mind played through any other possible options. “Have the stables been checked?” he finally inquired.
“No,” Mrs Reynolds shook her head. “Mrs Darcy seldom….” She never got a chance to finish her sentence. Mr Darcy had spun about and raced out the door, in search once again of his free-spirited young wife.
Mrs Reynolds chuckled a little and shook her head. The only one who really worried for the mistress’ safety was her husband, who would have been fretting over her had she been only as far away as the next room. Mrs Darcy was quite a capable young woman, Mrs Reynolds assured herself. An ideal mistress she was, after the pattern of Anne Darcy herself, but with far more boundless energy. She was exactly what the young master had been needing all along. Wiping her hands on her apron, she hummed a little tune and set back to her duties.
Darcy had set out for the stables at a run. He only took a deep breath when he, at last, spotted his wife’s figure, still svelte despite her third month of pregnancy, silhouetted against the light filtering through the end of the barn. “Elizabeth!”
She turned from the horse she was petting, one of his many wedding gifts to her, with an impish smile. “Oh, dear, have I set the house into an uproar again?”
“The house! Forget the house. What about me?”
“Come closer, William, and I will apologize properly,” she grinned.
He approached, still trying to look stern. “Elizabeth, you ought not to be tiring yourself just now. And in this weather! It is going to snow very hard this evening, Elizabeth. It is not like that ‘light winter’ you were having in Hertfordshire. Even an April snow in Derbyshire is something you should not be caught out in!”
“How fortunate for me, then, that I have such a wise and devoted protector!” She shot a pert look up at him and unbuttoned the front of his coat so she could wriggle her way under the warm folds, forcing him to put his arms about her. Dastardly woman! he thought with an inward smile. She somehow always managed to put him right where she wanted him, which… was usually rather pleasant.
“Elizabeth, you must take this more seriously.” He arched a firm brow at her, frowning a little. It was his last ploy, and it was doomed to fail.
“Oh, I am very serious.” She turned her face up to his and deliberately knocked his hat to the ground, weaving her fingers through his hair and tugging his towering frame down to her level. “There. Now, I shall be quite warm, William!”
“I ought to scold you and send you indoors like the wayward woman you are!” he thinned his lips and cocked a hint of a smile at her.
“But you will not. You are going to tell me what is in that letter in your hand. Now then, when shall we be attending your cousins’ wedding?”
“What?” he shook his head in astonishment. “I never... How do you do it?”
“Oh, it is rather simple, William. Richard has been calling on Anne ever since we wed, and it cannot have taken all of that time to settle Lady Catherine in the dower house.”
“Indeed, it can! I thought we would require an armed escort there for a while!”
“Ah, but the colonel was rather persuasive, was he not? I am surprised at you, not seeing how he managed to wheedle into even your aunt’s good graces at last during that undertaking. Poor Anne never stood a chance against such charm!”
“Well, however much you may have suspected it, I did not! I thought there was some… attachment… in another quarter. You remember, the one that I am not to speak of.”
“The colonel is a gentleman, William! To imply that he would form designs on a girl who is not out and who is his own ward! Perfectly shocking.” She blithely flicked some snow from his coat.
“Indeed. And I am to expect that this ward of his is not displeased?”
“Not at all. It was she who was encouraging his attentions to Anne, I believe. She is young, William, but she is mature enough to know it. She very selflessly wanted to see her dear cousin happily retired and settled before he was injured in the army. As for Richard’s interests, well, Anne and Georgiana do have many qualities in common, after all, and I think he found much in her to admire as well. It is almost like she and Georgiana are sisters, rather than just cousins.”
Darcy stared at her penetratingly. He had never divulged that particular secret, not even to Elizabeth, but it seemed she had her ways. “ How do you do it? ” he dared to ask again.
“Do what, William?” she arched her brows innocently. “I have not yet the clairvoyance to determine their wedding date. Have you any intention of telling me?”
“No, indeed!” he tucked the crumpled letter back into his coat. “I insist on having some secrets, after all.”
“It won’t work,” she insisted with a grin. “Just like when you gave me Persephone here,” she stroked the mare’s nose again. “You cannot surprise me, William!”
“I did surprise you at least once. I take comfort in that.”
“That is true! I think I have never been so shocked in my life! I had no idea then that you possessed a very proper streak of recklessness. If, however, a proposal of love is to be the nature of your surprises, William, I invite you to continue to try.”
“Indeed, I shall.” He laughed out loud and bent to scoop her up in his arms.
Elizabeth squealed in delight, wrapping her own arms around his neck. “William, you must put me down! After all, you might drop me, and heaven knows, we can have no risks to my health right now.”
“Not likely. I am bundling you in my arms and taking you directly to bed, Mrs Darcy.”
“William! What will everyone say?”
“What they have been saying since you came here—that you are the best thing to ever happen to me.” He lifted her a little closer for a sweet kiss.
“Flattery will avail you nothing, sir.”
“No, but this usually does.” He pressed her lips in a deeper kiss, encouraging her to welcome his tender caresses. His generous Elizabeth never denied him! They remained so for several delicious, speechless moments. At length, he was forced of necessity to set her feet again on the ground, but he was unwilling to relinquish her quite yet. He backed her against a wall, cupping her face in his hands and continuing his passionate ministrations.
Eventually, she pressed her hand to his chest. “William, do not forget that Charles and Jane expected to arrive by this evening,” she reminded him softly.
“They are not here yet, and I intend to make the most of our privacy,” he murmured into her cheek.
“And I have not had a letter from my father in nearly ten days.” She arched her neck, shivering as his lips travelled down her jaw.
“You cannot mean….” He ceased his attentions to her milky skin, drawing back in mild alarm.
“He did make you promise to welcome him at any time he saw fit! I know Mama has been badgering him to bring her here. She is most anxious to see the prize I have captured.”
“Oh, so it truly is Pemberley you desired, and not me.” He quirked an eyebrow at his saucy little wife.
“Of course, it is, but I have found the Master of Pemberley to be rather engaging as well, particularly when he steps in to rescue me from a dreadful fate! Now, were you going to save me from this approaching snowstorm?”
“Indeed, and it seems I must hurry, for I believe I detect some frostbite… here… and here….” He indicated the endangered places of her person with his warm lips. “In fact, Mrs Darcy, I do not think I can be at all easy until I have inspected every… little… part… of you.”
“Far be it from me to reject such noble aid,” she whispered, tilting her head to the side and closing her eyes in rapturous enjoyment.
“Come, then.” He wrapped her in his arms once more, lifting her easily and beginning the march to the house. “If I am to face dangerous elements and wild beasts…”
“William!” she cried in mock offence.
“… I require a little fortification,” he continued firmly. “It is your duty, my dear lady, to render such succour—for the good of the estate.”
She laced her fingers around his shoulders, tipping her head back playfully. At last, she offered a resigned sigh. “The things I put up with to be Mistress of Pemberley!”
“A hardship, to be sure,” he agreed. “Sadly for you, the master is rather particular and will accept no substitutes.”
“He is a most trying fellow. If only he would speak once in a while, so one might determine his true sentiments.”
“I should have thought them rather obvious,” he grinned, quickening his pace toward the house. “He is quite violently in love, utterly bewitched body and soul, and is happiest when in the arms of his dearest, loveliest Elizabeth.”
“Then he shall find his feelings returned with equal fervour.” She pressed a distracting kiss to his temple, nearly causing him to stumble as he carried her. She whispered low into his ear, “You will be gratified to know, my love, that I intend to keep you exceedingly happy for all of our days.”
His eyes lit. “That sounds intriguing.”
She toyed with a wavy lock of his hair. “Oh, it will be!”
Darcy stumbled through the door of the house as his butler opened it, refusing still to release his wife. He nearly raced up the stairs with her, ignoring the fatigue in his arms until he had her all alone.
Gerald Perkins, the butler of Pemberley for the last thirty years, turned stoically away as Mrs Reynolds paused before him, her shocked gaze following the disappearing figures of the hatless master and his mistress. Her wide eyes rose to her towering associate.
“Estate business,” Perkins explained, with a faint twinkle in his eye.
Mrs Reynolds shook her head. “Hush, or word will start out that the master is a rash, reckless sort!”
“No,” Perkins asserted. “I think the master eminently wise and sensible.”
Mrs Reynolds smiled, a happy tear touching her eye. “As do I.”
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