Page 33

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Elizabeth

D id Mr Darcy and I march along in perfect harmony thereafter? No. That he insisted upon arranging everything caused me not infrequent bursts of consternation. And though I bravely acquiesced to most all his plans, twice I baulked, requiring that the man pull me aside to try to speak sense to me.

Having settled it that we would marry on the third Sunday of May, that I would go next week to Hertfordshire in his coach and four with my sister, a maid, a coachman, a groom, and a footman, and that after our wedding we would travel in the grand style of sultan and sultana on a tour of the south downs and its storied cliffs, I felt I had surrendered quite enough.

Mr Darcy thought that aught was lacking, however, when upon hearing my faintest, most inconsequential anxiety that my wedding clothes might not all be ready to take home with me, he took my aunt aside.

The next morning brought him to our door, and after greeting me he said, “You will excuse me this morning I hope, Elizabeth. Mrs Gardiner and I have an errand that should not take more than half an hour.”

“An errand?” I asked in sudden suspicion.

He looked about, slightly guilty in my estimation, and said, “I thought to see your dressmaker and assure that your things are ready when you go Wednesday.”

“You mean to pay her an exorbitant fee in order to assure it is so,” I said grimly. In a trice we faced each other outside, on the stoop this time since there fell off and on a drizzle of rain. “I forbid you to buy a priority on the making of my wedding clothes, Mr Darcy.”

“Well…” he said, striving for a reasonable note.

My resolution hardened. “No, not well. Not well at all.”

“Your aunt thinks it a reasonable precaution, Elizabeth. She has advised me that with the press of the Season, your modiste has not progressed to her satisfaction.”

“You have enlisted her to your cause, have you? At what point, if any, was I to be consulted? Am I to be gainsaid on everything? In this I wish to have my way. If you bustle to her shop and hand her a fat package then what other ladies will have their things put off? Why do you suppose my trousseau has not yet appeared ready to wear? What great lady has demanded she must have her opera gown overnight? What poor girl who does not have a Mr Darcy to arrive on his white charger will face some meeting with her beau or her new relations in a borrowed dress in consequence?”

“I-I had not thought?—”

“No. How could you? You have lived all your life this way. The merest wish of yours is the command of an army. But I refuse to be habituated in this way! We shall take our place in line, sir, unless the matter is one of grave importance. And I assure you, my dresses are not the stuff of life and death.”

I watched in fascination as he struggled to digest my stern new ruling. After a moment, he managed a reluctant smile, let out a huff, and his shoulders fell by an inch.

“Will it be always thus between us, Elizabeth?”

“Do you mean will we always debate our conflicts? I certainly hope so. I hope that I am not as easily mowed down as everyone else in your life has been. I hope as well that some , at least, of our contests I shall win.”

“Very well. You have won this one. Might we at least go and see what madame has made ready for you? Afterward, there is something I would like to show you if you will give me your afternoon.”

We did indeed go to my modiste, and upon recognising the name Darcy, the woman promised to redouble her efforts, which depressingly lessened my victory.

However, the goodwill between Mr Darcy and myself was subsequently restored when he took me to the mews just this side of Richmond and with a tenderness I had never seen in him, he showed me a newborn foal.

“She is to be Georgiana’s birthday gift,” he said softly, enumerating the little animal’s lineage as though I knew all about her dame and sire and from whence they came. We spoke of his sister with all the affection we felt for her and marvelled at the compelling sweetness of a newborn creature.

As Mr Darcy handed me back into the landaulet, he said, “My love, you will never be ruined by good fortune, you know.”

Ah, he had touched on the thorn directly. “I am afraid in the space of one week you will turn me into the most inflexible, tyrannical and overindulged woman ever born.” He took my hand, and I said with great resolution, “And that is what I do not want to be.”

“No, my heart. I shall endeavour to lower my expectations in all cases. But you will own, that having had things delivered to me on a silver salver for the whole of my life, my education will require your patience. My motives, I believe, are solid, for I only ever want to make you happy. But the means, I shall admit, require some adjustment. Now, come down off your pins, will you? You have won the day and should be lording your victory over me.”

A few golden days passed before I once again had to remonstrate with my lover.

I was to go home to help Mama with her frenetic wedding plans, and Mr Darcy would finish his obligations in town before abandoning the metropolis for a prolonged stay at Pemberley.

We anticipated our separation by spending a great deal of time sitting next to one another.

Rarely a dinner was eaten that we were not at his house or he at my uncle’s.

But on the very night before I was to go away, Mr Darcy shook me once again into a state of high agitation. We were a very small party—my aunt and uncle, Mr Darcy, and myself. Both Mary and Georgiana had trifling colds and did not join us.

“I had meant to ask you when you will put the notices in the papers, Mr Darcy,” Aunt Gardiner asked as the dessert course came out.

We had discussed this privately, and wishing to protect our happiest day from unpleasantness, decided to publish the notice only after the wedding was a fait accompli, and we were walking the cliff tops and admiring the waves, out of reach of the gossips.

Mr Darcy explained this to my aunt, and then, as I remained in a delicious day-dream of tasting salt air and holding my bonnet on my head in a stiff coastal wind, they continued to talk of particulars.

“I am nearly there, sir,” Mr Darcy had said.

Pleasantly I smiled and asked, “Nearly where ? Am I allowed to know?”

“I am buying Netherfield Park,” he said in the most passing manner! He turned to my uncle and sipping from his glass of wine, continued. “Bingley’s agent is slower than I would like, but all things considered, the deal is agreed upon. We wait only for the papers to be drawn up.”

Mr Darcy must have then taken a look at my face since his assured explanation dwindled into an expression of wary cautiousness.

He applied his napkin to his lips, looked apologetically at my relations, and said, “I believe I have made a gross error. Might I make use of that patch of light in the front garden, ma’am? ”

“Netherfield Park!” I cried. “Up against the small matter of my wedding clothes, this is monstrous!”

“Let me explain?—“

“Let you? By all means, account for yourself!”

“I should have consulted you, Elizabeth. Will you excuse me just this once?”

“You may consult with me now , sir.”

“Will you listen to me at least?”

“I shall try.”

He took my hand and fidgeted with my ring. “I am to go to Hertfordshire to marry the woman of my dreams. My sister, her companion, and my cousin will come. We shall have with us my valet, two maids, and the giant.”

“Your cousin’s batman.”

“Yes. And, your aunt and uncle come too, as well as Mr Bromley, who has made plans to see us married and stay until his wedding to your sister. Upon that occasion, he will have with him two cousins and three of his close friends, one of them married.”

“Yes, yes,” I waved impatiently.

“Where at Longbourn would your mother put sixteen additional bodies?”

“There is an inn.”

“There may very well be, Elizabeth, but if that establishment can offer more than ten beds, I would be surprised.”

Assuming an expression of earnest innocence which did little to disguise the mischief in his eyes, he continued.

“Besides, your mother will need a place to live if your father predeceases her. We cannot allow her to make a nest in the hedgerows.” Before I could reply to that plum, he added, “And we shall necessarily visit your family from time to time. Would you not be more comfortable as mistress of your own house when you are in Hertfordshire?”

He had me at a disadvantage there, but the outlandish capacity to simply buy an estate for the sake of convenience had left me too shaken to acquiesce unresisting.

“The windows leak,” I grumbled.

He listened to me with a grave expression and nodded soberly, before he said, “The land, however, yields well, and with better management, we could bring a few more people on to the estate.”

“I can hardly step into that house without thinking of Caroline Bingley.”

As though comforting a simpleton, Mr Darcy gently took my hand and told me with his eyes that I was worth ten Caroline Bingleys.

“If there are five books in the library, I would be surprised.”

Mr Darcy took my hand to his lips and kissed it so, well, explicitly, I could hardly continue my objections.

Soon we had stepped out of the patch of light, and he began kissing me elsewhere until I was so addled that when we finally broke apart in a breathless passion, the purchase of Netherfield Park was a mere trifling.

When I could finally speak, I tried to sound more gracious than I felt after such a flaming defeat.

“If my aunt and uncle stay at Netherfield, then I do not see why they could not bring their children, do you? When they go to Pemberley, my cousins can stay with Mama and enjoy a holiday of their own.”

“I should have spoken to you, Elizabeth. I shall not be so high-handed in the future.”

“I did not know the Framingtons were willing to let the place go.”