Page 57 of Tempted (Heart to Heart Collection #2)
Epilogue
A ll the earl’s direst predictions of scandal and gossip fell before the ingenuity of his wife. True to her word, Lady Matlock fashioned Elizabeth Darcy into the “it” girl of London’s high society. The earl frequently snorted and blustered about Lady Matlock’s application of the “empty plebeian” term to a member of their own family—nevertheless, it suited. Elizabeth had cultivated an aura of mystique and novelty among the ladies of London that rendered her company in high demand.
Among her family, however, she remained simply Lizzy—the woman who rode too fast, played her music too poorly, and laughed too often. And when, one July morning in 1902, Lady Matlock and Mrs Bennet burst in tandem out of her bedroom, they informed her husband that she had given him a second girl to love—one who proved to be just as cheeky and formidable as her mother. When it was time to christen her, the proud parents surprised everyone by choosing an old-fashioned name: Regina… in honour of a Wyoming rancher who sent her an eagle feather from over the ocean to mark the occasion.
It did eventually prove too much for Elizabeth to step into her role as Mistress of Pemberley with her mother living under the same roof. It was not that Mrs Bennet was intentionally vexing—she just knew so much that was entirely wrong. It was the earl who suggested the little cottage near Darley Dale for her, where Mrs Bennet might recall all the pleasures of running her own home without the trouble of upsetting the affairs at Pemberley.
Kitty moved quietly to the cottage with her mother, but Lydia… she was still Lydia. After hearing rumours that the girl had been frequenting the dancing hall at the Whitworth community centre, Darcy and Elizabeth insisted on putting her in a lady’s college before she did something even more scandalous. Kitty considered going with her, until she met a dashing young man just starting a business selling bicycles and automobiles. “He will never make a go of it,” the earl predicted dourly, and with regularity—until, one day, he did, and became the richest man in Darley.
Georgiana remained two years in Boston, and when she returned home, she was showered in accolades and with offers in London, Paris, and even Strasbourg. Though she declined them all, she became the sensation of London’s drawing-rooms with her upbeat, syncopated compositions that had the elder matrons covering their ears and the young ladies tapping their toes.
She frequently reminded Elizabeth that she was in no hurry to marry and still meant to tour Europe one day. And then, she had her chance at both when Anne and William Collins invited her to Kent for an extended stay, where she met a friend they had encountered on their travels—a French painter who thought Georgiana’s face was inspired by the angels. It took two months of steady persuasion, manipulation, and outright threats on Elizabeth’s part before Darcy agreed to consider the man’s suit of his sister, but eventually, he tendered his blessing. The couple spent their first winter fulfilling Georgiana’s dream of seeing the Continent.
Richard wrote at least twice a month, usually including a note or two from Mr and Mrs Gardiner. They had claimed him as family, and the letters were filled with accounts of Richard dandling his “nieces and nephews” on his knee, teaching them to ride, and helping Mr Gardiner with this or that. And when John Lucas was killed in a tragic accident at the lumber mill, it was Richard who saw that Mary and her young son wanted for nothing. In Mary’s subsequent letter to Elizabeth, she told of how “the colonel,” as she always called him, had offered to send her to England to be with her sisters… or, if she wished to stay, he offered to marry her.
She chose the colonel.
Elizabeth folded that letter and gazed a long while into the fire blazing in her hearth. Her heart brimming, she rested her head back on her chair and passed her hand over her stomach—round and filled with life once more. William joined her only moments later, his hair and clothing still sweet and fresh from his ride. She drank him in, snuggling close as she passed him Mary’s letter.
He chuckled as he finished it and set it aside. “You were right when you said she was your most sensible sister. It sounds as if Richard is a lucky man.”
“And I would defy you and say that Mary is the lucky one.”
He laughed softly, then kissed her. “I am luckier. And after this—” he grazed a large, warm hand over her stomach— “we will go visit them. Richard says it is safe for you now, and I want to see your home for myself.”
“Home, you say? Do you not know, love? This is my home, and no other. Every shadow and scent, every hill and valley, every corner of this grand old house is precious and familiar to me because they are a part of you , and you are where my heart found its rest.”
He tightened his arm around her, and those brilliant blue eyes lit. “I have always hoped to hear you say that someday.”
“I should have told you long ago, when I first felt this place drawing me in and making me its own, but you would not have thanked me for saying so at the time.”
Heat flickered in his gaze, and his smile shifted to something deeper, more ardent. “I do not think I could have borne that sort of provocation. Just being in the same room with you nearly undid me every day, but I could not resist a little more, and then a little more of you. I was lost before I knew I had begun.”
“Oh, I saw and felt it in my soul from the first moment—the first time I accidentally scratched through the surface of that wooden pride of yours and saw my heart’s treasure hiding beneath. I denied it at every step, but each time, you tormented me by showing a bit more of you , until I could not imagine taking a breath without sharing it with you.”
He toyed with her fingers, and his gaze broke, but the smile continued playing at his mouth. “I will not say I was not hoping to win your good opinion, even when nothing else was possible. I told myself so many times to stay away, to leave you be… but then, you would look at me, as you are doing now… and I was too tempted to make you my own.”
She allowed her body to drift into his embrace, a soft caress lingering on his lips. “I was already yours, my love.”
I have an emotional rollercoaster for you to try next! Dive into Nefarious and see what happes when Darcy tries harder than ever to run from Elizabeth. Will he learn to trust the only woman who can save his heart?