Page 47 of To Love And To Cherish (Pride And Prejudice Variation #3)

Elizabeth slipped her arm through Mr. Darcy’s as they left the church, a warm breeze tugging at her bonnet. Inverness, with its grey stone buildings and wide skies, was lovely.

“I left a message with the clergyman,” Darcy murmured, as they strolled along the path bordering the River Ness. “With an added inducement to ensure the carriage and my valet find their way to the Rose and Crown by evening.”

“A bribe, you mean?” she asked, tilting her face toward his.

“A gratuity,” he corrected dryly. “A persuasive, well-earned gratuity.”

The inn, perched on a corner with cheerful yellow shutters and ivy climbing its southern wall, was just ahead.

Darcy glanced at her. “I’ll take a room and order luncheon.

If there is a private parlor, I’ll reserve it.

We’ll remain only for one day. I want to travel south as quickly as possible to avoid inclement weather. ”

Elizabeth smiled. “Shall we ride tomorrow morning?”

His grin was immediate. “If you wish. We shall see more of the countryside on horseback, and I should like to take in a bit more of this land before we flee it.”

“And you are not sorry to part with Ellan House?” she asked, watching him closely.

“Not in the least,” he said, without hesitation. “It belongs in Scottish hands. Someone who knows how best to manage the land, be it sheep, crops, or, in Lucas’s case, horses. I’m grateful it went to someone local. I’ve no desire to continue supervising a steward from four hundred miles away.”

“You told me you came to Scotland in search of me.”

His smile deepened, amused and rueful. “I did. Selling Ellan House made an excellent excuse to chase you north and make polite conversation with the man who was doing his best to court you away from me.”

Elizabeth stopped. “I had no idea you were courting me.”

“Indeed?”

“You were, I don’t wish to insult you, but you were entirely opaque.”

“I was raised to cultivate impenetrability,” he said wryly.

“What I showed and what I felt were often at odds. I don’t know when I first loved you, Elizabeth, perhaps from the very beginning, on that filthy London street.

But it was unconsciously done. I didn’t know it myself until I heard your last letter. ”

Her voice was soft. “And I was entirely besotted. You were so elegant, so far removed from anything I’d ever known. I never dreamed you’d notice me. I only wished to occupy the same room without embarrassing myself.”

Darcy’s eyes twinkled. “And yet you attacked me with surprising frequency. Your hand and your reticule were both employed without mercy.”

“Sir, you deserved every swat. And I sincerely hope you’ve abandoned your youthful misogyny.”

He gave a thoughtful nod. “The military proved a useful corrective. I met women who ran businesses, served as spies, many far more competent than their male counterparts.” He paused.

“Though I must confess, I am not yet reformed in all things. When it comes to you, I’m a jealous man.

I can’t bear the sight of some interloper trying his luck with you, Elizabeth. ”

She halted. “Mr. Darcy, I do not flirt.”

“No,” he said calmly. “You don’t. But men flirt with you. Adam Frazier was a prime example. I imagine even Marcus would have, had his brother not gotten there first.”

She frowned. “Adam was kind. He never flirted.”

Darcy tucked her arm back into his. “Let us agree to disagree, my dear. A woman of your beauty will always draw attention. I shall do my best to bear it with grace, but I warn you, I may fail. I’ve never been in love before. I suspect you will cause me untold suffering.”

Elizabeth raised a brow. “You astonish me. You are the most proper man I’ve ever met. If I had known you were capable of such possessive fits, I’d have made you work harder for my hand.”

“You are still young,” he said, “and blissfully ignorant of men and their wiles. So long as you don’t flirt outrageously, I shall endeavor to remain civil.”

“I fear my lively spirits may be misinterpreted,” she said slowly. “Perhaps I ought to temper them now that I am a wife.”

They entered the inn. Darcy bespoke a bedchamber, a private parlor, and rooms for his valet and coachman. Afterwards, they stepped out again, Darcy proposing a search for bookshops.

“I do love you when you speak my language, books, books, and more books,” she said.

He grinned wickedly. “I’m going to make you love me even more when I’m silent, alone with you in bed.”

Elizabeth flamed to her hairline.

They discovered three shops. She purchased two music scores, and Darcy, catching her admiring a travel chessboard, bought it at once.

“It will distract us on rainy days when we can’t ride,” he said.

“You imagine I will let you win?”

“I imagine I will earn my victories.”

He also purchased three books she selected: A Sicilian Romance, The Romance of the Forest , and a collection of Keats.

“I’ve not read either of Radcliff’s novels,” he mused.

“I have not either. My mother disapproved of novels. I contented myself with my father’s classics, Hobbes and Locke, but I always wished to read Radcliff and Edgeworth.”

“It’s a pity you were so restricted.”

“Oh, I’ve spent many pleasant hours reading novels in French, Spanish, and Italian. Papa was my language tutor, and he approved.”

“I also spent time reading books on botany and medicine,” Elizabeth said as they lingered near the bookseller’s counter.

“Aunt Gardiner lent me several volumes on botanical classification, and Dr. Edgerton allowed me access to all of his medical texts. I used to read in the front room of his house between patients, when I wasn’t helping him change bandages or working in the stillroom. ”

Darcy paused mid-step. “You worked with Dr. Edgerton?”

There was something in his voice that made her glance up. He had turned fully toward her now, the books forgotten in his hands.

“Yes,” she replied cautiously. “From the age of fifteen, until I left for Scotland two months ago.”

He set the books down. “What precisely did you do for Dr. Edgerton?”

Her cheeks colored. “Fitzwilliam, you are alarming me. Have I done something wrong?”

He inhaled slowly and took an immediate step back, evidently aware he had come too near and that his expression had darkened.

“No, my darling,” he said softly. “You’ve done nothing wrong. I am… experiencing what I believe to be a jealous fit. I’m unused to feeling this way. Forgive me.”

He glanced about and spotted a small settee. “Come, let us sit. I only wish to understand.”

He gestured to the empty cushion beside him. She joined him, still uncertain, though his manner had gentled.

He looked at her expectantly.

She folded her hands in her lap and began.

“If Dr. Edgerton needed assistance with a procedure or surgery, he would send for me, or stop on his way to the patient’s home and collect me.

Just before I travelled to Cambridge with Miss King, I helped him with a patient who had a bullet lodged in his thigh. ”

Darcy said nothing, but his brows drew together.

“He also keeps clinic hours in the front room of his home,” she continued. “I spent many hours reading there between patients. Some of the patients came for my services, for dressing changes, wound irrigation, and tissue debridement. The others came to see him.”

Darcy exhaled through his nose. “I begin to understand why Dr. Edgerton was so casual at Bingley’s house. He tapped once and walked straight into your sister’s chamber.”

She nodded. “Yes. He sees me as his assistant. Which I have been, these past five years.”

Darcy’s voice was tight. “And your father, he saw no impropriety in such an arrangement?”

Elizabeth looked at him, perplexed. “No. No one did. I was regarded as the local nurse. He the physician. It was all perfectly respectable.”

Darcy said nothing for a moment. He could not articulate the hundred reasons the arrangement displeased him.

Among them was the fact that Dr. Edgerton was young, no more than forty, and he had been alone with her, trusted by her, and possibly attracted to her.

Also, Elizabeth, at seventeen, had already been of marriageable age and uncommonly lovely.

At last, he asked, “Did your father not miss you at home?”

She considered the question. “I only worked four hours each morning. Most procedures occurred only when there had been an accident. And,” she hesitated, then added more quietly, “my mother never liked me underfoot. She does not like me. I think she was relieved to see me useful elsewhere.”

He turned to her. “I remember you once said she sent you to the Gardiners in London. That’s when we met.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yes. I was away for a year. When I returned, it was a comfort to have something meaningful to do. I asked Papa if I might accompany the doctor when he visited tenants, and that soon expanded into regular mornings at his clinic.”

Darcy nodded slowly, catching every word. He did not press her further. But inwardly, he was relieved that Elizabeth would never again be alone with Dr. Edgerton. She would be at Pemberley with him.

They returned to the inn, where the carriage and trunks had arrived. In the private parlor, as dinner was served, Elizabeth found herself unusually quiet.

Darcy eyed her. “Mrs. Darcy, are you feeling shy?”

“Sir,” she said, mortified, “you are not helping.”

He leaned forward. “After dinner, I intend to help you very thoroughly. I believe you will be quite pleased.”

She gasped. “Fitzwilliam! How am I to eat with such commentary? You’re teasing is very ungentlemanlike.”

He chuckled.

And she fled into the bedchamber and collapsed into a chair, covering her face. “How did Jane endure this?” she muttered.

He appeared in the doorway. “Already hiding, my love?”

“I thought you were seeing to the horses.”

“I will. But now I’m ready for dessert.”

She hurled a pillow at him. He caught it. “I’ll give you time. A bath is being prepared. I’ll be gone for an hour. Lock the door if you like.”

She peeked out from between her fingers. “You are incorrigible.”

“Had you known I was a tease,” he said with a wink, “you might never have married me.”

She studied him. “No, but I might have made you wait another week or longer.”

He laughed, truly laughed, and she was struck by how young he looked. He pulled her up to stand in front of him, and then he kissed her gently. She kissed him back.

“I’ll stop teasing you,” he said. “I see it’s making you uncomfortable.”

He gathered her into his arms, and she wrapped hers around his neck, burying her fingers in his hair. His mouth claimed hers as his hands drew her hips to his, until she was flush against him, clinging to him.

Then suddenly he released her, stepping back.

“Elizabeth,” he murmured, his voice roughened with feeling, “you cannot know what you do to me.”

He turned toward the door. “I must see to the servants and the horses. I’ll return in an hour.”

The maid arrived soon after with hot water, and Elizabeth undressed with trembling fingers, heart full of anticipation and wonder at what this night would bring.