Page 22 of Why I Kissed You (Pride and Prejudice Variation)

The sound of a carriage pulling up to the pavement outside Darcy House led Bingley to jump nervously to his feet.

Fitzwilliam chuckled. “Relax, man! You’ll give yourself an apoplexy.”

“I cannot help it, Colonel,” said Bingley as he nervously pulled at his waistcoat. “All I can think of at this moment is ‘She is here! She is here!’ And also fearing she will be disgusted at the sight of me.”

The colonel scoffed. “More likely all the ladies will be disgusted by that split lip and bruised chin you gave Darcy.”

“Thank you, Theodore,” said Darcy in a droll tone as he tugged the cuffs of his sleeves beyond the cuffs of his dinner coat.

Secretly, though, he dreaded the inevitable questions Elizabeth would ask.

Vincent had attempted to conceal the unfortunate injury with a mix of white and vermillion powder, but regrettably the bruise along his jaw was still partially visible, and the split itself—though small—could not be covered at all.

He shot his cousin a pointed look. “You will not make a point of discussing the … disagreement … between Bingley and myself. That you take pleasure in our discomfort and ignore our disinclination to dwell on the subject is most disagreeable, and hardly becoming of a gentleman.”

Georgiana, who had colored and focused pointedly on the pattern she had been working, nearly missed her brother’s gesture to join him in going into the hall to greet their guests. She took his arm and drew deep, calming breaths as Darcy knew Mrs. Annesley had taught her .

“You need not be nervous, dearest,” he leaned down to whisper as they walked out of the drawing room.

“I know,” she replied. “But I am so rarely called upon to be your hostess that I am in constant dread of making a mistake.”

“You will do just fine,” Darcy reassured her; they stepped into the hall just as the knocker was rapped against the plate. “Remember that you have already met the Miss Bennets and their aunt.”

He nodded to Tolliver, who had quickly appeared to answer the door.

A moment later, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner stepped across the threshold, followed by their nieces.

Darcy’s eyes took in the sight of Elizabeth as she entered his home and he smiled—she was in splendid looks this evening in the deep peach frock she’d chosen.

“Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, welcome,” he greeted the older couple before bowing from the shoulders. “Miss Bennet, Miss Elizabeth, you are welcome also.”

“I should hope so, Mr. Darcy,” quipped Elizabeth with an impertinent glint in her eye. “You did invite us, and since this will one day be my home also, it is only fair that I should see it, do not you think?”

Her relations chuckled; Darcy tried and failed to suppress a grin. “I understand that to be the way of marriage, Miss Elizabeth.”

He looked to Mr. Gardiner, then down to his sister. “Dearest, the ladies you know, but may I now present Mr. Gardiner of Gracechurch Street.”

Mr. Gardiner smiled and bowed, and Georgiana curtsied. “Thank you all for coming,” said she in a soft voice. “Won’t you come into the drawing room while we await dinner?”

They all went, and Darcy was quick to introduce those of the party who had not before met. Bingley then stepped forward and bowed again before Jane Bennet.

“Miss Bennet. It is the greatest of pleasures to see you again,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.

Jane’s countenance was full of heightened color—she seemed both startled by his presence and at the same time not surprised to see him, if such could be said. Her eyes were wide, and she seemed for a moment to struggle for the serenity of air which Darcy had before labeled indifference.

“It… it is a pleasure to see you again, also, Mr. Bingley,” she replied at last. “I think it above four months since last we met—not since the twenty-sixth of November.”

Bingley appeared struck that she remembered the exact date of the Netherfield ball. “Yes,” he replied, his voice now strained. “When I had the pleasure of dancing with you at Netherfield.”

Elizabeth, either to save her sister some distress or to draw attention from both Jane and Bingley, let go her sister’s arm and stepped forward. “Pray tell me, Mr. Darcy, how went your interview with my father today?”

“Oh yes, that was to be this morning, I recall,” said Mr. Gardiner with a chuckle.

Darcy smiled. “May it gratify you to learn that I was successful in my endeavour to secure his blessing,” he replied, then reached into the inside pocket of his jacket. From it he pulled a letter that he held out to Elizabeth.

“Your father’s greetings, in his own hand.”

Elizabeth drew a breath and held it as she took the letter and released it slowly as she broke the seal and began to read. Darcy studied her features as she did so and noted the flickering of her expressions from nervousness to alarm to resignation.

“Oh, Papa,” she said softly as she began to fold the letter.

Jane tore her attention away from Bingley to ask, “Lizzy, what does Papa say?”

Elizabeth sighed and lifted the letter again. “He asks me if I am out of my senses to be accepting Mr. Darcy, as have I not always hated him. He acknowledges the wealth of Mr. Darcy and notes that I shall have many fine carriages and clothes—do I not know the truth of the latter already—”

Here she shot a queer look at Darcy, which only amused him. His responding smile soured her expression further, and she looked back to her letter.

“—and asks me if those will make me happy.” Elizabeth then began to read from the letter directly.

“We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him. Lizzy, you may rest assured that I have given him my consent. He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare refuse anything, which he condescended to ask. I now give it to you, if you are resolved on having him. But let me advise you to think better of it. I know your disposition, my dearest daughter. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband, unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery. My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life. You know not what you are about.”

Elizabeth sighed again, and folding the letter once more, she stuffed it into her reticule as she said, “Papa goes on to say that he will be so kind as to spare Mr. Darcy the indignity of hearing Mamma’s ejaculations when he shares the news with her and expresses a hope that I will write and ease his anxieties over my match as soon as is convenient. ”

The Gardiners glanced at one another and then to Elizabeth with concerned expressions, and Jane stepped up to her sister’s side and placed an arm about her shoulders.

“I am sorry, Lizzy, that our father appears so disagreeable,” said she.

Elizabeth’s eyes found his, and Darcy poured what of his support and assurance he could give into his gaze. She seemed to take some comfort from it—or so he hoped—and turned her lips up into a smile.

“It is all right, Jane,” said she. “Papa does not know Mr. Darcy as I do. I told you how I came to know him so much better in Kent than I did in Meryton.”

“Then you have only to assure your father of this in your next letter, Lizzy, I am sure,” said Mr. Gardiner kindly.

“M-may I ask why Mr. Bennet should think you hate my brother?” asked Georgiana.

Darcy was a little surprised she had been bold enough to ask, and though he had no wish to pain her by her hearing he did not always behave as he ought, he also could not help his curiosity as to how Elizabeth would answer.

His betrothed smiled at his sister and said, “I daresay you must know that your dear brother is not always comfortable in large, unfamiliar company, Miss Darcy. This unfortunately led to him being thought proud by my neighbours in Meryton, and I personally mistook his discomfort for arrogance and conceit. Such manners are not at all to my liking, and this regrettably led to more than one misunderstanding on both sides.”

“As Miss Elizabeth has said, Georgiana, we were able to get to know one another better during our time together in Kent,” Darcy added. “I am not ashamed of attributing this to being surrounded by a great deal fewer people, and those whom I did meet I was fairly well acquainted with.”

“Oh, I see,” said Georgiana with a hint of a smile. “I understand you now—for you know I am terribly shy in unfamiliar company as well.”

“I am quite the opposite,” said Elizabeth with a smile. “I do not fear large company and very much enjoy meeting new people.”

“Perhaps that is why God has brought you together, Miss Elizabeth,” observed Fitzwilliam. “My cousins could both of them benefit from constant exposure to such lively spirits as yours!”

Darcy bit his tongue to keep from making an ill-bred remark about his cousin taking delight in embarrassing him while both Elizabeth and Georgiana blushed.

He was certain the two were as relieved as he when Tolliver stepped into the room a moment later and announced dinner.

Looking down at Elizabeth with a smile, Darcy offered his arm, and was pleased that there was no hesitation on her part in taking it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noted Bingley offering his arm to Jane, who blushed furiously as she tentatively slipped her hand around his elbow.

Mrs. Gardiner’s hand had not even left her husband’s arm, and Fitzwilliam gallantly bowed before offering Georgiana his.