At the very same timeshebegan to speak. “I would not wish to always be—”
They laughed together.
This time she did not look down. His stomach felt completely odd. Her fingers were thin and elegant. Her curls fell over her cheeks. The blue silk bonnet, with a fringe of lace framing her face. Darcy felt lightheaded. He needed to speak.
“Elizabeth, I have been a fool.”
At that opening, and the pause after it, Elizabeth laughed. “Once more, not what I expected you to say.”
She was wholly delightful. Her laughter always made him happy when he heard it.
“Let me finish. I wish, I very much wish that I had asked you to marry me when I did not know about your birth and fortune. When I realized in Lady Catherine’s drawing room the truth of your parentage, I was filled with a sharp pang of unhappiness, because in that moment I knew that I wished to marry you, for your own sake, but I thought I could not now, because I had proven myself unworthy.”
She was smiling at him in a warm and dazzling way. It was hard to think when she looked in his eyes like that. “I see, I see your difficulty, Mr. Darcy. That is very like you to feel compunctions on such a ground. I shall note, however, that until this minute the thought thatIshould judge you for such a cause had never occurred to me. But howyoumight come to judge yourself for it is not a difficult matter to parse.”
“You are teasing me.” He smiled happily back at her. Her whole manner was encouraging. “I told Hartley that you would make a joke of it.”
Elizabeth laughed. “What does dear Bobby have to do with the matter?”
“He inquired about my intentions towards his innocent little sister.”
More laughter from Elizabeth. “Ah, I see. And you then explained to him the chief source of your difficulty. That is that it is impossible for you to ask me to marry you, as you are unworthy. And did my brother offer a solution to this difficult conundrum?”
“He agreed thathethought I made an excellent case for my unworthiness,” Darcy replied in a like tone, “But he suggested that I leave you to be the final judge. He wished me luck in convincing you that I am unworthy but feared that I might fail.”
“And now you are teasing me,” Elizabeth said laughing. “But it is aseriousmatter. I have a solution though. I began my career as ‘Lady Elizabeth’ in a most eccentric manner. So, I shall continue in a like mode. Sinceyoucannot ask me to marry you, I must do the honors. Mr. Darcy, would you do the honor of making me the happiest of women, combining our great fortunes, continuing the Darcy tradition of wedding the daughter of an earl, disappointing your aunt, Lady Catherine, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”
Darcy took her hand and placed his other palm on her cheek. Her eyes shined up at him. “Etcetera, etcetera?”
“It covers all of the ordinary things said in such a speech...” she trailed off at the way he looked into her eyes. Perhaps he affected her half as much as she affected him. “You cannot expect me,” she added primly, “to make such a speech as Mr. Collins would.”
Darcy kissed her, not minding at all that there was at least one person likely able to see them.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The first two weeks of Elizabeth’s engagement went in a delightful haze.
Though it was difficult finding chances to continue that delightfully begun practice of kissing. There had been at leasttwopersons watching them kiss, and one of them was Robert.
He made a great show of always insisting that they were kept under close supervision. Despite this, Elizabeth and Darcy were determined to have the engagement last a little more than two months, and for the time of their marriage to correspond with Darcy’s previous plan to go north to Pemberley after the season.
So much had changed with such suddenness.
Elizabeth wished to become used to being “Lady Elizabeth” instead of “Miss Elizabeth” for a little time before she transformed into “Lady Elizabeth Darcy”.
When Bingley and Jane returned to London, Elizabeth accompanied them for a week’s shopping trip in which she spent a very small portion of the quite large quarterly payment that sat in Childe’s bank for her free use. She purchased clothes for herself, ribbons and bonnets for Kitty and Lydia—whenever she wanted something, Lydia always reminded Elizabeth that she owed her a great favor for her having arranged the match, and Elizabeth laughingly did not argue. She purchased books for herself and Mr. Bennet, and, as she had promised Mrs. Bennet, a large quantity of very fine lace that she would sit at the breakfast table in.
In London she also met her future sister, Miss Georgiana Darcy.
Georgiana delighted her.
She was like Mr. Darcy, except often more so: She was quiet. She hated to be surrounded by large crowds. She hated it when there was too much noise. And she found it most difficult to speak to anyone with whom she was not particularly acquainted. But once she had gained comfort with a person, she was remarkably kind, friendly and pleasant. And of course, she also had the same graciousness to those who were clearly inferior to her that Mr. Darcy showed, while having a standoffishness that did not show her in the best light when around those who were equal in rank.
Elizabeth also spent some time with Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst, as they were visiting Bingley at the time. They both were very polite and friendly, and Elizabeth gained the impression that even if Miss Bingley might have hoped to marry Mr. Darcy herself, she was willing to acknowledge the superior claims of the daughter of an earl with fifty thousand.Herchief interest had thus become to be friends with Elizabeth, so that the benefits of a close connection with the now even wealthier Darcy house could continue.
Longbourn though was where Elizabeth chiefly wished to be.
It would never again be her home. She would only visit on infrequent occasions, and then as a guest.
