“Husband, do you not think the time has come to share where we will be on our wedding trip for the next three weeks?” she asked coyly.
“You already know I can never deny you anything that you ask of me, my Lizzy. Tomorrow morning, we travel south toward Brighton. My honourable departed father took my mother to the area for their wedding trip. He leased a cottage that sits on a bluff and has a good view of Brighton, and my dear departed mother liked it so much he purchased the cottage for her.
“It is named Seaview Cottage. It is staffed by a housekeeper, a cook, two maids, and two footmen. We will only take Arseneault and Carstens with us. The carriage, driver, and attendant servants will be housed at the Fox and Bugle Inn close by. If we require the use of the coach one of the footmen will ride to summon it. The servants at Seaview are very discreet, and we will only see them when we need them.” He watched her happiness grow.
“That sounds perfect, William. You have no idea how much I love the sea, and I adore sea bathing,” Elizabeth shared excitedly.
“Then you are in luck, my love. There is a secluded cove with some beach below the house that can only be reached by a path from our property. It has been a warm summer, so I am sure we will go sea bathing and whatever else we decide to do while we are in the water.” Darcy wiggled his eyebrows as he said the last to his blushing wife with a very devilish look on his countenance.
The newlyweds sat and talked until they heard the dinner gong. Due to their afternoon activities, they both had a very good appetite. Darcy House’s cook was seen to beam with pride at the evidence the master and new mistress liked her cooking exceedingly, judging by the small amount of leftovers the footmen returned to the kitchens.
After dinner Darcy requested and was granted some music by his wife, she sang with her divine angel-like voice as she accompanied herself on the pianoforte. The servants privileged enough to hear the new mistress sing agreed they had never heard better. The Darcys did not dally in the music room for long, they soon ran up the stairs hand-in-hand, very keen to reach the privacy of their suite.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
For most of the more than four hours of travel of the final leg, the newlyweds slept in each other’s arms. They had gone to bed early the previous night but had only finally gotten to sleep in the wee hours of the morning. They were both very sated but tired, so they had fallen asleep one after the other just after the carriage departed Darcy House.
At the stop just past the halfway point, the servants, upon seeing the master and mistress fast asleep, had not disturbed them. Darcy woke about twenty minutes prior to arriving at Seaview Cottage, and he gently woke his slumbering wife.
“Lizzy my darling, my sweet love,” he punctuated his words with little feathered kisses to her cheeks, “we are about to arrive. Time to open those fine eyes of yours.”
“I slept so well, I even dreamed I had married and was in love with the best of men, then I woke up and saw it was just you,” Elizabeth said with a saucy, impertinent, and teasing smile he loved so well.
“Just you wait, my impertinent wife; you will pay for that comment later,” Darcy scowled with mock affront.
“Do not make promises unless you intend to keep them, Husband.” she volleyed.
As her husband was about to respond to her very forward comment, they both felt the conveyance slow down and it soon came to a halt in front of the cottage. The footman lowered the steps and after alighting, Darcy turned around to hand his wife out of the carriage.
On seeing the house, Lizzy smacked her husband’s arm playfully. “This is no cottage, Mr. Darcy, why it is almost as large as Longbourn was before Papa started to enlarge and add wings to the house. Cottage indeed!” Lizzy looked at her husband questioningly.
“In my defence, Lizzy, the name is, in fact, Seaview Cottage, and it has been referred to asthe cottageever since the first time I heard tell about the place,” Darcy explained.
Lined up in front of the entrance was the cottage’s servants, led by Mrs. Agatha Spencer, the housekeeper. She introduced the cook and the rest of the servants. The footmen that had accompanied the carriage, along with the two Seaview footmen, made quick work of getting the trunks to the master suite.
His valet and her maid unpacked their clothing and personal items with quiet efficiency. After the mistress met with the cook to go over the couple’s likes and dislikes, the Darcys retired to their suite for some undisturbed personal time.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The three weeks flew by. The couple did much walking, riding, reading, and relaxing. They spent as much time learning and teaching each other what they liked, and the few things they did not enjoy, in the privacy of their chambers.
There was a lot of sea bathing on their very private beach and activities in the water that newlyweds in the deepest throes of love enjoyed. Once a week they had the carriage summoned for forays into Brighton to see the sites including promenading past the Prince Regent’s Brighton Pavilion. He was not in residence, but it was interesting to see the opulent place the Regent stayed at when in Brighton.
Even though her husband claimed not to like assemblies, the couple went to one and danced only with each other, not caring how scandalised anyone was with a married couple dancing exclusively with one another.
All too soon it was the morning of departure. Darcy left a substantial amount with Mrs. Spencer to be divvied up among the cottage’s servants because the Darcys were most happy with the service during their stay there. The bonus was generous enough it essentially doubled the servant’s annual pay for that year.
Just before their departure, the young couple pledged they would spend at least two weeks a year at the cottage, even once they were blessed with children. As they had on the trip down to the cottage, the Darcys slept almost all the way back to London, the only difference was they woke when they stopped for a break, then promptly fell back to sleep once they were on the road again. The coach pulled up to Darcy House in the late afternoon and the Darcys were welcomed home by the Killions.
They sent a note over to the Gardiners at Portman Square and received an invitation to join them for a family dinner that evening. Given both had rested on the journey back to London, the invitation was accepted with alacrity.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The Darcys were announced by the Gardiner’s butler. All four children were in the drawing room. Lilly Gardiner, who had just turned twelve, felt very grown up even if she still looked like a young girl. Before dinner, the governess collected the youngest two, May and Peter. Lilly and George were to eat with the adults. The party of six went in to dinner and sat down to enjoy an informal family meal.
“How was your wedding trip, Lizzy?” Madeline Gardiner turned to Elizabeth who was seated to her left as she happily sat between her uncle and aunt she so loved.
“Aunt Maddie, it was so very enjoyable, and our house near Brighton, which my dear husband calls a cottage, is the size Longbourn was before Papa added to it. When you have some time, you must go and relax there. It has a private beach,” her aunt noticed Lizzy’s blush when she mentioned the beach, “and it is close, but not too close to Brighton. The house has a good number of bedchambers and a very able staff. We had the best time there, and we have pledged to return at least once every year. The views of Brighton and the sea from the property are a sight to see.”
