They stared at each other, him entirely rapturous, and her evincing ecstasy.
Thirteen
Before long Darcyand the Bennets journeyed back to Longbourn. Locked into the Darcy’s portable writing desk were the various documents of the marriage settlement, a special marriage license the earl had insisted on procuring, and the Darcy jewels that were kept in London. Packed into various boxes were exotic flowers and fruits for the wedding.
Miss Bennet and Elizabeth carried home their wedding gowns and the receipts for the ordered trousseaux. Elizabeth had been made to order almost twice as many clothes as Miss Bennet, in part because her rank would be higher, but also because Derbyshire was much colder than Hertfordshire.
Elizabeth also bought gifts for Mary, Kitty, and Lydia; she had chosen two books for her father and ordered two dresses and a shawl for her mother.
The homecoming was as affectionate and noisy as the last one, although the squeals over the presents were unprecedented in Darcy’s experience—but apparently not, as he had first supposed, in the history of the world.
Those squeals were soon eclipsed as Mr Bennet announced that Darcy and Elizabeth would be wed in a double weddingalongside Jane and Bingley. Mrs Bennet’s effusions were pitched so high, Darcy felt as if only dogs could hear the entirety of her shrieks of bemused excitement.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the noise level, Georgiana seemed far more cheery than she had been a mere month ago, and Darcy felt like he had changed even more. Of course, he gave all credit to Elizabeth, although she often refuted such statements as the silliest exaggerations known to humankind.
The beautiful double wedding was held in Meryton church. Mr Bennet proudly walked both of his daughters down the aisle, handing off each to her own intended. The flowers were exquisite, the brides….
…Well, Darcy was very sorry to have used the wordexquisitefor the flowers, since Jane and especially Elizabeth looked spectacular. Their hair shone, their eyes sparkled, their skin glowed.
Jane wore a pale blue dress that floated around her ethereal loveliness, and her pale hair was elaborately plaited and curled. She looked very well, but Elizabeth had a different sort of beauty. She wore a dress of deep rose; it plunged and tucked and swept in ways that demurely hinted at gorgeous curves within. Her thick, curly hair may have been styled in elaborate plaits, but it was already beginning to spring free of all constraints. Jane’s smile was steady and serene, but Elizabeth’s smile changed from delighted to playful, from sweet to arch, from expressing deepest happiness to—he dearly hoped—yearnings to at long last be alone with him.
Somehow the two managed to get through the short wedding ceremony and the long breakfast, they managed to farewell friends and neighbours and relations, and they managed to sit on opposite benches in their London-bound carriage for an entire ten seconds. Then Darcy joined her on the forward-facing bench, and though he held her tenderly, and began to kiss herwith the utmost reverence, their embraces and kisses eventually became absolutely ruinous to her hairstyle.
At Darcy House, the carriage door remained closed for what seemed to the waiting servants to be an hour, but was actually only four and a half minutes. The Darcys had been so enjoying the perquisites of being married, they had not noticed the requested “half an hour left” warning rap that the footman had, in fact, remembered to give them.
During the lull, the footmen struggled to maintain neutral expressions despite the fact that they could hear rustles of cloth and murmurs of “Could you help—?” and “How do I look?” Finally, the carriage door opened, Darcy stepped out, and then he handed out Elizabeth. Of course, the servants had met her—and had learnt to love her already! But now they gave thunderous applause for the master and their new mistress.
“Are all the arrangements complete?” Darcy asked the housekeeper. Assured that they were, he thanked the servants and led Elizabeth upstairs.
“Arrangements?” she asked. She sounded amused.
“Well, until this morning, this wasmyhouse,” he said. “Now that it isours, I thought I should make some adjustments….”
He led her into the mistress’s bedroom. It looked altered from earlier that week: it was freshly painted, the windows were hung with pale green silk, and the floors were covered with forest green rugs. The bedclothes and many pillows were in every shade of green, and with this lovely, natural colour scheme, the vases of daisies and poppies, red campion and musk mallow blooms, cornflowers and foxgloves and meadowsweet seemed to spring up as if they were growing in a field.
“Oh, this is lovely!” Elizabeth sighed with pleasure.
Darcy had remembered her favourite colour from the Pemberley tour. He could see that she genuinely loved the redecorated room.
As they entered the dressing room, the colourful riot of wildflowers was left behind; this room was full of natural light from the high windows but was panelled in dark woods with flooring of shiny oak planks, and the flowers chosen as decor were velvety violets and lavender orchids with lacy-looking petals. A huge bathtub emitted steam that smelt of lavender and rose; Darcy saw with satisfaction that the sachet bags filled with lavender petals were more plentiful than the red rose petals.
“Oh!” was all Elizabeth said. “Could we…the tub looks large enough…?”
“I was hoping you would invite me to join you, Elizabeth. Should we ring for Stevens and Morrison, or ought we help one another?”
“I would have you as my lady’s maid today,” Elizabeth said with such a smile that Darcy immediately got to work on the many small buttons. He kissed each portion of her back as it became visible, and before long he was untying stays and….
“You are so beautiful, Elizabeth!” Darcy mumbled, overcome as he finally saw what he had imagined so many times. It turned out, the reality was even better than his imagination, particularly when Elizabeth blushed, and he saw that her blushes reached…everywhere!
Darcy removed his own boots and divested himself of his many layers while Elizabeth tackled the elaborate knots of his cravat.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened with surprise when she spied Darcy’s manhood, as they climbed into the tub, but Darcy noted with satisfaction that she looked more curious than frightened, and the soothing warmth and familiar scent of the bathwatermade them both relax. Before long, however, relaxation was the furthest thing from either of their minds; Darcy had never bathed with a woman before, but he had an excellent understanding of anatomy, thanks to non-fiction books, and a burgeoning understanding of romance, thanks to his infrequent forays into reading novels, and, most important, many excellent ideas, thanks to a fertile imagination that had had an awful lot of days and nights during which to consider possibilities.
As to Elizabeth, her boldness and playfulness had been obvious to Darcy from the start, and he had been almost certain that her passionate defence of loved ones hinted of other sorts of passions, as well. His hopes for a passionate wife proved to be an underestimate of prodigious proportions; Elizabeth quickly learnt to be an active participant in the giving and taking of pleasure, a thousand times more than even his most torrid dreams.
In the tub, while drying one another with towels warmed by the fire, in the mistress’s bed, in the master’s bed, and even on the bear rug in the master’s bedroom, Darcy and Elizabeth explored, played with, and gratified one another. Wine, water, and drinking chocolate were consumed, as were cheese, nuts, and dried fruits; the lovers needed sustenance to maintain their heart rates and activity level.
For several hours, Darcy gave no thought to the servants, but finally he realised that Cook likely waited for orders to send a proper meal up on trays, and other servants likely waited for summons for a second bath or….
