“What are you doing? Why are you standing?” she cried.
“I have begun to rise and take a few steps,” he admitted, though he had resolved not to tell her yet.
“No!” she said forcefully. But seeing him on his feet, part of her turmoil eased. It was a significant step forwards. He had been taking steps in her absence, and he was well.
“Sit, please sit,” she told him gently. And he obeyed but caught her hand in his own, in a gesture that said only one thing. And she understood what that one thing was.
“I shall return to your arms if…”
“If?” he teased.
“Ifitdoes not happen again.”
And he burst into laughter, settling carefully into the armchair.
“My dear, simply seeing you makesithappen. Anditwill not calm down until you are mine.”
∞∞∞
They enjoyed dinner, just the two of them and Georgiana, as if no tragedy had ever befallen their lives, forgetting the reality they had suffered day after day until that moment.
Georgiana gazed at them in astonishment, for she had never seen them so joyous and, at the same time, so utterly indifferent to anything beyond the delight of being together. They bantered and laughed, and their joy was contagious.
“He was most difficult in your absence,” said Georgiana, entering into their game.
“Who?” asked Elizabeth as if she did not understand, though she glanced at him.
“My brother,” came the reply.
Indeed, Darcy had been unbearable during Elizabeth’s absence—wheeling himself restlessly from room to room, issuing dozens of unnecessary orders, refusing to eat, and, to Georgiana’s horror, beginning to pace the house.
“I, too, have noticed since my return that things are not quite as they were when I left,” Elizabeth said with a laugh.
“I do not know what has happened in my own house, but I have come to be reprimanded by both my younger sister and my wife,” said Darcy.
Yet he was so content to be at the table with them that neither believed his scolding to be genuine.
Elizabeth recounted in great detail all she had done at Pemberley, beginning with that singular moment when she had stepped down from the carriage upon the hill to admire the house and its surrounding park.
“I was left breathless by Pemberley’s beauty—it bears the mark of a skilled gardener, one who allows nature to speak while also ordering it in such a way as to delight the eye.”
“Have the roses bloomed?” Darcy asked, and Elizabeth strove not to look at him, for she had detected the regret in his voice.
“Yes,” she said at last. “I brought a carriage full of cuttings for the garden here. And then there is the lake and the river… ”
“We used to swim in the lake,” said Darcy, continuing as he caught sight of Elizabeth’s shocked expression. “Yes, madam, we swim.”
“We?” she asked.
“Georgiana and I—”
“I have never learnt to swim!” exclaimed Elizabeth, surprised that she had never even thought of such a thing. The brother and sister, in turn, regarded her with equal astonishment, for it seemed impossible that anyone would not wish to swim.
“Do you swim in the lake?” she asked, still incredulous.
“Not the one in front of the house,” Georgiana said with a smile. “We have a cottage a few miles upriver—there is even a small waterfall—”
She fell silent abruptly, as she always did when she forgot that her brother would never again be able to return to Pemberley or to that beloved place. Elizabeth hurried on with her tale, for it was the best way to stave off despair.
