“I suppose that is true,” he said, thinking about it. “Maybe there is some sort of arrangement we can come to, if he’s willing.”
After that, there was a lot of talk.
Elizabeth and I went back to bed and we left them to it.
By the morning, however, they were all still talking, all four of them, for Bingley was quite involved in the discussion, too.
Elizabeth spent most of the morning still angry that Caroline would attempt to get me to bed her and I spent the morning reassuring her that I had never even thought of such a thing.
Eventually, however, it was decided that Mr. Bennet would take Caroline back without any concern of whatever had passed with her and the colonel, even if she did prove to be with the colonel’s child. The hope was that, if so, Caroline would give birth to a girl and that she could be inseminated with Bennet’s child later, because he did wish for her to have his heir. But there was at least some chance that Richard’s child was going to end up the heir of Longbourn, apparently, and if so, there would be nothing to be done about that.
Richard had sworn up and down that he would never marry and simply be devoted to Caroline. They were going to spend time together whenever Bennet, Bingley, and my wife were traveling, and I still needed to convince Bennet to forgive me enough to bring me along.
However, Elizabeth told me privately that she might not be traveling as much as she had thought with them both.
“But you seemed to have a wondrous time,” I said.
“No, James and I are always going to be as close as we are, of course,” she said. “But I missed you. And for the foreseeable future, I shall be increasing and then I shall have a small oneunderfoot, and I suppose I don’t feel as strongly about it, in the end.”
“I thought this was what you wanted. You almost did not marry me because of it.”
“It’s funny how things seem very important sometimes, and then once one experiences them, one realizes they don’t truly matter?”
“Is that the case?” I said.
“You are important to me, Will, and besides I get ever so bored if I don’t have you attempting to rule over me and being stymied by my inability to be ruled over and the two of us, erm, working that out.”
“Yes, I find that rivetingly stimulating as well,” I said.
“We’ll all travel eventually,” she said. “When the babe is big enough to be left on his own, perhaps.”
“If your brother will allow me to come, that is.”
“Oh, I shall force him,” she said. “My brother is sometimes stupid about things.”
I chuckled. “I never thought I’d hear you say that.”
“Well, you are stupid about things, too.”
“Am I?”
“Of course you are. And I am stupid, too,” she said. “And it doesn’t make me love any of you a jot less and it doesn’t mean that we won’t all work everything out swimmingly. I know it’s all going to be all right.”
“I think it will at that,” I said, and I kissed her temple.
“Mr. Darcy,” she said. “What if the servants see?”
“Let them watch,” I said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
We were happy enough when they all left within the next week or so.
It was September at that point, and the breath of autumn chilled us in the mornings and the evenings, and I could think of nothing better than to spend my mornings and evenings curled up near the fire with my body quite close to my perfect wife’s.
The weeks passed, and it grew colder.
Her body began to shift, imperceptibly to others, perhaps, but I could tell. She was tired at night. I liked to soothe her, to hold her, to make sure that she was entirely as comfortable as she could possibly be.
