“Walk,” Miss Bingley squeaked at Jane and Mr Bingley consenting to the scheme. “My brother has a carriage.”
“Very good, then you can have it sent with the trunks. Good day.”
They turned to leave, and even before they had quit the room, Darcy flattered her. “You are magnificent, my love.”
It was a sentiment that warmed more than her cheeks.
“Thank you, my beloved.” She brushed an imaginary speck of lint from his lapel and left to have a revealing conversation with Jane and Mr Bingley. “Do you care to make a wager?” she asked once they were out on the street.
Darcy’s eyes widened in surprise at her impudence.
“I bet a thousand pounds that my connection to the House of Reimarus and the queen will be spread all over town within the hour.”
Darcy glanced at the waiting carriages that were hastily being readied for departure.
“That would be foolish of me because I do not doubt it.”
“Miss Bingley is a useful sort of acquaintance when you want gossip to be spread far and wide,” Elizabeth mused. “She has exactly the kind of friends one needs for such purposes.”
“Precisely so,” Darcy agreed with a grin.
#
The Darcys and Reimaruses received an invitation to Nuneham House, Oxfordshire, for a hunting party in September. Their hostess was the Dowager Countess Harcourt, courtier and close friend of Queen Charlotte.
The news about Mrs Darcy’s private audience with the queen, and her high-ranking connections, had already spread to even the more distant country estates. The queen was not amongst the guests, but the unfavourable rumours had quieted by then. Lady Louise was frequently invited to tea and the occasional dinner at Kew Palace, where the queen was uncommonly honest with her good friend. She had visited the king, probably for the last time, in June. She was at peace with him no longer recognising her and believing himself secretly married to Lady Pembroke. She considered herself quite alone in the world and preferred to share reminiscences about happier days with her old friend.
With Mary safely tucked away in Kent, a fact neither Mr nor Mrs Bennet opposed, nothing new had been discovered by the press.
Mary was less pleased with her lot. Lady Catherine believed that the girl needed to learn true charity and had her working at the local orphanage, though under tight surveillance by Mrs Jenkinson, and attending church, where the loquacious Mr Collins preached at length about vanity, pride, and the mortal sin of coveting.
On the tenth of October, Drury Lane reopened after the fire with a prologue by Lord Byron and a production of Hamlet featuring Robert Elliston in the title role. Count Reimarus and his sister were invited to join the Prince Regent in the royal box. Elizabeth and Darcy were granted a short audience during the interval that did not go unnoticed.
Shortly thereafter, Mrs Bennet joined Lady Louise and Count Reimarus on their return to Ritterhof to chaperon her youngest daughter’s courtship with the Reimarus heir. Mr Bennet did not mind the peace and quiet at Longbourn. With Kitty’s plans fixed on travelling back and forth between Netherfield and Pemberley, he would be ensconced in an abundance of it.
“May we go to Pemberley?” Elizabeth pleaded. “I have no concern for the few spiteful ladies we have yet to conquer.”
“We may as I am in total agreement with you. Some people will never be pleased, but those who matter have made a prettyvolte-face.”
Epilogue
Elizabeth was cradling the bundle in her arms, studying the child’s cobalt blue eyes.
“I am struck by how like his father he is.”
A surge of joy as deep as the ocean travelled through Darcy’s soul; all would be well. They both would be, his wife and his son.
“Resurgam. It is Latin and means that we shall rise.”
“I think we already have,” Elizabeth comforted him. “Even should we never be accepted in superior society, we have our family and close friends, a magnificent house on a prosperous estate, love, and an heir. Who could ask for more?”
“Certainly not I!”
Darcy relieved his wife of the child and cradled his sleeping son in his arms. Familiar as he was with his own heart, he was surprised the organ had the power to swell to double its usual size. The tiny body induced a joy so profound that his life would never be the same. He was where he belonged, with the people he loved, who loved him in return. Everything was right in the world, though he would never beget another child. The fear of losing Elizabeth had gripped him so fiercely during her labour that he had vowed before God and all those present that if she lived, he would never subject her to the danger of childbirth ever again.
Elizabeth had been confined to her bed for the next four weeks, which had made his vivacious wife ridiculously ill-tempered. Darcy had kept her and the baby company nearly every hour of the day, but despite his endeavours, his wife’s mood had plunged, culminating in a storm of tears on the fourth day after the birth. He had held her tightly in his arms and waited patiently for the tempest to calm. Fortunately, she awoke the next day in much better spirits.
Guests poured in from east, west, and south. Longbourn, Netherfield, and Ritterhof had been emptied of their occupants as everyone had gathered at Pemberley to welcome the heir.
