“Go to it,” Holder said as he waved the younger man away.
Fitzwilliam practically floated out of his adopted uncle’s study. He and William had recently returned to London after overseeing the autumn harvest at their estates. Both had attended Andrew’s wedding, something Fitzwilliam would never have missed even without his standing up with his brother, but he had to return to Rosings Park to take care of the last few things related to the harvest, and William had accompanied him. Now that all of his tasks were accomplished, and after William alighted at Darcy House, Fitzwilliam had gone to Fitzwilliam House—the former de Bourgh House—to wash himself and change his clothes. He had hurried his valet and had arrived at Holder House keen to see Jane after not being in her company for almost a month—except for a few hours at the wedding breakfast. However, Mr Fenster had directed him to Holder’s study, where he had heard the most unexpected statement regarding Jane.
As Jane had only turned eighteen three months past, Fitzwilliam decided he would not hurry her to the altar. He would request a courtship, and if she accepted it, he would wait a few months before proposing to her. That way, if she agreed to have him as her husband, it would be clear to all there was no reason to rush to marry.
In his opinion, it would be better to marry closer to Jane’s next birthday. However, this was all supposition. He knew Jane well enough that, like Lizzy and Mary, she would not like someone making decisions for her without consulting her.
He followed the sounds of the pianoforte and the harp coming from the music room. Lizzy and Anna were playing a duet while Jane accompanied them on the harp. For once, Mary was seated listening and not at the keyboard herself. Next to Mary was a lady Fitzwilliam recognised. That was because Mrs Annesley had been the companion to Marie, his new sister-in-law. He had heard Mother mention that the lady had been employed as the Carrington-Bennet sisters’ companion. Richard planned, if Jane agreed, to see to it that Mrs Annesley would only have two charges at some point in the future.
He stood at the door and waited so as to not disturb the musicians.
“Richard!” Anna exclaimed, her hands in the air on their way to strike the next keys in the song she was playing.
At Anna’s exclamation, Jane and Elizabeth looked up, saw Richard and ceased playing; Jane’s fingers still on the strings she was about to pluck. Elizabeth stood, following Anna, to go hug the man she counted as a cousin while Jane, blushing with pleasure, sat without moving.
“Hello, Sprite.” Fitzwilliam hugged his young cousin. “You are looking well, Lizzy,” he said as he gave her a hug, too.
“Does not Jane look very fine,” Elizabeth stated slyly. She had not missed that Jane and Richard’s eyes were locked onto one another without wavering. “Jane, will you not come and greet Richard?”
Lizzy’s words broke through Jane’s self-induced trance. She blushed scarlet. “Welcome, Richard, it is very good to see you,” she said as she stood up.
“It is good to be seen. Jane, may I have a private interview with you?” Fitzwilliam requested. “If you are concerned, I have your father’s permission to address you.”
“I would be happy to hear you,” Jane responded, her blush deepening.
“The next-door drawing room is warm, but not in use as we speak,” Mary suggested.
“I will find John or Brian to come stand in the hallway,” Elizabeth stated. “Before I go, did William accompany you back to London?” After seeing a nod from Richard, Elizabeth skipped out of the room to seek one of the guards.
Not that he would have done otherwise, but with one of the huge guards in the hall, Fitzwilliam reminded himself to be on his very best of behaviour. “Allow me to go to your father and inform him you agreed to speak to me and ask how much time we are allowed,” he explained before making his way to the study.
Holder was not surprised that Jane had agreed; in fact, he would have been shocked had she refused Richard’s request to address her. “You may have ten minutes, and you say Lizzy will have either Biggs or Johns in the hall?”
“Aye, that is what she said,” Fitzwilliam responded.
“Good girl, that.” Holder grinned. “I expect to see you back here after you have concluded your discussion with Jane.”
Fitzwilliam nodded as he headed for the door. When he reached the drawing room, Biggs and Johns were standing like sentinels, one on either side of the doorway. He looked ahead as he passed them so he would not see any disapproving looks from the men who had protected Jane and her sisters for well over ten years.
The huge men outside were forgotten when he closed the door about three-quarters of the way. Jane was seated on a settee, her hands folded in her lap as she waited for him with a look of pleasure on her face.
He sat on the same settee with more than enough distance between them to satisfy propriety. For a moment, Fitzwilliam was lost in the big, round cerulean-coloured eyes staring back at him. He needed to force himself to speak; otherwise, they would pass ten minutes in silence, and that would not do.
“Jane, I had pledged to myself to hold off declaring my intentions towards you until the end of your first season. It was not what I wanted, but it was my belief that you needed a season. As much as I did not want it to occur, if you had found a man who was better for you, I would have bowed out gracefully.
“However, I am informed from a reliable source that you have refused every entreaty to call on you. Some of those men are heirs to dukedoms and earldoms. Am I correct that you are not interested in any of the men you have met so far?”
“Almost true. There is one I have met, the only one who I want to call on me.” Jane saw Richard’s face fall. “I mean you, silly man!”
Fitzwilliam went from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness in the space of a moment. He knew he was grinning like a fool, but he could not help it. Now if only his heart would stop beating like Invictus—his stallion—galloping across the countryside. He took a deep breath to attempt to regain a semblance of his equanimity.
“Lady Jane Carrington-Bennet, I am not sure I am worthy of one as good as you, but I have dreamed of this moment from before your eighteenth birthday. I am already sure of my heart and your place in it; however, I do not want to rush you. With your approval, I would like us to court for three or four months, and then if you agree to marry me, an engagement of a few months so that we can marry close to, or just after, your nineteenth birthday. Your parents have not stipulated the length of either a courtship or an engagement, but I am confident they would prefer a longer time before we marry rather than a month or two. Do you agree, or do you prefer a shorter courtship and engagement?”
“If it were just for myself, I would want a month’s courtship followed by a similar period of engagement, if you propose to me, that is. However, for my family to have a longer time to become sanguine with my leaving would be better, especially for Lizzy and Mary. Richard Fitzwilliam, if you are asking to court me, my reply is a profound yes!”
If he thought his heart had been hammering before, it was nothing to the way it was beating at Jane’s words. He gently reached for each of her hands as he slid a little closer to her on the settee. Fitzwilliam bestowed lingering kisses on the back of one hand and then the other. When Jane sighed with pleasure, he almost lost his self-control, coming very close to pulling her towards himself and kissing her lips. That would come later, of which Fitzwilliam was certain.
Jane felt as though she were soaring above the clouds with the depths of the pleasure she felt when Richard’s lips touched her hands. If only he would have kissed her lips. She felt that the thought was wanton and pushed it to the side—for now.
