“Bingley, what have you heard from Scarborough?” William queried.
“No change. It seems Caroline is determined to keep living in her delusions regardless of how much proof there is that they will never occur. My aunt told me in a letter that after my younger sister read about Hadlock’s engagement, she decided that Fitzwilliam will be her husband,” Bingley revealed.
“And when she reads the announcement about Richard’s engagement, will I be the lucky recipient of her attentions?” William asked, only partially in jest.
“I wish I could deny that it will not be so, but I am afraid that is what she will do,” Bingley opined. “Once she got over her pique about Hadlock’s engagement, she was telling anyone who would listen that she had always chosen Fitzwilliam as her husband.”
“It sounds to me like she needs to be in a cell next to our Aunt Catherine,” Hilldale observed.
As he was aware of what had occurred with Mrs de Bourgh, Bingley understood what Viscount Hilldale was saying. They were not there yet, but if things did not change, Caroline may very well have to be committed to Bedlam.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
For both Jane and Fitzwilliam, Sunday seemed to creep by slower than a snail crossing a garden path. Eventually, pass it did, and by the time they reached their beds, the former in the manor house and the latter in the dower house, both were extremely impatient for the next morning to arrive.
Neither slept well, waking at intervals to look at the clock on the mantle above the fireplace.
Even though it seemed like the time would never come, it was eventually the hour to rise from their beds. Jane’s maid assisted her to prepare for the day while Fitzwilliam’s valet did the same for him.
Seeing that Fitzwilliam usually arrived at the mansion each day at about nine in the morning, no one commented on the fact that he arrived a half hour earlier on Monday, the sixteenth day of May. Thanks to all the residents’ habits of rising early, the house was already alive with activity.
He stopped at the breakfast parlour.
“What brings you here so early, Nephew?” Lady Anne teased. “Elaine and Reggie, did you summon Richard? Sit; I am sure you would like to drink a warm beverage with us.”
“Anne, do not tease the boy so,” Darcy said with a grin.
Fitzwilliam ignored his aunt’s ribbing. “Aunt Edith, Holder, I am here to speak to Jane, as I mentioned at the wedding breakfast.”
“You may use my study. Biggs and Johns are already in the hallway outside. They know that you have no more than ten minutes, and the doorwillremain partially open,” Holder responded.
“I will have Jane informed you are waiting for her,” Edith related.
As he turned to exit the room, his mother, who was seated next to his sister-in-law, Marie, took his hand. “I am very happy for both of you,” Lady Elaine said quietly.
“Go to it, little brother,” Hilldale added.
Normally Fitzwilliam would take his brother to task for calling him ‘little brother’ because he was in fact slightly taller and a bit broader than Andrew. This day he was completely focused on the task at hand, so he ignored Andy’s quip.
It did not take long to arrive at the study. He inclined his head to the two large men as he entered; he received bows in return. Their faces were impassive, but Fitzwilliam knew they were aware of everything. He looked about Holder’s study. Like his father’s and Uncle Robert’s, it was ordered, everything in its place. His perusal of the study was interrupted when he detected Jane’s rosewater scent before he heard her pad into the room on her slippered feet. He watched in awe as his lady love closed the door about two thirds of the way. Helen of Troy had nothing on Jane Carrington-Bennet. The spell was broken as Jane approached him.
“You wanted to speak to me?” Jane verified.
“Indeed, I do, very much so,” Fitzwilliam managed. He felt a trickle of sweat run down the back of his neck. ‘No need to be nervous; this is only the most important moment in your life,’ he told himself silently.
He took one of Jane’s hands, and Fitzwilliam led her to the single settee in the study. It was next to one of the windows looking out across the park below them. Without relinquishing the one hand he held, Fitzwilliam sank onto one knee. As soon as he was ready, he took her other hand in his free one.
Jane held her breath as her heart sped up on its own accord. She had been dreaming of this day since shortly after Richard had been granted the courtship, and now it was here. Neither of them was wearing gloves, which led to Jane feeling electricity flowing throughout her body, originating at her hands, powered by the love she felt flowing from Richard to her. That love was returned in full measure.
But it was more than love. There was no doubt their marriage would be one between equal partners. In Richard’s company, Jane had always felt like an intelligent being, never an item to be possessed by him. He saw all of her and not just her outward façade, as if she was like some bauble to be displayed on his arm. Richard respected her, and that, her mother told Jamey, her sisters, and her, was what a long and good marriage is based upon. All four of her parents’ children had been taught that in the absence of respect, love, no matter how passionate it burnt in the beginning, would not make a good marriage. Jane’s thoughts floated away like wisps of smoke on the wind as Richard began to speak.
“Jane, I think you know that you have earned my undying respect, but also my heart. It belongs to you, and no other will ever possess it. Hence, you have the power to make it beat for you for the whole of our lives together or shatter it into a million tiny shards. My affection began as that between cousins. However, over the past few years, since you were a few months past your sixteenth birthday, I have known that my hope was that one day you would not see me as a cousin but the way a woman sees the man she loves—the man with whom she wants to spend the rest of her life.
“I do not think I am deluding myself when I say that in the months of our courtship I have detected the same from you, that you love me as I love you.”
Seeing that she was too overwhelmed with the feelings Richard’s words evoked, all Jane could do was nod emphatically that she loved him deeply.
“That being the case, Jane, will you agree to take on the vagaries of life at my side, not a step behind me, but alongside me as an equal partner? Will you accept my hand, marry me, and be my wife?”
