He took his phone out of his pocket and found a video. “Look at these images of a horse’s gait as it gallops. When a horse is completely off the ground, its legs are beneath the body and not extended to the front and back. It was not until the advent of photography and early motion pictures that we understood a horse’s gait.”
“Every horse painting is wrong?” she asked slowly.
“If they depicted it galloping like the Stubbs painting in the library, then its legs are completely wrong.”
Georgiana crossed her arms over her chest in disbelief, but Darcy only laughed, enjoying his time with her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Mummy, can I see your ring?”
Elizabeth was texting Charlotte directions to their vacation rental. She and Mary were joining them tomorrow for the rest of their stay in the Lake District. They rented a stunning house on its own grounds with amazing views over Lake Windemere. She and Sandra were on a multi-level deck in the sunshine while Darcy and Georgiana walked to Ambleside.
She set down her phone and held out her hand, which Sandra clutched with both of hers and tugged close. “Miss Sheryl’s engagement ring is a big diamond.”
“I have a diamond in mine, right in the middle. Do you remember what the stones spell?” The first letter of each gem of the cluster ring spelled a term of endearment.
“‘Dearest,’ because you’re Daddy’s most dear person. But I’m his second.”
She laughed. “Yes, you’re very dear to him, too. Daddy had this ring made for me and it became my engagement ring because he wanted me to know how dear I am to him.”
“Like how you got him that keychain with your eye because Daddy always says you have pretty eyes?”
“Sort of, but Daddy’s gift is more special.” When she went to London with Charlotte last year, she found a studio that did high-resolution iris photography and had a small keychain with only her eye made as a present for Darcy.
“You and Daddy really love each other.” It was a statement, not a question, and Elizabeth agreed. “When did you know you wanted to marry Daddy?”
Probably when she spilled candle wax on herself in 1811 and he rushed forward to help her and they held hands in the dark. That was the moment she realised how much his fated death would absolutely wreck her. She had wanted to tell him his future, hoping he could change it, but he was too honourable to ask about his destiny.
But she couldn’t tell her seven-year-old daughter that she was sure she loved a man enough to marry him after knowing him for only three months, when they had no way to be together, and before they were in a defined relationship. “Well, it took a long time, like six months, for us to really get to know each other. But we loved each other for a while before we actually said ‘I love you’ and talked about getting married. Two years went by between the time we met and when we decided to get married.”
They had both known the other loved them, even though neither said the words. Nearly the entire time they were together in 2011, they had felt what was certainly a timeless love. She just didn’t think there was a way for her to be happy in his time, and she never thought he would return to hers.
Maybe she shouldn’t be so astonished Darcy chose a life in exile two hundred years out of his time for her. The bond between them was the deepest relationship of her life, and he was right that he thrived here. He had been determined to fit in, to learn all he could, to act like he was born in the 1980s. And despite the challenges, he enjoyed being here. From the moment he had to answer a phone call and stop calling her “MissBennet,” he succeeded here in a way she never could have in the past.
“We’re back,” Darcy called from the house, and she smiled at the sight of him. She had to stop being insecure about her own worth. Sandra would pick up on that, and her daughter deserved better.
As soon as he came outside, Sandra asked him, “When did you know you loved Mummy?”
“The first moment I saw her,” he said directly, while Elizabeth scoffed in disbelief.
Sandra, however, grinned. And then her attention shifted, and she called into the house, “Aunt Georgiana, do you have any jewellery I can look at?” Georgiana held out her wrist to show her the bangle she had worn through the stone circle, and Sandra ran into the house, slamming the door behind her.
“You did not love me at first sight,” Elizabeth said as Darcy walked to the hot tub and ran a hand over the frame, head tilted with that curious look she knew so well. “You said there was nothing suitable about me as a woman.”
He turned with a smile. “And you thought I was going to burn you at the stake for being outspoken. We were both angry and frightened by what happened at Nine Ladies. But it was near enough to the truth for Sandra. Besides, a few days later, I noted you were rather pretty.”
“That was because I wasn’t yelling at you and I wore a dress instead of jeans.”
He looked to the sliding glass door and, presumably seeing his sister and daughter occupied, put his arms around her. “Sandra can know from you that it takes time to truly know someone and fall in love with them, and she can know from me that I loved you instantly and wholeheartedly. Both will settle in her mind, and the truth about what makes love work will be a mixture of both.”
A warm feeling burst through her chest and she brushed his lips. “You’re a wonderful dad.”
“You did not always think so.”
This staggered her. She gasped and stepped back. It was said plainly, without malice but with sadness. “What are you talking about? I couldn’t ask for a better father for her.”
He hesitated, and for a moment she imagined him in top boots and a waistcoat about to bow and stand before a window to avoid speaking candidly. But Darcy stayed by her and said, “I know I’m a good father—now.”
