Very early in the morning, before the trunks were stowed and in the midst of the interminable flurry required before any journey of length, Elizabeth knocked softly on the door of my little room.
“I have somewhere to go before we leave,” she whispered. “Will you go with me?”
I struggled into my greatcoat as quickly as I could, and at the door she took my hand and pulled me out into the wind. We went silently, as we have before, but on this occasion, rather than pounding heavily with suspense, my heart beat a contented joyful tattoo. Soon we were in the churchyard, confronting Mrs Bennet’s gravestone.
Elizabeth looked at me, amused, apologetic, and slightly embarrassed before pulling me forward and saying, “Mama, this is Mr Darcy, and we are to marry soon.”
Her voice breaking caused me to pull my handkerchief out of my pocket, and when she took it, she graced me with that peculiarly endearing expression redolent of both laughter and tears.
She turned back to the grave. “I will have you know, Mama, that Mr Darcy is very rich,” she said, chuckling as she blew her nose. “He is rumoured to have ten thousand a year."
“Closer to twelve, but I do not generally speak of it,” I said humbly.
“There, you see? I will be settled far more than merely comfortably. We will positively drown in luxury, and I am sure Mr Darcy will find rich and handsome husbands for all my sisters. I do not know if Jane told you, but Mr Darcy helped to settle Lydia respectably.”
In the presence of her mother’s spirit, Elizabethseemed to swallow the last of her doubts about her youngest sister’s future, and after one last dab of her handkerchief to her eyes, she spoke resolutely. “Now, you will want to know just what Mr Darcy’s estate is like. I am sure he as one hundred rooms?—"
“Ninety-four,” I said apologetically.
“Well!” she harrumphed in playful dismay, and turning back to her mother, she added in a voice of consolation, “But I am certain he has a glass house, and?—"
“Two actually. We have a glass house for both exotics and a separate orangery.”
“My word. Since I am such an ignoramus, perhapsMr Darcyshould tell us all about Pemberley. Hm?”
I then stood next to my love, and at her instigation, spoke to a block of granite about the number of windows, chimneys, and staircases at my estate. And when Elizabeth began to stifle her chuckles into the handkerchief with which she had just finished drying her tears, I began a more full-throated and thoroughly specious dissertation about our china service, silver, where the marble had been quarried for the hall, how many dukes and duchesses had slept there, our collection of musical instruments, the last time the drapes, imported from France before the embargo, had been changed out in the principal salons, and I even went into some description of the sculpture garden much preferred by my mother. Ispoke of my French cooks, my army of servants, the enormity of my land and what-not, mimicking Lady Catherine, and gaining momentum as I embellished the staggering awe-inspiring extent of my worldly goods.
“And,” I added finally, striving mightily not to laugh at such an absurd speech, “Elizabeth will have a town carriage and a carriage at Pemberley, fitted out with gold?—"
“Blue,” she gravely corrected.
“Ahem. As I was saying, carriages fitting out withbluevelvet squabs with matching spokes on the wheels. And, since I mentioned it, you may want to know about my house in town.”
“Oh, by all means, do continue Mr Darcy!” cried Elizabeth, and then we both burst out laughing, and could only stop when by some accident we found ourselves in a scandalous embrace, exchanging fiery kisses. Only Jane calling to us from the distance brought us back to earth, and with both of us enflamed, blushing and in general disarray, we said farewell to Mrs Bennet.
“I will take very good care of her,” I murmured sincerely at the end, touching the headstone in a kind of promissory gesture, causing Elizabeth to brush away happy tears all the way back to Longbourn.
There at the front door, we were greeted with looks of exasperation by everyone, my coachman looking particularly thunderous for having had to forcehis restless team to wait on us. The carriages were ready, and with Bandit barking madly with excitement on the box where he sat between Reese and Matthew, we were soon away in a little cavalcade of joy, heading towards, I could not help but feeling, the best days of my life.
We did not forewarnMr Bennet of our arrival, though everyone else at Pemberley knew and participated in our deception. I suppose we had caught the fever of mischief and wished to shock a man who always seemed impervious to surprise. The Miss Bennets burst into the parlour after our surreptitious arrival at the service entrance, and I could not shake my amused remembrance of playing a similar prank on Miss Bingley.
“Mary? Jane? What-what? Lizzy?” He stood on shaky legs as his daughters laughingly surrounded, hugged, and kissed him. Only Kitty hung back, but when Mr Bennet saw her, pulled her forward, and gave her a kiss, she knew she was forgiven. She discretely blew her nose and then joined her sisters in their raillery, led by Elizabeth.
“We came because we feared you had forgotten where you live, sir. Were you going to batten yourself on Mr Darcy until summer?”
Mr Bennet ignored Elizabeth’s question, having caught sight of Bandit.
“You did not bring that animal, Jane. Tell me this is one of Mr Darcy’s dogs with an uncanny resemblance to your own.”
“We could not leave him behind, Papa,” she said. “He would have run after the coach and gotten lost.”
“That is precisely why you should not have brought him, my dear. But come, how is it you have travelled all this way to interrupt my holiday?” He turned to my sister and her companion. “I appeal to you ladies to overlook the intrusion of these silly girls. If we ignore them, perhaps they will go away. Let us go back to ordering your collection of feathers, Mrs Annesley.”
I had hung back during this reunion, and after welcoming the ladies, Georgiana came to stand with me. I kissed her cheek and took her hand, and I do not think I was imagining that she stood closer to me than she used to do. We looked fondly at Mr Bennet as he teased his daughters and was fussed over in return, and we were in an attitude of filial oneness when Elizabeth came to us.
“You are very indulgent to agree to our invasion of your household, Miss Darcy,” she said. “I wonder, is there somewhere we can safely stow Jane’s dog before he destroys something?”
In no time, the two of them walked away from medown the hall, their heads bent in eager conversation with Bandit pulled behind on his lead. By the time they turned the corner, Elizabeth had induced my sister to laugh with her, a sound so strikingly natural I thought it was surely—it must have always been—the sound of home.
