“Then they shall always be welcome,” Darcy said. “I should be very glad to receive them.”
“Colonel Fitzwilliam writes that he shall have leave again in the fall,” Georgiana chimed in. “Perhaps he could visit us here.”
“The earl and countess will have the first claim on their son’s time,” Darcy told her, “but I should be very glad indeed to host Fitzwilliam for whatever remains.”
“I, too,” Elizabeth added. “Your cousin is delightful. I have rarely known a gentleman with such amiable manners and such an excellent sense of humour.”
They had reached the windows which looked out over the grounds, and for a moment, no one spoke. Everything before them was calm, ordered, and at ease.
“There is one person we need not expect,” Georgiana said at length.
Darcy raised an eyebrow slightly. “Only one?”
“I believe we may safely exclude Lady Catherine,” she said with a giggle.
Darcy chuckled at that, and Elizabeth did likewise. “No,” Darcy agreed. “I should be glad to open this house to any of our other relatives, or indeed to all, but our aunt shall never be welcome here.”
“I cannot pretend to regret her absence,” Elizabeth said thoughtfully, “but I am sorry to be the cause of it. I cannot like depriving you both of your aunt, even though she and I are not in charity with each other.”
But at that, Darcy laughed outright. “No, love. In the first place, you are not the cause. I would not have condoned such actions from my aunt, no matter who was hurt by them. And in the second…well. I hope you will not think me too cold in saying that perhaps you have not so much deprived us of Lady Catherine as saved us from her.”
Elizabeth smiled. “You are good to reassure me. And I could never think you cold.”
“Never for you, love,” Darcy murmured as he turned to his new wife and kissed her.
THE END
