by Don Miller
“Thank you Grandmother. As I put it on tonight I thought to myself it is just one part of the continuation of an almost perfect day.”
“Almost?” asked Darcy.
Looking at him with a twinkle in her eye, “Yes, almost. I can only think of one thing, or maybe I should say series of things, that could have made it better, but I am sure we will be able to rectify that later.”
Everyone except Jane laughed, because of that statement, and Darcy blushed. And then suddenly, it occurred to Jane to what Elizabeth was referring, and she blushed and giggled.
“Aunt Madeleine, thank you again for being here and doing so much. The flowers I saw as I came in were magnificent, and I can hardly wait to see the ballroom. I believe you have set a standard difficult to match and your services may be requested by some of our more important guests when they decide to plan such an event in the future. Are you prepared to take on a new career?”
“I must admit I have enjoyed this experience. It is not very often one is given unlimited resources and told to do what they think is best. I am just pleased it pleased all of you.”
Everyone in the room agreed they were more than pleased and they could not imagine how it could have been done any better or more efficiently. They all agreed Lady Matlock had been correct when she told them Madeleine Gardiner was one of the best organizers in town, but she had not told them that Mrs. Gardiner was also one of the most creative flower arrangers in town.
They were soon informed by one of the servants that the first carriage had arrived, so Lord and Lady Monttard and Elizabeth and Darcy went to the front entrance to start welcoming their guests to the ball. It did not surprise them the first to arrive were Lord and Lady Matlock, Lord and Lady Gladney, and Col. Fitzwilliam and Margaret. Col. Fitzwilliam and Margaret were absolutely beaming as they were greeted by their hosts, and Darcy asked Col. Fitzwilliam, “So you did it already?”
“Did what?”
“Even I can see that you two are even happier than usual.” said Elizabeth. “Did the wedding today make you ask her, or had you already done it?”
“He did it at the wedding breakfast,” admitted Margaret. “It was such a beautiful and moving ceremony, and I am afraid if he had not asked me, I would have had to start making rather pointed hints. But clearly we were of like mind, and at the first opportunity we had to be alone, he asked me. I guess there’s nothing like a good wedding to put a man in the right mood.”
By this time more guests had started arriving, so the Matlock party had to move on, but Darcy and Elizabeth were determined to hear more about Col. Fitzwilliam’s proposal before the night was out. They were sad the timing of the wedding of Col. Fitzwilliam and Margaret would also be while they were gone on their trip so they would not be able to attend.
The Monttard House ballroom was not quite as grand as that in Denby House, but it was beautifully decorated and large enough to accommodate the number of guests that had been invited. As Elizabeth had expected, the decorations organized by her aunt were wonderful and she heard many praises of her aunt’s creativity. About an hour after the ball started, the biggest surprise of the day occurred. One of his servants hurried in to tell Lord Monttard of the arrival of a special guest, and he quickly gathered his wife, Lord and Lady Denby, and Elizabeth and Darcy and led them to the entrance of the ballroom while he gave instructions to the orchestra. When the doors opened, he motioned to the orchestra and it played the Royal fanfare, and Prince George and Princess Sophia entered the room.
The Prince and Princess walked up to Elizabeth, and after Elizabeth had curtsied to them, the Prince said, “Mother could not let this day go by when the granddaughter of one of her best friends married and not show her approval. Lord and Lady Monttard have been of significant help to the Royal family and England over the past few years, and it is my and my sister’s pleasure to come to wish their granddaughter a happy marriage. And as I recall, Mrs. Darcy, my mother has your promise you will help the royal family out with all your language skills sometime in the future.”
“You honor us, your Highness, and be assured that I will be happy to help your family however I can.”
The Prince then turned to Darcy. “Hello, Darcy. We meet this time under more pleasant circumstances than usual. We may be on different sides of the political fence, but I respect your views and am happy to wish you well in your marriage.”
“Thank you, your Highness. I fear I will probably continue to oppose many of your views. However, I do believe it is the consideration of different views that makes us strong.”
“Well said, Mr. Darcy. And who knows, we may have a meeting of minds yet.”
The Prince and Princess then turned and greeted Lord and Lady Monttard and Lord and Lady Denby and walked around the ballroom greeting others they knew, finally sitting with their hosts in a group of chairs arranged against the wall near the center of the ballroom. While sitting there, they allowed Elizabeth to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, and Elizabeth was impressed with the composure exhibited by both couples, but particularly Mrs. Bennet. The Prince stayed long enough to dance one set with Elizabeth while Darcy danced with Princess Sophia and to take part in the supper. He and the Princess departed before the dancing began again.
Not long after the Prince and Princess left, Darcy and Elizabeth, having danced one more dance, prepared to leave the ball and return to Darcy House. They first went around the ballroom, saying their goodbyes and thanking everyone for attending. Col. Fitzwilliam, of course, gave Darcy a hard time about leaving early. When they finally arrived at the Bennets, just before they left, after hugs and best wishes, Mr. Bennet gave them an envelope and asked them to open it at noon the next day. He would not give them even a hint as to what was in it, but they promised they would wait until noon. After a final goodbye to Darcy’s aunt and uncle and Elizabeth’s grandparents, they returned to Darcy House.
Both Darcy and Elizabeth were exhausted and had agreed they would both spend that night in Elizabeth’s bed. When Darcy came to her bed after washing up and changing into his night clothes he found her, lying on top of the bed, in another beautiful nightgown, but half asleep. By mutual agreement, they crawled under the covers, Darcy enfolded her in his arms, with her back to him, and they soon fell into a deep and satisfying sleep, both anticipating what waited for them when they awoke.
Chapter 21: Finally Some News
Leila and Morris were sitting in the servant’s lounge, where they had been most of the morning, awaiting the call of the master and mistress. They had just about decided that Mr. and Mrs. Darcy were going to stay in bed all day, when the mistress’ bell rang about 11 AM.
“I wonder if they are still both in her bed, or do you suppose Mr. Darcy has gone to his own room?” asked Leila.
“Who knows,” answered Morris, “but you go up first and I will make sure there is hot water being prepared for their baths. Surely they will want one after all that night time activity,” he said with a grin, and went down the hall to the laundry room, while Leila headed upstairs.
When Leila knocked on the mistress’ door, and then opened it, she saw the door between the bedroom and the sitting room closing as she entered. “Please prepare a bath and layout my day dress, Leila. I do not think we will be going out today. I do hope Mrs. Martin is prepared to give us some lunch soon. I am famished,” said Elizabeth.
Shortly thereafter Morris arrived and entered Darcy’s room and was given much the same instructions. He assured Darcy the water for the bath would be up in a few minutes and he had informed Mrs. Martin he and the mistress were up and about and they would probably like some food. He could not help smiling to himself as he helped Darcy on with his robe, while they waited for the bath water to arrive. Darcy saw the smile on Morris’s face and said, “Why the big smile, Morris? Is something amusing?”
“I am sorry, Mr. Darcy, but you do realize you were humming, do you not? I am not sure, but in the prior five years I have worked for you, I do n
ot think I ever heard you hum. And now, this is twice in the last few weeks I have ever heard you hum.”
“Are you amused just because I was humming, or was I terribly off key?”
“Just that you were humming. Actually, you sounded rather good. Perhaps you should do more of it. Did you not tell me once your aunt was always saying that to become proficient, one needed to practice diligently? “
Darcy gave a hearty laugh. “Very good, Morris. I will have to mention that to Mrs. Darcy. And if the future nights are anything like last night, I probably will be humming often. Do you think you can stand to work for a perpetually happy man?”
“Sir, it will be a pleasant change to which I look forward with pleasure. And as I recall, the only other times I saw you almost as happy were at Netherfield on the days you were anticipating seeing Mrs. Darcy.”
As Elizabeth was slipping into her bath, she was also humming and occasionally singing a pretty little French love song she had been thinking of last night. When Leila asked her about the song, because she did not understand French, Elizabeth told her it was about a pretty young maid singing the praises of her newly betrothed and what it would be like to be in his arms every night.
As Leila washed Elizabeth’s hair, she told her, “You are a very lucky woman, my Lady. Mr. Darcy is very handsome and agreeable. I am amazed some pretty young woman did not capture him before you came along. But I am glad they did not.”
“I know, Leila, I am too. Often in the past weeks I have wondered why all these wonderful things have happened to me. I have to be one of the luckiest women in the world, and I do not know what I have done to deserve it. When I am with my husband, I look at him and also think, ‘why has not some other beautiful woman of the ton captured your heart before now?’ Did he somehow know in his soul I would be coming along?”
“Well, I do not know about such things, my Lady. But everyone in this house is eternally grateful he waited for you. They all feared Miss Bingley or someone like her would capture him, and they could not think of a worse fate. But as they have come to know you and heard about you from me and Morris, they are very pleased you are their new mistress, and everybody thinks you and Mr. Darcy were made for each other. They keep telling me they have seen Mr. Darcy smile more in the last three weeks than they have seen him smile since his father died. You are very good for him, my Lady.”
“Thank you, Leila. And you know you do not have to call me my Lady. I am not Lady Darcy, just Mrs. Darcy. You can just call me mistress or Mrs. Darcy.”
As she rinsed Elizabeth’s hair, Leila said, “I know, my Lady, but ever since Lady Monttard assigned me to you, and then you accepted me as your personal maid, I have thought of you as a lady. To me you are more of a lady than just about any Lady whom I know, so if you do not mind, I will call you my Lady, except when it is not proper, in important company and the like.”
As she stepped out of the tub and Leila helped her on with her robe, Elizabeth said, “Thank you, again, Leila, and I want you to know I have found you to be all I could want in a personal maid.”
It was almost 11:45 when Elizabeth finally walked into the sitting room between their two bedrooms, where she found Darcy sitting at the table with a cup of tea in his hand, reading the newspaper. He quickly stood and came over to her and gave her a long kiss. “Morris will be up in a minute with a hearty soup and some cold meats and cheese and fruit. I hope that is enough for you. I did not want anything heavy in case it would affect our afternoon activities,” he said starring at her bosom suggestively.
She blushed, despite herself. “I do declare, William, you are persistent. But, despite the fact you are very tempting, we did promise to read Papa’s letter this noon. Then I promised Jane I would talk to her this afternoon about what was in it, if I thought it was needed. She and Bingley and Caroline are leaving for Netherfield this afternoon, so we need to get this done.”
As Morris and one of the footmen brought in trays with their soup and other food, Darcy said with a smile, “I am sorry, love, I forgot about the letter. Other things have been on my mind for some reason. As soon as we finish the soup, I will retrieve the letter, and we can see what momentous news it gives us.”
After the soup and some meat and cheese, Darcy went into his bedroom, retrieved the letter from his desk and brought it to Elizabeth. “He gave it to me, but he said it was for both of us, so I think it is really probably for you. Therefore you may have the honor of opening it and reading it.”
Elizabeth tore open the letter, and as she read it could see her getting paler and paler. “Oh, no! I cannot believe she would do this. What Papa and Mama must have been going through while they were here the last two days? It just has to be Wickham!”
“WICKHAM,” loudly exclaimed Darcy. “What has Wickham to do with this?”
Handing him the first page of the letter, while she continued to read the second, she said, “Here, read it for yourself.”
After reading the first half of the first page, Darcy arose and started pacing the room. When he finished that page, he went over to Elizabeth for the second page, and finally the third page. Elizabeth watched him pace, saying nothing until he was finished.
When he put down the last page, she asked him, “If it was he who took her, why? She has no money, no connections, not anything. Why would he take her?”
“You are not thinking, Elizabeth. She has no money herself, but she now has connections anyone in England would like to have. She is indirectly related to one of the richest couples in England. I am sure he thought you would still want to help your old family, and by getting at you, he would be getting at me, and finally having his revenge on me.”
Dejected she said, “Of course, you are right. Intellectually I know how rich we are, but unless I think about it, I find myself in an Elizabeth Bennet frame of mind about money. I have to remember we are incredibly rich and people will want to take advantage of that if they can.” She sighed. “In some ways, it was easier being Elizabeth Bennet.” She paused a moment, thinking about her last statement. Then she said, “So what do we do now?”
“If Wickham did go north, then I have no idea where he would go. Mrs. Williston was still alive and living in Kympton the last I knew, but I am not aware Wickham has been in touch with her. He is not a very sentimental man, and I suspect that was just a ruse. But I will send an express to Rev. Johnson, who has the living in Kympton, and see if there is any truth to what he told Col. Forster. The best we can do at the moment, and I will get Richard to help me, is to seek out the people we know who were his contacts in town. I believe Mrs. Younge runs a boarding house in town, and we can see if she knows anything. Other than that, we will have to wait until we receive some correspondence from him, asking us for money. If we do not hear soon, then we may have to assume either he is not guilty of taking her, or he took her for his own personal reasons and intends to abandon her somewhere.”
Calling Morris, he told him to prepare the carriage to go to Matlock House with a note he would write for Col. Fitzwilliam. If Col. Fitzwilliam was there, he told Morris to wait for reply and possibly expect Col. Fitzwilliam to return in the carriage with him. If he was not there, he was to ask where he might be found, and if he was in town, to try deliver the note to wherever he was. Otherwise just leave the note for him at Matlock house. Then he dismissed Morris, sending him off to the carriage house, while he wrote a note for his cousin.
When he finished the note, he closed it up, put Col. Fitzwilliam’s name on it, and turned to Elizabeth. “Let us go downstairs to meet Morris and give him the note, and then why do not we walk over to your grandparents to see Jane, and see if she has anything else to tell us. “
As they went downstairs, they met Morris coming up the stairs, and Darcy gave him a note. They then left the house and walked the short distance to Monttard House. They were ushered into the dining room where Elizabeth’s grandparents, Jane, and Georgiana were having lunch.
“I assume you’re here because you rea
d Mr. Bennet’s letter,” said Lord Monttard.
“Yes, so I guess Jane has told you about it,” responded Elizabeth.
When everybody agreed they had heard all about it from Jane, Elizabeth asked Jane if there was any more information she had that was not in the letter. Since Jane did not know exactly what was in the letter, she asked Elizabeth to first explain to her what her father had written. After Elizabeth finished, Jane said she did not have anything to add, except she gave a little more detail on the search of the neighborhood to try to find Lydia. She did say, because everyone knew of the local search for Lydia, when it was discovered Wickham was also gone, everybody in the Meryton area decided she must have run off with him, and thus the Bennet family’s standing in the community had fallen sharply. Jane said Mr. Bingley assured her it made no difference to their engagement, but it could certainly hurt Mary and Kitty’s chances for finding a good husband.
Darcy told them about the plans he had made and he had sent for Col. Fitzwilliam. “I sincerely doubt they will be found in London, but we will try. I suspect we will just have to wait for contact from Wickham, if in fact he was the reason she disappeared. From what Mr. Bennet said in his letter about Wickham’s debts, I suspect he is in desperate need of money, and decided the only way he might be able to get some is from Elizabeth, believing she would still feel some responsibility toward the Bennet family.”
As they were preparing to go back to Darcy House, Col. Fitzwilliam was admitted to the house. Seeing Darcy, he said, “So our good friend Wickham is at it again is he? How can I help?”
“You can come with me, Richard. Elizabeth and I were just returning to Darcy House. Then you and I and Morris need to race around town to a few of the places we know Wickham frequented in the past, particularly Mrs. Younge’s boarding house, to see if they have any idea of his whereabouts. As I told the others, I doubt he is in town, but we need to check it out.” Turning to Jane, he asked, “Miss Bennet, when are Bingley and Caroline supposed to pick you up?”