Mr. Bennet’s voice sounded behind her. “He most certainly will,” he said with a steely edge.
Mortified, Elizabeth resorted to pure instinct. She buried her face in Mr. Darcy’s shoulder, and was grateful as the warm support of his arm came around her.
“Your daughter has done me the very great honour of agreeing to be my wife.”
“Under the circumstances, I suppose I am glad to hear that, but for the moment, I must ask you to be so kind as to allow me some time alone with Lizzy.”
Darcy’s arm around Elizabeth’s waist slackened as if to release her, but she caught hold of the lapel of his coat with one hand and his arm with the other and shook her head fiercely.
Darcy hesitated. “Elizabeth seems to prefer that I stay.”
“Does she now? Well, young man, if you choose to stay, do not expect me to mince my words to protect that pride of yours.” He pulled out the chair behind his desk and sat heavily. “Lizzy, are you out of your senses, to be accepting this man? Have not you always hated him?”
Elizabeth straightened and glared at her father, feeling Darcy’s tension beside her. “I do not hate him.
Once I did not like him as well as I do now, but I assure you I am very attached to him, and have been for quite some time. I want nothing more than to be his wife.” The look of joyous pride she received from Darcy made her feel half-intoxicated.
“Or, in other words, you are determined to have him. He is rich, to be sure, and you may have many fine clothes and fine carriages. But will they make you happy?”
“Have you any other objection,” said Elizabeth, “than your belief of my indifference?”
“None at all. We all know him to be a proud sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.” He shot a cold look in Darcy’s direction as if proclaiming such a thing to be impossible.
“I do, I do like him,” she replied, with tears in her eyes, “I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is; then pray do not pain me by speaking of him in such terms.”
“Lizzy,” said her father, “I have given him my consent. He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare refuse any thing, which he condescended to ask. I now give it to you, if you are resolved on having him. But let me advise you to think better of it. I know your disposition, Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior.
Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery. My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life.
You know not what you are about.”
By her side Darcy stiffened. “Mr. Bennet, I must ask you not speak to Elizabeth in this manner.”
“I am her father, and I will say what I like! I told you I would not mince my words. My daughter is too precious to be wasted on a man with nothing but wealth to commend him.”
“But he is far more than that!” Elizabeth cried. “He is honourable, trustworthy, generous, and the best of men. I speak not from a brief acquaintance. My estimation of him is not the work of a day, but has grown over many months and stood the test of long suspense, and I am certain he is the best possible husband for me, and the only man in the world who could make me happy.”
“Well, my dear,” said Mr. Bennet, “I have no more to say. If this be the case, and I can only hope that it is, then perhaps he deserves you, despite his most recent behaviour.” He glared at Darcy over his glasses. “In my own library, no less!”
“If my word in support of him is not enough for you, Father, I beg of you to seek the opinion of my uncle Gardiner. Mr. Darcy is the one who arranged Lydia’s marriage, restored her reputation, and our good name.” To Elizabeth’s amusement, Darcy frowned and looked fixedly away.
“Is this true, Mr. Darcy?” Mr. Bennet demanded, rising to his feet.
“I have nothing to say on the subject,” said Darcy in his haughtiest manner.
“You must tell me how much you spent to bring the match about, and I will repay you.”
Mr. Darcy drew himself to his full height. “I will not accept a penny of your money. All I did was done for the love of your daughter, and that is the end of the matter.”
Elizabeth was tempted to laugh at the sight of the two men most dear to her squabbling like cocks in a henhouse, but she doubted that either of them were in full possession of their usual sense of humour. “Come, Father, will you not shake Mr. Darcy’s hand for my sake?”
Mr. Bennet gave her an indulgent smile before proffering his hand. “There is no arguing with a young lover, so I will not even try.”
Darcy shook his hand. “You may be certain that I will do everything within my power to make your daughter happy.”
“I am glad to hear it, though I doubt there are many young men who tell their future father-in-law that they intend to mistreat their bride. You still face your greatest challenge, which will be informing Mrs. Bennet.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I hope you will allow me a few minutes to accustom myself to the idea before entering the lion’s den! Perhaps I could show Mr. Darcy the gardens.” And perhaps there he might kiss her once more.
Mr. Bennet cleared his throat. “I think not, Lizzy. If you wish to speak privately with your, ahem, intended, I believe the bench under the willow would do admirably - the bench, I might add, that is in full view of this window.” Settling himself behind his desk, he removed his glasses and stared pointedly at their clasped hands.
Darcy’s lips tightened momentarily, then he inclined his head. He did not, however release Elizabeth’s hand, and after a minute Mr. Bennet picked up a leather-bound book and, with one last significant glance at his daughter, began to read.
“Come,” Elizabeth said softly, drawing Darcy out of the library. She knew that she was getting off lightly given the scene her father had interrupted. There was so much she wished to say to Darcy, and they were lucky to be allowed this much privacy. It was hard, though, when she longed for so much more than a handclasp.
She was grateful that they did not encounter anyone on their way outside. She was not yet ready to share him with anyone else. When they reached the old willow tree, she sat deliberately with her back to the house.
She had spent many a day curled up with a book in that very bench and it had always felt spacious, but now, as she sat there with Mr. Darcy, she felt all the heat of his proximity, as if some source of power was transferring itself between them through the narrow conduit of their hands. Elizabeth hardly knew what to say or to do, but she needed to break the spell over her. Speaking scarcely above a whisper, she said, “I apologize for my father.”
He leaned toward her, careful to maintain a few inches distance. “There is no need,” he breathed softly.
“He is within his rights. It would take more than that to cast a shadow on my happiness today, knowing that someday it will be my right to be alone with you whenever I choose.”
Elizabeth was sure her cheeks were now flaming scarlet. It was one thing to accept his proposal, and another to move into imagining their marital relationship, but the intensity and warmth of his gaze told her that his thoughts were far beyond taking an undisturbed walk together. An odd, not entirely unpleasant ache churned in her stomach, and seemed to settle in the private place between her legs. “If I survive breaking the news to my mother, that is.”
A smile lit up his eyes. “It will be my business to make certain that you do. I do not intend to lose you now.”
The tension in the air between them was almost palpable. She lowered her voice again. “And your family?
Are they aware that you planned to make me an offer?”
He shook his head. “Although your uncle had given me reason to hope, I was not certain enough of whether you would even receive me, much less accept me, to tell anyone of my intention.
S
he looked up. “My uncle? What did he say?”
“He told me that you would be pleased to hear from me. Since I had given you so much reason to dislike me, I interpreted this to mean that I had redeemed myself sufficiently in your eyes that you might be willing to give me chance to convince you I had attended to your reproofs, and that perhaps I could eventually win your affection. I began to lay my plans, but I should have believed him in the first place.”
“Then why did you come to me speaking only of Bingley and Jane, and not for yourself ? Was it simply an excuse?”
“In part, yes. I hoped you would accept me on my own merits, but when you seemed displeased as you came in to see me, I feared you would refuse me out of hand. I knew you were not indifferent to me, and so I hoped Bingley’s dilemma would be enough for you to give me the opportunity to woo you over time.”
“All of which was delightfully unnecessary! How fortunate for you that I should prove so reasonable as to love you on my own.”
Darcy’s heart faltered at the words he had never expected to hear from Elizabeth. “You do me an honour I do not deserve.”
“I fail to see any reason why I should not love you!”
“Apart from my insulting behaviour and words throughout our acquaintance, my anger at Hunsford, and the appalling way I treated you at Pemberley? Is that not some cause for doubt?”
“We shall not argue for who had the greatest share of the blame for that evening in Hunsford, since there is more than enough to go around. As for Pemberley, you may have been intemperate, but I had given you what must have seemed like inhuman provocation. I am still horrified by how my words must have injured your poor sister, all through my pride in refusing to read your letter. I hope you were not too shocked when, after that, I risked everything by writing to you.”
“Not shocked at all, but touched, and worried about your obvious distress. I wish I had known then what had happened. I would have done anything in my power to assist you.”
“Whereas I thought you must be furious with me for my foolishness! I could not have been more surprised when I received your response. I had by no means expected you would encourage Mr. Bingley to seek out Jane once more, but I was proud of your generosity.”
“I am almost afraid of asking what you thought of me, when we met again at your uncle’s house in London,” he said.
“I felt nothing but surprise. And embarrassment, I might add, when I managed to lose my footing!”
“You can have no idea how many times I have replayed that moment in my mind. I had longed for you so much, and to have you appear in front of me, and to have an honourable reason to touch you and to stand near you was nothing but a sheer delight. Your fragrance was lavender, as it is today. I will never forget it.”
“Yet you looked so stern. I was afraid you were angered with me, or thought I had deliberately thrown myself in your way.”
“Had I known that, I would have dropped to my knees in an instant and begged you to deliver me from my suffering! Your poor uncle thought I had engineered the entire thing.”
“It seems my uncle has been very busy as a matchmaker.” “We are indeed indebted to your uncle for our current good understanding.”
“He will be very pleased to hear it, and no doubt insufferably smug.”
“I cannot believe that. We must invite them to Pemberley for Christmas.”
She grew still, looking down at their entwined fingers. “Pemberley. I still cannot quite conceive of living there.”
“Whereas I have spent many months imagining you living there, so it seems perfectly natural to me.”
She gave him a serious look. “What of the others in my family? I cannot imagine you would wish to receive my sister Lydia and her husband at Pemberley.”
“I would not object, though I would need to speak to Georgiana first. I do not know how she would feel about seeing George Wickham’s brother. She does not particularly recollect him, as he took up his commission when she was still in the nursery.”
“Do you object to seeing him?”
“I have already given that some consideration, and as long as he treats your sister well, I have no objection.
We have had our disagreements in the past, but they were the conflicts of an older boy attempting to control the younger ones. I am willing to start anew. He has not the taste for mischief that his brother does.”
“You are very generous.”
He stood beside the hay bale. “I would do far more than that to ensure your happiness.”
“I still do not understand why you still believed I disliked you, despite my letter.”
He looked searchingly into her eyes. “I invited you to call on my sister, but you never came. I thought it must be out of a desire to avoid me.”
“I did not call upon your sister because it hurt too much to even think of you. I thought you had quite given up on me, and it would only pain me to face the reminder of you. And I do not know what I would have told her if she asked me about my family. I did not wish to distress her as I did at Pemberley.”
“Distress her? Of course not. She was quite taken with you in Derbyshire.”
“Until I spoke of Mr. Wickham, at least. I was surprised she gave me another chance in Hertfordshire.”
“She wanted to see you. She knew I loved you, and that you spoke out of lack of knowledge, not out of malice.”
Something in Elizabeth melted at his words. It was an odd relief to hear him claim his affection for her in such a matter of fact way.
He continued, “I will return to Town tonight to tell her the happy news. She will be delighted to hear it.”
“Tonight? Must you go so soon?”
“While I would like nothing else in the world as well as to stay by your side, I think it best that I return tonight. I also intend to make application to Bingley for the use of Netherfield for the next few weeks, which will also provide me with an opportunity to inform him of these new developments.”
“Do you truly think he will come for Jane?”
“I believe he will. He cares deeply for her, and it is only his sense of duty to his family that has kept him away.”
“I hope so for my own sake, as it will otherwise be necessary for me to restrain my current happiness in her presence.”
Darcy’s face sobered. “Are you truly happy?”
“Can you not tell?”
“I know you are a kind person, and that you feel a debt to me for what I did for your sister.”
“You over-estimate my dramatic ability, sir! And must you leave today?”
“There is a certain pressure of time. Bingley, having decided a future with your sister was impossible, has reacted in his usual impulsive way. He is preparing to make an offer for another lady. Once that happens, there would be no going back, so I must forestall him.”
“He is in love with another woman already? If he is that fickle, perhaps Jane is well rid of him!”
“He is not at all in love with her. He decided that if he could not have the woman he loved, it did not matter whom he married. It mattered so little, in fact, that he allowed his sisters to choose his prospective bride.
I am acquainted with her. She is reasonably well-born, reasonably well-dowered, reasonably well-connected, reasonably well-featured, and otherwise not at all reasonable or pleasant. She would make Bingley’s life a socially acceptable misery. So I decided to gamble that you might accept me and allow me to woo you afterwards.”
If the delightful feelings he was generating in her now were what she could expect from his wooing, she would look forward to it. “A fine gamble, since the wooing proved unnecessary.”
“I will woo you every day of my life. And I will never forget your generosity in allowing me the opportunity to do so.”
“How long will you stay in Town?”
His grip on her hand tightened. “Will you miss me, then?”
“I have done without you for weeks, so I imagine I will once again survive,” Elizabeth tea
sed. Then, seeing his quickly hid disappointment at her response, she added, “Naturally I will look forward to your return.”
He raised first one hand to his lips, then the other. “If I can see Bingley tomorrow, and I do not know why that would be difficult, I will return the next day. I do not think I could stand to be away any longer. I have waited so long for you that I am impatient about every minute we must spend apart.”
“A far better answer than mine! I shall have to study to flatter you better.”
Mr. Darcy's Letter Page 19