“I am teasing you, Mr. Jackson. I know how diligent you are in making sure that everything is exactly as it should be, but if Abel is at Netherfield Park, who was driving the carriage?”
“I was, ma’am. It has been a while, but I don’t mind saying that I can still drive a carriage. It is said belowstairs, and behind my back, that I am the Jackson of all trades.” Mr. Jackson smiled, and Lizzy wished that Mr. Darcy had been there to witness it.
“Ma’am, on behalf of the staff,” Jackson continued, “may I say that it is an honor to serve you, and once everyone has returned after Twelfth Night, it will be my privilege to formally introduce you to those who are in your service. Of course, I should point out that David and Goliath do not consider themselves to be a part of the staff, and you will need to deal with them directly.”
“Mr. Jackson, you are quite a wit,” Lizzy said, chuckling.
“Yes, ma’am. If you say so.”
***
Georgiana and Lizzy spent a pleasant evening playing cards, but immediately upon saying good night, Lizzy returned to the front sitting room as she had done the previous night. After lighting a candle, she waved it in front of the window for several minutes and looked for any hint of movement, but after seeing none and hearing no howl, she returned to her room. It was her intention to sleep for a few hours before going to the study to wait for Mr. Darcy’s return. She was not sure if he would approve, especially since he had told her that he would come to her as soon as he had bathed, but he had not specifically told her not to go to the study. Either way, it did not matter. She was determined to be there when he came home.
When she awoke during the night, she jumped out of bed and crossed the room to view the mantel clock. It was only six o’clock, two hours to daybreak. Because she did not want to risk missing him, she decided to spend the rest of the night in the study.
After sliding out of her chemise and slipping on her green silk nightgown with its matching robe, she went to her dressing table, brushed her hair, and pulled her tresses back with the pearl combs Georgiana had given to her as a wedding gift. As she ventured down the hallway, she avoided those areas of the floor that squeaked, and although she was able to walk past Mercer’s room without alerting him, she suspected that he knew of her plan. Her hunch was confirmed when she went into the study and found a fire burning and a blanket folded neatly on the sofa. After draping herself in the blanket, she put her head on the arm of the sofa and was soon asleep.
***
As Darcy waited with Nell at the rendezvous point, he was trying to hide his annoyance. By her excessive whimpering, she let him know that she was not happy with his taking them so close to Pemberley or with his howling twice on the first day of nightfall. Obviously, she did not realize how important that candle in the window was to him. Or maybe she did, which would explain why she had chosen to hunt on the far side of the Darcy property. No matter. He did not have to see the candle to know that Elizabeth had lit another one for him.
Darcy signaled his displeasure with her sulking by leaving as soon as Lady Helen’s maid stepped out of the Granyard carriage. Usually, he would brush against her side or lick her muzzle before leaving, but she would receive no such attention from him this daybreak.
Despite the snow, Darcy made excellent time in reaching the cave where he would begin his transformation from lupine to human form. Because so much of the geology of the Peak District was porous limestone, the whole area was pockmarked with caves and caverns, and it was because of these natural shelters that there were still Darcys on the property.
During the Civil War, the Darcys, who had remained loyal to Charles I, had fled the manor house when Cromwell’s men descended upon the estate looking for royalists. After the Restoration of the monarchy, the family returned to Derbyshire to find the house a ruin, and a new Pemberley, built in the Palladian style, rose from the ashes. But with the war and their narrow escape a recent memory, a tunnel was dug leading to this cave, and after further alteration, it was connected to a stairway and a room accessible only from the study. Once Darcy reached the cave, he knew he was safe.
As he waited for his transformation to be completed, all thoughts were of Elizabeth. He pictured her in her bedchamber sleeping on his side of the bed while hugging a pillow and dreaming of those moments when they lay in each other’s arms. When they were finally reunited, perhaps he could convince her to keep to their room for the remainder of the day.
As he lay on a sheepskin cloth, he could feel the start of the last and most uncomfortable part of his return to human form. It was where his buttocks flattened so that his legs could lengthen. Once he was bipedal, he would have to spend several minutes stretching the muscles in his legs and lower back as daybreak was much harder on the body than nightfall was. But the greater challenge was to readjust his mind so that he was thinking like a human and not a predator.
After putting on his shirt and breeches and running a comb through his hair, he ate mint and rinsed his mouth, and then made his way to the study. As he looked at his pocket watch, he thought, just one more hour, a mere sixty minutes, and he would be with his bride.
***
As soon as Darcy slid open the panel, he knew Elizabeth was in the room. As eager as he was to see her, he did not want this. Because his mind was still in a state of transition, he would remain in the secret room until the mental phase of the transformation had been completed. But he made the mistake of stepping into the room to look at his wife, and in doing so, awakened her. She immediately stood up and started to come to him, but he held out his hand to keep her from getting any closer.
“Elizabeth, I want you to go back to your room and wait for me there.” He could hear the gruffness in his voice, but there was nothing he could do about that; the vocal chords were one of the last things to change. But his statement only caused her to step closer to him.
“I must insist that you leave. I am not yet fit company.” But her scent reached him and he could make out her form beneath her nightgown, and he felt his manhood growing. “Go now. Quickly. I could hurt you,” he warned. But she stood rooted to the spot, and so he stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm. “You do not want this.” With his member throbbing, he was now in agony, and he knelt down on the floor, pulling her with him. After shoving her on her back, he pushed her nightgown over her hips and knelt over her while he opened his breeches and then entered her immediately, and he had never felt more like a beast than he did at that moment.
Darcy was sure he was hurting his wife, but instead of whimpers, he heard soft moans and felt her pelvis thrust against his. Her movements sent a charge through his body, and he went from agony to ecstasy in a moment, and as he lifted his chest off of hers, he felt the full force of his release. Now, completely spent, he collapsed on top of her. Ashamed at his performance, he tried to withdraw, but he felt her tightening around his member, holding him inside her. “Please, don’t go yet,” she whispered and ran her hands up and down his back, and only when she felt his muscles completely relax did she unwrap her legs and free him.
Darcy rolled off of her and stared at the ceiling, refusing to look at her, and after seeing the tears in his eyes, she kissed him and told him how much she loved him.
“But I hurt you,” he said, the tears spilling over onto his cheeks.
“No, you did not hurt me. I swear to you that you did not.”
“You should not have come, Elizabeth,” he said, choking on his words. “I understand why you did, but you should have waited for me in your room as I asked you to do.”
“But I wanted to see your scar.”
Darcy rolled on his side and looked at her. “What?”
“Your scar. From when you were bitten.”
“But you have seen it a number of times now,” he said confused.
“No, I haven’t. I always look straight ahead—never down.”
Darc
y nodded his head in understanding at what she was trying to do, and he started to laugh. “Well, then I must have been with someone else on the night of December 24th because that lady definitely looked at me.”
“All right. I confess. I did look at you—in all your majesty,” she said, smiling. Darcy, overwhelmed by the power of her love, pulled her onto his chest and held her against his heart.
***
After pouring himself a whisky, Darcy went and sat next to Elizabeth on the sofa. “Are you sure you don’t want anything?”
“No,” she answered, as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I have everything I want right here.”
“You must promise me never to…” Before he could finish, she was shaking her head. “Elizabeth, you are my wife and have taken a vow of obedience to your husband.” Lizzy kept shaking her head. “Why?” he asked in an exasperated voice.
“Although I must accept that I cannot be with you when you are a wolf, I refuse to be kept from you when you are not.”
“You do not understand the process.”
“Oh, I do. You explained it all to me. Your mind is slower to transform than your body, but if you think about it, I believe my being here accelerated that process. When we started to make love, you were more wolf than man. By the time we had finished, you were more man than wolf.”
“You call that lovemaking? I was brutal to you.”
Lizzy assured him with her smile that he had not been a brute, and he could tell from her scent and the light in her eyes that she was telling the truth. After standing up, he took her hand and walked with her to the fur rug in front of the fireplace.
“You look lovely,” he said as he helped her out of her robe, and he whispered, “I love you” as she stepped out of her nightgown. He knelt down on the rug, gently pulling her to the floor, and after tasting and touching every inch of her, he entered her, and in her mind, he was fully human.
Chapter 37
After making love, Lizzy and Darcy fell into a deep sleep, and it was only a dying fire and a chilly room that awakened the exhausted pair. There was also the matter of a not quite eighteen-year-old Georgiana. Since she did not know they were in the study, she must be wondering why the newlyweds were still abed at noon, especially since she was teased unmercifully by her brother about her habit of sleeping so late into the day. So instead of crawling into a warm bed, both scooted up the backstairs, got dressed, and joined Georgiana in the sitting room, finding her dressed for another day of playing in the snow.
Darcy needed little encouragement, and both returned to their rooms to change into something more appropriate for an outing. Georgiana was eager to show her brother the snowman they had created the previous day, but when they stepped out onto the portico, they could see that their creation was now a mound of snow with Darcy’s top hat embedded in the pile.
After studying the blob before him, Darcy offered his opinion: “Except for that perfectly good top hat, I must say that I am unimpressed with your efforts.”
Georgiana sputtered an explanation for the use of what she thought was an old top hat. She was about to point out the obvious, that yesterday’s warm temperatures had caused the snowman to melt, when Lizzy hit him in the back with a snowball. Thus began a blizzard of white missiles flying through the air, with no quarter given by either sex. Victory was declared when Darcy dropped to his knees and covered his head with his hands, indicating defeat.
After they stopped laughing, all agreed that they needed to go into the woods and make another snowman, one that would not fall victim to the rays of the sun. Darcy retrieved the hat and after dusting it off said, “Obviously, that fellow did not appreciate the quality or cost of this hat, so we shall give it to the new snowman, who will, hopefully, take better care of it.”
With David and Goliath at their master’s heels, they marched off to the woods, and while Lizzy and Georgiana gathered branches, twigs, and rocks for the arms and face, Darcy worked alone in crafting, in his opinion, the perfect snowman, and to show that he was not displeased with his wife and sister for using his apparel to clothe their frozen creation, he took the scarf from around his neck and placed it on the snowman.
When the ladies suggested that he join them in making snow angels, he declined. Although he had been willing to have a snowball fight and to build a snowman, he had to draw the line somewhere. He held firm until the ladies knocked him down.
As they ventured farther into the woods, Darcy pointed out the cave in which he transformed each nightfall. It was an ideal location and perfectly concealed within a copse of trees and thickets. To further put her mind at ease, Darcy explained to Lizzy how the cave was connected to the house through a tunnel that only Mercer and Jackson knew about.
Lizzy commented that it was a well-chosen site and indicated that she could rest easy now that she knew how he returned to the house at daybreak. But in her mind, she could picture her husband and his black coat contrasted against the blazing white snow, but because this was now her life, she remained silent.
***
“Will, so much has happened in such a short time, I almost forgot. It is New Year’s Eve,” Georgiana reminded her brother.
“So it is. Between the wedding and nightfall, Christmas came and went unobserved, and here we are on the cusp of a new year. Personally, I found 1811 to be the best year of my life,” William said, smiling at Lizzy, “but I predict that 1812 will be even better for everyone. Hopefully, Napoleon will be stopped and peace will return to Europe.”
“I shall pray for peace in Europe,” Georgiana quickly replied. “But, Will, this is also the year I shall come out into society.”
“Of course, my apologies for the oversight. Your debut is much more important than something as insignificant as putting an end to two decades of misery caused by that Corsican corporal.”
“Your brother is teasing you,” Lizzy said, giving him a look to let him know that Georgiana’s debut was as important to her as their wedding had been to them. “So what do the Darcys do to usher in the new year?”
“The family and the senior servants gather in the upstairs sitting room,” Georgiana explained, “and we bid farewell to the old and welcome in the new with a toast in which we wish everyone health and happiness.”
“That is it?” Lizzy asked. “All you do is stare at the clock until it strikes midnight and drink a toast? What about opening the back door to let out the old year?”
“Superstitious nonsense,” Darcy grumbled, “practiced by the ignorant and those from the provinces. The custom is especially prevalent in Hertfordshire.”
“Well, then, what about the symbols of the new year: coal to ensure the home will always be warm?” Lizzy asked, ignoring his comments.
“No worries there. We have timber enough for a lifetime, and unlike Antony, I pay my coal bills.”
“Salt and money to ensure the household will be prosperous?”
“We are not doing too badly financially.”
“Bread to ensure that the occupants will be well fed?”
“If you want some bread, I shall ring for a servant.”
“Greenery to ensure long life and good luck?” Lizzy said, pretending to be desperate.
“Well, it is true that we did not string garland over the mantel of the drawing room, and there was no wreath upon the door. So with my permission, you may go out tomorrow and cut some holly, which I know you know how to do, and we shall use it as a centerpiece for our New Year’s Day dinner,” Darcy said, smiling graciously.
“Oh, Elizabeth, he is only teasing,” Georgiana said, in case Lizzy did not appreciate her brother’s sense of humor. “Do you have any more New Year’s customs?”
“Yes, the first dark-haired male stranger is invited into the house, that is, if he comes bearing one of the gifts I mentioned. No matter how humble his station in life, he is invited to take dinner with the f
amily.”
“Dark haired?” Darcy asked. “So what you are saying is that if Charles Bingley or Colonel Fitzwilliam were strangers to us, they would not benefit from our hospitality because they have red and blond hair?”
“That is correct, as those with dark hair tend to brood and scowl more than their fair-haired brethren, making them much more intriguing.”
“Oh, Will, Elizabeth is only teasing,” Georgiana again piped in, but Lizzy looked away from her husband, refusing to confirm that she truly was in jest.
***
Along with the three Darcys, Mr. Jackson, Mrs. Bradshaw, Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Brotherton, and Mercer waited for the arrival of 1812 in the upstairs sitting room. Mrs. Bradshaw used the opportunity to “suggest” that a Christmas dinner be served on Twelfth Night with a goose and all the trimmings.
“Of course we must also have a Christmas pudding, and Cassie, the stillroom maid, makes an excellent wassail. It is a Darcy tradition to have a complete Christmas dinner served in the servants’ hall as well,” Mrs. Bradshaw added, and before Lizzy could say yes or no, the cook had detailed everything that would be on the menu, but she did allow her mistress to decide if the family wished to exchange Christmas gifts.
Mrs. Bradshaw and Mrs. Reynolds, who were believers in early to bed and early to rise, chose to depart two hours before the clock struck midnight. But before returning to her kitchen, Mrs. Bradshaw whispered to Elizabeth, “I have known Mr. Darcy since he was five years old, and I have seen him grow from a sweet boy into a fine man. With all that he suffers, he deserves to be happy, and now that he has you as his wife, he will be.” Lizzy, caught completely unawares, was speechless and nodded her thanks.
Minutes before the new year, Darcy asked Mr. Jackson to pour whisky for the men and a Madeira for the ladies, and when the clock tolled the midnight hour, all raised their glasses and wished each other all the best in the new year, and when Georgiana mentioned again that this was the year she would come out into society, everyone laughed.
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