by Linda Wells
“Lizzy! You can not wish to sleep …” She looked at Susie and whispered, “with him?”
“I do and I will. I made him come here instead of to Netherfield as he wished, and I need him just as much as he needs me. Now, how can we work this out?”
DARCY WANDERED down the stairs and back into the public rooms of the house. He could hear Kitty and Lydia arguing and turned in the opposite direction. He walked into the sitting room and leaned against the fireplace and stared into the flames, reliving the events of the last hours.
“Mr. Darcy, I do not believe that we have been formally introduced. I am William Collins and I am the recipient of the living at Hunsford Parsonage, courtesy of my esteemed and noble patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.”
Turning, Darcy looked down at the self-important man. “Mr. Collins.” His eyes returned to the fire, having no use for the man who had failed utterly in protecting his sister and cousin.
“It is my understanding sir, that you are the great lady’s favourite nephew and I should congratulate you on your upcoming nuptials to Miss Anne de Bourgh. You are bringing much happiness to your aunt with this marriage.”
Darcy turned back to him and stared. “Sir, perhaps you are unaware, but I assure you, I am not engaged to my cousin as I am, in fact, engaged to yours. Miss Elizabeth will be my wife, and no other. My aunt’s perception has been corrected time and again; however, clearly her delusion continues. I advise you sir, to take anything that she says with great care, and enjoy the situation you have for as long as it lasts. She can be quite temperamental about such things.”
Collins swallowed. “Sir, but I was given to believe that since Miss Elizabeth has clearly been ruined by the actions of today, you would surely end this engagement, which of course would allow you to re-establish the fondest dreams of my patroness to join your two great estates!”
“You were told that I would reject Elizabeth because she was attacked? Who spouted off this nonsense?” Darcy’s eyes pierced the little man.
Mr. Collins’ eyes grew wide. “Why, Mr. Bennet …” Darcy looked up and strode straight from the room, leaving the sputtering parson behind. He walked to the bookroom door and pounded on it. Mr. Bennet opened it immediately and seeing who it was and the expression on his face closed his eyes and stepped back.
“I see you have been speaking to Mr. Collins.”
Darcy swept into the room and stood facing Mr. Bennet, there was murder in his eyes. “I see that his words were not the work of his imagination.” He glared as he watched Mr. Bennet close the door and walk back to his desk where he sat down. “Please be seated, Mr. Darcy.”
“I would rather stand, sir. Now, what is this … idiocy that I would wish to end my engagement to Elizabeth?”
“That is not what I said. I thought that she might end her engagement to you.” Mr. Bennet said quietly.
“ON WHAT GROUNDS, SIR?” Darcy bellowed.
“On the grounds that the rumours of your and your sister’s behaviour would gravely affect the rest of my daughters were my Elizabeth to continue her association with you.” He said softly, looking down at his hands. “They have undoubtedly been affected already.”
Darcy stared in shock. “You know the rumours to be false! You would allow the man who tried to RAPE your daughter to achieve his goal of tearing us apart? That was the goal, sir. He told my cousin that as he lay dying. His desire was to see me miserable for all of my days. I love Elizabeth, sir. I will not have her taken away from me now. It is my intention to take my sister and MY WIFE home to Pemberley as soon as possible.” His hands were resting on Mr. Bennet’s desk and he was bent staring directly at him. “What is your response, sir?”
“You will not marry. Not now.” He still would not look up at him.
“Mr. Bennet. You have told me of the pain your family suffered after your sister’s ruin. You seemed to admire the fact that I did not follow your father’s example and send Georgiana off to a remote estate, never to be mentioned again. You even told me of your own loveless marriage and regret over a lost relationship and admired how Elizabeth loved me despite all of the pain that my family has faced. And here you sit, condemning me, both of us, to the same hell that you professed to live day after day? I will not have it, sir! The marriage contracts have been accepted and signed by you. I have the license. There is nothing to prevent me from sprinting up those steps this minute, claiming my bride, and taking her to the nearest church to be my wife. I will not relinquish her now or ever! What say you to that, Mr. Bennet?”
Mr. Bennet still would not look at him. “You will not do those things because you are a gentleman.”
“What good is being a gentleman if I am not sufficiently worthy of marrying the woman I love and who loves me?” Darcy turned around and strode to the window, his eyes were burning and he reached into his pocket to find the ribbon and wound it tightly around his fingers. Up the drive came a carriage; and he saw Mrs. Philips getting out with several other women. Mr. Bennet heard them arriving and sighed. “Do you not see what has happened, Mr. Darcy? We will be inundated by the gossip mongers, trapped in our own home, and surrounded in the village. I thought that I could ignore the gossip that was spread around the town, but after the attack this morning in Meryton, and this incident with Wickham, I can no longer hope that it will die away. Everywhere we step we will be subjected to the whispers and rumours. I have lived this once already, I can not see my daughters live through it.”
Darcy turned from the window. “But your daughters have done nothing wrong!”
Mr. Bennet shook his head. “When has that ever mattered? As long as you are part of Elizabeth’s life, your taint will be on my family. If the engagement is ended, all will gradually go back to what it once was.” He stood and walked over to Darcy and put a hand on his shoulder. “I am sorry.”
Darcy could not look at him, his entire life was crumbling around him and he could not see a way to repair the damage. “I thought … I thought that you had accepted me as your son.” He blinked and looked down at the ribbon in his hand. “You said that you supported me, I thought that if anyone could appreciate what happened to my sister and how hard I have tried … how much I dearly need Elizabeth.” He swallowed and grew silent. His face became as stone and he stared off into the distance.
Mr. Bennet sat down heavily on the edge of his desk. “Darcy, I would be proud to call you Son.”
Darcy remained at his post. “Sir, I WILL NOT accept this. I WILL NOT allow Wickham to continue to haunt me every moment for the rest of my life. We will find a way to deal with this. I have spent too much of my life alone. Elizabeth is the air I breathe; I refuse to give her up.” He finally turned and looked at her father. “Excuse me; I will be with my Elizabeth.”
Darcy left, oblivious to the sound of women’s voices in the sitting room, or anything else in the house. His feet began moving faster and he ran up the stairs, pounded on Elizabeth’s door, pulled it open, and the look on his face alone sent everyone in the room running out. He slammed the door shut and locked it, and strode straight over to the chair where Elizabeth sat by the fire, gathered her in his arms and fixed his burning gaze upon her. “I will not leave you.”
Chapter 27
“Leave me, William, of what are you speaking?” Elizabeth tried to pry his face from where it rested against her neck but he refused to move. She kissed the top of his head and wrapped her arms around the man nearly twice her size who was crushing her, rubbed his back and waited. It had been such a horribly emotional and exhausting day, perhaps it had just finally taken its toll on him. Darcy sank into her embrace and absorbed the love she gave to him. He had fought for her that day, finally breaking free of the constraints he had lived under all of his life, and in a burst of emotion took out the pain of Wickham’s abuse by paying him back with a response that was years in the making. Only now did he realize that if it had not been for his gloves slipping, he would have throttled Wickham there in front of everyone. He would have been a
murderer, and somehow, that thought did not bother him because Wickham was harming the most important part of his life and for once, he fought back. He listened to Elizabeth’s comforting voice confessing her love and decided that if he allowed Mr. Bennet to take her away, he may as well have joined Georgiana in her pursuit of that deep pool. He lifted his head and cupped Elizabeth’s cheeks in his hands and searched her worried, bruised face. No, he would not allow anything to come between them ever again.
“Lizzy, I just left your father. He wishes to end our engagement.”
Elizabeth’s eyes grew wide with shock. “WHY?” Of all the consequences of the day’s events, the last she expected was this.
“He feels the gossip that caused all of this will continue to grow, especially now that there is a death, and it will only serve to hurt you and your sisters.” He watched her struggling to understand his words, and looking away from her expression of pain he said softly, “Your father feels that all will return to what it once was when I am removed from your life.”
“Do not tell me that you accepted this!” Elizabeth’s eyes flashed. “That is the most ill-reasoned, ridiculous … William, do you know that when we returned from town this morning with Georgiana, my father took me aside in the hallway and told me that you would likely wish to end our engagement? He said that you would wish to protect me from the scandal. I refused to give that any credence. I believe that when he saw that you would have no intention of abandoning me, he took it upon himself to appeal to your goodness and use his arguments to influence you. Obviously he was thinking of this even before Wickham attacked.” Elizabeth searched his eyes. “Is that what happened? Were you fighting for me and he used this upon you?”
Darcy sat back on his heels with a look of understanding spreading over his face. “Yes, that is precisely what happened. I threatened to come up here and carry you out the door that instant and marry you at the first church that would take us tomorrow morning.” He took her hands in his. “I told him that I will not give you up, that we will find a way to deal with this. Lizzy, I think that I know what is behind his demand. He is remembering his family’s ruin and is thinking that it will happen to his daughters by association. Hearing what happened to you in Meryton today must have been similar to what he experienced and he thinks it is the same situation. He could not be further from the truth! The situation is as different as night and day!”
Elizabeth squeezed his hands urgently. “What scandal? There is no scandal in our family.” She watched him, it was clear that he was thinking hard. “William, what do you know of my family that I do not?”
Darcy startled from his conjectures. He would hold no secrets from her and told her of her aunt, her banishment, her father’s lost love, and his forced marriage. Elizabeth’s expression changed from shock to understanding, to anger. “So, because of my father’s experiences, I am to suffer … WE are to suffer the same fate? We are to exist in a life without love or the companionship of the person we need and want because of what? He worries of the opinions of the residents of Meryton? Does he forget that these same residents this morning delighted in disparaging one of their own, believing the lies of a would-be rapist and murderer? Does he think that I have any care for those people’s opinions any more than you care for the society you so easily rejected? I refuse to let public opinion determine my life!”
Elizabeth’s eyes bore into his. “I have grown up in a household with a loveless marriage and lacking in any respect between the parents or the children. It is painful and sad, and I can imagine it was nothing compared to the hellish childhood you experienced. I refuse to allow the actions of a man so evil destroy my hope of happiness, or yours. I understand now why my father was so supportive of my decision not to accept the attentions of men I did not respect. But I do not understand why now, after a lifetime of indifferent parenting, he suddenly feels that he can dictate to me that I must not marry the man who I have chosen. I have determined my path. I will marry the best man I have ever known or will spend the rest of my life in a sad and lonely existence because I will accept no other. Well, Mr. Darcy, tell me, what is my life to be?”
Darcy stared at the beautiful woman who had endured so much, and still had the strength to fight for their marriage. The fire in her eyes filled his heart with pride. “Miss Elizabeth Bennet, will you do me the very great honour of saving my life, of giving me a life, and accepting this fool as your husband? Will you be my wife?”
Elizabeth’s glare lessened and she nodded. “That was good, but I think that it can be improved.”
Darcy smiled slightly then became very serious. He took her hand in his. “Miss Elizabeth Bennet, I am telling you here and now that you will be my wife. I will not accept another woman, and I will not tolerate any person who ever attempts to separate us again. You will be my wife.”
At last Elizabeth smiled and they stood, wrapped up in a tight embrace. “Now that is the man I love! Yes, Mr. Darcy, I will marry you.” Darcy held her to him and kissed her. “I would not have left you my love; I already told your father that. I do not believe that he wishes for it either. I can not begin to tell you what I was feeling when I walked into this room.”
“I guarantee that you would not have left me, because I would have run after your carriage to chase you down!” She smiled and hugged him fiercely to her.
Darcy laughed and looked down at her bandaged foot. “That would have been a sight to behold.” She blinked back some tears that were threatening to fall. Darcy brushed her hair with his lips. “I can not tell you how happy I am that you would fight for me.”
Elizabeth lifted her head and he saw her brimming eyes. “It seems that we are taking turns defending each other today.” She took a tremulous breath. “William, I can not possibly live without you.”
Darcy blinked back the emotion he felt overwhelming him. “I am nothing without you.” He kissed her forehead, and tried to regain control. He cast about for a neutral subject. “How do you feel?”
She understood his need, and responded with a return of her humour. “My headache was gone until you entered this room.” She looked at him pointedly.
He cast his eyes down. “Forgive me.” He looked back up and smiled at her warm gaze. The break in the tense mood helped them both to relax. He brushed the curls from her face that had fallen from her pins. “What do we do now? I told your father that we would find a way to address his fears.”
Elizabeth rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes to think. Suddenly she looked up. “William, was it my imagination, or did I hear a group of women downstairs?”
“Yes, your aunt and several ladies of the neighbourhood arrived just as your father was telling me that I may not marry you … I believe that is what convinced me that he truly did care for both of us, and how pained he was with his ill-conceived decision. They are undoubtedly here to learn what has happened today. I am sure that Wickham’s body coming through town in the cart inspired a fresh round of speculation about my violent tendencies.” He said the last with bitterness.
Her eyes lit up. “That is it, William! Not one of these ladies has ever heard your side of the story!”
“What are you suggesting?”
She spoke quickly, looking up at him and pressing her hands to his chest. “I am suggesting that you and I go down there and visit with the ladies of the neighbourhood and give them the truth, let them see the good man that you are, and address their speculation. I am sure that when presented with the evidence of our love and commitment, they will have a great deal more to wag their tongues over.”
“I am not sure Lizzy … you know how difficult it is for me to speak.” He looked at her nervously. “I may make things worse.”
She took his hand and squeezed. “William, I believe that if all you do is display your affection for me, they will be sufficiently impressed with you. I will do the talking.”
He looked doubtful. “Do you mean that simply seeing me pay you attentions will change their opinio
n? That can not be, after all of the vile rumours that these same women have said of me and Georgiana, how could they possibly be so easily swayed?”
“Trust me William.” Her determined smile convinced him that it would not hurt to try.
He bit his lip. “If this does not work …”
Elizabeth interrupted. “It will, watch and see.” He drew a deep breath and nodded. She began to move away towards the door and he stopped her progress by drawing her back into his arms. “Lizzy, I told your father that I will marry you and take you and Georgiana to Pemberley as soon as possible … but that was when I thought that … well, we no longer need to leave immediately, but I realize that removing her soon from Hertfordshire probably is wise. Will you come with us to Pemberley? Even if we have not yet married? I need you there; I do not know that I can care for her alone. I do not know what to expect when she awakens.”
“Of course I will come!” She smiled and hugged him.
He sighed with relief then looked at her with concern. “Do you think that your father will allow you? Besides convincing him that we will marry, and the impropriety that I suspect you have no care about, but your injuries … can you walk?”
“I can limp with extraordinary grace, sir, especially if I am on the arm of a handsome gentleman from Derbyshire.”
Darcy smiled. “Thank you. Have you much practice in the art of limping?”
“I have climbed, and therefore fallen from many trees.” Her eyes danced, and she tilted her head. “And you sir, your injuries? How are they?”
“Ah, and I have fallen from many a tall horse.” He kissed her nose, and basked in the optimism that flowed from her.
“You? But you are such an excellent horseman!” He lovingly kissed her lips then gently stroked his thumb over the bite mark, suddenly becoming teary-eyed. Elizabeth touched his face and brought him back.