“To obtain that jam, sir, I shall give you as many sons or daughters as you wish.”
“There is a postscript to me. Are you willing to hear it?”
“Surely even a coach as large as this is too small for you to keep it from me until London,” she threatened with a chuckle.
“I expected as much. The postscript reads, ‘Mr. Darcy, when you call Lizzy by her full Christian name, it is said with such regard and respect that I forget of whom you are speaking. We shall know you are truly part of the family when you start calling her “Lizzy.” —TB.’”
Their eyes met, and Elizabeth, flushed and smiling, looked down. “Oh, my… Poor Papa. Fitzwilliam, I hope he never hears you call me ‘Lizzy’ the way you do. It would be mortifying to have my own father know what we are doing.”
Darcy felt no response was necessary but to lift her chin and kiss her. “Lizzy,” was all he said when his tongue had tasted her lips.
After finishing their repast and stowing the remains in the hamper, they pushed it aside and wrapped themselves in the lap robe again. It was so cold that, even in the sun, the frost seemed to persist, but they were warm against the icy landscapes, and soon were sleepy. Fed and at last easy with each other, they napped fitfully until the wheels of the carriage, gaining the cobbles of outer London, woke them with their changing rhythm.
Darcy awoke with his lips on Elizabeth’s head and began kissing her hair until she smiled. “Although the beginning might be said to have been wanting, altogether I think our first journey as married people has been much more successful than not,” she said as if she had been giving the matter no little consideration.
He kissed her mouth slowly. When the kiss ended, he glanced outside. “We are perhaps half an hour from Darcy House, Mrs. Darcy. The two front riders will have left us by now to alert Mrs. Chawton.”
Elizabeth took a deep breath, feeling a little nervous.
Darcy noticed her discomfort. “We shall have a few lovely, lazy days here, Elizabeth. We shall make no visits and accept no callers, and we shall do nothing we do not both agree to do. When we are ready to travel to Pemberley, we shall go.” He looked into her eyes. “My dearest Elizabeth.”
They sat more upright, and Darcy could sense a heightened level of tension in his bride. “We shall meet the staff, and Mrs. Chawton will join us to see the master suite. I have chosen a maid for you from amongst the existing staff, but if she does not suit you, we can easily make a change. She is bright enough, and has been part of the London staff for four years. I have ordered a simple meal, and perhaps you might play and sing for me, or we might tour the house…”
Elizabeth thought what Darcy avoided saying. And at some point we will retire to the same bed. They travelled in silence.
Darcy looked out the window. “Only a few streets away.”
Elizabeth shook the lap robe, producing only one shoe. “Oh heavens, where is the other slipper? Did we pack it with the food?” She made an uncharacteristically nervous giggle.
Darcy began searching with her, folding the lap robe. “You were wearing it when we left the inn?”
She laughed. “I would have noticed had I not!”
Darcy laughed, too. “Ladies lose gloves, Elizabeth, not shoes…”
She picked up his hat on the gentleman’s bench. “Hmm, no…”
“My new bride will not exit this coach half barefoot. I shall carry you with my hat on your foot if I have to.” He chuckled.
“Check your pockets,” she suggested, relieved he thought their present plight amusing.
The coach slowed as it approached Darcy House. The staff waited outside at the entry under the portico, and a footman stepped forward to open the carriage door. Inside was muffled laughter. Finally, Darcy moved the hamper to discover Elizabeth’s second wedding slipper pinned against the far wall away from the door.
“Oh, thank God!” Darcy exited the coach, laughing.
“Merciful heavens, how silly! What will they think?” Elizabeth emerged, chuckling, to the amazement of the awaiting servants.
“Everyone, inside! It is far too cold for such ceremony.” Darcy beamed at them all, and motioning his arms as if to both herd and embrace them, moved the staff of Darcy House into the front hall.
Elizabeth bumped her bosom against his arm as she clasped his hand, caressing him for moral support.
He turned to her with a wide smile. “Mrs. Darcy?” He waved the way with his free arm, and in they went. He could not recall ever being happier.
Chapter 19
Welcome to Darcy House, Mrs. Darcy
“Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.”
William Shakespeare
Much Ado about Nothing
Mr. and Mrs. Darcy stopped before a half circle of servants in the elegant front hall of Darcy house. There was a glass skylight, and the house faced due west, so the last rays of the winter sun lit the assemblage, adding to the glow of wall sconces lit when the approach of the carriage was announced. For Darcy, it was as if his bride brought the light and cheer with her as she entered the house for the first time.
Servants stepped forward to spirit away their outer clothing, and Darcy began introducing Elizabeth to the staff. To spare her any feeling of intimidation, he requested only the household maids and footmen be present. The gardeners, stable hands, cooks, and scullery maids could wait for another day. The last four servants were the most important: Mrs. Chawton, the housekeeper; Mr. Lefroy, the butler; Darcy’s valet, Murray; and Sarah, who had been selected as Elizabeth’s maid for the week.
“Elizabeth, Mrs. Chawton and Sarah will join us as we tour our new rooms. Then there will be a few minutes for you to revive yourself before we have a light dinner. This is correct, Mrs. Chawton?”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Darcy,” Mrs. Chawton agreed as they started up the stairs. “The cook has prepared a menu that can be kept waiting if Mrs. Darcy would like to rest, have a bath, or change clothes. We are here for your comfort, Mrs. Darcy.”
Mrs. Chawton did not understand why the new Mrs. Darcy flushed pink at the suggestion of comfort. She put it down to bridal nerves.
***
On the second floor, they turned to the left. “This entire wing is ours, Elizabeth,” Darcy began, leading the way. “These were my parents’ rooms. I have not moved into them until now, so they are almost as new to me as they will be to you, although I was certainly in and out of them enough as a child.
“We have fresh mattresses, new bathtubs, and some of the furniture has been rearranged to suit me in the master’s bedroom, but you must tell Sarah about any modifications you desire quickly made to your rooms and Mrs. Chawton about any permanent changes. Please do not hesitate.”
He opened the first door, which was his dressing room. It was Sarah’s turn to blush as this was a room she had never entered. “From my dressing room to yours, at the end of this floor, we can walk from room to room through adjoining doors without going into the hall,” Darcy informed his bride.
Elizabeth’s head was a little addled. Bathtubs…mattresses…adjoining rooms. This will be like living with Jane…only not at all. She looked around the small masculine room with coat brushes laid on a side table, a full-length mirror, a rack holding a frock coat about to be brushed, and wardrobes and chests of drawers. Elizabeth noted the large, copper, claw-foot tub sitting in a tiled corner of the room. My goodness, two could fit in there…oh… She said nothing.
Darcy opened the door to his bedroom. It was a large chamber with a fire already blazing in the hearth. It was sparsely furnished with a large bed hung with curtains tied back at the posts. On both sides of the bed were simple tables, each with a single candlestick, and next to the tables were metal washstands, each with a basin of fresh water and towelling hanging from a metal ring.
Elizabeth studied the washstands. Surely, these have been brought in, but why are they here? She glanced at Darcy, who met her eyes expectantly as if he thought she might be forming a question. Du
ring the weighty pause, as Elizabeth noticed his always-immaculate appearance, she realised why the washstands were placed so near the bed. She closed her eyes, and drew in and emitted a deep sigh, aware all the while that her colour was again rising.
In front of the fire was a settee with a larger table to one side topped by a vase of roses. The scent was calming, and she was in need of it. Elizabeth touched them. “From Pemberley?” she asked.
“No, madam,” replied Mrs. Chawton. “Unless something particular is wanted from the Pemberley glasshouses, we buy flowers locally. All the flowers available from Pemberley were sent to your wedding.”
“They are beautiful.” Elizabeth turned to the heavy, tawny-brown velvet curtains and parted them to reveal glass doors opening onto a balcony.
Darcy opened the next door. “That balcony connects to doors in this room. We can go from bedroom to bedroom from outside, or inside, or from the hall.” He was watching her carefully, trying to measure her state of unease. Is this overwhelming her? Is she going to blush forever?
Elizabeth stepped into the mistress’s room. Although it had a cheerful fire in a slightly smaller fireplace, the cream walls painted with murals of flowers were faded, and not to her taste even had they been fresh. Too vivid, not soothing. The wainscoting was lighter wood, and Elizabeth found she preferred the more masculine darker room. She felt there was too much furniture, and looked around appraisingly. “Is there a dressing table in the next room?”
Mrs. Chawton stepped back and nodded to Sarah to answer the question. “Yes, Mrs. Darcy,” she said in a low insecure voice. “And the one next door has a larger mirror.”
Elizabeth walked back into the master’s room and noted there was a bookcase. She came back to the mistress’s room. No bookcase, and why all the side chairs? She counted six. “Did Mr. Darcy’s mother use this as a sitting room?”
Mrs. Chawton shook her head to indicate a negative response was in order, prompting Sarah to reply, “No, ma’am.”
“What do you think, Mrs. Darcy?” Darcy thought this room confining, and he could see she put her finger exactly on the problem. He was pleased.
“Perhaps there is no need for a dressing table in this room if there is a better one just a few steps away? And I see no need for so many side chairs when there is a settee facing the fire and a bench at the end of the bed. Mrs. Chawton, I do think I would like a bookcase in here later.” Elizabeth looked at Darcy. “Would it be too much to ask that the chairs and dressing table be removed whilst we eat? It feels crowded.” There was another vase of roses on the table by the settee. Elizabeth walked to them and inhaled.
Mrs. Chawton smiled. “Easily, Mrs. Darcy.”
The party moved into the mistress’s dressing room, painted a peculiar shade of coral, now faded. Elizabeth wished it were a soothing pale green or blue. In one corner, as in Mr. Darcy’s dressing room, there was new tile with a rather large tin bathtub, the equal of its copper twin in the other dressing room. Elizabeth peeked behind a screen to see a tufted stool, a clothes rack, a commode, and a metal washstand with a side shelf holding neatly folded towelling.
Elizabeth walked back into her bedroom and noted tables on either side of the bed, and matching washstands. There were also chamber pots just visible on either side of the bed. I must stop blushing. It is only to be expected. Fitzwilliam and I…Mr. Darcy and I…oh, my husband and I, shall get used to each other’s…functions. She felt a shudder of nerves. The confidence gained by Darcy’s reassuring caresses in the carriage was fast waning.
Darcy followed Elizabeth into the mistress’s bedroom but stayed standing behind her and could not tell where her eyes wandered. When she turned around, he was there. “Are you unsettled?” he whispered.
She looked at him with a rueful half-smile. “Oh, I fully expect to be a good deal more unsettled than I am now, and rather shortly, too.”
He smiled into her eyes. “I love you, Elizabeth.” He took her hand and led her to the waiting servants.
“Sarah, would you wait in the hall for just one moment? I would speak to my wife, and then we shall call you to assist her.” Sarah stepped through the hall door.
“Mrs. Chawton, you will see to the furniture removal? We shall be down to the small dining parlour, in what, Mrs. Darcy, half an hour?” Elizabeth nodded, and Mrs. Chawton walked back into the mistress’s bedroom.
***
As soon as they were alone, Darcy swept Elizabeth into a passionate embrace, holding her around the waist and kissing her hair. He took several deep breaths of her scent, then pulled back and looked at her expectant, upturned face. Her eyes were closed and her tempting lips were half parted. If you begin kissing her now, there will be no retreat, and no dinner. “Lizzy.”
Her eyes opened at his breathy utterance of a name he clearly intended to employ only during moments of utmost intimacy. She met his gaze.
“Lizzy, do not bathe now. And after dinner, do not undress. And most important of all, do not change your hair.”
“Fitzwilliam, you will undress me?” She asked. It is as my aunt said— “let him!”
“Yes, I shall.”
She blinked before raising her chin bravely. “Shall I undress you?” she asked. Do I dare?
“Not tonight, I think it might be the death of me after so much restraint already.” He chuckled.
Elizabeth thought of Jane’s elaborate ensemble with its complex undergarments. “Poor Mr. Bingley…” she murmured with a smile.
“Bingley?”
“Oh, Fitzwilliam”—Elizabeth laughed—“if he chooses to undress Jane, he will not finish until tomorrow at noon. She is wearing a prodigious and complex array of garments.”
Darcy joined her laughter. “At another time I would like to hear the story of how you came to be dressed in such a wonderfully available manner.” His hands roamed up her sides to her corset. “Short stays only?” She nodded. “I think I can manage that.”
He smiled in what she thought a rather lascivious manner. Her eyebrows rose. “You are being smug again, sir.”
“If you are planning to be more unsettled, rest assured I plan to become a great deal more smug.” He let his hands slip down to her hips before reluctantly parting. “I shall be back at this door in half an hour to fetch you for dinner. Wait for me to come to you. I would hate to lose my wife as she searched for the small dining parlour.”
He went into the hall. “She is all yours, Sarah, until I return.” He walked away and descended the stairs.
“It seems you will have little to do this evening, Sarah.” Elizabeth drew in a deep breath. “Evidently my new husband wishes to undress me and take down my hair, and he bids me not to bathe. Whatever shall we do with ourselves until dinner?”
Sarah, who was big and plain, stepped to the closest wardrobe and nodded vaguely to the door of the bedroom. “Should you need them, ma’am, your nightgowns and dressing gowns are here.”
“Perhaps I shall need at least a dressing gown…later. Let us select something and place it…next door.” Elizabeth could not quite force herself to say the word bedchamber.
“Which bedchamber, ma’am?” asked the more practical Sarah.
“Oh!” Elizabeth stopped to consider. It appeared the two rooms were equally ready for occupation. “Perhaps we need two dressing gowns, one for each?”
They looked into the wardrobe. There seemed an unnecessarily large number of night shifts and dressing gowns.
“I do not remember ordering so many, Sarah! Where did they all come from, do you know?”
“There’s some as are gifts. We have put little papers on them so’s you’ll know. There’s two negligee sets from Mrs. Gardiner and one from Mrs. Bingley— hers is the green velvet with white nightgown.”
“Dearest Jane…”
Elizabeth selected Jane’s gift for the master’s bedroom— I shall blend right in and maybe he will lose me in there—and a dressing gown in a lighter gauzy fabric she recalled selecting herself for the closer room
. Then Elizabeth stepped behind the screen to use the commode and basin to cleanse her nether parts thoroughly since bathing was prohibited for the time being. She noticed a bottle of lavender water and opened it, dabbing it on her neck to soothe herself. She looked from behind the screen to where Sarah stood, awaiting instruction.
“Is there more lavender water, Sarah?”
“Oh, yes, ma’am. We have put all that was sent from your home into the cupboard with your nightclothes. I thought you would prefer it behind the screen. Shall I put a bottle on the dressing table? I did notice you have no other perfumes.”
“Yes, on the dressing table also, please. I take great enjoyment from making my own scents. Do you know whether there is a stillroom at Pemberley?”
“No, ma’am, I do not know. I have never been. I am part of the London staff. There’s very few as travel back and forth.”
A tap came at the door. Sarah opened it at Elizabeth’s nod, and Darcy stepped just inside. “They are ready for us.” He took her hand and turned to Sarah. “I do not believe Mrs. Darcy will need you again tonight.” All three of them coloured to varying degrees—even Darcy, despite his best intentions.
Elizabeth looked at Sarah with mock surprise. “See? I told you!”
Sarah lowered her face so her master would not see her blush further, but nevertheless, she was pleased. She did like Mrs. Darcy; she had worried that she would not.
“In the morning, Sarah, Mrs. Chawton will give you your orders,” Darcy said. “Do not attend us until she gives you leave to do so.” Sarah bobbed a curtsy and stepped back into the dressing room. She would be gone when they returned.
***
As Elizabeth and Darcy walked hand-in-hand to the small dining room, she noticed footmen poised to swarm the mistress’s bedroom to remove the unwanted furniture.
Darcy cast Elizabeth a sidelong glance. She was clearly growing more nervous but sought to distract herself by surveying the various details of the hall.
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