The Cumberland Plateau

by Mary K. Baxley

  ~*~

  By the middle of November, Elizabeth and Darcy were dating on a regular basis. They spent almost every evening together. He was now helping Elizabeth at least twice a week with her Greek lessons. Darcy was impressed with how quickly she learned and how greatly she improved under his instruction. Even more surprising was how much they shared in common, but he had to be sure of his feelings before he took their relationship further, for he knew that with very little effort, they could become deeply involved. The temptation was great, and yet he still had not kissed her the way he intended, even though it was very much what he wanted.

  ~*~

  It was a Wednesday evening. They had just finished a Greek lesson, and he was preparing to leave. Standing at the front door about to say goodbye, he was puzzled. By her fidgeting and worried look he could tell something might be bothering her, but he wasn’t sure what. Finally, he asked her.

  “Elizabeth, is something wrong?”

  She lowered her lashes momentarily and then raised her gaze. “William, we have been dating on a regular basis for almost four weeks. Why haven’t you kissed me other than a peck on the lips or cheek?” she demanded, looking at him directly with intense eyes.

  He was both relieved and amused and showed it with a wide grin. “Do you want me to kiss you, Elizabeth?”

  This direct question startled her, catching her off guard. “Well…I… I thought that perhaps… since we’re dating and all... that maybe.” Finally she spit it out, flushed with embarrassment. “Yes I do!”

  He laughed softly and pulled her into an embrace. “Then I will. I never disappoint a lady.” Releasing a sigh, he reached up and brushed her cheek with his fingers while his thumb lightly stroked her lower lip. Holding her securely, he slipped his hand into her hair and dipped his head, catching her lips in a slow, lingering kiss as his tongue slipped in and out of her mouth. Feeling her shiver under his touch served to encourage him, so he angled his head and deepened the kiss. He kissed her repeatedly, his tongue probing, exploring, tasting, breaking away only when they needed to breathe. He was about to kiss her again when he noticed her eyes were still closed with her lips slightly parted in anticipation. He groaned quietly and pulled back, delighted in her response.

  Her eyes flew open. “Aren’t you going to kiss me again?”

  Looking down into her questioning eyes, he was tempted—he wanted to, but… “I think you’ve been kissed enough for one night, Dr. Bennett.” He smiled, tapping her lightly on the nose. “I’ll see you Friday night when we have another Greek lesson. We’ll see what happens then.” He breathed deeply. “I’ll see you tomorrow for coffee and then for lunch at our usual times. Good night, Liz.” He kissed her with his usual quick kiss and then turned to depart. Glancing over his shoulder once more before leaving, he had to smile. There she stood strangely befuddled, blinking in astonishment as she brushed her fingers over her lips.

  Walking briskly back to his house, he took another deep breath. It had taken extreme willpower to draw away from her, leaving him in a painful state of desire. He wanted to do more than kiss her, and in time, he was confident they would. But first he had to be sure she was the one, because he wanted far more than a casual love affair. He wanted a lover, someone who would also be his friend and companion, his complement, his soul mate—his wife, and he believed Elizabeth Bennett just might be the very woman he had been waiting for. In time, he would know for certain. The physical attraction was certainly there. He sighed as he turned the corner. …She has no idea what effect she has on me. The sight of her…the feel of her…the scent of her. I haven’t felt like this in years. Sleep will be difficult tonight …very difficult.

  As she watched him turn the corner onto Maple Street, her frustration piqued along with her disappointment. …Teasing man! Whatever is wrong with him? The man defies logic! Elizabeth stomped her foot. She could not comprehend him. Whatever the reasons, his tactic of slowly drawing her in was working. She was falling in love.

  Chapter Six

  …waiting for the right one…

  Friday night, Fitzwilliam picked up Elizabeth for dinner at his house while Charles dined with Jane at the Bennett townhouse on Elm Street. After dinner, he escorted Elizabeth to the library for her Greek lesson where he checked the last assignment he had given her, and finding it satisfactory, he went on to the next lesson. They worked through the next chapter until he was satisfied that she had grasped the concept, and then he gave her another assignment.

  Closing the book and putting everything away, Fitzwilliam turned to Elizabeth with a smile. “Now let’s have some wine and relax.” Rising from the table, he went to his study and returned with a decanter of port.

  “Elizabeth, we’ve dated for nearly four weeks and discussed many things, but I still don’t know much about you. Why don’t you tell me about your parents, your siblings? I want to learn something of your history—what influenced you, what you did as a child, what were your favorite toys, games, any pets you may have had. Tell me about your horses. I believe you ride. I want to know everything about you.” He poured the wine and handed her a glass, then he took a seat at the opposite end of the sofa, facing her.

  “Well, I don’t really know where to begin. You’ve asked a lot. But I’ll try my best to tell you what you want to know.” She paused for a sip of wine. “I think we were like any other family. Mom stayed home when we were little. She baked and cooked and was just always there. She read to us, and we all sang songs together. That’s one of the ways we learned to appreciate both music and reading. Then, when Mom needed a break, she would set us all down to watch Public Broadcasting—you know, Sesame Street, Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, Shining Time Station. She wanted us to have fun, but she was always looking for educational programs for us as opposed to junk food TV, though we were allowed to watch some of that too—just not a steady diet of it. My favorite show was My Little Pony. To this day I still love to watch it,” Elizabeth said with a soft laugh.

  “As for toys, the girls had baby dolls and the boys had trains and little toy cars. Cherry Merry Muffin and Strawberry Shortcake were some my favorite little dolls, but I also had an American Girl Samantha doll and a Bitty Baby that I loved.” She smiled at the memory. “I remember when Kat was born. I carried my Bitty Baby everywhere, pretending that I had a baby too while Mom took care of my baby sister. I even pretended to nurse.”

  Darcy’s lips curled while thinking about the Bennett children playing in front of the TV, the girls with their dolls and the boys with trains and little toy cars much like he and David had done. “So you were the nurturing type when you were little.”

  “To some extent. I wanted to be just like my mom when I was little. She taught math at this university, too. Later, though, I wanted to be like Dad. I didn’t think it was fair that he spent so much time with the boys, teaching them about the farm, so eventually he let me tag along. I learned a great deal about managing a farm, and I suppose it’s a good thing now with Joseph overseas.”

  “Managing a farm or an estate can be very fulfilling,” Darcy said, thinking of how much he would have liked to have done just as she had described. Once more he felt the sting of his father’s controlling personality, wishing he had been like Mr. Bennett.

  “Indeed it is. I think I’ll always want to live on a farm. I could never be truly happy on a city lot, stuck in town.” She shook her head.

  …Nor I, Elizabeth…Nor I.

  “Now where was I? Oh yes! Mother would make us cute little dresses, and she would always make one to match for our dolls—especially for my Samantha doll which was my favorite. She smocked and did French hand sewing. We had beautiful clothes. Mom sewed, crocheted, tatted lace, and embroidered as well as many other things. She taught all her girls to do likewise. And soon Jane, Mary Beth and I, and later Kat, were making our own doll clothes. Eventually, we even made our own clothes. Mom taught us to design our wardrobes to suit our individual taste.”

  “I bet you were very cute
.” Darcy chuckled.

  “Well, I don’t know about that.”

  “Ah, but I believe you were…and still are. Now, carry on. I’m anxious to hear more. Tell me about your dad. What was he like?”

  “Dad was special.” She nodded as she took a sip of wine. “He was as kind and good as a man could be. Every night he would read to us. He started with simple things such as children’s stories, Little Golden Books. Then, as we grew older, he progressed to The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. Those two are still among my favorites to this very day. He read to us from a series by Walter Fraley about horses, too. That was where my love affair with the horse first began. Dad read all of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain to us, as well as many other selections from the classics. He did this until we could read for ourselves, and then continued it at bedtime.” She smiled with a twinkle in her eyes. “This opened the world to me, and I became an avid reader. I truly loved to learn and was often found with a book in my hand.”

  …You’re very fortunate. I would like to have had a family like yours. I’m sure you’ll make a wonderful mother someday. I hope I’ll make a good father. Maybe someday you and I will have a family together.

  “How were you educated?” Darcy asked. “You seem to have had an unusual background.”

  She chuckled. “We were educated at home, but as we grew older, my father hired tutors to teach us Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, and piano, and the girls all took classical ballet, jazz, and ballroom dancing. Mary Beth excelled and was accepted to The American School of Ballet.”

  …Interesting.

  “My younger brother, Joseph, excelled in karate and academics. He was so far ahead of most children that he graduated from high school when he was sixteen and attended this university for one year before he was accepted into the Naval Academy at seventeen.” She paused for a sip of wine.

  “Now, as to me personally, I was an outdoors type. It was a punishment for me to be kept inside, even in the winter. I would climb trees and hang upside down, which would upset Grandmother Barnett, my mother’s mother, to no end, as she would always tell me I would turn my liver over, or that it was disgraceful for a young lady to climb trees. I was a tomboy.”

  Darcy laughed. “A real hoyden.”

  “Yes, I suppose so. Much to my grandmother’s chagrin.”

  Darcy shook his head and laughed at the thought of a little girl hanging upside down in a tree. “I loved to play outdoors as a child, too. We would have made good playmates. Continue on. I’m enjoying this,” he said.

  She slipped off her shoes and curled her feet firmly underneath her as she lifted her glass to her lips. “Well, let’s see, what else is there? Oh yes, hounds. My father always kept hounds. We had Black and Tans, Walkers, Redbones, and Bloodhounds. When I was sixteen, my father gave me a pair of Black and Tans, which became my pride and joy. I raised them from pups, and we became inseparable until I left for school.”

  …Hounds! I like hounds… Better and better. You and I complement one another in that regard.

  He nodded as he raised his glass.

  “I was also very boisterous. I remember a time when Joseph and I played a prank on Kat. I was ten, Joseph was nine, and Kat was four—well, nearly five, actually. She was dressed in one of her pretty smocked frocks that Mom had made for her. Peach colored, I do believe. It was the Fourth of July, and we were going to have company over for our annual ice cream social and fireworks celebration. It’s a very grand affair for our family with all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins coming together for the fun.”

  “Charles told me all about your last get-together. I wish I had foregone my business meeting.” …She grew up in such a close family! My mother would’ve wanted our lives to have been similar, but Father was rarely there for us.

  “Yes, you should have. We would have met a whole month sooner! And then you could have met my family along with Charles. Anyway, where was I? I seem to have lost track.”

  “Something concerning Kat, I believe.” He sipped his wine as he listened.

  “Oh yes, I remember now. Kat had been especially annoying that day. Mom and Dad had tasked us with keeping her entertained. She followed us everywhere, constantly reporting back everything we did, getting us into all sorts of trouble—all because of her tattling. So, we formed a plan for revenge.”

  “Oh, no! What did you do?”

  She snickered. “We convinced Kat to stand very still with her eyes closed near a very large and fresh cow-pile in the barnyard. I asked her to count to twenty, since that was as far as she could count at the time. I told her to wait for a very special surprise that Joseph and I had planned just for her. She was so trusting…she never suspected a thing!”

  Darcy rolled his eyes and grinned, nodding for her to continue as he took another sip of wine.

  “We were very naughty, I’m afraid. While Kat counted, we placed firecrackers in the pile and lit them. Then we stood back to watch. When it exploded, Kat was covered from head to toe. Bursting into tears, she ran into the kitchen crying and dripping slimy green manure all over Mom’s nice clean floor. Kat’s dress was ruined.” Elizabeth chuckled. “That day Joseph and I got the worst spanking either of us had ever had, but I got the worst of it because Daddy said I was older and obviously the ringleader. My father never spanked us much, but that one was memorable. Daddy also made me stay inside for the rest of the day with no ice cream and no more fireworks. I had to clean the kitchen floor, too. And Joseph lost his pony privileges.”

  Darcy shouted with laughter. “Elizabeth, she was a baby—only four years old. That was terrible of you!”

  “Well, she was almost five! But you’re right. It was terrible. The worst part of it, though, was when we realized what we had done. We were both scared to death, and with good reason, too. We knew we were going to get it as my father would say. We never intended it to be the big mess that it was. I kept telling Joseph that three firecrackers were enough, but did he listen to me? No! He used the entire pack!”

  “You, Miss Bennett, deserved exactly what you got, and I have no sympathy for you. I would have also smacked your bum, too, had you been my daughter. That was a very wicked thing to do, but to be fair, my brother and I have played our fair share of pranks. Although I don’t believe we ever covered anyone in cow manure. I can’t believe how rambunctious you were—you were awful. A little terror! I’m glad I didn’t know you back then. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of your revenge then or now,” Darcy said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

  “Well, I’ve grown up since then. And I hope I have learned to behave a little better. But Daddy always told me that payback is hell and that someday I will have a little girl just like me. Although, I surely hope not. According to him, Joseph and I were just like him. He often told us we were his penance for all he had done as a child, while Mom said it wasn’t fair that she should have to suffer for his sins.”

  “Well, Miss Bennett, I hope that fate never befalls you or the poor man who marries you. I’m siding with your mother in this instance. However, I must tell you it sounds like there was never a dull moment in your home. I pity your poor parents!”

  “No, there was never a dull moment. I can assure you of that. But the rest of my siblings were not like me and Joseph. Jane has always been sweet and kind. She’s like Momma, and Mary Beth is like my Grandmother Bennett—refined and always insistent on being proper and ladylike. Kat is a less refined version of me, although more cautious, while Daniel is shy and very reserved. He loves to draw and wants to be a civil engineer. He’ll do it, too. We all have a way of determining our future through hard work and sheer force of will. The Bennetts have always been known for that.”

  “Elizabeth, your family sounds utterly fascinating. I feel as if I’m getting to know them through you. Now tell me about your first horse. What horses do you have now?”

  “Well, when I was eleven, Dad bought me my first horse. He was a bluish grey quarter horse gelding named Buc
k. I learned to ride on him, and I have loved riding ever since. Today we have four mares and two stallions—a black Arabian and a white Lipizzan. Our black stallion, however, is very difficult to handle, and for that reason I don’t ride him. Only Joseph and my father have ever ridden him, but hopefully this spring I can work with him and tame him some. He’s very spirited, whereas the white stallion is gentle and easy to manage.”

  His curiosity piqued with this knowledge. Horses were one of his passions. “Elizabeth, Lipizzans are amazing jumpers and climbers, but your Arabian fascinates me more. I would like to see him. I’ve ridden all my life, and I like spirited animals very much.” …Spirited women, too.

  “Well, you can try when you come to Longbourn tomorrow. He’s quite a handful.”

  “I’ll look forward to it. Now tell me more about your parents. I wish I could have met them.”

  She dropped her gaze for a split second. “My parents were two of the best people I’ve ever known, and I miss them dearly. There was never a question that they loved us all unconditionally, even when we disappointed them, like I did when I played that trick on Kat. Mom and Dad were also very much in love. Dad always treated Mom with the utmost of respect. His family was the most important thing in his life, and Mom and his children were always first. We were his world. And Mom was always there whenever I needed to talk. She may not have had the answers, but she always had a cup of hot tea and a listening ear. That’s why I miss them so terribly. Mom and Dad could make anything better.” She suppressed a sob.

  “They were killed in a car wreck nearly three years ago. It was a cold, snowy day and they were trying to make it back to the farm before a winter storm set in. They didn’t make the curve on County Road 52. Their car jumped the guardrail and tumbled into the ravine below. The state trooper said they were both killed instantly.”