by Wells, Linda
“Lizzy created that one.” Darcy smiled. “She offered me some bits from her workbox. I have one in yellow.” He pointed to the stream.
“Any luck?”
“I have not been trying too hard.”
“That is a surprise. If Richard or Samuel were here you would have a pile of fish lying on the bank by now.” Harding attached the lure and with a practiced flick sent the feather into the stream, snatched it out and let it dance over the water before settling in. Mr. Gardiner watched his technique with great admiration, but kept his thoughts to himself. Darcy became lost in the image of Elizabeth speaking so happily of the carriage. Harding felt an odd sense of peace falling over him. Eventually he looked to his nephew. “What were you discussing?”
“Was there a theme?” Darcy asked Mr. Gardiner.
“It was wide-ranging.” He said and again dropped his gaze.
Darcy’s face expressed his dismay with the behaviour and Harding realized that he was the cause. “Mr. Gardiner, my nephew calls you Uncle. So we are equals, you and I?”
Mr. Gardiner startled and then smiled. “Well, I suppose so, at least on Pemberley’s grounds.”
“I imagine that we can manage to continue off the grounds as well.” He easily swung his line behind his shoulder and back out into the water. Glancing at Darcy, he noticed his fixed attention. “Yes, Nephew?” He asked quietly.
“I know how difficult that was to say, as I know your father and mine.”
“I … thank you, Fitzwilliam.”
Darcy nodded and saw Mr. Gardiner was watching him closely. He smiled slightly then clearing his throat, waved his hand to the stream. “I cannot return home without a fish to show off to my wife. Shall we, gentlemen?”
“Well, my wife has heard me talk of it for enough years, I will certainly hear an earful if I return empty-handed!”
“My wife does not know I am here …” Harding smiled at his companions. “But I will still beat you.”
“ONE FISH. That is utterly pathetic, Fitzwilliam.” Elizabeth held his hand and walked with him over the moonlit lawn.
“But I still won.”
“That fact is even more pathetic.”
“Aunt Gardiner’s disappointment was wonderful to see. I can imagine you and I, some twenty years into our marriage bickering as they did.” He laughed when she turned to face him. “Forgive me; we will never bicker as they do.”
“No, we will not, we will have full-out brawls.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Darcy kissed her hand and she leaned against his shoulder as they started walking again. Darcy’s arm came around her waist.
“I was planning to thank you properly for my gift today.”
“You did already.”
“When?”
“When you drove away in it.” He smiled. “I was so proud of you.”
“I think that I prefer you sitting with me rather than watching.” She bit her lip. “I was so nervous driving, please come with me next time? Where shall we go?”
“hmmmm.” A slow smile spread over his face and he started running. “I know …”
“Swimming!” Elizabeth gasped when they arrived at the lake. Darcy tugged off his shoes and tapped on her slippers with his bare toes. Reluctantly she kicked them off. “Oh, Will!”
“Come on, dear.” He took her hand and waded into the water.
“But our clothes!”
“Will be wet.” He laughed. “I love you in a wet dress. Particularly a wet white dress.”
“I shall be sucked down to the middle of the earth …” Elizabeth said fearfully as he led her in. “It is cold!” She squealed.
“Yes, it is! But the moon is full and we have the light, and it is a warm night.”
“Ohhh …” Unsteadily, she followed him, gripping his hand so tightly that her knuckles were white. “Do not let go of me!”
“I will not, I promise.” He could feel her shaking and treated her fear with the respect it deserved. “That is it, a step at a time.” Slowly they descended, until the water was to her waist and upon his thighs. “There, now then,” Darcy bent and scooped her up, “You must learn to float.”
“Will!” She objected as the cold water hit her shoulders and her hair became soaked. “Do not let me go!”
“Trust me.” He commanded, supporting her with his arms while she held on. Slowly he backed up until he was in water up to his chest, and Elizabeth was floating, just barely in his grasp. Gradually, he let go. “There, you are on your own.” He smiled and kissed her. Elizabeth was beginning to relax when he suddenly disappeared beneath the water.
“Will!!” She cried and her arms started beating the water as she looked around for him, falling out of the float and now bobbing, completely helpless to return to the shore. “Will!” He popped up beside her. “What were you doing!” She cried and hit him.
“I was gone only a moment.” He hugged her, treading water as she buried her head on his shoulder. “I did not mean to frighten you, dearest.” He kissed her and managed to remove her arms from his neck. “Now, come, float.”
“This is not enjoyable, please may we return to the shore?”
“Not yet. Float. Come on, beside me. You know what to do.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes and said something under her breath, but managed somehow to float again. Darcy easily did the same, and holding her hand, pointed to the sky. “Open your eyes, love. Look above you.”
“What am I looking for?” She gasped. “Oh Will!”
“Is it not beautiful?” He said softly. “Look at all of the stars. Do you not feel as if you are floating amongst them, up in the heavens?”
She turned her head to look at him. The soft glow of the moonlight reflected off his face. “It is not the same as lying on the grass and looking, is it?”
“No.” He did not take his eyes from the sky. “Not at all. I just wanted you to experience this with me one time. I used to sneak from the house and do this as a boy.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. There was nobody to stop me, no siblings to expose me, only a sleepy governess.” He laughed when she gasped. “I know, I am a fool, what if something happened …”
“Please do not teach this to our children.” Elizabeth demanded, and cried out again when he let go of her hand and disappeared under water, only to reappear beside her. “Please stop doing that!” He smiled and took her into his arms.
“Do you like it out here in the water?” He kissed her.
“I think … that with a little more practice, I might not be so scared.” She hardly noticed, but Darcy was moving backwards, kicking his feet and taking them back to the shore. When she felt the mud squishing between her toes again, she looked around in surprise. “How did we get here?”
“We swam.”
“We did not do anything …” She stood and noticed his gaze was focussed on her breasts, the dark nipples were hard from the cold and shone clearly through the fabric.
“Good God.” He whispered as his gaze travelled down to her hips and back up. “How in heaven’s name did I resist you at Longbourn?”
“Too many people were there.” She said softly, touching his shirt that clung so tightly to his chest.
Biting his lip, he reached to do the same. She gasped when he touched her breasts. “Lizzy?’ Instantly his desire was gone. “That was no cry of pleasure. Did that hurt?”
“It … it was … I am sure that it will go away …”
Darcy pulled her hand and they walked out of the lake to the warm dry grass. Elizabeth shivered and he wrapped his arms around her. “How long has it hurt?”
“A week or so …”
“And you said nothing?”
“I thought it might be my courses starting, they are a little late and …” She felt him stiffen. “I do not know, Will.”
“Could it be?” He whispered.
“I do not know. Aunt Susan and Aunt Gardiner told me everything to look for, and … We will see.” She smiled at the expres
sion of utter confusion and hope spreading over his face. “What are your questions?”
“When will we know?”
“I suppose when my courses come or when I feel … somebody inside of me.” Darcy laughed and she looked down at his hand pressed to her belly. “Please do not raise your hopes too high. Please.”
Smiling into her eyes, he brushed back her wet hair. “I will try. And if not this time, then … soon.” She nodded and he looked back to his hand on her belly. “This is why you are so sleepy and weepy.”
“Maybe.”
“Oh, Lizzy.” He sighed and then laughing, he pulled her into his arms. “Your maybes are music to me.”
“Your ‘oh Lizzys’ are music to me.” She laughed when he chuckled. “Shall we try swimming again? We are already wet.”
“Are you sure?” He tilted his head when she nodded. “Very well, then. Let’s go.”
Chapter 28
“There are times that I despaired of Richard marrying, and then times that I despaired of who he would choose.” Lady Matlock read her son’s letter from Sommerwald and looked to her husband. “I pray that he has chosen well. After these past days with Albert and Anne …” She looked around their private sitting room at Matlock and sank down into a chair. “Barton, if that girl becomes Countess … She can put up a good fight when she has to, I will give her that, but she wilts like a flower when the performance is over. Thank heaven we had separate carriages and she did not have to keep it up. Albert tells me that she is quite good with him, but he knows that she cannot possibly take my place.”
“It was not so long ago that you were unconvinced of Elizabeth’s worthiness, and Richard assured us of Darcy’s good sense. Now both Elizabeth and Darcy praise Miss Kelly. I think that they just might know what they are speaking about.” Lord Matlock poured out a healthy glass of port and sat down. He read Richard’s letter and lifting his eyes, gazed upon a landscape of his estate. “Besides, with Richard married …” He waved his hand, “At last we will have a chance at a healthy heir.” He raised his glass in toast.
“Catherine has not given up her hopes for an heir from her daughter.”
“Catherine has a difficult time giving up hopes for many things, even when they are glaringly lost.” Lord Matlock sighed. “A trait that we share, unfortunately.”
“Were you surprised that Albert was willing to help restore the estate?”
“He is doing it for Richard, he admires his brother.” Lord Matlock took a drink of his wine. “I think that is enough reason for him. What truly surprises me is how he is attending the wedding.”
“Is it unwise, do you think?”
“I do not know. Either it will do him a world of good to see Richard happily married and secure or … it may make him sink into melancholia again when he truly sees what he nearly destroyed. What we nearly let him destroy.” Seeing his wife speechless, he nodded grimly. “I hope that I am wrong, of course.”
“Where did we fail him, do you think?” Lady Matlock asked quietly.
Folding his hands over his belly, he spoke to his feet propped up on a hassock. “If I knew that, it would not have happened. Maybe I indulged him in response to my father’s iron grip. Perhaps this was his destiny.”
“You sound like your sister and her proclamations for Darcy. But there is no denying that Matlock is saved.” Lady Matlock closed her eyes. “Do you think that Albert has a son somewhere?”
“I am certain that he fathered an entire brood. My heir could be living in a gutter somewhere, my heir, if only for a wedding.” He looked at his wife. “Would you have approved such a match, if you had known this was our only chance for a child from Albert? Would you have rather had him married to one of his courtesans or worse?”
“How could we have known, though? How could we know it was even his child?”
“You are avoiding the question. If that was your option, what would it be? Would you truly want Albert, with all of his failings, siring the next earl? Or are you happier with Richard?”
“Both are my sons.”
“Our sons.” Lord Matlock closed his eyes. “For a brief moment at Christmas, Elizabeth managed to bring our family together. Do you remember that?”
Lady Matlock looked out of the window at the beautiful day. “It is something I reflect upon … probably too often for my own good.”
AS YOU WERE MARRIED FIRST, it is only to be expected that this same joyous news would have been delivered to us long ago from Pemberley. Please do not lose faith, Brother. As Mrs. Collins has proven herself fertile, I am certain that her sister shares the same fine qualities, and it is only a matter of patient anticipation before you will experience my happiness. Mrs. Darcy’s worthiness to be your wife will be proven time and again. For my part, I cannot be more pleased with my choice of bride and will now wait, albeit impatiently, for our delicate seedling to take root and grow. As He instructed all of man, ‘be fruitful and multiply’. Mrs. Collins is glad to perform her duties as she vowed on the blessed day of our union. I can only hope that Mrs. Darcy’s contrary nature will abate and she will receive you, and incubate your most potent issue to produce Pemberley’s heir without further delay. I am quite certain that Mrs. Bingley is solicitous of her husband’s needs, she is such a lovely and agreeable woman.
“Good God. My Elizabeth could have been married to that?” The image of Elizabeth with Collins appeared unbidden and brought with it the same flood of emotion that drove his sudden proposal. Darcy stood and pacing away to the window, he stared out towards the lake. But memories of evenings spent under the stars with his wife only made his anger towards Collins’s insult grow.
Returning to his desk he snatched up the letter, and reading the paragraph again, struck the pages with the back of his hand. “How the devil am I to respond to this? Congratulations, old man, your prowess is clearly greater than mine. How fortunate you were to select the better sister! It seems your utter rejection by my wife has at last worked in your favour! I hate to admit it, but yes, I practically have to beg for her compliance, clearly my most potent issue is not allowed to do its work! What a fool I was to take Elizabeth to my breast!” Disgusted, he tossed the letter onto his desk. “I am surprised that he does not offer me the secrets to enticing my wife to the marriage bed as I am such an inept and ineffective lover. No, that is incorrect, it is not my fault, it is all Elizabeth’s. Where is his opinion on her barren womb? Contrary, my foot! Rejecting you was sheer brilliance!” He looked at the signature. “You are a brother by consequence. That is all.”
Thoughts of his conversations expressing his hopes for a family to Mr. Gardiner came to mind, as well as the elder man’s calm reassurance. Darcy’s cheeks puffed as he blew out a breath of frustration and resumed his seat. Taking the letter up again he saw where the effusions ended and questions of the estate began. Spitefully, he debated if he would let the man founder for a month or so without a response. “Let him make a decision without me, and then we will see who the man is.” He growled and hearing something strike the floor, looked across the room to where Elizabeth was curled in a chair. Her legs were tucked up beneath her, but a stockinged foot hung over the seat, and a letter remained in her hand as she slept. His expression softened, “I have a feeling that my wife is just fine.”
Leaving his response for a calmer moment, he set to work on his other correspondence until he noticed Elizabeth stir. She rubbed her eyes, sending a surreptitious glance his way. He smiled to himself and kept his head down.
“So, what do you think?”
“Think?” Elizabeth blinked and then clearing the frog in her throat, sat up to hunt around for her missing slipper. “About what?”
“Well … if you are not going to listen to me, I will not ask your opinion.”
“I … Of course I was listening! I … I just was hoping you would clarify your question.” She bent down and spotting her shoe beneath the chair, set to work putting it back on. Darcy’s eyes twinkled, but his face was smooth when she loo
ked back up. “Well?”
“Well?” He sighed. “It is of no consequence. You are a woman, you would hardly be interested. I was wrong to try and ascertain your opinion.”
Elizabeth’s mouth dropped open. “But … A woman!”
“You are not a woman?”
“I am, but … what does that have to do with what … what we were discussing?”
“Absolutely nothing, I was merely indicating that as a woman you are disinterested and therefore did not pay me any attention. So I will not bore you with such things again.” Waving his hand, he picked up his pen. “Go back to your letters; they are far more interesting than I.”
“Fitzwilliam …” She looked at the letters piled by her side and put down the one she had been reading. “You know that is not true, I want to …” At last she looked at his face and said accusingly, “You are teasing me!”
“Am I?” His brow rose. “About what exactly?”
“I am not sure, but your eyes are full of merriment.” Huffing she reached for a new letter. “It is unbecoming to laugh at someone. Have your little joke, but be sure that your mother is very disappointed in you.”
“Do not drag my mother into this, Elizabeth.”
“Your governess, then.”
He chuckled and ducked when a pillow was tossed at his head. “Careful love, do not begin something you do not want to finish.”
“Who says that I do not want to finish, and what, by the way, would constitute a proper ending?” Although her chin was raised, her eyes were sparkling.
“Come bend over my desk and I will show you.” Darcy grinned.
“You would like that.”
“So would you.”
“You are far too smug. Go read your letter.” Elizabeth ordered and breaking the seal on the note in her hand, she hid behind the pages, peeking over the top to see that he was still smiling at her. “Go to work!”
“Yes, my sleepy girl.” Winking, he picked up his pen and managed to contain his laughter when she glared. They fell into the same companionable silence they always shared while reading their post. While considering a question, he looked out of the open window as the breeze fluttered the draperies, then noticing Elizabeth, quietly stood.