Imperative: Volume 2, A Tale of Pride and Prejudice

by Wells, Linda

  “I … I do not know, it sounded like … a … sigh? A thump? I thought that it was the wind …” She watched as he raised his brows and looked around at the still leaves on the trees.

  “That was no wind, dearest, and we were not alone.”

  She put her hand to her mouth. “Oh my!”

  “Indeed! And I have no desire to see Bingley in flagrante.”

  “What is that?”

  He brushed the back of his fingers along her cheek, “Is it possible that my sweet Lizzy is still innocent? I hope so. I feel as if we have barely started together, I would hate to feel that way alone.”

  “Innocent?”

  Darcy held her eyes while taking her hand and placing it over the bulge in his straining breeches. “Flagrante.”

  “Oh.” Her eyes widened, “OH! Charles … Was Jane there?”

  Darcy started to laugh, “Lord, I hope so!” His eyes closed as she blushed and gently caressed over the fascinating shape.

  “You feel that we have just begun?”

  “Yes, Elizabeth, in so many ways.”

  “I am relieved to know that you feel as I do.” She rested in his arms. “Sometimes I feel afraid that I am not sophisticated enough for you, or too ignorant. I am fine within the confines of our home, but facing London absolutely terrifies me. If it is anything like tonight …”

  “We shall face it together.” He sighed with her continued caress. “That feels so good, dearest. I was disappointed that our place of privacy was stolen. That is why I stormed out into the garden. I was not angry with you. I just …” He shook his head and lifted his hand uselessly. “I do not know, I wished to bring you relief. We should return, I suppose.”

  “I suppose.” Elizabeth looked up into his darkened eyes and smiled. “How many of these have we wasted tonight?”

  He laughed shortly, “Too many. I have been in a near constant state of arousal, and all I receive in return are interruptions, unwanted company, teasing, and commands to put it away!” She laughed and he placed his hands on her shoulders, “Well I will tell you, Mrs. Darcy, mistress of my heart, I do want to put it away, exactly where it belongs, and I am of no mind to have to waste another moment.” Kissing her, he rested his forehead to hers. “What do you say to that?”

  “I thought that you were not going to wait another moment.” She said softly. When he did not speak, she looked up and found his eyes were on hers. “Will?” Under the intensity of his stare, she blushed and became shy. “Say something!”

  “Are you serious? You … you feel the same? Even now, with a houseful of guests …”

  An incredible sense of power flooded over her, and with a grin, she went to work on his breeches and soon had both hands inside of his drawers. “Ohhhhhh, how warm you are!”

  “Oh, Lord …”

  “What would you like of me?” Elizabeth murmured. “Will? Would you like me to kiss you?” He nodded. “Touch you? Taste …” She stood on her toes and traced the tip of her tongue over his parted lips. She squealed when suddenly he scooped her up and she was spun around while her husband searched for a spot for them to lie.

  “Where can we go?” He demanded.

  “I am wearing white, I cannot lie in the grass!” Darcy’s darkened eyes fixed on her. “I am sorry …” He growled and then looking around, finally picked a direction. Elizabeth held onto his shoulders, laughing as he strode across the lawn, his impressive phallus bouncing against her bottom with each step. “You are spanking me with that stout stick of yours!”

  “I will do better than that!” He declared, arriving at last at a cluster of old trees. Setting her down, he pressed her back against the trunk. “So beautiful.” Darcy was kissing her before she could breathe. His hands held her hips and bunched the fabric of her gown while his kisses engulfed her mouth.

  “Is this what you want, Will?” Elizabeth asked, lifting her skirts above her waist.

  “You tease.” He accused as his hand slid over the swell of her stomach and down between her legs. Groaning, he felt the warmth and slipped two fingers inside. “You are so wet …”

  “Oh, Will …” Immediately he wrapped his hands beneath her bottom, and lifted her up, pinning her against the trunk and plunging in as far as he could go. Elizabeth’s legs surrounded him as he pumped unrelentingly, stretching her deeper and wider with every stroke. “Ohhhhh!” She gasped and held his face, kissing him with the same desperation he felt as he moved, faster and faster until tearing away, he stared down at her and watched his wife’s erupting pleasure. Elizabeth’s mouth pressed against his shoulder and her muffled cry sent the same waves of bliss coursing through his shuddering body.

  “I imagined this today. I watched you sleeping and I imagined this.” Panting, he buried his face against her throat. Breathing in the intoxicating scent of her perfume and pleasure, he felt her soft cheek nuzzling him the same way.

  “Your scent has been driving me to distraction all night.” She whispered against his ear. “I have wanted you for hours.”

  “You have?” He hugged her tighter, entirely unwilling to let her go. “I have wanted you, too.”

  Elizabeth rested her head on his shoulder and laughed. “I never would have known.” Darcy lifted his head to grin. She ran her fingers through his mussed hair and smiled into his warm, happy eyes. “So this is what sent us tearing through the house?”

  “I felt that we were sharing the evening with everyone but each other.” His smile became shy, “Lizzy?”

  “We have shared every moment of it together, Will. We just have not been alone.”

  Tenderly, he kissed her smile. “You are tired and look what we are doing. Shall we send them home?”

  “Before supper?” Laughing, she stroked her fingers through his hair. “I think Mrs. Johns would throttle you.”

  “Your eyes are sparkling like the stars above us.”

  “I like that better than being called a butterfly.” Darcy’s mouth was instantly upon hers and they were once again lost in the pleasure of their embrace. He finally drew away and touched his forehead to hers. “Can you feel it, Will?”

  “Feel?” He whispered.

  “When you love me, I feel like I … I am full of bubbles … the way that you touch me … it just goes on and on and on …”

  “Is that why you giggle when we are joined together?” Darcy smiled and kissed her blushing cheek. “I love when you are helpless with … I do not even know what comes over you. I think that I somehow find a special spot deep within, and stroking that …” He felt her squeeze and again desire was coursing through his body, “Dearest Elizabeth … Let’s find a place where we can lie together. Down by the lake …”

  “Would we be missed?”

  Drawing a breath, he moved his hips slowly, “How long have we been gone? It seems only minutes. I know that it was over far too soon.”

  Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed, “Passion is furious by nature, is it not?”

  “Ours is, I can speak of nobody else.” He traced his lips over her throat, then to moved taste her shoulder and nuzzle her breasts. The tip of his tongue glided up her throat and he recaptured her mouth. Elizabeth shuddered. “Passion is slowly burning, too.”

  “Oh yes …”

  The sound of laughter from the garden reached them and Darcy’s caress paused. Their eyes held.

  She whispered, “I suppose that we should return?”

  “I suppose.” Reluctantly he withdrew and letting her down, he watched her skirt fall around her legs in a sway of fabric. He held her hips again and watched the silver threads sparkle in the moonlight. Elizabeth slid her hands down his chest, and slipping them into the fall of his breeches, fondled him. Finding his smile again, he focussed on the feel of her loving hands. “Lizzy dearest, what are you doing?”

  “I was just making sure that you are put properly away before we join our guests.” She buttoned his drawers and then his breeches. She fixed his waistcoat and reaching up to straighten his neck cloth. Da
rcy captured her wrist and traced his lips down the length of her glove. Elizabeth trembled and closed her eyes.

  Darcy entwined their fingers and whispered, “Are you satisfied, Mrs. Darcy?” She took his hand, held his eyes for a moment, and started them walking back to the house. “I will take that as a yes.”

  “I AM HERE FOR OUR DANCE.” Georgiana started. She was seated on a sofa with her knees drawn up to her chin and hugging her legs. Samuel entered and sat down beside her. “Were you listening to the music?”

  She sat up, “Yes, it seems to have changed a little?”

  “There is a different group performing. Elizabeth secured two sets of musicians so that they could spell each other, and so there would be no lack of entertainment for the whole evening.” Smiling, he touched her hand. “So no young ladies will be pressured to perform during the lulls. I suppose that she is recalling her mother asking her to perform at parties and the like?”

  “Oh. I suppose … She had not mentioned that, or maybe she did. There have been so many details to be arranged and I am afraid that I might have been a little preoccupied in the last week or so.” She sighed. “I probably disappointed her.”

  “I doubt that most sincerely. She has a houseful of experienced women to help her, not to mention my mother, who has enjoyed preparing for the ball greatly.”

  “I saw your parents walking in the garden. It was nice to see them enjoying each other, but I guess that they do not dance?”

  “No.” He shrugged. “They say that they are too old for these new dances we have. When they were courting the minuet was the style. But they have enjoyed the spectacle and speaking to people they have not seen in years. Mother introduced me to a few couples who actually met in the ballroom and began their romances here, some twenty years ago.”

  “Really?” Georgiana smiled. “What a nice thing to know. I wonder if any new romances began tonight? Did you see anything with potential? Did you meet a girl?” She laughed and poked his arm.

  Samuel laughed and sat back with a sigh. “No. She was not in that room.”

  “She?” Georgiana tilted her head. “Who is she?”

  “The love of my life.” He met her eyes for a moment and then looked down at his hands. “I did my duty; I have danced with … seven ladies. Including Miss Bingley.”

  “Oh, poor you. How was it?”

  He looked up at the ceiling. “Indescribable.”

  “She is awful.” Georgiana whispered. “Did she … she did not latch onto you did she?” Her voice rose in alarm.

  He laughed and looked back down to her wide eyes. “No.” Chuckling, he gave her arm a squeeze. “No, I look too much like your brother and own far less than her brother. I am safe from her. William danced with her, too. His lips were set tighter than a … sealed letter.” Georgiana giggled. “His gaze was everywhere but on her face. If he could, I think that he would have had a footman take the duty in his place. But, he is the host and she is his guest. I think that Elizabeth requested the music, it was the shortest dance of the night!”

  “Do you think that she will ever be invited here again?”

  “Perhaps, if she marries a friend. But Bingley will live only twenty miles from here, if she comes to this part of the country, it will probably be to his home.” Standing, he went to lean on the window frame. Georgiana smiled to see the resemblance to her brother but did not say anything. “I actually felt a little sorry for her.”

  “Why?”

  “Here she was, living her dream of dancing with the Master of Pemberley at a ball on his estate, in front of his peers, tenants and neighbours, and yet she was not his wife. What a blow that must have been for her.”

  “I wonder if you are speaking of yourself.” Georgiana said softly. Surprised, he turned to her. “Forgive me.”

  Samuel smiled and approaching her, held out his hands. “Shall we dance? I believe that the next set is about to begin.”

  “That was so rude of me, please forgive me.”

  “That is quite all right. I do admire your sister, but she is not my love, she is William’s.” He led her to an empty space in the room and then stood opposite her. Down below they could hear applause and the conversation increasing, people milling around and taking their places again. “I wonder what it will be? A jig? A reel?”

  “Oh! I cannot imagine Fitzwilliam dancing a reel in Pemberley! I think Elizabeth planned to dance a cotillion before supper, since they surely will not have the desire for such energy again after they feast on Mrs. John’s creations.” Her smile faded and she looked down at her hands and then to the door. “Mrs. Annesley should return fairly soon.”

  “I wondered where she had gone.”

  “She was fetching us some refreshments before everything was eaten up. All of the servants are too busy to bring anything.” Georgiana looked back up at him. “I … I told Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam about …”

  “I know, they told me.” Samuel decided to speak his mind, “You know; it is up to you to tell him to clear off. He seems to respect your brother’s demands to stay away from the property, but he will likely turn up when you least expect it forever. I fear that while he might be benign now, there may come a time when he is desperate again, and he will use your history to his advantage. William feels the same way.”

  “But he loves his daughter.”

  “Does he?” Samuel asked gently. “Or is this just a means to remain connected to you, and play on your heartstrings? No matter what he does, I will not see good in him. It is the goodness of your brother that allows him to live on today.” Seeing her eyes welling up, he stepped across the divide and held her. “If I had fallen in love with you, Georgiana, for yourself and no other reason, and could bear what had happened and kept your secret safe, then I would not be able to bear seeing the man who came before me paying you a call. Ever.” Letting go, he smiled and shrugged. “I thought you might appreciate that gentleman’s perspective. Hopefully you will not need to employ your thoughts on this for a very long time.”

  “I understand. I see how Fitzwilliam loves Elizabeth, and I know that it would destroy him to imagine her being touched by another.”

  Samuel laughed softly, “That is true, I saw him display his feelings not an hour ago.”

  She listened to the quartet beginning to play the last song before supper. “I do not believe that he will ever ask for more. I believe that he has changed, and continues to. I believe that he will only watch after me until I am settled and safe. But I believe that he will look in on Hope for all of his life. She is his blood.” She looked up to Samuel’s kind eyes, “A man will go to the ends of the earth to protect his own, will he not?”

  He smiled and nodded, “A man who loves will.”

  “WHERE IS SAMUEL?” Harding scanned up and down the table while everyone took their seats, and then turned to see the other tables set around the room. “I cannot imagine him missing supper, especially after dancing so much, he must be famished. Should I go and look for him? Something was bothering him before, but he seemed to improve as time wore on.”

  Elizabeth smiled her thanks to Darcy as he pushed in her chair, “I think that he went up to visit Georgiana, Uncle. We met him in the foyer as he was going upstairs before the last dance.”

  His brow creased. “I was planning to visit her after we ate as well. Just to see how she was getting on.”

  “How nice that you were thinking the same. It was very kind of Samuel to go; she must be feeling terribly left out tonight.” Susan smiled and saw Lady Matlock opening her mouth, “I still agree, she does not belong at the ball.”

  “No, she does not.” She looked with satisfaction further down the table to where Manning sat with Cathy. “Although, Fitzwilliam, if she has an appropriate dress, she might come down to dance the Boulanger after supper.”

  “Why the change of heart, Mother?” Richard asked and catching Gladney’s eye, looked far down the table to where their sister sat talking quietly to Manning. “The danger is passed?�
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  “I have no idea what you are speaking of, Richard.”

  “Of course you do! My dear wife related to me the ladies’ conversation.”

  Sophie’s eyes widened, “Thank you, Richard! Now I will be banned from them all for fear that secrets will be revealed!” She looked at her motherin-law. “Truly, I did not say that much, he just takes the slightest idea and starts speculating.”

  “My dear, he is my son. I know him well.” Lady Matlock looked to Richard. “After so many years with him absent from our lives, I can bear his occasional bad manners.”

  “Mother’s desires are hardly a secret,” he shrugged and as he began pouring out some Madeira asked casually with a glance at his host, “Speaking of secrets, where did you two run off?”

  “Run off?” Darcy asked without interest and looking to Elizabeth, saw her quickly signal Evans to begin serving the white soup. He returned his gaze to his cousin. “Did we run off”

  “I saw you take your wife by the hand and fly from the ballroom, not to be seen again for nearly an hour. It reminded me of another ball.”

  “An hour.” Darcy stepped on Elizabeth’s slipper. “That long?”

  “I doubt if it was half that much, the colonel is given to exaggeration, as he has just proven once again.” She addressed Richard while pinching Darcy’s thigh, “Perhaps we were seeing to our guests in other parts of the house. We may have been in the card room?”

  Richard shook his head and watched between them, “Does one run to play cards? Did you have a pending wager on a hand? Was Pemberley at risk for being lost in a raucous round of Whist? Did you see them there, Father?”

  Lord Matlock laughed at his son’s needling. “No, I did not. I was ensconced in my chair for the entirety of the evening, and I saw not a sign of them. Of course, I was putting away a good deal of exceptional port, so anything is possible. What do you say, Albert?”

  “No, not hide nor hair of them. Aunt? You were manning the ballroom on Miss Bingley’s behalf; can you confirm Richard’s observations?”

  Lady Catherine glared at the men. “Enough. The Darcys are hosting this ball with aplomb, their guests are obviously entertained and have not been neglected, why must they account for every second of their time to any of you?”