Georgiana, remarkably relaxed, was beneficial in easing the conversation between the younger Bennet girls and Anne, Alice and Emilia. Jane and Mrs. Gardiner easily conversed with Lady Fitzwilliam, and even Mrs. Bennet spoke calmly and rationally. Eventually the Viscount and Colonel broke away from the ladies to speak with the other men. Darcy was listening with keen interest to Mr. Gardiner on Lord Elgin’s latest acquisitions of ancient Greek marble, and Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. Her betrothed seemed ready to befriend her uncle. Elizabeth was left, for the moment, with making conversation with Caroline and Louisa.
“Miss Eliza! I offer you congratulations on your engagement,” Caroline began.
“Thank you, Miss Bingley.”
“Such a superb match for you! I was rather surprised to hear the news, for Mr. Darcy hates deceit of any kind and yet he never mentioned the real reason he was so eager to part for London.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Perhaps, like understanding how to tease him, your intimacy has not yet taught you his reserved nature. You can certainly understand his desire to keep the engagement a secret, especially when he was uncertain how long his business might take.”
Louisa interjected then, “He and Charles were off very suddenly. I suppose he hated being away from you at all.”
Elizabeth smiled at the true compliment from Mrs. Hurst. “I assure you, it was keenly reciprocated.”
Caroline narrowed her eyes, clearly trying to find some kind of flaw in the argument, but Louisa spoke again. “It was very sly of him to have Charles stay with him so he could be off to Netherfield the instant he was available to return.”
“Oh, and Charles was able to spend so much time with dear Georgiana!” Caroline nodded to the girl and smiled in triumph.
“Yes, it must have been a relief to Mr. Bingley to experience the sisterly companionship Georgiana could give in your absence. I am very pleased to gain such a pleasant sister, but of course you know that joy as you are such dear friends with the one you are to gain.” Elizabeth glanced at Jane.
Caroline’s eyes widened in alarm and she looked to Jane.
Jane, having heard the pre-arranged cue, turned her attention to Caroline and Louisa. “Your brother has made me so happy! My joy is all the better as I know I am bringing pleasure to so many as well. For all my family wished for the match and now with two such dear friends, who have always showed me every attention, as sisters my life will be complete.”
Louisa stammered some kind of agreement. Caroline looked distressed for only a moment, but seemed to take the news with a fortitude Elizabeth did not expect.
“Happy am I that Charles found himself such an agreeable bride and one who is, as you say, such a dear friend. I can scarcely believe how fortunate I am.”
Jane leaned in closer. “I can see your concern, dear Caroline, but have no worries. Wherever I am mistress there will always be space for you. I could never treat you wrongly.”
Caroline gulped, but before she could say anything in response, dinner was announced and they all moved to the dining room. The Countess and Darcy were seated next to Elizabeth.
“I could not help hearing your conversation with Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst, and I must tell you how much I admire your subtlety,” Lady Fitzwilliam said to Elizabeth.
“Thank you, your ladyship.”
“It is plain for everyone to see how much my nephew cares for you.”
“I am pleased to hear it.”
“You are much more sly than he.”
“Do you mean to suggest I am too reserved in my admiration?” She nearly laughed at the idea that she could be like Jane.
“If he is convinced of it then it is quite enough for me; however, I have seen your relatives cast confused looks at you.”
Elizabeth allowed her eyes to find her aunt and uncle, who indeed were looking at her in perplexity, and she blushed. “They were surprised by the news of our engagement.”
“I like them very much. I would suppose it natural for them to wonder why a man in my nephew’s position would desire to marry a tradesman’s niece, but it is you they seem confused about. I daresay they find my nephew infinitely sensible to marry a lady with such beauty, intelligence and talents.”
Elizabeth took a sip of wine while she collected her thoughts. Lady Fitzwilliam spoke with kindness but a shrewdness she had not expected. “Thank you, your ladyship.”
She took a deep breath and decided on honesty. “Mr. Darcy and I had an unconventional courtship. He believed he owed a duty to his family to marry better, and so he concealed his admiration. I believed he disliked me and all my friends and family. I understand he was surprised by his feelings and, I assure you, so was I. We both masked what we believed was imprudent to feel, we acted accordingly, and spoke unguardedly to others about it. Miss Bingley likely has some stories of Mr. Darcy insulting my origins and, sadly, the whole of Meryton knows of my declared dislike.
“I was also free in expressing my feelings in my letters to my aunt and uncle, but was too embarrassed to write to them of my changed understanding of Mr. Darcy’s character and the enlightenment of my own admiration. It was only when Mr. Darcy declared himself, and I understood the true depth of his regard, that I was able to openly reveal my attachment. My Aunt and Uncle are simply very protective of me.”
“I am pleased to hear it and thank you for speaking so honestly. My nephew has had a false sense of duty about him. His education was not managed very well due to his parents’ death at an early age. He has frequently felt he must be irreproachable and has desired to live up to a very idealized version of his parents.”
Elizabeth let out a light laugh. “Forgive me, your ladyship. I was previously convinced your nephew and I were very much alike in many ways, but on this we could not be more different. My own parents never provoked that sentiment in me.”
Lady Fitzwilliam cocked her head and looked at Mr. Bennet and then his wife for a moment. “I believe I can understand how it might feel to a child, but I see two very affectionate parents. It is a parent’s prerogative to be embarrassing. Allow the Earl to have more than two glasses of port with the gentlemen, on top of this wine, and you shall see why Alice and Milly keep casting me worried looks.”
Elizabeth glanced at the parties mentioned and had to stifle her laugh. “Forgive me.”
“Nonsense, child. We all laugh over it. We must all have some folly in us.”
“Yes, your ladyship,” Elizabeth said smilingly brightly.
“Please, call me Aunt Eleanor.”
Elizabeth eagerly agreed and the rest of the meal passed, surprisingly, without incident. When the ladies withdrew, Darcy’s female cousins sidled next to Elizabeth to speak with her.
After some time, Alice blurted out, “When did you know you were in love with Darcy?”
“Alice!” Emilia chided.
“What? As if you do not wish to know?”
“Well...”
“We certainly do!” Lydia said, joining them, and Elizabeth looked up to see the entire room fixed on her.
Blushing profusely, Elizabeth mumbled incoherently at first. Seeing the confused looks the others gave her, she took a deep breath and tried again. “After one of our arguments, while explaining to myself all the deficiencies in his character, I had a sudden moment of clarity, an epiphany. I had attempted to make out Mr. Darcy’s character, but realized my own instead.”
Alice frowned. “That is not very romantic.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I am afraid I am not very romantic.”
“Well, then when did you fall in love with him?”
Elizabeth laughed again. “If it was a surprise to learn it then, how would I have known when it happened?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I can only say that I believe my heart knew his even before I understood my own.”
“Do you know when he fell in love with you?”
Elizabeth laughed. “I do not think I should say, for it would give you a very poor impression of him.”
; “Tell!” Alice and Lydia cried together and even Caroline seemed intrigued.
“Well, I am convinced that he could only admire me for my impertinence. In my confused feelings and supposed dislike I treated him very badly, being both impertinent and argumentative, but he is so noble and just he turned my faults around. It is reasonable to think that he was simply tired of those that flattered him, for there was no actual good in me at all.”
Elizabeth did not notice the men begin to filter in, or the glances of her audience, until she heard Darcy’s voice rather near. “Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane while she was ill at Netherfield?”
She startled for a moment but recovered quickly, “Dearest Jane! Who could have done less for her? But make a virtue of it by all means. My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be; and I shall begin directly by asking you what made you so shy of me during all that time?”
“You certainly gave me no encouragement.”
“You might have encouraged me more. You never looked like you cared for me and you scarcely talked to me.”
“A man who had felt less, might.”
“How unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give, and that I should be so reasonable as to admit it!”
Smiling at Darcy, she heard her aunt ask the room, in general wonder, “Goodness Gracious! Are they always like this?”
Bingley laughed outright, but Caroline answered, with laughter in her voice. “Always! I daresay they border on incivility to the rest of us.”
“Could there be finer symptoms? Is not general incivility the very essence of love?” Colonel Fitzwilliam said while glancing at Caroline, who blushed.
Not perceiving his words could mean anything else, Elizabeth laughed. “It is true, Darling. It was always as though no one else existed when we would speak.” Belatedly she realized she used such an endearment in company but a quick glance around the room showed no one seemed shocked.
“And now you know why I could never be sociable with anyone else.”
Elizabeth scoffed in disbelief. “You were unsociable your first night in the country!”
“And you were in the room, were you not?”
Half the room rolled in laughter. Bingley cried out, “Darcy! She was the one I wanted you to dance with!”
“No! No, you pointed to some other lady. Elizabeth sat next to her but she looked much older and different than Elizabeth.”
“You did not think you were mistaken in your understanding after we dined at Longbourn and you met all the girls? I told you I wanted to introduce you to Jane’s sister!”
“I believed you were mistaken!”
The whole room joined in the laughter at that pronouncement. Patting his arm, Elizabeth breathlessly declared, “That, as you can see, none of us have a problem believing.”
Darcy coloured a little. “Perhaps I was not so haughty as you presumed, Dearest, but I had my conceit. I thought highly of my own sense and worth; apparently I could not even acknowledge the possibility that I was mistaken, even then, and to my friend.”
Caroline muttered something.
“What was that, Miss Bingley? I could not hear you.” Alice asked.
“Oh, it was nothing.”
“It sounded like you said my cousin had once declared of Miss Elizabeth, ‘She a beauty! I would as soon call her mother a wit.’ Is that not what it sounded like to you Milly?”
“Alice!”
“What? Should not Darcy have a chance to defend himself to that statement?”
The room was suddenly very quiet, and Caroline was quite red. “I...I...I am certain I have misremembered,” she stammered out.
Darcy waved her off. “There is a perfectly rational explanation, and it will answer your query from several minutes ago, Alice. I was already quite falling in love with Elizabeth—and before she disliked me so much to be as she calls herself ‘impertinent’—and so it is as Richard says, I was horribly uncivil.”
He raised Elizabeth’s hands to his lips. “Will you forgive me for being so arrogant? I felt I must disguise my attraction.”
“It is as I said. I realize now that you were masking your real feelings.”
He walked over to Mrs. Bennet and took her hand in both of his. “Will you forgive me for insulting you?”
“We all know I have no wit. Lizzy gets that all from her father. Heaven help you, son.”
The Earl staggered from the sideboard, sloshing his glass and then raising it in a toast. “To the future Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, Heaven help you both! Damned fine port you have, Bennet!” The room erupted in laughter.
Epilogue
December 9, 1812
Pemberley
Darcy searched for his wife of nearly one year, letters in hand, and found her in the mistress’s study.
“Dearest, I just received the mail and there are letters for you.” Before handing them into her open hand, he continued with mock scowl while looking at one. “This is written in a masculine hand, but is not from your father. Tell me, is it your custom to engage in illicit correspondence with gentlemen? Or is there something special about this date?”
She broke into a wide smile at his tease, but simply replied, “Tend to your own letters as I tend to mine, William.”
She snatched the letters from his hand and settled on the settee as comfortably as her body, growing heavy with child, would allow. He settled in the chair next to her. She flipped through her stack before setting them aside.
Mrs. Jane Bingley wrote tales of little Charles from their new estate, not thirty miles from Pemberley. Lydia wrote from Rosings. After meeting the year before, she and Anne de Bourgh became fast friends and corresponded for months. At long last Mr. Bennet agreed to allow his youngest daughter, who was greatly improved in temperament, to visit the estate. Elizabeth looked forward to reading her sister’s thoughts on Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Lady Catherine had finally reconciled to the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth some six months ago. Elizabeth laughed to herself as it was just the time when they announced to the family their suspicions that Elizabeth was with child. How amusing that Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet would share the same feelings at the news! Mrs. Bennet was still on the silly side but assured of the love of her husband, the respect of her children, and no longer fearful of the future, she was much calmer and nearing sensible.
Elizabeth knew the letters from Mrs. Gardiner and Lady Fitzwilliam were corroborating dates for spending the Christmas holidays together, once again. This year it was to be at Pemberley. She was so pleased the Earl’s family got on well with her family from trade, and that Darcy loved them almost as dearly as he loved her.
The letter from Anne held news of an engagement, or so Elizabeth strongly suspected. Perhaps it was not quite a love match, but Lady Catherine was shrewd. Due to the breach with Darcy, Viscount Arlington was invited to Rosings more frequently. The two were well suited to each other and, more importantly, the relationship was Anne’s choice and was not forced on her by others.
Elizabeth smiled at the letter from Mrs. Caroline Fitzwilliam. Caroline and Richard got over their bickering shortly after Elizabeth and Darcy exchanged vows. Released of her bitterness and jealousy, and inspired by the love matches around her, she realized she would rather have affection than consequence and yielded to her admiration of the good colonel. Surprisingly, she proved quite an amiable friend, even when Elizabeth teased her for being smitten with a gentleman in a red coat.
While hearing the faint sounds of Georgiana, Mary and Kitty in the music room, Elizabeth watched surreptitiously as her husband made a great show of leafing through his own letters. She saw a small smile appear on his face as he tenderly traced the direction on one envelope before tearing open the seal.
“And who has written you, to inspire such a look?” She asked in pretend jealousy, a
nd leant towards his chair to espy the handwriting.
He grinned and answered, “An impertinent acquaintance I once thought I would have to give up, but keeping it was the best thing I ever did.” His eyes returned to the parchment in his hand as heat began to creep up his face. The letter was decidedly more affectionate than the one he had received a year prior.
Glancing towards Elizabeth he was pleased to see she had opened his letter, and was just as affected by his own loving words.
“William,” said the voice that could still set his heart beating too quickly. “How did you ever love me? I never spoke to you without wishing to give pain. I could bring nothing of worth to the marriage. Had you been perfectly reasonable you never would have cared for me.”
“I could ask the same of you, Elizabeth. You knew no actual good of me.”
“Now, be serious,” she said, even as she leaned closer from her seat.
He answered with a teasing smile she could never resist. “I will if you will.” He took her nearest hand, drawing circles on it as he leaned even closer to her.
“Perhaps we might answer at the same time?” She smiled at the game they had often played in the last year. She closed the gap between them, touching their foreheads together.
“I knew you by heart,” they replied in unison. Their lips met and it was some time before either could speak again as they were much more agreeably engaged.
The End
Undone Business
A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation
Rose Fairbanks
Undone Business
Rose Fairbanks
Published by Rose Fairbanks
©2015 Rose Fairbanks
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews, without permission in writing from its publisher and author.
One Autumn with Darcy Page 19