Smoky Dreams

by Jaeza Rayleigh

  Darcy's dreams that night were filled with light and images of all those he loved. He found himself walking in the gardens at Pemberley. Elizabeth was by his side and they were surrounded by group of smiling or laughing children. By some he and Elizabeth were called Mama and Papa, some called them Aunt and Uncle, but all of them clearly knew they belonged. The group wandered near the fountain and there, on the bench shaded by a set of climbing rose bushes trained over a trellis, sat his parents just as he had seen them so many times when he was a child. They smiled approvingly at Darcy, Elizabeth and the whole crowd of happy children.

  Georgiana walked by the fountain as well, arm in arm with a man whose face Darcy could not make out. They greeted the children by names Darcy could not quite hear before approaching the bench to receive their own approving nods from his parents.

  Suddenly the garden became the ballroom at Pemberley. Unlike his previous dream, the chandeliers and wall sconces were filled with the finest and brightest of candles, giving off a pure and clear light. There was no mud, no sorrow and no Aunt Catherine as the room filled with couples dancing what he recognized as the new dance from the continent, the waltz. All of Elizabeth's sisters were there, dancing with men he knew to be their husbands. Anne danced as well, as did Miss Maria, Richard and Charlotte. Even Bertie was there with his wife, Heloise. Off to the side, his own parents stood and watched with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips and Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner for company.

  Darcy was dancing with Elizabeth, of course. As the music continued with a steady 1-2-3, 1-2-3 beat unlike any of the dances he was used to performing, he stepped and spun in moves that already seemed to be a part of him. Elizabeth wore the sage-green ball gown again and matching ribbons were twined in her hair. Topaz jewelry brought out the highlights in her eyes and hair and she seemed to shimmer and sparkle in the candle light. On and on the music went and round and round they danced amidst family and friends. Everything was just as it ought to be.

  The music still ran through his mind when Darcy woke. He took that as an omen. Today was the most important day of his life. He was determined to enjoy every minute of it. Whether his dreams were prophetic or just an expression of his hopes, he planned to make that joy a part of every day to come.

  Carefully, he dressed in the suit he had decided on for the wedding. If Chalmers fussed a little more than usual over the tie of the cravat or the polish on the buckles of his shoes, Darcy did not mind. He wanted to look his best as much as Chalmers wanted him to.

  He went down for his coffee, not surprised to learn Richard and Bingley were not in the breakfast room yet. Bingley was always a late riser and Darcy knew Chalmers had gone to assist Richard into his very-civilian dress clothes which were a big change from the dress uniform he would previously have worn. Pouring and preparing his first cup of coffee, Darcy took it with him to sip as he looked out the breakfast room window. The sun was just rising. Snow had fallen in the night, but now the sky was clean and crisp without a hint of cloud, mist or smoke. The radiant orb slowly climbed, shedding ever more light over the land and turning the snowy landscape to a picture of glowing gold. That moment of clarity after a night of dark dreams nearly two months before came back to him. So much had happened and so little of it had gone according to his original plan. Yet here he was, where he had wanted to be. Today he would marry Elizabeth Bennet.

  ~*~

  Mrs. Bennet might have scaled back some of her plans, but the church was still very well-decorated with ribbons and small posies of those lace roses the girls had sewn. Darcy had to admit it was a cheerful sight. He stood at the front of it all with his best friend and the cousin who was nearly a brother to him. The church filled with people, but Darcy was not uncomfortable. These were all friends. How odd that thought would have seemed two months ago.

  With three grooms, there was not much room at the front of the church to add three best men. They settled for one and Mr. Archer had agreed to take on the role when Darcy asked it of him. Without the help of the magistrate and his honest account of Darcy's faults, his marriage would not be taking place. It seemed only right to have Mr. Archer play an important part in this special day, and Richard and Bingley made no objections.

  Mary had been playing a gentle piece of music on the pianoforte in the church, and playing it well, much to the surprise of those guests who had not heard her recently. Now she switched to a bridal march and all three men turned to the door.

  Sir William Lucas entered first, with Miss Lucas on his arm. She was smiling and looked both happier and prettier than Darcy had ever seen her. He hoped that boded well for her future with Richard. As Sir William stepped aside, Mr. Bennet appeared at the end of the aisle with Jane on one arm and Elizabeth on the other. To Darcy's surprised delight, Elizabeth's dress and bonnet were trimmed with ribbons of sage-green. She beamed at him and he had to catch himself to stop from walking towards her. He barely noticed Jane except to see she also wore a supremely happy smile.

  The couples had decided on a single service with each responding to Mr. Colter in turn. Neither Darcy nor Richard could help turning and checking for Lady Catherine when the vicar asked if there were any objections. She was not there and no one else spoke, so the wedding proceeded as planned. The final prayers were said, the register was signed and the six single men and women who had stood before Mr. Colter now walked out as three married couples.

  The breakfast was everything Darcy had expected and more. He was truly glad Mrs. Bennet had stopped where she had. As it was, the decorations were extravagantly elegant. Any more would have been vulgar.

  Darcy and his wife (oh, how good that sounded) accepted congratulations and chatted with the guests. Georgiana rushed up several times to hug them both and tell them how happy she was. Anne only hugged them once, but she seemed just as happy about their wedding as Georgiana.

  To Darcy, the party dragged on far longer than he had hoped, but eventually Elizabeth agreed they could leave without giving insult. While his haste to depart still caused some comments and teasing, no one really took offense. As they took the short trip between Longbourn and Netherfield, he told her he had dreamed of her wearing a sage-green gown and hair ribbons again that morning and had been happily surprised when she did.

  "Again?"

  "Yes. I have dreamed of you in a gown that color twice before. Both of those were troubling dreams, but last night I had dreams of us at Pemberley, family all around us and a garden full of children, ours and those of our sisters. You wore the green ball gown as we waltzed the night away. I woke with the music still in my head."

  "The waltz? How scandalous. Have any of your dreams come true before?"

  "Bits and pieces. You remember it was a dream that brought me back to you. They may not all be prophetic, but I am learning to listen to my dreams."

  "What dreams do you think you will have from now on?" Elizabeth asked as they pulled to a stop before Netherfield's main door.

  "Only the happy ones, my dear. And those are the dreams we shall keep." Pulling her close to him, he gave his wife a single passionate kiss. "Shall we go in and start making more dreams come true?"

  The footman opened the door. Through it, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy stepped out into the bright light of the day, leaving the smoky dreams of the past behind.

  Chapter 36: Epilogue

  As the final notes of the music died away, Darcy bowed to his wife and received an elegant curtsy in return. He loved the waltz, or more accurately dancing the waltz with Elizabeth, and was glad it had become a favorite in the ballrooms of the Ton in the last few years. He and his wife had added it to the end of several balls at Pemberley even when it was still considered a bit scandalous, but now they could count on dancing it wherever they might be invited. These days most balls had more waltzes than country dances on the schedule.

  Pemberley's ballroom looked particularly fine this evening. Of course, it was always kept sparkling clean and was lit with only the best of candles and clean burning oil for the
lamps. What made it look so good this evening was the collection of family and friends gathered to celebrate the triple wedding anniversary. He was amazed at how ten years seemed to have gone by in the blink of an eye.

  A few faces were missing, but without causing much sorrow. His aunt, Lady Catherine, was one of those. Lady Catherine may have gone quietly back to Kent after her confrontation at Longbourn, but she did not stay quiet for long. Over the next year after the triple wedding, she tried several times to wrest back control of Rosings Park. Anne stood firm, with courage she had learned from her "Bennet sisters" and Mrs. Bennet along with full backing from Darcy and Richard. Even Bertie gathered his courage to support her, along with forbidding Lady Catherine from ever entering any of his homes again.

  The choice of parson for Hunsford was nearly the final straw as far as his aunt was concerned. Mr. Waller had come highly recommended by Mr. Colter of Meryton. His background was a little unusual, but that was part of what made him the perfect candidate. As the third son of a land-rich but cash-poor family, he had entered the army at a young age with a low rank. He trained hard, fought well and impressed his commanding officer, but without noble connections or the ability to purchase a higher rank, promotion was slow arriving.

  Over time, the Ensign became a Lieutenant, but the Lieutenant found himself questioning not just his military career, but the whole business of war. A strong wish for peace and more loving service to his fellow man tugged at his heart. After losing two fingers on his left hand in battle, he took the opportunity to make a change. Selling his commission, he scraped together all the funds he could and returned to school with the intent of becoming ordained as a clergyman. He and Mr. Colter met at this time and forged a friendship maintained by regular, if limited, correspondence.

  With the same diligence and determination that had served him so well in the army, Mr. Waller finished his courses and passed the ordination exams, looking forward to the task of ministering to and saving souls rather than ensuring their swift delivery to the afterlife. By making use of every connection he could muster, Mr. Waller obtained a post as curate in a good parish, with reasonable expectations of obtaining the living when the elderly incumbent went on to his final reward.

  But expectation does not equal certainty. Just before Mr. Colter began writing to his acquaintances on Mr. Darcy's behalf, the newly vacant living was not only granted elsewhere but the new holder declared he had no need to pay for the services of a curate, giving Mr. Waller notice he would need to leave. The opportunity mentioned by Mr. Colter appeared a godsend, even if it came with a sting in the tail in the person of Lady Catherine.

  Mr. Waller eagerly expressed his interest in the post. Darcy and Anne interviewed him. Both liked his combination of steady determination and compassionate care for others. The Bishop approved their choice and by mid-March, Mr. Waller was moving into his new home in the Hunsford Parsonage.

  War broke out immediately. Lady Catherine was livid at the choice of clergyman being taken from her. She despised and derided Anne's appointee. When the Bishop, first politely and then less so, insisted she stop writing to him to rescind the position and refused to allow her an interview in person, she tried to gain control over the new parson through threats. Mr. Waller took her raging as so much wind in a transitory storm. He calmly let her blow herself out, then returned to whatever task he had at hand. Even when she interrupted the church service, like a toddler in a tantrum, he stopped and looked at her with pity while she had her say, then returned to interpreting the words of the Great Father for his flock when she was done. The villagers soon followed his example as they realized the old woman no longer had any power to harm them. On seeing how little impact her rages had, Lady Catherine eventually decided to express her distaste by avoiding Hunsford altogether.

  Soon the household learned the same lesson as the villagers. Darcy, Elizabeth and Georgiana traveled to Rosings Park with Anne and her new companion, an excellent woman hired through Mr. Gardiner's agency, in the early summer. They established themselves in the house over Lady Catherine's objections and responded to her abusive words with the same unyielding patience Mr. Waller had shown. Darcy had been in contact with the clergyman and felt this was the best way to present a united front instead of continuing to argue with a woman who had already demonstrated a complete inability to comprehend any other viewpoint than her own. Whenever she spoke, she was listened to with every appearance of respect, followed by an immediate return to whatever conversation or activities her target had been engaged in. So long as she made no attempt to hit anyone with her walking stick, they took very little notice of her.

  With Darcy to back her, Anne assured all the staff that she was now the person in charge. While no deliberate disrespect or neglect of Lady Catherine's comfort was to be tolerated, decisions about the running of the house, expenditures and staff assignments would be made by Anne going forward. It was quite a shock to a staff accustomed to seeing Miss de Bourgh as a silent puppet to her mother's will when they were introduced to this confident woman willing to fight for her own rights and the proper running of the estate that was hers. A few of the senior staff were unwilling to take her direction and had to be replaced with others Mr. Gardiner found for her. By the time the Darcys left, after a visit of a month, they had full confidence Anne could hold her own in the face of any objections from her mother. She did so, although she left the estate twice that autumn for short visits to Meryton and spent Christmas with the Bennets and Gardiners at Longbourn as a means of taking a break from her mother's ill humors.

  Despite, or rather because of, the loss of her power, Lady Catherine continued to have fits of temper expressed through shouting and petulant behavior. One day in late March of the following year, after yelling over a change to the dinner menu that was not to her liking, Lady Catherine stomped away to her favorite sitting room, one where she usually sat alone, since Anne and her companion generally preferred the company of the pianoforte after dinner to the company of her mother. When the housekeeper ventured into the sitting room later to put out the candles and lamps, she found the former mistress of Rosings collapsed in a heap at the foot of her favorite chair. She had apparently died of an apoplexy shortly after entering the room. The entire household breathed a sigh of relief.

  After her mother's death, Anne found she enjoyed her time at Rosings Park far more, although she also frequently invited visitors to keep her company. The Bennets enjoyed a stay there the following summer. Georgiana, with Mrs. Annesley to accompany her, was allowed to join Anne for a month before Darcy and Richard, along with their wives, arrived to visit and complete an audit of the estate accounts for Anne. She also felt free to go on visits of her own and could be found spending time at Longbourn, Pemberley, Mossridge or the Bingley's new estate, Larch House in Shropshire.

  It was at the latter she met James Townsend, an artist and member of a prominent local family. While still very wary of letting anyone control her life again, Anne allowed herself to be courted for nearly a year before she agreed she loved him and was willing to become his wife. He was no fortune-hunter either, as he proved with his ready agreement when Darcy negotiated the settlement to leave almost everything possible of Rosings Park in Anne's control.

  Mr. and Mrs. Townsend followed the Darcys from the dance floor along with the others who had enjoyed the waltz. Anne smiled as she went on her way to speak with Mrs. Bennet, who presided over a small group of local matrons in a comfortable arrangement of sofas Darcy had placed for her use. Anne's three-year old daughter Marianne, who rested upstairs in the nursery with the other family children, looked on Mr. and Mrs. Bennet as grandparents. With their encouragement, she called them Grandpapa and Grandmama and was doted on by them as much as any of the other grandchildren.

  Darcy spotted Richard and Charlotte standing near the refreshment table. Those two had not been married long before they both admitted to having fallen in love. Together they worked hard to make Mossridge a happy, prosperous estate
. Richard found Charlotte's good sense and practical nature a great help when assessing solutions to the many small problems that plagued them at the start of their residence.

  Seeing them so happy now, Darcy remembered how consumed with worry Richard had been during Charlotte's confinement with their older son, Alexander, who at nearly nine years of age ruled the nursery upstairs. Richard had fussed and fretted, doing a good unconscious imitation of Mrs. Bennet at her worst. Not all Sir William's laughing reassurances nor Darcy's attempts at calming him made a difference. It was only when he held his wife and was introduced to his son that he was able to properly breathe again. The second time, a year and a half later, was not as bad, although he still worried the whole last month before the birth. Young Howard was just as healthy and strong as his older brother, yet he seemed to have a bit more of Charlotte's good sense. Now they were expecting again, and Darcy knew both were hoping for a daughter to round out their happy family.

  Darcy's oldest son, Bennet, fell just between Alexander and Howard in age. The three would likely be inseparable as they grew older. Ben was everything Darcy imagined his wife would have been had she grown up with all the freedoms generally given to boys. The eight-year old was a happy imp, even when he was not following Alexander into trouble. The only thing that pulled him back inside was the lure of a good book and everyone knew to find him in the library on rainy days. For all his love of fun, he was also a great protector to his five-year old sister, Amelia, and his three-year old brother, Francis. Their youngest seemed to have his father's solemn nature, but only time would tell if he retained it under the prodding of his lively older siblings and equally lively cousins.