by APRIL FLOYD
The colonel’s words were meant to soothe Elizabeth but again, as with Jane’s conjecture regarding Mr. Darcy, she grew quite nervous and stepped away from the circle of her friend’s arms.
“I want to go to him now but I cannot think he wishes to see me for any other reason than to say we must never be more than mere acquaintances.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam took her hand and nodded to Jane. “I have been instructed to return with both Bennet sisters under my care. Mr. Bingley is with my cousin and I believe he and Darcy have planned this afternoon. Let us go before either of you may think better of it.”
Jane stood and placed a hand upon her hair and then looked down at her day dress. “I did not know I might be required to pay a call to Darcy House today. Will you spare a few minutes Colonel? I wish to go upstairs for a moment.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam gave a slight bow. “Take all the time you must, Miss Jane, though I say you are most lovely today just as you are.”
Elizabeth giggled at her sister’s sidelong glance at the dashing colonel. Her heart was most decidedly given to Mr. Bingley but the handsome soldier managed to bring a blush to her sister’s cheeks. “You must not tease her so, Colonel.”
“It is no tease, I assure you. Miss Jane is a handsome young lady and Bingley is immensely fortunate he won her heart before I met her.”
The colonel’s words did not surprise Elizabeth. Her sister was beautiful, kind, and amiable but she could not see the colonel with a woman quieter than himself. He seemed to need a challenge in life and Elizabeth thought he would also need one in the woman he chose to marry.
“Mr. Bingley nearly missed his chance, did you know?”
The colonel gave a nod. “I gathered it was your sister Darcy warned him against after we had left Rosings. I still feel shame to have bragged about it to you that last day when we walked together.”
Elizabeth took his hand and led him to the sofa. “Mr. Darcy has explained himself on that score and though I cannot forget the pain it caused Jane, I can allow Mr. Darcy to redeem himself. He promised if Mr. Bingley proposed to her, he would not interfere again.”
The colonel shook his head. “It seems I cannot depend upon any of you to sing my praises to Miss Jane.”
“I have told her of your kindness and bravery, sir. But I cannot steer her heart from the one she truly loves. I do have three more sisters at home, though.”
Elizabeth laughed as she spoke the words knowing Kitty and Lydia would never do for the dashing military man, nor Mary. Especially not Mary. She was as serious as the younger girls were silly.
Jane met them in the parlor, her dress changed from the sensible beige to a lovely rose silk that caused her cheeks to glow delicately. Her hair was pinned again and Elizabeth knew it was her sister’s favorite style. It showed her features and graceful neck to their best advantage. Poor Richard Fitzwilliam! He looked as though he might drop to one knee here in the parlor!
Instead he offered an arm to each sister and escorted them to the carriage awaiting at the front door of the townhome on Gracechurch Street.
Chapter 13
Elizabeth was surprised when the carriage from Darcy House turned into the entrance of Hyde Park. “Colonel, why have we taken a detour?”
Richard glanced out the carriage window. “We have entered the park! I believe it was my order to the driver that has caused our slight diversion.”
He sat back with a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. Elizabeth and Jane peppered him with questions as the carriage rolled to the northwest end of the park.
Colonel Fitzwilliam kept the ladies guessing with noncommittal answers. By the time the carriage stopped in the place where they had picnicked with Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, the colonel let out a comical sigh of relief.
“I do love this area of the park more than any other, Colonel, but should we not make haste to Darcy House?” Jane asked as the colonel stepped out of the carriage.
He offered his hand to Jane. “There is not a soul at Darcy House, Miss Jane. Everyone has come for another picnic.”
Just then, the Gardiners arrived in their carriage. Elizabeth covered her mouth for she was so surprised they had come with her cousins. “Jane, I fear we have been plotted against these past few days.”
Jane laughed and took their Aunt Madeline’s hands. “I believe so, Lizzy, but why?”
Uncle Gardiner took out his watch and tapped the surface of the object. “We are right on time. Where are Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley?”
The Colonel motioned his party towards the path between the trees. “They await us near the largest spring with Georgiana and Anne. Let us join them now.”
Again the colonel escorted Elizabeth and Jane as the Gardiners followed behind. The path opened to a private picnic under the trees. Miss Darcy and Miss de Bourgh stepped forward to welcome their guests.
“Miss Elizabeth, Miss Jane! Please come and sit with us and leave the men to their talk,” Anne de Bourgh said as she glanced from her friends to their Aunt Madeline.
Elizabeth thought it odd that neither Mr. Darcy nor Mr. Bingley greeted them but instead sat with Uncle Gardiner at the dining table the servants had set up for the picnic.
Jane nudged her gently with an elbow as they followed the women of Darcy House to a blanket spread closer to the spring. The Gardiner children immediately began their exploration of this part of the park with their nanny in tow.
“I told you, Lizzy, Mr. Darcy has a most serious question to pose today. What answer will you give?”
Elizabeth began to think her sister was correct. Her knees shook a bit with the thought of Mr. Darcy proposing again, this time being different because her feelings for him were different. “Perhaps it is Mr. Bingley who will seek a bride today, Jane. What will you say? Have you forgiven him?”
Jane’s cheeks flamed and a smile parted her lips. “I have forgiven him, Lizzy. A gentleman can change his mind as well as a lady, I suppose. Still, you have not said what you might do if Mr. Darcy proposes.”
The ladies sat together on the blanket and Elizabeth was not able to answer Jane with the excited chatter of Miss Darcy and Miss de Bourgh.
Elizabeth could not keep her eyes from wandering to the men at their table and the expectations all present must have for Mr. Darcy and whether she might accept him.
Unable to sit and listen to another moment of the conversation amongst the ladies on the blanket, she stood and made her way to the gentlemen’s table. “Mr. Darcy,” she said, “I must speak with you, sir. I fear I cannot find peace until I do.”
Uncle Gardiner rose from his seat and led Mr. Bingley and the colonel away. He knew there was no use in chastising his niece, for she had endured much torture since the night of Lydia’s unwilling rescue from that scoundrel Wickham.
“Miss Elizabeth, I cannot find my own peace without you. My affections are unchanged but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”
Elizabeth gasped. She had not thought he might speak of his feelings so soon. There was much more they must say to one another! “No!”
The lone word came from her very heart, she did not wish for him to remain silent on the subject of his love for her.
Mr. Darcy was charmed by her surprise. “Would you like a moment to gather yourself, my dear?”
“Yes. No! Please. I…” Tears came and she brushed them away as he leaned closer and took her hand.
“How can you have forgiven the terrible things I said to you in Hunsford? And the terrible thing my sister did with Mr. Wickham? So much pain you have suffered because of me.”
Mr. Darcy brushed away the tears that persisted. He meant to turn them to happy tears in the moments ahead of them. “The only pain that shall pierce me now is if you refuse me once again, my Elizabeth. I behaved so abominably, it was my behavior that confirmed your dislike of me. But I have resolved to be a better man so that I might have the only woman I have ever loved in all my life. Is there some small chance of your returning my af
fections now?”
Elizabeth rose swiftly from her seat and closed the distance between them. Only just in time did she recall his wound and the stiff manner with which he sat upon the seat before her.
Gently she took his face in her hands and marveled at the joy in his eyes. He loved her still! It was a miracle she had barely hoped to believe. “Oh, Mr. Darcy! Yes, I do have so great an affection for you now as to make me feel quite honored and humbled by your request for my hand. You are the best man I have ever known. You are so kind and generous, not at all what I once thought you to be. There is no consideration that might keep me from accepting your proposal.”
Elizabeth stood with her sister Jane in their own tent on the grounds of Netherfield Park. The sisters would wed Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley in but an hour’s time.
As the maids fussed with their dresses, the sisters sat in companionable silence. They had left London for Longbourn the day after Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley had proposed in Hyde Park.
Now, a month after that fateful day, they would become married women and be parted for the first time in their lives. “Lizzy, shall we see one another often do you think? I cannot imagine a day passing without your presence.”
Elizabeth pushed a curl behind Jane’s ear. She wore the delicate pearl earrings their mother had been married in so many years ago. Mr. Bennet had given Elizabeth his mother’s necklace from her wedding day.
“I overheard Mr. Darcy advising Mr. Bingley that he must settle near Pemberley, that there is a wonderful country estate not more than a few miles down the road. Surely Mr. Bingley would not wish to see you pine for me.”
Jane’s countenance brightened. “If he speaks of it, I will say that we must for I cannot be so far from my dearest sister. I would take Kitty with us, and Mary too. I am not certain Lydia should come, but I fear leaving her here alone with Mother and Father.”
Elizabeth ran a hand across the silk of her skirts. The dresses had been made in London as Miss Darcy and Miss de Bourgh would not be denied the joy of planning a wedding for their friends. “I have decided that Lydia shall be sent to school in London, a place where nuns will watch over her and see that she behaves.”
Jane had not thought of such a thing. “Why Lizzy! What a brilliant plan! It is just the thing for her to do. Once she has served some penance for her attempt to ruin us all, I will be happy to have her in my home here or in Derbyshire.”
The maids moved away as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet entered the tent. “Come girls,” Mr. Bennet said as their mother exclaimed over every detail of Jane’s appearance. Elizabeth was not jealous, nor did she disagree, her sister was the most beautiful she had ever been.
The Bennets led their two eldest daughters from their tent to the gardens of Netherfield. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley awaited the two brides near a fountain with the vicar from the church in Meryton.
Elizabeth took the bouquet of lavender and handed Jane the one filled with lilies from the Netherfield greenhouse. “We shall be Bennets no more, my dearest Jane. Shall we go to them and live happily ever after?”
Jane squeezed her sister’s hand and led the way to the vicar and the handsomest gentlemen in all of England.
About the Author
April Floyd is a wanderer of the world and lover of great stories who now resides in the Last Frontier with her husband and youngest child. Days are spent doing the mom thing, managing the house, and not missing the working world although sticking people with needles can be such fun.
www.authoraprilfloyd.com
[email protected]
Also by April Floyd
Austen Inspired
The Parson of Pemberley
No Promise of the Kind
Mr. Darcy’s Brides
Spells Spoken Lightly
Darcy & Lizzy
Mr. Darcy’s Good Opinion
Mr. Darcy’s Debt
Properly Humbled
Clever Compromises
Miss Bennet and the Beast
Christian Fiction/Romance
Cassidy Jane
Courting Cassidy Jane
Wedding Cassidy Jan
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