“Now, Jane,” Mrs Gardiner said, “why are you crying?”
Amid tears and sobbing Jane told her fears that either she would not find Mr Bingley at Pemberley or—worse—he would not like her anymore.
Mrs Gardiner took the crying girl from Elizabeth’s arms. Looking at her two nieces, she did not know who was sadder.
“Jane, you have to be brave and face reality, if that gentleman does not like you anymore, there are a lot of spirited men—even around here—ready to please you.”
But her crying did not stop and she whispered, “If he does not love me any more I will die!” She was so determined that Elizabeth covered her face with both hands and begun to cry too. Fortunately, a knock at the door forced them to end the discussion and go down. Mrs Gardiner was relieved. Among people, Jane would have to behave and just before leaving, she shook her slightly and said, “You are not going to die! You are going to smile at those handsome Russell gentlemen. If Mr Bingley is at Pemberley and does not love you anymore, you will put on that yellow dress we bought in London then take Mr Thomas’s arm and look so happy that poor Mr Bingley will die from jealousy and envy.”
Finally, a pale smiled appeared on her face. “Thank you, Aunt!” she said.
She became a little more composed while Elizabeth was wholly destroyed. She thought that they shared a certain peace of mind, but it seemed Jane was even farther away now that they approached Pemberley. Elizabeth’s happiness seemed to vanish just four hours distance from her dream.
Chapter 13
All the way to Pemberley Elizabeth had imagined her arrival—dozen of versions. His eyes fixed on her, his smile, her happiness to be finally there, reunited with him after more than two weeks of separation…But, when Mrs Russell showed them the domain’s borders in the distance, she was sad and worried while the dark circles around her eyes revealed she did not sleep for a moment the whole night. She closed her aching eyes and almost fell asleep. She was awakened from her slumber by Lady Russell’s voice. They all got out of the carriage to find the men already admiring the incredible view of Pemberley at dawn reflected in the lake in front. It was like in the painting from London. Only the time of the day was different, but the sunrise’s colours made all the difference—it was magic. A marvellous purple and orange sky announcing the sun took their breath away. Pemberley shone through fabulous colours that seemed depicted on its walls.
Elizabeth heard an all-around wild exclamation of enchantment. Still, her eyes were already caught by the stairs of the mansion where Darcy was waiting for his guests. Her heart started to march in a frenetic rhythm, her hands were wet and cold and then immediately all her body was suffused in a tremendous warmth. This was to be her home and for a moment she felt oddly angered by Jane and Bingley, making her happiness impossible. Then she got ashamed just as Mrs Gardiner whispered at her ear, “It is beyond imagination, now get in that man’s arms and stay there forever!”
She did not dare to look at her aunt, for her words were so intimate—far from a bit of wise motherly advice—but they were so right. They got back in the carriages and in five more minutes, all descended in front of Pemberley. Afraid that Darcy could pull her into his arms in front of everybody she remained behind the group…afraid but also madly hoping that he would make a desperate gesture and reveal their secret—forcing them to marry in haste. She wanted to marry him, and Pemberley became one more reason. The real one was the trembling she felt in her body when he bowed in front of her. She had no time to think further because as soon as Darcy presented his sister, she invited Elizabeth into the house. Elizabeth looked around to find Darcy’s eyes which encouraged her to follow Georgiana.
Happy to be finally alone—after five days of the same company—Elizabeth smiled and entered Pemberley near Georgiana. It took them only a few steps to declare their pleasure in meeting each other.
“Your brother told me how well you play the piano!” Elizabeth said while they passed through a beautiful maze of dazzling halls and marble stairs until they reached a door that Georgiana opened with a teasing smile on her face. “And this is your apartment, madam!”
Elizabeth turned in surprise to the young girl. They had just met, but it seemed they had been friends forever, it was a mutual feeling, am instant empathy and sympathy. And the girl just called her madam, so before looking around, Elizabeth turned to her and said, “You know, don’t you?” And she watched the girl clapping her hands. “Of course I know, I am so happy you will be my sister…” she blushed and corrected herself, “my sister-in-law!”
Georgianna’s excitement made Elizabeth take her into her arms. It was an instinctive gesture of friendship and gratitude for the way Darcy’s sister welcomed her. The girl’s happiness was genuine, most probably her life had been somewhat lonesome at Pemberley with an often absent brother.
“I am also happy, and yes, we will be sisters. But…”
“How did my brother tell me the secret?”
Elizabeth nodded while she looked in amazement around the room. She thought it was a bedroom, but it was a parlour and probably the door on the right wall was the one to the bedroom. Darcy hosted her in an apartment. Two servants came and deposited her luggage and then two maids entered and bowed.
“Ella and Cynthia are your maids,” Georgiana said. “They have already prepared the bath for you.”
And indeed beyond the impressive bedroom, which she entered led by Georgiana, the dressing room was a vast place with a marble tub in the middle filled with hot water.
She turned to Georgiana, who laughed in front of her delighted expression. “I will leave you.” But she was reluctant to leave Elizabeth, “I hope you do not want to sleep now,” she said like a child.
“No!” Elizabeth exclaimed, “Of course not!”
“Fitz asked me to tell you he will come to get you in an hour, I hope you have time enough to take a bath and get dressed.”
Elizabeth smiled at the cute nickname she had for her brother and then she imagined him coming into her room.
∞∞∞
He arrived precisely one hour later; she was alone in her room, already dressed, standing in front of the window admiring the park and the lake. She heard the knocking at the door and knew it was he, but she did not turn. She liked his embrace when he was her holding her with her back to his chest and it was precisely what he did. After a short moment, he made her turn and their lips clutched in a painful kiss. They were mad and excited, his hands holding and caressing her and, also her hands found their way to his neck and his back. He was kissing her and telling her how splendid she was and then, he wanted to see her.
“You have been crying, my love,” he said, and she closed her eyes.
“Look at me! Do not close your eyes on me please,” he mumbled. “I forbid you to cry, and I will chase away anyone who would make you cry from now on.”
It was a clear statement. He was determined to conclude that story and make her—his wife. His tone, his attitude all were expressing his decision.
He turned her again and made her look at the park and lake while he held her tight. He spoke into her ear, making her tremble, “Welcome to Pemberley, my love, welcome home!”
He caressed her again and for the first time, he gently touched her breasts. Elizabeth cried, surprised. She wanted to protest, but his hands were making her inner parts respond in a painfully delicious way she had never experienced before. So she put her head on his shoulder and let him take possession of her bosom. It was a total abandonment, unlike her stiff body the day he kissed her for the first time. Now, her head leaned on his shoulder. Her sigh, when he caressed her, her body taking his body’s shape told him the woman in his arms had no more fears. He lingeringly caressed her breasts and she said, “Stop.” However, it was a moan, not an order. He slowly placed his hands on her stomach, but she escaped this time and her beautiful eyes begged him to have patience, so he kissed her nose in a gesture that brought a smile to her face.
“Where is Bingl
ey?” she whispered, still unsure of her voice but clearly wanting to come down to earth.
“He is not here,” he said. His voice was calm as though he were giving a piece of ordinary news.
“Why is he not here?” In turn, Elizabeth’s voice was full of anxiety, so he took her into the apartment’s parlour and made her sit. He was watching her eyes ready to stop any tiny tear. He did not want her to cry and, most of all, he wanted that story to end.
“My dear, he did not want to come,” he shortly said, and his words bore no equivocation. “Do you understand, Elizabeth?”
She nodded, but her eyes were full of pain. He took her hands and made her look at him, “It is exactly what I have told you; he had his own doubts and now his decision is clear. It is not his sisters’ advice or mine that made him end the relationship. He did not love her enough or any more. He is 50 miles from here. He answered my letter telling me he wants to go straight to London. Not because he is in a hurry but because I told him Miss Jane is here.”
The tears began to fall from her eyes; he had never seen her crying, and it looked like a tragedy. He took her into his arms and rocked her like a baby. “Shush, my love, hate me or fight me but do not cry! Your tears are killing me.”
But then he stood up and said, “I will send a maid to ask Miss Jane to come down, and this story ends now.”
“No, please Darcy, let her rest, it was a tiresome trip. She is too exhausted to have such news now. She knows he is not here; later, we will tell her the whole truth.”
He nodded and sat near her again. He gently wiped her face with his handkerchief. She finally smiled and only then he kissed her eyes one by one, making her cling to his neck as if for protection and understanding.
“Maybe he is busy,” she whispered, not looking at him.
“No, Elizabeth, please let us be open-minded and see the truth. His road to Netherfield or London passes not five miles from here, and he decided not to stop.”
“I begin not to like him anymore!” she said.
“No, let’s not jump to any conclusion, for now. You are angry and frustrated, but Charles is my friend, and no matter what happens, he will come into our house. I am afraid you make out of a current event a tragedy. He did not make any promise, he did not run from her at the altar. He broke an early story…”
“For you, it is like this.”
“For the whole world it is like this, people like each other but do not marry each time. In fact, we marry once. Miss Jane will have to recover and see what happened in this situation and find another man. I agree not to talk today, but tomorrow after breakfast, we will have a conversation.”
“I want to be present!” Elizabeth said.
“No, you will not. I do not want my future wife to be obliged to take any part, you are going to stay out of this endeavour.”
“Then let me tell her about his letter before you talk to her.”
“Agreed,” he said, “but now come into my arms, I thought these weeks would never end.”
At his surprise, she came and kissed him, but just as she started, she left their embrace. “You are so impatient, other people are in relationships for years and we have not been more than a month.”
On his face, there was pure lust and it did not matter how little they had been together; she already knew what it meant. She was still shy, but strangely though her mind was timid her body was not.
“Between us is a passion,” he said like a teacher explaining a lesson to a young pupil. “It is not friendship or sympathy or even liking but love at her highest volume. I do not want to walk with you in the park but take you to my bedroom and get you naked near me!”
“Stop,” she said blushing. “Is it all that we have?”
“Now, at this very moment, it is all.”
“No friendship?”
Instead of answering, he tenderly kissed her lips. Still, the rhythms grew and he split her mouth and conquered her and then his hands were on her body like no time before, caressing every inch till she cried with victory in her voice.
She stood near him, but they were not touching trying to regain their breath, looking at each other still with hungry glances.
“But later we will be friends?” she asked, and he laughed only to hide he was as bewildered as she was.
“Later, when we are older,” he mumbled in an uncertain voice.
They sat in silence for a long time, just embracing, not even moving and finally, he said, “Let’s go to my bedroom.”
Elizabeth stood up in haste, looking at him with reproach, but it was more a game than real fear.
“Now?” she asked, and both of them knew what ‘now’ meant. She was asking if the time had come. The time for her to be his.
“Do you want it to be now?” He was looking at her, stunned. He could hardly remember how life was before her, and now all that counted was to be near her.
She shook her head; she did not want to be with him that morning still filled with sadness, but on her face, there was a strange expression, one he did not understand.
“What are you saying Elizabeth? That you are ready to be mine despite your crazy covenant?”
“Maybe,” she uttered.
“Although it may happen that we do not marry because of your covenant?”
She nodded and happiness flooded him. He would marry her, that was certain, he would never let her leave Pemberley, but it was such exciting news that she wanted to be with him. To be his before their wedding night. He did not care at all for that wedding night, it was a significant day mostly for women, but he was impressed by her decision. He did not intend to force the pace; she needed to arrive at wanting him, but it seemed she was not far away.
“Do not gloat, you, impossible man!” she scolded him with a teasing tone.
“I can’t help myself!” he replied and she liked his honesty. “This morning I only want to show you our house…and my bedroom.”
“I cannot possibly come to your bedroom,” she exclaimed.
“You cannot come to my bedroom now, but you intend to sneak into my bedroom?”
She blushed but nodded.
“May I know why you cannot come now?”
“I am afraid someone could see me,” she said her cheeks still in flame.
“Elizabeth…” he said pausing to look at her beneath her blush. “You are the mistress of this house, you can give orders to whomever you want…including me!”
She shook her head.
“No? What does it mean? I am telling you that you are! No matter what you think, you will be in a short time. You can go and visit any room, change the furniture, the curtains, toss the old habits and invent some new…you are the mistress of Pemberley and…of her master.”
“Someone may see me in your bedroom.”
“A maid?” he asked, eager to understand her.
“Yes, or a guest.”
“The guests are all in this part of the house, this is the East wing. You are hosted here because I foresaw these difficulties with you. Still, you have a beautiful bedroom waiting for you—near mine—in the West wing, where the family lives. No guest will see you; as for the servants, my darling, at Pemberley, there is no gossip.”
She looked at him, surprised.
“They earn the most in this part of England, they are respected, have a village where their family can live, a school for their children—by far the best condition of life…but they cannot gossip. At the slightest rumour, the guilty one is fired. I have done it in the past just once, it was all that was needed.”
“I like this rule,” she said, “it will stay!”
He took her hand and they strolled the long halls in silence.
It was impossible to know the house at first sight. He showed her where the other guests’ rooms were and then through a narrow hall they passed into the West wing.
“In my grandfather’s time, this was a secret passage between the two wings. I once heard my father say that most probably my grandfather had a
mistress.”
Elizabeth blushed but enjoyed his stories.
“You will not be permitted to use this secret passage,” she jested, making him kiss her hand.
“It is not so secret anymore and I will always use the door between my bedroom and yours.”
He enjoyed making her blush, showing her how their relationship would unfold.
Each time a maid or a servant stopped to bow in front of her, Darcy presented that person. They were all smiling and Elizabeth was under the impression that everybody knew who she was.
“You are the mistress of Pemberley,” Darcy smiled in front of her silent question. When she finally met Darcy’s butler, Scott Rupert, and he bowed with the highest respect calling her ‘madam,’ she realised he was right. She wanted to be the mistress of that place and in the end, nothing could stop her.
He led her first to see her bedroom, and he could do nothing other than feel his heart dancing in front of her wonder and pleasure. Her apartment included a bright parlour in pastel shades of green and violet and brown. She loved the desk that already had paper for her letters and the ink waiting for her; the toilet table where she saw with astonishment all sorts of marvellous jars. She looked at him, and he laughed, “No, my love, they are not from Mama’s time, they are yours, Georgiana brought them for you.”
She opened every bottle: carmine for the cheek—in dry powder, pomade for colouring the lips, Warren and Rosser’s Milk of Roses and a splendid bottle in crystal with Lily of the Valley. He came near her and opened the Lily of the Valley bottle. He delicately perfumed her ears, and his finger moved down on her neck until that magic place between her bosoms. He stopped there, looking ardently at her and then he kissed that place.
“Thank you,” she said. “Everything is delightful.”
Elizabeth's Covenant Page 8
