Elizabeth Darcy jerked as the carriage move forward, but would not allow a misunderstanding to grow between them. If her husband did not wish to be quarreling by the time they reached Netherfield Park, then she had to be honest. It was one of the virtues her father had instilled in her and she still respected her upbringing. Her rejection of her cousin's suit and running away with Mr. Darcy for an unorthodox path to matrimony had estranged Elizabeth from both of her parents, but she still loved them.
"I hold no additional regard for the late Mr. Wickham than I would for any man. From what I gather of the situation, he was a scoundrel of the first sort. But I have not reconciled my feelings about how little you consider my opinion. Furthermore, I have not had any counsel with my Aunt Gardiner or my sister, Jane," Elizabeth explained, believing her words sounded perfectly reasonable.
Now it was Darcy's turn to angle towards his wife and begin to throw his logic her way. "So your charges are that I do not come to you for guidance, and in the same breath you tell me that you need guidance from your sister and aunt."
"That is not fair," Elizabeth Darcy scoffed.
"I am merely trying to understand your feelings, Mrs. Darcy. Are we to come to each other for insights on our most difficult dilemmas or are we not? I was mistaken to keep Mr. Wickham's death from you, but it was done so for your benefit. I did not wish to sully our happy times in Scotland. I had already believed that I had not courted you as you deserved and the resulting guilt influenced my decision heavily."
Elizabeth pursed her lips. She did not appreciate her husband's verbal parry of her well-thought-out reasons for the emotional distance between them. She slowly began to turn away from him, but he reached out to cradle her elbow, and pulled her into an embrace. Elizabeth stiffened, but Mr. Darcy did not fall for such a false flag of communication. As he bent down to kiss his wife's forehead, he sighed, and slowly slid his right hand down her back to massage the area just above where she was seated to ease the aches from travel.
Elizabeth leaned into him so that he reached more easily to rub her back. She moaned at the relief he provided.
"Would you bar me from talking to my aunt and sister?" she asked with an earnest tone of honest inquiry.
Mr. Darcy shook his head and continued to soothe his wife with his roaming hands.
Elizabeth leaned back and looked up at the handsome face of her Fitzwilliam. "Perhaps we can make an accord.If we resolve to come to one another first about major issues affecting our family, we might still seek the counsel of others as we both deem it prudent?" Elizabeth arched an eyebrow as she waited for her husband to respond.
Fitzwilliam Darcy stared into the eyes of his Elizabeth and marveled at her evenhanded suggestion for reconciliation. She had not risen to the bait of his fallacy, but instead turned the entire situation into one that worked in her favor. He would have to agree and in doing so, he would be giving her exactly what she wanted in the first place: a promise of loyalty to her above all others.
"I believe your compromise has merits, Madam."
"But do you agree? It is important to me, Fitzwilliam, that the behavior you are asking of me is the same I can rely upon from you."
Mr. Darcy sighed and pressed their foreheads together, as an ill-timed bump in the road jostled them apart, then allowed them to reconnect with slightly more force than either found comfortable. As they both released each other to tend the minor injury, Elizabeth began to laugh.
"I can recall when I found sitting in a carriage alone with you to be so utterly romantic," she said as she began to fix her skirts and sit straighter in the seat on the bench. "Now I confess that I'm finding so much travel to be an utter bother!"
Mr. Darcy slid closer to Elizabeth so that their legs were touching. He leaned and whispered into his wife's ear. "I would say that I agree with you Madam, but it would be a falsehood." He gently kissed her neck delicately behind her ear and Elizabeth shuddered.
After he trailed a few more kisses along her hairline, their lips met in a passionate kiss. Their hands and lips found many methods to release the growing tensions that remained from their argument in Scotland, and Elizabeth did not forget that her husband had not formally agreed to her suggestion that they always come to one another first. But her heart did not care at the moment. In her mind, what could be deliberated another day with words took second precedence over what passions and stirrings could be satisfied today.
3
Charles Bingley's lease on Netherfield Park would end in October after an emergency extension was agreed to by the parties. Jane Bingley stared at the long list of tasks left in her charge. Even with the extension, it would be a difficult feat to accomplish. The list ranged from a final inventory of the furnishings to help her uncle close out the property to convincing Kitty that some of her larger works of art should remain behind in the attic. They were painted in residence, after all. With so many between the Bennet and Bingley families set to leave the area, the number of wagons and carriages that could carry their belongings was finite. Jane's husband had offered to take responsibility for many of the items left to tackle, apologizing that both of his sisters had left so soon after the baptism of their twins. But Jane remained resolute to her duties.
Truthfully, the excuse of preparing to depart Netherfield offered Jane one of the few breaks in her busy day as hostess to a full house, including her displaced family. Tears, with no inclination as to their reason, brimmed at the corners of her eyes. She looked away from her impossible list and gazed out the north-facing window. The long road stretching beyond the woods remained defiantly empty as it had for days though she earnestly expected her sister Elizabeth's arrival. The last message had indicated an imminent homecoming, but until she saw the express rider that typically preceded Mr. Darcy's travels, Jane tried her best to stymie her hope.
The small parlor she used as her personal office was not decorated to Jane Bingley's tastes. Most of the furnishings outdated her by decades, upholstered in maroon velvets that were worn and the gilt framing long faded. It was furniture that she and her husband did not own.
Jane sighed and picked up her quill to add another notion to the section of her parchment that included her goals for once she and Mr. Bingley chose a house to purchase. Very carefully she inked: furniture for my study.
A familiar, slightly uncomfortable ache began to plague her bosom, and Jane took one last look out the window before admitting to herself that her solitary time needed to end. Her daughter and son were due for their late morning feeding, and though their family did employ a wet nurse, with two mouths to feed Jane still provided much of the babes' sustenance as well.
But when Jane reached the nursery, she was hindered in her efforts to reach her children by the presence of her mother.
"I knew I would find you here. I've just come from your father's room, and he is much improved. I am certain with just one more week here at Netherfield, we shall be able to move into the Stevens' home and see to the rebuilding of Longbourn come spring." Mrs. Bennet renewed her ridiculous idea that opposed all of the plans the Bingleys held for the Bennets.
"Mama please, not this again," Jane pleaded as she walked around her mother and picked up little Lynnie from her bassinet. Jane cooed at her daughter who was far more docile in temperament than her brother, Charlie.
"I do not see why you always feed her first. You should not play favorites among your children," Mrs. Bennet advised, though it was a piece of advice Jane had never seen her mother honor.
"Little Charles is still asleep. I feed the child that is awake when it is time to feed them, nothing else. When you say Papa is much improved, what do you mean?" Jane carried her daughter over to the rocking chair and allowed her specially sewn gown to fall at the bodice. Lynn wasted no time latching on and curled her little fist right around her mother's pinky. No matter how vexed Jane Bingley felt with her mother and her two sisters, Mary and Lydia, who also objected to moving so far away from Hertfordshire, comforting her children alwa
ys brought her joy. She looked up at her mother expecting an answer, and Mrs. Bennet faltered.
"Why would you trouble me with such a question? I have known your father for over two decades, and I know precisely when he is about to make a turn for the better. Mark my words, he shall walk again." Mrs. Bennet's words were shaky as she voiced them, and Jane reached up to stroke her daughter's cheek as the babe fed.
Jane gulped before she braved telling her mother about the expected arrival of the Darcys that very day.
"But with the distance being so far, it also could be tomorrow or the next day," Jane tempered the news so her mother did not fall into a fit. "Once Lizzie arrives, I am certain that we can determine an appropriate solution for all. You know Papa would wish for us all to remain together, Mama. There is just no house available in the nearby countryside large enough for all of us."
"If we rebuilt Longbourn . . ." Mrs. Bennet trailed off and though she liked to get her own way, even Fanny Bennet was intelligent enough to reason Longbourn would not be large enough to house two families. And it would never pass to Mr. Bingley, so there would be no incentive for him to reside there and take up the reins.
So instead, she changed her mind entirely.
"But Pemberley is so far!" Mrs. Bennet complained, loudly enough to wake up her grandson.
The nursemaid immediately stood up from where she was folding laundry in the corner and picked up the child to see to his needs, but Mrs. Bennet intervened. "No, no, go take Lynnie from Mrs. Bingley," Mrs. Bennet stated as she picked up her grandson and brought the child to her daughter.
Jane groaned, but not wishing to have another argument, she kissed Lynn's forehead and surrendered her to the wetnurse. Adjusting her gown, she accepted her son from her mother and offered him her other breast. Jane thought to point out to her mother that her insistence on her feeding both children doubled her work while sparing the nursemaid, but truthfully, Jane did not mind. The difficult part would be traveling so far with the children so young. Her Aunt Gardiner had given her more than a few horror stories of how messy traveling with babes could be.
Once little Charlie was settled, though Jane had to adjust her position since her son did not prefer to nurse in the same attitude as his sister, she remembered her mother's objections.
"Derbyshire is a good distance from our neighborhood, but Charles has assured me the home is more than adequate to provide all of us the time and comfort we all need. Papa will have a suite organized for his specific needs and convalescence. And think of how you will get to help Lizzie plan the entertainment and dinner parties only a home of that scale can provide."
Mrs. Bennet crossed her arms since both children were being tended, there was little employment for her. There was not an extra chair in the nursery, and she saw the interview with her eldest daughter as unsatisfactory.
"All of this is Lizzie's fault."
Jane startled her son by jerking her head up to glare at her mother's outrageous accusation. Charlie began to cry as Jane offered the child a soft apology and helped him settle once more.
"Mother, if you are going to say such upsetting things, I beg you to please leave the nursery." Jane was firm in her words, reflecting on the reminder from her husband that if she did not wish for her mother to trample all over her, she had to assert herself as mistress in the household.
"But I am speaking the truth, surely you can see that," Mrs. Bennet said, regulating her voice to a lower volume.
Jane's emotions began to sour as Charlie's feeding efforts pained her. The boy was likely working on his first tooth, and often gummed her delicate skin when it was time to feed. Jane shuddered at the shock of the pain and jostled Little Charlie to distract him from his aims of soothing his gums and return him to the task at hand.
"Because I know you will explain your ridiculous logic, I will humor this discussion. But if I find it to be without merit, you will not say such a statement to Lizzie or Mr. Darcy when they arrive."
Jane's small allowance was all the opportunity Mrs. Bennet needed to air her grievances.
"If Lizzie had married Mr. Collins, as your father and I instructed her to do so, Longborn would never have caught fire," Mrs. Bennet explained as though the trail from one statement to the next was entirely linear and well reasoned.
Jane shook her head. "That makes no sense at all, Mama."
"Does it not? If she had not upset your father so, there would be no discord in our family. You married Mr. Bingley, you were the obedient daughter. But not Lizzie! And even when she was confronted with the folly of her choices, she still ran away. How do we even know they are wedded? An elopement to Scotland! Your father had it on good authority that they went back to Pemberley and no further." Mrs. Bennet charged as Jane once again winced as Charlie misbehaved. Finding her patience to be at an end, Jane lifted her son to her other shoulder to burp as she looked over at the wetnurse with Lynn. Her daughter appeared to be finished, and Jane carefully stood to swap the children. Lynn happily gurgled in her mother's arms, as Jane began the necessary task that all babies required after feeding by changing her napkin.
"For heaven's sake, call another maid!" Mrs. Bennet again insulted her daughter's care of her own children, and Jane ignored her.
"Have you forgotten how viciously Mr. Collins beat Elizabeth in Kent? I saw her injuries, Mother, and I cannot agree with you that my sister should have married such a brute."
Mrs. Bennet walked over to the pile of laundry the nurse had been folding and selected a clean gown to bring to her daughter for little Lynn.
"Do you think if Lizzie had married Mr. Collins, your father would've allowed her to move to Kent with him? Oh no, Janie, such an event would not have even occurred. No, your father intended for them to live at Longbourn and for Mr. Collins to give up his position with the Church."
Mrs. Bennet explained the plans for her least favorite daughter and did not add that she had been opposed to her husband's wishes. It would have fallen to her to allow Lizzie to help her with the day-to-day running of the household. Now, thanks to her headstrong daughter's ways, Mrs. Bennet did not even have a home to run.
As another maid did appear to help tend the children, Jane shared a glance with the wetnurse that conveyed the woman would not carry tales elsewhere. A permanent position with the Bingley family depended upon her discretion.
"Mama, let's retire to my parlor down the hall." Jane paused in placating her mother to kiss her children a temporary farewell. She and Charles always saw them before dinner. "I will call for refreshments, and we can discuss your concerns more thoroughly." Jane ushered her mother out and left Mrs. Bennet no choice but to retreat towards the door.
"You see? I knew you would understand," Mrs. Bennet smugly left the nursery with her head high, confident that her eldest daughter would support her.
Jane prayed that she could provide her mother with enough time to vent her spleen before the Darcys arrived and warn Lizzie of the lunacy before Mrs. Bennet offended others.
4
Within an hour of leaving the last inn, the surrounding countryside inspired a wave of nostalgia to overtake Elizabeth Darcy. A result from their temporary truce, she enjoyed her husband's comfort while the carriage returned her to Hertfordshire for the first time as a married woman. Thinking of home, she errantly worried that the carriage might not go past Longbourn if the driver chose the longer route to Netherfield Park through Meryton. Frantically, she asked her husband if he had spoken to the driver.
"I do not wish to avoid seeing it, Fitzwilliam. Did you speak to the driver before we left?" she asked.
Darcy hesitated. He did not need to ask his wife for clarification as he had anticipated her distress. But he stood on such fragile footing about making decisions without consulting her, that he did not wish to confess. He had indeed instructed the driver not to pass by the burnt remains of her childhood home. Mr. Darcy did not abide falsehoods, though any such deceit would also be imprudent as he could not conceal any lie when th
e carriage turned on the main road through Meryton in a few miles.
Her husband’s delay in response revealed the truth to Elizabeth. "You told him, didn't you? Stop him! Do something!" Elizabeth’s voice cracked from her panic.
Mr. Darcy considered refusing his wife's wishes. But something in the far reaches of his mind warned him that if anything, his wife was more than capable explaining her limits and telling him where they ended. If Elizabeth Darcy said she wanted her carriage to take a certain route, then by right of her status as one of the wealthiest women in England, her carriage would take that route.
Darcy banged enthusiastically on the roof of the carriage with his walking stick and slowly their carriage came to a crawl, and then to a complete stop. With so many conveyances traveling in a line, the multiple drivers were well-trained in keeping a tight grouping for safety purposes. But such a formation also made any kind of last-minute maneuvers rather difficult.
The door swung open as a coachman helped his employer, and Mr. Darcy stepped out upon the step to speak to the driver directly.
"There's been a change of plans and we will take the old road through Winslow Woods."
"But sir, that will go right by–"
"Yes, we are aware, but these are the wishes of your mistress. Would you care to tell Mrs. Darcy that we cannot make the turn?" Mr. Darcy challenged the driver, Holbein, good-naturedly as there was no question of the man's loyalty. Elizabeth had been instrumental in saving a close relative of the Darcy driver, so he quickly nodded and a young coachman was dispatched to explain the change to the other carriages.
Mr. Darcy took a moment to brush off some of the dust from the road that had clung to his coat sleeve from stepping out of the carriage too soon after the stop. He rejoined Elizabeth in the carriage with gusto.
As he dared to glance at Elizabeth's face, she smiled brightly at him as tears fell from the corners of her eyes.
The Miracles of Marriage Page 2
