by Aimée Avery
Confused and terrified, Elizabeth found herself frozen on the bed as she held the sheet up to cover her breasts and felt the tears slip from her eyes. She tried with all her might to keep the sobs from escaping and she closed her eyes in hope of finding help from the darkness.
“Lizzy! What’s wrong?” William hurried to the bed, setting down a tray on a nearby table.
Elizabeth opened her eyes as he wrapped his arms about her. “Why are you crying?”
“I woke up and you were gone... I... I th-thought... thought that y-you...”
“Shh. Elizabeth. No. I’m not gone. I’m not going anywhere.” William wiped the tears from her cheeks. “And neither are you. We agreed to that last night, remember?”
Elizabeth nodded. She instantly felt as if she was five years old again, and William was saving her from the frightening shadows of the cave.
“Let me close the door,” William said as he rose from the bed and headed for the room’s open portal.
Elizabeth followed him with her eyes, and noticed that her luggage had been brought up and placed by the closet door. “You brought up my bag?”
“Yes, love. I didn’t think you wanted it as a permanent fixture in the foyer.” He winked, and Elizabeth smiled. William returned to the bed and removed his robe and slid back under the sheets. He reached over and picked up a large mug of coffee and took a sip.
“It’s still a bit warm, but drinkable,” he said as he handed the mug to Elizabeth. “I thought we could share as we talked.”
Elizabeth sipped and waited for William to begin.
“Why did you run away, Lizzy? I don’t understand. I’ve never understood. The first time was that last summer. You weren’t ill, were you?”
“No,” Elizabeth looked at the coffee in the cup, took a sip and began her story of a little girl who had fallen for a young boy, only for that boy to grow into a man while she seemed to remain a child.
She felt she must have rambled on and on, not sure of what her point was, but William seemed to understand all of what she was saying. Suddenly tears began to trickle from her eyes as she remembered turning twelve and developing, and feeling horribly ugly.
“Everyone would stare at me. I was so embarrassed all the time. I ended up with all of Jane’s hand-me-downs, and they didn’t quite fit. And you stopped talking to me.”
William chuckled. “I’m sorry, Princess! That little blue bikini got me into a world of trouble!”
“What?”
“I was one of those who stared, love,” William said as he watched Elizabeth’s stunned and hurt expression. “You were the most beautiful female I had ever seen. You had the body of a twenty year-old woman. I couldn’t help looking.”
“I did not! I …”
“Elizabeth! You were gorgeous, and even more so now. Your body matured young and quickly. I can understand that it was difficult to understand everything at that time, but you surely can see it now.”
“Yes, I can see that part of it, but… but w-why did you stop talking to me?”
William wiped his hand over his face and signed. He took the cup and sipped the now cold coffee, grimaced, closed his eyes and explained.
“I would stare at you. I was fascinated by all your curves. You were still my Princess, but yet you had changed into a hypnotic siren that called to my hormones. I would go to the cave and… Oh, Lord. Well, let’s just say that I took care of anything that would cause me to be embarrassed.”
Elizabeth started to laugh. “Are you saying I got you all hot and bothered?”
“Extremely!”
“But why wouldn’t you talk to me? I mean, I would think that…”
“Lizzy! I couldn’t talk to you. If I got too close to you, I would have scared you to death! Besides, your father had my father take me aside and, well.” William stopped and turned away from Elizabeth.
“What?”
“Apparently, your father had witnessed one of my excursions to the cave.”
“He saw you whacking your willie?” Elizabeth chuckled and William gave her the evil eye.
“Yes. He also heard me.”
“Heard you?”
“I was fantasizing about you while I… well, I called out your name.” William’s face turned beet red at the memory, and Elizabeth hugged him tightly, and soon the talking stopped and a repeat performance of the night before evolved.
After a shower and lunch, William and Elizabeth made their way out of the house and walked to and all over Hyde Park. By the time the sun started to set, they had cleared the air of many things.
~ • ~
“Okay, explain something to me,” Elizabeth requested as she and William sat down to dinner. “Why is it that neither you nor Georgiana refer to Caroline by name. You always say, ‘Richard’s wife.’ You call her Caroline to her face, right?”
William smiled and picked up his wine glass. After taking a sip, he replied, “Caroline has had a hard time of it. Her parents were in the midst of a divorce when her mother realized she was pregnant. Neither Catherine, her mother, nor Lewis, her father, wanted to have her born into a broken home, so they decided to stay married.
“Catherine wanted to name her Anne, but Lewis insisted on Caroline, so she became Caroline Anne de Bourgh. It wasn’t until she was about three or four months old that Catherine discovered why Lewis wanted to name her so. He was having an affair with a woman by the name of Carol Lynne Miller.”
“Oh my! Are you serious?”
“Quite! Well, Catherine insisted on calling her Anne after that. Poor girl was confused with one parent calling her one name and the other another. Then her father died, and it wasn’t all that long before her mother remarried a man by the name of Younge. He seemed to think it was funny that her father named her after his mistress, and made fun of her quite a bit. He adopted her, but never really cared for her. Caroline used to tell everyone her name was Sally Smith.
“Then she met Richard. He didn’t care about her name, he only loved her. Not counting the summer she came to the States, they were together constantly.”
“She told me about that summer,” Elizabeth added.
“Good. I’m glad she did.” William smiled at his princess, took her hand and kissed it before going on with his story. “After they were pronounced husband and wife, Richard told her she could go by any name she wanted. She told him, and everyone else, that she would be ‘Richard’s Wife’ from that moment on. And for some reason, we just refer to her that way. It always makes her smile. Seems to stroke Rich’s ego as well.”
“I think it’s sweet. Confused the hell out of me, but it is endearing.”
“Good. Now tell me why would your sister name her daughter after a brand of orange juice?” William asked, and Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
~ • ~
“Will is going to take you on a Caribbean cruise? For holiday?” Georgiana said with her hands on her hips. “He never took me on a cruise!”
“Why would I take my younger sister on a cruise?” William interjected.
“Why not?” Georgiana snipped.
“Couples go on cruises, dear sister, so they can ….”
“Don’t you dare say it. Ew! Ew! Ew!” Georgiana practically ran out of the room.
“That was mean.” Elizabeth said with a smile.
“Like I would want to take my little sister on a romantic cruise.”
“Ah, but you will take the woman you are sleeping with,” Elizabeth said as she pressed herself up against him.
“You did say that you would marry me after all. I figure that deserves a reward of some sort.”
“I thought you were supposed to be my reward?”
“Well, I am, but I thought I would toss in something extra.”
“You are such a nice man,” Elizabeth said as just before she pressed her lips to William’s.
“I thought we could fly to New York and do some shopping first.”
“Shopping? William Darcy, have you lost your senses? You don’t
shop!”
“I do with you, Princess. Besides, according to the brochure, there is a black-and-white ball on board. You’ll need a white and very formal dress to go with my black tux.”
“If you say so, but I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“Humor me,” William whispered before he took her mouth with his.
~ • ~
William loaded up all their luggage and latest purchases into the trunk of the rented car, then opened the door for Elizabeth and helped her in.
“I don’t know why you want to drive all the way from New York to Miami. We could just as well fly.”
“I know, but we’ve done all our shopping, and there is still a week before the ship sails. I thought it would be nice to drive and see the countryside. I haven’t been here in years, love. Besides, the lake is on the way. Wouldn’t it be nice to see if the cave is still there?”
“Will, I wonder about you sometimes.”
“No you don’t. Even if you did, you would just have a vision telling you what I’m about,” William smiled. He was fascinated with Elizabeth’s ability, and he tried to help her accept that it was normal for her to have visions. She had told him of her wanting to hide her ability, not let anyone know and how and why she would doubt what she would see, even though every vision had manifested. Well, except one.
“Ha, ha, very funny, Mr. Darcy.”
“Lizzy?” William asked as he drove along the interstate.
“Hmm?”
“I was wondering.”
“Uh huh?” Elizabeth replied as she looked through a magazine.
“Will you marry me?”
Elizabeth looked over at William. “I believe I already answered that question. Do think I’m going to run off or something, Will? I’m not, you know.”
“I know. I meant, will you marry me today?”
“Today?”
“Yes. At the lake… in the woods… at our cave?”
Elizabeth couldn’t hold back her tears. She swiped at them as she nodded her reply.
“You can wear that while gown you chose for the ball…”
“And I have just the shoes for it! But…” Elizabeth’s joy seemed to slip.
“What is it, honey?”
“My family, friends, Georgiana…”
“This is for us. We will do something with them as well. But this is for us.”
Elizabeth smiled again and nodded.
Everything had been arranged days before, and Elizabeth couldn’t have been more surprised and thrilled with William’s romantic surprise. It was perfect. It was how they started, so it was only natural it was how they should begin the next part of their lives.
Elizabeth dressed in the white gown she found in New York and added the ballerina shoes. The lady who ran the lake retreat placed a tiara she had left over from a costume party on top of Elizabeth’s veil to keep the breeze from blowing it off into the trees during the ceremony.
Elizabeth walked slowly through the trees and to her knight, who stood guard just outside the small cave. After taking their vows and kissing to seal the bond, William and Elizabeth Darcy walked slowly to the main cabin, where they would share a bit of cake and some Champagne.
“I love you, Elizabeth,” William whispered in her ear. “I hope you like your present.”
Elizabeth looked at William with an odd glance just before he pushed the door to the main cabin open. The sudden sound of applause jolted her as she realized her entire family, all of her friends, Georgiana and Richard and Caroline all stood inside.
“Dangnab you, Elizabeth!” Elizabeth turned to see Jane growl at her then stomp her foot! “How dare you run off and get married like that!”
Elizabeth stared at her sister.
“It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw!” Jane pointed to the big screen television on the far wall. “The whole thing was being filmed, and we watched in here as it happened.”
Elizabeth didn’t seem to register the television or the fact that her wedding had been televised to all in the clubhouse.
“Lizzy! Lizzy!” Sara Gardiner shouted as she ran up to her older cousin. “You’re so pretty. You look like a princess!”
Elizabeth turned to her new husband and said, “You made it come true! This is what I saw… in the cave… all those years ago!”
William Darcy smiled. “I love you, Princess!”
Epilogue
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been here,” Elizabeth whispered as her husband, behind her, wrapped his arms about her waist.
“Our wedding day,” William said softly into her ear before he kissed her neck, just below her lobe.
“It’s a beautiful night. The sky is clear and the stars are flooding the sky.” Elizabeth stroked her husband’s cheek as she spoke.
“And all the kids are asleep.”
“How many stories did you have to read Elsa to get her down?”
“Four, but she liked the one I told her about the knight who found a princess in a cave.”
“Mr. Darcy! Are you telling your children fairytales again?”
“Oh, quite the contrary, Mrs. Darcy!” William turned his wife to face him then proceeded to kiss her senseless. “Besides, Elsa looks so much like her mum, that it’s hard to refuse her.”
“Yeah, she has you completely wrapped around her little finger!” Elizabeth laughed.
“Are you saying that my children control me?”
“Well, let’s just say that you can be a very indulgent father, but I think Elsa has the most power over you,” Elizabeth spoke with a gleam in her eye.
“She’s only four, Lizzy! And perhaps a bit too much like her mother!”
“Are you trying to say that I have power over you?” Elizabeth caressed the back of Will’s neck as she asked her question.
William growled and pulled her hard against his body. Suddenly he pulled away and grabbed her hand and said, “Come with me, woman!”
“Ooo, what a caveman!”
“More than you know. Your parents are going to stay with the kids. You, my dear wife, are coming with me!”
William escorted Elizabeth away from the large cabin that held his family for the special Darcy Corp. retreat to honor Thomas Bennet’s thirty-five years with the company. They took a path that led into the woods. William wrapped his arm around Elizabeth’s body and held her close to his side as they trekked through trees.
“You’re taking me to the cave!” Elizabeth exclaimed with a smile.
“Of course, where else would a caveman take the woman he loves?”
“Oh, let’s see… Well, I believe I recall you playing caveman in the garage after we came home from our honeymoon cruise…”
“Hmmm, yes. I do believe that is how we ended up with Thomas,” William commented and Elizabeth laughed.
“Then there was that time in that closet at the hospital when Caroline and Richard’s second child was born.”
“I still say that’s where we made Stephanie.”
“I disagree, Will. I think it was when we drove up to Derbyshire.”
“At least we can agree on how ended up with Daniel, Patrice and Elsa,” William smiled as he spoke his children’s names.
“I do believe you like making babies, my adorable caveman!”
“I do and I want to make another one in our cave, Lizzy.” William took her mouth in a searing kiss and backed her up into the cave where their lives together first started.
~ • ~
“I do think it was sweet of William to throw such an elaborate party in honor of your retirement, dear,” Fanny Bennet said as she pulled out her knitting.
“He really did go to too much trouble, but I must admit I am enjoying this,” Thomas Bennet said as he put his feet up in the Darcy cabin. “Besides allowing me a job that I loved for years, the man has given me five grandchildren in ten years.”
“Grandchildren you almost humiliated him into not giving you!”
“Fanny! He was seventeen! Lizzy
was twelve. They weren’t ready! Besides we talked about that years ago. When George died and I went to England for the funeral, Will and I talked all that out. You know that. It would have been difficult for us to work together otherwise. It was embarrassing for us both, but we managed to come to an understanding.” Tom watched his wife work her knitting needles as he spoke. “What are you working on?”
“Oh, just a pair of booties and a matching hat,” Mrs. Bennet answered.
“Blue. Someone is having a boy?”
“Yes,” Fanny looked at her husband and smiled.
“Not you!”
“Oh, for goodness sake, Thomas Bennet! I’m a bit old for that! Well, old for having a child at any rate. Though it is a surprise.”
“Oh, who is going to be surprised? Charles? I know he and Jane have been trying for another one.”
“No. Not Jane and Charles, Thomas. How quickly you forget.”
“Ah, My Lizzy and Will!”
“Yes,” Mrs. Bennet smiled. “But remember, we aren’t supposed to know. Lizzy wanted us to sit with kids so she could tell him.”
