Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth

by Greer Boyd

  As Elizabeth slumped against him, he laughed and again possessed her mouth. “Oh Lizzy, my love, I love you so very much.”

  “And I you, my heart,” she almost chanted.

  Both of them were so spent that they simply held one another for almost a quarter hour. As Darcy reached for the small ball of soap and the washcloth that he had left beside the rim of the pool, he asked seductively, “May I assist with your bath?”

  Suddenly envisioning him undertaking a task only ever performed by her ladies maid, her body flushed with anticipation. Raising her head from his shoulder, she purred, “It would be my pleasure.”

  Being still sheathed within her, he helped her to rise up from him and turned her around so that she now sat on the floor of the pool between his legs. Making the washcloth soapy, Darcy began to scrub gently down her back and then down each arm from her shoulder to the tips of her fingers. Turning her around, he caressed the cloth over each abundant breast and down her flat stomach as she clucked softly. He pulled her up to stand before him and washed between her legs carefully from front to back and then down her legs to the end of each toe. When he had finished, he gently pulled her under the water to rinse away the suds and then kissed her yet again.

  Taking the cloth from him, Elizabeth made it soapy again, and after she had him turn around, she scrubbed his back and over his broad shoulders to his fingertips. Moving, so that she was before him, she gently caressed his broad chest and ran her hands down his stomach. She stood and tugged at his arms until he stood in front of her. Looking up at him, as he smiled at her, she gently ran the soapy cloth over his manhood and, reaching around him scrubbed his buttocks then down his strong thighs to the bottoms of his feet. When she ducked back into the water, he followed and she helped him to rinse the soap from his body.

  They sat in the pool cuddled to one another for a few more minutes. Then, she took his face in both of her hands and kissed him deeply. It was not a prelude to another round of wonderful pleasure, but, a thank you for the pleasure that had already been given.

  Elizabeth stood up and stepped to the flat stone, hoisted herself up onto the towels stacked on the rock, and began to pat herself dry. Darcy watched her for a few more minutes then he stood and joined her on the rock. With towels draped around them, they gathered their clothing and walked the few steps back to the lodge. Once inside, Elizabeth put on her robe and slippers. After walking to the little table, she emptied the contents of the picnic basket, while Darcy, clothed in his robe, poured a modest portion of wine into both glasses.

  There was more than enough food in the basket for a light lunch with cold meats, fruits and confections, tea and chocolate, and a note. The note told them where the food for their dinner and breakfast was submerged in the stream in an oilskin bag to keep it cold and dry, and that it was anchored to a rock to keep it from washing away. The note also said that someone would be there the next day shortly before noon to change the bed linens, bring fresh towels, and food for the rest of the day and breakfast for the following morning.

  They ate, and then cuddled in the giant bed before falling asleep within each other’s embrace, only to awaken a couple of hours later to make love again. That afternoon, Darcy in trousers and a shirt under his greatcoat and Elizabeth in a simple day dress and woolen pelisse walked throughout the small valley exploring here and there. Stopping by the stream to retrieve their evening meal, they returned to the lodge to dine and make love again. They once more bathed in the hot spring, and, as Elizabeth dried her hair before the fireplace, Darcy read Shakespeare aloud and afterward helped her to brush her hair. Later they slept, woke and made love, and slept again.

  They made a point of being out walking or exploring the small valley when the servant came each of the days they remained at the hunter’s lodge.

  CHAPTER 21

  Three days after they had arrived, they departed and, looking back from the rim of the little valley, they knew they would soon find time to make their way back again. They rode toward Pemberley House at a leisurely pace and arrived shortly before noon. Everyone rushed to greet them as though they had been gone for weeks.

  Hand in hand, they went to the master and mistress chambers for a quick bath and change of clothing before taking lunch with the family. Afterward, they retired to their combined study to catch up on the stack of letters from their business and investment interests. When they had been in the study a little over an hour, there was a knock on the door.

  “Come,” answered Darcy, as he smiled across his desk at where Elizabeth sat at hers.

  Mr. Dobbs, the butler, calmly stated, “Your Grace, Mr. Quartermain has stopped by and would like to extend his congratulations.”

  “Of course, Mr. Dobbs, please show him in,” said Darcy as he moved from behind his desk to where Elizabeth now stood.

  Entering the study, Mr. Quartermain bowed to both Darcy and Elizabeth then shook both of their hands. “Your Graces, please let me extend my warmest congratulations on your marriage. Unfortunately, I was at Quartermain Downs with my brother Jesse and could not make it back in time for the wedding. Nonetheless, Jesse and I would like to offer . . .”

  Suddenly, he was cut off by a loud cacophony of escalating noise coming from the foyer.

  “LIZZY. WHERE ARE YOU LIZZY?” shouted a voice. “NO! I will NOT WAIT a moment. I have to see my daughter IMMEDIATELY.”

  Elizabeth hurriedly turned to leave the study, shock registering in her voice. She tried not to shout as she called over her shoulder, “Wills, that sounds like Mama.” Turning back slightly, she bowed her head in the direction of their visitor, “Mr. Quartermain, please excuse me.” Darcy, immediately aware of the distress evident in her voice, quickly followed her.

  In the foyer, they were joined by almost everyone else in the house as well. “Mama,” cried Elizabeth, “what is it? What has happened?”

  “Lizzy, oh Lizzy, is he here?” cried her mother grasping for her daughter’s hands and rapidly looking at the faces before her.

  “Is who here?” asked Elizabeth, trying to determine the nature of her mother’s malaise and to soothe and calm her at the same time.

  “The Earl, of course,” cried her mother, as she again searched the multitude of faces looking back at her with utter confusion and surprise.

  Trying diligently to both calm her mother, and direct her to the nearest sitting room, Elizabeth asked, “Mama, which Earl?”

  “Why, the Earl of Greenwood, of course. Lord Daniel Benton,” replied her mother in the calmest voice so far.

  As Mrs. Bennet searched the faces in the crowd that now surrounded her, Daniel came forward and bowed before her. “I am Lord Daniel Benton, Earl of Greenwood.”

  “Oh, no, no, no,” replied Mrs. Bennet as she still searched the crowd. “I must see the Earl.”

  “But, I am the Earl of Greenwood. I am Daniel Benton,” he replied sincerely, his fingers clutching at the edge of his waistcoat.

  “No, no, you cannot be,” insisted Mrs. Bennet, her voice rising a full octave. “You are just a BOY. Where is the Earl of Greenwood?”

  “Mama,” cried Elizabeth grasping her mother’s hands firmly and gently forcing her to look at her. “I can assure you that this is indeed the Earl of Greenwood, Lord Daniel Benton.”

  “NO. NO, it cannot be. He is NOT the father of my child,” cried Mrs. Bennet, before almost collapsing on Elizabeth.

  “Oh my,” was all that Elizabeth could say. Darcy reached for Mrs. Bennet only moments before David caught Mary as she began to swoon, and Jane gripped Charles’ arm so firmly that it was painful.

  Daniel’s face flushed bright red as Clarissa’s went white, and Nathan and Annabel rushed to be a stalwart for both of them.

  Darcy then walked Mrs. Bennet to the nearest sitting room and sat her on a couch just inside the door, where she was quickly surrounded by her family. Darcy stood beside Elizabeth, Charles stood beside Jane, and David stood beside Mary all facing their mother, who sat on the couch, with
Aunt Lilly and Uncle Edward seated on either side of her.

  “Fannie,” questioned Uncle Edward taking a deep breath and a moment to calm his voice, “what is all of this about?”

  “Oh brother,” cried Mrs. Bennet as she frantically waived her pocket square in the air before her, “what have I done? What have I done?” Her pocket square now crumpled in one fist, she dramatically placed both hands against her head and started to sway from side to side.

  “That is precisely what I am trying to determine, Sister,” he continued, trying diligently to both calm her and find the reason for the circumstances in which she now found herself.

  As she twisted and bunched and twisted again the linen pocket square, she cried, “I have made a fool of myself.” Then over the course of the next half hour, Mrs. Bennet recounted how she had met a gentleman who claimed that he was the Earl of Greenwood, Lord Daniel Benton, shortly after the D’Arcy weddings that had taken place in London in November. He had literally bumped into her on Bond Street as she came out of Madame Claudine’s Modiste nearly knocking her off of her feet. She grasped his arm to remain upright, and it was then that he told her that, although he knew that it was not strictly proper, he simply had to introduce himself to such a lovely woman.

  She had been enchanted when he had asked to call upon her at Elizabeth’s house near Cheapside. Over the next two months, he had come during the time Mrs. Upton had gone to the market each week, a charming and delightful visitor. He was so handsome, well dressed, and well spoken. When he invited her to come to dinner alone in his house on High Hill Street and sent his carriage for her, she went without question.

  Lowering her eyes, she held her hands tightly clasped in her lap as she admitted that after the dinner and a bit too much wine, she had ended up in his bed. He had called on her a couple of times afterward and around the end of February indicated he intended to travel to Pemberley to ask Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Bingley for her hand. But, she had heard nothing from him since. She had felt the quickening of the child only a few days before setting off for Pemberley Estate on her own.

  After all the efforts that had been taken with all of the unmarried women in her now extended family over the many months before their weddings, with Elizabeth before her marriage to Darcy, and even now with the young people here at Pemberley, Jane became absolutely livid. “Mama, how could you have been so foolish?”

  “I was so lonely. Your father has been gone for so long. Everyone had gone to Pemberley and simply left me in London,” the distraught woman cried.

  “NO, MAMA,” stated Jane in a voice that shook as she tried to control an anger that neither her sisters or husband or extended family had ever known she possessed. “You were invited to stay at Darcy House and to come to Pemberley or Netherfield with Charles and me or Matlock with Mary and David, but YOU CHOSE to stay at Lizzy’s house in London instead.”

  Realizing that placing the blame squarely where it unfortunately belonged, with her mother, was useless, Elizabeth turned to Darcy and asked, “Wills, do you think that we could find the gentleman and where he lived on High Hill Street?”

  “There is no High Hill Street in London,” replied Darcy brusquely.

  “Your Grace,” asked Mr. Quartermain, “may I speak privately with you for a moment?”

  Darcy had completely forgotten about Mr. Quartermain in all the excitement of Mrs. Bennet’s arrival and looked a bit chagrined when he realized his oversight. “Of course,” he replied. “Please come back to my study.”

  “Your Grace,” began Mr. Quartermain as soon as the door to the study was closed but Darcy interrupted. “Quartermain, you have always called me Darcy. Please, continue to do so.”

  “Darcy, I know this may sound totally preposterous, but I will offer this to you as a possible course of action,” began Mr. Quartermain as he slowly walked from Darcy to the window of the study and back again.

  Darcy nodded his head and Mr. Quartermain continued, “If there is no easy resolution to your mother-in-law’s difficulty, I would be willing to marry her, give the child my name, and raise it as though it were my own. I live far from London, so I do not think that there would be much spoken of my marrying and a child coming so soon afterward.”

  Darcy was so stunned that he literally stumbled into one of the chairs that sat before his desk, and it was a few moments before he could speak. “WHY? Why would you wish for such a thing?”

  Mr. Quartermain ran his thumb over his bottom lip, seemingly to organize his thoughts before he spoke again. With one hand leaning on the edge of the window, he turned back to Darcy. “You know that my wife and I tried for years to have children and were never so blessed. I do not know whether the difficulty lay with me or with her, but that is not the material point here. She has been gone for almost three years now; and, so far, I have not felt compelled to look for another wife even though I do not have an heir. This unfortunate situation may ultimately be the best resolution for both Mrs. Bennet and for me. She would have a husband, and I would have a wife and an heir. Regardless of the sex of the child, it would be raised as my own,” replied Mr. Quartermain, his voice as even as his gaze.

  When Darcy, still more than a bit nonplussed, did not immediately say anything, he continued: “Darcy, your mother-in-law is still a very comely woman. Her excitable and, if I may say, flighty nature reminds me so very much of my Ellen. She, too, was a woman who almost desperately needed someone to look after her, and quite frankly, I have missed having someone to look after. I never thought that I would ever meet another woman who reminded me so much of her. I know that I am in trade and that your mother-in-law is a gentlewoman . . .”

  “NO!” cried Darcy. Finally finding his vocal cords in working order, and speaking more firmly than intended continued, “That you are in trade is not a difficulty. The fact is . . . well, the fact is that you do not know her at all.”

  “But, if she is willing and your family is willing, I could remedy that,” insisted Mr. Quartermain as his face lit with the same smile that Darcy had seen many times right after the man had made a deal regarding one of his prized horses.

  Standing to shake his hand and clasp him on the shoulder, Darcy relented, “Then I suggest you begin by staying for dinner. If you are not frightened away by what you have heard so far, then you should speak to my wife, Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Bingley, and of course Mrs. Bennet.”

  As the two men strode across the room to exit the study, there was a knock on the door. “Enter,” Darcy called out. Mr. Grove, Mr. Georges, and Mr. Fleming came through the door. Seeing the man standing beside Darcy, Mr. Grove said, “Oh sorry, Darcy. I did not realize that you were still with Mr. Quartermain.”

  “Quartermain will be staying for dinner,” said Darcy. Then he quickly explained the man’s offer as a solution to Mrs. Bennet’s and her family’s problem.

  “Darcy, that is why we came,” began Mr. Grove. “I am familiar with a house called ‘Hill High’ not far from Vauxhall Gardens. It is owned by a gentleman named Greenley, who leases it out fully furnished, complete with servants and staff. Usually it is leased by lesser gentlemen or tradesmen, who do not own a house in London and are in need of temporary housing while they conduct business for a month or even for a season.”

  “Whoever this person is who claims to be the Earl of Greenwood needs to be stopped before he ruins the real Earl’s good name,” put in Mr. Georges. “He does not sound like the type of person you would force Mrs. Bennet to marry regardless of the circumstances.”

  Mr. Fleming then took up the cause, “Daniel is so shaken by what he has heard that he went to his bedchamber and refuses to come out.”

  “Cousins,” replied Darcy, as he looked intently at the three gentlemen who stood before him, “again, I thank you for your watch care of our family. I will leave the search for the imposter and the resolution of the situation within your capable hands. Meanwhile, I will go to Daniel. Quartermain, please make yourself at home, as you may soon be family as well.”

&n
bsp; Darcy left his study and walked back to the sitting room, where Mrs. Bennet continued to bemoan her situation. At the door, he caught Elizabeth’s eye, and when she joined him in the corridor, he quickly swept her into one of the smaller empty rooms and told her of his conversation with Mr. Quartermain and the subsequent conversation with Messrs. Grove, Georges, and Fleming.

  “I am going to speak with Daniel.” He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before insisting, “If there is one person in this entire household who understands what he is going through right now, it is me.”

  “Go to Daniel, my heart,” stammered Elizabeth, as she tilted her head up, pushed herself up on the tip of her toes, and kissed him softly on the lips. “I will continue to attend Mama.”

  Darcy walked up the stairs to Daniel’s bedchamber to find Clarissa standing outside of the door with Annabel. Nathan leaned his head close to the door and spoke most insistently as he tried to convince Daniel to let them in. Seeing Darcy, he backed away.