Mr. Darcy Came to Dinner (37 page)

Suddenly, remembering Jane’s upcoming nuptials revealed an obstacle to their happiness. “Fitzwilliam,” she said with more emotion than she intended, “are you not staying at Netherfield?” Told that he was, she cried, “But how will you call on me? Jane and Bingley are off on a six-week tour after the wedding.”

Fitzwilliam glanced at her, one eyebrow raised in imitation of her own habit. “You cannot wait six weeks between calls, my dear?”

Elizabeth pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes; she had no idea that raising an eyebrow could be so annoying an expression! “There is a great deal of difference between what one
can
do and what one
wishes
to do! But perhaps your attachment to me is not as great as all that, and six weeks is nothing to you!” The last two months had been excruciating for
her
, and she would not wish to experience it again.

Fitzwilliam seemed very satisfied with himself. “I can assure you that six weeks would seem an eternity without your company. Mr. and Mrs. Bingley’s abandonment of Hertfordshire does present certain difficulties.” He bent low and whispered, “I suppose that the parlor of Longbourn is unavailable?”

“Fitzwilliam, how shocking! You cannot stay at Longbourn with our understanding!” She smiled. “In any case, while my mother may have no objection — you are quite her favorite now — the same cannot be said of my father. He has grown to like you, but giving up his parlor again is too high a price for him to pay, even for your excellent company!”

Fitzwilliam laughed. “It does not signify, as I do not think my poor back can stand another night on your couch. No, I will just have to make do with a room at the Meryton Inn.”

It is strange how the passage of time affects one’s understanding of the world. A few months before, Elizabeth Bennet would have been excessively diverted by the idea of the proud and wealthy Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Esq. of Pemberley taking rooms in a small village inn that had seen better days while paying court to a young lady of no note. But now, every fiber of Elizabeth’s being rebelled at the notion. Her stalwart, generous, and beloved Fitzwilliam sleeping in a run-down public house, sharing his rough bed with goodness knew what manner of insect or creature? Impossible!

Fortunately, Elizabeth had a solution. “Such a plan may not be necessary. My relations in Town, the Gardiners, have invited me to come to London soon after Jane’s wedding.”

“Indeed? That is good news.” Fitzwilliam grinned. “Georgiana will be so pleased.”

Elizabeth, who found being teased not nearly as much fun as teasing, huffed in reply, “I am happy that one member of the Darcy family is pleased!”

Her companion laughed. “Ah, my vain beauty, must you hear the words?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Perhaps my vanity needs a bit of reassurance given the rejection it suffered upon out first meeting.”

Darcy rolled his eyes. “Will I never live down that stupid pronouncement? Very well.” He turned to her. “My beautiful, exceedingly tempting vixen, I am beyond pleased that you will be in Town this spring. Where do they live?”

“Hmm?” Elizabeth caught herself. Lost in his eyes for a time, Elizabeth had to remember to breathe. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your relations — the Gardiners. What is their address?”

Elizabeth realized that Fitzwilliam was ignorant of their being her relations in trade. She nervously licked her lips, fearing his reaction to an address in Cheapside. “My uncle’s house is on Gracechurch Street.”

He thought for a moment, a pause dreadful to Elizabeth’s feelings. “I believe you have mentioned them. They are your mother’s family?”

“Yes, my Uncle Gardiner is my mother’s brother. He is an exceedingly clever, well-read gentleman,” she quickly added. She so wanted Fitzwilliam to like the Gardiners.

He glanced at her. “I think you hold them in some esteem.”

“Oh, yes! They, along with Jane, are my favorite people in all the world!”

“Then I shall not be happy until I have made their acquaintance. I assume they will be here for the wedding?”

Elizabeth, thankful for his enthusiasm and embarrassed at her own loss of composure, could only manage a small smile and a nod. The pair continued onward in a companionable silence. By the time the phaeton reached Longbourn, Elizabeth’s spirits had recovered enough to be amused by their welcome.

Five young ladies stood huddled on the steps of the house, waving as Fitzwilliam brought the carriage to a stop. He managed to extract himself without incident and helped Elizabeth down. The ladies rushed forward, all talking to Elizabeth at once, while Fitzwilliam handed over the carriage to a stableman. Georgiana greeted Elizabeth with great affection, Jane complained about the cold, Mary spoke of a new piece of music Miss Darcy had acquired, Kitty talked about her new sketches, and Lydia’s attention was on Darcy’s fine team of horses. Fitzwilliam took the time to accept the personal welcome of each of the Bennet sisters before extending his arm to Elizabeth to escort her into the house.

Most of the others were still preoccupied with their own conversation, but Kitty and Georgiana seemed to take note of how possessively Elizabeth clung to Fitzwilliam’s arm. They looked at each other before dissolving into a fit of giggles. The laughing girls’ antics caught the attention of the others, and Lydia joined in while Mary and Jane were bewildered.

Elizabeth blushed, but her companion bore the scrutiny with great composure. As they slowly walked to the front door, it was opened by Mrs. Bennet herself. Elizabeth saw that her mother understood everything at a glance, and with an air of pride and triumph, the matron greeted Elizabeth’s beloved.

“Mr. Darcy! You are very,
very
welcome to Longbourn!”

* * *

The wedding of Charles Bingley and Jane Bennet was not unlike any other wedding in England. The bride was blushing and beautiful, the groom was nervous and happy, and the wishes, hopes, confidence, and predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony were answered fully in the perfect happiness of the union. Bingley’s sisters expressed their joy in an acceptable fashion although Miss Bingley’s congratulations seemed more sincere than Mrs. Hurst’s. Indeed, Caroline dropped all her resentment and paid off every arrear of civility to Jane. Unkind observers might have explained this turnabout to that lady’s attachment to a certain second son of an earl, and the author leaves it to the imagination of the reader to weigh the correctness of that conjecture.

Within a fortnight of the Bingleys’ removal for their wedding trip, Elizabeth arrived at the Gracechurch Street home of the Gardiners. Their welcome was all that was loving and expected. Unexpected was the gift awaiting her — a huge bouquet of flowers. The card simply read, “
Yours, FD
,” but it was enough to send Elizabeth into a fit of excitement.

The gentleman himself called the next day, accompanied by his sister, and if the Gardiners were taken aback by the presence of such august visitors in their house, their good breeding permitted them to face the extraordinary event with composure. The visit was enjoyed by all, but to the greatest degree by the two attached young people, and a dinner invitation was extended the next night at Darcy House.

Thus was spent the Season in Town, with regular intercourse between Gracechurch Street and Park Place. The subject of the Gardiners’ plan to visit the Peaks that summer arose, and due to the entreaties of the Darcy siblings, it was settled that the party, which would include Elizabeth, would stay at Mr. Darcy’s estate of Pemberley in Derbyshire rather than the nearby village of Lambton.

It might be supposed that Elizabeth had great concern over staying in the home of the man who courted her, but her fears proved to be fleeting. For by the time the Gardiner party arrived at the front door of Pemberley, it was not Miss Darcy’s smiling friend who was handed down from the carriage, but Mr. Darcy’s glowing affianced intended, sporting a beautiful ruby ring on her finger. Elizabeth could now enjoy the house and its gardens as a delighted lady, assured that Pemberley was fated to become her home.

You, dear reader, are undoubtedly surprised at the speed of these events. But Darcy remembered his family motto —
Fortune Favors the Bold —
and it served him exceedingly well.

* * *

Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her most deserving daughter. With what delighted pride she afterwards talked of Mrs. Darcy while visiting Mrs. Bingley may only be guessed. The author wished he could say, for the sake of her family, that the accomplishment of her earnest desire in the establishment of so many of her children produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible, amiable, well-informed woman for the rest of her life, but he cannot. Though, perhaps, it was lucky for her husband, who might not have relished domestic felicity in so unusual a form, that she still was occasionally nervous and invariably silly.

Mr. Bennet missed his second daughter exceedingly. His affection for her drew him more often from home than anything else could do. He delighted in going to Pemberley, especially when he was least expected. In the meantime, he had to make do with the attentions of Cassandra the cat. Apparently, with neither Elizabeth nor Mr. Darcy in residence, Cassandra desired new fellowship and set her mind upon monopolizing Mr. Bennet’s time and lap. After recovering from his surprise, for the cat had never before shown the least interest in his company, the master of the house found Longbourn’s purring mouser an agreeable reading companion.

The Bingleys remained at Netherfield only a twelvemonth. So near a vicinity to her mother and Meryton relations was not desirable even to his easy temper or her affectionate heart. The darling wish of his sisters was then gratified, and Bingley bought an estate in a neighboring county to Derbyshire where Jane and Elizabeth, in addition to every other source of happiness, were within thirty miles of each other.

Mary was the only daughter who remained at home, and she was necessarily drawn from the pursuit of accomplishments by Mrs. Bennet’s being quite unable to sit alone. Mary was obliged to mix more with the world, but she still could moralize over every morning visit and spend the balance of her time at her pianoforte. She would marry a clerk who was much taken with her piety and talent, and she became Meryton’s greatest musician and her mother’s closest confidant.

Kitty, to her very material advantage, spent the chief of her time with her two elder sisters. In society so superior to that she had generally known, her improvement was great. She rejoiced in her art and was celebrated in Town as Mrs. Darcy’s other very accomplished sister, and she would in time marry well and live in London. She and her husband would haunt the exhibit halls and galleries of the great cities of the world.

Lydia spent much time at Pemberley, or rather, Pemberley’s stables. She and Georgiana would ride up and down the hills and dales of Derbyshire, until she caught the eye of a visitor who liked both horses and ladies. He was ripe to settle down after undergoing much misfortune in earlier days, and while Lydia was rather silly at times, she was very pretty and sweet, shared her husband’s love of horses, and had more of an engaging nature than the gentleman’s mother or sister-in-law. Mr. Bennet and Mr. Darcy had no qualms over Lydia Bennet becoming the future Lady Bertram and mistress of Mansfield Park in neighboring Northamptonshire, and it was hoped by all their friends that Lydia would have as good an influence over the reserved Mrs. Edmund Bertram as the former Fanny Price would have of the high-spirited Mrs. Thomas Bertram.

Georgiana did not begrudge her friend’s choice of husband — Thomas Bertram was too outgoing for
her
. Pemberley was now Georgiana’s home, and the attachment of Georgiana and Elizabeth was exactly what Darcy had hoped to see. They were able to love each other, even as well as they intended.

Georgiana had the highest opinion in the world of Elizabeth, though at first she often listened with an astonishment bordering on alarm at her lively, sportive manner of talking to her brother. By Elizabeth’s instructions, she began to comprehend that a woman may take liberties with her husband which a brother will not always allow in a sister more than ten years younger than himself. Georgiana would eventually marry a reserved and decent viscount, who loved his country estate as much as his new wife, and possessed the additional attraction of living no more than a half-day’s journey from Pemberley.

So not only could Elizabeth glory in the love and attention of her beloved Fitzwilliam and enjoy the delight of their children, she had the additional joy of living within easy distance of three of her sisters.

Elizabeth Rose Bennet flourished in her role as Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Her debut in London caused a sensation, particularly when the newlywed Darcys quit Town before the Season was done to retreat to Pemberley. No member of society was of two minds about Mrs. Darcy; she was dismissed by the envious as a rather pretty, simple country Miss, overwhelmed by the sophistication of the
ton
. Those who observed with unprejudiced eyes praised her as a breath of fresh air in stuffy society and proclaimed the lady lovely, kind, witty, and devoted to her family and friends.

The reason the Darcys spent so little time in London was clear to those who cared to think. In short order, Mr. Darcy’s ancestral estate of Pemberley become far more dear to his wife than Longbourn, and like her husband, the lady grew to jealously protect her family’s privacy there. The people of nearby Lambton proclaimed that the new Mrs. Darcy was the kindest and most generous of ladies. The Pemberley household quickly grew to love her, and even Bartholomew allowed that his new mistress was more than acceptable, although he still lorded it over the other servants. His employers tolerated the valet with amused fondness.