The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy (27 page)

Kitty was a faithful reader of
The Insider,
and since her sisters were now engaged to men who occasionally appeared in the magazine, she began to read past issues looking for any instance when the names of Bingley, Darcy, or Fitzwilliam appeared.

“Jane, Mr. Bingley’s name was once mentioned in connection with Miss Alice Winthorp, who married Sir Arthur Kentwell. It says here that he made his money in herring. Does that mean he fished for herring or sold herring?”

“If you are asking if Sir Arthur made his money as a fisherman or fishmonger, I am confident in saying ‘no,’” Lizzy answered. “It is more likely he owned the ships or bought the entire catch.”

“Lizzy, in this issue, it says Mr. Darcy was seen to be coming out of Mrs. Conway’s house in Bedford Square near dawn. I wonder what he was doing there at such an hour?”

“Mrs. Conway is a prominent Whig hostess, and there is nothing suspect in a person with similar interests visiting her salon. And you must remember that half of those things are made up. It may very well be that Mr. Darcy was there, but left at 1:00 in the morning and the reporter decided that was close enough to dawn for him.”

“Well, if what you say is true and half of it is made up, I wonder how much of what is written about Lord Fitzwilliam is the truth as he is in every issue. But the ladies he calls on must be from elite families because their names are hinted at, but not mentioned. In a recent issue, the earl’s name does appear one time with Mr. Darcy’s. It said there is a new
courtier
in town, a Madame Aumont. The two men provided her with the financial support she needed to open her own shop after she had fled France, and now she has a clientele that includes Lady Edgemont and a Polish countess.”

“She must be the lady who made all of Miss Darcy’s dresses for her debut,” Lizzy said. “I remember she had a French name.”

“Lizzy, since I must choose a dressmaker,” Jane said, “why should she not be a friend of Mr. Darcy’s, especially since she was approved by his sister and he has chosen to support her efforts to start a business?”

“Yes, I agree. I think it will make a nice surprise for Mr. Darcy,” Lizzy added.

***

On Lizzy’s first night in London, Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, and his sister dined at the Gardiners’ home. Darcy was pleased to see how happy Bingley and Miss Bennet were together. Another pleasure was to witness the friendship that was developing between Georgiana and Elizabeth. When he had heard Elizabeth ask his sister about the progress of her story, he knew Georgie would have an ally supporting her desire to write novels, and he felt the first crack in his resolve that his sister should do no such thing.

All of this was well and good, but it was nothing compared to his enjoyment at seeing Elizabeth. She need not say or do anything as her presence was enough to make him happy, and although he wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her, he understood they probably would not have a moment alone until they were married. Lizzy gave him a slight smile, and he wondered if she was thinking the same thing, too.

The next day the two couples went for a ride in an open carriage in St. James’s Park, and a number of his friends and acquaintances had asked for an introduction to his beautiful companion. And so it had begun. Everyone would want to know about Elizabeth and who her parents were and what her accomplishments were and whether she was related to Viscount Louis Bennet. Let them pry and comment and criticize. He no longer cared about any of it.

The following afternoon, after returning from a breakfast he had attended with his sister, Darcy went straight to the Gardiners’ home, where Jane happily showed Mr. Darcy the fabric she had chosen that morning for her wedding dress. He smiled at Elizabeth, and she knew he was thinking that shortly she would be doing the same thing.

“Mr. Darcy, I have employed your sister’s dressmaker, Madame Aumont, and she has proved to be indispensable in picking out the material for my wedding dress. I was quite overwhelmed by all of the choices, and she is to make Lizzy’s dress for the ball at Clermont House.”

“Miss Bennet, who told you that Madame Aumont was my sister’s dressmaker?” he asked in a serious tone of voice.

Jane looked to her sister, and Lizzy answered. “Mr. Darcy, we read that you and Lord Fitzwilliam had provided financial support for the start of Madame Aumont’s business as she was an émigré who had left everything behind her in France. From that we assumed she was Miss Darcy’s dressmaker.”

Mr. Darcy made no reply. Instead, he went to the window and stared out at the street scene below. The sisters looked at each other. Obviously, they had erred in their assumption as Mr. Darcy was clearly unhappy. Because no formal announcement of their engagement had been made, Lizzy thought it improper to mention the family’s name. Therefore, she did not tell Madame of her relationship with Mr. Darcy.

“Miss Bennet, my sister’s dressmaker is Madame Delaine, and it is true I have provided Madame Aumont with limited financial support because promised funds from her bank in France were never transferred to her bank here in London. As to what support Lord Fitzwilliam offered Madame, I have no way of knowing that. I have never been in any business arrangement with my cousin as he has the financial intellect of a goat.”

Lizzy bit her lower lip, knowing that she had made a serious mistake. How stupid of her! Mr. Darcy would never allow his name to be associated with someone who led a life that was the antithesis of his own. But she suspected Lord Fitzwilliam was not the main cause of his apparent unhappiness. His mood had altered at the mention of Madame’s name, and that was before she had uttered one word about Lord Fitzwilliam.

That morning, the sisters had remarked on how beautiful Madame was. Lizzy had never seen eyes so green nor hair so golden, and Jane and Lizzy had guessed she was in her late twenties, five years short of the mark. Not only was Madame Aumont beautiful, but she was a most agreeable lady. While showing Jane the different patterns, she had shared that she had not been in England in ten years. Although she was English by birth, her heart was French, as that was where her mother was born and where she had spent her early childhood. From that conversation, Lizzy could deduce that Mr. Darcy must have met her during his tour of the Continent when he had been a young man without a care in the world. It was a time when he had attended masked balls in Venice and grand galas in Paris, and unless her instincts were completely wrong, the beautiful lady and the young Fitzwilliam Darcy had been intimate.

Mr. Darcy returned to the window and continued to say nothing.

“This is all my fault,” Jane mouthed to her sister. “I assumed and now Mr. Darcy is unhappy.”

But Lizzy knew that Mr. Darcy wasn’t unhappy with anything Jane had done. He was unhappy because Lizzy knew what
he
had done.

***

Darcy had withdrawn to the far end of the room because he could hardly take in what had just happened. Christina Caxton was going to make Elizabeth’s ball gown for the Clermont ball—the very ball where he intended to introduce his future wife into London society? This was Antony’s doing, and he would have his hide the next time he saw him. But, in the meantime, had Elizabeth guessed from his reaction that Christina and he had a history? She was smart and intuitive, and she missed very little. Yes, she definitely knew. He finally asked Jane if he could be alone with her sister.

“It seems my past has caught up with me. Elizabeth, I am a man of twenty-eight years and have lived in the world, and I am no innocent. But because of the profound love I have for you, I tried to erase the past. I wanted to think of no other woman as being a part of my life. I wanted to be your knight in shining armor—perfect and unblemished. But now that is not possible as I have been exposed.”

Once again, she had guessed correctly, but the reason she had come to that conclusion so quickly was because she had already given his past some thought. While Kitty was reading aloud the different items in
The Insider
to her sisters, Lizzy had been thinking about Darcy’s romantic interests. Surely, there had been other women in his life, as he was nearly thirty years old, and although she lived in a country town, it was impossible to be ignorant of what went on in London among the social elite. There wasn’t anything odd about Mr. Darcy’s name being mentioned in
The Insider
. What
was
unique was how infrequently it appeared in the gossip magazines considering the prominence of his family, his eligibility, and his large fortune. And had anything really changed because she now knew that Mr. Darcy was, as he put it, “no innocent?” No, Madame Aumont belonged to his distant past when he was bound to no one. It would have been worse to have it remain a secret. Secrets created barriers, and she wanted nothing like that in her marriage.

Darcy came and sat next to her, and she accepted his handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. After composing herself after such a confession, she finally said, “You worried unnecessarily about my opinion of you. I have never thought of you as being perfect.”

It wasn’t until she smiled that he realized she was in jest, and he burst out laughing. “I know I am forgiven, my love, as you only tease your friends,” and he kissed her gently on the lips. “But may I ask where you read the story about Christina?”

“I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I read it in
The Insider
.”

“You read
The Insider
?” he asked with concern in his voice. He would not have thought of someone as sensible as Elizabeth reading what he considered to be a rag filled with half-truths and, in some cases, stories made up out of whole cloth.

“Everyone in the provinces reads
The Insider,
Mr. Darcy. We must have some amusement.”

“Do you read every issue?” he asked with growing concern. Had she read about Miss Montford and Mrs. Conway? It would give her the impression he was inconstant in his affections.

“No, not every issue. But then I don’t have to as Kitty tells us all about the most interesting items. She has even gone back and read past issues looking for your name.” Lizzy could see that Darcy was growing increasingly uncomfortable, and she wanted to put his mind at ease. “Sir, I have no interest in your past alliances. Every relationship must have a starting point so that past errors may remain in the past. I do not wish to be reminded how wrong I was about Wickham’s character, or how I failed to recognize your goodness. So, for me, our beginning must be at Pemberley when you said that its beauty must be shared.”

Darcy smiled and nodded in agreement and then took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. “You asked for love letters or poetry, and this is my first effort.”

“Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods or steepy mountain yields.

“And we will sit upon the rocks,

Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals…

“And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my love.

“The shepherds’ swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my love.”

“It is a beautiful piece of poetry. In my opinion, it is Christopher Marlowe’s finest work.”

“Your request was that I write love letters or verse. You did not say they had to be original.”

“Well, I shall credit you with making a start, but no matter how poorly you write, I would prefer your own composition.”

“I promise I shall try to compose my own verses. However, I am sure the task would be made easier if I had my source of inspiration before me. So can we not set a date for our wedding?”

Lizzy stood up and walked away from him because, with his arms around her, she felt her resolution to have a courtship ebbing.

“Mr. Darcy, we are very different.”

“One would hope,” he said, smiling.

“We will face many challenges, including those you mentioned at Hunsford Lodge.”

“Every marriage has difficulties, but there is nothing that cannot be overcome, got ’round, or blown away, if necessary.”

Lizzy smiled but persisted. “Because we are from such disparate backgrounds, I do have concerns.”

“Can you give me one example of any obstacle so great that it could possibly prevent our marriage?” he said with growing impatience.

“Well,” Lizzy said, pretending to think long and hard, “what if I discovered you do not know how to ice-skate? It is a sport I greatly enjoy, probably as much as you enjoy riding.”

“So this is what I have signed on for? Very well. Then I shall tell you I have concerns of my own. I wonder if you will ever learn how to sit on a horse properly,” and he said this as he moved toward her.

“And I might inquire if you will scowl at me whenever I say something you do not like?” she asked as she stepped behind a chair.

And kneeling on the chair with his face inches from hers, he answered, “And do I need to be concerned that you will turn into a scold and point out all of my defects?”

Lizzy ran her fingers across his cheek and looked into his eyes, and in them, she saw their future. There really wasn’t any reason to delay their marriage. She knew that two people who were so different in personality, but so alike in their stubbornness, would have struggles, but she also believed that love was transformative. She thought of how much they had changed in the months since they had first been introduced at the assembly.

“Yes, Mr. Darcy, we may set a date. May I suggest that we allow Georgiana to finish the season, especially since she is to be presented to Her Majesty? By that time, Jane and Mr. Bingley will be married, and they may come to our wedding breakfast. We will all celebrate our new lives together with Anne and Colonel Fitzwilliam, and possibly Lady Catherine.”

“So you are suggesting that in eight weeks’ time we shall marry? Well, eight weeks is not overly long, so I agree,” and then Lizzy kissed Mr. Darcy with a fervor that surprised him, and all of a sudden eight weeks seemed like a very long time indeed.