Chapter 27 #3
Darcy bent his head, his cheek brushing lightly against her hair.
“My dearest Elizabeth,” he murmured.
The words shivered through her.
She lifted her face.
His gaze dropped to her mouth, then returned to her eyes, asking without words what propriety and longing had made very difficult to say aloud. Elizabeth’s breath caught, and she did not look away.
He leaned down.
“Darcy!” Colonel Fitzwilliam’s voice rang out from somewhere beyond the hedge, much too loud and far too cheerful. “I say, have you and Miss Elizabeth disappeared into the shrubbery, or has Longbourn developed secret passages?”
Elizabeth jumped.
Darcy froze, his expression caught somewhere between desire, frustration, and reluctant amusement.
“Richard,” he muttered.
The colonel’s voice continued, deliberately nearer but still giving them every mercy of warning. “Bingley, do you see them? No? Curious. Very curious. Perhaps we should proceed slowly and make a great deal of noise, in case any innocent parties require time to emerge from botanical concealment.”
Elizabeth pressed both hands over her mouth, horrified and laughing at once.
Darcy closed his eyes for one pained second, then released her with obvious reluctance. “I am going to murder him.”
“Not before you speak to my father, if you please.”
His gaze softened immediately. “No. Not before that.”
They stepped from behind the hedge just as Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mr. Bingley, Jane, Georgiana, Kitty, and Lydia came into view along the path. Lydia saw Elizabeth’s flushed cheeks, Darcy’s expression, and the hedge behind them, and instantly began to giggle.
“La, Lizzy! What were you doing back there?”
“Lydia,” Jane said softly, though her own eyes were shining.
Colonel Fitzwilliam grinned. “A private study of garden architecture, I assume.”
“Precisely,” Elizabeth said, recovering herself as well as she could. “Mr. Darcy was admiring the hedge.”
“A most admirable hedge,” Darcy said gravely.
Bingley looked from one to the other, then broke into such a smile that his whole face lit. “Then may I offer congratulations?”
Darcy looked at Elizabeth.
She nodded.
“Yes,” Darcy said, and the word held so much joy that Elizabeth’s throat tightened. “You may.”
The next moment she was surrounded. Jane embraced her first, careful and tender, whispering, “Oh, Lizzy, I am so happy for you.” Kitty and Lydia followed with less restraint, Lydia demanding to know every particular and Kitty asking whether she would have new gowns.
Georgiana stood a little apart at first, shy even in happiness, but Elizabeth reached for her hand.
“I hope you are pleased,” Elizabeth said softly.
Georgiana’s smile trembled. “Very pleased. I hoped you would say yes.”
“So did I,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said. “For Darcy’s sake, certainly, but also because I had begun to fear he would become impossible to live with if obliged to wait much longer.”
Darcy gave him a look. “I am standing here.”
“Yes, and looking alarmingly happy. I hardly know what to do with you.”
Bingley laughed and clapped Darcy on the shoulder. “I know what to do. I shall host a congratulatory dinner at Netherfield in a few days’ time. We must celebrate properly.”
“With excellent food,” Colonel Fitzwilliam added.
“And music,” Georgiana said, then blushed when everyone turned to her.
“And dancing if we can contrive it,” Lydia cried.
Jane smiled at Mr. Bingley. “That is very kind of you.”
“It is entirely selfish,” Mr. Bingley said, looking at her with open warmth. “I like nothing better than seeing my friends happy.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam leaned toward Darcy. “You hear that? Bingley will feed us because you have finally done something sensible. We are all beneficiaries of your improved judgment.”
Darcy’s mouth curved. “Then I shall try to be sensible more often.”
“Do not overstrain yourself.”
Elizabeth laughed, and Darcy’s eyes found hers at once, warm and certain.
A moment later he leaned nearer, his voice low enough for her alone. “I must speak to your father.”
“Yes.” Elizabeth drew a breath, suddenly aware that acceptance, kisses, hedges, and laughter were only the beginning. “And I should tell my mother.”
His expression held a flash of sympathy. “Courage.”
“I shall need it more than you.”
“I doubt that.”
They exchanged one last smile before Darcy turned toward the house, Bingley and Colonel Fitzwilliam falling in beside him with enough teasing remarks to carry any gentleman to execution. Georgiana remained with Elizabeth and her sisters, her face bright with shy delight.
Elizabeth looked toward Longbourn, where Mrs. Bennet waited within, entirely unaware that all her hopes, nerves, schemes, and exclamations were about to be gratified beyond anything even she had dared imagine.
“I should go in and tell Mama,” Elizabeth said.
Lydia squealed.
Jane slipped her arm through Elizabeth’s, steadying her with the same gentle love she always gave.
Elizabeth drew one long breath, felt the warmth of Darcy’s embrace still lingering about her, and smiled.
Then she walked toward the house to set the storm in motion.