Chapter 35
IRREVOCABLY GONE
The sun slowly springing forth on the eastern horizon, birds singing a familiar song—awakening the countryside and welcoming it to a new day—and the crisp, fresh air, all conspired to make it the perfect morning for two young lovers walking hand in hand.
Elizabeth’s high spirits would not allow her to stick to the established path, and thus she chose an adventurous route crossing field after field, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with a particularly amused Mr. Darcy, her intended, by her side.
Not giving a great deal of care to their appearance, only one thing was needed to commence establishing the plans for their future felicity, and thus the purpose of their urgent trek.
“I have a great deal of respect for your father,” Mr. Darcy began in response to Elizabeth’s teasing him for wanting to venture to Longbourn at the break of dawn, “which is why I want him to be the first to know I have asked you to be my wife. Obtaining his blessing on our union is of vital importance to me.”
“My father has always held your family in the highest esteem. I can find no reason he might possibly object,” she said in a manner which belied her own unvoiced concerns.
“Even after we inform him that we shall be married by special license, and I intend to carry you off to Pemberley in under a fortnight,” Darcy said in reference to their mutual agreement to a hasty wedding.
His agreement to help his friend Bingley with estate management matters notwithstanding, as the new master of Pemberley, Darcy had his own concerns too.
“Even though I now reside at Netherfield with Jane, I suppose the thought of my being separated from all my relations so soon as a fortnight might require getting used to. However, it is my mother who will suffer mixed sentiments regarding the timing.”
Embarrassing thoughts of all her mother might exclaim upon hearing of the engagement flashed through Elizabeth’s mind: “Oh! My sweetest Lizzy! How rich and how great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! A house in town! Everything that is charming! Oh, and what a charming man! Your Mr. Darcy is so handsome—so tall!”
“Oh?” Darcy responded.
“Indeed. Once Mama learns of our engagement, she will throw herself into a frenzy planning the most spectacular wedding breakfast this part of the country has ever seen. Until this day, she laments not having the opportunity to oversee Jane’s wedding preparations.
Who is to say when either of my younger sisters will wed?
“No, I am afraid we will be the beneficiaries of all her hopes and dreams of what the perfect wedding ought to be.”
“Then, I suppose I shall have to speak with your mother after I have obtained your father’s blessing and assure her that I shall make every resource I have at my disposal available to her, so she might have no cause to feel discontented.”
“You would do that, Mr. Darcy?”
“Trust me, my love, there is nothing in this world that I would not do for you so long as it is within my power.”
The lovers arrived at Longbourn not long thereafter, and Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper, informed them Mr. Bennet was the only family member awake at the time.
Elizabeth sighed in relief for being spared the prospect of introductions that might prove exceedingly awkward given the hour of the day. “Mrs. Hill,” she said, “Will you inform my father he has a guest?”
The older woman smiled knowingly. “Yes, Miss Lizzy.”
After a purposeful look into each other’s eyes, Darcy went away with the housekeeper. The elation she felt in her intended’s presence ebbed with each step he took, giving way to agitation.
What will my father say to Mr. Darcy? Will he mention the time they were together at Pemberley and our purpose in being there? Will he question Mr. Darcy’s constancy?
What will he say to me? Will he truly believe that my feelings for Mr. Darcy are genuine—that I truly love him, indeed, that I have loved him almost from the moment I first laid eyes upon him that fateful day when we arrived at Pemberley?
What will he say in the wake of such a revelation; that I have always fancied myself in love with Mr. Darcy, even when there was a general expectation that Jane was the Bennet daughter intended for him? What will others say? Will I be accused of having conspired against my sister all along?
Elizabeth raced outside the house hoping to clear her head of the wretched reflections which threatened to consume her.
Arriving in the garden, she paced the path for some time hoping and praying that what was taking place in the library was in no way distressing her father. She reminded herself again and again of her father’s high esteem for the Darcy family.
The manner of their precipitous departure from Pemberley at her own urgent behest came to mind.
I fear I may have been too severe in my rebuttal against Mr. Darcy’s character in response to repeated requests from Papa to confide in him my urgency to remove myself from Pemberley with scarcely a proper goodbye, and yet I somehow suspect he knew of my disappointed hopes.
Elizabeth examined her watch. Hardly twenty minutes had passed since she and Darcy parted. It seems as though Mr. Darcy and my father have been talking to each other for hours.
The agony. The distress. None of it would do.
I am not designed for such anguish. I must calm myself. Sitting on a nearby bench, Elizabeth started recalling the hours spent in Netherfield’s library with her newly intended, specifically the moment she relinquished her reservations and ended his suspense with but a single word.
Yes!
The happiness which this reply had produced was such as she had never felt before when Mr. Darcy expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be expected to with a kiss.
Her first kiss; the tender brush of his soft lips upon hers, the lingering touch of his fingers upon her chin, and the warmth of his body so close to hers—indeed, everything a first kiss ought to entail.
Her remembrance of all the pleasures Mr. Darcy had bestowed during the wee hours that morning calmed her considerably, and in no time at all, he appeared on the garden path.
Even more comforted by his smile, Elizabeth went to meet him.
When he could, he seized her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Go to your father. He wants you in the library.”
“Will you wait here for me?” Elizabeth asked, her voice tentative.
Mr. Darcy raised her hand to his lips and bestowed a sweet kiss. He then tucked a loosened strand of her hair behind her ear. “I am not going anywhere, my love.”
Smiling, she was gone directly.
Her father was walking about the room, looking grave and anxious upon Elizabeth’s arrival. He looked up. Their eyes met—his glossed over with unshed tears. Mr. Bennet extended his opened arms, and Elizabeth accepted his embrace.
“So, my dear child, I understand I am to be wishing you joy,” he said thoughtfully.
Elizabeth, not truly knowing whether to be delighted or dejected, merely nodded her head. Her father’s wry character was known to confound even her at times.
“I trust you have spoken with your mother and in so doing made her the happiest woman in all of England—or should I say the second happiest?”
“No—I have not,” Elizabeth replied a bit hesitantly.
“Why in heavens not, my dear?” Mr. Bennet asked.
“I wanted to speak with you first to put to rest any misgivings you may have as a consequence of the suddenness of all this.”
“When you say, suddenness, are you perchance speaking of the rush to the altar the gentleman has in mind?”
She nodded. “There is that.”
Mr. Bennet placed his hands on either of his daughter’s arms and regarded her intently. “Would it help if I told you what I told your intended when he was here?”
She caught her breath.
“Do not be alarmed. Mr. Darcy is the kind of man to whom few would ever dare refuse anything, which he condescended to ask. I gave him my blessings wholeheartedly. But that is not the matter of which I speak.”
“What else did you tell him?” Elizabeth exclaimed, her voice a mixture of welcomed relief and impatient curiosity.
“I told him that from the moment I met him, I knew my Jane did not stand a chance for the instant he first laid eyes on you, my dearest Lizzy, I knew his heart was irrevocably gone. As for you, I ventured to say the same.”
“Oh, Papa! As much as I tried to deny the truth of it even to myself, it is true. My feelings for Mr. Darcy have been so long in the making, I feared I would never truly find true love and happiness with anyone other than him,” she replied with tears in her eyes.
“How fortunate you are to have found a partner in life whom you can respect, a gentleman whom you truly esteem and can look up to as your superior.”
Her spirits rising to playfulness in hearing her father’s words, she said, “Equal partners at best.”
Mr. Bennet laughed a little at this conjecture.
“It is all I have ever wanted for you, my child. Your Mr. Darcy is an honorable young man and one blessed with everything the heart of mortals can most desire: splendid property, noble kindred, profound integrity, and a kind heart. Indeed, he is everything a son-in-law ought to be, as I am sure your mother will wholeheartedly agree.”
Mr. Bennet placed a light kiss on his favorite daughter’s forehead. His voice filled with happiness, with pride, and with joy, he said, “I could not have parted with you, my dearest Lizzy, to anyone less worthy.”