Chapter 13 Matrimony Finalization #3
The dull clang of the bell high above in the church’s tower signaled the ten o’clock hour.
Darcy and Bingley swung their eyes immediately to the entrance.
Colonel Fitzwilliam’s timing proved to be perfect, allotting the grooms exactly enough time to assume their proper positions and canvass the scene without a spare moment to become impatient or engulfed by nerves.
At the fifth chime, the double doors slowly swung inward, the brilliant sunlight streaming inside.
For the minuscule span between the fifth and sixth chime, the portal was empty.
Then, as the sixth stroke rang crisp and clear through the open archway, three figures appeared.
Darcy doubted an earthquake could have torn his gaze away from Elizabeth.
“Keep breathing, Darcy.”
“Same to you, my friend.”
Before the tenth, and final chime had faded into silence, he realized that Bingley’s whispered words had not been an attempt at humor but were words of advice meant for them both.
The vision of Elizabeth, his bride, had wrest the air from his lungs.
It took him several seconds to recognize that the stars swirling in front of him were not solely the result of the magical moment.
My God in Heaven—she is stunning.
One hand lying daintily atop her proud father’s left arm, Elizabeth glided down the aisle, a pure vision of flawless beauty.
Her rich, coffee-colored eyes sparkled with the unique blend of vivaciousness, intelligence, and wit that had captivated him the second he’d beheld her at the Meryton Assembly so long ago.
Of her many exquisite features, Darcy adored her eyes above all.
Today especially, her superlative eyes shone with transcendent love directed solely at him.
He could happily stare into her eyes for eternity, and if not for a hushed voice buried inside his head reminding him to savor every detail, Darcy would never have been able to look away.
Somehow, he did and was struck anew with breathless bedazzlement.
Elizabeth wore a gown of creamy-white silk gauze under a transparent overdress of Madras lace woven with tiny, vaguely heart-shaped silk-satin accents.
The squared bodice was modestly cut, trimmed with delicate lace and champagne-gold satin ribbons sewn into a beautiful design of narrow horizontal bands and vertical scallops, which curved over her full breasts, down the front to the hemline.
The slightly puffed, capped sleeves were embellished with the same satin ribbon and lace trim.
Spanning her slim waist was a sash of deepest gold tied into a bow at her back.
Her luxuriant tresses were styled in an elaborate weave of curls and braids with thin gold ribbons entwined and tiny buds of baby’s breath and lavender inserted.
In her right hand, his mother’s engagement ring sparkling in the light, she held a bouquet of honeysuckle, lavender, and, to his utter amazement, clusters of cobalt-blue Jacob’s ladder.
The splash of blue with the purple was sublime and complemented the sapphire-and-diamond necklace encircling her creamy, slender neck.
From the top of her coiffed hair to the tips of the white satin slippers peeking from underneath the hem of her gown, she was extraordinary.
The proper names and descriptors for Elizabeth’s wedding ensemble were largely unknown to Darcy, of course.
His awed appreciation was for the combined effect, which was devastating to his senses and made it extremely difficult to catalog the specifics.
In his urgency to have her close, the time from her entrance until she was standing before him felt like an hour, but there still wasn’t enough time to absorb her perfection.
Mr. Bennet stopped at the end of the aisle, and only then did Darcy remember Jane was on his right!
The oversight, under different circumstances, would have mortified him, but at present he could not muster the slightest remorse.
Darcy doubted Bingley was paying any heed to Elizabeth either.
Eyes locked onto his bride, he waited for the proper ceremonial initiation, a task he found exceedingly difficult to do patiently.
Judging by the expression on Elizabeth’s face, and her involuntary step forward, she also struggled to remember the rituals.
Wanting to laugh aloud, he curled his lips into a soft smile instead.
* * *
“Remember, don’t signal to open the doors until the exact moment I ordered.”
At Mr. Bennet’s reminder, the young curate standing on the top of the outside steps in front of the church’s door folded his hands in a praying posture and inclined his head.
“What are you up to, Papa?” Jane asked.
“You two want to make a grand entrance, do you not? Trust me,” he added, winking. “You two just concentrate on breathing. I can’t drag both of you down the aisle.”
Waiting for whatever he had up his sleeve, the brides took his advice. As they breathed slowly and deeply, keeping themselves calm, the remaining handful of minutes ticked away. Despite expecting it, at the reverberating gong from the bell high above their heads, they both jolted a foot in the air.
“Another reason to wait a bit longer,” Mr. Bennet drily noted, Lizzy and Jane giggling with a slightly hysterical edge. At the fifth chime, he nodded to the curate, who yanked on the rope beside the left door. Before the echo faded, the doors were already swinging inward.
“Not yet,” Mr. Bennet murmured when they instinctively shifted their weight forward. “Grand entrance, remember?”
The sixth chime struck and with a lowly commanded, “Now,” Mr. Bennet led them over the threshold and into the church.
He paused again at the invisible line separating the narthex from the long aisle that divided the nave into equal halves.
Whatever additional dramatics her playful papa had planned, Lizzy no longer cared.
Her gaze had instantly snapped to the other end of the aisle, and after that she saw nothing except for William.
How handsome he is. And he is mine—all mine.
He wore an impeccably designed and tailored coat of merino wool, and coal-black and form-fitting breeches in the same material secured just below his knees with gold buckles.
White stockings encased his muscular legs, of course, and his polished black leather shoes gleamed.
As she decreased the distance between them, the extraordinary design embroidered over the entire front of his ivory satin waistcoat came into sharper focus.
It was ornate and colorful, as she knew was not his ordinary preference, but utterly stupendous and suitably unique for this singular day.
Georgiana’s birthday gift, the diamond-shaped stickpin embedded with diamonds, amber, and deep-blue sapphires was eye-catching in contrast to the stark-white cravat. Not until later would she notice the sapphire cufflinks, remarking then that their ensembles were impressively coordinated.
A majority of the minutiae escaped her initial scrutiny.
She might have floated on air or passed by empty pews for all that she was aware of during her passage down the aisle.
As stunning as the figure he cut, it was his face that captured all her attention and implanted into her memory in sharp detail.
Hundreds of times she had seen his absolute love for her expressed within his blue eyes and unguarded visage.
None of those times prepared her for the raw emotions visible now.
Tears were prickling the insides of her eyelids and her heart thudding against her ribs.
She sucked in her breath, unaware they had reached the halting point until her father tightened his arm as a subtle reminder.
Heeding the clue, she stopped midstep, emitting a feeble laugh, which then reminded her to heed her father’s earlier advice.
Concentrate on breathing, Lizzy.
Then William curled his full, kissable lips into a soft smile, and she forgot all about breathing once again.
* * *
“Dearly beloved,” Reverend Jenney boomed, “we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together these men and these women in Holy Matrimony; which is an honorable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is between Christ and His Church; which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with His presence and first miracle that He wrought in Cana of Galilee, and is commended of Saint Paul to be honorable among all men, and therefore is not by any to be taken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, to satisfy men's carnal lusts and appetites like brute beasts that have no understanding; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God; duly considering the causes for which matrimony was ordained.”
After a short pause—even priests can be dramatic at times—he continued, “First, marriage was ordained for the procreation of children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of His Holy Name.
Secondly, marriage was ordained for a remedy against sin and to avoid fornication, that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body. Thirdly, marriage was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity: into which holy estate these two couples present come now to be joined. Therefore, if any man can show any just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter forever hold his peace.”