Chapter Nine #4
The main difference between George and Darcy, Elizabeth had to admit, was passion. George was stolen kisses and dances and sunny days, but Darcy. . .
Darcy was storms at sea and pitch-black nights. He was fire in her veins.
And the more Elizabeth had of him, the more she found herself desiring him. Craving him.
“Good day, dear.”
Elizabeth startled, casting her gaze about in the direction of the voice she did not recognize.
Behind her stood an old woman with a basket full of basil, rosemary, and juniper.
The woman was slightly stooped. Her green eyes were clear and sharp, her nose straight.
Her cheeks were ruddy from the cold, and she was missing one of her secondary incisors, which made her bright smile seem slightly off-balance.
“I beg your pardon?” Elizabeth asked with caution.
“Good day,” the old woman repeated. “You are the princess, are you not?”
Elizabeth remained silent. She was certain she had met everybody who lived on Pemberley’s grounds.
“I am Gloriana.” The old woman smiled again. “Would you walk with me for a spell?”
“Do you live here at Pemberley?”
“Oh, no, my lady,” Gloriana replied. “I come get herbs from the garden now and again when I am running low.”
Confused, Elizabeth stared at her. In most cases, taking anything from the imperial gardens would be very much an illegal practice.
“The old prince and I had an arrangement,” Gloriana said as though she was setting out a grand conspiracy. “I do not suppose the new prince knows about it, though. Shall we keep it a secret between us?”
“The man you call ‘the new prince’ is my husband, madam.”
Gloriana simply smiled. “I just knew you were the princess.”
Elizabeth sighed.
Gloriana slipped her arm through Elizabeth’s and started walking towards the east where the nearest boundary of the Pemberley property was situated. The breeze kicked up and the smell of the herbs in her basket slipped into Elizabeth’s nose. The aroma was heady.
“I was sorry I could not attend the wedding,” said Gloriana. “I was away at the time.”
“I do hope all was well.” The response was almost automatic. The old woman seemed to pose no threat, although Elizabeth would have preferred to have been carrying a blade with her at the very least. She made a note to be armed from now on.
“It was not, but it will be,” Gloriana replied, her tone mysterious. “Do you enjoy being married to our prince? He is a handsome devil.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “I suppose one cannot argue that point.”
“Indeed,” said Gloriana. She grinned, and it reminded Elizabeth of hot chocolate and warm fires. “You did not answer my question. Do you enjoy being married to our prince?”
Although the wind had become a little fiercer and the clouds a little thicker, Elizabeth sensed no change in the temperature, almost as though a bubble of warmth wrapped around the two of them.
They walked arm in arm in a companionable silence, Elizabeth’s earlier apprehension somehow completely abated while she considered the answer.
“If you knew how we came to be married, you would wonder that I could stand to be in the same room with him, let alone be married to the man,” she finally replied. “But I find I enjoy his company more with each new day.”
Gloriana clasped her hands together and grinned as though she was delighted by the news. “Our prince is a fierce, complicated man. Not just any woman would have been acceptable as a spouse.”
“I fear I am not acceptable to a whole lot of folk who would rather he had married for power and connections. I am most certainly not their first choice.”
Gloriana stopped and levelled her gaze at Elizabeth. “Dearest, you are the only choice there ever was. The only choice for him in this or any other lifetime. Have you not realized that?”
Elizabeth took a step back, her eyes narrowed. What kind of talk was that?
“People do not embark on great romances with the boy who grew up down the lane. Those are not the tales the storybooks go on about. No, dear, they go on and on about people who should never have crossed paths. People who, against all the odds, find the love of their lives in the person they most hated. Those are the great love stories.”
“You are speaking of storybooks and epic tales. This is real life, madam.”
This time, Gloriana smirked. “You are a princess, are you not? Princesses are the stuff of fairy stories, my dear.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I wager you are right.”
They came upon a gate in the wall that Elizabeth had never noticed before.
Nay, she was certain she had never been this far from the house before, and the rickety old gate did not seem as though it led to anything more than more woods on the other side of the wall.
Why would a gate be placed here? And why would the path lead to nothing but this gate?
“This is where I must leave you, dearest, but do keep in mind what I said.”
“Which was?”
“You and the prince are fated, my lady. There will be trials ahead. Do not forget that they are just that: trials to be borne.”
With that, Gloriana walked through the gate and was swallowed by the woods, leaving Elizabeth completely alone.