Epilogue #2
Elizabeth’s face fell. The idea seemed a most hazardous one, but she was hardly in a position to offer her opinion — if, indeed, she ever had been. “Well, that would certainly be exciting for her. But I confess I do not think it quite safe.”
“Mama wants the whole family to go to Brighton,” Jane said thoughtfully. “That would certainly be the wiser decision than allowing her to go alone. Even so, the idea leaves me ill at ease.”
“Well, perhaps I shall convince Mr Darcy that we need to invite the rest of the family for an extended stay,” Elizabeth remarked archly. “Lydia cannot be in Brighton if she is in Derbyshire, after all.”
Jane laughed happily. “An excellent solution.”
Mr Bingley arrived the next morning. To Elizabeth’s delight, he proved to be every bit as pleasant as her husband had suggested. Very interestingly indeed, his first meeting with Jane suggested he was also far from insusceptible.
“Elizabeth, allow me to present my good friend, Charles Bingley,” Darcy introduced him. “Bingley, allow me to present my wife, Elizabeth Darcy, and her sister, Miss Jane Bennet.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Mrs Darcy,” Mr Bingley said to her with a warm smile. “Such letters I have received from Darcy of late! I have never seen him so happy.”
“Thank you, Mr Bingley,” Elizabeth replied, liking him at once. “I shall like any friend of my husband’s, I am sure.”
Mr Bingley turned then to Jane, likely intending to offer her good-natured compliments of her own, but upon really looking at her face for the first time and perceiving its beauty, he stood stock-still and silent.
“How clumsy I am today!” Mr Bingley said at last. “Do excuse me, Miss Bennet. It is a great pleasure to meet you. Indeed, I feel as if we have met before, and yet I do not believe that is the case.”
Jane gave her sweetest smile. “You rented Netherfield Park last autumn, sir, did you not? Likely you saw me in Meryton, but were not introduced. I live just a few miles from there, at the Longbourn estate.”
“Oh, yes. That must be it.” His smile was so broad, Elizabeth was sure his muscles would be sore from the effort.
A certain suspicion formed in her mind concerning Jane and the good-natured, convivial Mr Bingley — a suspicion that would only grow as time went on.
At tea, he could hardly keep his eyes off of Jane.
As a result, the conversation was a little uneven, with Mr Bingley — and Jane — spending far more time gazing at each other than speaking.
It was lucky that Georgiana was recovered enough to keep up her part in a conversation, for it was all that the three of them together could do to make up for the smitten silences of the other two.
“Do you enjoy reading, Mr Bingley?” Elizabeth asked at last.
“I do,” he replied. He glanced at Jane, looking a little guilty. “I prefer being out of doors, though.” An awkward pause ensued. He looked nervously at each of them in turn, then went on. “That is, I can read. And I am not saying one cannot read out of doors…”
“There always seems to be so much more to do, doesn’t there?” Jane helped him.
His face brightened. “Yes, that is exactly what I meant.”
Elizabeth and Darcy exchanged a glance. The visit seemed likely to turn out even better than either could have hoped.
Nor did the next day’s lessen the impression.
A week after Mr Bingley’s arrival, Elizabeth and Darcy trailed behind the pair on a walk through the gardens.
The music of the pianoforte came to them softly through the open windows, proof that Georgiana was enjoying herself as much as the rest of the party.
Elizabeth liked her own amusement very well, for it was most pleasant to watch Mr Bingley earnestly telling Jane of his plans for the future and his hope to buy an estate soon, a place in which he might begin a family.
Elizabeth linked arms with her husband, leaning on him as they walked. “Would it not be wonderful if Mr Bingley could purchase an estate close to Pemberley?”
Darcy chuckled. “I confess the idea has occurred to me. I should be very well pleased to have my best friend in the same county.”
“I should love to have him and Jane living close by,” she breathed.
Darcy raised an eyebrow. “It is a little soon to talk of such things, surely. Do you think it is as serious as all that?”
“My imagine is a little rapid, perhaps. But I suspect they will get there in the end.”
Darcy looked at the couple in front of them, then slowly nodded. “They both seem quite smitten.” He looked at her and slowed their pace. Mr Bingley and Jane kept on, walking farther down the path. “I suppose it is very unlike our story.”
“We may not have started out smitten, but it didn’t take either of us long to figure out that we loved each other. Although I am not sure who fell first,” she teased.
“I am convinced that I did. How could I have helped myself?” He asked. “You came into my life and turned it all upside down.” He bent to kiss her cheek. “In the very best of ways.”
“Of course,” Elizabeth said. Mock serious, she eyed him as they picked up their pace so they might not lose Mr Bingley and Jane. “When was the first time you knew you were falling in love with me?”
“Oh, it came on gradually, but I suppose I had the first inkling when you started taking charge of the house.”
“Really?” she asked, scrunching up her nose. “Why?”
“You were so kind to Mrs Reynolds — and all the servants, really. You treated everyone with respect and wanted to learn, not just give orders and have everything your own way. You gave everyone time to get used to the idea of there being a new mistress of Pemberley.” He shook his head, smiling all the while.
“There is no doubt now who the mistress of this house is. They would all follow you into battle if you asked it of them.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I can see that they like me. I do hope that I can lead with the grace and decision that is needed for a household as large as this.” She felt that over the last few months, she had settled into her role well.
It was rarely necessary to give orders, for Pemberley had routines of its own.
“I find that an odd reason to fall in love. It is not necessarily romantic, but I will take it.”
“Well, perhaps you read too many novels,” Darcy teased.
Elizabeth laughed. “Impossible,” she shot back.
“Well, then, when was it you knew you were falling in love with me?” He looked at her steadily, half smiling and half solemn.
She bit her lower lip and watched her sister for a moment. Mr Bingley had stopped along the path and picked a daisy for her. Jane twirled it between her fingers, and the sister’s eyes caught for a moment.
Elizabeth smiled to herself. Perhaps no one else would have seen it, but to a sister’s keen eye, it was obvious that Jane was in a fair way to fall in love with Mr Bingley.
Turning back to her husband, Elizabeth’s smile broadened.
“The day of the fateful horseback ride.” She looked up at her husband.
“I had started to suspect before that. But when I fainted, and you caught me, I felt as though my heart might beat out of my chest. I nearly blurted it out when you brought me to my room.”
“I wanted to tell you how I felt then,” he said softly. “And a hundred other times over those next few weeks. I was afraid you didn’t feel the same, though.”
“Perhaps I simply had to fall in love,” Elizabeth said with a merry laugh. “After all, there was no sensible choice but to reconcile myself to our marriage. Everything else followed from that.”
Darcy stopped on the path and pulled her into his arms, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Oh, you reconciled yourself to your fate, did you? You just made the best of it?”
She turned serious, loving how he held her close. “No. Our marriage made the best of me,” she said softly. “I can never thank you enough for running me down in the woods that day.”
His chuckle echoed across the garden. “Well, my love, I agree. Marrying you has made me a better man, and I am glad I ran you down, as you put it. I have not only reconciled myself to our marriage; I find myself quite content with the arrangement.”
Elizabeth leaned up on her tiptoes so that she might quickly kiss his lips. “So am I,” she breathed.
Leading her husband by the hand, Elizabeth walked a little off the path, so that they might go behind the broad trunk of a tree, out of sight from the others. He leaned down and kissed her properly, enfolding her in his arms. In truth, Elizabeth was not merely reconciled to Mr Darcy.
She was incandescently happy to be his.
The End