Chapter 22 #2
“Your cheeks are fuller, and you are losing your figure. Your husband will not appreciate that, and if you want to keep his interest, you will need to pay more attention to what you eat. I know you are accustomed to traipsing about, which I imagine helped you maintain your figure before, but now …” she trailed off, allowing her daughter to understand she expected Mr Darcy to tire of her soon.
Finally, Elizabeth heard enough and stopped her mother’s demands and disparagement.
“Mama, I do not know why you think Lydia should be permitted to remain at home. She desperately needs instruction but refuses to listen to the governess, whom you constantly contradict, preventing her from correcting Lydia’s behaviour.
As far as my other sisters, Mary and Jane, if she desires, will reside with my husband and me.
Kitty will remain at home with the governess, and we will invite her to stay with us at Pemberley or in London once she is ready, or she may go to the Gardiners if they invite her.
As I said last night, you will not be invited to any of my homes until you apologise for your treatment of me.
The letters you sent were atrocious, and while I now understand some miscommunication made matters worse, there is no excuse for what you wrote and said to me, especially since I married.
You fawn over my husband, making him uncomfortable while disparaging me and telling him he should have chosen another of my sisters.
We may be able to be civil when in each other’s company, but until you apologise, I want no relationship with you. ”
“Whatever do you mean, Lizzy Bennet? How dare you speak to me in this way?” the matron demanded, her banked anger rising once again.
“You are well aware, madam, that I am no longer Lizzy Bennet; I am Elizabeth Darcy. You have criticised me my entire life. When I entered this house yesterday, you fawned over my husband while insulting me. You call me selfish and unfeeling for trying to save you and my sisters from the hedgerows, which was a real possibility had we refused to pay Papa’s debts.
Papa would have been thrown into the Marshalsea, or worse, allowed one of the men he owed to take one of my sisters to use and sell to a rich man or a brothel in repayment.
Do you understand what that would have meant?
I understand your frustrations were exacerbated by my father’s unwillingness to speak with you honestly or directly in this case, but nothing justifies your ill-treatment of me.
I said yesterday I would accept no more letters from you, but now I will have nothing more to do with you until you apologise sincerely. ”
Elizabeth’s outburst shocked Mrs Bennet and the rest of the room into silence until the gentlemen returned from the study.
In the study, the gentlemen’s conversation was stilted and awkward; the two were only barely acquainted, and Darcy was not in the mood to be of much help.
Mr Bennet was half ashamed of the fundamental questions he asked about estate management, as he had been a landholder nearly as long as Darcy had been alive, even as he admitted Longbourn would benefit from Darcy’s diligence in keeping up with modern practises.
After a time, they asked Mr Todd to join them, as Bennet confessed to not knowing many of the particulars of his own farm.
Darcy felt he was a tutor whose pupil was as recalcitrant as any young lad in the schoolroom.
He directed most of his conversation to the steward, who gratefully accepted the information.
When the conversation exhausted itself—and Darcy—they returned to the drawing room, where Darcy was surprised by the obvious tension.
He glanced at his wife, and when she rolled her eyes in his direction, he grimaced in reply before sitting down to listen to Mrs Bennet’s effusions.
As quickly as he could, he extricated himself and his wife from Longbourn, claiming a need to return to their own temporary home.
On the way, Elizabeth explained her mother’s almost-apology.
“Papa did not explain why you visited Longbourn or tell her we were to marry. She learned we were married in a letter from my Aunt Gardiner and was rather piqued because she assumed I married in London to avoid her planning the wedding. Papa never told her I married in London at his direction.”
Darcy groaned. “I asked him if he wanted to make the announcement before I left, but he said he preferred to inform his wife after I left Longbourn. I should have known that he would do something like this when we read that letter he sent. No wonder your mother has been so angry with you,” he said, pulling his wife into his arms.
“I am no longer upset by it, William,” she told him.
“My father has once again shown us how completely he disregards his wife and daughters. For my sisters’ sake, I hope he eventually sees the error of his ways, but his habits are so ingrained that I doubt he will ever really change.
We may force him to take an active interest in his estate for a while, and we have removed my sisters, except for Kitty, from his care.
She will continue her education with a governess employed by us, not him, and perhaps, finally, Mama realises this is important and will not actively attempt to circumvent the governess.
“The fact is that once he pays back the loan, he has no incentive to continue being responsible for the estate. I hope my sisters are settled and no longer subject to his whims—or Mama’s, for that matter—before that happens.
While I believe, or maybe I just hope, the conversations last night and today will have some impact upon their behaviour, I have little faith they will make lasting changes. ”
They arrived at their lodgings just then, and Darcy quickly exited the coach before helping Elizabeth down.
He knew her well enough to know she was more tired than she let on, so he escorted her to their shared room and coaxed her to lie down.
After both were more comfortably attired for a nap, Darcy cuddled his wife as she fell asleep.
They had not been in this position long when Elizabeth gasped and sat upright.
“William!” she cried, her eyes ablaze. “I think I felt it.”
Darcy sat up with his wife. “Felt what?” he asked, confused by both her words and the look on her face.
In answer, she brought his hands to her waist. “The baby, William, I felt the flutters, just like Aunt Gardiner said. Our baby is letting us know he is really there.” She had tears in her eyes as she spoke.
He grinned broadly and blinked back a few tears of his own. “So, we will definitely be parents soon, my love?”
“Sometime in April,” she told him. “Around our first anniversary, if my estimate is correct.”
Darcy pulled his wife into a tight hug. “I love you, Elizabeth,” he told her before kissing her gently. “Now, you need to rest, my dear. Let me hold you while you sleep.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “I do not want to sleep now,” she told him.
“But you will later if you do not now,” he reminded her.
They whispered together until Elizabeth fell asleep.
While she slept, Darcy fretted. His biggest fear was for his wife’s health.
His mother had never been strong, and after Georgiana’s birth, she had never truly recovered.
Elizabeth was healthy, but childbirth was always a risk for the mother.
For a moment, he agonised about what he would do if something happened to her, but he quickly shook off those thoughts, knowing they would do no good.
To calm himself, he thought about the child, wondering if it would be a boy or a girl and which parent it would favour.
He drifted off and dreamt of a beautiful dark-haired little girl with eyes just like her mama’s.