Chapter 30 #4
Elizabeth worried her lip, searching his eyes, which still held hers.
She started with surprise when she noticed a tear roll down his cheek conveying the strength of his feelings, and to soothe his distress and her own she tentatively claimed his much larger hand in her petite one, interlacing her fingers with his.
“Can you not see?” she asked softly. “I could not love you if it were not for your shortcomings.
William, look at how you overcame them. As I watched you climb the mountain of change, it showed me your constancy and love.
I saw a man who will do anything to fight for those he loves, to show them that he loves and cares for them.
How many men would not have turned tail and ran as far as they could to put as much distance between themselves and the harridan who took them to task as I did to you?
“You stayed. You publicly acknowledged each point, and then corrected those faults I highlighted. I am not looking for a perfect man to love; perfection is something that only God and His Son Jesus have attained. Were you not the man that you have become, my love for you could never be! With your every decision, every action, every conversation you acknowledge and value those around you whether they are in your circle, our circle, of friends or not. The more I saw of the true you, the more I fell in love. How could I not when you were willing to make such an effort, and your promise that it was not just for my benefit, but your desire to become the man your parents had tried to guide you to be? Was not your very willingness to change the ultimate act of absolute unselfish love? Yes, we would be cousins by Jane’s marriage to Richard, but no more than that had both of us not become the people we are today.
Do you not see that I love you, William?
I love the man that has proven he is willing to change and become my better half as I hope to always be able to do for you.
You are exactly the man I have always wished to win the love of!
I have accepted you as you are today, not some idealized version of you,” she stated while offering a watery smile and waited for his response.
“That perfectly describes my love for you, my dearest, loveliest Lady Elizabeth. Your self-proclaimed imperfections of your quick temper and your propensity to make snap judgements is what forced me to look in the mirror and become the man that my dearly departed parents, and the rest of my family, always wanted me to be, had hoped that I would become.” As he spoke, he wished that his parents could have been there to see the man that he was today.
Contentment washed over him to know they were watching over him from their heavenly home, but he still missed their physical presence each and every day.
“I love you, William,” his betrothed exhaled in a rush. “It is so very easy for some to say the words, but I say them to you with the greatest feeling, and in the deepest, truest meaning they can be expressed.”
“Perhaps it is because of its simplicity that the word ‘love’ can express such a wide range of emotions. I care not for the meaning of the word, just that it is the only word I know that is adequate to express the indescribable depth of feeling I have for you Elizabeth. I love you, my Lizzy!” Darcy vowed again.
He gently pushed the same errant curl from her face and leaned in until their lips met, with this kiss they could acknowledge that no matter how unlikely it once seemed that the love that each held for the other transcended the boundaries they had once believed were the limits of their own feelings into a deeper love that would take them a lifetime, an eternity, to explore and revel in together.
They made a silent vow to follow Elizabeth’s philosophy in which they would ‘think of the past only as that remembrance gives pleasure,’ and from that day they both held to the pledge.
‘He is the best part of me,” Elizabeth thought. ‘He could have made me pay a heavy price in mortification for my own hypocrisy, but he did not. I had thought three minutes ago I loved him as much as I know how, and he has gifted me with the chance to learn how to love him with even more depth!’
Not long after, they heard the dulcet sounds of the girls in the halls. If the girls had been loud when Lizzy and Charlotte had arrived, that had been but a whisper next to the crescendo produced from the six of them when they heard the news. Five would be sisters and Lily a cousin to them all!
“Oh my, I am to be related to royalty!” Georgiana gasped and Darcy chuckled, then called for Zeus to be saddled, intending to make a beeline for Dovedale.
After galloping almost the whole way, in well under an hour Fitzwilliam Darcy was shown into the study of Sir Edward Gardiner, prospective uncle.
It did not take a soothsayer to divine the question that the man was there to ask.
Gardiner, unlike his partner in business and brother Bennet would certainly have done, did not toy with Darcy.
After they shook hands the men found Lady Gardiner in the family sitting room. She was informed of the excellent and ‘completely unexpected’ news and joined her husband in welcoming William to the family.
“Will it not flaunt propriety for Lizzy to stay at Pemberley with her betrothed?” Gardiner asked his wife in true concern.
“Not in my estimation, Edward,” his wife replied with an amused smile.
“It is not as if Lizzy was staying there with no chaperones, there is a plethora of them. There are six teenage girls, most of whom are sisters to one or the other and those that are not are very close cousins, four companions, and the ever-vigilant and widowed Mrs Charlotte Collins. The one restriction that I would add, and not because I believe either you or my niece would cross that line, but rather to take any avenue of gossip away, is that her lady’s maid sleep in the bedchamber with her. ”
“I will have a single bed moved in for the maid to be able to sleep in comfort.” William bowed to her. “Lady Gardiner and Sir Edward, you have my solemn pledge as a gentleman that my behaviour will be honourable at all times!” Darcy stated with clear conviction.
“Perfect,” replied Lizzy’s Uncle, “except as you are to be family no more of this Sir and Lady nonsense. Call me Gardiner or Uncle.” Gardiner again held his hand to the nephew who had had to travel the hardest road to earn her love so he would treasure his niece.
He wondered if perhaps the Marquess who had snagged their Mary was the one who would be happiest. Given the letter recently received from Bennet recounting the day the couple requested to forego the remainder of the courtship period that was standing in the way of the inevitable.
Well, that is how Mary termed it when she talked with her father the following day.
“For me, William, either Madeline or Aunt Maddie will be acceptable,” Lady Gardiner smiled at her soon to be nephew. “I assume that the two of you have not yet spoken about a wedding date?”
“No Aunt Maddie, we have not,” Darcy agreed, trying the new appellation on for size.
“Is it too late to ask that you and Gardiner join us for dinner tonight to celebrate our betrothal and we can discuss that and other things?” He looked from her to Gardiner.
After a nod from his wife, his soon to be uncle smiled as he nodded once.
“Thank you, William. We will leave here after the children are done with their lessons and have a short rest. I will send an express to my brother to inform him that I have approved the request as he authorised me to do. At least my brother and sister will still have three daughters at home for the foreseeable future.” He chuckled as he could hear his sister’s excitement at the prospect of grandchildren.
She would been more forlorn at three daughters leaving home in quick succession if not for the gift of Helen Jacobson.
After another round of congratulations Darcy cantered back to Pemberley.
Now that the urgency of seeking approval had been lifted, he did not want to push Zeus too hard after the gallop to Dovedale.
When he returned to the drawing room it was very much as he left it, full of ladies excitedly talking about weddings, but now that one was his, he could tolerate it a lot better.
Weddings were exciting for those who loved the bride or groom and especially when it was to be a love match, as his was.
Suddenly the reason for his uncle’s, and other married men he knew, preoccupation with the wellbeing of their family became clear.
All it took was for Darcy to be on the cusp of starting his own family to understand.
The following day Aunt Madeline joined Lizzy and Charlotte as Mrs Reynolds led them on a tour of the rooms in the mistress’s suite which would soon be hers.
Lizzy was amazed at the size of the chambers that she entered via the left-hand door of the shared sitting room that was between the chambers of both the mistress and the master.
It consisted of an enormous bedchamber with a sitting area that led out onto a balcony overlooking the rear of the house and the trees on the rising hill that became part of a verdant forest on the crest of the hill.
There was a walk-in closet, that when added to the dressing room exceeded the size of her bedchamber at Longbourn before it was renovated.