Chapter 22
“Welcome, gentlemen,” Longbourn’s mistress greeted the three men. “You are just in time, so please join us in breaking our fasts.”
“As long as it is no imposition, Mrs. Bennet, we would very much like to join you and your family,” Andrew spoke for the group.
“I am a forthright woman, Andrew. I would not have extended the invitation if that were the case,” Charlotte responded.
Jane and Mary blushed lightly as the brothers looked at them intently as they entered the dining parlour. Even while Andrew spoke to Charlotte, his eyes seldom strayed from Jane. Darcy sat down next to Elizabeth, and Andrew and Richard found seats next to their lady of choice.
Bennet would have had some sport with the men at the table had his wife not given him a cautioning look and shaken her head almost imperceptibly.
Bennet found it almost disconcerting that his wife of but a few months seemed to understand his character so much better than his late wife, who he had been married to for over twenty years.
The meal passed with nothing of consequence being discussed.
It was a cold January day, but Andrew asked if he and Jane might take a turn in the park.
Remembering her previous night’s resolution, Jane agreed she would like some fresh air, as did Mary and Richard.
The younger girls demurred, choosing to remain indoors, but Elizabeth and William agreed to join the other four.
As the only betrothed couple, they filled the office of chaperone, thus relieving Mrs. Annesley of the need to join them outside.
Mary and Richard walked to the left while Jane and Andrew walked to the right. Elizabeth and William walked directly to the bench under the oak. “William, am I wrong in assuming Andrew and Richard had a particular purpose today?”
“I am not at liberty to tell you that you are correct,” Darcy averred with a dimple-revealing smile. “If I were a guessing man, I would say each of them needs to ascertain the level of feelings of his chosen lady. What proceeds from that point will depend on the facts gleaned.”
“This should be interesting then,” Elizabeth smiled widely, vastly joyful her sisters’ hearts’ desires would be answered within a day of their admissions.
Elizabeth saw her betrothed’s questioning look.
“Mary certainly, and I suspect Jane as well, are looking for the best way to indicate their feelings without contravening propriety—too much,” Elizabeth revealed to her love.
Darcy threw his head back and let out a deep rumbling belly laugh. Both couples stopped and looked back towards the source of the unexpected mirth. His cousins suspected they were the subject of his amusement.
“I have never seen my cousin more relaxed than he is with Miss Elizabeth,” Andrew told Jane. “Miss Bennet, Jane, I have two questions for you, the second being predicated on the answer I receive to the first. I know you will only marry if you love your partner; my first question is…”
“Yes, Andrew, I love you!” Jane daringly pre-empted the remainder of Andrew’s question. “I am vastly pleased you asked as I was trying to work up the courage to tell you without seeming grasping.”
“How could I ever think that of you, Jane?” Andrew asked as he led her toward the house. “Do you agree to grant me a private interview?” Jane nodded vigorously. “Come, I need to request permission from your father for that purpose.”
Mary and Richard watched as Jane and Andrew walked at speed toward the house. “Richard, I love you too,” Mary blurted out.
“I was about to ask you, in as subtle a way as I could, that very question. Thank you for saving this old soldier from the possibility of placing his boot in his mouth,” Richard stated with almost boy-like glee, hearing the very words from his Mary he had dreamed of even before his return from Kent.
“Jane and Andrew have the right idea. It is cold; let us return to the house. I believe you will need to request leave from my father for a private interview.” Mary arched her eyebrow in the same way her next older sister was wont to do.
“I agree, Mary. Besides there is nowhere good to kneel out here,” Richard grinned.
“We are not needed to chaperone any longer, William,” Elizabeth observed as Mary and Richard disappeared around the front of the structure.
“So it seems, but does it follow we must return right away?” William waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“No, I suppose it does not, but it is cold,” Elizabeth responded as her betrothed lowered his head and captured her lips. All thoughts of the cold were forgotten as they shared some deep kisses.
Darcy pulled away reluctantly. “We need to return to the house before your father sends the other three girls to recover us.” Darcy could imagine Mr. Bennet doing just that.
When they entered the house to remove their outerwear, they met three relieved girls who would no longer need to seek them.
The betrothed couple looked at one another, and Elizabeth’s tinkling laugh was heard accompanied by Darcy’s baritone guffaw.
The three looked on at the amused couple with quizzical looks. “It seems the cold has affected Lizzy’s and William’s good sense,” Kitty opined as she led Gigi and Lydia back to the drawing room.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As they were the first to request a private interview, Jane and Andrew were granted use of Bennet’s study.
As soon as the door was partially closed, Andrew dropped to one knee and took Jane’s hands in his own.
“Jane Francine Bennet, I knew you were special almost from the first moment I met you, and it never had anything to do with your beauty.
What attracts me to you is your inner beauty, which shines like a beacon in the night.
“When I requested a courtship, I was not in love with you, but I was teetering on the brink. It was not many days later when I acknowledged to myself that I was irrevocably in love with you, Jane." Andrew caressed Jane’s hands with his fingers as he spoke causing a frisson of pleasure and warmth throughout Jane’s body.
“Within a sennight of the beginning of our courtship I knew for certain you were the only man I would ever love,” Jane admitted.
“If I had but asked sooner, we would have been betrothed already,” Andrew berated himself.
“What are a few days in the scope of our lives, Andrew? As Lizzy says, only remember the past as that remembrance gives you pleasure.” Jane squeezed his hands to emphasise her point.
“In that case Jane, all that remains is to declare my everlasting and undying love for you and ask you to make me the happiest of men and accept my hand in marriage.” Andrew looked up at Jane expectantly from his position on one knee.
“Andrew, you are the man I was waiting for, and as I return your love in full measure, yes, I will marry you,” Jane intoned the words Andrew most wanted to hear.
Andrew rose from his knee, withdrew a velvet bag from his pocket, and opened the drawstring. He took his paternal grandmother’s ring, a gold band with a huge sapphire surrounded by two rings of diamond chips, and slowly slid it down Jane’s ring finger.
Jane was looking up at her betrothed expectantly when he obliged her with a soft, chaste kiss, her first from a man not a relative. Jane let a sigh of pleasure escape as he deepened the kiss. After four or five kisses, Andrew stepped back and broke contact, much to Jane’s chagrin.
“I know of your father’s prowess with the foil, so I would rather not anger him,” Andrew owned. “I think I need to speak to him.”
“Wait here; I will request he join you,” Jane kissed her betrothed on the cheek before exiting the room to ask her father to join Andrew in the study.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As soon as the door to the parlour was partially closed, Mary turned to her suitor.
“Richard, you have no idea what a relief it was to be able to declare my love for you. I should have told you as soon as I knew, but I did not want to seem forward. How could I not love the man who saw me before I knew myself?” Mary asked.
Richard sank onto one knee. “I could see there was so much more to you than what you allowed others to see, Mary. It was my suspicion what you presented to the world was not the truth of the matter, but I loved you well before you revealed your beauty to all.” Richard paused as he gathered his thoughts.
“I know it is not my place to apologise for the inherent falsehoods your mother used to spout, but I am sorry that she made you feel less than you were.”
“I allowed her words to affect me the way they did,” Mary stated.
“They were words that were both untrue and should never have been spoken by a mother to a daughter. There is little point in arguing about your late mother’s culpability as there is nothing, we, or anyone else, can do to change the past. The truth is that you, Mary Eloise Bennet, are perfect for me.
You are strong, intelligent, kind, and compassionate, all in one person.
I find you are the only one I want to walk life’s paths with.
Mary, please marry me,” Richard beseeched.
“Yes, Richard, I will join my life with yours until death do us part.” Mary averred.
Richard stood and drew Mary into a hug. He lowered his head until their lips met and gifted Mary with her first kiss.
For a battle-hardened ex-officer, his lips were surprisingly soft.
Mary experienced the warmth of his lips on her own and a tingly feeling which travelled throughout her body.
“You have made me the luckiest and most grateful of men to secure your hand as my betrothed, Mary.” Richard put his hand into his pocket and withdrew a ring box after they separated.
“This was my maternal grandmother’s ring,” he stated as he opened the box, revealing a medium width gold band with a ruby in the centre and diamonds on both sides of it.