Chapter 62
Chapter Sixty-Two
When Darcy returned home Friday evening after speaking with Richard, he put the diamonds in his safe and then sought out the duke. His servants informed him he had retired early, requesting dinner in his rooms. It was not so late yet that he could not call on Elizabeth, he decided.
He interrupted the Gardiners’ dinner hour, and after apologizing, he was invited to join them.
Elizabeth gave him a strained smile, and his heart lurched.
He feared she had already decided to seek a husband elsewhere.
He attempted to make light conversation with her uncles and aunt, but Elizabeth was quiet.
After the meal, he was grateful to be granted more privacy than they had had in weeks when her uncles began a game of chess, and her aunt watched.
They wordlessly sat several inches apart on the settee, and he knew not how to begin. The last time he had spoken to her more than “good evening” was when he had held her hand and told her news that had changed everything for her.
“How are you? Knowing about your parents, I mean? Does it grieve you anew to lose them?”
Elizabeth appeared as surprised as he was by his questions.
“I have been overjoyed to know my grandfather. I did not know of his existence, of course, but part of my joy in knowing him is to have a weight removed from me in knowing who my parents were. We have had some tearful conversations, thinking of what could have been, but overall, we have chosen to embrace what we have now.”
We. She meant herself and her grandfather. They were planning a life together. Without him.
“Will you go to Yorkshire?”
“At some point. We have not made specific plans.”
“Will you remain in London for a while, then?”
Their speech was stilted, awkward, polite. Nothing like their usual comfortable conversations. They did not even look at each other beyond the occasional glance.
“Yes. Is this about my grandfather staying with you? He is considering leasing a townhouse for the Season. He has one, but he has had tenants there for years.”
“No, no. His Grace is welcome to remain. It is only…does he wish for his own home so you may reside with him?”
“Oh, he did not mention it, but I suppose I could. It would be difficult to leave the lively Gardiner home, though.” She forced a laugh.
“It would be more convenient for His Grace to meet your suitors in his own home.”
“My suitors?” Elizabeth appeared to be surprised by the notion.
“Surely you understand you will have many as soon as your true situation is known.”
She looked over his shoulder, where nothing resided but a window highlighting the dark night. “Are you, then, withdrawing your own suit? Have you changed your mind about our engagement?” She spoke firmly, sounding every bit the granddaughter of a duke.
Darcy swallowed. “I wish only for your happiness, Lady Elizabeth. You must know that. Nothing has changed for me except the knowledge that others now have a greater claim on you.”
“Nothing has changed?” Her tone had softened. Her voice trembled, and she dared a glance at his face.
“I realize you have far more opportunities now, and you need not accept me only because of a prior friendship.” His gaze fell to his knees as he spoke the words that would release her from their almost-engagement.
“Fitzwilliam.”
He looked into her eyes, now shining with unshed tears.
“Forgive me. I have upset you.”
“Yes, you have upset me. I have missed you, and I was unsure whether you would return. I thought perhaps my only draw for you was as a helpless damsel requiring saving. As soon as you saw to it that I have no need of rescuing, you withdrew and then disappeared…again.”
“My love. Forgive me. I did not mean to make you feel abandoned. I expected you would wish for time with your family, time to become accustomed to your new standing and your new expectations. And while I recognize that you no longer need me, I could stay away for less than two days because I do need you.”
“Then you still wish to marry me?”
“With all my heart. I will step aside not for your uncle or for your grandfather but only with the greatest reluctance for you, if you choose someone else.”
“Fitzwilliam, how can you think I would ever choose someone else? Until November, I had been dismissing or fighting my love for you since I was sixteen. Well, aside from that confusing time when I tried to convince myself I hated you. But since you returned to me last winter, I have been unable to deny my love for you.”
Darcy had slid closer to her as she spoke, and he now took her hands in his. “Are you certain? You have not been able to associate with people of your grandfather’s sphere, but you now will meet many more eligible men—”
“Fitzwilliam. I love you. I will not be entertaining other suitors, no matter what their titles. If my being who we now know me to be upsets you, then I hope you will take the time you require to accept it. I only pray you may be quick about it, as I am quite tired of waiting to marry you.”
Fitzwilliam’s smile took her breath away. “You know, the years when you hated me were the worst of my life. I tried not to love you but dreamed of you day and night. And then Richard called me out and told me my love was false.”
Elizabeth startled in surprise. “How could he presume to know your heart?”
Fitzwilliam chuckled. “I thought the same thing at first, but you must admit I had not acted like a man in love. Insulting, abandoning, avoiding, and angering you are not common courting practices.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Presumably why I had no idea at all that you cared for me.”
Fitzwilliam sobered. “But I do. When Richard showed me what a fool I was being, I knew I had to make a change. Either I had to stop pretending I loved you, or I had to prove my love. For weeks, I battled my upbringing. I was forced to decide what I truly value. Connections, fortune, and birth were what I had always been told mattered. I had already decided I need not marry for fortune, as I have enough. Connections were not so difficult to give up. But birth.” Fitzwilliam shook his head, looking at their joined hands.
He looked into her eyes then, and she saw a tenderness she had been missing lately.
“I believed you to be the daughter of a tenant farmer. I respect my tenants and consider them to be good, hardworking people. But I would never for a moment have considered seeking a wife among them.”
Elizabeth gave him a small smile of encouragement. She had known he had shifted his views enough to return to her, but he had not previously explained so fully his struggles. She shivered as his thumbs traced her knuckles.
“As I said, it took me weeks to adjust my opinions, and I thought about what and who I would have to give up to be with you. Once I was sure I was willing to give up all but you, I came back.”
“So, when I told you I thought I was illegitimate, you truly did not care?”
“I was sorry you had been holding that secret alone for so long, but it did not affect my love or my plans to marry you. Forgive me for not making it clear to you that day. It was never a question for me at that point, but I should have told you. I wished to propose that very day, but it did not seem the right time for you, and then I was called away.” He looked intently into her eyes.
“I wanted to claim you as my wife a year ago, but you were not ready to trust me, and I had to prove to myself I would hold true to my decisions to give up friends and society. I do regret your pain over the summer, though, when you did not understand my heart.”
Elizabeth squeezed his hands. “That is all forgot.”
“Elizabeth…” He cleared his throat. “Lady Elizabeth—”
“No, no. None of that. You are the only one who has called me that, and I wish you would not. It makes me feel birth matters too much to you after all.”
“Very well. Elizabeth. If you will still have me, I would like nothing more than to marry you.”
Elizabeth could feel the strain of her smile stretching wider than it had in many weeks. “Thank you for facing your fears and coming tonight. I love you, Fitzwilliam.”
“I love you most ardently, which is why if your uncle and grandfather disagree, I am inclined to follow your esteemed parents’ example and elope.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I do not think it was so scandalous as that. My father was of age, and my mother had consent from her father.”
Fitzwilliam’s face fell, and he swallowed.
“Were you hoping for an elopement?”
“No, of course not. I was only hoping for all the barriers to be removed.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “Perhaps, then, you should speak with my Uncle Bennet this evening. He returns to Longbourn soon, but I think you may be pleased with what he has to say.”
“Truly?” His eyes lit in anticipation.
Elizabeth nodded eagerly.
Fitzwilliam glanced at the chess players. “Their game is almost finished, I think.”
Half an hour later, Fitzwilliam and Uncle Bennet emerged from Uncle Gardiner’s study laughing. Elizabeth exchanged smiles with her aunt and uncle before standing to welcome her betrothed.
It was agreed that Fitzwilliam would join the duke on his visit the next day, and they would broach the topic of their wedding together. Then the couple was granted a few minutes alone as she walked him to the door.
Elizabeth was grateful he did not ask how her grandfather would feel and instead used their precious minutes together to show her how he felt.
He kept his kisses chaste, but they were still the glorious answer to all her questions of late.
Did he still want her? Would she have him beside her as she entered a new social sphere?
Was she more to him than a quest? Would he always come back to her?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Any question she could conjure he would return with a Yes.
Darcy was overjoyed the next day to learn that contrary to his concern that the duke would wish to keep Elizabeth to himself for months or longer now that he had finally met her, he actually wished for a prompt wedding in hopes of meeting his heir.
Apparently, Elizabeth had already received some idea that her eldest son would inherit the dukedom and lands that her father had died too soon to claim.
Darcy had not even considered the possibility.
His first thought was that he hoped he and Elizabeth would have at least twice as many sons as the one his own mother had, but then he remembered his own heir need not be male, and he had a sister whose child could inherit Pemberley.
All he needed for a lifetime of happiness was Elizabeth.
And that lifetime with her as his wife would begin sooner than he could have hoped.
With input from the duke, Mr. Bennet signed the marriage articles that very day.
Darcy was humbled anew when he learned the size of Elizabeth’s dowry.
He and her family ensured all would be protected for her and any future children.
He found himself hoping again for a large family.
From her parents, she had inherited an estate in Lancashire and the investment that was now more than double the fifty-six thousand pounds it had been nineteen years before.
Her grandfather’s legacy was more complicated. If Darcy and Elizabeth were blessed with a son while the duke was still living, then the boy would inherit the title, Rowe Manor, and seventy-five thousand pounds immediately upon His Grace’s death.
If the duke were to die before a son came to the Darcys, then the ducal title would become extinct, just as Oliver Rowe’s title had ended. Elizabeth would then inherit Rowe Manor and seventy-five thousand pounds, both of which could be gifted independent of the title.
Either way, the duke’s London townhouse would go to Elizabeth.
After that overwhelming afternoon, Darcy was relieved to take on a simpler task, that of obtaining a common license, which he did on Monday. He and Elizabeth would marry quietly in Meryton chapel a week from Tuesday.
In the following days, Darcy would invite his sister and his Matlock relations to the wedding.
Elizabeth would have the support of her grandfather, the Gardiners, and the Bennets.
Mr. Bennet had been undecided on whether he would break the news to his wife about Farmer Ollie or wait for Elizabeth to do it.
She thought it her uncle’s duty, and Darcy agreed.
They had no intention of informing the Hursts or Miss Bingley of their nuptials beforehand.
They could learn the news when the rest of society did.
Lady Matlock and the duke, who had met soon after the engagement was formalized, concocted a plan to introduce the recovered heiress to society, but Darcy had no intention of thinking about that until required.