Chapter XXXV
Two days later, at eleven o’clock in the morning, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet were married at Darcy House in the presence of Elizabeth’s family, Colonel Fitzwilliam, the Gardiners, Mr. Bingley and Miss Bingley, and two of Darcy’s oldest friends and their wives.
The remainder of Darcy’s family received letters at Matlock in Derbyshire and at Rosings in Kent.
Darcy left the letters upon the tray before they departed for Ramsgate.
There was no great display and no gathering of curious spectators.
It was, as Darcy and Elizabeth had intended, a private occasion, quiet enough to preserve the peace which the family so urgently required.
By the time society had any opportunity to concern itself with the matter, Miss Elizabeth Bennet had already become Mrs. Darcy.
An announcement was sent to the papers for the wider acquaintances.
They travelled to the seaside, where they remained for several weeks, enjoying the luxury of having nothing to consider but themselves.
After the strain and uncertainty of the months that had preceded their marriage, the peace of those days was almost astonishing.
They walked along the shore when the weather allowed, drove into the surrounding country, explored the town, and spent long hours together with no need to account for their time to anyone.
Elizabeth discovered that marriage brought a freedom she had scarcely understood while unmarried.
She could take his arm whenever she pleased, lean against him when they were alone, or reach for his hand without the slightest concern that the gesture might be noticed and judged.
Elizabeth had, in fact, begun to wonder whether they kissed rather too often.
She had lost count somewhere during the second week and had since decided that attempting to keep an accurate account would be both impossible and rather embarrassing.
Was there a proper number of kisses expected of a newly married couple?
She had never thought to enquire, and she was quite certain that no respectable book on marriage would have provided the information.
If there was a suitable standard, they had almost certainly exceeded it.
The thought ought perhaps to have embarrassed her more than it did. Instead, whenever Darcy kissed her, she found herself smiling afterwards, and whenever he did not, she occasionally found herself wondering why.
Darcy seemed entirely unconcerned by the matter.
He kissed her when they parted in the morning, when they met again at breakfast or luncheon, before and after an excursion, when she amused him, when he wished to thank her, and sometimes for no reason she could discover at all.
Elizabeth had begun to suspect that the last category was his favourite.
She had no objection.
Darcy, for his part, seemed determined to make up for every moment in which he had once been obliged to restrain himself.
He was still capable of being reserved in company, but when they were alone, he no longer seemed to see any reason for it.
A kiss when she passed him, an arm around her waist when they walked together, his hand finding hers beneath the table – such small things became so natural that Elizabeth soon ceased to notice when they began and only noticed when they were absent.
There were quieter discoveries, too. They learnt each other’s habits with the intimacy that only living together could bring.
Darcy discovered that Elizabeth was capable of reading in complete silence for half an hour and then interrupting him with a remark about something entirely unrelated.
Elizabeth discovered that her husband could spend a considerable amount of time pretending to read when, in fact, he was watching her.
They laughed more easily than either had expected, and there were moments when Elizabeth wondered how they could once have been so certain that they understood one another – when, in truth, they had understood almost nothing.
Yet even during their honeymoon, they did not entirely abandon their practical habits.
Between their walks and excursions, they made certain that the Ramsgate house was properly prepared for the Bennets.
Rooms were arranged, servants instructed, and every inconvenience they could foresee was dealt with before the family arrived.
A long letter to her mother explained what to bring and what was not necessary.
What had begun as a refuge for Elizabeth’s family gradually became a place which they could genuinely call home.
Georgiana remained with the Bennet family in their new home for several weeks, delighted by the company, while Elizabeth found an unexpected pleasure in seeing her husband surrounded by the people she loved.
Darcy, who had once valued the quiet of his household above almost everything, discovered that he did not dislike the sound of Bennet laughter nearly as much as he had once supposed.
Mr. Bennet, upon learning that his family would occupy the house without paying rent, had observed that such an arrangement was scarcely sound business.
“You owe me none, sir,” Darcy had assured him.
“That seems a remarkably poor business arrangement.”
“Fortunately, I am not conducting business.”
“Papa,” Elizabeth had interrupted, “you cannot very well pay rent to your own daughter.”
The matter had been considered settled.
At last, when everything had been put in order, and Georgiana agreed to remain at Ramsgate a little longer, Darcy and Elizabeth set out for Pemberley.
***
Darcy looked up from the book he had not turned a page of for several minutes. “You are fidgeting again.”
Elizabeth looked down at her hands. “Am I?”
“You have adjusted your bonnet ribbon six times since I announced that we are nearing Lambton.”
She laughed. “I thought you were reading.”
“I am watching my wife.”
She coloured, though the smile remained. “I cannot help it. I had hoped marriage might cure me of that habit.”
“I see no reason why it should.”
“I believe I was just as restless when I first travelled towards Pemberley.”
Darcy looked at her with renewed interest. “Were you?”
“Only then I feared meeting its master.”
“And now?”
She glanced out of the carriage window. The familiar countryside was drawing nearer, and with it came the house she had once imagined only from the descriptions of others.
“Now I fear meeting its mistress.”
Darcy’s expression softened. “You have been its mistress for several weeks.”
“That does not mean I have learnt how to be her.”
He closed his book and placed it beside him. He leant forward. “You need not be anything other than yourself.”
Elizabeth looked at him. “That is easy for you to say. You have belonged to Pemberley all your life.”
“No.”
She waited.
“I have belonged to Pemberley,” he said quietly, “but I have never felt that it belonged to me in the way it will belong to you.”
Elizabeth smiled.
“That sounds suspiciously like another attempt to make me less nervous.”
“It is.”
She laughed softly and leant back against the cushions. After a moment, she reached for his hand.
The carriage continued along the familiar road. For a little while neither spoke.
Darcy moved from his seat and joined her, looking towards the road ahead.
The trees opened, and Pemberley came into view.
Elizabeth’s fingers tightened around his.
Darcy looked at her rather than at the house.
“Pemberley has been waiting for you much longer than either of us knew.”
THE END