CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
London and Homecoming
London received Mrs Darcy with curiosity sharpened by rumor.
She was the daughter of the King's rescuer, mistress of Pemberley, sister to Bingley's wife, friend of Georgiana Darcy, and the woman who had supposedly defeated Lady Catherine de Bourgh in a garden before breakfast. Depending upon the drawing room, Elizabeth had pursued Darcy for his fortune, refused him twice, enchanted the Queen, trapped Wickham, or all four.
"I am disappointed no one has given me a secret child," she told Darcy after their first ball.
"The season is young."
He sat beside her in their carriage, one hand around hers beneath the lap robe.
Society had been exhausting. Three women praised her gown while criticizing Hertfordshire.
A duke asked whether Sir Thomas truly struck the King.
Caroline, unexpectedly, redirected him by explaining the difference between rescue and assault.
"Miss Bingley defended my family," Elizabeth said.
"She enjoys correcting dukes more than she dislikes you."
"A firm basis for friendship."
Darcy had not hovered. He introduced her, remained near when needed, and allowed her to answer insult herself.
When Lady Selwyn remarked that newly elevated families often mistook royal gratitude for hereditary rank, Elizabeth replied that old families sometimes mistook heredity for achievement. Darcy concealed his pleasure badly.
At home, however, he asked whether she wished to decline the next dinner.
"Do you?"
"Desperately."
"Then let us decline because we are both tired, not because you think me fragile."
"Agreed."
They spent the evening alone with supper trays in the library. Elizabeth removed her shoes beneath her gown. Darcy read estate letters aloud until one from Sir Thomas became an argument about crop rotation.
"He has annotated my advice in three colors," Darcy said.
"Red means error. Blue means consideration. Black means he agrees but refuses to admit it."
"There is no black."
"Then you have failed entirely."
Georgiana's first large ball since Ramsgate became the season's greater test. She wore pale gold and asked Mary to stand with her before the first dance. Mary had come to London with Sir Thomas and Lady Bennet for a private royal musicale.
When a young man requested Georgiana's hand, she looked toward Darcy from habit. Darcy waited.
Georgiana turned back and decided herself.
"Yes, thank you."
Darcy released a breath.
Elizabeth touched his arm. "You survived."
"Barely. Who is he?"
"The son of people your aunt approves."
"That is not reassuring."
"He asked Georgiana, not your aunt."
Across the room, Mary spoke with Mr Avery, the barrister from the concert.
He admired her second composition, then asked whether she believed music should imitate conversation or improve upon it.
When she answered that most conversation would not survive being set to music, he laughed with her rather than at the unexpected sharpness.
They spoke for fifteen minutes. Mr Avery asked about Georgiana's part in the new piece, Mary's work with Lydia's charity concert, and the books she read when no one required accomplishment.
By the time Lady Bennet noticed them, Mary had spoken more about loyalty, annoyance, and ambition than about scales.
Lady Bennet saw and began to rise. Sir Thomas placed one hand upon her sleeve.
"Let her speak without our hopes standing beside her."
"I only wished to hear."
"From six inches away."
She remained seated with visible suffering.
Queen Charlotte's private musicale took place at Windsor. Mary performed her new piece, A Measure of Courage, with Georgiana. Elizabeth and Darcy attended beside Sir Thomas and Lady Bennet.
Afterward the Queen spoke to the family.
"His Majesty has few clear days now," she said to Sir Thomas. "But your letter remains in his room."
Sir Thomas bowed, unable to answer.
The Queen turned to Elizabeth. "And Pemberley?"
"It is becoming home, ma'am."
"Becoming is honest. Too many brides claim perfection before learning the servants' names."
"I confused two footmen for a week."
"Only two? You are accomplished."
Darcy smiled.
The Queen looked at him. "You appear less solemn, Mr Darcy."
"Marriage has corrected me, Your Majesty."
"No wife should receive so impossible an assignment."
Even Darcy laughed.
On the carriage ride back to London, Sir Thomas sat opposite his daughter and son-in-law. Lady Bennet slept against his shoulder.
"The King saved you too," Elizabeth said softly.
"By nearly dying. An inefficient method."
"Effective."
He looked at her and Darcy together. "Yes."
* * *
The Netherfield servants lined the steps when the Darcys returned in August.
Lady Bennet did not line anything. She came down the drive before the carriage stopped and called Elizabeth's name through the open window.
Darcy had time to say, "Prepare yourself," before the door opened.
Elizabeth descended into her mother's arms.
Sir Thomas waited behind, smiling. Mary, Kitty, and Lydia crowded near. Jane came from Longbourn in a light carriage with Bingley driving too fast because she had told him not to miss the arrival.
For the first hour everyone spoke at once.
Lady Bennet wished to know whether Pemberley's chimneys smoked, whether the London house needed curtains, whether Lady Catherine had behaved, and why Elizabeth looked thinner. Lydia asked about balls. Kitty asked about the gallery. Mary asked after Georgiana, who would arrive the following week.
Sir Thomas shook Darcy's hand. "You brought her back."
"I promised."
"Promises are easily made before Derbyshire roads."
Elizabeth looked at her father. New silver showed at his temples. She had been gone only months, yet absence made change visible.
At dinner she sat in her old place. Darcy sat beside her as husband, which made every familiar object slightly new. The room sounded exactly as he remembered.
"You were right," he whispered.
"About what?"
"Pemberley does not sound like this."
"You said we would make our own noise."
"We have begun."
They remained at Netherfield six weeks. Darcy rode with Sir Thomas, reviewed Longbourn improvements, and learned that advice requested could still be ignored. Elizabeth spent mornings with her sisters and afternoons at Longbourn with Jane.
A letter from the family solicitor awaited them.
At the Hertford Assizes, Wickham was convicted of forgery, extortion, escape, and armed assault.
The capital sentence attached to the forgery conviction was commuted, upon the Crown's recommendation, to transportation for life.
He was taken under guard to a prison hulk at Portsmouth and later placed aboard a ship bound for New South Wales.
Georgiana's evidence was entered in her own name because she refused to let his threats govern the record.
He could not return to trouble either family.
Jane had news she had kept from letters.
She took Elizabeth into the old nursery and closed the door.
"I am expecting a child."
Elizabeth stared, then embraced her so quickly Jane laughed.
"When?"
"February, if all goes well."
Joy arrived with fear close behind. Childbirth was not an abstract danger. They had known women lost to it; Lady Bennet had survived five confinements and never allowed them to forget the achievement.
"Are you well?"
"Tired. Hungry at impossible hours. Charles has read three medical books and is now more anxious than Mama."
As if summoned, Bingley entered carrying a tray.
"Jane, you did not eat the biscuits. Oh—Elizabeth. She told you?"
"She did."
"Mr Jones says walking is good but not too much, rest is good but not too much, food is important unless it disagrees with her, and worry is harmful. His instructions are designed to destroy me."
Jane accepted a biscuit. "You see?"
Elizabeth kissed Bingley's cheek. "You will be a devoted father."
"I hope to be a less foolish one than I was a suitor."
"The child will offer immediate correction."
When Lady Bennet learned the news, she cried, issued twelve instructions, and began knitting something of uncertain shape. Sir Thomas went very quiet.
Jane found him later in Longbourn's garden.
"Papa, you are worried."
"It is a father's occupation."
"You taught us fear need not become command."
He looked at her. "I dislike having my lessons returned."
"I know."
"You will have the best physician available. You will remain where you are comfortable. Your mother may instruct everyone except you."
"And you?"
"I shall wait where I am told and terrify Bingley by appearing calm."
Jane rested her head against his shoulder as she had when young.
Darcy and Elizabeth walked to Oakham Mount before leaving. The view held both houses beneath late summer green.
"Jane will have a child here," Elizabeth said.
"We may one day bring ours."
She looked at him. They had not yet conceived, so far as she knew. The hope carried no accusation.
"I should like that."
Darcy touched the Queen's locket at her throat. "Two houses."
"One family."