Chapter Eleven
Rules
They made rules.
Elizabeth mocked this immediately.
"Of course you need rules," she said as they walked along a quiet lane several days after their discovery. "We have apparently defeated death, but Fitzwilliam Darcy must still organize the experience."
Darcy ignored the insult. "We require some order."
"We have been dead less than a month from our perspective and you are already regulating eternity."
"First," he said firmly, "we do not tell anyone."
Elizabeth's teasing faded. "Agreed."
"Second: we do not assume events will occur as before."
"Obviously."
Darcy gave her a look.
Elizabeth sighed. "Very well. Agreed."
"Third: we do not interfere merely to make people produce outcomes we prefer."
She nodded slowly. "Jane and Bingley."
"Especially."
"Charlotte."
"Yes."
"Lydia."
Darcy hesitated.
Elizabeth stopped walking. "William."
"Preventing danger is not manipulation."
"No."
"Then Wickham remains an exception where necessary."
"Agreed."
She slipped her hand through his arm. Entirely improper, but the road was empty.
Darcy looked at her hand.
Elizabeth smiled. "Fourth rule. You stop pretending we have not been married longer than most people live when no one can see us."
"That is not a rule."
"It is now."
"Fifth: no references to events the other cannot explain without difficulty."
"You mean coffee?"
"Especially coffee."
Elizabeth laughed. "Sixth: you must not stare at me across rooms like a starving man. Charlotte noticed. Jane noticed."
Darcy groaned. "Bingley noticed you."
"Yes."
Elizabeth grinned. "This is going well."
Darcy sighed, then said more quietly, "Seventh. We do not postpone happiness merely because we had to wait once."
Elizabeth looked at him.
The teasing faded.
Darcy continued, "I will court you. Properly."
"Will you?"
"Yes."
"How novel."
"I will speak to your father when appropriate."
Elizabeth's smile widened. "Oh, I should like to hear that."
"Elizabeth."
"I accept."
His eyes warmed.
"But not immediately," she added.
Darcy frowned. "Why?"
"Because if we become engaged within a fortnight of meeting, Mama will be unbearable and everyone will assume you were struck on the head."
"Bingley already suspects that."
"Also, we need to watch what changes."
Darcy nodded reluctantly.
Elizabeth squeezed his arm. "And I would like to be courted."
He looked at her.
Her smile became softer. "We were terrible at it the first time."
"We scarcely managed it."
"Exactly."
Darcy lifted her hand and kissed her glove. "Then I shall do better."
Elizabeth's pulse fluttered. "That was respectable."
"I can be respectable."
"Occasionally."
They continued walking.
Neither saw Lydia watching from an upstairs Longbourn window.
She turned to Kitty. "Lizzy is walking with Mr. Darcy."
Kitty rushed over. "Where?"
"There."
Kitty stared. "They look very close."
Lydia grinned. "Oh, this is interesting."