Summer at
Pemberley
a Jane Austen fan fiction
by Lucy
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The world
would intrude on their idyllic
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"That will be all," Mr. Darcy said.
As the servants departed they closed the door upon the
breakfast room and Mr. Darcy turned to his wife and watched with fresh
fascination as she poured him a cup of coffee. He wondered for not the first
time that he should find such delight in such ordinary activity. For while the
private privileges of wedded intimacy were indisputably manifold in pleasures
and rewards, these several months into their marriage he found almost a greater
enchantment and fascination in that knowledge which revealed not the intimacy
of loving, but the intimacy of living: the manner in which she slightly pursed
her lips when pouring tea or coffee; the way in which she tilted her head when
reading her correspondence, and the slow, careful gait of her hand while
writing the same; the near delirium with which her lovely visage was infused
when she inhaled a flower's fragrance; the extra brilliancy in her marvelous
eyes when the day dawned bright; how she bit the corner of her lip when she
could not decide from a selection of books; the peculiar pleasure she took in
stealing sips of his brandy while persistently denying any inclination for the
same; the manner in which she discreetly rolled back her head and stretched her
supple neck when the night was long and she was tired. Watching as she finished
preparing his coffee and as she fixed now her own cup of tea Darcy mused upon
the truth that with each small and daily charm that he observed she was every
day burrowing herself deeper into his heart.
Grown accustomed now to her husband's penetrating, frequent
and silent observation, Elizabeth did not disregard said observation, and she
was, in point of fact, pleased more than not by its continued performance.
"Your coffee will grow cold, my dear, will you not
sit?"
Taking his seat Darcy merely said, "Thank you,"
before happily turning his attentions to the plentiful breakfast before him.
"Today promises to be another fine day,"
Elizabeth remarked as she spread her toast with strawberry preserve. "The
remainder of Georgiana's journey should be quite comfortable. In her letter she
sounded very content. I am so pleased she had such an enjoyable visit with your
aunt."
"She has long been a little afraid of my uncle, but
with the Earl away and only my aunt for companionship I am sure we will indeed
find her content with her visit. Colonel Fitzwilliam has always been a favorite
with Georgiana and his easy temper is very much like his mother's."
"I would imagine so. She was very kind to me when we
were in Town. So warm and welcoming."
Darcy looked displeased as he noted almost coldly, and
certainly defensively, "As opposed to others, you mean?"
They occupied together the corner of the vast table,
allowing Elizabeth to easily stretch out her hand and place it on Darcy's arm,
giving it an affectionate squeeze. "I intended no such intimation. I
thought you understood that I am not at all discontented by how I have been
received by any member of your family. While it gives me pleasure that with
Lady Margaret I sense there can, with time, be some degree of confidence, I
concede it was more than I anticipated. The Earl, your cousin Edward and his
wife were perhaps not warm in their reception, but I imagine they are simply
not particularly warm by nature. They were, however, perfectly civil."
"Unlike Lady Catherine."
"I have said before that while her coming to see me at
Longbourn was a great impertinence, it was not, viewed dispassionately, wholly
unexplainable. I do wish you would reconsider and attempt some reconciliation."
Darcy sighed heavily. "I should not have mentioned
her. Pray, let us not discuss this matter again; it is far too lovely a morning
for such a subject. I understand that you would wish for me to reconcile with
her, you have made that plain in the past, but I cannot find it in me to
reconcile, not after the reprehensible sentiments she expressed in that
unconscionable letter. Can we not simply agree to differ on this matter?"
Elizabeth observed the pronounced frown that sat upon her
husband's face as he recalled all that surrounded the ruptured relations with
his aunt and was certain she must persuade him to heal the breach. Now,
however, was not the moment; he was not presently inclined for such discussion,
and, in truth, neither was she.
"Very well, let us leave off for the time. Now tell me
instead, are you not eager to see your sister?"
As Elizabeth proffered her question she took a bite of
toast and a small drop of the strawberry preserve stuck to her lip. She
continued with her breakfast, quite unaware of the less than elegant offending
strawberry preserve adorning her lip; Darcy's frown was quickly replaced with a
smile as he reached across with his napkin and whipped away the offending drop
of preserve. Elizabeth blushed becomingly.
"I must confess," Darcy answered at last,
"that I am not altogether eager for her arrival."
"Fitzwilliam Darcy, you surprise me!"
"I, of course, am eager to see her settled at long
last here at Pemberley and I am eager for you and Georgiana to continue to
understand each other, to see strengthened the regard that so happily and
unaffectedly began while we were together in London." Darcy pushed his
plate aside and reached across the table to take Elizabeth's hand, enveloping
its small softness within his own two strong hands. "But I do confess,
Elizabeth, that this time we have shared here at Pemberley, all alone, is not
something I am eager to forsake. Particularly as once Georgiana returns home
she will swiftly be followed by far too many guests. What were we thinking
extending so many invitations? In truth, I am not at all disposed to sharing
your company with others."
"That is very ungenerous of you, my dear,"
Elizabeth replied playfully, in the soft, musical manner he found so
enchanting. "Particularly as you have had me all to yourself all these
weeks now and you know how I long to see Jane, who I have not seen for these
many months."
"You see!" Darcy exclaimed. "My worst fears
are sure to be realized!"
"And what are your worst fears?"
"These!" he responded wryly. "All her
sweetness notwithstanding, Georgiana can be rather demanding in her attentions
when she so chooses, and most particularly when she has just returned from a
visit of some sort. And then your beloved Jane will arrive shortly thereafter
and you shall have no time or inclination for my company at all and I shall
find myself reduced to the ignominy of suffering jealously of your sister.
Naturally, we shall concurrently have other guests who must be attended to, you
will of course continue with your visits to our tenants and I will have the
inevitable estate business to dispatch. And I mustn't forget that with summer
upon us we will have all manner of obligations with our neighbors; why only
yesterday we received an invitation to dine at Fox Bush Manor. I will be
reduced to having you alone to myself for no more than a half hour each
day."
Elizabeth laughed gaily at the sight of her infamously
severe Darcy pouting as petulantly as a small boy denied his favorite toy.
"That is all perhaps for the best," she replied teasingly. "For
too great a period alone with me might grow tiresome after a time."
"Never!" he responded as he pulled her from her
seat, around the table and onto his lap. "You are well aware that I can be
a very selfish, very spoiled man."
"Yes. It has been plainly established that you are
rather too accustomed to having your own way, Mr. Darcy." She smiled as
she caressed his face affectionately.
"That is indisputably so. And I should have you
comprehend that I have grown quite accustomed to our time alone. Our long walks
about the park, our quiet evenings sitting together, reading, conversing. I
take great pleasure in having you play and sing for me and only me, and I quite
enjoy having all your witty, adorable impertinence for myself alone. But what
shall drive me quite mad is that once Georgiana arrives I shall no longer be
able to kiss you at my own leisure."
And with that Mr. Darcy began to kiss his wife's hands, her
shoulder, her neck, her lips, all the while murmuring playfully: "You are
sweet and delicious and I have been able to freely love you these precious
weeks that we have been alone, with no concern for what is right and proper or
for who may see me kiss you with all the passion your mere presence elicits in
your hopelessly besotted husband. What will I do now when I walk into your
sitting room because I long to kiss you, only to find you in company, as I
surely will, and so find I am only permitted to bow reverently over your
delicate little hand? Tell me, my lovely Eliza, how shall I endure such
suffering?"
Laughing at his delightful playfulness, she responded
teasingly, "What would all your dignified acquaintances say to see you
so?"
"To see me so? How so?"
"So very lively and unreserved."
"They shall never have a word to say about the matter,
for it is only when alone with you that I can be such, that I feel myself
unfettered, expansive, if you will. Does that displease you?"
"No, it does not. I would not wish you to all at once
become as unrestrained in company as Bingley. Charming as Mr. Bingley is and as
delightful a husband as he is for my dearest Jane, I would not have you look
the fool in love for all the world. Let us keep this enchanting foolery as our
own precious treasure."
"That, my dear little wife, is one of your most
charming characteristics. You are so wholly unsentimental."
"Unsentimental? I do not know that I like that at all.
It sounds almost as though I were unfeeling and aloof. Cold."
Darcy smiled broadly and shook his head. "Such willful
misapprehension!" he said. Adding provocatively, as his finger traced her
collarbone, "Do you not think that I would be intimately acquainted with
such a dreadful demeanor if it were so?"
"Perhaps," she replied archly.
"I would not have you sentimental, Elizabeth. I find
sentimentality rather suspect; a particularly impetuous, careless sort of
sensibility. Indeed, you are as unlikely as I to give your affections rashly,
yet when you do give your affections, you give them faithfully,
unconditionally, and without undue mawkishness." He grew serious and
taking her face squarely within his grasp he continued in a quiet, adoring
tone. "I, most fortunate man that I am, have by some happy means won your
frank, ardent, devoted and yes, entirely unsentimental love. And I would have
it no other way."
"That is a very pretty description of my love.
However, it discloses such an excess of confidence, Mr. Darcy. In truth, how
can you be sure that I love you so beautifully?"
"Minx!" He laughed as he looked into her vibrant,
joyful eyesÑsuch luminous, mesmerizing eyes, he thought. Placing temperate, yet
lingering kisses upon her face, he spoke with a tenderness that was palpable: ÒI
can be sure because you show me. You show me in the manner in which you kiss
me, in the manner in which you touch me, look at me, care for me and tease me.
I know because you show me, generously and forthrightly.Ó
"I show you?" she replied weakly, not a little
affected by his attentions.
"You do."
"No more than do you, my love," she whispered in
return. And, dear reader, as you could well imagine, they then indulged in some
such shows of affection that would be, as Darcy had earlier regretted, quite inappropriate
in the company of Georgiana. It was a sweetly mischievous kiss unluckily
interrupted by a knock on the breakfast room door. Elizabeth returned somewhat
unhappily to her seat at the table, but not before, with a charming arching of
her eyebrow and pouting of her lips, straightening Darcy's slightly askew
cravat.
"Enter," he commanded.
"Beggin' your pardon Mr. Darcy, your steward has
arrived and says he has a matter of some unexpected urgency to discuss with
you. He will await you in the library."
"Very well, Mrs. Reynolds. Please inform Mr. Fairfax
that I will be with him shortly."
"Yes sir," she responded with a curtsey, exiting
the room and being quite sure to close the door behind her. When Mrs. Darcy was
first introduced to Pemberley before the Christmas season the staff had quickly
ascertained that the master had made, rather surprisingly to some, what was
universally described as a love match, and as such they quickly modified their
service appropriately. When Mr. and Mrs. Darcy were in residence, open doors in
occupied rooms where not as frequent as in the past.
"I suppose I must see what Mr. Fairfax is about,"
Darcy remarked with no small irritation as Mrs. Reynolds left the room. He rose
and walked to a small table across the room. "However," he continued,
"not before I give you this."
Returning to her side, he handed Elizabeth a prettily
wrapped package to her great surprise.
"What is the occasion for a gift?" she inquired.
"I have told you before, I will spoil you with gifts
whether you desire them or not, and for no particular reason at all."
"I do not need gifts."
"Yes, just my devotion, is that not what you said the
first time I gave you a gift? At any rate, nobody needs gifts. I defy you, be that
as it may, to not enjoy them when I present them to you."
"That I cannot do."
"I thought not. Now, my little minx, open your
gift."
Leaning over he kissed her on the cheek and smiled
expectantly as she removed the wrappings. Inside Elizabeth found a small music
box whose top was decorated with inlaid mother-of-pearl in a very pretty motif
of a violin and flowers. When she opened the box Darcy observed with pleasure
her delighted smile as the sounds of a sweet, languid song escaped the confines
of the box.
"Oh William!" Elizabeth cried. "I have never
seen anything so charming, so delightful. Thank you, I shall treasure it."
As she rose from her seat, he wrapped his arms around her
and enfolded her into his embrace. "Elizabeth, I would wish that every
time you open this box and hear its music you would recall these weeks when we
have had this time alone, during which we have had the opportunity to establish
the foundations of our happiness."
"I would beg to differ, my love, the foundations of
our happiness were established well before we were wed, when we learned to be
frank and open with one another, to trust and respect as well as to love each
other. Yet I will grant you that these weeks have been precious and I shall
treasure them always; that you would wish to as well moves me beyond measure.
But now we are being sentimental."
"Not sentimental, but truthful in our sentiments.
There is a distinction."
"Before I make a muddle of that distinction perhaps
you had best see what Mr. Fairfax so urgently requires."
"Perhaps I had better," he responded quietly.
As Mr. Darcy made to leave the breakfast room to see Mr.
Fairfax he paused as he took the handle of the door and turned to Elizabeth. He
gave her one long parting look and both understood that these precious weeks of
private communion had now come to an end. Georgiana would arrive in the
afternoon and the others would follow soon thereafter. The world would intrude
on their idyllic. And as with a warm smile he turned and walked away Elizabeth
mused that indeed it had been an idyllic. They had loved and lived without
formality, without ceremony, without hesitation and they had come to value and
understand each other more deeply. She suspected she would be always grateful
to Lady Margaret, who, by inviting Georgiana to stay in Town with her for those
additional weeks, had given them the gift of intimate, uninterrupted time.
Elizabeth felt the benefit of this gift particularly as she recalled Jane's
letters, so filled with daily visits from Longbourn and other well-intentioned
Meryton neighbors. But for now, neither Jane's letters, nor Georgiana's
imminent arrival, nor the anticipated summer months filled with guests and
obligations would dominate her thoughts.
Elizabeth walked across the room to the open window and
looked out on the lovely park as it stretched out in the morning sun. She
looked down at the music box in her hands, traced the intricacies of the design
and lifted the top. The sweet, languid music escaped from the box and she
smiled. Elizabeth was happy; happy as she had never before been. Mr. Darcy was
in all manners the husband she had anticipated he would be and yet,
surprisingly more, surprisingly different as well.
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