An Autumn Accord: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation (Seasons of Serendipity Book 4) (7 page)

“
I have not spoken to mother and father, but the offering of an assignment in Newcastle arises and I intend to accept. I am to leave next week and will not be free until spring, in order to assist with Georgiana’s presentation.”

Darcy’s quill continued to scribble and he remained quiet for a moment. Another might wonder if Darcy even heard the words the Colonel spoke, but Richard knew better. He finished his drink, and restored his gallant red coat to proper uniform regulations.

“
I am sorry our family reunion at Pemberley this winter shall be short a member, but I would never begrudge your duty to His Majesty. Will you stay this evening to dine?”

Richard walked with an involuntary military precision to the front of the study and shook his head. Offering his hand once more to his cousin, who rose from his desk to properly farewell the man, Richard declined. “I am obligated to take my meal this evening at Matlock House. I shall work on mother and father and write to you my results.”

“
Send them by way of Netherfield. Charles has been kind enough to open his home for our trip.”

The Colonel cocked his head to one side and looked to Darcy with a puzzled expression. “You have kept your friendship with Bingley?”

Darcy shrugged. “It perhaps may be slightly awkward with the dissolution of his courtship with her sister Jane, but we are not the first friends to tackle such delicacies. Besides, there are strategic concerns for why I wish Mrs. Darcy and I to visit the quite vocal Miss Bingley during the time when we should be in Scotland awaiting the babe.”

Richard wished his cousin safe travels and repeated his promise for correspondence. As he walked out of Darcy house with the intention to return to the barracks before his audience with his parents, he gave Darcy a great deal of credit for his ability to withstand the insults the Bingley family had hurled at his family. With a half smile on his lips, he enjoyed the thought that come next year, London society would not be ready when the power couple,  Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy, came for retribution.

♠♠~♠♠~♠♠~♠♠

Light in the shared sitting room between the master and mistress suites of Darcy House quivered from the flickering candle on a desk sharing the same wall as the fireplace. Elizabeth Darcy furiously scribbled a heartwarming invitation to her Aunt Gardiner for them to winter together at Pemberley.

Since the departure of Lady Matlock, Mrs. Darcy had taken the reins of household management and set the younger girls on reading literature and practicing French conversation to help them improve their minds. There was little she could do to make up for lost time, but an ally at Pemberley would certainly help.

As she reached the place in her thoughts imagining the grand family reunion on an estate she had not yet actually seen, the question of Mary’s peculiar situation with Richard Fitzwilliam paused her writing endeavors. Brushing the quill along her jaw line, Elizabeth wondered how to tactfully request for her aunt’s knowledge concerning Mary’s romantic interests, so she might best help her sister, without asking Madeleine Gardiner to betray any confidences. Two large hands clasping her shoulders startled Elizabeth Darcy and she suddenly jumped in her seat. She dropped the quill on her letter, scattering inkblots across the carefully written lines.

“
Fitzwilliam!”

“
I made suitable noise upon entering this room. When you stopped writing, I thought you expected my touch. What keeps you so distracted, Mrs. Darcy?” Darcy looked down at his petite wife with mild amusement at the angry expression she offered him with her jaw most pointedly sticking out. He had just come from his own study, after nearly falling asleep while responding to the last piece of correspondence.

“
I had penned the invitation for the Gardiners to join us, but it’s all ruined now and I shall need to rewrite it in the morning. There’s also the menus and questions from a Mrs. Reynolds which must have an answer, yet we are to away to Hertfordshire in the morning.” Elizabeth Darcy sighed, still tired even though she had again taken an afternoon rest.

Darcy frowned at the stress and worry he read flitting across the lines in his wife’s face. He had intended this little trip to be a relief from the heavy burdens of responsibility they had both carried from the very day of their nuptials.

“
If you wish me to delay our departure…”

Elizabeth yawned and waved her hand. “No, no, there is no need to spoil your plans just because mine have become so. I will give the letter from your housekeeper in Derbyshire more careful thought as we ride and write to her from Meryton. The post should arrive not too much later and makes no reason for us to delay our departure past noon.”

“
A wise plan, my dear.” Darcy lifted her hand to bestow a kiss. “May I suggest we retire for the evening? With still so many details for both of us to decide in the morning, I find myself at odds with the very idea of staying awake any longer.”

Elizabeth nodded and carefully stowed her writing instruments and tightly sealed the pot of ink. Watching her arrange her items just so, Darcy reflected on ordering a desk purely for her needs to join his in the study at Pemberley. He had no interest in being separated from his Elizabeth by multiple rooms and floors when there was much business to be done by both of them. It was only when her laughter startled him out of his thoughts for the particular style and furniture maker he wished to commission for such a piece, he noticed his lithe wife had not only risen from her desk, but now stood by the door connecting the master suite.

“
I believe I have caught the Master of Pemberley, the great Fitzwilliam Darcy asleep on his feet!”

Darcy shook his head and stroked his chin. “I’m awake enough to play maid.” He offered her a devilish smile reserved only for those moments when the two of them were alone.

“
Then I shall play valet.” Elizabeth offered her famous arched eyebrow to her husband’s tease. She had long sent her maid Becky to bed when she realized the late hour. There were few nights in which Elizabeth Darcy retired before her husband and she cared not to reflect on the circumstances dictating those evenings. Not yet six months married, the Darcys continued to learn and adjust to each other’s living habits. Given the unstructured nature of their living arrangements since the wedding, the entire process had become rather elongated.

“
How did your interview with Richard go?” Elizabeth remembered her curiosity earlier about Mary. The Colonel had been long gone by the time the ladies arrived to change for dinner, but Mrs. Kensington had relayed the happenings of the home in her brief absence.

Fitzwilliam walked towards her and lifted her with an embrace of no effort. “Oh no, Mrs. Darcy –” he held his squirming and squealing wife, “the time for discussion has ended. I decree we are to bed and to bed we shall go.”

Darcy opened the door to his suite with one hand, eased by Elizabeth holding a portion of her weight with her arms snaked around his broad shoulders. He did not bother to close the door as he kissed his wife the half dozen steps to the large fourposter bed in the middle of the room. Gently placing Elizabeth on the bed so she might sit upon the edge, he retreated to the armchair in the corner to remove his own boots.

“
I shall abide by the master’s wishes for this evening, so long as he satisfies my curiosity come morning.”

Darcy offered her a rakish smile as he succeeded in removing the second of his Hessians from his feet. “Agreed, agreed. Now I do believe you have far too many pins in that hair of yours.”

Elizabeth hopped off the edge of the bed and walked around to the other side and the pretty little dish she used expressly for the purposes of holding her hair pins until they could be collected and restored to her own dressing table in her own suite. Not unlike other evenings when the couple preferred their privacy over the ministrations of their servants, Darcy tugged his shirttails from his trousers, as he stooped to the fireplace and added the coals left purposely for their evening slumber.

He poked and stirred the fire until he was satisfied the hearth would keep them warm. By the time he was finished, Elizabeth had removed her evening dress and shimmied down into the covers in only her chemise. She yawned and her heavy eyelids fluttered, battling to stay awake.

Darcy hurried to join his sleeping wife, but his efforts were in vain. For no sooner had he finished his undress and embraced her as a loving couple was want to do, he realized she had been more exhausted than he had known. It was one of the few nights Fitzwilliam Darcy had little choice but to content himself with sleeping next to his wife.

♠♠♠

Chapter 6

Caroline Bingley strolled around the breakfast table for the fifth time, lightly trailing her fingertips over the edges of the empty chairs. A footman stood in the corner of the breakfast parlor at Netherfield Park and had the unfortunate need to clear his throat. The sharp interjection to Caroline’s calculating frustration elicited a harsh chastisement from his mistress.

“
Is there something you wish to say? James, Robert . . . Stevens . . . whatever your name may be?”

 “
Thomas, madam. And no, I merely had a crumb, or other such small morsel caught in my throat.  I beg your pardon, Miss.” The footman’s hands shook as he held them at his sides.  To regain control, he eased them behind his back and clasped them together so as not to show fear.

Before Caroline dismissed another member of Netherfield staff, her jovial brother, Charles Bingley slid open the wooden door connecting the breakfast parlor to the hall. Charles Bingley made a slight gasp at the sight of his older sister standing near the table this early in the morning.  Like every other morning, Bingley expected to break his fast alone. Caroline famously preferred maintaining town hours, regardless of her actual locale.

“
I told you I do not expect the Darcys until later this afternoon, nigh upon dinner.”

Caroline pretended shock her brother would insinuate she was merely in the dining room to anticipate the arrival of a man she had once designed to catch as her husband. “I merely thought it a pleasant idea to have my maid wake me early, especially so that I might dine with my brother and my intended.”

Charles frowned. “Does Lord Bergamote rise so early? I’ve not seen the man take breakfast since we retired to the country in the middle of July.” Charles loaded his plate with a healthy portion of hams and jellies, popping a number of Cook’s warm rolls on top. “Are you planning to eat, Caroline, or continue to stare out the window pretending no interest in the arrival of the Darcy carriage?”

“
You’ve become so ornery, brother. I thought you found the country most agreeable. You said as much when we changed our plans to follow the Hursts to their much nicer estate in Somerset. Instead, we practically banished ourselves to a county no one cares about, and I hasten to think none of our friends even know exists.”

Her brother tore viciously into a roll with no sense of polite manners or decorum. Swallowing the chunk of bread he chewed with his mouth half open, slanting his eyes as he followed his sister’s progress to her normal seat on his left. Charles took a sip of coffee served by the footman. “It was your behavior, Caroline, that had us uninvited to the Hearst estate. Do you not recall how you held it against Louisa after the birth of young Sarah? Did a day pass that you did not mention her failure to produce an heir?”

“
And you wanted to come back here because you thought she would be here. Living with her poor widow mother, Mrs. Bennet. Admit it.”

“
Tis not true.”

“
Oh please, you stay up half the night drinking your way into oblivion and rise with the sun to ride your horse on every lane and road from here to Meryton and back. Jane Bennet is not coming home to her mother’s bosom. She enjoys the protection of the Countess and Earl of Matlock! Charles was about to continue his argument with his sister when the tall, devilishly dark Lord Bergamote strode into the room. He gallantly strolled to Caroline’s side and offered her a good morning whilst kissing her hand. Charles stabbed at the ham on his plate, insistent he would eat his fill before the French lord’s behavior stymied his appetite.

“
Bonjour, Charles. I thought to rise early today so that I might join you on your morning ride.”

“
As you arrived in my carriage, sir, from London to Netherfield, I was unaware you also had a horse in my stables.”

Caroline offered a flirtatious giggle to Lord Bergamote as he shrugged and began to fill his breakfast plate with pastries. “Stop your silliness. You and I both know there are a number of horses in the Netherfield stables that would suit his Lordship.”

Lord Bergamote held up his hand gently and nodded to Caroline. “If your brother does not wish for me to ride with him, I can hardly complain of your company all morning as a waste of time.”

Charles stared at his plate and realized he was no longer hungry. Flustered and aggravated at both Jane Bennet being mysteriously away from Meryton and his sister’s engagement to this Frenchman, Charles Bingley threw his napkin on his plate and stood from the table. “I shall give instructions to the stable master to ready a horse for you. I intend to leave in twenty minutes’ time and hope I can count on you for punctuality?”

The Frenchman carefully sliced his ham with dainty, formal manners and used his fork to raise a bite to his lips. “Your timing suits me perfectly, sir.” Lord Bergamote enjoyed his first bite with a slow and sensuous chewing motion that left Caroline mesmerized across the table.

Bingley scowled and whirled around, making a hand motion to instruct the footman to observe his sister and her beloved as he stormed from the breakfast parlor. A few hours to endure pompous Frenchy and he would finally have reinforcements in his home. He knew he could count on Darcy to be a much better companion and sensible fellow than Armand Bergamote, Lordship of who-knew-where in France.