The Secrets of Darcy and Elizabeth: A Pride and Prejudice Variation (42 page)

Darcy experienced a rush of rage, but attempted to restrain it. Shouting at his aunt on a public street would only damage the family’s relationships. “The wedding was performed by a Church of England priest with all due ceremony and we have no desire to have it annulled.”

After a brief pause, Aunt Alice took a step toward Darcy, regarding him with an ironic gleam in her eye. “Well, this was quite impulsive of you, Fitzwilliam – and I must say I regret wasting my matchmaking efforts on you. But I enjoyed your Elizabeth’s company at dinner the other night. You could have done far worse.” She turned to Elizabeth with a warm smile. “Welcome to the family, my dear.” Darcy sighed with relief at the sign that his aunt had bowed to the inevitable.

“Thank you.” Elizabeth responded with a heartfelt smile. Lady Catherine did not appear disposed to follow her sister-in-law’s example, but instead glared at Darcy.

Darcy’s uncle shook his head. “Apparently you are as impulsive as your father when you set your mind to it.” He said finally. “Congratulations to both of you!” After contemplating them in bemusement for a minute, he announced: “As interesting as all these revelations are, I would like to continue on to Hyde Park before it the day grows too warm.” He offered his wife his arm.

“Yes, indeed,” Aunt Alice seconded. “Darcy, let me know when the announcement will appear in the newspaper. Then we shall throw a ball in your honor so we may introduce your young lady properly.”

Darcy smiled broadly; such an event would go far toward establishing Elizabeth in London society. “Thank you,” Darcy gave her a kiss on the cheek.

His aunt and uncle ambled back toward the carriage, accompanied by Elizabeth. Darcy could hear her explaining the circumstances surrounding the wedding to them. Lady Catherine turned to follow the Fitzwilliams, but Darcy caught her by the elbow. “Aunt Catherine,” he hissed, all pretext of civility gone, “do not make the mistake of believing I am unaware of your role in Wickham’s misadventure.”

“I-I- do not know of what you are speaking—” she said in a quavering voice.

“Wickham confessed all to me before Richard carted him off to jail. Be thankful that you are my aunt. That is the only thing preventing me from having you named as a conspirator in my wife’s kidnapping!” He drew closer to her so she was forced to gaze up at him.

“Kidnapping! I never – She – She was not to be harmed—” Lady Catherine broke off suddenly, realizing she had already revealed too much.

“You schemed to ruin an innocent woman’s reputation,” Darcy continued relentlessly. “You should be ashamed of yourself, but I know you are incapable of such sentiments. Instead, I want you to ponder what would have happened if Wickham had succeeded in his ploy to drag Elizabeth’s name through the muck. It would have been the name of
Darcy
that would have been besmirched. You would have caused the very event you thought to prevent!”

These words made Aunt Catherine blanch more than any other, but she remained silent. “Currently no one else knows of this conspiracy save Wickham, Richard, and Elizabeth,” Darcy continued relentlessly. “However should you be anything less than supportive of my marriage to Elizabeth, it will not remain that way.”

“You would never go public with such a tale—” She scoffed.

“I do not need to. Would you like me to share the tale with my aunt and uncle? Or perhaps your daughter? Or the Bennets?”

Lady Catherine gritted her teeth. “No.”

“Very well, then here are my demands. You will stay away from Elizabeth and me. You will not visit us. We will not visit you. When we see each other at social events, you will be unfailingly polite to Elizabeth. You will not say one word against her to our family or anyone else. If you fail to meet these terms, I will not rest until
everyone
in our family knows the story of your misbehavior. Do you consent to these stipulations or should I save time and tell them now?”

“I agree,” she ground out. “Now, let me pass! I have had enough of this!” She pushed past Darcy and marched toward the carriage where the Fitzwilliams awaited her. Darcy let her go. They had reached an understanding. It was enough. Lady Catherine climbed into the carriage and it immediately began rolling down the street, the sounds of the horses’ hoofs echoing in the morning quiet. Elizabeth strolled back to Darcy and he put his arms around her shoulders.

“I can promise you will never again experience difficulties with my Aunt Catherine,” he said softly.

“Thank you.” She leaned against him, clearly exhausted. The morning sun glinted off the soft curls of her hair.

He touched a single curl tenderly. “Now, my love, it is time to go home.”

The atmosphere in the Bennets’ drawing room was very festive. The bride shone with joy and the groom smiled sunnily at everyone he saw, while the bride’s sisters chattered happily about nothing in particular, causing the bride’s father to roll his eyes.

All is right with the world
, Elizabeth mused as she poured tea for guests at the Bingleys’ wedding breakfast. The new Mrs. Bingley was resplendent in white satin ornamented with just the right amount of lace. Elizabeth was pleased to see her sister laughing and happy; she deserved it. At her side, Mr. Bingley was conversing animatedly with Sir William Lucas, while Mrs. Bennet, clearly in her element, was relating an amusing anecdote to Lady Lucas. The Gardiners were talking with Mrs. Phillips and Mr. Bennet. Kitty abandoned her position near Mary and cornered poor Colonel Fitzwilliam, the only man present in regimentals, who seemed extremely uncomfortable.
When I am finished with the tea, I will have to rescue him
.

Lydia, as usual, was talking too loudly with a crowd of male admirers, but this time she did so in the company of her new husband: Frederick Denny. It had been something of a shock when he had arrived in London to propose to Lydia, but she had been thrilled to accept him. Elizabeth suspected that Denny had received word – perhaps from Lydia herself – of the substantial dowry Darcy was offering upon her marriage. They had married very quickly thereafter – only weeks after the kidnapping episode – and Denny had left the militia in favor of a career in law.

Elizabeth and Darcy had kept the story of the abduction from the Bennet family, who only knew that Wickham had been taken to jail six weeks ago for unspecified crimes. Elizabeth smiled to herself watching Denny and Lydia, musing that he would be a far better husband for her than Wickham. Although he was a little flighty, he did not gamble or drink to excess. Already he was a steadying influence in her life, refusing to indulge behavior that her mother had condoned.

Seeing Lydia brought Elizabeth’s thoughts inevitably to Wickham, who had died in prison, murdered by a fellow prisoner whom he had offended. Wickham’s henchmen had been wanted for other crimes and were immediately transported. So the kidnapping story had never been revealed in a courtroom, for which Elizabeth was profoundly grateful. Lydia had mourned the tragedy of Wickham’s life cut short, but had quickly recovered and sought out other companions, remaining unaware of her first love’s true perfidy.

Sensing some movement from the corner of her eye, Elizabeth turned to see Darcy deftly extricating Colonel Fitzwilliam from Kitty. Good for him. She watched as the two men strolled away to a far corner of the room, knowing that poor Darcy had been uncomfortable with the public visibility of standing up for Bingley during the wedding ceremony. Elizabeth had glanced his way several times to see the muscles in his jaw clenching spasmodically. He truly did not like crowds.
Just as well that we married as we did. He would have detested a large ceremony.
Although Jane’s wedding had been beautiful, Elizabeth was not sorry she herself would never go through the arduous process of planning such an event.

Darcy glanced around the room. When his eyes alighted on her, he smiled with heart-stopping brilliance and she felt her insides melt with warmth. Fitzwilliam was now talking with Bingley, so Darcy wove his way through the crowd toward her. They had only been separated for a few minutes, but she felt as though an invisible thread was tugging her toward him.

Unfortunately, just before he could reach her, he was intercepted by Caroline Bingley, who latched onto his arm. “Lovely ceremony, was it not?” She asked in an unnaturally sweet voice. Bingley had told Jane that Caroline had been asking him questions about Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship, and apparently she took some hope from the absence of a formal engagement announcement. Still pouring tea, Elizabeth was close enough to hear everything.

“Indeed,” Darcy said noncommittally. “Charles appears very happy. I daresay they will do well together.”

“Naturally, we are all delighted about having Jane in our family.” The falsity of her tone belied her sentiments. At that moment Mrs. Bennet let out a shriek of laughter in reaction to something Mrs. Long had said, causing Elizabeth to wince with embarrassment. “Of course, marrying into such a family is not to
everyone’s
taste,” Miss Bingley continued snidely. Elizabeth shook her head in amazement at the woman’s transparency. Although Miss Bingley spoke in a confidential tone, Elizabeth knew the other woman meant her to overhear what she hoped would be Darcy’s disavowal of her family.

Darcy regarded Miss Bingley with a stony expression. “I suppose not….” he said very deliberately. “Although I have recently come to the conclusion that finding the right woman should take precedence over any behavior by her family. Do you not concur?”

“Oh, indeed, but—” Miss Bingley was still spluttering in surprise as Darcy excused himself to refill his teacup. While Elizabeth poured the tea, he gave her an ironic smile.

Aware that Miss Bingley was watching, Darcy leaned over to whisper in her ear: “I cannot wait to get you alone, Mrs. Darcy. You look quite fetching in that dress and will look even more fetching out of it.” She ducked her head to conceal her blush, thus missing the sight of Miss Bingley flouncing away in disgust. Over the next few minutes, they enjoyed some quiet conversation, standing a shade closer than was acceptable for an unmarried couple and earning a disapproving glare from Sir William. Servers, hired for the occasion, now circulated, distributing glasses of champagne to the guests. Elizabeth knew what was coming next.

Then she heard her father’s voice calling for everyone’s attention. Standing at one end of the room, he led a toast to the health and happiness of the new couple – and everyone joined in enthusiastically. When the murmuring had died down, he declared he had another announcement to make and Elizabeth steeled herself, glancing up at Darcy, who was clenching his jaw once more. Surreptitiously, she felt for his hand, taking comfort in its strong grip. They had known what her father planned; Jane and Bingley had not minded the idea, but Elizabeth was still anxious about the reaction it would receive.

“As many of you know, our daughter Elizabeth recently traveled in France.” Mr. Bennet began. Some curious faces turned toward Elizabeth, wondering what her travels could have to do with Jane’s wedding. “You may not know that Mr. Darcy was instrumental in getting Elizabeth safely out of France when political and health considerations made it quite difficult. We are most grateful to Mr. Darcy for saving Elizabeth’s life.” Many heads nodded at this sentiment.

“However, most people do not know that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy fell in love and were married in France.” There were gasps from the crowd and now every eye was on the couple. Miss Bingley appeared to be choking on her champagne and Mrs. Hurst had turned so white she seemed in danger of fainting. The members of the Bennet family, however, were smiling for joy. She and Darcy had told her mother and sisters the previous evening, trusting them to keep a secret for one day.

“Various family considerations made it necessary for us to conceal the happy event for a few months.” Elizabeth looked over at Lydia, but her sister was giggling and whispering in Denny’s ear, seemingly oblivious to her father’s implications. “We now want to take the opportunity to welcome Mr. Darcy into our family. A toast to the happy couple: Mr. and Mrs. Darcy!”

As everyone raised their glasses, Elizabeth felt Darcy’s arm encircle her waist. It was skirting the standards of public propriety even for a married couple, but Elizabeth knew Darcy was simply expressing his relief at being able to act like a husband in public. Sharing the unspoken sentiment, she leaned a little against his warm body.

Elizabeth watched her father, seeing genuine warmth in his eyes. As he had become aware of Darcy’s role in bringing about Lydia’s redemption, Mr. Bennet had been increasingly impressed with his new son-in-law. Although he still seemed bemused by the whole affair, he no longer treated Darcy with distrust and, at moments, seemed quite pleased with their marriage. Her mother, on the other hand, treated Darcy with an embarrassing amount of deference. The younger Miss Bennets were so intimidated by him that they said little to him at all.

An announcement would be appearing in the London newspapers the next day to ensure that the whole world would now be in on their secret. Fortunately, Darcy’s aunt and uncle had become quite welcoming to Elizabeth and had plans to schedule a ball at which they could introduce her and help the
ton
grow accustomed to the idea of Darcy as a married man. But these events were in the future; for now they could simply enjoy each other’s company.