Page 44 of Mr. Darcy's Christmas Letters
She smiled brightly. “You absolutely deserved that, you know.”
He blinked. “What?”
“I shall marry Fitzwilliam Darcy as soon as may be. I feel as though I cannot wait even the entire week.”
Her father laughed uncertainly, placing a hand over his heart. “Good Lord, Elizabeth Bennet. You frightened me.”
“Papa,” she said, clasping her hands together and resting them upon her lap, “now I must be serious.”
He waited for her to continue.
“You did not listen to me about Lydia.”
She could see him stiffen.
“I do not mean to chastise you, Papa. I only wish you to listen to me now. Please, make a concerted effort to know Mary and Kitty better.”
He gazed at her steadily, and she took it as permission to continue.
“Mary tries too hard to be accomplished because she does not like being compared to her sisters and found lacking. You could give her books to read and discuss the notion of charity with her so that her opinions and judgments are softened. Kitty’s French is improving, and she has a fondness for poetry. She is a lovely girl but has been left too often without guidance beyond that of Lydia.”
Papa’s guilty expression hastened her conclusion.
“They are neither of them loud or unseemly, Papa, and they would blossom under your care. Will you promise me to provide it?”
He nodded, then leaned forward to kiss her forehead. “I shall. I give you my word.”
Elizabeth took his hands. “Thank you.”
“Now,” he said, a bit of humour making its way back into his voice, “what say you to inviting Miss Bingley to your wedding? It seems only right, as she missed her brother’s nuptials, that she should attend yours. You are, after all, her sister, and she will wish to fulfil her duty to you, will she not?”
“Papa,” Elizabeth scolded him laughingly.
Chapter Fourteen
Mammawasthrownintoa whirlwind of nerves and bliss. She accepted Papa’s suggestion of allowing Christmas dinner to double as a wedding celebration and spent many blissful hours adding courses she was sure a man of Mr. Darcy’s status would expect.
Mr. Darcy had advocated for marrying the very day after he had received Papa’s permission, but Papa had insisted that they spend the week remaining on the license talking to one another about their marriage rather than the wedding. “It will last longer,” he had commented wryly.
Therefore, on each of the five remaining days before their wedding, Mr. Darcy came to Longbourn to share in their breakfast and remain until after dinner. Papa had given orders that they could walk out alone so long as they remained within sight of the house, and that they could sit alone in the back parlour with the door open.
Elizabeth found herself grateful for her father’s insistence.
It was only five days, but how much they had to say to one another!
On the first day, Elizabeth offered Mr. Darcy a confession. “I was so afraid that your aunt had convinced you to stay away.”
His bemused expression was almost comical. “I beg your pardon?”
“She came to see me. Did she not tell you?”
He shook his head slowly, his dark eyes turning stormy.
“Lady Catherine informed me very directly that she did not approve of you proposing to me, and as you had done no such thing, I did not know what to say.”
“So you said nothing? Forgive me, Elizabeth, but that does not sound like you.”
She glanced away. “I said many things. She pressed me not to accept you even should you ask, and that request I refused.”
