Page 47 of Mr. Darcy's Christmas Letters
“Yes,” Elizabeth replied pertly. “You are very thoughtful.”
“Mrs. Bingley,” the vicar called. “We need your signature as witness.”
Elizabeth handed the pen to her sister as Mrs. Bingley stepped over to them.
“Mrs. Darcy,” Darcy said, taking his wife’s hand. “I intend to hide away again, if you do not mind.”
She took his hand and squeezed it. “Not as long as I am allowed to hide with you.”
The building was nearly empty now. “That is the plan, Mrs. Darcy.” He moved her bonnet back a bit to drop a kiss on the top of her head. “That is the plan.”
Instead of a wedding breakfast immediately following the ceremony, the entire family and some of their friends would gather for Christmas dinner on the morrow. This meant that Elizabeth could take the carriage back to Netherfield with her new husband.
“Lizzy, Mr. Darcy,” Jane called.
“Yes, Jane?” Elizabeth asked.
“Would you mind if Charles and I took Miss Bingley to visit Longbourn for the day? Mamma has a number of things she wishes done for the dinner tomorrow, and I thought we could help.”
“We would not mind at all, so long asyoudo not mind if we return to Netherfield.”
“Of course not. Caroline,” Jane called quietly, “we shall be returning with my family to Longbourn and remaining for dinner.”
They all ignored Miss Bingley’s little cry of dismay.
“Your sister has a streak of cruelty in her that I quite approve,” Fitzwilliam murmured in her ear.
Miss Bingley would remain in Hertfordshire through Christmas and would be a guest at the dinner that would celebrate both the day and the marriage. But as soon as the sun was up on the twenty-sixth, she and Mrs. Matthias would be on their way back north to Scarborough, where Mrs. Hurst ought now to be expecting her. Mrs. Matthias had confessed that she was very happy to be returning home for Twelfth Night.
“It is not cruelty,” Elizabeth corrected her husband. “Jane has a finely honed sense of justice, is all, and she wishes for Miss Bingley to be well chastised for attempting to come between us.”
“Whatever you name it, I am grateful for two things. One, she did not apply the same sort of chastisement to me when I separated her from Bingley, and two, she is now sending us to Netherfield, quite alone.”
Jane had always been firm where she knew herself to be right, but she was truly able to be herself now that Charles was there to support her.
Elizabeth opened her mouth to say so, but then met her husband’s intense, magnetic gaze, and her breath hitched. That look promised something she did not understand but was eager to discover. “Is the carriage out front?” she asked.
Fitzwilliam took her by the hand. “Anders is waiting. Shall we say our farewells to your family?”
“Jane will do that for us,” Elizabeth informed him.
He lifted both of her hands, placing a kiss on the back of one, then the other. “Shall we, Mrs. Darcy?” he asked in a low, rumbling voice.
Elizabeth was lost in the sensation of the kisses and the way his deep voice made her shiver. “I never expected to have this second chance with you, but I will always be thankful for it,” she said quietly as she gazed up at him. “To spend Christmas as your wife is beyond anything I could dream of even a fortnight ago. Yes, please, Fitzwilliam. Let us return to Netherfield, for you have, I think, much to show me.”
His eyes bore into hers. “We have much to show one another. And it may take us all night.”
Christmas dinner was a loud, merry affair. It was almost too much for Darcy, and he reached under the table for Elizabeth’s hand. She linked her fingers through his and held his hand in her lap. He took a breath, feeling calmer.
Even when he was a child, dinners at Pemberley or Matlock, the earl’s home, had been quiet, formal affairs. With the Gardiner, Phillips, Lucas, Goulding, and Long families gathered together to celebrate Christmas and his marriage to Elizabeth, there were many conversations being held at once, and he was overwhelmed by being at the centre of all the activity.
Elizabeth answered the questions that were tossed at them for the most part, though he managed to respond several times on his own.
“My cousin and my sister will visit us in London in January,” he said to Mrs. Bennet. “Because of the possibility of a storm, I asked them not to travel.”
Mrs. Bennet had apparently been disappointed not to host the son of an earl at her Christmas table, but she was mollified by his explanation.
“It is a shame, for the storm eased in time, but I would not have taken the chance either,” she said sadly, nodding. “And at least the roads are clear enough for Miss Bingley’s journey to Scarborough.” She smiled at Miss Bingley, who was seated between Mrs. Long and Mr. Goulding. Darcy could see by the set of her jaw that she was miserable, but no one paid her any heed.
