"Well, Mrs Darcy," Darcy smiled down at his new bride.
"Well," Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow at him in askance.
"Our wedding night is over," he answered, cracking the heavy drapes around his four poster bed.
"So it is," Lizzy managed to keep a straight face.
"And you are still in my bed," Darcy added.
"So it would seem," the ghost of a smile turned up the corners of Elizabeth's lips.
"I gather you are following your aunt's advice," he teased.
"I believe," Lizzy now could not hold back her delight, "you, Mr. Darcy, suggested that propriety and decorum did not exist within the marriage chamber. I will not lie, your attentions at first made me nervous, but I am sure I shall grow to find them tolerable, very much so."
Leaning down, his lips but an inch from his beloved's, Darcy gazed into the finest pair of eyes he'd ever seen. "I can only hope you will learn to return the favour, for I wish for you to pay me as much attention, Elizabeth."
Nervously moving her hand to his back, Lizzy began to stroke up and down her husband's spine with gentle fingertips. She was rewarded by Darcy's shiver of delight, and he growled low in his throat as took her lips in a searing kiss. Fuelled by the passion, Elizabeth indicated she wanted more contact. As the curtain fell back into place, the lovers were insulated from the outside world and allowed their ardour full reign.
"I think," Darcy murmured sometime later, "we should rise. There is much we need to achieve before returning to Netherfield for Christmas. If I call for water now, we will have time to bathe together."
Slightly shocked at the suggestion, Lizzy's eyes opened wide. Darcy chuckled at her expression. Without warning he left the bed, only to return a few minutes later with a wide grin.
"It is all arranged, wife," he stated.
Keeping Elizabeth's mind off the upcoming event, Darcy took his time to worship her body. He heard the soft signal from his valet, who discreetly disappeared through the servant's entrance. Darcy moved suddenly to scoop Lizzy into his arms. Cheeks red with embarrassment, for a man had never seen her without clothing, Elizabeth buried her head in Darcy's chest.
"We shall enjoy many baths together, My Dearest," Darcy smiled at her coy behaviour. "I believe, when I demonstrate how pleasurable they can be, you will not hesitate next time."
Some while later, sighing to show her regret, Lizzy began to move, be it ever so slowly. Darcy soon followed his wife from the cooling water, only to dry her personally. Looking for her maid and a dressing gown, Darcy's warm chuckle sounded beside her ear.
"The servants understand we are not to be disturbed," he whispered, "until they are called for. Your maid will attend you in your dressing room."
"I understood," Lizzy managed a rather impertinent grin, "most of the servants were to be given the season to return home, and the knocker would be removed from the door."
"So it shall be," Darcy stated. "I should like to keep you trapped in this room; however, we must have more than love to sustain us."
The comment reminded Elizabeth's stomach that their last meal had been many hours past. Raising an eyebrow, she became aware of aches and pains in parts of her body she never knew existed. They had spent every moment in Darcy's chamber since arriving at Leighwood house. Walking to her own suite of rooms, Lizzy pondered how pleasant it would be to explore her new home and perhaps take a walk around the neighbourhood. Before her marriage, Lizzy had visited Mr. Darcy's town home only once and, even then, Lady Susan had removed them as soon as may be.
The next days were filled with deliveries from the modestie, shoe maker, milliner and other clothing shops they had visited a fortnight previously. Darcy stayed by his wife's side throughout the ordeal, catching her sighs and looks of irritation as she was forced to accept the many items of the finest quality. It seemed his Aunt Susan had taken her role as sponsor to heart and ordered more than Elizabeth expected. Yet, in Darcy's mind, it was less than she deserved.
With the evening hours, after dinning alone in their joint sitting room, Mrs. Darcy became his to pleasure. No one would interrupt the newlyweds once they retired for the night, nor much of the morning. The short honeymoon passed all too quickly, even though the couple spent every concievable moment in each other's company. Trunks packed with the clothing required to spend winter at Pemberley, the happy couple reluctantly returned to Netherfield. Mrs. Bennet became vexed that they did not stay at Longbourn, even though she had known Darcy intended to stay with his friend.
"Jane," Lizzy took her sister aside at the earliest possible moment, "I know you have something to tell me."
"Oh Lizzy, I am so happy. Now I understand how you felt with Mr. Darcy," she replied.
"As Mama is not gushing with effusions of joy, I believe the announcement has not been made," she stated with a delighted smile.
"Papa insisted we wait until you returned from London so both our families could be told at the same time. He intends to make the announcement at dinner this evening," Jane answered, somewhat embarrassed to be so singled out.
"I am delighted for both of you," Lizzy took her sister into a warm embrace. "Now tell me all about it."
"I believe it to be all a proposal should be. Charles asked if we might take a turn about the garden with Miss Darcy and Kitty. Somehow we became separated by the old oak tree. Lizzy, he declared his love for me in the most animated language and then went down onto one knee," Jane gushed.
"When is the wedding to be," Elizabeth asked, her countenance displaying her pleasure at this news.
"We will marry in April. I hope you will be able to come," Jane looked crestfallen for a moment.
"I would not miss it for the world," Lizzy stated, "even should I be with child by then, for I will not have our mother tell of your duties as a wife."
"Lizzy," Jane looked on her sister with astonishment.
"Oh, Jane," Elizabeth could not help the chuckle escaping, "life with your Mr. Bingley will be filled with joy and happiness. He shall give you no reason to repine, I am sure. I must tell you of the pleasures to be found in married life, but only on the night before your wedding and before Mama gives you the talk."
"Was it so bad?" questioned Jane.
The look Lizzy levelled at her sister stated you know Mama.
Ten Years Later.
"Aunt Caroline," Thomas Bingley shouted for his spinster aunt who still lived with them. His father often commented about wastrels under his breath in relation to his sister. Once brave enough to ask what a wastrel was, he'd been warned to not say more by his mother. Mama was always kind to Aunt Caroline.
"What do you want," Miss Bingley sneered.
"Mama requests you come to the music room for it is time for Elizabeth's lesson on the pianoforte," Thomas stated. Having delivered the message, he scampered. None of the Bingley children liked to be in company of Aunt Caroline. They suspected Mama and Papa didn't much like her either. Thankfully she kept to her room much of the time, when she wasn't visiting Aunt Louisa.
Passing his elder sister, by one year, seated on the stool, Thomas gave her a piteous look. The seven year old girl had a similar temperament to her mother and could bear most things with equanimity. Young Elizabeth did not complain at the hour long lesson every day, for she played and sang very well indeed.
"Come and play outside, Lizzy," Thomas requested, "when the old dragon has finished with you."
"That," Jane rebuked her six year old son, "will be enough Thomas. You must remember to respect your elders."
"Yes, Mama," he returned, deferring to the quiet discipline of his mother.
"Papa has just told me," Jane smiled down at her eldest son. There were two more girls between Thomas and Henry, Mrs Bingley's final child. Finally, her sister had shared a method of not increasing which worked. It was the only information any of the sisters trusted from Lydia. Even from someone as serene as Jane Bingley, five children became her limit. It appeared their youngest sister had informed the other three before Jane, for Mary had only two, Kitty three and Lizzy four at her husband's insistence. Indeed, Darcy continued to attempt to talk Elizabeth into another pregnancy.
"Told you what," Thomas stopped in his tracks, waiting with baited breath.
"Your Aunts Lizzy, Kitty and Mary will be arriving in the next few days for a visit. They are bringing the entire family," Jane announced.
With an ear splitting holler, Thomas charged out into the garden calling for his youngest brother. With four years between them, two-year old Henry did not become excited. However, Madeline and Anne knew of the joy to come with a household full of cousins.
Three days later, while the four sisters sat around a table filled with baked goods and a pot of tea, fourteen children played happily on the lawn before Highgrove Manor in the company of several nursemaids and governesses. Upon learning of the descending horde, Miss Bingley had taken herself off to visit with her sister, Louisa. Mrs Hurst had been widowed five years and without an heir, the Hurst family fortune had been entailed away to her brother in law. She now lived with their maternal aunt in Scarborough on the interest from her marriage settlement.
"So, Lady Pembroke," Elizabeth teased Mary.
"The knighthood has not yet been granted," Mary sighed. "It is more trouble than it is worth, for it will change nothing."
"Ever the stoic Mary," Lizzy laughed. "Then tell me, are little John and Edward to expect a sibling soon."
"Indeed not," Mary scoffed. "Ask Jane. Henry is now two. I suspect our sister will soon be increasing again."
Embarrassed, Kitty answered for her sister. "Lydia finally told Jane of her secret. I cannot believe how that girl takes one lover after another, each richer than the last. Last we met in London, Lydia had changed her name yet again. This is her third husband in six years. I think she is now richer than even you, Kitty."
Snorting, Lizzy had her own ideas upon that. Their youngest sister had always wanted to be rich. Now she was, but had yet to find the love and devotion the rest of them had managed for find in their life partners. "Divorce," she stated with pursed lips, "is not uncommon in America. I have heard Lydia is a great success in New York. Her acting skills are much admired across the sea."
"And what of you, Lizzy?" Jane tried to get the conversation back onto more polite topics for ladies. "Has you husband convinced you to increase again?"
"Richard and William are nine," Mrs Darcy frowned. "Fitzwilliam is in favour of sending them to school, as he was at the same age. I had hoped to keep the boys at home and spend some of the year in London, giving them the aid of many masters. It will be time, soon enough, that they must attend Cambridge. Anne and Katherine will soon be five. With children coming in sets of two, the very notion of another confinement makes me shudder."
While the other sisters agreed, they knew Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy would most likely convince his wife. "Yet," Jane added into the conversation, as something in her Lizzy's gate just didn't seem right, "you did not answer the question."
Laughing at Jane's ability to read her so well, Elizabeth nodded. "We are to expect another child, or two, by Christmas. However, I have told my husband that this shall definitely be the last."
"So," Kitty glanced at Mary and Jane, "are we to come to Pemberley in December?"
"I think it best," Lizzy agreed. "Then my family will be able to see the new Darcy and celebrate. Georgiana, Reginald and the children will be in attendance. As you know they have three daughters."
"Has you sister not started her confinement?" asked Mary.
"Indeed, it is the best news of all," Lizzy supplied. "Lord and Lady Carrington welcomed the Viscount Henley into the world last week. Reginald is very happy indeed, to have a son at last. Fitzwilliam is not so anxious, for they have decided to call him after his uncle."
"Oh, Lizzy," Jane joined her sisters in laughing at Elizabeth's joke, "we thought Kitty's Fitzwilliam would be the only one in the family."
"Maria and Eleanor are delighted with their brother," Kitty stated, "especially now he has grown enough to play with them."
When the Darcy heir arrived exactly one year after their wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy fought tooth and nail for a week. While Lizzy wanted to continue a family tradition and name the boy after his father, Fitzwilliam flatly refused. Finally, Georgiana settled the argument by referring to the babe as young William and his twin brother as young Richard. She then calmly commented that the parents should now be cautious in case the pair were as much work as her brother and cousin had been.
"Are you happy, Fitzwilliam, Dearest," Lizzy eyed her husband judiciously. Before her, in the cribs that had lain in the attics for the last three years, slept the newest members of the Darcy clan.
"I had always wished for six children, Elizabeth," Darcy sounded delighted.
"I am glad I have been able to accommodate you," she stated with some sarcasm. "I hope choosing names will be somewhat easier than the last time."
"Our daughter's did not cause the same level of dissention as our sons," Darcy reminded.
"Only because we were prepared for the possibility of two children," she replied, one eyebrow rising.
"I will select our son's name," Darcy stated, this tone belieing the mocking in his eyes, "and you our daughter, for I will not have another Fitzwilliam in this house."
"Very well, Dearest," Lizzy replied. "Perhaps Caroline?"
"Indeed not," Darcy grimaced. "Emmaline or Madeline but I will not have a daughter called Caroline."
Surprisingly, Elizabeth took his suggestion seriously. "Emma, yes, little one that suits you very well. Emma it shall be. Now, what shall we call your brother?"
"George, after my father," glancing side-long at his wife, Darcy could see Elizabeth did not like the name at all.
"Would not Charles suit him better," Lizzy attempted to change her husband's mind. She'd learnt over the years that Darcy could be every bit as determined as she.
"I believe you may be correct," Darcy commented carefully, peering into the cradle. Picking up the one day old infant, he yawned and opened his blue eyes. "Charles George."
Little did either parent know, Little George, as the servants christened him in honour of their late master, would one day precede his brother's and become master of Pemberley. Richard, like his uncle of the same name, and also second born would join His Majesty's Army. He would travel to the colony known as Australia, be granted a parcel of land, and with his inheritance become one of the richest wool producers in the newly formed New South Wales. William, heir to Pemberley never married. Indeed his character resembled that of his father more than the other children. Quite sensitive, he knew he could never follow in his father's footsteps. At the age of eighteen, instead of traveling to Cambridge with his brother, Quiet William journeyed to Italy. There he found his calling, joining a group of artists. Many of his works were purchased by George Darcy, making them quite valuable and highly sought after by the English aristocracy.
Darcy did not relinquish hold of Pemberley easily or quietly. His heir would marry and bring his bride, the daughter of an Earl, to live on the estate for many years first. Only after the birth of his second grandson did Fitzwilliam Darcy cede some responsibility to his youngest child. When Elizabeth unexpectedly did not wake up after nine and thirty years of marriage, all colour drained from Darcy's world. He followed her in death, as he had in life, almost immediately, for he refused to be separated from the woman who had always been the other half of his soul.