If Only In His Dreams (32 page)

This caused some light laughing amongst the audience.  Jane stepped to her sister and placed a beautiful comb in Elizabeth’s hair. It was beautiful with small diamonds and sapphires.  Obviously Jane was involved in the scheme.  Looking into her sister’s eyes, Jane placed a hand gently on Elizabeth’s cheek.  “Now you have something old, new, borrowed, and
blue
.  And this chapel is decorated as the one at Longbourn should have been the day you married.  And we have a wonderful wedding breakfast prepared for not just Amelia and Jonathon, but for you two as well.  So let us
do this the way it should have been done, and hopefully it will be good for another twenty years.”

Darcy stepped to his wife and took hold of her hand.  Their children stood as their witnesses, with Helen holding the new wedding band that would be presented to their mother.  As the couple exchanged their vows for the second time, the couples in the congregation all silently repeated their vows they had said at their weddings.  Alex and Charlotte looked at their two sons with pride. Richard and Anne held each other’s hand tightly as they whispered the words to each other, surrounded by their three children.  Jane and Charles smiled at the scene, looking at only each other while their six children watched them, giggling.  When the ceremony was over, the two couples turned and made their way towards the back of the chapel to sign the register.  Darcy and Elizabeth signed first, with Amelia and Jonathon second. 

As Thomas made his way to follow the rest of his family, he could not stop himself from looking at Nellie who was sitting near the back of the
room with her brother.  The way she smiled at him made his heart flutter with joy.  He knew that it would not be long before he asked for her hand in marriage.  She was the woman that had taken hold of his heart and he was certain that she loved him the same.

The wedding breakfast ended as the newlyweds left for their honeymoon trip to Bath.  Darcy and Elizabeth made their way to their chambers shortly afterwards, smiling as if it were truly their wedding night all over again.

Elizabeth smiled at the man she had married, the man who had won her heart and loved her as dearly as she loved him.  “William, when you first met me, you said you fell in love with me because
of the woman you had dreamed
.  In all of your dreams, could you ever have imagined your life turning out so wonderfully?”

“My love, the life that I
dreamed
could never come close to what I have with you.  I am grateful for the dreams
,
though, for if it were not for them, I might never have realized who you were the moment I met you.
  And that is something I cannot imagine, for you, my Lizzy, are the other half of my heart.”

The couple embraced, holding on to one another as they realized just how blessed they had been and would be forever.

             
             
             
THE END