Longbourn to London (31 page)

Elizabeth blushed and shook her head. “You are a silly man.” As so often happened, her sudden ill-understood desires caused impulsive action, and she jumped up from her place at the table and began pacing. “Oh!
I
am the silly one.”

“Have I unsettled you again?” Darcy grabbed her hand, catching her off-balance, and guided her as she stumbled onto his lap.

She unconsciously giggled, a sound she disliked but was powerless to silence. She studied him particularly and discovered she was enamoured of the lock of hair that dipped to his eyebrow. Her hands reached to his hair. She loved the feel of it running through her fingers. “I do admire your curls, sir.”

“
Your
hair was quite ravishing this morning, Lizzy, as you stood at the window. I find speaking of it now reminds me of a request I want to make of you, as my wife.”

She cocked her head, expectant yet instantly tense.

“As a very great favour to me, I ask you not to give in to the societal convention of married women wearing lace caps. It would be an unsupportable deprivation not to see your hair anytime I look at you.”

Elizabeth relaxed a bit and laughed. “If I cannot wear nightgowns, and I cannot wear caps, well, you are starting to narrow my choices of clothing rather alarmingly, Mr. Darcy.”

“Mrs. Darcy, I do not think my requests at all unreasonable.” He fiddled with her hair, and within a moment, had made a pile of gold and pearl pins on the table.

“No, in truth, husband, you are not so very unreasonable, but you are in a fair way to having me wander the halls of Darcy House with my hair down. What will the servants think?”

“The footman who just left us should be the last servant we see tonight.”

“Now
I
am scandalised.” She was not, but coloured anyway, and felt several curls slide down her neck at the release of more pins.

Darcy leaned forward and kissed her, starting gently and gaining in urgency as more pins were added to the pile. He could feel her tresses falling. Finally, he stopped pulling at pins and locked his hands in her hair. “Would you like to know how
I
wanted this day to begin and end?” he asked, pulling away from her mouth just far enough to frame the question.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

“I saw you hug Jane, and you enrobed her with your hair. It has been my wish since then that you would surround me with your hair tonight. Will you?”

Elizabeth kissed him with such ardour; they were both breathless. She looked him in the eye and whispered, “That does not seem unreasonable, either.”

“Shake out your hair, Lizzy.”

She did so, feeling a few of the plain hairpins used to style her hair at Longbourn were still there. She raised her hands to search for and remove them.

The action caused the front of her gown to bow out, and the opportunity to gaze at Elizabeth’s bosom covered only by the inner lace bodice was not wasted on Darcy. At the top of her bosom lay the little garnet cross from her father. “Lizzy, there
is
one thing I should like you to remove from your person before I come to you tonight.”

Elizabeth’s eyes followed where he was looking. “You have been your father’s Lizzy long enough. Now you will be mine.” He leaned his head down, and moving the cross aside with a finger, he reverently kissed where it had been.

Elizabeth shivered, feeling his tongue slip through his lips to taste her. He looked up into her eyes, awaiting a response. “I shall, of course, Fitzwilliam, but am I never to wear it again?” The long-ago gift from her father had become a talisman for her.

“Oh, you may wear it whenever you please, only not in our bed.”

His eyes were darker than ever. Elizabeth nodded as she looked away, her face heating yet again. Her hands returned to unpinning her hair. She shook her head again, and all of her hair fell around her shoulders and cascaded down her back, over Darcy’s arm. Their eyes met as he brought his hands up to thoroughly ensnare them in her dark tresses. He kissed her neck, turning her head from side to side, distributing kisses around each ear.

Darcy’s growing arousal had become obvious. In a low rough voice, he said, “Perhaps we should retire upstairs, Mrs. Darcy?”

She coloured further and nodded.

Upstairs, they passed the various bedroom doors until they came to Elizabeth’s dressing room. Darcy opened the door but did not step inside. “I shall join you in a few minutes, Lizzy.” He kissed her lightly, and she gave him a quizzical look. “I have something for you, and when I come back, I shall enter through your bedroom. Will you open that door now? The idea of you and me wandering in and out of each other’s rooms pleases me, but do understand, my dearest, if I ever find your door closed, I shall always knock before entering, and I expect the same of you.”

“Again, sir, a not unreasonable request.” Elizabeth turned into the candlelit room, and saw the door to the bedroom was already open, but Darcy retreated to enter his dressing room from the hall.

Elizabeth decided it would not be a breach of his request not to undress if she took off her shoes. She opened another wardrobe, a match for the one containing her nightclothes, and saw two lower shelves where shoes, slippers and walking boots were lined together. She put her wedding slippers away.

She continued her idle peregrination of the room, and as she passed the dressing table, she caught the gleam of her father’s cross about her neck, and sat to remove it. There was an empty glass dish on the table, and she carefully placed her only necklace there, along with her pearl earrings.

Looking critically in the mirror, Elizabeth decided she did not look
too
worried about what would occur in the next hour. She lifted her chin, and gave herself a little smile.
You trust him, and his intentions are all for the best. Indeed, they have always been so. He is a passionate man, but is it not endlessly diverting to be so desired? You have nothing to fear, Lizzy Bennet.
She picked up a hairbrush, and began, in a desultory way, to brush her hair.

How long she sat brushing she could not say, for she always found the action soothing, and she closed her eyes. “May I continue?” Darcy asked. “I would love to do something for you that seems to bring so much pleasure.”

She opened her eyes, and could see in the mirror that he was leaning against the adjoining door frame. Their eyes met in the reflection.
He looks at me now as he looked at me in the sitting room at Hunsford, and in his aunt’s drawing room at Rosings. Did he desire this intimacy even then? I was so innocent of everything that I mistook his ardour for censure.

His face had been shaved. He was wearing a robe, and she could see his bare neck and upper chest. His curly hair appeared wet.

She twisted on the tufted bench to face him. “Oh, now, sir, I must protest. This does seem unfair. You have had a bath, and you are undressed.”

Darcy smiled rakishly. “Men do not smell as pleasant as women after a day on the road. And you do not know how to undress a man…” He joined her on the bench, his back to the mirror, and turned to look her in the face. “Do you?”

“No, sir, and at this rate, I never shall!” She was smiling, and he was relieved when she did not retreat from him. He had given a great deal of consideration to what he should— or should not—wear.

“May I?” He held his hand for the brush, and she gave it to him, turning away. Darcy brushed timidly at first but soon was lifting tresses and brushing them vigorously. Laying the brush on the table, he parted Elizabeth’s hair at the nape of her neck and kissed the exposed skin. He pushed the two halves of her long hair over her shoulders then reached around in front of her, unbuttoning the top covering of her wedding gown. He managed the seven little buttons with more dexterity than before. Proud of himself, he caught Elizabeth’s eye in the mirror and tilted an eyebrow at her.

She shook her head slightly. “Smug. You are a smug and silly man. If I do not correct you now, then who ever will? You will become proud beyond all hope of amendment.” She was smiling, her eyes sparkling only for him.

That is the look I saw from across the room at the Lucases’ party, her fine eyes inspired to laughter. How I wished to secure their humour for myself, and here she is… Perhaps
that
is when I fell in love with her—at the very moment I spoke of her eyes to Caroline? Yes, I believe it is so.

Looking over his shoulder in the mirror, he watched her as he pulled the garment from her shoulders, and she lifted her arms free. He let it drop behind her, and returned to the vision in the mirror of his Lizzy, her bosom nearly bare, with her dark hair curling around her breasts.

“I knew you would be beautiful tonight, but this is beyond my dreams. If I could bear to share this vision with an artist, I would have you painted just as you look at this moment, but I doubt anyone, no matter his skill, could capture your eyes.” He whispered in her ear, “Lizzy…my own loveliest Lizzy…”

Overwhelmed by his smouldering stare, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against him, exposing her graceful neck and chest in the glass. Her bare neck, the first time he had ever seen it without the garnet cross, reminded him of the gift in his pocket, and he drew out the strand of pearls he had removed from his desk a fortnight ago. He had asked his jeweller to add a second, longer string of slightly larger, pale pink pearls to it.

“Do not move, dearest. Keep your eyes closed.” He looped the pearls across her chest, and fastened the hook behind her neck, then rearranged her hair. He was happy to see the new, longer row grazed the top of her creamy bosom, and the pearls were perfectly matched to each other and the colour of her skin.

As the pearls touched her, Elizabeth’s eyes flew open. “Oh! Mr. Darcy. These are too lovely…” Her hands reached to feel them.

“
Too
lovely? Too lovely for what? For you? Surely not, Elizabeth Darcy. But I should withhold them because you did not keep your eyes closed that I might tell you what these pearls mean to me.”

Her eyes were fixed on his in the glass. “That requires closed eyes?”

“Your eyes distract me.” Not breaking her gaze, he reached his hands around her and cupped her breasts, raising them slightly to lift the pearls. As he had hoped, her eyes widened and she shivered at his touch. Elizabeth lowered her hands from the pearls to press against his.

“Fitzwilliam…mmm.” Her eyes closed again, and a frisson shook her.

With his hands uniquely placed to feel her pounding heart, he whispered, “The shorter strand was my mother’s. I had set them aside for my unknown bride. The first night I was in London a fortnight ago, I had a particularly vivid dream of you…of us, and when I awoke, I remembered the pearls and fetched them. I decided my love for you was grander than a single strand, so I had a longer one added. The second strand is yours alone, my Lizzy.”

As Darcy spoke, he rolled her nipples in his fingers, watching his actions and her blushing, breathy reaction in the looking glass. He felt his erection finding a way through the opening of his dressing gown, and hoped Elizabeth would not see.

She turned to face him, but rather than glancing down, she stared at the exposed skin of his throat. Just before her fingers touched him, she whispered, “May I?”

“I would be delighted, Lizzy.”

She surrounded his neck, feeling the sinews and muscles. Her thumb slid over his Adam’s apple. She moved her hands to his face, pulling it to hers and landing an ardent kiss on his mouth. Her tongue slipped between his lips and one hand slid down to the slight hairiness at the top of his chest. He was just able to discreetly pull his robe over his attentive member before returning her caresses.

Elizabeth finally pulled away.
Am I truly worthy of such love?
She looked at his eyes to find them closed, and realised he was concentrating on the sensations inspired by her hands on his skin. She pushed apart the lapels of his robe, exposing his bare chest. Expecting him to be as pale as she, it was intriguing to find him a little tanned.

“Somewhere, sir, at some time, you were not as formally dressed as I have always seen.”

He assumed an air of mystery. “In the summer, next summer, you may catch me out. You know I swim. At Pemberley, I sometimes ride without a shirt, and I have even been known to join the men in the fields if there are no women present.”

“I would
not
have other women see this.” Elizabeth was startled to hear a note of possessiveness in her voice.

“As you wish, Mrs. Darcy.” He was amused.

She began kissing her way nearly to his nipple, as if claiming him. “Does this feel for you as it does for me?”

Darcy whispered, “It fills me with a most exciting anticipation. My mind is racing ahead, thinking what you might do next. Or perhaps it is simply your candour and trust that thrill me.”

She was embarrassed by her desires and wondered whether she would soon again experience the tipping-over feeling of her passion reaching its peak. Her tongue reached for his nipple while she found one of his hands and placed it on her breast. She suckled him as he caressed her.