Longbourn to London (40 page)

“Lizzy…” His lips nibbled her earlobe. “When you provoke me, no matter how you do so, you are indulging my wishes and are, therefore, by definition, compliant.” He marked a line of kisses from ear to mouth, enveloping her in a passionate embrace with one hand squeezing her derriere.
Stop, Darcy; go slowly, or you will never get through this night.
He released her. “But for tonight, I hope it will not bother you to have guests. This may come as a surprise, but I find myself wishing to dance with you, Mrs. Darcy!”

“Indeed! Are we to have a ball for two, Fitzwilliam?” She gazed at him with astonishment.

“We shall have a small orchestra, and I have invited Georgiana’s dance master, who will teach us a scandalous new dance: the waltz. Have you heard of it?”

“Indeed, I have! It does not seem so very scandalous if I am to dance it with my husband.”

“Would Miss Elizabeth Bennet have danced it with Mr. Darcy at Netherfield?” He took her hand as they began to ascend the stairs.

“I find it difficult to imagine Mr. Darcy asking Miss Elizabeth to waltz at that time, especially if, as you have said, he was trying to resist her.”

“Had I known the steps, I might have. What a scandal it would have bred! You
were
bewitching—by far the most captivating woman in the room—and although I had allowed no self-revelation, I was already in love with you. I knew you did not return my feelings, and in my prideful ignorance, I thought it for the best—that it made resistance easier. I thought I would forget you. I have dreamt of that night countless times since.”

“Do I assume correctly how you wish Sarah to style my hair?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.

“Sarah has been well instructed in every particular of your dress. I own I have made some decisions for you.”

Elizabeth stopped. “You know I think we should only remember the past as it gives us pleasure. Perhaps both of us left our one dance in some ways dissatisfied. I believed at one time that you were angry at its end. If your scheme is to create a better memory, I am your willing partner in every respect.” She bounced up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Have I time for a bath?”

“Yes, if you bathe alone,” he said, using the voice that made her breath quicken. His eyes expressed his desire eloquently. “If we bathe together, the dance master will find us unpardonably late. I shall knock on the hall door to your dressing room in one hour and a half. Our lesson starts at eight o’clock.”

Darcy turned into his dressing room, leaving Elizabeth to walk down the hall alone. As she entered her sanctum, she was amazed to see the ball gown she had worn over a year ago— and not donned since—hanging from an open wardrobe door. “Where did that come from, Sarah? I thought it was sent to Pemberley.”

“As I understand it, ma’am, Mr. Darcy arranged with Mrs. Bingley to have it sent. It arrived during the week before your wedding.”

“Did it indeed?” Elizabeth began to sense a larger conspiracy. Jane had helped pack the trunks of possessions and clothes to be sent to Pemberley. Clearly one box had been addressed differently from the rest.
Jane! You sly thing!

Sarah helped her mistress undress; the tub was partially filled, and more ewers stood nearby. The lady’s maid had learned Mrs. Darcy preferred her baths deep and steaming, an indulgence she was never allowed as the second daughter at Longbourn.

“Aye, ma’am. I am to dress you to the master’s exact orders, as you was that night, excepting you are to wear your pearls what he gave you on your wedding night.”

Elizabeth nodded, as if knowing what Sarah was going to say before she said it. “Has he provided white ribbon roses for my hair?”

“No ma’am. He requested the pearl hairpins from your wedding day.”

Elizabeth nodded again. “And did Mr. Darcy specify as to my undergarments?”

Sarah’s cheeks coloured slightly. “No, ma’am, he did not. He asked me to ask you…um, he said I should request, was his words, that you wear the same as you wore at the ball a year ago.”

“Did he, indeed?” Elizabeth raised her brow. “Well then, Sarah, if he chooses to attend to undressing me tonight, he will find the task a great deal more challenging than it was on our wedding night!” Elizabeth started laughing at Sarah’s shocked face. “Do not worry, Sarah! You may chuckle, or giggle, or simply smile knowingly. It would seem Mr. Darcy and I have few secrets from you and Murray.”

Sarah smiled. “You are newly married, ma’am, and you love each other. It makes for a happy situation for us below stairs. This is a joyful house.”

***

As Elizabeth was seated in her bath and lathering her hands with a cake of soap, she found herself making a decision. “Sarah, I know this is hardly the time or place for such an interview, but would you draw up a stool and sit for a moment while I soak? I have something I would ask you.”

“Yes, ma’am.” In a moment Sarah was seated next to the tub.

Elizabeth chuckled.
It is only fitting I am naked for this…Sarah has seen me thus more often than she has seen me in clothes! What a thought!

“Sarah, do you have much family in London?”

“Oh, no, ma’am. My family is from Kent. Two of us worked at The Bell in Bromley where Lady Catherine de Bourgh preferred to break her journey whenever she travelled to London. She gave my name to Mrs. Chawton when there was a situation here.”

“Ah. And have you had any further contact with her ladyship?”

“No ma’am. We had a long interview before she gave my name here, is all.”

Elizabeth smiled ruefully. “Yes, I would wager you did. Sarah, did you happen to overhear a conversation, probably rather one-sided, between Mr. Darcy and his aunt some two months ago?”

Sarah blushed deeply. “I must confess, Mrs. Darcy, it would have been impossible not to. We all heard, who had business above stairs that afternoon. It made me glad I warn’t workin’ in
her
house.” Sarah’s eyes widened, and she put her hand over her mouth.

Elizabeth was indulgent. “I can well imagine. And may I assume you know that I was the bone of contention on that occasion?” Sarah appeared not to take Elizabeth’s meaning. “I was the lady who profoundly wounded Lady Catherine’s pride.”

“Oh, yes, ma’am. They said your name. You was Miss Elizabeth Bennet before you was married.”

“Yes, I was. Now you must answer me honestly, Sarah. Did anything Lady Catherine said cause you to wish not to attend me this week when Mr. Darcy asked that you should?”

“Oh, no, ma’am, not at all. After Lady Catherine left the house, Mr. Darcy seemed to change completely; happier than
I
had ever seen him, he was. It was like he was a different man entirely before he left London. Then Mrs. Chawton got word Mr. Darcy was to be married, and when we learnt you was the lady, all of the staff was relieved.”

Elizabeth blushed. “I see. But none of you
knew
me, only
of
me.”

Sarah rattled away. “Mrs. Chawton had a note from Mrs. Reynolds at Pemberley soon after, saying as she warn’t surprised. She said she met you and thought the master in love with you last summer. She wrote she liked you;you seemed sensible and kind and not taking on airs because you knew the master. Oh… I should not have…”

“True enough, Sarah, but I appreciate hearing it.” Elizabeth considered. “Sarah, I would be pleased to have you continue as my abigail after this week is ended. Would you consider a move to Pemberley? Would you miss your family too much?”

“Oh, Mrs. Darcy…” Sarah’s eyes widened, but she was clearly pleased. “Oh yes… I mean no, I would not miss my family. I am grown now; I make my own way. I could see those I want to when you come up to London, when there is time.” She jumped from her stool, curtsied as she beamed her delight, and sat down.

“Sarah, you already know how…impulsive my husband and I are. We are not always discreet in the ways we express our affection for each other. One could make the case that we are too self-indulgent. You have already had to overlook a great deal. I fear, once we are at Pemberley, this situation will not improve. Although it might not seem fair, we would expect you to be much more discreet than we shall be. We must be able to rely upon you as we rely on Murray.”

“Oh, yes, ma’am. I understand. I
do
understand. I am honoured, ma’am.” Sarah repeated her curtsey, and seated herself in agitation.

“And I may ask you to withhold information from my husband, Sarah. I say this because I wish you to understand that
I
shall be your employer, not Mr. Darcy. If I ask you to keep a secret from him and it angers or frustrates him, remember, it pleases me. He cannot dismiss you without my agreement.”

“May I ask, ma’am, what sort of secrets?” Sarah’s voice betrayed a slight suspicion.

Elizabeth tilted her head, pondering. “Woman things, Sarah, mostly. Or, gifts I have ordered for him, surprises I might plan. When I do suspect I am increasing, I may wish to keep the news just between you and me for a time. It is my belief that once I am known to be carrying the Pemberley heir, Mr. Darcy may become quite smothering in his attentions.” Elizabeth produced a private smile and settled lower into the water. She looked forward to the many new opportunities she would have to exasperate her husband once she fell with child.

“Oh, of course, woman things. I understand, ma’am.” Sarah stood again, curtsied again, and sat again.

Contented with her arrangements, Elizabeth splashed her toes in the bubbles at the end of her tub. “We shall consider it settled then, Sarah. I shall speak of this decision with Mrs. Chawton. Mr. Darcy will be informed that I am hiring you away from him.”

***

When Elizabeth arose from her bath, she instructed Sarah as to her undergarment requirements. “We shall have a chemise first, then a full corset and a petticoat, then the ball gown, stockings and garters. I do not know whether he noticed my shoes, but he seems to notice
everything
, so I shall select a pair most like the slippers I wore then.”

“A full corset, ma’am? But you are slender enough.”

“It is what a proper country maiden wears to dance.” The corner of Elizabeth’s mouth curved up. “It seems we are to be accurate in all things.”

When the ball gown was slipped over Elizabeth’s head and fastened at the back, she and Sarah looked at the refection in the full-length mirror. It was too big.

“My goodness, ma’am!”

“Oh, dear, Sarah!”

“Was you taken ill, between then and now, ma’am?” This was the only plausible explanation Sarah could conjure for the noticeable loss of weight.

“No, indeed.” Elizabeth sighed. “As I left Pemberley last summer, my family received some harrowing news about one of my sisters. My alarm caused a lack of appetite for many weeks. When Mr. Darcy came back into the neighbourhood, my disquiet continued but for a far happier reason. What shall we do? I do not think loosening the corset will help enough.”

“The only quick thing I know is to set the buttons over ma’am. There is a sewing box in one of the wardrobes. Let me fetch it.”

They removed Elizabeth’s gown, and Sarah set to work, seated on her stool. Elizabeth pulled the bench from the dressing table and began pulling up her white stockings, which also seemed to fit rather ill. She heard a floorboard creak, and looked into the mirror. There she saw the reflection of Darcy’s face peering through the partially opened door to the mistress’s bedroom, looking ever so much like a curious boy in evening dress. He was watching her hands smooth the stockings up her legs. Their eyes met in the refection, and Elizabeth suppressed a smile, shaking her head as if cross. Darcy started to blush from his immaculate cravat, the heat moving into his face.

“Silly man.” Elizabeth carefully mouthed the words into the mirror, so Sarah would not be disturbed.

Darcy smiled, giving an unrepentant shrug, but backed away from the door.

In a few minutes, Sarah was ready for Elizabeth to try the gown again. The effect was somewhat improved. “Thank you for your clear head, Sarah. The dress did fit a little better before, but our only other alternative would be to sew me into it. We had better not.”
No wonder Darcy was attracted that night,
she mused.
I must have been the very picture of a buxom country maiden.
I had no idea I had lost so much weight.
She remembered all the mornings she had set out from Longbourn as the family awaited news of Lydia, and how her walks had invariably become sprints to expend the bottled frustrations and unease.

Sarah turned her attention to Elizabeth’s hair and drew from a chest of drawers the box containing Elizabeth’s pearls and hairpins.

They had just fastened the necklace, and Elizabeth pronounced her three saucy curls perfect, when a polite tap came at the hall door. Elizabeth stepped into the middle of the room, feeling her cheeks colouring as she nodded for Sarah to open the door.

Darcy stood bewitched as the opening door revealed his smiling Elizabeth. She waited a heartbeat before extending her gloved hand to him. “Mr. Darcy, I am ready.”