bookcases for easy access to our favorite books. Oh, and how about a sideboard for our breakfasts? I so enjoy this time in the morning with you.”
“Those are excellent suggestions, my love. Consider it done.”
“One other request. I wish to have the landscape hung in here. We must share the joy in the reminder of the day we finally declared our love.”
He grasped her hands and pulled her onto his lap, holding her tightly. “Agreed.” He commenced lavishing her neck and shoulders with kisses and Lizzy sighed with satisfaction.
It was midmorning before they left their chambers. Lizzy had expressed concern that the servants would think ill of her for languishing in their rooms half the day, but Darcy just laughed. “The servants are doubtless consumed with their daily tasks and are giving no thought to our whereabouts. If they are, well, it
First he sought out Mrs. Reynolds, asking her to arrange for Mrs. Darcy to meet the rest of the staff whenever it was convenient. In the meantime, he told her, they would be touring the rooms on the second floor.
Between Lizzy’s brief visit in September and Darcy’s continual sharing with her over the past two months, she had a fair grasp of how the manor was designed. Architecturally the house was English baroque, built in the early 1600s over twenty years as an extensive addition to the original house erected a hundred years earlier. That earlier home of the Darcys was now the northern annex, renovated to include the conservatory, grand ballroom, game rooms, and formal dining room on the lower level, and guest quarters above.
The newer mansion was a perfect square with an inner courtyard of cobbled stone in the precise center. Facing in every direction of the compass, each wing offered astounding views of the breathtaking scenery. The entire structure sat on a gentle slope, giving a slightly uneven appearance from a distance. The main entrance, with four ionic columns supporting a generous porch, faced west with the River Derwent yards away past a walled garden and grassy sheep-dotted expanse.
Due to the slope, this side of the house appeared taller with the ground or basement level completely visible. The columned portico with massive double doors opening into the grand foyer with elaborately painted ceiling, ornate carvings, and marble flooring was actually on the ground level, the foyer vaulting a full two stories. The wide stairway led to the main level where the family rooms are located; the ground floor beyond the foyer was exclusively servants’ quarters, kitchen and storage, wine cellar, and the like.
On the main level, or first storey, were the library, Darcy’s study, several parlors, the music room, sculpture gallery, and guest quarters, among numerous other rooms. Lizzy and her aunt and uncle toured parts of this level during their visit. It would be weeks before Lizzy fully realized how few of the rooms she had actually seen, because the manor was so massive.
The entire third floor was bedchambers. The Master and Mistress’s suite covered the whole south-facing wing, Darcy’s bedchamber in the southeast corner. This location was ideal, providing a stunning view from numerous windows and a large southern balcony of the vast lawns, gardens, ponds, fountains, and the forest to the hilly east, as well as bathing the chamber with the sunrise and capturing woodland-scented breezes.
For the day’s tour, they started in the library. Lizzy had seen it before, in September, and had been quite impressed. The room was enormous with ceiling-to-floor bookcases, almost all filled. Tall ladders on rollers allowed one to reach the highest shelves. Darcy explained how the volumes were organized, each case having a letter designation. He showed her the system of cards in a cabinet that cataloged the books and directed where to find each one. She had never heard of such a technique and found it fascinating. Several chairs and sofas with tables and lamps graced the room. The windows were tall and wide, as all the windows were at Pemberley, allowing incredible views in all directions and blazes of sunlight. She could not help but picture her father in this room and said as much to Darcy.
“Yes,” he said. “I deem your father will set one foot in here, and we shall not see him for the length of his visit! It was probably the lure of Pemberley’s library which principally swayed him to accept my proposal for your hand.”
Lizzy laughed. “Well, that and the fact that I would undoubtedly have run off with you anyway if he had not consented.”
She spoke teasingly and absently, but her words struck Darcy and he lightly grasped her chin turning her toward him. “Would you have, Lizzy?” he asked huskily. “Run away with me, I mean.”
“Oh! I… Well, it never came to that did it, William? Yet now that I think about it, I remember how worried I was when you took so long in his study. I knew it was silly, that my father would never purposely refuse you, knowing how much I loved you… But then he did not know I loved you yet.” She shook her head. “It is all such a jumble, really. I do know that I had to be with you, would die if I could not be. So, yes, I would have run away with you if he had refused. I would have had no choice.” She smiled up at her husband and he kissed her, saying nothing.
She cocked her head to the side and began playing with the buttons on his jacket. “So, tell me, Mr. Darcy, which category do I look under for the
He flushed and swallowed audibly. “
“Shall I be entrusted with a key to this cabinet?” She fluttered her lashes coquettishly.
“I shall contemplate the request, Mrs. Darcy. You are dangerous enough as it is without adding further fuel to the fire!”
Next he led her to the music room. An older pianoforte sat here alongside an enormous gilded harp. A glass case housed a collection of unusual instruments. Darcy explained that many of them were ethnic musical apparatus picked up from other countries over the centuries. Propped in one corner were a beautiful cello and a violin. Lizzy asked who played them.
“Richard plays the cello and is quite talented actually. He and Georgiana have several pieces they play together beautifully. I play the violin, but not very well. Never one to practice,” he said in a perfect imitation of his aunt. “My mother insisted I study music but I could never control my clumsy fingers to even pound out my scales on the piano, so she gave up. I had limited success with the violin.”
“I would love to hear you play.”
Darcy laughed, “No, my love, you truly would not, trust me! Perhaps some evening when I have indulged in far too many brandies.” He took her hand and led her to the northern wing. They visited the conservatory and game rooms, and then he led her into the formal dining room.
Elizabeth had never imagined a single room could be so huge. A massive, sheet-draped table in the shape of a “U” filled the space. Darcy told her it could comfortably seat one hundred-fifty people. Lizzy was stunned. The room was beautiful and elegant, as all the rooms were, but there was an emptiness to it, an atmosphere of long disuse with dust thick in some areas.
“We have not opened this room since my mother died,” he remarked softly. “She loved to entertain. Here at Pemberley, that is. She did not care for Town. Twice a year, at Christmas and on the first day of summer, we hosted a feast for the tenants and community. Additional tables would be placed in the ballroom. It was a tradition for generations and quite the party, let me tell you! Christmas carols in the winter and music and dancing on the terrace in the summer.” He smiled and his eyes were far away with the memory.
“Traditions must be adhered to,” Lizzy declared briskly. “This Christmas is too soon for me to prepare a party, but by summer I will have figured my way around. We can arrange for it then, do you agree, my love?”
Darcy was smiling broadly. “Mistress of Pemberley indeed.” He placed his arm across her shoulders, drew her close to his side, kissed the top of her head, and then steered toward the next room. Lizzy quickly became lost in the long hallways and vast rooms, all of which had several doorways tucked into draped alcoves leading to more rooms. Eventually she would learn that Darcy spoke the truth: Pemberley was patterned in a clear square and hallways that seemed initially to dissect randomly did, in fact, follow a predictable scheme. However, this would take time and she was abundantly thankful he intended to stay close to her. He diverted from the sculpture gallery and portrait hall for now, stating that it would take too much time to fully appreciate.
They encountered Mrs. Reynolds as they entered the main parlor. She curtseyed and addressed them both formally, “Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, the staff will be assembled in the ballroom in one half hour. After which, luncheon
