He had used the time to good advantage himself, and took her back into his arms as naked as she was, save that she let him peel off her stockings. Oh, what heaven! No composure now, just gasps and purrs and moans of delight.
“You’ll have to marry me now,” she said a long time after, when he got up to put more logs on the fire.
“Come to Scotland with me,” he said, kneeling at the fire, his head turned so that he could smile at her. “We can be wed across the anvil in Gretna Green.”
“Oh, that’s the perfect way to get married!” she cried. “I was dreading a family wedding, all the curious coming to gawp at us. This is far the best way. But isn’t Gretna Green a long way east? I thought the road to Glasgow would be farther west.”
“I’m in a carriage, dear inquisitive love, and between here and Glasgow lies a body of water called the Solway Firth. The road to Glasgow as well as to Edinburgh goes through Gretna.”
“Oh. It’s appropriate that one Bennet daughter should have a runaway marriage at Gretna Green.”
“I cannot believe you,” he said, utterly lost in love.
“I must have more Lydia in me than I suspected, dearest of dear Anguses. That was the loveliest thing I have ever done. Let’s do it again, please!”
“One more time, then, you insatiable wench.” He pulled her onto the floor and cushioned her head on his shoulder. “After that we have to make ourselves respectable and go to bed. Each in our own room, mind! Parmenter will have a stroke as it is. A short sleep, alas. At dawn we start for Gretna Green. If by any chance I’ve quickened you, we had best hurry, else all the old tabbies will be doing their sums.”
Fitz came into Elizabeth’s room looking concerned. “My dear love, I think there might be bad news from Pemberley,” he said, sitting on the edge of her bed, a letter in his hand. “A courier has just brought this for you.”
“Oh, Fitz! It must concern Mary!” Fingers trembling, Elizabeth snapped the seal and unfolded the single sheet of paper, then began to read its few lines.
She emitted a sound between a howl and a shriek.
“What is it?” Fitz demanded. “Tell me!”
“Mary and Angus are on their way to Gretna Green!” She thrust the letter at him. “Here, read for yourself!”
“If that doesn’t beat all!” he breathed. “They have not a soul there but themselves. Stolen a march!”
“How will they ever get on?” Elizabeth asked, feelings mixed.
“Very well, I hazard a guess. She is an eccentric, and he is a man who likes unusual things. He’ll let her have a free rein until she bolts, when he’ll curb her firmly but kindly. I’m delighted for them, I truly am.”
“So am I-I think. She says she has written to Charlie with the news. Oh, why are we in London? I want to go home!”
“We can’t until the season is over, you know that. I do have hopes that Georgie will continue to behave herself, but if we aren’t here-!”
“Yes, of course you’re right. You don’t think Georgie will accept the Duke, or Lord Wilderney?”
“No, she’s too much a Darcy to care for peers. I think she may choose Mr. John Parker of Virginia.”
“Fitz!
“Why not? He has the entrйe-his mother is Lady de Main. He’s also extremely wealthy, so he doesn’t need Georgie’s dowry. Still, it’s early days. The season hasn’t yet really commenced.”
“Our first chick will probably fly the nest,” Elizabeth said, rather disconsolately.
“We have four others.”
“No,” she said, blushing. “Five others.”
“Elizabeth! No!”
“Elizabeth, yes. In June, I think.”
“Then we’ll go home in April, Season or no Season. You won’t want to grow too heavy in London, it’s damp and smoky in spring.”
“I would like that very much.” She heaved a sigh of satisfaction. “Next year will be a quiet one. The year after that, we’ll have to bring out Susie.”
Jane descended on London shortly after the news of Mary’s sensational elopement reached her, free to do so because Caroline Bingley had finally found a useful occupation: turning the Bingley boys from harum-scarums into beautifully comported gentlemen. Though she did quite a lot of complaining, secretly she loved it. Nothing gratified her more than wielding power. Not that she had things all her own way. The Bingley boys were foes worthy of her steel.
“Louisa and Posy are free to do what they have yearned to do for years,” Jane said to Elizabeth the day after she took up residence in Bingley House.
“And what is that?” Elizabeth asked dutifully.
“Sell the Hurst property in Brook Street and move to Kensington,” said Jane.
“No! Among what Fitz would call the old tabbies?”
“Better to be the only Persians in a society of tabbies than be reduced to hanging on Charles’s sleeve for every guinea,” Jane answered, smiling. “Mr. Hurst left them with very little apart from the property, and that would have been mortgaged had Charles not put his foot down. Its sale has given them a comfortable income that will not require Louisa in particular to economise on her clothes or sell her jewels.”
“Well, Caroline was ever the driving force. Does she know?”
“Oh, yes.”
“What did she have to say?”
“Very little. Hugh had chosen to short-sheet her bed the night before she received Louisa’s letter, and Percival broke rotten eggs into her favourite walking boots.” Jane looked demure. “By the time she had found the culprits and exacted vengeance, Louisa’s news was a trifle stale.”
“How can you bear her at Bingley Hall day after day, Jane?”
“With equanimity, actually.”
“So what brings you to London?”
“I want to say farewell to Louisa and Posy, as I doubt I’ll ever have much time to visit Kensington.”
“And Charles is coming home,” Elizabeth accused.
“Yes, he is. Oh, it will be delightful to see him!”
“And so the babies will begin again,” Elizabeth said to Fitz that night, curled up next to him in bed.
“It is their business, my dear.”
“I would not mind, were it not for her health.”
“At forty-six, how many babies can she bear?”
“Oh! I never thought of that.” She sat up and linked her arms about her knees. “You are right as always, Fitz. We are all growing old.” She looked wistful. “Where do the years go?”
“Provided that you survive this child, Elizabeth, I don’t care,” he said, stroking her cheek. “When do you plan on telling our children that there will be a new addition to the family?”
“Not until February, I think. Just before Georgie’s coming-out ball.”
“Is that wise? Why not now?”
“If I tell them then, it will take the edge off Georgie’s nerves. With a duke and an earl refused, I don’t wish her to face that ordeal feeling that every debutante’s eye is upon her.”
“It is their mamas who are jealous, my love.”
And so the news was broken, though not without some discomfort on Elizabeth’s part.
Charlie was delighted, hugged and kissed his mama, shook his father warmly by the hand and announced that at his advanced age he would feel more like an uncle than a brother.
Susie and Anne were pleased, but not quite sure what to make of decrepit parents who produced babies. Cathy was furious; the family had to endure an outbreak of pranks that only ceased after Charlie shook her until her teeth rattled and told her roundly that she was a selfish little beast.
Georgie was so thrilled that she sailed through her ball and marked the occasion as memorable by declining to become Mrs. John Parker of Virginia.
