Page 48 of Caroline Bingley's Grand Plan

"I have decided that I simply do not have the time."

Elizabeth’s brows rose. "The time?"

Darcy drew her nearer, bending until his face rested against the soft curve of her cheek. He breathed her in, inhaling the scent of roses and jasmine that had become so dear to him, then brushed his nose slowly along her skin towards her ear. "If I do not marry you soon, my darling, I may lose what remains of my mind."

Her breath caught as his lips grazed the place just beneath her ear. "That would be unfortunate."

"Disastrous," he murmured, tightening one arm around her waist. "It would not do for Pemberley to go to rack and ruin because its master had been confined to an asylum."

"I have already spoken to your father and have his permission. Please, my love, say that you will marry me and save me from a lifetime of insanity."

Elizabeth stared at him. Colour began low upon her throat and rose slowly into her cheeks, and Darcy’s heart beat harder at the sight. He released her arm only so that he might take both her hands in his. Her fingers were warm between his palms, and he lifted one of them to his mouth, pressing a lingering kiss to each knuckle before looking at her again.

"You might have warned me," she said, though her voice had softened. "Particularly before referring to our marriage as though it were already settled."

"I had hoped it soon would be." The teasing left his voice. He drew her a little closer, not enough to presume upon her answer, but enough that the space between them narrowed and her skirts brushed around his boots.

"I love you, Elizabeth. You know it, I think, though I have not said it as plainly as I should. I do not wish merely to call at Longbourn and spend half an hour making small talk. I want you beside me at Pemberley. I want to wake and know that I shall see you, to walk with you, argue with you and hear you laugh every day for the rest of my life."

Her gaze did not leave his. Darcy could feel the slight tremor in her fingers and wondered whether she could feel the samein his. "I want to know every version of you," he continued. "The woman who walked through miles of mud for her sister, the woman who challenged me before half an assembly and the one who chews her thumbnail when she is trying not to say something impertinent. I want your wit when it is kind and your temper when I deserve it. I want your hand in mine and your voice filling every room that has been too silent for too long."

For one suspended moment, Elizabeth simply stared at him, her eyes bright and her lips parted. Then she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. The force of it drove him back half a step, but he caught her at once, one arm circling her waist as she rose onto her toes and pressed herself against him. There was no hesitation in her kiss, no teasing restraint. She kissed him with such love and fierce, breathless passion that every thought fled from his mind. Darcy held her more tightly, lifting her almost from the ground as her fingers slid into his hair and her mouth moved over his as though she had been waiting every bit as desperately as he had.

A low sound escaped him. He turned with her in his arms until her back rested against the broad trunk of the beech tree, then kissed her again, slower now but no less deeply, taking his time over the soft fullness of her mouth. Elizabeth’s hands tightened at the nape of his neck and she gave a small, broken laughagainst his lips that filled him with such joy he thought his heart might give way beneath it.

When at last he lifted his head, they were both breathing hard. Her cheeks were flushed, her bonnet had slipped crookedly, and one dark curl clung to her cheek. Darcy brushed it away with his thumb, scarcely able to believe she was truly in his arms and had kissed him as though she meant never to let him go. "I take it that is a yes," he murmured.

Elizabeth’s answering smile was radiant. "You may take it however you please."

Before he could kiss her again, Mrs Bennet’s voice rang across the lawn from one of the open windows. "Mr Bennet! Mr Bennet! Mr Darcy is kissing Lizzy in the beech walk!"

Elizabeth went still against him. Darcy lowered his lips to her hair and began to laugh. She buried her face against his chest, though her shoulders were shaking with laughter too.

"I believe," he said, tightening his arms around her, "that your mother has discovered us."

Elizabeth looked up at him. "She has always possessed a remarkable instinct for romance."

Mrs Bennet’s voice carried across the lawn again, louder than before. "Lizzy! Do not let Mr Darcy go anywhere until I have spoken to him!"

Elizabeth closed her eyes and let her forehead fall against his chest. "I fear she means to secure you before you can reconsider."

Darcy bent to press a kiss into her hair. "Then she may spare herself the trouble. I have no intention of ever letting you go."

Elizabeth lifted her face, all laughter and happiness, and kissed him again just as Mrs Bennet called for Mr Bennet to fetch his coat and come outside at once.

???

Charles Bingley’s grand dinner was a great success. Mrs Bennet cried when he announced his engagement to Jane, while the rest of the party offered noisy congratulations and struck their glassware against the table. When Darcy and Elizabeth made their own announcement, Parodi was called upon to assist Mrs Bennet, who swooned from the overabundance of happy news. As he leant over her in concern, she began muttering about wedding flowers, and he pronounced her in excellent health.

Darcy suspected that Mrs Bennet’s collapse had been more theatrical than medical, but he kept the opinion to himself. Elizabeth was laughing beside him, one hand pressed discreetly to her mouth as Parodi helped her mother upright and Mr Bennet advised him not to encourage her.

"I assure you, sir, I have no intention of doing so," the doctor replied, though Mrs Bennet had already caught hold of his sleeve and begun asking whether holly and ivy would be too parochial for a pair of Christmas weddings, or whether she ought to insist upon white roses despite the difficulty of finding them so late in the year.

"Perhaps we shall enjoy three winter weddings," said Mrs Hurst with a smirk, glancing towards Miss Bingley.

Miss Bingley attempted to look offended, but the expression would not settle properly upon her face. Her lips twitched despite every effort to control her features, and by the time Parodi returned to his seat beside her she had given up pretending altogether, smiling broadly. He resumed his place beside her and drew his chair a little closer. Miss Bingley coloured as he murmured into her ear, though Darcy could not hear what passed between them. A moment later, her hand disappeared beneath the table and his followed. Darcy suspected they were holding hands, particularly when her attention wandered so completely that Mrs Bennet was obliged to repeat a question about wedding lace twice before receiving an answer.

The conversation moved on to wedding breakfasts and Miss Bennet laughed softly at her mother’s grand plans, which seemed to grow more extravagant every minute. Bingley’s only requirement was that he wed his darling Jane as soon aspossible. And Mr Hurst wished to know whether both breakfasts would include plum pudding.