The Bennet family awaited them outside when the carriage arrived. Mr. Darcy got out of the carriage first, then helped Elizabeth down.
“Lizzy,” Jane exclaimed. Heedless of propriety, she ran to her sister and threw her arms around her. “Oh, when Kitty told us what happened, we have all been so frightened!”
Elizabeth hugged her sister back, whispering reassurances. “Truly, I am well.”
Mrs. Bennet fanned herself and looked as though she might faint, but she didn’t because there was no one to catch her. “Elizabeth, my dear, you have been through so much. Jane, let me see her.”
Jane, dutifully, stepped back, allowing her mother to take Elizabeth’s hands. She stared down at the gloves. “Lizzy, those men! What did they do? These gloves are a disgrace!”
“Mama!”
“Our Lizzy was such a small, dark infant, and now, a lady! A lady abducted and returned to us!” Mrs. Bennet pulled Elizabeth into a tight embrace that made Elizabeth stiffen. She was not used to her mother being so demonstrative with her. With Lydia, yes. Kitty and Jane sometimes, too. But Mary and Elizabeth got the least of their mother’s affections, normally. “I had thought they might snatch us all and drag us away on horseback, like they do in the colonies! If Mr. Darcy had not been there... Heavens, all would have been lost!”
“They only needed one of us to ransom,” Kitty muttered.
Mrs. Bennet whipped her head around to glare at her second youngest daughter. “Kitty, we cannot know what they intended!”
“Col. Fitzwilliam said they intended to abduct one of the ladies for ransom,” Mary said. “One may not know a man’s mind, but we can hear his words.”
“Mary, will you and Kitty run inside and check with Mrs. Hill about the preparations in the drawing room?”
“Check...?” Mary began, but Kitty took her by the arm and whispered something in her ear, and the two young ladies started back to the house.
Mrs. Bennet stepped back and went back to fanning herself. “We have been so worried.”
“I am fine, Mama,” Elizabeth reassured her.
Mr. Bennet came next to Elizabeth and gave her a sincere embrace, tears of relief in his eyes. “I have heard from the colonel you gave those bandits a tough time,” he said, his smile brittle. “Good. A Bennet gives no quarter.”
“I am just fine, Father,” she whispered in his ear.
Mr. Bennet turned to Mr. Darcy. “And you!”
Mr. Darcy nodded, his lips pressed together, his face a bit pale.
Mr. Bennet closed the two steps between them and gave him a firm embrace. “It is my honor to soon call you son, Mr. Darcy. You have saved our family’s honor and my daughter’s life. Nothing I own would be enough to return the kindness you have done our family.”
Mr. Darcy smiled, his shoulders easing in subtle relief. “It is my honor to wed Miss Elizabeth.”
“I admit, at first, I was unsure of the wisdom of this union. But I can hold no doubt. You will make my daughter happy.”
“Every moment, with every breath I have.”
“Good man.” Mr. Bennet said, clasping Mr. Darcy’s upper arms on either side and giving them a final squeeze before stepping away. “Good man.”
“Mr. Darcy is the best of men,” Elizabeth affirmed. “He rescued and took fine care of me. None of the brigands had a chance to hurt or dishonor me in any way.”
“That is the best news,” Mrs. Bennet piped in. “And, it is a good thing you are to marry Saturday, or there could be a scandal about your time alone with your fiancé.”
“Would the scandal be improved if he had left me in the bandits’ care?”
“You know that is not what I meant, Lizzy!”
“Mrs. Bennet,” Mr. Bennet cut her off before she said something else. “They marry within days. And even if not, I would rather a live, joyful daughter and a scandal than the opposite.”
“Of course, of course,” Mrs. Bennet smiled broadly. “That is exactly what I meant.”
“Mr. Darcy, your cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam and Major Bajwa, will make testimony at the Assizes court. They have received a confession from one of the brigands, a Philip, so you need not speak before the court of your trial, Lizzy,” Mr. Bennet explained. “The colonel wishes to speak to you about this Philip, who told him he had helped you save our Lizzy.”
“Yes,” Mr. Darcy said. “And I have given my word he will be freed, so I will speak with the constable. Thank you.”
Mrs. Bennet took that moment to wave everyone to the house. “Mr. Darcy, you will have a brief meal with us and tea? Major Bajwa said you were reduced to hard tack and onions!”
“And apples,” Elizabeth said, again neglecting to mention the gin.
“Well, Mr. Darcy, we have cold meats and bread with butter, pastries and tea. And eggs and kidneys. And anything else you would find in town to suit your palate, we will provide. It is the least we can do. The least!”
Mr. Bennet took his wife’s arm and said, “I am certain Mr. Darcy will be delighted.” He glanced at Mr. Darcy, who nodded. “I will speak with the footmen,” he said. “But I do need to clear up the matter of Mr. Philip.”
“Certainly! We would not hold you,” Mr. Bennet said.
“But you must eat!” Mrs. Bennet insisted. “And tell us in full detail all that happened. All!”
Elizabeth glanced at Mr. Darcy, and her lips twitched with the effort of smothering a smile. They would certainly not be telling ‘all’ that had happened. Just enough.
Mr. Darcy took Elizabeth’s arm, and they walked together behind their parents.
Jane fell into step beside Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. “Oh Lizzy, it must have been so trying for you,” she said. “And you were alone in that horrid cottage! Col. Fitzwilliam told us the place was falling down and likely infested with goodness knows what!”
“Squirrels,” Mr. Darcy said dryly.
“Squirrels?”
“Just one squirrel,” Elizabeth clarified. “And he was a very polite fellow.”
“Polite to you. I was the one who had to shoo it from its adopted home.”
Jane laughed.
Mrs. Bennet looked back over her shoulder at them. “Squirrels? How wretched! And to think, Mr. Bennet said the colonel insinuated—”
“Mrs. Bennet!”
“The colonel and his friend said nothing of squirrels.”
“Oh Lizzie,” Jane threw her arms around Elizabeth’s neck when they were alone in her room. “I was so scared when you were abducted. I cannot but wonder at the horrible things that happened to you. But you are so strong, so cheerful. It is almost as if you were not abducted at all.”
Elizabeth hugged her sister back. “I was afraid until Mr. Darcy came.”
The memory made her shiver. First, there had been the horses. It had been almost worse when they had escaped. While being abducted, she could focus on fighting her captor. But on the horse with Mr. Darcy, she was caught between fear of the animal and fear of being captured again.
Elizabeth told her sister the rest of it, how Mr. Darcy had held her, and how she had taken comfort from his solid presence and his love. “I even braved a jest,” Elizabeth said, smiling.
“I do not know how you have so quickly recovered. My nerves would be worse than Mama’s!”
“I doubt it,” Elizabeth said with a smile. Her own nerves were still frayed, but she wanted to share the rest of it. She, unlike Jane, now knew what the wedding night entailed and how wonderful it could be.
Elizabeth and Jane had confessed their fears to each other at night as the date approached. Now, Elizabeth could not only reassure her sister but also let her know how the act was properly done. How wonderful it would be.
“There is another thing,” Elizabeth said, lowering her voice to a whisper. “A wonderful thing...”
Elizabeth glanced at the door to their shared room.
Still shut.
“Tell me,” Jane said.
Elizabeth whispered her secret to her dearest sister, her closest friend. When finished, Jane’s face was red, and a thoughtful furrow rested between her brows. “It sounds... messy,” she said.
“It is,” Elizabeth agreed. “Messy and wondrous and wholly improper. Do not less Mr. Bingley try to make it too proper. He is very—”
“He is not so proper as all that,” Jane interrupted. “We have...umm... spent some time together away from Mama’s watchful gaze.”
Considering how Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy had managed a kiss sharing the same carriage with their sleeping mother, Elizabeth could not be surprised. Not that the opportunity had presented itself but that Jane had taken it.
Sometimes Elizabeth forgot how naughty Jane could be, when she took it in her mind to break convention.
“So, in a way, it is like we are already married,” Elizabeth said. “We declared our intentions towards each other and consummated them. Mr. Darcy would not even allow me to speak of ruination.”
“It sounds lovely,” Jane said, her tone a touch wistful.
“It will be, for both of us,” Elizabeth agreed, adding, “But if any ask, he slept by the door with a log, prepared to defend my honor to his last breath.”
“I so wish to be married. I feared, with all that happened, neither of us would see the day.”
“Oh Jane!” For Elizabeth, the vows were now a formality, but her sister still waited. Elizabeth’s abduction had almost ended in tragedy for them both. “You and Charles have been in love for so long.” If Jane’s wedding day had been ruined, Elizabeth would never have forgiven herself. “I almost ruined it!”
“Not you!” Jane admonished. “Those horrid brigands! And for you to apologize to me about this means it is still hurting you. Charles and I would be happy to wait, as long as it takes.”
At those words, Elizabeth’s eyes welled up. She hunched in on herself, trying to hold the sobs back.
Jane scrambled through her nightstand and handed Elizabeth a handkerchief.
“If Mr. Darcy had not rescued me—”
“Shhhhh. I am glad to have my sister back. The fact that we are able to marry together is a delightful extra. Nothing can dampen that happiness. If you had been injured or worse, murdered, I could not have gone on. But you are not, and we are to be married, together.”
Elizabeth nodded, wiping her face and blowing her nose, inelegantly, into the handkerchief. She looked up at her sister. “You are a queen among ladies.”
“Now I know your mind is addled.”
“It is not!”
“Cheer up. We get married to men that we love, and men who love us.”
Jane was right. Her nerves, everything that happened in the last couple days had been intense, frightening and new, but no matter what had happened, her future was set. And she was glad of it.
So glad.
Jane said, “You can see the love in his eyes and hear it in the way he speaks to you. About you.”
Elizabeth said, “And your Charles is so affectionately yours. He is so in love with you. We are so lucky, Jane. We both have men who we will spend the rest of our life loving and being loved by. We will have children and grow old together. It is the best of times.”
“It is,” Jane agreed.
They lay together in gentle silence a while longer, and then Jane asked, “Did Aunt Gardiner also give you a special... gown... for your wedding night?”