“Please. Permit me to continue.”
“And when I saw you again this spring here at Rosings Park, I knew that my appraisal of you—your beauty, your liveliness, your remarkable eyes—had been not only accurate but if anything did not do you justice, I knew that I would never be happy if I were not able to have you for my wife.”
Before Elizabeth could reply, Darcy spoke quickly, and his tone changed to a sterner one.
“We have an opportunity tonight, thanks to the design of my cousin, Anne, but I must have your answer now, Elizabeth. There is no time for you to consider, or confer. You must make a decision, and it will be a final one.”
The room, to Elizabeth, seemed to spin along with them as they danced, the music and the dancers blurring together in a dazzling kaleidoscope of sound and bright hues.
“Will you, dearest Elizabeth, do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
“I have an announcement to make,” said Lady Catherine.
She stood in front of the orchestra, on the podium draped with shades of white muslin and garlanded with evergreen boughs and trailing ivy. Elizabeth and Darcy, and Anne and Lord Northover stood beside her. Elizabeth’s heart was racing with excitement as Lady Catherine continued.
“It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the engagement of not one, but two couples this evening.
“One of the ladies is my daughter, Anne, of whom all of you know. The other lady is Miss Elizabeth Bennet, of Longbourn, in Hertfordshire.
“The gentlemen you also know,” Lady Catherine continued. “Lord Northover, of Hardwick Park, and my nephew, Mr. Darcy, of Pemberley in Derbyshire.
“These two couples are marrying with my blessing, and to my great joy,” Lady Catherine gestured with a wave of her arm towards them.
Elizabeth, together with the others, took a step forward and she and Anne both removed their masks and curtsied to the thunderous applause of the assembled guests.
Elizabeth glanced at Lady Catherine, whose mouth was open in astonishment, like a fish that had been caught in a net.
“She cannot retract her blessing now,” Darcy whispered.
Elizabeth finally appreciated the genius of Anne’s intrigue. There was no way that Lady Catherine could take back her words after speaking them to so large and distinguished a group of persons.
“That’s my Lizzy!” Elizabeth heard her mother cry out. “My Lizzy and Mr. Darcy! And he has 10,000 a year!”
The last dance of the ball was the Boulanger, where all of the dancers formed a huge circle which spun round and round the great ballroom.
Elizabeth, holding Darcy’s hand as they danced, felt as though she could dance forever.
Chapter 20, A Merry Bonfire
Epiphany, 1813
“The view from here is astonishing,” Elizabeth said, wrapping her shawl tightly around her against the cold. “I can see all the gardens, and all the paths and lanes surrounding the house.”
Darcy and Elizabeth were up in the viewing platform behind the cupola, which gleamed golden just before them. The ball of the night before seemed unreal to her. In the bright light of day, it was more like a fantastic imagining or fabulous dream than a memory.
“Yes,” Darcy said placing his hand upon her shoulder. “The architect designed it for that purpose. It permits the occupants to see the perfect symmetry of the Park.”
Elizabeth realized that it served another purpose as well. “Why, I believe it’s how you knew last summer that I walked along the paths here, and where you might find me!”
Darcy laughed. “I often come up here when I am at Rosings to think, or just to admire the view. When you were here I had much to admire.”
“I had often wondered how you managed to ‘accidently’ encounter me on so many occasions,” said Elizabeth. “How very prescient of the architect.”
She moved closer to him, and could feel the warmth of his strong body. Although she recalled his proposal as though it had been a dream he was, she realized as she pressed against him, very real.
“What is that?” Elizabeth pointed at smoke rising into the winter sky. “Oh, it’s the bonfire!”
She could see small people with bundles of greenery which there were heaping upon the flames. All the evergreen boughs, along with holly and ivy and mistletoe which had adorned the manor house throughout the Christmas season would be burned today to bring good luck in the coming year.