An Unequalled Affection

Part 32

"But, to marry," Lady Catherine said. Lizzy felt Darcy tense beside her, and squeezed the arm she held, silently encouraging him to endure. "You barely know one another!"

"Actually, Aunt, we are well acquainted with one another. I wager Lizzy knows me better than anyone in this room, save for perhaps Georgiana and even then -"

"Where is Georgina?" It was Anne who raised the alarm, and suddenly everyone looked around, realising that not only Georgiana but also Colonel Fitzwilliam and Jane were missing.

"Jane?" Lizzy's voice trembled. She had not had a chance to warn Jane of Colonel Fitzwilliam's presence. That had been part of the plan, of course, but their entrance had not progressed at all as she imagined. She looked desperately at Darcy and saw her concern reflected in his dark eyes. "Where is she?"

"I have found them!" Georgiana emerged at last, triumph and delight shining in her blue eyes as she burst into the parlour, tugging her cousin and friend after her. "Tell them!" she demanded, shoving Richard unceremoniously forward. "Tell them!"

"Tell us what?" Lady Catherine called weakly from the chair she had not moved from, even when everybody else turned away from her.

"I have asked Jane to marry me," Richard said, struggling to keep the smile from his face. His gaze went straight to Elizabeth and Darcy. "A second time. And she has agreed."

"She has?" Lizzy let go of Darcy long enough to hurl herself into her sister's arms, whispering so that only Jane could hear. "Do you mean it?"

"Yes," Jane whispered back, clutching her sister tightly so that they might be afforded a moment more of whispered conversation while the group around them erupted in celebration and discussion at this latest surprising twist.

"And you are not angry at my subterfuge?"

"Yes." Jane laughed, and Lizzy released her hold so that she could look at her sister to be sure that it was laughter. "But I shall forgive you. Oh, Lizzy, I almost ruined everything, but Richard - well, it as he said." Her face shone with happiness, radiant and tear-streaked but neither sister seemed to notice. "We are to be married."

"Well!" Lady Catherine was forced to repeat her bad-tempered bark twice before anybody even noticed her. At length, the happy crowd broke apart, turning to survey their host with wary caution.

"I feel a little unwell," Lady Catherine declared, holding a weak hand up to her head. "Anne, I must retire."

"Oh, must you?" Anne did not sound the least bit concerned by her mother's sudden turn for the worst. "I shall have a servant bring a tray up to you, Mama. I am sorry you are not feeling well, for we are to have an evening of great celebration! But if you must retire, you must retire and I promise we shall try not to disturb you."

Lady Catherine's lips drew together in a faint line as if she was startled by this uncharacteristic response by her daughter but unsure quite how to respond to it.

"Would you like me to escort you, Lady Catherine?" Mr Collins made this offer, almost skipping forward in his eagerness to be of service.

"No," Lady Catherine said, bleakly, glaring at each of her nephews in turn. With a reluctant sigh, Richard extricated himself from Georgiana's gleeful embrace and offered his arm, which Lady Catherine latched onto, shooting a reproachful look in Darcy's direction as Richard led her carefully from the room.

"I hope she does not chew him out the way she did you," Lizzy said, returning to Darcy's side, and slipping her arm through his.

"She won't," he said, confidently. "She cares far less who Richard marries than me. I am quite sure the news that he is poised to settle down at last will do wonders to endear him to her."

"Good," Lizzy said, watching Jane chatter excitedly to Charlotte about all that had happened since she had left Meryton, and how wonderful her future would be now matters were settled, for a second time, with Colonel Fitzwilliam.

"We will see them often, won't we?" she asked, her heart lurching in an uncomfortable direction as she thought of Jane and Richard making their home at a distance when she, Lizzy, would become Mistress of Pemberley, far away in Derbyshire, where she knew not a soul.

"Of course," Darcy said, confident of this, as he had been that to merely bring Jane and Richard together would be to do all the hard work of reuniting them. Fate itself would play her hand well enough with minimal interference required by either of them, he had said, and he had been proved right. How dearly Lizzy hoped that he might be proved right in this also!

"In fact," he continued, ensuring that no eyes were on them as he dropped a swift kiss on Elizabeth's cheek. "There is a pleasant little estate not too far from Pemberley that needs an owner. It is held in trust at the moment, but the entail is long gone and I am sure its holder would happily sell it for a reasonable price. I had half a mind to mention it to Richard before and now I think it would be a perfect place for him and Jane to begin their life together."

"Nearby. As we begin ours," Lizzy agreed, smiling happily. How wonderfully bright the future looked to her now, and her heart only filled further as Anne turned to survey the crowd with a smile that brightened her previously wan, tired features.

"Well! Let us all go to dinner, we need not stand on ceremony without Mama here. Georgiana, I think I shall ask you to escort me and leave the married - and soon-to-be-married couples to themselves."

This was a great joke and everyone laughed, except for Mr Collins, who looked rather scandalised at such behaviour in the absence of his patroness. He was soon pulled into line by his wife, however, and the happy party made their way towards the dining room, Jane hanging back to wait for Richard who soon slipped carelessly downstairs to join her.

"Well, Jane," he said, as he tripped down the last few steps, smiling down at her.

"Well, Richard." She took the arm he held out to her, and happily, they glided in to join their friends in celebrating a future they had both feared lost forever, and now could not wait to begin.

The End

A/N - The  end, the end at last! Thank you so much for reading this story I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it :) xx