Mistletoe and Mischief Page 16

  “I know some,” said Elizabeth. “I can tell them to you if you like, though I do not know how interesting they will be. Did you enjoy Christmas with your family?”

  “Oh, yes,” said Jenny, her youthful enthusiasm shining in her countenance. “I received a new dolly.”

  “I hope you did not lose your dolly in the storm,” said Elizabeth with a smile.

  “No, she is at home, silly,” replied Jenny with a giggle. “She knows better than to play in the snow.”

  “I hope you have learned a similar lesson,” said Elizabeth.

  “Yes, Miss,” was the girl’s solemn reply. “My Mama often tells me not to run off to play, but sometimes I forget. I shall not do so again.”

  “That is all your Mama can ask.”

  “Do you think she will be very angry with me?”

  Elizabeth put an arm around the little girl. “I should think your Mama will be so happy to see you that she will not be angry for long.”

  “I hope not,” said Jenny, burrowing up next to her. “I do not like it when my Mama is angry.”

  “That is a sentiment I can well understand,” said Elizabeth, remembering how often she had vexed her own mother as a child.

  “Story?” reminded Jenny.

  Willing to oblige and eager to pass the time in this way, Elizabeth began to relate some of the stories she had heard as a girl. Though Jenny did not comment often, Elizabeth could see that she listened intently, occasionally releasing a sigh or an exclamation of surprise at certain points. Elizabeth’s stories consisted of the account of the birth of the Savior and the visit of the wise men, interspersed with more amusing tales she and Jane had often told each other and a ghost story or two. After some time of this, Jenny appeared content, resting against her, her eyes drooping closed in drowsiness.

  Elizabeth had found herself drifting off to slumber when she heard the rattling of the latch on the door. Looking up in surprise and a little trepidation as she clutched a blanket to herself to protect her modesty, she began to rise. Suddenly, a man appeared in the doorway wearing a greatcoat and beaver hat, with snow heaped on his shoulders. It was the well-loved face she had come to know intimately these past few months.

  “William?” whispered Elizabeth, Jenny starting by her side.

  The gentleman looked at her once with unmistakable relief and then retreated back out into the darkness. The sound of two shots rang out, echoing from one end of the broad valley to the other. Then he entered once again and closed the door behind him before turning to look at the two standing together before the fire, huddled in blankets.

  “I am happy you have been found, Jenny. Your mother is almost frantic with worry.”

  “Mr. Darcy!” squeaked the girl, dropping into a hasty approximation of a curtsey.

  “Why are you here, William?” cried Elizabeth, hurrying forward to assist her husband.

  She helped him divest his greatcoat, hanging it on the chair in place of her and Jenny’s coats. Elizabeth fussed about her husband, noting with relief that his coat had protected his jacket from becoming wet, all the while muttering about his foolishness in braving the storm.

  “Was I any more foolish than you, Mrs. Darcy?” asked the man, gazing upon her with a stern fondness.

  Jenny squeaked yet again. “You are Mrs. Darcy?”

  “I am,” said Elizabeth, throwing a hard look at her husband. “But do not let that bother you, Jenny, for I am still the same lady with whom you have shared this hut today.”

  The girl managed a smile and sat back down on her fur, leaving Elizabeth to turn back to her husband. With a glare, Elizabeth said: “I will have you know, Mr. Darcy, that I am an excellent walker and well able to care for myself.”

  “And I shall have you know, Mrs. Darcy,” said her husband, “that I have lived here all my life and could walk from one end of Pemberley to the other blindfolded.” William paused and gazed at her with his heart in his eyes before leaning down to place a chaste kiss on her lips. “I am grateful I found you, my dear, though I will confess I suspected I would find you here when I heard of the direction you took in your search. I knew I would not sleep tonight if I remained in the house and waited until the morning. And now that I have found you, the rest of the estate may rest easy too.”

  “Those gunshots?” asked Elizabeth.

  “One for each of you,” confirmed William, fixing Jenny with a cross-eyed grin which caused the girl to giggle. “Had I only found one of you, I would only have shot once, though no one on the estate would have slept for fear for you both.”

  Elizabeth sighed. “That is well, then. I knew you would all worry throughout the night, but I had no way to inform you of our safety.”

  “And safety it certainly is,” said William. He led her to the furs and sat down by her side next to Jenny; then he gestured to the fire. “It seems to me you are a woman of many hidden talents, Elizabeth. I did not know you knew how to start a fire.”

  “Papa taught me when I was a girl,” replied Elizabeth. “Though I have rarely had cause to put my skills to use, I am a quick learner and retain what I learn.”

  “That much is clear, my dear. And for that, I cannot be more grateful.”

  William ensured the fire was well-tended throughout that entire night, going outside on one occasion to gather more wood and ensure their store would last until morning. It was not long before Jenny, exhausted from the exertions of the day, fell asleep next to the hearth, and while William thought to leave her there, Elizabeth insisted on placing her in the bed with blankets to cover her. A short time later, Elizabeth was nestled next to her husband on a bed of furs, comfortable in front of the fire.

  “How did you know we would be here?” asked Elizabeth after some time of staring at the fire in silence.

  She felt her husband’s shrug. “I know you have walked in this area in the short time since we arrived, and I knew you were searching in this direction. None of the other searchers found Jenny, and it seemed likely that you had come across her and that you had sought shelter. This is the only suitable place nearby.”

  Concerned, Elizabeth raised herself up on an elbow, gazing into her husband’s well-loved face. “What would you have done if you had not found me here? Would you have used the hut for shelter and waited out the storm?”

  The hesitation before his response told Elizabeth all she needed to know. “If I had not had confirmation of your safe return, then there is every chance I might have continued to search,” said he, seeming to understand there was no reason to dissemble.

  With a sigh, Elizabeth laid her head back down on his shoulder. “Then I suppose we should be grateful I was here and consider the matter no more.”

  “That would be my preference,” replied William. “I am not one for agonizing about what might have been.” He paused and gave a rumbling laugh. “Actually, I suppose these past months have given the lie to that statement, seeing how much I have reflected on how I went wrong in wooing a certain young lady of my acquaintance.”

  Elizabeth could not help but join him in laughter, though hers was tempered with guilt for her own thoughts and actions. As William had previously informed her of much of his struggles in the months between his proposal and their meeting at Pemberley, there was no reason to ask for clarification. The matter was one she did not wish to consider at any length anyway. It was in the past. There was much in the present of which she could think at length.

  “I believe this adventure of yours will do much for your reputation, my dear,” said William after a short silence between them.

  “The tenants will all think their mistress is fit for Bedlam, will they?” asked Elizabeth.

  Again, the sound of his laughter heartened her. “On the contrary, when they understand you were willing to risk life and limb for a little girl you had never met, I suspect there will be little they will not do for you.”

  “I did not intend to raise myself in their estimation,” muttered Elizabeth. “I only wished to ensure Jenn
y’s safety.”

  “And that is what I love best about you,” said William. “There are so many times you take thought for everyone other than yourself. You are one of the most selfless people I have ever met.”

  Raising herself on her elbow again, Elizabeth gazed at her husband with unfeigned astonishment. “Is that how you see me?”

  “How can you think otherwise?” asked William.

  “I have as much capacity for selfishness as anyone else.”

  “Perhaps you do, for none of us are perfect. But when significant events require a choice untainted by self-interest, you can always be counted upon to act in a manner that will benefit others rather than yourself.”

  When Elizabeth made to protest again, William said: “Take the day’s events, Elizabeth. Though you may not have considered the consequences in such a way, there was a real possibility of tragedy today, and not only for little Jenny. If you had not found her or became lost yourself, if you or Jenny had not remembered this shack, events may have come to a different and tragic end.”

  “Of that, I was well aware,” said Elizabeth, shivering at the remembrance of the howling wind and swirling snow, the disorientation and the voices she imagined she heard in the wind. “When I departed the Johnson farm, the weather did not seem as bad as I feared. It soon became worse than I imagined.”

  “Still, you pressed forward nonetheless,” said William. “No one could have faulted you if you had decided the wind and weather were too much and turned back. Yet you continued to press forward, knowing what the consequences could be. ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Today, you exemplified that verse, Elizabeth. And I could not be prouder that you are my wife.”

  Feeling embarrassed, Elizabeth burrowed her face into her husband’s broad chest. “I do not think I behaved in a manner so heroic as you say. There was nothing else to be done.”

  “That is why I am convinced I made the right choice in a wife, though we both know I almost botched our chance to be together beyond repair. In the future, however, when these heroic tendencies come over you, I hope you will at least consider me for a moment. My heart almost stopped in my chest when I learned you were out looking for a lost child in this weather.”

  “I promise I shall do so,” said Elizabeth, though she ruined her solemnity when she was forced to stifle a giggle, “if you will promise to take care for your own safety and avoid walking the length of Pemberley in search of your headstrong wife.”

  “That I cannot do, dear heart. I would go that far and more if it meant I would keep you in my life.”

  “Then it seems we are alike, William, for I cannot imagine you missing from my life either.”

  Silence settled about them thereafter, though the crackling of the logs in the hearth kept them company. Soon afterward, William rose to add more fuel to the fire, returning to his previous position when he had completed that task. Soon, the exertions of the day began to make Elizabeth lethargic, and she drifted in and out of consciousness for some time.

  “Perhaps,” managed she a little later, speaking despite her fatigue, “we should bring our future sons to this place. We should ensure they can start a fire as my father taught me.”

  “Yes, we shall surely attend to the education of our children. If we should have a girl, I suspect you will insist she is likewise taught this useful skill, for who knows what a mischief a daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy might get herself into.”

  “That would be wise, indeed, Husband,” said Elizabeth.

  As she slipped into slumber, Elizabeth was once again struck by the good fortune of her situation. There was nowhere else in the world she wished to be at that moment than in the arms of her husband in such plain circumstances as they were.

  The End

  The Kissing Bough Mandate

  by

  Lelia Eye

  While doing research, I noted that people in Regency times did not seem to make as big of a deal out of Christmas as we do. I thus decided to come up with a character who would. Initially, I intended to create a random man in the neighborhood to fill the position. Then it occurred to me that there might be an even better choice to fill this role.

  To call William Bingley "eccentric" would not have been viewed as a disservice or even an exaggeration by the man himself. Rather, he reveled in his own unpredictable nature and viewed any acknowledgment of his peculiarities as a delight.

  But while he could not always remember the proper hierarchy when entering a dining hall and often took his favorite greyhound with him to parties, his perpetual ebullience smoothed over any potential social disasters. Indeed, none of the families with whom he dined in Hertfordshire would ever have said an ill word about him, though they might have spoken of him with exasperation from time to time.

  His daughters, Louisa and Caroline, had come to accept his eccentric behavior some time ago, though they absolutely forbade him from showing his face in London. His son, Charles, whose personality and temperament were much milder than his own, did not understand the reason for his sisters’ restriction of their father, yet Charles much preferred to remain home at Netherfield regardless, as it kept him close to Jane Bennet. He had fallen madly in love with the young woman a few years before when his father had purchased the estate, yet he had only recently decided to act upon his feelings.

  The elder Mr. Bingley had reacted with undeniable joy at the notion, but Charles' sisters had urged him to be cautious. They reminded him of his own impulsivity and encouraged him to elicit the more refined opinion of Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bingley had told his son that if he so wished, they could invite Mr. Darcy and his sister to spend Christmastide with them. And so Charles had written to issue the invitation, Darcy had agreed to come after attending to some business, and the matter was considered settled.

  When Mr. Darcy and Georgiana first stepped foot into Netherfield on Christmas Eve, they were both stunned, to say the least.

  Doorways, walls, mantles, tables, and various sundry fixtures of the estate house were decorated in evergreen boughs, wreaths covered in red and gold ribbons, sprigs of holly with plump red berries, garlands of effervescent ivy, and various decorative accents fashioned out of paper and silk. Every room bore the scent of cedar and pine, causing Georgiana, though not prone to outbursts, to murmur in surprise to her brother: "It feels as if I have stepped into a forest!"

  The elder Mr. Bingley seemed more pleased to see the two Darcys than even his son and daughters were, for he always delighted in showing his Christmas décor to a new audience. Minutes after Darcy and his sister arrived, William Bingley ushered them into the ballroom, where a place of prominence held the item with which he was most delighted.

  "This, my dear children," said he, speaking to the Darcys and not to his actual offspring, who had come in behind the pair, "is my kissing bough." His eyes glinted merrily as he tugged at his silver beard, which, though unfashionable, suited him quite well.

  "Indeed," said Mr. Darcy uncomfortably, for he was not unfamiliar with such an ornament.

  This particular kissing bough had been fashioned from the top of a pine tree and threaded with red, gold, and white ribbons as well as a garland of ivy. The bough had been hung upside-down, and a sprig of mistletoe and holly had been affixed to its center.

  "You must be cautious around this most beautiful decoration, Georgiana," said the elder Mr. Bingley, "for I suspect your brother would be quite put out if a young fellow were to give you a kiss."

  "There shall be none of that," said Darcy, perhaps a bit too harshly.

  Fortunately, his host was not offended. "I have given my son quite the opposite advice, for I have hope that he may have his chance to steal a kiss from Miss Bennet at my Christmas party."

  Darcy rather thought such a custom, though common enough, to be inappropriate, even if Mr. Bingley intended the party to be a small one, but he held his tongue. Despite his feelings of aggravation, however, he did not miss the red tinge of embarrass
ment on Charles Bingley's face at the notion of kissing Miss Bennet in front of others.

  Miss Caroline Bingley must have realized how Darcy felt about the matter, as she hastily said: "Papa, I do not believe there is any further need for talk of kissing boughs. I suspect Mr. Darcy has no more than a handful of decorations at Pemberley, for there are very few in England who are as excited about the holiday as you are. No doubt we have given him and his sister quite the shock. I believe they deserve some time to rest before dinner."

  "Yes, Papa," said Louisa Hurst, "you must give them some time to themselves. After all, you know Mr. Hurst shall want to try his hand at the card tables later this evening, and our guests shall need their rest if they are not to immediately fall into their beds after eating."

  Mr. Bingley grumbled a little but nonetheless agreed, and there was no more talk of the kissing bough that day. But it would not be long before Mr. Darcy would become much more familiar with this particular kissing bough, and his feelings toward it would change quite drastically.

  On the morning of Mr. Bingley's Christmas party, which was held four days after the Darcys' arrival at Netherfield, Elizabeth found herself accompanying her mother and Jane on a morning call to Netherfield. Mrs. Bennet had already confirmed through various sources Mr. Darcy’s annual income and found herself eager to introduce her daughters to him. Unfortunately for her, she had forced so many calls to Netherfield since the Bingleys' purchase of it that Jane was the only daughter who continued to feel any excitement during the occasion. Elizabeth typically only attended so that she might curb her mother's excesses in front of Charles Bingley.

  The three Bennet women found the Bingleys, Hursts, and Darcys already seated within the drawing-room upon their arrival. They were welcomed inside, and once the introductions had been made, Mrs. Bennet saw to it that Jane and Mr. Charles Bingley were speaking together comfortably.