Mary Simonsen - The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy

The next day the two couples went for a ride in an open carriage in St. James’s Park, and a number of his friends and acquaintances had asked for an introduction to his beautiful companion. And so it had begun. Everyone would want to know about Elizabeth and who her parents were and what her accomplishments were and whether she was related to Viscount Louis Bennet. Let them pry and comment and criticize. He no longer cared about any of it.

The following afternoon, after returning from a breakfast he had attended with his sister, Darcy went straight to the Gardiners’ home, where Jane happily showed Mr. Darcy the fabric she had chosen that morning for her wedding dress. He smiled at Elizabeth, and she knew he was thinking that shortly she would be doing the same thing.

“Mr. Darcy, I have employed your sister’s dressmaker, Madame Aumont, and she has proved to be indispensable in picking out the material for my wedding dress. I was quite overwhelmed by all of the choices, and she is to make Lizzy’s dress for the ball at Clermont House.”

“Miss Bennet, who told you that Madame Aumont was my sister’s dressmaker?” he asked in a serious tone of voice.

Jane looked to her sister, and Lizzy answered. “Mr. Darcy, we read that you and Lord Fitzwilliam had provided financial support for the start of Madame Aumont’s business as she was an émigré who had left everything behind her in France. From that we assumed she was Miss Darcy’s dressmaker.”

Mr. Darcy made no reply. Instead, he went to the window and stared out at the street scene below. The sisters looked at each other. Obviously, they had erred in their assumption as Mr. Darcy was clearly unhappy. Because no formal announcement of their engagement had been made, Lizzy thought it improper to mention the family’s name. Therefore, she did not tell Madame of her relationship with Mr. Darcy.

“Miss Bennet, my sister’s dressmaker is Madame Delaine, and it is true I have provided Madame Aumont with limited financial support because promised funds from her bank in France were never transferred to her bank here in London. As to what support Lord Fitzwilliam offered Madame, I have no way of knowing that. I have never been in any business arrangement with my cousin as he has the financial intellect of a goat.”

Lizzy bit her lower lip, knowing that she had made a serious mistake. How stupid of her! Mr. Darcy would never allow his name to be associated with someone who led a life that was the antithesis of his own. But she suspected Lord Fitzwilliam was not the main cause of his apparent unhappiness. His mood had altered at the mention of Madame’s name, and that was before she had uttered one word about Lord Fitzwilliam.

That morning, the sisters had remarked on how beautiful Madame was. Lizzy had never seen eyes so green nor hair so golden, and Jane and Lizzy had guessed she was in her late twenties, five years short of the mark. Not only was Madame Aumont beautiful, but she was a most agreeable lady. While showing Jane the different patterns, she had shared that she had not been in England in ten years. Although she was English by birth, her heart was French, as that was where her mother was born and where she had spent her early childhood. From that conversation, Lizzy could deduce that Mr. Darcy must have met her during his tour of the Continent when he had been a young man without a care in the world. It was a time when he had attended masked balls in Venice and grand galas in Paris, and unless her instincts were completely wrong, the beautiful lady and the young Fitzwilliam Darcy had been intimate.

Mr. Darcy returned to the window and continued to say nothing.

“This is all my fault,” Jane mouthed to her sister. “I assumed and now Mr. Darcy is unhappy.”

But Lizzy knew that Mr. Darcy wasn’t unhappy with anything Jane had done. He was unhappy because Lizzy knew what he had done.

Darcy had withdrawn to the far end of the room because he could hardly take in what had just happened. Christina Caxton was going to make Elizabeth’s ball gown for the Clermont ball—the very ball where he intended to introduce his future wife into London society? This was Antony’s doing, and he would have his hide the next time he saw him. But, in the meantime, had Elizabeth guessed from his reaction that Christina and he had a history? She was smart and intuitive, and she missed very little. Yes, she definitely knew. He finally asked Jane if he could be alone with her sister.

“It seems my past has caught up with me. Elizabeth, I am a man of twenty-eight years and have lived in the world, and I am no innocent. But because of the profound love I have for you, I tried to erase the past. I wanted to think of no other woman as being a part of my life. I wanted to be your knight in shining armor—perfect and unblemished. But now that is not possible as I have been exposed.”

Once again, she had guessed correctly, but the reason she had come to that conclusion so quickly was because she had already given his past some thought. While Kitty was reading aloud the different items in The Insider to her sisters, Lizzy had been thinking about Darcy’s romantic interests. Surely, there had been other women in his life, as he was nearly thirty years old, and although she lived in a country town, it was impossible to be ignorant of what went on in London among the social elite. There wasn’t anything odd about Mr. Darcy’s name being mentioned in The Insider. What was unique was how infrequently it appeared in the gossip magazines considering the prominence of his family, his eligibility, and his large fortune. And had anything really changed because she now knew that Mr. Darcy was, as he put it, “no innocent?” No, Madame Aumont belonged to his distant past when he was bound to no one. It would have been worse to have it remain a secret. Secrets created barriers, and she wanted nothing like that in her marriage.

Darcy came and sat next to her, and she accepted his handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. After composing herself after such a confession, she finally said, “You worried unnecessarily about my opinion of you. I have never thought of you as being perfect.”

It wasn’t until she smiled that he realized she was in jest, and he burst out laughing. “I know I am forgiven, my love, as you only tease your friends,” and he kissed her gently on the lips. “But may I ask where you read the story about Christina?”

“I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I read it in The Insider.”

“You read The Insider?” he asked with concern in his voice. He would not have thought of someone as sensible as Elizabeth reading what he considered to be a rag filled with half-truths and, in some cases, stories made up out of whole cloth.

“Everyone in the provinces reads The Insider, Mr. Darcy. We must have some amusement.”

“Do you read every issue?” he asked with growing concern. Had she read about Miss Montford and Mrs. Conway? It would give her the impression he was inconstant in his affections.

“No, not every issue. But then I don’t have to as Kitty tells us all about the most interesting items. She has even gone back and read past issues looking for your name.” Lizzy could see that Darcy was growing increasingly uncomfortable, and she wanted to put his mind at ease. “Sir, I have no interest in your past alliances. Every relationship must have a starting point so that past errors may remain in the past. I do not wish to be reminded how wrong I was about Wickham’s character, or how I failed to recognize your goodness. So, for me, our beginning must be at Pemberley when you said that its beauty must be shared.”

Darcy smiled and nodded in agreement and then took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. “You asked for love letters or poetry, and this is my first effort.”

“It is a beautiful piece of poetry. In my opinion, it is Christopher Marlowe’s finest work.”

“Your request was that I write love letters or verse. You did not say they had to be original.”

“Well, I shall credit you with making a start, but no matter how poorly you write, I would prefer your own composition.”

“I promise I shall try to compose my own verses. However, I am sure the task would be made easier if I had my source of inspiration before me. So can we not set a date for our wedding?”

Lizzy stood up and walked away from him because, with his arms around her, she felt her resolution to have a courtship ebbing.

“Mr. Darcy, we are very different.”

“One would hope,” he said, smiling.

“We will face many challenges, including those you mentioned at Hunsford Lodge.”

“Every marriage has difficulties, but there is nothing that cannot be overcome, got ’round, or blown away, if necessary.”

Lizzy smiled but persisted. “Because we are from such disparate backgrounds, I do have concerns.”