A Wife for Mr. Darcy

remove pins as well as anyone else.” After pulling out more than a dozen pins, he asked, “How many do you have in there? Just when I think I am done, there is another group hidden in your curls.”
    “Let me do it. There are only a few left,” and after Lizzy had found the last one, she picked up the brush and started to brush her hair.
    “May I do that?” he asked, taking the brush from her hand. “You do know that whenever you wore your hair down, you were tormenting me.”
    “I had no idea of doing any such thing.”
    “I doubt that.”
    “It is true that I was aware of your preference, but I just wanted you to be as unhappy as I was at our dismal prospects, but certainly not tormented.”
    “Ah, I see the difference.”
    “Besides, with all my curls, I have difficulty keeping them from popping out, and sometimes, especially in rainy weather, it is easier to wear my hair down, tied with a ribbon.”
    “Then let us hope for rain.”
    Darcy took Lizzy by the hand and led her to the bed. He turned her around and undid the buttons of her dress, and she felt her corset loosen as he undid the stays. But then he stopped, and Lizzy turned to look at him.
    “I think you will be able to manage the rest on your own.”
    “But in your letter, you wrote…”
    “I know what I wrote. But one thing at a time. Now, my clothes are in the next room, which has no heat at all. So if you would get ready for bed as quickly as possible, I would appreciate it.”
    With the room so chilly, there would be no dawdling, no time to think about what was about to happen, and she quickly went about her toilette. After one final look in the mirror, she knocked on the door to let Mr. Darcy know that she was ready. Will entered the room to find her perched on the edge of the bed.
    “I did not know which side of the bed you wanted to sleep on,” she explained.
    “I always sleep in the middle,” and then he smiled, pulled back the cover, and gestured for her to get in. As soon as they had settled in, Will pulled her to him, and she rested her head on his shoulder and placed her hand over his heart.
    “It beats for you, Elizabeth.”
    “And mine for you.”
    “Was everything to your satisfaction today?” Darcy asked.
    “I can’t say. The day is not over yet,” and Darcy burst out laughing, and Lizzy placed her fingers upon his lips. “Your sister will hear us. And, yes, it was a perfectly lovely day. You looked very handsome.”
    “And you were positively radiant,” Darcy said as he pulled his wife to him.
    “Just think, if you had not insulted me, there would have been no need for an apology. You might just as well have gone back to London, and nothing would have come of it.”
    “And so let me say it again, Mrs. Darcy, you are more than tolerable and definitely handsome enough to tempt me,” and he kissed her deeply and ran his hands along her body. After lifting her gown and helping her out of it, she felt his warm hands caressing every part of her, and she yielded to his every movement. He shifted his weight so that his leg was between hers, and he moved against her, listening to her soft moans as she lay beneath him. After hesitating for a brief moment to tell her that he loved her, he entered her, and she wrapped her legs around his, pulling him deeper into her. She continued to move with his rhythm, and when she felt his final thrust, she ran her hands up and down his back until his breathing grew quiet.
    “Are you all right, Elizabeth? I have heard that sometimes…”
    “You did not hurt me,” she said, kissing him. “What you did was to make us one, inseparable and complete,” and she lay in his arms until he fell off to sleep.
    While Will slept soundly beside her, Lizzy could not sleep at all. His lips and hands had given her more pleasure than she could have ever imagined. Eventually, with this sweet memory, she too fell off to sleep, but sometime during the night, she rolled over and put her arm around his waist. Although barely awake, Will began again, and when first light came, Will could think of no better way to start their day than by making love, and in this, Elizabeth was in complete agreement.

As soon as the carriage entered the long drive to Pemberley, Lizzy pressed her nose against the window, and with a hard frost covering the lawn and with the sun sitting low on the horizon, everything had a silver glow to it.
    “This is now your home, Elizabeth,” Georgiana said. “Welcome to