A Wife for Mr. Darcy

future.”
    With that slight encouragement, Darcy recalled stories told to him by his father and governess as well as the journals and accounts of the great explorers he had read while at Eton.
    “Those who faced the dangers of the open seas have been a subject that has always fascinated me. As a boy, I sailed with Captain Cook on his voyages of discovery to the South Seas and intercepted ships from the New World laden with silver and gold bound for Spain with Sir Francis Drake.” After a short pause, he added, “I am speaking figuratively, of course.” Surely, she knew that. Cook had died a few years before his birth, and Drake had sailed for the great Elizabeth, Regina Gloriana, in the sixteenth century.
    And then the silence he so dreaded returned as Miss Montford did not know how to respond to his childhood imaginings. After a few minutes, Darcy fell back on the old reliable: the weather.
    “Georgiana writes that the autumn colors at Pemberley are still quite beautiful. I think this may be the first autumn I have ever missed in Derbyshire.”
    “Why did you not go with your sister?”
    “Because there are people I wished to see in London.” Like you, my dear. That is why I am here . “This will be the first time my sister has acted as the mistress of Pemberley, but it is a small party and manageable for her first effort.”
    “I imagine you wish you were in Derbyshire since London is rather dull at this time of year.”
    “Yes, very dull.”
    “Since your sister is alone and you wish to be in the country, maybe you should go to Pemberley.”
    “Miss Montford, my sister is not alone . And I have been gone from London quite a bit of late, as you may have noticed, and I feel I may have neglected some of my… friends.”
    “But, Mr. Darcy, you should not neglect your sister on anyone’s account. Papa would never permit me go to the country without a male relation.”
    Neglect? Darcy wanted to laugh. This was absurd. Georgiana was in the company of a mature young woman and her middle-aged aunt and uncle and in the midst of an army of servants. His staff could have fended off a French raid.
    “I have always encouraged Georgiana’s independence,” Darcy explained, and then he heard a gasp from Miss Montford. With a harsher tone than he had intended, he said, “You should not be uneasy on my sister’s account. There is always someone about,” and then he saw an opening. “But if it would make you feel better if I went to Derbyshire, I would consider it. However, I am perfectly agreeable to staying in town if that is what you would wish.”
    “I can only say what my father would do, and he would go to Derbyshire to be with me.”
    After another fifteen minutes of weather-related discussions—Letitia was predicting cooler temperatures with some rain and snow sometime during the winter season—Darcy took his leave. When he emerged from the Montford house, a hackney pulled over, but he waved him off. He needed to walk and to think. He had finally taken the first step in beginning a courtship with Miss Montford, and after paying her what was for him an excessive amount of compliments, she had encouraged him to leave town, which he was willing to do. There was only one problem. He could not go to Pemberley.

When Darcy returned home, it was to an empty house. Richard was dining at his club and would most certainly play cards, and he had given Mercer the evening off. He suspected that his valet was having a romance with a cook in one of the adjacent townhouses. Mercer, a man of forty-seven years, had never married and had once told him that he had a female acquaintance at many of the coaching inns where the post coach made its stops, but rather than limiting himself to any one lady, he had chosen to remain a bachelor. “Share the wealth, sir,” he had said with a smile.
    But a letter from Georgiana was waiting for him in which she related her company’s first full day at Pemberley. With Mr. Gardiner fishing and Mrs. Gardiner visiting an old friend in the village, Georgiana had convinced Elizabeth to go riding.
Since it had been such a long time since Lizzy has been on a horse (she much prefers walking)…
    Lizzy? Of course, Georgiana would call her Lizzy; they were friends. As far as her preference for walking was concerned, Darcy knew from their time together at Netherfield during her sister’s convalescence that Elizabeth was very fond of walking. He remembered a most pleasant stroll in the park,