A Wife for Mr. Darcy

was trying to put her at her ease, and she felt some of the tension leaving her neck and shoulders.
    “Belling took us by wagon to visit White Peak, and we had a lovely picnic. Your sister spent a whole day teaching me how to drive a phaeton. Please do not laugh,” she said when she saw his smirk. “I can now handle a pair of horses quite well as long as they are old and will only be asked to go around the lake.”
    “It is for the purpose of teaching novices how to drive a phaeton that we keep the older horses in the stable,” he said, still laughing at the thought of an inexperienced Elizabeth driving a pair of horses, “and I commend you for trying. Anything else?”
    “Not really. My uncle is determined to fish in as many streams on the property as possible, and my aunt cannot be kept from the gardens. So we have been quite content to remain at Pemberley.”
    “So you have enjoyed your time here?”
    “Who would not? When we leave on Thursday, I will know exactly how Adam and Eve felt when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden,” and for a second, a wave of regret passed over her as she thought about what she would leave behind.
    “I understand from Miss Darcy it is your intention to engage in only manly pursuits,” Elizabeth teased. “No lawn bowls or strolls around the lake for you and the colonel. You have come for the shooting and to ride and fish. But, perhaps, we may pass each other in the gallery, or I may see your coattails as you go out one door and I come in another.”
    “Miss Elizabeth, I have come for the sport as I have not shot a gun this season, and I rarely ride in town as parading about in parks is not for me. So please do not think I am trying to avoid you.”
    Lizzy laughed. “You would not have to avoid me, Mr. Darcy. This is your home. It is I who must give way.”
    This statement caused his whole demeanor to change. “Surely, you do not think I would want you to leave Pemberley because I have come.”
    “No, I do not think that, but then we do not know each other very well. Can either of us be certain of what the other would do in any given situation?” and Lizzy took a step back, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken.
    But Mr. Darcy closed the gap between them, and after taking Lizzy by the forearm, he looked at her with an intensity she had not witnessed before and said, “You know me well enough.”
    But Lizzy did not think she did. If she had, then she would know why he was in Derbyshire. “I do know some things about you that I did not know before coming to Pemberley.”
    “Such as?” he asked, unsure of what she might say. Her statement that she did not know him had stung.
    “That you know how to play the pianoforte and can perform duets with your sister.”
    Darcy let out a sigh of relief, and after letting go of Lizzy’s arm, he said, “Georgiana is a wicked girl for telling you such a thing. I play badly and for an audience of one—my sister.”
    “But now that we know your secret, you will be hard-pressed to avoid our requests for a tune.”
    “Miss Elizabeth, I see that you have been able to indulge in two of your most favorite things while at Pemberley: teasing and walking.”
    “But it was your sister’s hope that I would be so comfortable at Pemberley that I would act in exactly the same manner as I would if I were at Longbourn.”
    “I agree with Georgiana. I would not want you to change because you have come here,” including wearing your hair down, he thought. He would love to be the one to take her hair out of its braid and to brush it himself, but those things were reserved for a husband. “You may be very sorry you have discovered my closely held secret, Miss Elizabeth, because you will now be forced to listen to my flawed efforts on the pianoforte. Last time I played a tune, David and Goliath ran out of the room.”
    With an impatient Mr. Littlejohn within her view, Lizzy said, “I will leave you to arrange for your shoot, Mr. Darcy, and look forward to tonight’s entertainment.”
    “Consider yourself warned,” he called after her, and he turned his attention to manly pursuits, so he might not spend the whole day thinking about Elizabeth Bennet.

As Lizzy approached the manor house, she saw a handsome gentleman walking toward her. Assuming that he was Colonel Fitzwilliam, she stopped and waited while he approached and decided that she would never again leave the house without a bonnet.
    “Colonel