A Wife for Mr. Darcy

handsome and has the same amazing blue eyes as his brother.” When she had finished detailing her interesting conversation with His Lordship, Mr. Gardiner burst out laughing.
    “Why are you laughing? This man is an avowed philanderer, and everything he says is a double entendre .”
    “My dear, this shows that our randy earl has excellent taste in women. I would take his flirting as a compliment as he is known for having affairs with some of the loveliest married women in England.”
    “He is an adulterer! Are you not shocked?”
    “Yes, he is an adulterer and, from what I understand, quite beyond redemption when it comes to women, wine, and gambling. However, I am not shocked at his behavior as this is quite common among the aristocracy. But did you really blush like a new bride, and you the mother of four?”
    “Absolutely! What would you expect me to do when his conversation was replete with sexual innuendo? I shall admit he has a very ingratiating way about him, and I can just imagine a woman looking into those blue orbs and forgetting herself. Of course, I am not referring to myself, and may I state in the strongest language possible that such a conversation rightly belongs exclusively within the confines of the bedroom of a husband and his lawfully wedded wife.”
    “Ruth, we are in a bedroom, and I am your husband and you are my lawfully wedded wife,” and with a wicked smile, he asked, “so may I speak of such matters?”
    After seeing the look in her husband’s eyes, Mrs. Gardiner started to laugh. “Edward, remember yourself. It is the middle of the day.”
    “I shall close the drapes.”
    “We must dress and go down for dinner.”
    “I shall be quick,” and Ruth Gardiner fell back on the bed laughing, and her husband soon joined her. After they had finished making love, Mr. Gardiner wondered if it would be possible to arrange for his wife to sit next to Lord Fitzwilliam at supper.

    “Did you take your bonnet off while you were in the cave, miss?” Ellie asked Elizabeth. “Because it looks as if someone emptied a salt cellar in your hair.”
    Lizzy confessed that she had removed the farmer’s hat before leaving the cave. Not only was it ugly, but it prevented her from seeing Mr. Darcy’s face. She knew he had been watching her, and when he had moved closer to her to explain the drawings on the cave’s wall, she felt a growing heat spreading throughout her body. But she could not decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
    However, there was no question that telling Mr. Darcy about Mr. Peterson had been the wrong thing. His response was totally unexpected. Instead of his seeing that she was providing him with a graceful exit and relieving him of any self-recrimination, he had become angry when he thought she might have a possible suitor. Good grief! What was she supposed to do? “Get thee to a nunnery”? And what did he mean when he had said he “was trying”? Why was it that a man of sense and education, who had lived in the world, found it so difficult to speak in declarative sentences that did not require an interpreter?
    Ellie had already laid out the dress Lizzy was to wear that evening, and she could hardly look at it without thinking she was a character in a fairy tale, the one in which a village maiden marries the prince and lives happily ever after. Shortly after their arrival at Pemberley, Georgiana had shown Lizzy some of the dresses she had worn during the season, all of which had been made by a famous designer who had fled Paris and the Terror in France. One of the dresses was an exquisite russet gown with gold thread woven into the bodice and with gold tassels hanging from the short sleeves.
    “This was the dress I wore to the Smythe’s ball a year ago. I had not yet come out into society, and it was something of a practice ball for those girls who were shortly to make their debut.”
    “Georgiana, I think it is the loveliest gown I have ever seen.”
    “I agree with you, but the color was all wrong for me, but it was my fault as Madame Delaine had warned me I was too fair for such a color. Obviously, I did not take her advice, and as a result, I have a gown I shall never wear again. It would be unfortunate if someone did not wear it, so I would like for you to have it.”
    Lizzy smiled at the generous offer. She could not even guess at the cost of the gown, but she could easily imagine that it cost more than she would spend on all her frocks in the course of a