The Darcys of Pemberley Read Online Free PDF

nothing that
others before you had not been able to accomplish. Please remember
that you were not the first to propose to me.”
    “Indeed. I had momentarily forgotten that I
had a rival for your affection. How ironic that, on this question
at least, Mr. Collins and I should have had the same taste.”
    “And it was a difficult choice for me, you
know,” Elizabeth teased. “He was quicker to come to the point, but
you showed more perseverance. Mr. Collins abandoned the campaign
after only one refusal; you did not. That is what decided
the matter.”
    “Well, it is pleasant to have everything so
neatly explained. But I must confess I am astounded that, with all
my good qualities, it was my constancy alone that won you. Nothing
else entered in?”
    Elizabeth thought for a moment. “I suppose I
must admit to being somewhat influenced by your other manifold
attractions.”
    “There, you see? I knew there was more to
it.”
    “True,” she answered, with a playful grin.
“The fact that you were the owner of Pemberley, for instance, was a
circumstance highly in your favor.”
    “Yes, of course,” conceded Mr. Darcy. “As we
have already established, you fell in love with Pemberley much more
readily than you did with me. I think I was perhaps fortunate that
you did not have to choose between the two.”
     
    ~*~
     
    The next morning, immediately following
breakfast, the Darcys made ready to quit Netherfield and begin
their journey north. Jane and Mr. Bingley bid them Godspeed as they
set off.
    Mr. Darcy had traveled the considerable
distance between London and Pemberley dozens of times before. He
accepted the inconvenience as a modest price to pay for the
privilege of living in Derbyshire. The roads had been much improved
over the appalling state that once predominated. Now, with a
quality carriage, good weather, and a little luck, the trip might
be accomplished in two days with reasonable safety – even tolerable
comfort if a room at a reliable inn could be procured when the
daylight fled. Yet one could not completely dispense with the
inherent risks, only seek to minimize them by due diligence.
    Elizabeth left such worries entirely to her
husband. For her, travel still seemed something of an adventure,
since she had done so little of it. Although this route was
becoming familiar to her, she never tired of the scenery – the
green fields and rolling hills of the south, the deep shades and
rocky outcrops of the north.
    By the middle of the second day, Elizabeth’s
anticipation increased as she recognized views and villages that
verified they were nearing Pemberley. Then she caught her first
glimpse of Lambton, where she and her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner
stayed the first time she visited Derbyshire. Elizabeth could never
pass through it without fondly remembering how that trip had given
rise to a fortuitous meeting between Mr. Darcy and herself – one
which rekindled his hopes and her interest in the possibility of a
future together. Now, reaching Lambton also meant she was within
five miles of her home.
    When they at last arrived at the entrance to
the vast estate, Elizabeth asked that the hood be folded down on
the barouche to open an outlook to the drive ahead. It was warm for
October, and plenty of daylight remained by which to enjoy the
natural beauties of the park with its fine stands of tall trees,
grassy meadows, hills, and dales. Every turn brought a new
vista.
    According to private tradition – one begun on
return from their wedding journey – Darcy ordered the carriage
stopped for a few minutes at the spot where the house itself first
came into sight. The view across the valley to the stately
structure was one of the best prospects anywhere on the property,
and a particular favorite with the young couple. Situated on rising
ground and framed by wood and water, the house looked at home in
its natural surroundings, unencumbered as it was by any awkwardly
artificial ornamentation.
    From this point, the lane