A Midsummer Christmas

Part 9

"But it is not Christmas, my dearest," Darcy said gently, sliding his ledger out of the way before Elizabeth slammed her hand down on the desk and knocked his ordered piles flying. "It is July."

The pair were in his study, where Darcy had closeted himself away to accomplish a few necessary tasks in peace, before his wife had burst in on him, determined to share her discovery with him at once.

"It is the same thing!" Lizzy waved away his concerns, repeating her assertion as if Darcy had not heard it the first time. "Georgiana loves Colonel Fitzwilliam. He will of course care for her in return and what better time to orchestrate such a romance than during our Christmas." She shot him a withering look. "In July."

"Does Georgiana care for him?" Darcy ran a hand through his dark curls. It was not an eventuality he had ever considered before and he was not entirely sure he approved of it. Richard was a good man, the very best amongst his acquaintances and Darcy valued him as he would value a brother. But that does not mean I wish him legally to become my brother! He frowned. "Here, I think you may be mistaken. They are friends, yes. But more than that?" He shook his head. "I do not see it."

"That is because you were not there when Georgiana admitted it!" Lizzy said, triumphantly hopping up on the corner of his desk and kicking out her legs so that the crashed noisily against a nearby bookcase. Darcy frowned and tried to rescue his study from demolition.

"What did she say?" he asked, patiently. "Precisely."

"Well..." A little of Elizabeth's enthusiasm faltered. "She did not precisely say she cared for him in that way..."

Darcy strove to control his features but he could not prevent the slightest smirk showing on his face.

"Do not look at me like that! It was not so much in what she said but in how she said it." Elizabeth would not be deterred. "I am not surprised you cannot see things the way I see them. You can't think of your cousin and your sister as being anything to one another apart from as they are to you!"

"You are speaking in riddles, Lizzy."

"It is not my fault if you cannot keep pace with my mind!"

"I have never been able to keep pace with you, my clever wife." Darcy ducked his head to meet her gaze and waited patiently until she smiled, accepting his compliment but still clinging unswervingly to her opinion.

"I think they care for one another already, or they will come to." She frowned, stubbornly and whispered something that sounded like, or they shall be made to!

"My dear, I hope you are not suggesting you meddle in the lives of my sister and cousin to force a romance where there is not one." He winced at the look his wife shot him and offered a conciliatory, "Yet." He reached for Lizzy's hand and squeezed it encouragingly. "If Richard and my sister truly do care for one another then surely their future happiness will be decided without any interference from us. True love will win the day, whatever you or I say about it."

"But -"

"We will let things progress as they will and see what happens. Either you will be proved right, or they will remain nothing more than what they are at present. Whatever happens, we shall have a jolly time all together celebrating the most festive midsummer I have ever spent." He pulled a face. "Did you really unearth a Christmas pudding for us? In this heat? Surely sorbet would be preferable? Or fresh fruit?"

"If we are celebrating Christmas, we must eat as if we are." Lizzy pressed a swift kiss to his lips, a silent indication that all was forgiven and she would not interfere any more than strictly necessary in Georgiana's romantic life. "But I have instructed the kitchen to prepare some simple salads and cold accompaniments that would never be achievable in the depths of December. Does that satisfy you?"

"More or less." Darcy grinned. "I can see you will not permit me to do any work today. Let's go back to the parlour and see what my sister is getting up to. She was playing music, I thought, although it has long since gone suspiciously quiet."

"Yes, and we must find Colonel Fitzwilliam, too! Where did you abandon him?"

"He requested a moment to change from his riding gear and privately I should imagine he wished to lie down for a minute or two without being pressed into society. The poor fellow was swept up in a whirlwind since his arrival yesterday, I do not suppose he has even recovered from his journey yet."

"And yet you insisted on putting him back on horseback first thing this morning and racing up hill and down dale!" Lizzy laughed accusingly.

"You have always been a kinder host than I," Darcy smiled. "This room is stuffy anyway. I prefer to sit in the parlour with the windows open onto the veranda when it is as warm as this." He hesitated. "Please tell me you will not insist upon us having a fire laid..."

Elizabeth appeared to be giving this suggestion deep consideration before at last relenting into a wicked grin.

"No, I have decided that fires blazing in the hearth, although Christmassy, is hardly necessary for midsummer. Georgiana and I have constructed a false fire from scraps of coloured paper and you must admire that, instead, and remark on our artistry and tell us how very like the real thing it is."

"Very well," Darcy said, with a groan of amused compliance. "You are determined to do the thing properly, aren't you? It cannot be like-Christmas, it must be Christmas proper."

"It must!" Elizabeth said, slipping her arm through his and walking alongside him towards the parlour. "It shall be a celebration we remember forever." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Especially if it leads to a union that lasts forever..."