The names, characters, places and events in this story are products of Jane Austen's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. All characters are over the age of 18. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
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ELIZABETH BENNET'S WEDDING NIGHT
Elizabeth Bennet sat at the dressing table. Picking up a bottle of French perfume, she delicately placed a few drops onto her wrists and neck. The floral scent pleased her, complementing as it did the smells coming from the rose gardens outside. Breaking out from behind a cloud, a shaft of golden sunlight, the last of the evening, entered the bedroom and fell slantwards across the green and red Turkish rug and onto the bed.
The sunlight drawing her gaze, she looked out through the window. Mr Darcy's bedroom commanded one of the best views at Pemberley. Below lay the formal, ornamental gardens gently leading the eye to broad acres of parkland beyond. Elms, beeches and oaks were dotted about in a manner designed to create a pleasing vista. Mr. Darcy told her that the gardens were laid out by Capability Brown himself some forty years earlier. Still further, fields and woods stretched up to heather covered moor land. In a hollow, tucked behind a large wood which was used for deer hunting, was the village of Pemberley itself. All this land belonged to her husband.
Turning away from the view, Elizabeth congratulated herself. Her husband was one of the wealthiest men in England but that was not what had attracted her. After that ridiculous quarrel over his pride and his prejudices against her family, they had realized each other's true worth and fallen deeply in love. She sighed with contentment. Tonight, she was the happiest woman in England.
Smiling, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her dark chestnut hair was down around her shoulders. Her maid had not long finished brushing it and getting her ready for her new husband's arrival. The girl had given the bride a kiss before leaving.
Elizabeth hoped her husband wouldn't be long. Through the open window she heard laughter and singing from the wedding guests in the great dining room below. It sounded as if the party was still in full swing and she hoped their guests were enjoying themselves.
However, she had left early. Tiptoeing upstairs she had taken a bath and then her maid had worked her arts to make her look so beautiful. Elizabeth knew she was pretty but tonight she looked like a Grecian goddess. Now she wore only a sheer peignoir that clung to every curve on her body, revealing far more than it hid. Like the perfume, it had been imported at great expense from France and was worth every penny.