Posted on Monday, 2 June 2008

The hair pin was suspended in mid air. The nightly ritual of Mr. Darcy found a pause in its routine of letting down Mrs. Darcy’s hair. She gazed at him through the vanity mirror and smiled.

“You are?" he asked.

“Yes my love, are you pleased?"

“I am in constant pleasure with you and never more so than when the life you carry within makes your lovely eyes shine even more beautifully. You grow lovelier, Elizabeth, with each child. I must keep you thusly.”

“You certainly are doing your part in that respect husband” as her color rose, but she continued to hold his eyes in her her mirror."

"I beg your pardon madam" he challenged, "We are doing our part."

"I stand corrected my love."

He placed his hands upon her crown, his slender fingers beginning the slow, moving descent down the long dark tresses. How Mr. Darcy loved to be the the only man of her acquaintance to not only view but participate in turning the lovely lady from Lizzy and Mother to Wife and Lover. She rose to stand, wanting to be closer to him. He helped her to rise and encircled her within his arms and bent to place a gentle kiss upon her lips. They each continued to look into each others eyes, his soft and warm, hers alight with happiness. As tender as a baby's breath was their kiss.

“When is our babe due to arrive" he breathed against her lips.

“I believe it will be around the 26th of November” she whispered against his own and pulling back just at bit, she eyed him an arched brow.

“Why do you look at me so Mrs. Darcy?”

“No reason, only… Your timing is always excellent. All of our children will have been born around the time of our meeting.”

“Does my wife have no say in the matter?”

“She most certainly does and never, ever has she had cause to repine. Her happiness is extraordinary.”

“When shall we tell the children? James will be beside himself in hopes of another brother and Beth Anne will follow you around asking questions for the duration of your time. You can count on that, dear wife.”

With a mischievous grin, Elizabeth replied, “I was thinking we might tell James and then have him tell Beth while we hide in the Library and listen from there. He is his father’s son when given important tasks and deliberates in his approach. I believe his explanation would be priceless. I would only hope we could keep our sides from splitting.”

“I am hesitant to put such a responsibility upon the boy,” Darcy countered. “He is but a child himself.”

“Oh dearest, he will do fine. What we have taught him about childbirth, he certainly has not forgotten. Do you not recall that he asked questions for about a week after we explained where babies come from? Our faces were in semi permanent shades of Mrs. Reynolds strawberry jam. We both wished we had a disguise of every sort just to hide from him.”

“I do recall that being a most interesting time for us both,” Darcy smirked. “I seemed to have developed a new pattern of speech around then; I began to find myself stuttering.”

Elizabeth laughed gaily. “Yes you did. However, I felt it added most fervently to your charm. I often wanted to kiss those stuttering lips" she colored and boldly stared at the perpetrators in question.

“Y…You Did?”

“Oh!! She laughed happily, “Meet my lips this instant, sir!!”

“Your wishes are my command" Darcy replied as his lips moved towards their goal.

“And so James, your brother or sister will be due around the 26th of November. Do you have any more questions for us or any advice you wish, old man?”

“No father, I believe I can tell Bethie about it. I am almost eight and you may count on me to help you and mother” he responded, trying to sound all grown up. As an afterthought he added, “She is always asking me questions and most of the time, I do not mind answering them.”

“Thank you, son" replied Elizabeth as she stood and kissed him upon his mop of brown curls and he immediately embraced his mother as well.

“Err…We shall send her in now son. Thank you and err… we shall see you soon and speak on your success later,” and as they left the room Darcy noticed his wife looking most decidedly at his lips.

“What do you want, Jamie, and why are you here in Papa’s study? We had better leave and go play somewhere else. Is that why you were looking for me?”

“No it was not" he replied while sounding grown up yet swinging in his father’s chair, the contradiction was too much for his sister.

“Get out of Papa’s chair!”

The façade of ageless wisdom slipping, the boy shouted, “I don’t have to Bethie! Papa said I could be here and that we are supposed to have a talk!”

“What are we to talk about?” she yelled back with hands on hips and eyes heavenward.

Already exasperated, James replied. “We shall be getting a baby brother or sister from Mama and Papa and…”

“Oh! Oh, Jamie really? A sister of my very own? What will her name be? When will she come? I will give her all of my toys to play with and we shall play games and Mama will make us both dresses alike with pretty lace and Papa will drive us around in the carriage and ohh…”

“Bethie!!! Stop!!, Stop!! It will be a boy and we will fight battles together and sail ships in the pond and fish and swim and ride and we will…”

“No! No! Jamie, listen…”

“No! You must listen to me sister! This is my talk and you must hear me out, do you understand?”

With a huff and a huge sigh she almost whispered the words “Yes, but you said it would be a girl or a boy.”

“Then why did you just pretend it will be a girl?” he demanded.

“Because I want a baby sister”

“Well, I want a brother. I am sorry I pretended, too. It was not grown up of me.”

“You are not grown up,” Beth countered.

“I am old enough to know about these things if Mama and Papa asked me to explain them to you because I am their pro.. projamy of the Darcy line.”

“What does projamy mean?” she asked, interested in this new word.

“It means that I am their son and I am grown up at times such as this”

“Oh very well. Where will they get the baby from?”

James was ready for this. Sitting up straighter and with his best authoritative voice, he began his lecture. “Well, first of all, the baby will come from Papa’s loins…”

CRASH!!! The lamp that was bought as a souvenir while on a trip to Bath was now to be only a memory. Two sets of feet scurried away from the Library door and into the table. Darcy grabbed his wife just as she headed for the vase of roses on the corner table and guided her safely to the settee.

“Oh my…Fitzwilliam?

“Where in heavens name?” Darcy mumbled to himself.

Elizabeth pointed to the family Bible on the table where the former lamp had met its demise. “I was reading scripture to James last week and while explaining about all the births and begetting, he fell asleep and so I did not explain many of the words to him.”

“Apparently, he found definitions of his own,” Darcy commented wryly.

“Oh Fitzwilliam, let us rise and go back to the door. We shall have much explaining to do.”

“Our son appears to be doing a tremendous job of it,” he quipped.

“Do we dare listen or interrupt the conversation?”

“We started this, wife, and must see it through.”

“What was that noise? It sounded like a lamp breaking on the floor. We are each others witnesses that we did not break it. Whew! Where were we? Oh... Jamie what are loins and how do they bring the baby?’

It was at that moment, the doors to the library practically burst open and in walked two flushed and nervous looking parents. Elizabeth started first. “Children, it is so lovely outside, Beth Ann, come with me dear and let us take a nice walk" she sang happily as she grabbed the child by the hand and herded her out the door. The child could be heard saying:

“But Mama, Jamie was…” as the door closed soundly.

“Well now son, oh yes, ah…err…” Darcy was struggling for the right words. “Blast” he thought to himself, the room was an oven. He had never known Derbyshire to be this hot in the spring. He had not yet noticed the saddened look upon his sons face but his words spoke with heaviness so he directed his attentions back upon his beloved boy.

“Papa, you and mother interrupted my talk with Bethie. I was just starting to tell her about getting the baby from your loins to mama.” Seized suddenly with a violent coughing spell, James became concerned for his fathers health and asked, “Papa, are you very well? Shall I call for Mrs. Reynolds and some special tea perhaps?”

“No, No”, he inhaled deeply, “something just went down the wrong way in my throat, I shall be fine in a moment.”

“You don’t look fine, your face is still as red as the mulberry tree down by the lake.”

“I assure you, son, I am well.”

“Please forgive me for interrupting you. I know that you were doing an excellent job of speaking to your sister and there will be more time for it later.” Discretion being the better part of valour, Darcy decided to move the conversation forward. Much forward. “I am very proud of you, James. You take to any task set before you and that is the mark of one who will become a very fine gentleman. There was more I wished to say to you and I do apologize again for interrupting you. How was the talk going? Err… about the loins I mean. How were you going to explain them?” *Cough*

“I was going to begin with, a man has the loins and begits them to his wife and she begits a baby. It was in the Bible, Papa. There was a lot of begittings in the Bible.

“Yes there was, son. I believe it is pronounced ‘Begetting’ though. Please continue.”

“The man has some seeds that he gives to his wife and he plants a baby to grow in her stomach. He has to be very careful not to spill seeds on the ground or he will get into trouble with God. All his seeds are precious and can only be given to his wife and no one else. I think the book was Lemontastings.”

Darcy smiled lovingly and said, “You are correct again, James, with your Bible book and placement. The correct name, though, is Lamentations. Very well indeed, son, very well.”

“Thank you, father. I fell asleep while mother was reading to me. Papa? May I tell you something that will be just for us men to know?”

“Of course, and you may rest assured that with us it shall remain.”

“I love when mother wraps me up in her arms and reads to me. Even if I am not tired, I always fall asleep because I feel warm and happy there. Is that because I am not really almost grown up and still just a little boy?”

Darcy tried hard to focus on the pattern of swirls on the carpet so that James could not see the mist that had begun to form in his eyes. He swallowed the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat and began. “James, hear the words that I will speak to you now and I will ask that you never forget them. Right now you are a little boy. I have watched you sometimes pretend to fight battles at sea. As first born, you will not be able to serve in the Royal Navy however I see this day that even as a boy, you would grow to make a very fine Captain which is a leader of men. You may not be able to sail ships to far away lands but you have that within you which cannot be taught, and that is Courage. There may come a time in your life, son, when you may have to fight to stay alive. While others around you may abandon their loyalties to the tides, always fight for what is right and true. Although you were born into wealth and position, for reasons unknown, you could possibly one day come upon hunger and thirst, darkness of night and fear of not knowing the way to go but through faith. Take the courage that you even now at age eight…”

Interrupting the boy stated simply, “Eight and a half, Papa.”

“Forgive me son, at age eight and one half, take that courage and fight to get to where you are loved. Let manhood itself not keep you from the arms of your mother for there is no safer place in this world than in her arms. There is no ruler nor any other form that could measure the depths of love to be found in her. She would swim the English Channel for each one of us if that were what was needed. God made women to love deeper than us men and we find peace and comfort in their arms. As a little boy or a man a head taller than I, be not ashamed to have them hold you. If I myself should have to separate from my family, I would expend my last breath to reach those same arms.”

“You really love Mama, don’t you, Papa?

“I truly do, son, just as I really love you and Beth Ann and Edmund and our new one to come.”

“I won’t be ashamed, then, to have her hold me even when I am tall like you.” he smiled.

“Very good.”

“Do you still wish me to continue my talk with Bethie?”

“Yes,I do. Your way of explaining things are profound and to your sister, your words may be clearer than mine. I have complete faith and trust in you.”

“Very well, shall I begin with the loins again Papa?

*Cough* “Yes, that”

The End