Christmas at Pemberley

Part 1

A/N - This is the first story I've shared here in...a while! I really miss it though and am hoping to get back to sharing stories here on the semi-regular going forward.

I hope you like this sweet little Christmas tale featuring a newly-married Mr and Mrs Darcy preparing to celebrate Christmas at Pemberley! xx

Mrs Elizabeth Darcy tiptoed lightly down the north-facing corridor of her new husband's estate, Pemberley, before pausing, frowning, and retracing her steps. This strange pattern of behaviour was repeated twice, which might not have drawn any notice at all had her path not taken her past the doorway to a certain study once, twice, three times.

Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy heard his wife's footsteps the first time and ignored them, growing used to his new wife's restlessness and noting, absently, that the inclement weather likely kept her confined to the house, but no amount of inclement weather would keep her from walking. When she retreated past his door twice more in quick succession, however, he looked up from the ledger he had been studying, his interest piqued.

"Lizzy?" he called out to her. "Is something the matter?"

His question arrested her progress and he heard a light laugh, the sound that had first caused him to fall in love with the young lady who was now his wife.

"No!" she called back, with complete confidence that lasted only a moment, before a second, clarifying answer came. "Yes." Another pause. "Perhaps."

The footsteps began again, leading this time to the doorway to Darcy's study instead of directly past it and she paused, framed by the oak frame and wearing a look of consternation on her face.

"Explain." Darcy set down his pen, folding his arms in front of him and looking questioningly up at his wife.

"It will soon be Christmas," Lizzy began, darting a glance towards the grandfather clock in one corner of Darcy's austere study as if every tick of the hands reminded her how close this particular holiday was drawing.

"It will," Darcy said, fighting the urge to smile at his wife's evident anxiety. It was so rare a thing for him to see Elizabeth looking anything other than at her ease that he rather enjoyed it, although he would never confess as much, and indulged in amusement only because he thought he might relatively easily find a solution to her worries.

"The first Christmas I shall spend at Pemberley." She paused, chewing on the inside of her mouth. "The first I shall spend hosting at Pemberley."

"Oh?" Darcy cocked his head to one side, lifting an eyebrow as if this was news, indeed, and the very first he had heard of it.

"Do not tease me!" Lizzy said, her eyes flashing warningly, and Darcy, immediately contrite, got to his feet, crossing the floor of his study in three long strides and dropping a kiss on his wife's forehead.

"It is to be the first Christmas we shall both spend hosting at Pemberley. Why do you think the whole responsibility must fall on your shoulders?" He peered out into the deserted corridor. "And where is Georgiana? Has she no say in this?"

"She has responsibility enough," Lizzy said, with a dismissive sniff. "Responsibilities you shall not worry your head about nor interfere in." She smiled, sternly, until Darcy nodded in agreement. "But I have been considering decoration, and I cannot decide what best to do for this corridor."

"This corridor?" Darcy frowned. "What need have we to decorate it at all? I assure you no guests shall care to visit me in my study - because I shall not dare to cross its threshold myself for the entire duration of our guests' stay," he hurried out, forestalling Elizabeth's cry. Whilst their short marriage had been preceded by a not-entirely unproblematic courtship, Lizzy had come to understand her husband's desire for solitude. But understanding did not guarantee agreement, and she had already assured him that he would not be permitted to absent himself whenever he chose to during the holiday. He smiled, thinking that, in inviting the Gardiners rather than Lizzy's more immediate family, he would have little need to hide. He liked Mr and Mrs Gardiner and their children and was secretly quite looking forward to hearing the sounds of laughter and conversation bouncing off the walls of Pemberley this Christmas. I have too often sought to be alone: perhaps it is time to embrace something different now, he mused, realising a moment later that Elizabeth had begun to speak again.

"...It is so dark here, what with it facing north, and I am not sure if you have noticed how small the windows are. Not that that is a criticism, for they are quite pretty windows, I suppose, but I do not wish any additional decorations to look like clutter. I was considering moving some of the green boughs from the parlour, perhaps with mistletoe and of course holly." She frowned. "I did so wish to find some pretty red ribbon to tie the garlands together, but despite Mrs Potts promising me that she had some she has yet to produce it, and we are swiftly running out of time, and Georgiana -"

"Lizzy," Darcy said, patiently, managing at last to interject one swift, stilling word when she paused for breath. "Do you think there is some slight possibility you are letting things escalate a little? Things do not need to be perfect."

Lizzy sniffed and Darcy was forced to concede that it was indeed a little unusual to hear his own voice pleading a case for wilful imperfection. He shrugged his broad shoulders and smiled, welcoming the incongruity.

"What is most important of all, surely, is that we shall be spending Christmas together with each other and with our family." His smile grew. "Our family, yours and mine. It is our first Christmas as husband and wife. The first, in fact, that we shall not be at loggerheads with one another."

Even Elizabeth could not resist smiling a little at this, remembering a time scarcely a year previously when the very notion of her standing in this very home with Mr Darcy not only by her side but also her husband would have been impossible even to countenance.

"I personally do not think there is anything wrong with this corridor. It is neither too bare nor too cluttered, too bright or too dark, but if you feel that a few swags of mistletoe and holly might improve it then, by all means, let us see to it." He drew in a breath, lifting himself up to his full height. "And in the absence of either my sister or Mrs Potts -" He lifted his eyebrows as if the idea that both of his wife's preferred helpers might have absented themselves precisely when she had need of them. "I shall offer myself a more than adequate to the task. If you shall direct, I am more than happy to secure as many green boughs as you care to have, in this or any other corridor."

"Goodness me, I hope you shall continue to be this amenable tomorrow, when my aunt and uncle arrive," Lizzy declared, smiling wickedly as she kissed her husband's cheek and darted back out of his reach. "My cousins are quite fond of climbing on broad shoulders and yours, my dear, are certainly suitable for just such a purpose."