Page 5 of Midnight at Pemberley

Fair Ellender was a lady gay

Lord Thomas, he loved her dear

Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender

Sat all day on a hill;

When night came, and sun was gone,

They’d not yet said their fill.

Lord Thomas spoke a word in jest

And Ellender took it ill:

“Oh, I’ll never marry me a wife

Against my family’s will.”

“If you will never wed thee a wife,

A wife will never wed thee!”

So he rode home to tell his mother

And knelt upon his knee.

“Mother, come Mother, come riddle to me.

Come riddle it all in one,

And tell me whether to marry Fair Ellender

Or bring the Brown Girl home?”

How could Elizabeth know? Darcy wondered. It made no sense, and he was a man who prided himself on common sense. But there it was— Elizabeth Bennet knew his deepest secret. She had played him for a fool. Every muscle in his body tightened, and Darcy fought to breathe naturally. Despite his misery, she continued to sing:

“The Brown Girl gives you houses and land

Fair Ellender, she has none.

And there I charge you, take success

And bring the Brown Girl home.”

He dressed himself all in his best

His merry men all in white

And every town he passed through

They took him for a knight.

He went till he came to fair Ellender’s court

So loudly twirled at the pin,

There was none so ready as fair Ellender herself