When Jane and I were falling in love, we were learning a tremendous amount about each other in the shortest possible time. The more we learned, the more we loved each other. With the pressure from our exes and Lydia to destroy our relationship, Jane and I quickly concluded we needed to see each other.
Jane and I had several goals: Marry as soon as possible (i.e., the day my divorce process, longer than her own process, was final), get sealed as soon as possible, and keep sinning to a minimum. So we originally resolved that I would stay in London and Jane would stay at Longborn. In this way would the distance keep us honest. I would offer to go to Longborn, and because of my work schedule Jane would counteroffer to come to London. When our exes and Lydia teamed up to destroy us on a particularly difficult day, I booked a carriage ride to Longborn for 3 weeks into the future.
The first plan was for me to leave first thing in the morning, arrive at Longborn at the carriage terminal and court her for several hours before the latest possible carriage ride home. When I booked my ticket, however, we resolved that I should be there 22 hours instead. I received permission from work, scraped all my pounds together to pay for it, and began waiting for the trip.
By the time the day came to board my carriage ride, I had found a way through work to get the whole trip paid for. This surprise was a tremendous blessing. We would now have 22 hours together between the carriage ride in and the carriage ride out, and just a little break for me to have some work meetings. And the whole thing would be free!
When I arrived at the carriage terminal at Longborn, I stopped to catch my breath outside the carriage. I rearranged my clothes, took a deep breath, and headed down the escalator. There was no one there! I immediately thought that perhaps my Jane had been consumed with nerves and decided not to show up. In looking left to right for someone, anyone who might look like the Jane of my youth, I did catch out of the corner of my eye a woman vaguely fitting my memories but by the time I looked back she was no longer at that wall. I looked right again, then left, and there was a very nervous, very embarrassed, very strong woman pushing through her fear and shaking her head in a mass of hair as she approached me saying, “I just need you to hold me.” And she threw herself into my arms.
Have you ever seen those movies where the right key or combination hits a lock and you subsequently see a ton of lock mechanisms click and slide into place for the door to open? When Jane’s body hit mine, the only thing I could say was, “You fit!” because her body fit exactly into my own. And whatever love I had when we corresponded from afar up to that point, was dwarfed by the love flowing between our hearts at that moment as she unlocked our hearts with that embrace.
I would spend the next few minutes petting her hair, holding her tightly as she fit so perfectly in my embrace, and I asked her to kiss me, saying, “We should kiss.” And we found that our lips fit like two sets of soft puzzle pieces. Our hands fit in each other’s, our bodies fit against each other, and our lips fit. In the car, her head fit nestled into my neck. When walking, she fit in my arm. When we stayed at a cottage outside Longborn, no matter how we lay, we fit as if we had two bodies designed to fit in any combination. We were the key to change each other’s lives, it was a relationship that carried more beauty the further we delved into its boundaries.
We quickly learned that we knew how to apply tenderness and affection to each other. It was something that took no trying – we simply touched, and the other person felt loved. She would reach up and touch my face, and the cup holding my love would run over. She would run her hand up my back, and I would have to close my eyes as the affection consumed me. She would kiss me, and I would melt. She even dressed the way I would dress a woman if I were the dictatorial type. It was as if someone sat her down and said, “Here are the things it will take to attract and capture Bingley’s heart…” and she memorized each one.
We then had one more bit of excitement. We had a meaningful parting, where I gave her the first priesthood blessing in what may have been decades. We prayed together, we embraced, we cried in random horse stalls as we rode to the carriage terminal, and had a beautiful but emotional parting. But I was late for my carriage. The woman at the carriage boarding area told me the ride was overbooked by 1, and that I would get free quid and a free ride the following morning. I sent correspondence on the Apple letter-sender I carry with me, and Jane turned her horse around to pick me up from the terminal for an unexpected 10 more hours together. We were filled with joy, we were overcome with passion, and we looked forward to our next visit.
But within hours, we each had decided we could not live without one another. She resolved to move to London to be with me, and we set a date for 3 weeks hence. Jane would join her Bingley in London and we would live happily ever after. This idea, like the rest of our relationship, quickly settled on our hearts and fit as another puzzle piece locked into place.
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