Mr. Darcy's Indiscretions

by Valerie Lennox

  “And yet, you are taking this death trap out on the water.”

  “I must disagree respectfully. I really think that—”

  “No, your disagreement doesn’t matter.” Darcy gripped the railing and looked out over the ocean. “After I put this in my report, I feel certain the company will strip you of your ship and keep you from sailing ever again.”

  “Can they do that?” The captain looked flummoxed. “I must confess, I never heard of such a thing.”

  Darcy turned back to him. This man wasn’t taking the bait quite as easy as some. Some men would have already been offering something, anything, to keep him from turning them in. But not this man. He’d need a bit of prompting. “I’m sure you wish there was a way to stop me from doing this.”

  “Well…” The captain considered. “Yes, I do, in fact. I’d be most obliged if you wouldn’t put any of this in any report, because it doesn’t seem true to me.”

  “There might be a way that I could be convinced not to report on any of this.”

  “Oh?”

  “I simply want some of your opium,” said Darcy, smiling.

  The captain shook his head slowly. “You know, I don’t think that I’ve ever heard tell of someone inspecting the ships on the ocean, and I must tell you that mast is as sturdy as any mast could be. I get the feeling that you’re toying with me, sir.”

  “Do you?” Darcy swore under his breath. What the blazes was happening with his luck these days? He had been on one ship in which he’d had to kill everyone aboard. What were the odds that he’d have to do it all again the very next ship he boarded? “Listen, captain, if you just exchange the opium for my silence, this can all go quite easily. But if you want to cause trouble, then I don’t mind bringing it to you. The fact of the matter is, we’ll be taking your opium. We can leave you with your lives, or we can take those too. It’s really up to you.”

  “You’re nothing but a thieving scoundrel, aren’t you? I bet your name isn’t even Collinbottom.”

  “What’s it going to be, captain?” Darcy gestured to his ship. “My ship has its cannons trained on you as we speak.”

  “I’ll not give in to the likes of you.” The captain reached for his sword.

  Before he could get it out of its scabbard, Darcy had his dagger out, and he had it at the man’s neck.

  The captain let out a noise of surprise. “And you don’t fight fair, either, do you? Should have known.”

  “There’s no fair on the open sea, sir,” said Darcy. “Do you care to rethink your position? Shall I kill you? Or will you surrender your opium?”

  The captain sneered at him. “You win, Collinbottom if that is really your name. But you should take no pride in your villainy. You are the worst sort of scum.”

  “Oh, you wound me,” muttered Darcy. “All the same, thank you for your cooperation.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “I heard all manner of noises,” said Elizabeth from across the table. “What was it that you did to that ship you boarded?”

  “Nothing at all,” said Darcy, “and I don’t want to talk about that. Let’s instead discuss the books I had brought to you. Are you enjoying them?”

  “Well, if you did nothing at all, what was the purpose of boarding the ship in the first place?”

  “Listen, Miss Bennet, I must make money somehow, mustn’t I? So, what I do is I go onto ships and I pretend to be someone I’m not. I threaten the men there with ruin, and they offer me their opium freely. Then I take it, and I sell it in China, and I have some money to send home. Which reminds me. About taking you to Bombay—”

  “How do you threaten them with ruin?” she said.

  He sighed. “I pretend to be someone who works for the East India Company, inspecting their ship. I find fault with it, and tell them that I’ll report it. When they beg me not to, I say that they could give me opium in exchange. That is all. Sometimes I pretend other things. It’s whatever strikes my fancy.”

  “But what if they refuse to give you their opium?”

  “That never happens,” he said. “Now, listen to me very carefully, Miss Bennet, I must let you know about my promise to take you to India.”

  “Did you kill all the people on that ship, just as you killed everyone on my ship?”

  “I assure you, no one died today,” he said. “Now, about going to India. We’re actually closer to China right now. It hardly makes sense for me to go all the way back to Bombay, when I could just swing over and unload this opium instead.”

  She drew back. “You’re going to keep me on the ship longer?”

  “I’m sorry for it, but I really think that I must,” he said.

  She looked down at her food, beginning to lose her appetite. This was dreadful. She had already despaired of being on this ship for so long. Now, it was going to be longer?

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I can’t have you ruining all my business prospects.”

  “You said that having me on board would ruin everything. What with me tempting the men to rape me and all of that.”

  “Yes, that’s true, but you’ve been on board this long and nothing has happened, so perhaps my fears were groundless. At any rate, when we reach China, I will allow the men to roam free, and they can all find some doxies to slake their thirst for female flesh. Honestly, Miss Bennet, I did not think you’d be so upset.”

  “Well, of course I’m upset.”

  “Eager to get home and find a husband?”

  “You know I won’t find a husband.” She sighed. “Even if there was a man back home that wanted me, after I return home having been held captive on a pirate ship, I’ll be as ruined as if all that raping you talk of had actually happened. I don’t know why you bother to protect me. Not that it truly matters, because one can’t ruin a spinster anyway, can one?”

  “Don’t be dramatic. You’re hardly a spinster. Why, you can’t be more than three and twenty.”

  She glared at him. “It’s been six years since we first met, Mr. Darcy. You can hardly expect me to own my age, though I must say it is rather higher than three and twenty.”

  “I have told you not to call me that several times. I beg you to indulge me. Furthermore, I don’t like the careless way that you throw around the idea of your being raped. I told you what it meant in the hopes of shocking you, but you don’t seem to grasp how terrible it would be.”

  She shrugged. “Well, perhaps I would welcome anything to break up the sheer boredom of being locked in that room night and day.”

  “Yes, I realize it is trying, which is why you are dining with me this evening, but you certainly don’t want to be used by men like that. I think you are only saying it to try to goad me, and I warn you that this is not something you should be offhand about.”

  “I’m sorry that I don’t have the appropriate fear of being ravished. This was not something that was taught to me by my governess. I apologize.” Not that she’d actually had a governess. Her mother had taught her, and she’d read a number of her father’s books when the fancy struck her, but no matter. It sounded better that way, and he wouldn’t know the difference.

  He rubbed his jaw. “Perhaps I need to make things clearer for you, Miss Bennet. Perhaps you need a demonstration of just a fraction of what might happen to you.”

  She stiffened. “From you?”

  He looked around the cabin. “Well, I don’t see anyone else about, do you?”

  She was goading him. She had little other form of entertainment. But the threat of his… touching her, it made her feel a little uncertain of herself. She fiddled with her napkin, which was little more than a stained rag. It was clean enough, though, and she had been grateful of his providing it.

  He gave her a lazy look, his eyes glittering.

  “I wouldn’t have you put your hands on me.” But her voice was breathless and high-pitched.

  “You’d rather all the men on the ship?”

  “I’d rather not be handled at all.”

  He got
up out of his chair.

  She set down her napkin. “What are you doing?” Her voice shook.

  He regarded her, using one finger to trace his jaw. “I can’t be making idle threats, now can I, Miss Bennet? If I say I’m going to do something, I’d better follow through.”

  She stood up too, and took several steps back from him, her heart starting to speed up. She was frightened of this man, and she hated him—his violence, his rudeness, his insouciance. But it wasn’t only fear that was causing her pulse to race. Some part of her was almost eager to see what it was he was talking about, to be touched by him.

  He closed the distance between them.

  She made a half-hearted attempt to get away, but he reached out and stopped her.

  Catching her arm, he tugged her close.

  “Stop it,” she said, her voice barely audible.

  “That’s the thing, Miss Bennet,” he said in a gravelly voice, “they won’t stop. No matter how you plead or scream or beg, they won’t stop.”

  “Fine,” she said, trying to extricate herself from his grasp. “I understand now. Please let me go.”

  His hand moved from her arm to her waist, and he encircled her.

  Oh, my. His arm was so… thick. And warm. And strong. She let out a little whimper.

  He lowered his face, putting his lips against her ear. “That won’t work. Asking to be let go.” He tightened his grasp.

  She was pressed up against his body now, and he was firm and huge and unyielding. A trembling breath escaped her lips.

  “They won’t care,” he continued, his voice a dark whisper, “that you’re small and soft and helpless. That will only drive them on. That will only…” His voice cracked. “Excite them.”

  She slammed her eyes shut.

  Abruptly, he let her go.

  She stumbled, barely retaining her balance. She hadn’t realized how much she was leaning into him.

  He went back to his chair and sat down, almost angrily.

  She gripped the back of the chair to steady herself.

  He cleared his throat. “I apologize for that. It was indecorous. Please continue your dinner. I promise I will not…” He looked up at her and then away.

  She sat down. Her hands were shaking.

  * * *

  After dinner, he said that he would take her up to the deck, so that she could get some fresh air. She tried not to feel pathetically grateful for this small kindness, because he didn’t deserve that from her. He was clearly a dreadful man, and he’d manhandled her during dinner, which had been absolutely awful. She didn’t want that to happen ever again. At least, so she told herself. Because to have enjoyed being touched by this villain was…

  Well, she wasn’t going to think about that. She was going to enjoy the evening air and the salty breeze and the night sky. She was going to do her best to forget that he was even there.

  But once on the deck of the ship, she looked off into the distance and saw another ship on the horizon. A man was tied to the mast of the other ship, and he was yelling. They were too far away to make out his words, but she could hear him. She turned to Darcy in horror. “What is that? Are you responsible for that?”

  “The captain of the other ship thought he could be a hero, and he needed to be taught a lesson,” said Darcy. “This displeases you? I could have killed him.”

  She shook her head. “You’re a liar on top of everything else.”

  He raised both eyebrows. “What are you on about?”

  She pointed to the ship. “You told me that they never resist.”

  He sighed. “Well, usually they don’t.”

  “Like they resisted on the ship that I was sailing on.”

  “What happened on your ship was really an unfortunate accident, Miss Bennet. Truly, I don’t make it my business to go around and kill everyone on every ship I board.”

  “No? That’s what pirates do, isn’t it? And that’s what you are. You’re a ruthless killer, and I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t want to be near you.”

  He pressed his lips into a firm line. “Am I to take this to mean that you don’t want to continue your little walk on the deck?”

  She stopped breathing. She squeezed her eyes shut. She looked out at the ship again, and she let out her breath. “No,” she muttered, defeated. “No, I should like to stay out in the fresh air for a bit if you don’t mind.” She was weak and horrid. If she had any principles, she would have stuck to them and stayed locked in her cabin, away from this terrible man. He was a monster, really, killing people left and right—

  “Listen, Miss Bennet,” he said, stepping closer to her. “Everyone’s got to die sometime. And you mustn’t think that the people on your own ship were angels. Most of them were sailing men, and they had done their fair share of terrible things, let me assure you. In some ways, they deserved it.”

  She shook her head. “You didn’t have to kill them. You could have simply left.”

  “No, no,” he said. “I couldn’t very well do that. Because they would talk about what I’d done, and my disguise would be laid bare.”

  “I thought notoriety was supposed to be good for a pirate.”

  “Not for me. How am I to trick people if everyone knows about the trick?”

  “Well, it seems to me that the captains of those ships could get home and start talking to the East India Company, who would tell them they don’t employ a man like you, and then your whole scheme would be ruined anyway.”

  He pressed his lips together.

  She gave him a triumphant look, feeling as if she’d scored a point.

  “Perhaps you’re right,” he said. “But you’d be surprised how long something like that might take to actually come about. By the time I’m discovered, I’ll have made my fortune, and I’ll be back home in England. I don’t intend to be a pirate forever.”

  She shook her head at him in disgust. “You’ll use your blood money to resurrect your estate, then? You’re an evil man, and I hope that someone stops you, that someone kills you for all the people that you have killed.”

  He seized her by the wrist and pulled her towards the railing. “Perhaps you should get some fresh air and enjoy the view in silence, Miss Bennet.”

  She tried to pull her hand away, but he held it firmly. His grip was tight. It hurt a little. She looked out over the ocean, the choppy waves, the dark sky, and she had to admit it felt good to have a breeze on her face. Maybe it would be smarter to keep her mouth shut, after all. She took several deep breaths, filling her lungs with sea air.

  She heard the rumble of a deep voice behind her, and she turned to see that Mackie had approached Darcy.

  “Speak up, Mackie,” said Darcy, annoyed. “You’re mumbling.”

  “I’m trying to keep the other men from hearing,” said Mackie. “And you might look to the girl as well for that, because she’s yelling at you and they can all hear her. You wouldn’t let one of the men talk to you so. Why are you letting her speak out?”

  Darcy’s nostrils flared. “Listen, man, if you have nothing better—”

  “I’m not asking myself, I’m not, Cap’n. I’m only saying that’s what the men’ll be saying if you aren’t careful.”

  Elizabeth swallowed, looking around the deck. She didn’t see any of the men at first, but then she spotted them across the ship, on the other side of the main mast. They were staring at her, their eyes shadowed, their chins covered in beards. They looked… dirty. She felt fear flood her, and it was nothing like the feeling earlier when Darcy had talked to her about what the men might do. That had been exciting somehow. This was only terrifying, frightening in a way that she’d never even considered before. She couldn’t even let herself fully consider it. When she started to imagine, she shied away from the thought in horror.

  She stepped closer to Darcy.

  He looked down at her.

  “I’m-I’m sorry if I said anything… Please don’t be angry with me,” she said. “Don’t remove your pro
tection.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been through quite a shock, Miss Bennet. I’m sure you don’t mean half the things you say.”

  * * *

  That night, after locking Miss Bennet away for the night, he paced the cabin for a while, unsure of why he had spent so much time defending himself to Miss Bennet’s accusations. He didn’t care what she said, not at all. He didn’t care if she thought he was a ruthless murderer. Her opinion of him mattered less than the opinion of seagulls. So, why had he spent so much time talking to her about it?

  Mackie was right. It wasn’t a good precedent to set, letting her openly disagree with him on the deck of the ship. He had allowed her to make him look weak. And the funny thing about it was, it was all his own fault. After her first accusation, he shut her up rather easily, threatening to lock her back up. If he’d just kept his mouth shut, the whole exchange would have been over.

  But no, he’d had to launch into that little spiel about everyone having to die someday, about the men deserving it.

  He wondered why it found it necessary to say such things to her.

  Maybe it wasn’t her he was trying to convince. Maybe it was himself. Maybe he wanted to clear his own conscience.

  He wasn’t the only man on earth who’d had to kill for some reason or other, he knew. He’d been lucky enough to avoid the wars, but that didn’t mean that other men, even his own cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, hadn’t had to fight, cutting men down by the dozens, barely escaping with their lives themselves.

  Once, he had been drinking in a pub in England, and he’d sat down to talk with another man, who was deep in his cups, talking about how he had dreams about it. About how he would wake up unable to breathe, seeing the men racing at him with their swords drawn, terrified for his life.

  “But that wasn’t the worst of it,” this man had said. “The worst is remembering the ones I killed. Their eyes. I always remember the look in their eyes. How the spark was there, and then… then… gone.”

  Later, the man had passed out on the table and someone had to be called to get him home. He’d been incredibly drunk.