He put his hand on Elizabeth's stomach again, still trying to feel any movement. She yawned and shifted closer to him, mumbling something as she slept.
"Fitzwilliam," Georgiana's voice said hesitantly.
Darcy rolled over quickly and opened his eyes, seeing his sister in the doorway. He hadn't heard footsteps or the door opening, so she might have been there for some time, watching them.
"Georgie," he said surprise, reaching back and pulling the sheet higher to cover Elizabeth. In the normal circumstances, he would be furious for his sister coming to their bedroom without knocking. She was taught good manners! But that wasn't normal circumstances, or he wanted to fool himself that that was the case.
"What's wrong?"
"I came to see if you were awake."
"Yes, I'm awake. Are you all right?" He pushed up on his elbow and combed his fingers through his tousled hair nervously.
Georgiana nodded. "I was just awake. I had a dream. No one else is up."
"I'll get up."
She nodded but still didn't move.
"Georgie, I have none clothes on. I can't get up until you leave."
"Oh," his sister responded calmly and turned away, quietly closing the door after her.
"Do you need me?" Elizabeth asked, not as fast asleep as she'd been pretending. She sat up, watching him dress.
"No, she wants me."
"I could-"
"No, she wants me. Just give us some time. All right?" He leaned down, kissing her forehead.
*~~*~~*
"I'm sorry I interrupted you," Georgiana blurted. "And your wife. I wasn't thinking."
"You should knock."
"I don't think she likes me." The ignored his comment.
Darcy raised his eyebrows, wondering if he'd heard right. "Of course Elizabeth likes you. She was staying out of the way last night, letting you get settled in. She just doesn't want to intrude. Why do you think she doesn't like you?"
"She didn't talk to me."
"Georgie, you didn't talk to her."
"Oh," she mumbled and went back to watching her hands.
Darcy stirred his tea Mrs. Reynolds just perked.
"She's expecting, isn't she?"
"Yes, she is. I didn't think you'd notice yet, so I was waiting to tell you. Would you rather have a little niece or nephew for Christmas?"
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew hadn't been the right thing to say. Nothing seemed to be the right thing to say. He wanted to grab his sister and hold her close, to make all the nightmare monsters under the bed go away. He wanted to launch into a lecture about how much he'd loved Anne and how Elizabeth wasn't a replacement or a betrayal. He wanted to shake her and shout, "I'm your brother and I love you!" but he didn't.
From the nursery upstairs, a high-pitched voice announced Jane was awake and wanted her "mama-mama," immediately, each syllable getting louder and more insistent.
"It's six o'clock. You can set your watch by her," Darcy said, getting up from the sofa. "It's Jane. Would you like to meet her? Come."
"I'll get her," Darcy said to the nursemaid who nod and left the nursery.
Georgiana kept her distance as Darcy lit more candles. Jane was watching from the crib, standing up and clutching the iron bars like a prisoner desperate for release.
"Papa-papa-papa."
"I'm hurrying, Miss Impatience. All right. Come here," he said, lifting her up. "Up we go."
Georgiana wandered closer, watching as a dry diaper replaced a wet one. "Doesn't her nurse do that? Or Lilly?"
"They do. But I love to care for her. As I liked to do all the things with you. You would remember if wasn't so little." He looked at the baby. "We get a dry diaper, a drink of water, eat some crackers, sometimes we take a walk around the house, don't we, Jane?" He said melodically, lifting her and settling against his chest. Jane sucked her thumb, eyeing Georgiana warily.
"She doesn't look like I thought she would."
"She looks more like Elizabeth," Darcy answered quickly.
Georgiana was quite a long time, looking around the dim nursery and the back at Jane.
"How old would she be?" she asked finally. "Anne's baby? If-…"
Darcy inhaled, then exhaled slowly. "She'd be two," he said. "She'd be walking, talking. I think about that too, sometimes."
His sister leaned against the crib, traced one cast iron railing with his finger.
"Papa?" Jane asked.
"What is it, sweetie?"
Jane kept hold of a fistful of Darcy's shirt but reached out for Georgiana with one damp hand, curious.
"She wants you, Georgie. Do you want to hold her?" he offered. "You don't have to."
To his surprise, the girl nodded and held out her arms.
"She sometimes doesn't like strangers. She's, uh, you need to… be careful to - Yes, like that."
There was a rocking chair near the window and Georgiana sat down, Jane on her lap and her back to the door. Darcy hovered, thinking it was a two-second whim but minutes passed, silent except for the rocker creaking against the floorboards and Georgiana murmuring to the baby. Occasionally, Jane answered in her secret language, an entire universe condensed into ten of the most important single-syllable words. Darcy backed away, leaning against the edge of the crib until he saw Elizabeth coming to check on them.
"Is everything all right?" she whispered as he joined her in the dark hall. She wrapped her robe tightly around her and smoothed her hair back. Darcy tipped his head toward the rocking chair slowly swaying beside the dark window.
"What are they doing?"
"They're talking, I think."
"Talking?"
"Talking," he answered, putting his arms around her shoulders, rocking her back and forth to get her to relax. She covered his hands with hers, standing in front of him as they watched Georgiana with Jane. "And everything's going to be fine," he told her, feeling the first glimmer of certainty it really would. "She's going to be fine. She just needs time. And we're fine."
She turned over. "Are we fine?"
"Almost. More like we are well, I think. It is similar to the way you say you are not good, you are just less bad."
*~~*~~*
"You love her, don't you?" Darcy looked at his sister, taking eyes from the book. "Elizabeth."
Caught off-guard, he responded, "I care very…" he glanced at his sister, seeing the blue, earnest eyes focused on him. "Yes, I do love her."
"She loves you. She argues with you, she does."
"Caring for someone doesn't always mean you agree with them. I told you. She's nice but very different from Anne.
"I'm glad."
Darcy waited, trying to figure out what his sister was glad about but Georgiana focused on her book as though that was a normal stopping point for the discussion.
"Georgie… please. Stop that and talk to me. Whatever you want to say, I want to hear it. Whatever's wrong, I want to fix it, but you have to tell me."
His sister shrugged without taking eyes from her book.
"I know this is hard. So much has changed, but I-"
"You have a whole new life and I'm just a leftover from the old one," Georgiana said, sounding far removed from the situation.
Darcy took a breath before he answered, "You are my life. You have been my life since I was barely older than you are now."
The girl ran her fingers through the open book, still didn't look at her brother.
"You have Elizabeth."
"Yes, I have Elizabeth. And if you want to be angry with someone about that, please be angry with me. Not her. She's trying so hard to be your friend."
Georgiana's bitten her lower lip uncertainly.
"She likes you, Georgie. She wants you here as much as I do."
"No, you don't," her sister said matter-of-factly.
"How can you possibly think I don't want you?"
Another shrug. After a few seconds, without answering, Georgiana got up and went upstairs, leaving him alone in the
sitting room. Darcy went after her but stopped when noticed his sister entering the nursery. He waited few minutes then came back to the sitting room. When he checked later, Jane was asleep in her aunt's arms, and Georgiana was slumbering in the rocking chair.
*~~*~~*
It took a little more effort for Elizabeth to roll over but she did and found him sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a cup of tea and staring at her.
"What is it?" she asked, scooting up on the pillows. "What is wrong?"
"Nothing. I was just checking on you," he whispered, setting the teacup down and putting his hand on her belly again. "Seeing if Humfrey was awake. I didn't mean to bother you. Go back to sleep. You need to rest."
She stretched and then moved his palm so he could feel the hardness of a tiny head or bottom pressing against her skin.
"Heaven forbid you do bother me. I barely remember the last time we bothered each other."
"Elizabeth…" he mumbled sheepishly, stroking her abdomen.
"Actually I would settle for opening my eyes and having you on your side of the bed instead of on the sofa or in a bed in another room. We can even draw a line down the centre of the mattress and both be sure not to cross it." She tugged gently at the starched front of his tuxedo shirt. "Lie down. I promise I will tell no one."
He protested but let her manoeuvre him down, pillowing his head on her chest and stretching his long legs out across the bed.
"Georgiana said she isn't part of my life now, that she's just an unwanted obligation who doesn't belong. Just when I think she's doing better, she tells something like that and I never know what to say to her."
"Be patient. You want her to heal faster than she can and she tries to pretend to please you."
"Why would she do that?"
"Because she idolises you, Mr. Dense. Sit up," she said and rubbed her hand over her belly, resting her palm against one side."Here. Put your ear here."
"Why?"
"Just listen," she murmured, and he laid his head where she pointed out, wondering what in the world he was listening for. "Can you hear it yet?"
Darcy narrowed his eyes in concentration. He exhaled, then smiled and answered, "yes. I can hear something. It sounds like he's pounding on a little wet drum. What is that?"
"His heart."
"That's his heart?"
She nodded, not interrupting as he listened.
"It's so fast."
"It is supposed to be fast."
"Who told you that?"
"My aunt."
He listened for a long time, laying one arm along her body and bending one over her belly. The sound of the baby was comforting, like the ocean.
"I have to go to Kent for a few weeks," he whispered. "There are things I have to deal with. Richard though, a great soldier he was, cannot do it properly and Mr. Stone, the steward, needs my present there. And I thought I'd take Georgiana with me. Will you and Jane be all right?"
"We will be fine. I think would be good for you and Georgiana. You will be back, though, before the baby comes?"
"Of course, Elizabeth... Would you like me to visit your family in Hertfordshire?"
"And what would you tell them? Hello, I am Mr. Darcy, the husband of your daughter. I've found her in Scotland, alone and with child, jittered by her husband. Oh, actually, she wasn't really his wife because he already had one."
"Wouldn't be that bad, Elizabeth. You are still their child. I don't believe-"
"No. Please. But thank you for offering," she said politely.
"You sound as though you don't even want me to try."
"I would rather you did not try."
"Tell me why." He requested.
"No," she said firmly.
He raised his head, frowning at her.
"No? I would like a little more explanation than that."
She set her jaw, ignoring him.
"Elizabeth, I asked you a question." That was the tone that made Anne's lower lip tremble but Elizabeth continued studiously ignoring him.
*~~*~~*
"How long has she been playing?" Mr. Darcy asked his wife and sat next to her on the sofa in the sitting room.
"A few hours at least."
A slow, haunting piano notes lilted down the hall from the music room.
He stretched and wrapped his arm around her, listening. "Bach. It was one of Anne's favourites," he whispered, recognising the sad melody.
"She is angry with me." He said after few minutes. "I promised to take her to Kent."
"And are you not?"
"Not before the child comes to the world. It was stupid of me to even suggest I would leave now and even unreasonable to promise her that. I sent Mr. Hockins to help Richard's steward with the estate. Which of course brings me more work at the Pemberley but I will manage."
"She got through so much but she isn't a baby, Fitzwilliam. She has to understand it. The life must go one, no matter what."
She was right, but that didn't make him feel any better.
At the other end of the hall, a door opened and Darcy heard Lillian saying something and Georgiana responding affirmatively. Without hesitation, the pianoforte notes slid from Bach into the easy rhythm of Beethoven.
"She is playing beautifully," Elizabeth said softly, covering his hand with hers on her belly, where baby moved. "He likes the music."
He leaned to her and rested his head on woman's abdomen. She dipped her second hand into his hair, making small circles with her fingers, soothing him as they listened.
"Six more weeks."
"A little longer, maybe. I do not think I am as big as I was with Jane at almost eight months."
He put his hand on her round stomach, feeling. "How much longer? Seven weeks? Eight?"
"I cannot tell you. I wish I could."
"Are you sure you don't need someone here, just in case? The midwife?"
"Yes, I am sure."
"This husband of yours, who always seems to have something on his mind besides you, maybe isn't as big a self-absorbed idiot as you think he is sometimes. He likes you, you know. He even worries about you."
"Yes, I know," she whispered back kissing him on the lips.
*~~*~~*
It started when he caught Elizabeth pushing the armchair closer to the window.
"Don't you dare!" Darcy ordered just when Lillian entered the library with the tea. "Elizabeth, get away from there right now!"
She stopped, turning her head toward him, angry.
"Let Lillian do that. Lilly. See to this armchair. Elizabeth, you sit down. Right now."
She frowned.
"Please do not do that," she demanded angrily as soon as the door closed after Lillian. "If you want to order me around in private, that is your right but don't do it in front of the servant."
"Oh, Lillian is used to us. She doesn't mind."
"I did not say she minded. I said I minded. Lillian probably finds it quite entertaining."
Straightening, she pushed her fists into the small of her back, massaging the ache. If he asked her, she'd tell him it didn't hurt. Just looking at her belly made his back hurt.
"Elizabeth, you're just tired and cranky. This is exactly why I asked her to be kind to you, to make sure you don't do too much."
"You asked her," she intoned, her cheeks getting redder and her eyes darker, "to be kind to me?"
"Yes. All I had to do was tell her I needed her, and she's been wonderful. She's helped with Jane. She's kept Georgie out of your hair. She'd run the house for you if you let her, but of course, you won't, Miss Difficult."
"How dense are you, Mr. Darcy?" she asked incredulously. "Did you see her expression when she came to wake me this morning and found you asleep beside me? Are you really that blind?"
"Apparently I am," he retorted, "because I do not understand what you're talking about."
Elizabeth sent him an angry look and left the library.
And from there it got even worse.
Georgiana announced she wasn't
hungry, which wasn't the correct thing to say as the cook carried out the rotten duck. She came to the table at his uncle's insistence, sulking and looking like she'd rather be anyplace else. Darcy allowed her bring Jane to the dinner, which should be absolutely not accepted. But when his sister announced she will not appear without her little niece, he surrendered.
Lady Catherine looked at Georgiana, then at Jane, then back at her niece, confused. Just as she always called Jane "Ed," despite the lack of any resemblance, as of late, Georgiana was "Anne" and she couldn't figure out why there were two Mrs. Darcys at the table.
Elizabeth took her place at one end of the table, managing a polite smile for everyone but her husband. Darcy got an icy stare that promised their discussion about Lillian wasn't over yet. He wanted to tell her once again how much he cared for her. He wanted to put her and Humfrey on a shelf and stop time while he got the rest of his life in order.
Jane, sitting on Georgiana's lap, immediately sneezed all over the dish of green beans in front of her.
Elizabeth looked angry at her husband. Again.
The Earl, already a little drunk, yelled at his sister who was crying silently. She didn't understand what was happening and asked Darcy repeatedly when his wife and her daughter coming home. He wanted so badly to yell that Anne wasn't ever coming home, to let off a little steam before the boiler inside him exploded. Instead, he exhaled, answered that her Anne was still in the bedroom and told Georgiana to take her aunt upstairs and have her lie down.
The girl put Jane on her ankle's lap and the baby immediately reached out for uncle's hair and his big wig fell out to the floor. Fortunately, the Earl was enough drunk that didn't even notice it.
Lady Eleonora took Jane on her lap and Elizabeth handed her a roll to gnaw. She sighed, propping her chin on her fist and raising her eyebrows at Darcy. In spite of the irritated expression on her face, she almost seemed amused.
And just as they finished the dinner with no more incidents, Georgiana even came back and ate one piece of rotten duck, Jane was put to sleep, as well as the Earl, Mrs. Reynolds appeared in doorways asking Mr. Darcy to come with her. Lady Catherine just collapsed and died.
Mr Darcy's Second Chance Page 13
