by Wells, Linda
Sophie finished tying her bow and sighed. “Thank you. I … I do not know what is wrong with me. I guess that seeing Mrs. Annesley last night just made me a little frightened.”
“Sophie, you know that you will always be welcome in any of our homes. Stephen and I would never leave you to have to search for a position as a companion or governess.” He hugged her. “Besides, you will find some good man and have a houseful of brats of your own.” Letting go, he smirked. “But of course he has to pass muster with us, first. So choose wisely.”
“I pity the man.” She said dryly and closed her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Where are you going?”
“I thought that I would go walking.” Seeing his expectant smile, she sighed. “Down the lanes!”
“Robert!” Mr. Kelly’s voice called.
“Yes, sir?” He returned to the dining room.
“If you are finished eating, you can do something for me. I want to get up another fox hunt before the season ends. Take the curricle and go around to the neighbours, and invite them for … oh say, Tuesday? Maybe stop by Sommerwald and invite Mr. Darcy and the colonel. It would be interesting to see how they ride, particularly the colonel, being a cavalry man.”
“Yes, sir. That sounds like an excellent idea, remove a few more of the vermin before the lambing.”
“That was my thought.” He nodded. “Sophie, go along with him. Keep him from accepting drinks from all of them.”
“That should be a nice challenge.” She smiled.
“You make me sound like a drunk.” Robert laughed and winking at his father, hooking his hand over her arm. “Very well, come along Sophie. We have some visiting to do.”
“WELL?” Darcy settled into a chair after nudging his cousin’s shoulder. “Do you care to explain the stupefied expression on your face or shall I begin interpreting it? Not that it is unfamiliar to me …”
Richard raised one brow. “Because you see it in the mirror each time to you go to check your hair?”
“My hair is just fine.”
“It could use a trim if you ask me. What is Parker doing with you nowadays? Now that you are married, he has let you go. I suppose that you will soon appear as a sausage stuffed into those fashionably tight breeches you wear.”
“If you do not take your hand out of that jar of sweets you will.” Darcy sat up and grabbed the jar away from him and placed it on his desk. “Those are Lizzy’s.”
“I am certain that she would share.”
“You do not know my wife’s sweet tooth.”
“I believe that I do. I heard your appreciation of something she was nibbling just this morning as I walked past your bedchamber.” Richard snorted as Darcy’s cheeks pinked. “Neck cloths can be quite useful at times, can they not? How big of a bruise did your hungry wife leave? And what will you feed her to stem that desire?”
Self-consciously, Darcy fixed his tie. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” He took the lid back off the jar. “Have a sweet, with any luck the toffees will glue your teeth shut.”
“I thought that they were Elizabeth’s?” He smiled as he reached in to find a lemon lozenge.
“They are, but … if they are gone we have an excellent excuse to return to the confectioner’s in the village.” A warm smile crossed his lips. “A most enjoyable experience.”
“I can well imagine.” Richard smiled and looked down.
“There it is.”
“Pardon?”
“What is bothering you?” Darcy sat forward and pointed to his cousin’s mouth. “Every time I speak of something particularly sentimental regarding my wife, you look as if you had lost your best friend.” Richard stared and Darcy read his expression. “Out with it.”
“I think it is perfectly obvious and I hardly need to spell it out.” He said evasively.
“My loving my wife has nothing to do with your decision to leave the army, and nothing to do with Albert.” Tilting his head he watched Richard. “I think that you are ready.”
“Ready to do what, exactly?” He demanded and groaned. “You are speaking of marriage.”
Darcy smiled and sat back, watching a very rare shade of pink spread across his cousin’s cheeks. “Remember, I told you that the time to find a bride is before you are your father’s heir.”
Richard scoffed. “That could be a decade from now.”
“That may be true … or not. I can only say how lost I would be right now without Elizabeth by my side. I cannot imagine facing this alone or with any other woman. You will have to choose with your head as well as your heart. You have a tough slog ahead of you.”
“I need an Elizabeth.” He murmured and started to chuckle when Darcy looked at him sharply. “Seriously Darcy, relax.”
Letting down a little, Darcy studied him. “You have known a great many women, has none of them struck you as wife-worthy?”
“I was not looking at them for companionship that lasted beyond sunrise.” He breathed heavily through his nose.
“So you want a woman who stimulates your mind? Amongst other things?” Richard laughed at the happy man and Darcy sat forward. “You need to meet some nice girls.”
“I have hardly had time to attend the places where the nice girls lurk.”
“There was that dinner last night. I was not paying much attention, but … was there anyone there who caught your eye? I noticed you speaking with our host’s daughter a number of times. Miss Kelly seemed nice.”
“She is more than nice.” Richard said thoughtfully.
“Is she?” Darcy retrieved the jar of sweets. “How nice is she?”
“Not nice enough for you it seems.” Richard grabbed for the jar and Darcy held it far and away from him. “She said something of meeting you before, how can you not remember her?”
Laughing, Darcy stood and put the jar on a high shelf behind him. “Forgive me, but I do not. Do you remember every woman who has spent time in your arms let alone was introduced?” Richard smiled ruefully. “How old is she?”
“Four and twenty.”
“So when I met her she was … eighteen, maybe nineteen?” Darcy shrugged. “I am sorry; I was not looking for love then. I had more than enough of the female sex watching my travelling companions at it for months.”
Richard relaxed, “You poor innocent.”
“Compared to you I was a celibate.” He heard a long sigh and decided to stop picking on his old habits. “I knew enough to begin without making a fool of myself with Elizabeth and now it is all …” He stopped when Richard’s brow rose. “None of your business. Go away so that I can play with my dear wife. We are in desperate need of time alone.”
“I know that I cannot stay too long, as much as I would like to.” He rubbed his fingers along the sides of the wingback chair. “Why is it that no matter where you happen to be living, it feels more like my home than anywhere I actually belong?” Darcy chuckled. “Maybe I am just avoiding the inevitable.”
“Facing your parents and all that comes with it?”
Richard drew a breath and sighed. “What do you suggest I do first?”
“I would go to Matlock. Now is ideal. With the family away you can learn at your steward’s feet.”
“I think that a new steward may be needed. Should he not have kept Father apprised of Gladney failing?”
“That was not his property to administer, but you have a good point.”
“How about that man of yours, Ferguson?”
“No.”
“It would be his great chance to run something more than Sommerwald.”
“He is mine.” Darcy growled.
“I will put it to him, you can take whoever runs Gladney …” Richard smirked. “Oh very well, I will not steal the man you have groomed from afar. Does Ferguson have an underling?”
“I will ask him. I will speak to Barnes as well.”
From upstairs they heard the pianoforte begin to play and Elizabeth’s voice added to the song. The men stopped their c
onversation and smiled. “Beautiful.” The smile fell away from Darcy’s face. “She sings so rarely anymore, at least she is feeling better today.”
“After missing the wedding?” Darcy nodded and Richard watched him. “Could you have gone?”
“How? We barely left Pemberley in time before Georgiana suddenly blossomed …” His eyes closed. “Lord, this is so hard. I have not been able to speak normally with her since coming home at Christmas. I try. I want to … Elizabeth has finally managed to establish a friendship with her. She has told Georgiana that she will not forget what she did, but that she feels it will do them no good to continually rehash it. She was wrong, it has terrible consequences, but … life goes on.”
“And … how do you feel about it? Can you let it go?”
“I am trying. I know that I must. She needs me to say that I love her and for her to know that I mean it.”
“But you do love her.”
“I never stopped. Would we be here now if I did not?” The song ended and with it his unhappiness grew. “It will get harder for all of us as the date of the birth approaches. She must be terrified.” He looked down at his hands. “I must conquer this.”
“Will she remain with you? You spoke of finding a new companion and of her going to London after she recovers to complete her schooling with the masters.”
“I cannot imagine her wanting to be near the baby, can you? Is that not the point of this whole thing? To save both of their lives? It seems that I need to have a conversation with her on this.”
“One day the man who asks to marry her will have to be told.” The men’s eyes met and both considered their own reactions to such a revelation. “We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Yes.” Darcy said softly. “One thing at a time.” There was a familiar knock on the door and they turned in time to see Elizabeth poke her head in. “Your song was beautiful, Lizzy. Why did you stop?”
“Georgiana was feeling tired and went to lie down. I thought that I would take some exercise.” Continuing into the room, she stood behind his chair and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “I thought that a nice walk would do me some good.”
“It looks like rain.”
“It is March, it always looks like rain.” Darcy brought his hands up to hold her arms and she spoke against his ear. “I promise to return dishevelled.”
“I certainly hope so.” Turning his head, he smiled at her. “Where will you go?”
“Not too far. A half hour and then I will turn back.” She touched the watch hanging from her dress. “Do not worry.”
“You know that I will.” Darcy caressed her cheek and slipping his hand behind her head, drew her face forward. They kissed gently, and then parting their lips, kissed again. Darcy drew back and seeing the soft expression in her eyes, licked his lips. “You had better leave.” Taking out his pocket watch, he set the chronograph to chime at one hour; his finger stood poised, “Ready? Steady?”
“Will! I do not have my coat on!”
“That was your error, not mine … Now then …” Elizabeth tried to grab the watch from his hand, and Darcy tossed it to Richard, who immediately set the timer.
“Start walking, Mrs. Darcy.” He said seriously.
“And what if I am late?” Her hands landed on her hips.
“I will come and find you.” Darcy took one her hands and kissed it.
“Now you know that is just a temptation to stay out until sundown.” Sending a last look to Darcy, she sashayed out. It was not until he heard the front door close that he looked back to his laughing cousin.
“Do you have any idea how you respond when she is in the room? Do you know how much you are smiling?”
Embarrassed, Darcy rubbed his cheeks. “Is that so bad?”
“No, not at all. I pray that you are successful starting your own family soon. With the way that you kiss it will not be long.”
“I apologize for that, I forgot you were here. That scent she uses …” Clearing his throat with Richard’s snort, he shrugged, “Our family will come when the time is right. I look forward to it more than I can say.”
“Samuel mentioned that Georgiana would like your aunt to take the baby.”
“Aunt Susan and Uncle Harding?” Darcy said doubtfully. “To spare Elizabeth and me from caring for it? I … no. I will have to assure her that taking her baby is not a burden for us. Besides, Uncle is adamantly against that. His reaction to knowing Wickham took her was violent enough … More to the point, they are hardly young. I hate the thought of it, but … Uncle could die … Father did, after all, and then we would be back in the same position.”
“It could be a penance for him.” Richard murmured to himself, but Darcy caught it.
“Penance?” He sank back into his chair. “What did he do? Granted his reactions were not at all helpful, but they were certainly understandable.” Darcy looked up at the ceiling. “Uncle bothers me.”
“Oh?” Richard bit his lip and sat forward. “How so?”
“How is it that he came racing to Pemberley … suddenly coming home after being gone for … nine months? More? He barely greets Aunt, insists on seeing Georgiana, who he has professed to love but was been unable to bear visiting after her recovery … and nearly the first thing he says to me is to watch out for Wickham?” Darcy looked back to Richard. “And not a half hour later, I am clinging for my life, and it seems that Wickham and Christmas were there in that cabin waiting for us.”
“And what do you conclude from that?”
“Could he possibly have known?” Darcy shook his head. “No, no, of course not, but the coincidences are staggering.”
“Devastating.”
Darcy closed his eyes and nodded. “Ignore me. The stress we are all feeling is enormous.” Waving his hand as he searched for words to match his thoughts, he finally just put it down with a thud on the desk. “He was fixated on the man, more so than I, as I had Georgiana to worry about. In his condition, that fury might have driven him home.” Richard said nothing, only taking out his snuff box to watch the jewels glitter in the light from the fire. “He is so different now. I imagine Albert is as well. Remove the drugs and the real man appears?”
“I think that there is only a shell of my brother left.”
“Oddly enough, I think the same of my uncle.”
“What would you do if you caught up with Wickham?” Richard asked softly. “I know that the demand for ten thousand pounds was a ridiculous request, but … what if he asked for something reasonable?”
“What could possibly be reasonable?” Darcy laughed hollowly. “If I saw him again I would cut off his cock and feed it to the pigs, and toss his bollocks into the cess pits.”
Richard’s low chuckle made Darcy’s crooked smile appear. “I like your style, Cousin, I always have.”
“What would you do?”
He shrugged. “A commission, somewhere far, far away.”
“Is that so terrible? You are saying that your career is hell if you do that.”
“But I am leaving it.” Richard smiled.
“I can think of no good reason to reward Wickham for his deeds. Even with my reluctant acknowledgement of Georgiana’s culpability, I cannot think of a reason why I would want to help Wickham.”
“To get him out of your life.”
“Every time I have paid him or his debts he has always come back for more. There is no being rid of him. He is a cockroach.”
“Cannot a man change?”
Darcy’s head tilted. “Are you the same man who demanded we destroy his portrait?”
Richard nodded. “Yes, I am. Perhaps I have a streak of forgiveness running through my veins after watching my brother’s downfall.”
“That is not the same as what Wickham did.”
“What does Elizabeth say?”
Darcy groaned and Richard looked at him expectantly. “She says that it is good that Wickham managed to care for Georgiana and that she cared for him. It makes this b
aby … its conception was one rooted in … some semblance of … I refuse to say love, but … care, I leave it with care.”
“I had not thought of that, I rather like it. For everyone’s peace of mind, such as it is.” A carriage drove past the window. Richard glanced at it and then sat up. “You have a visitor.”
“Not again! We have seen enough of the neighbours.” Darcy bit his lip. “It is undoubtedly the women coming now that we were all introduced last night. They will want to see Elizabeth …”
“Fortunately she is gone and Georgiana is resting. Parker will send them on their way, however, you will have to make a decision about exposing Georgiana.” Richard looked at him and heard the exasperated sigh. “It is bound to happen sometime. This is why she is Miss Cargill.”
“They will tell everyone in this damned town about the ruined girl living at Sommerwald.” Darcy stood and went to open the door. “Ask me what I think of Wickham now.” He strode out to the hallway to see who had come.
Parker answered the knock. “Mr. Kelly, Miss Kelly.” He bowed as they entered, and immediately spotted Darcy.
“Please forgive our intrusion, Mr. Darcy.” Sophie smiled. “You must feel overwhelmed by all of the visitors.”
Darcy bowed. “I am afraid that my wife is out walking at the moment, but she should be returning soon, if you would care to wait for her?” He cleared his throat and his fingers went to his ring. “We could go up to the drawing room?”
“Thank you for your tolerance, sir. But we only meant to stay for a few minutes.” She smiled at his nervous gesture until she saw Richard emerging from the study. She spotted the snuff box in his hand and met his eye. “Are you never without that, sir?”
Surprised, he looked down at his palm. “I forgot that it was there.” A small smile crossed his lips. “And good morning to you, too, Miss Kelly. Sir.”
“Good morning.” Robert bowed and looked curiously at his sister.
“Forgive me, sir. Good morning.” Blushing, she turned to Darcy, “Mr. Darcy, is it true that you purchased that hideous example of jewellery for Colonel Fitzwilliam?”
Darcy looked back at Richard quizzically, “Yes, it is.”
