“Of course, Miss Darcy, at once,” soothed by the clear orders, the housekeeper at once sent one of the maids to find footmen to take the messages while she and the other carefully lifted Elizabeth back to the couch, trying to make her comfortable.
“What the devil is going on?” It was Darcy who arrived back first; he had already been on his way back to the house and the footman sent to summon him had found him just dismounting his horse at the stables. He strode into the drawing-room still stripping off his gloves, a forbidding frown on his face. The panicked expression on the footman’s face had already alerted him that something was seriously amiss.
“Do not fuss, Will,” Elizabeth said weakly from the couch, where she had just regained consciousness under the housekeeper’s capable ministrations. “I took a tumble, that is all.”
“Is that why I can see the distinct imprint of four fingers on your cheek?” Darcy frowned forbiddingly down at her. “Please tell me it is not what I suspect.”
“Miss Bingley struck her, Fitzwilliam!” Georgiana exclaimed. The housekeeper sucked in a shocked breath, and Darcy turned his best glare on her.
“The fewer people who hear of that, the better.”
“Y-yes, Mr Darcy,” the housekeeper quavered out. “Nobody will hear it from me, I assure you!”
“Who else was here, Georgiana?” Darcy glanced at his sister, even as he knelt down beside Elizabeth and tenderly stroked her brow.
“Mrs Hurst and Aunt Matlock,” Georgiana said, “they both tried to stop Miss Bingley, but… she was beyond reasoning with!”
“Look to Georgiana,” Elizabeth whispered to Darcy, “she had a dreadful fright.”
Looking from his sister to his new wife, Darcy shook his head. “Stop trying to deflect me, Lizzie. I know you too well; a smack on the cheek would not have you lying down like this with your face white as snow. What has happened, and has the doctor been sent for? I saw young Hodges setting off at a gallop in the direction of Meryton as I was coming in.”
“My arm,” Elizabeth confessed at last, unable to deny Darcy in such an intent mood. “I fell and there was quite an unpleasant cracking sound; I fear my wrist might be broken.”
Darcy’s lips thinned to a tight line; he had to take his hand from Elizabeth’s brow for a moment to clench his fists. His voice, when he finally found himself able to speak again, sounded hoarse and strained. “Everything will be fine, beloved, I promise. The doctor will not be too long.”
She smiled lovingly at him, instinctively tried to lift her hand to touch his cheek… and fainted dead away again as she unthinkingly moved her injured arm.
The ensuing silence was only broken by the soft thump as Georgiana too slid to the floor in a dead faint.
“Miss Bingley has a great deal to answer for,” Darcy growled as he hastily rose to scoop up his sister and lay her gently on another couch.
The housekeeper only shook her head incredulously, looking from one lady to the other. “I never heard of such goings-on in all my life,” she said frankly.
“I hope nobody else will ever hear of them either,” Darcy said darkly, terrifying the woman into silence again. She nodded hastily and fished her smelling-salts out of her apron pocket to try and revive Georgiana.
Bliss, Interrupted
Charles was just considering the beauty of his bride’s nude, drowsing form and wondering whether she would feel able to accept his lovemaking yet again when his pleasant musings were interrupted by a quiet, but urgent, tapping at the door that led to his dressing-room.
Frowning, Charles hastily drew some covers over Jane and looked around for his robe, finally finding it discarded on the floor halfway across the room. Shrugging into it, he belted it and headed for the door, opening it a crack to find his valet outside, wringing his hands together anxiously.
“I’m so very sorry to interrupt, sir!”
“What is it, Rogers?” The anxious expression on his normally phlegmatic valet’s face had Charles instantly convinced that something was severely amiss.
“It’s…” Rogers actually seemed at a loss for words. “Mrs Hurst sent me, sir,” he finally settled for saying. “It’s Miss Bingley.”
“What has Caroline done now?” Charles sighed, saw Rogers’ expression change and frowned. “Wait. This is something really bad, isn’t it?”
“I don’t have all the details, sir. I really think that you should speak to Mrs Hurst.”
“All right. Get me some clothes ready, I’ll be out in a minute or two.”
“Very good, sir!” Rogers looked immensely relieved, which had Bingley shaking his head in bemusement as he closed the door, wondering what on earth Caroline had done to have the household in such an evident uproar.
“What is it, Charles?” Jane asked sleepily from the bed as he turned back towards her.
“Nothing important, my love,” but he had never been a good liar, and she immediately sat up in bed, clutching the sheet to her breasts in a display of belated modesty he found utterly arousing, if rather unfortunately timed.
“Charles, that tone in your voice tells me that it is something,” her aqua eyes were wide, no longer sleepy. “And whatever it is, I am now your wife. Have we not promised to share in all things? If a burden has landed upon your shoulders, please, allow me to share it with you.”
“You truly are an angel,” he said reverently, and Jane shook her head.
“Never that, my darling, but I am your wife.”
“So you are, Mrs Bingley, so you are. Well, it seems that Caroline may have done something beyond the pale, though as yet I know not what, and I am summoned to deal with it.”
“Whatever could she have done?” Heedless of her nakedness in her urgent desire to be of use, Jane scrambled from the bed and tugged the bell-pull before looking around for her gown and robe. Charles had to turn away before he forgot himself entirely.
“I do not know, but I am sure that Louisa would not have sent Rogers to disturb me unless it were really quite serious. I hesitate to speculate.” Unfortunately, he had a fairly good notion of what exactly might have led Caroline to extreme action, and her name was now Mrs Elizabeth Darcy.
“Do not go without me, I pray you,” Jane begged, shrugging into her robe and belting it hastily. “I will have Helena dress me as quickly as she may!”
He was not about to refuse her anything, especially not when she looked so utterly fetching with her long golden hair tumbling around her shoulders like that. “I will wait for you to be ready, I promise.”
Charles was nonetheless impressed when Jane re-entered the bedroom a scant ten minutes later, wearing a pretty round gown and with her hair neatly coiled and pinned. Turning from the window where he had just been watching the doctor’s gig driving swiftly up to Netherfield’s front entrance, he smiled at her and offered his arm.
“How pretty you look, Mrs Bingley!”
Jane smiled, but did not blush at the compliment as she might have just a day or so earlier. It took a good deal more to shock her now that she was a wife, she reflected, as she took Charles’ arm and they exited their suite together.
“I just saw Doctor Thomas arrive,” Charles murmured to Jane as they came to the head of the stairs and heard voices below. “I think perhaps we should go below and see why he is here, before we go to see Louisa and Caroline.”
“Certainly! If someone is taken ill, our first priority must be their comfort,” Jane agreed immediately.
They proceeded below in perfect accord, both concerned with the comfort of their friends and guests more than that of their own, though it would certainly not be true to say that neither of them resented the intrusion into their idyllic day. Indeed, both of them quietly but heartily wished Caroline Bingley anywhere but at Netherfield, disrupting the very first day of their married life together.
The doctor was just being admitted to the parlour as they arrived at the foot of the stairs; they followed him in to see Elizabeth and Georgiana both prostrate and unconscious.
>
“What in God’s name,” Charles started, but was cut off by Jane’s shriek of horror as she let go his arm and darted to her sister’s side.
“Lizzy, darling Lizzy, whatever has happened? And poor Georgiana, oh my…”
“Miss Bennet — Mrs Bingley, calm yourself, I beg you,” the doctor put a paternal hand on her arm, guiding her gently aside. “Please, allow me to examine my patients.” He looked from Georgiana to Elizabeth, and then at Darcy. “Uh, Mr Darcy, would you care to enlighten me on what exactly has transpired?”
“Georgiana has fainted,” Darcy filled him in succinctly, “as has Elizabeth, but I believe that Elizabeth’s arm may be broken. She suffered a fall and hurt her arm.”
The doctor looked at the reddened finger-marks on Elizabeth’s cheek and frowned severely at Darcy. “Suffered a fall,” he said disbelievingly.
“I was not present, sir,” Darcy’s expression and tone grew ever more forbidding. “I was summoned to my wife’s side only to find Mrs Darcy and my sister both in the most severe distress.”
Georgiana’s eyelashes fluttered open just then at the housekeeper’s continued efforts, and Jane decided that she would be most of use attending to the younger girl while the doctor concentrated his efforts on Elizabeth.
Charles drew Darcy aside, though the other man clearly had no intention of straying more than a step or two from Elizabeth’s side.
“What in God’s name is going on here, Darcy?” Charles hissed at his friend. “Rogers summoned me with some urgent message that Caroline had made mischief…” he put it together then, adding the finger-marks on Elizabeth’s cheek to the message, and fairly gasped. “No. No, even Caroline would not…”
“I was not here, Bingley, but Georgiana saw it all. Caroline struck Elizabeth, and she fell.”
“No,” Charles said again, but weakly, in the face of Darcy’s steady look. “Oh, dear God.”
“You’ve turned positively green, don’t you dare faint on me too,” Darcy said in horror, pressing Bingley to a seat.
“I’m not going to faint, but I may lose my breakfast! I am so sorry, Darcy, I cannot even begin to imagine what Caroline was thinking!”
“It is not your fault,” Darcy said quietly. “We both knew how much she despised Elizabeth, and you did speak to her sternly, seek to rein her in. If I’d suspected even for a moment that she might be so reckless as to try to harm my wife, I should never have left Lizzy alone.”
Charles pressed his fingers to his brow, thinking frantically. “I must speak to Louisa.” Looking at Jane, kneeling beside Georgiana and speaking to her softly, he said “Please be assured, Darcy, that Jane and I will put Elizabeth’s comfort as our highest priority. I am deeply ashamed that such an incident could have occurred under my roof.”
Darcy’s stern expression softened, and he reached to put his hand on Bingley’s shoulder. “I do not doubt it, Bingley. Even if you were foolish enough to think otherwise, Mrs Bingley would soon set you straight.”
“She most certainly would.” Resolute, Charles rose to his feet. “I will get to the bottom of this, Darcy, and whatever happens you have my word that Caroline will be gone from this house by nightfall.”
Darcy offered his hand for a silent shake before returning to Elizabeth’s side. Jane, seeing that they had finished their conversation, rose to her feet with a gently reassuring pat to Georgiana’s hand.
“Charles?” she enquired, the single word conveying volumes.
“I must go and confer with Louisa.” He shook his head at her look of concern. “I fear I still do not have the complete story, my love, but what little I do know indicates that Caroline has brought tremendous shame on herself, and by extension her family.”
Jane pressed her lips together before nodding and squaring her shoulders. “Then we must do whatever is within our power to make amends for her actions,” she said steadily.
“My angel.” Here in company with Georgiana’s innocent eyes upon them, he contented himself with a light press of his fingers against hers. “Please, stay here and see that Miss Darcy and Elizabeth are afforded every care. The staff are entirely at your disposal.”
“Of course.” She gave him a calm, regal nod.
“I will deal with Caroline.”
Jane’s next words surprised him. “I know that she is your sister, Charles, but do not allow yourself to be swayed. Her selfish actions have almost cost us too much already.”
Her eyes and expression were quite calm, but that serene attitude was only a cover for a will of iron, Charles was beginning to realise. He lifted her hand to his lips and placed a kiss on her fingertips.
“Your wish is my command, my angel.”
He was rewarded with Jane’s radiant smile before she turned away to attend to Georgiana again. Charles held his head high as he strode from the room, determined to live up to Jane’s faith in him.
Confrontation
Perhaps Charles’ resolve would have weakened on his way up the stairs had it not been for the lingering memory of Jane’s last smile at him. Instead, he marched straight up to the door of Caroline’s suite and rapped on it sharply.
“Who is it?” Louisa’s voice called.
“Charles,” he replied loudly. “Open the door, Louisa.” He was proud of himself for keeping his tone stern; he must have sounded extremely displeased because Louisa, far from keeping him waiting as was usually her wont, opened the door almost instantly.
“Where is she?” Charles asked.
“In her bedroom.” There were tears streaming down Louisa’s cheeks. “Oh Charles,” she sobbed brokenly, “I think she has run mad!”
Awkwardly, Charles opened his arms and Louisa positively threw herself into them, clinging to his coat and sobbing against his chest.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she sniffled out as he patted her back, trying to comfort her. “Please don’t think that I feel as she does, I do not. Jane is an angel, really she is, and I am so happy for you…”
“We both know that Jane isn’t the root of the problem,” Charles said gently. “Don’t we?”
Louisa nodded, looking up at him from teary eyes. “She hates Elizabeth so much, Charles, it is truly frightening… I think she might do something awful. More awful,” she corrected herself. “Whatever shall we do? If Mr Darcy’s aunt the Countess ever chooses to speak of what Caroline did, our family would never be able to show our faces in society again!”
“The Countess won’t speak of it as long as Caroline is suitably dealt with.” Charles hoped that was true; Darcy had given his word and he would surely convince his aunt to keep her silence as long as Charles ensured that Caroline had no further opportunity to harm Elizabeth.
“What does that mean? I’ll support you, Charles, whatever you decide, but what can we possibly do?”
He had been wondering that, turning over possible options in his head all the way up the stairs. “I believe that we must send her to Sir John and Lady Forrest. I will write to Sir John apprising him of the true facts of the matter, so that they will know not to believe any wild nonsense Caroline may spout.”
Louisa drew in a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I think Gerald and I should escort her. I feel that I must share in the blame for this, Charles; I encouraged her to pursue Mr Darcy, after all.”
“You did not encourage her once his engagement was announced, though,” Charles said dryly. “I distinctly recall overhearing you telling her to let it go and set her sights on a new target.”
“Caroline never was inclined to listen to good advice,” Louisa said, accepting his handkerchief to wipe her eyes. “Still, I should like to do this. I can speak to Sir John and Lady Forrest myself. Gerald would like to see Sir John again, I am sure… and this will give you time to spend alone with your new bride.”
Charles was surprised at the twinkle that appeared in Louisa’s eye with that last remark. Smiling fondly down at her, he bent to kiss her cheek. “You are considerate, dear sister.”
&nb
sp; “Well, I have not always been so, but I shall seek to take my example from Mrs Bingley from now on.” Louisa took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes once more. “I shall direct the maids to begin packing.”
He kissed her cheek again and allowed her to escape. Her presence at the coming confrontation could only be undesirable; Caroline would resent Louisa witnessing the dressing-down she was about to receive.
She was standing by the window, quite alone, for which he was grateful. He hadn’t thought to ask if the Countess remained with her, hoped devoutly that Darcy’s aunt could be persuaded to keep her silence on the matter.
“Well, this is a fine mess you’ve made of things,” he said eventually when Caroline did not deign to acknowledge his entry into the room.
“I could say the same of you,” she responded loftily.
“Caroline, I don’t think you realise the magnitude of your offence! You struck a member of the peerage’s family; Elizabeth has a broken arm. If Darcy chose to, he could have you taken up by the magistrate for assault.”
Caroline glanced at him; Charles barely recognised her. Her face was as still and cold as marble, her eyes fathomless dark pools. “She is faking it, the lying slut.”
“She is not faking it!” It was very rare for Charles Bingley to lose his temper, but he did so now, striding forward, grasping Caroline’s shoulders in his hand and giving her a firm shake. “Your jealousy has blinded you to reason, Caroline, and you are on the edge of ruining yourself in the eyes of society forever, do you not see that?”
She stared at him, her brow creasing in puzzlement. “Why are you taking my side over hers?”
“Because your actions are unconscionable!” He shouted it, saw her eyes widen as she realised that for once, there was no way that she could convince him to take her side. “Striking even a servant is a disgraceful act; to strike a lady who is now your superior in consequence is quite beyond the pale! If the countess chooses to speak of it in society you will be ruined, Caroline. Ruined. And she has no reason in the slightest to care about safeguarding your good name.”
Mr Bingley's Bride (Sensual Historical Romance) Page 5
