One Winter's Eve

by Leenie Brown

  “It will not work,” Darcy said dryly.

  “What will not work?” Georgiana fluttered her lashes and affected a look of innocence.

  “I am not allowing you out of that bed until morning regardless of how many gowns you decide you must have — a number that will be decided by me, I might add.” He looked at Caroline and nodded. “Thank you for caring for her.”

  “It was a pleasure,” Caroline replied as she climbed off the bed. It was odd to hear Darcy and his sister being so informal and teasing each other. She had thought Darcy was incapable of teasing or being teased. It was surprising how little she really knew about him, considering the amount of time they had spent in company. Of course, she should have known that Darcy could abide teasing if he were friends with her brother, but she had never actually stopped to consider the gentleman much beyond his looks, connections, and wealth. How very like a fortune hunter that was!

  “Do you wish me to leave this one?” Caroline picked up the magazine that had been discarded near the foot of the bed.

  “Would you mind?”

  “Not at all,” Caroline assured Georgiana, placing the magazine next to her.

  “They are such a pleasant diversion from looking at the walls or rereading my book.”

  “Have you read Evelina?” Caroline asked. “I am not finished with it yet, but I am not confined to my room and would be happy to let you read it if you wished.”

  Georgiana smiled and not that familiar smile that she always had for Caroline when Caroline visited. No, this smile was soft, warm, and filled with something for with Caroline longed — friendship.

  “I could not take your book from you,” Georgiana replied. “I am certain my brother can keep me entertained for an hour or so and then find me a book to read when he is done.” She looked at her cousin. “And then Richard might also regale me with some tale. He is very good at reading. It is quite diverting.”

  “I know,” Caroline replied. “He has read to me twice now and done the actors at Drury Lane proud with his oratory skills.”

  “Yes,” Richard agreed readily, “I have missed my true calling — the stage.”

  Georgiana giggled, which delighted Richard, but it was the amused sparkle in Caroline’s eyes that captivated him.

  “Shall we leave Darcy to explain how the meeting with Colonel Forester went?” he asked Caroline.

  “Are you not staying?”

  Richard shook his head. “Darcy is capable of sharing his news without my help, and since I will be required to perform later for the invalid, I should like to find some refreshment now.”

  “Dinner is in little more than an hour,” Darcy said.

  “And at that time, I shall dine with my audience of one,” Richard replied. “However, I find I am hungry now and will likely perish before dinner if I do not find the source of that wonderful smell which greeted us on our arrival.” He took the basket that Caroline was holding. “Will you allow me to accost your cook for a gingerbread while dinner is being prepared?”

  “Richard loves gingerbread,” Georgiana interjected.

  Caroline laughed lightly as she placed her hand on Richard’s proffered arm. “I believe there is a maid who might be willing to procure some for you. She might even be willing to bring you cider instead of tea.”

  “Ah, the perfect hostess,” Richard said as they exited the room and began walking toward her room.

  “Thank you, even if it is said in jest.”

  “It might have been said lightly just now, but it is true. You are very good at seeing to the needs of your guests. Your brother’s home runs quite well under your command.”

  “Thank you,” she said once again. “Tell me about your meeting.” She liked strolling down the corridor on his arm and chatting.

  “There is not really very much to tell. Forester sent for Denny, Saunders, and Wickham — the first two appeared readily — we waited for Wickham. Denny and Saunders admitted their part and Wickham’s in what occurred. They apologized for not having returned to lend their aid, and they said they had cut ties with Wickham over it. They have been assigned some extra duties as recompense for their actions. Then, Wickham arrived with his normal attitude of insolence. He was brought up short on it, however, and after a discussion of what happened and what he deserved, we came to an arrangement. He will retire from his position in the militia to Ireland where he will abide for no less than ten years before returning. Darcy will pay his passage and give him funds.”

  Caroline sighed. “It is a pity that Mr. Darcy has to pay the man who has done him so much harm.”

  “I agree, but there was little else that could be done. If Wickham is in England, he will likely attempt something foolish once again to secure money from Darcy, and, if he were to receive the flogging that he deserves for Georgiana’s accident, there would be too much attention drawn to Georgiana. It seemed the best option to send him away.” He handed the basket back to her as they had arrived in front of her door.

  “It is wise, I suppose. I am just sorry it must be as it is.”

  Richard nodded. “It is a sorry tale.” He shifted from one foot to the other as he stood there with her outside her bedroom. “Are you going to prepare for dinner now?”

  She smiled. “How can I when a guest is in need of sustenance?” She placed a hand the doorknob. “If you will wait for ten minutes, I shall do what I must to make myself presentable for dinner. I promise I will not be long.”

  Richard looked down the hall to where a pair of chairs flanked a narrow table decorated with greenery. “I shall rest there. Take as long as you need.”

  “Do you not need to get ready for dinner?”

  Richard looked down at himself. “I suppose I could use a little freshening, but I am not dining in the dining room, so there is no need to be too formal.”

  “Then I shall meet you here, in ten minutes?” Caroline said.

  “I shall only be five,” he replied with a grin.

  He was wrong. It took him a full six minutes to attend to his attire and return. She, however, was not wrong, for it did take her the full ten minutes she had said it would. Be that as it may, when Richard considered how long it took his sister and mother to prepare for dinner, he had to be impressed that Caroline could manage a change of gown and whatever else she might have done to look so fetching in just ten minutes.

  “I did not change my hair,” she explained when he voiced his wonder at her readying herself so quickly. “That would have taken much longer, and this gown is not so difficult as some to fasten and does not require a maid’s assistance.”

  “You did not rush yourself unduly just because of my desire to eat gingerbread, did you?” he stopped and turned to look at her.

  “And if I did?”

  Richard’s brows furrowed, and he shrugged. “I guess I would feel guilty as well as pleased.” He stepped closer to her. “Did you?”

  She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. It was not his desire to eat that had caused her to hurry but her desire to spend time with him. However, she could not tell him that, so she shrugged and gave him a playful smile.

  It was too much. That smile, the biting of her lip, the way she ducked her head and peeked up at him — it was just too much, and before he knew what he was about, his one hand was cupping the back of her head as his other was pulling her near. “Thank you,” he whispered against her lips before claiming them as he had desired to do ever since he had seen her in the dining room standing nearly under the kissing bough the day before Christmas.

  Chapter 11

  Caroline knew she should protest the colonel’s actions as soon as he put his hands on her person, but that brief moment of lucidness was promptly overcome by his closeness and then… She sighed as his lips touched hers. Gone was any thought of propriety. In its place, desire and contentment warred for pre-eminence. Rational thought was beyond her. Impulse bid her to wind her arms around him, and readily she complied. She had never experienced such deliciousness a
s she did in those few moments before his lips left hers yearning for his continued touch.

  Slowly, as if he were just as overcome and fighting for comprehension of what had occurred as she was, he released her, backing away but only just a step. “Forgive me,” he muttered. His chest rose and fell markedly. “I…I…” He drew a hand across his mouth. “I should not have taken such liberties.”

  Caroline took one step backward. The colonel’s eyes did not look convinced of his words. In fact, he looked very much as if he would like to take the same liberties again. “I am well,” she assured him. “I should not have allowed it, but…”

  “It was overwhelming,” he concluded, and she nodded.

  She would likely never be able to erase this moment from her memory though she should flee from his presence and never return for a thousand years. It — he was forever seared into her very being. She shook her head slightly. How could one moment entwine two people in such a way? It was foolish, a momentary feeling, fleeting in its existence, was it not?

  Caroline smoothed her skirts to give her hands something to do other than find their way back to him. “We should find you some cider and gingerbread.”

  “Right,” he murmured. “Cider is definitely needed.” He motioned for her to begin walking with him down the hall.

  Thankfully, it was only five strides before he offered her his arm, and she could touch him again. Foolish wantonness! She had never expected such a thing from herself.

  ~*~*~

  She was still quietly pondering that kiss and her response sometime later after dinner had been consumed and cards played.

  “You do not look well,” Louisa said as she took a seat near Caroline on the sofa in the drawing room. “You have been flushed all evening.” She placed the back of her hand against Caroline’s forehead. “You do not feel feverish, but I must insist that you retire early. Rest will provide you a better chance of not catching whatever it is you are catching.”

  Caroline was not catching anything. She was caught — well and truly caught. However, she did not protest but allowed her sister to persuade her to go to bed, nor did she protest when Louisa insisted on accompanying her.

  “I left my book in the library,” Caroline said as she and her sister left the drawing room.

  “You should not strain your eyes with reading if you are on the verge of becoming sick.”

  “I will only read if I cannot sleep.”

  Louisa huffed softly but allowed Caroline to go to the library to retrieve her book.

  Robinson Crusoe still lay on the table. She stopped and ran a hand over it, then picked it up and flipped through it to find the ribbon he had used to mark his place. Blue. She smiled. It was a deep, steady colour and seemed fitting for him.

  “Is that your book?” Louisa crossed from the door to the chairs.

  “No.” Caroline snapped the book closed and returned it to the table. “It is the colonel’s.” Her hand rested on the cover. “I was just seeing if he had progressed any since the last time we were here reading, and he has not.”

  “The colonel is the son of an earl.” There was a suggestive, matchmaking tone to Louisa’s voice.

  “Yes, he is,” Caroline said, “a second son with no estate.”

  “Surely, he will not be penniless. Great men often provide some sort of inheritance for those who are not their heirs. Not a one of them would wish to have their sons — second, third, or fourth — fall below the status to which they are born.”

  “Second sons must have a career,” Caroline protested, “as do third and fourth sons.”

  “Unless they marry well,” Louisa persisted. “You have a fortune, and the colonel did say he would consider amounts as low as twenty thousand.”

  Caroline smiled tightly and took up her book. Hearing she was just barely acceptable was not reassuring. “An earl would not wish a tie to trade.”

  Louisa wrapped an arm around Caroline’s. “Lord Matlock has not protested Mr. Darcy marrying Miss Elizabeth,” she whispered as they stepped into the hall.

  “Miss Elizabeth is a gentleman’s daughter, not a tradesman’s daughter.”

  “Still, you are from a respectable family. Your fortune is not small, and your brother will be Darcy’s brother soon enough. I should think all of those things would make you more than acceptable.”

  “Soldiers do not always return,” Caroline whispered as they reached the top of the stairs. “I do not wish to be a widow.”

  “You will not be. Commissions can be sold.”

  “He may not wish to sell his commission.” She dropped her voice even lower, and Louisa leaned close to hear her words. “I could not ask that of him.”

  Louisa’s eyes lit with delight. “You do like him.”

  Caroline nodded. “Very much.” She glanced up and down the hall before sharing the next bit. “He kissed me.”

  “Oh!” Louisa squealed softly as she squeezed Caroline’s arm. “Then he will marry you.”

  Caroline shook her head. “Plenty of gentlemen kiss ladies and do not marry them.”

  “Not the colonel,” Louisa insisted.

  Caroline rolled her eyes. Why had she decided to say anything to her sister? Louisa was no more sensible than Mrs. Bennet at times. “You do not know that.”

  “He is very honourable.”

  That was true.

  “But he is not always proper,” Caroline refuted.

  Louisa huffed and shook her head as if Caroline were daft.

  “It matters not,” Caroline continued.

  Why did her sister have to be so hard to dissuade from an idea once it was in her head?

  They were not far from her room now. In just a few moments, she would be in her room and left alone to prepare for bed and consider the very gentleman about whom they were speaking.

  “You know I have always wished to marry a gentleman with an estate. Colonel Fitzwilliam does not have an estate. He is a second son and a soldier. These are not on my list of qualifications for a suitable husband. You know this, Louisa. Do not press me on this subject again. I shall not be seeking an offer from the colonel.” She would not be seeking one, but she would be hard pressed to reject one. She wrapped her arms around her sister in an embrace. “Do not look so disappointed, Louisa. There is still a season’s worth of gentleman to consider.” Not that any of them would compare to Richard Fitzwilliam and just the thought of entertaining them made her heart pinch and her eyes mist.

  “You make a such a lovely pair,” Louisa said dejectedly.

  “Good night,” Caroline replied. There was no point in arguing any further with Louisa. Her sister was rather unyielding at times. Caroline would do better to save her reasoning powers and words for attempting to convince herself that what she had always desired was what she should still seek, and she knew that it would take a great deal of effort to persuade her heart that it could live without Colonel Fitzwilliam.

  She bid her sister one more good night before stepping into her room just as the door to another room not far down the hall, which had been partially opened when they had passed, was pulled the rest of the way open, and Richard stepped into the hall.

  “Colonel,” Louisa said upon seeing him. “You do not look well.” She clucked her tongue. “First, Caroline and now you. I will say to you what I said to her. It is best if you get some rest, for it is far easier to avoid catching whatever it is that you are catching if you are well rested.”

  Richard nodded. “Excellent advice,” he muttered.

  “Colonel,” Louisa called after him. “Your room is not in that direction.”

  “No, but the brandy is.” And after what he had just heard, brandy was precisely what he needed.

  ~*~*~

  “Go away!” Richard yelled at the infernal knocking at his bedroom door.

  “I will not,” came the reply from the other side of the door before the knocking resumed once again.

  Richard groaned, covered his eyes with his hand, and then, unable to to
lerate how the throbbing in his head intensified with each repeated bang, he crawled out of bed, padded across the room in his stocking feet, unlatched the door, and hurried back to bed before the intruder could enter.

  “I am not rising,” he said as the door opened.

  “I am not asking you to rise,” Darcy said as he entered. “Mrs. Hurst was concerned that you might require the apothecary. She mentioned that you did not look well after leaving Georgiana’s room last night and said that you had gone in search of brandy.” Darcy lifted the covers off his cousin who was lying face down. “You are still dressed.”

  “Yes, I am.” Richard’s reply was muffled by his pillow. “Go away.” He sighed as Darcy’s weight caused the bed to sag. “Go away,” he repeated. “I am well, but I am not rising until…well, ever.”

  “Ever?” Darcy’s voice was incredulous. “Richard Fitzwilliam is going to remain in bed for the rest of his days?”

  “No, just until tomorrow or next week. Now, go away.”

  Darcy chuckled. “Tell me what you heard in the hall.”

  Richard rolled onto his side and stared at his cousin. How did he know that he had heard anything in the hall?

  “Georgiana said you were well when you left her, but that you had acted oddly when exiting her room. You stood at her door for a period of time, then left without turning to say a final good night. That is very unlike you, so we suspect, after hearing what Mrs. Hurst said about your condition, that you heard something.”

  Richard flopped back onto his face. “Go away.”

  “No. Unless you prefer for Georgiana to come question you instead of me.”

  With a huff, Richard resigned himself to the fact that Darcy was not going to leave without some sort of explanation. “I am not good enough.” He rolled onto his side.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I heard Miss Bingley telling Mrs. Hurst that my not having an estate and being both a soldier and a second son disqualified me as a potential husband. She will not be seeking an offer from me.” He turned over fully and draped an arm across his eyes. The sunlight was rather bright this morning. “And that after she seemed rather accepting of me when I kissed her.”