Darcy & Elizabeth Read Online Free

him to shed his coat and neckcloth somewhere along the road. Hence, he had lain across the counterpane in shirtsleeves and breeches, his face nearly as caked with dust as his boots. She had thought he had never looked more handsome.
    Her reverie was disturbed by his inquiry, “How long shall the little one sleep?”
    â€œIt is not how long, but how deeply will she sleep,” replied she.
    â€œI see.”
    â€œI fear I am still…indisposed,” she ventured, “from the rigours of childbirth. It will be some time before I am myself again.”
    â€œDo not trouble yourself, Lizzy. Such matters have not entered my mind,” his voice was all assurance; his countenance, however, looked less certain.
    For such matters had entered his mind. They had entered his mind on numerous occasions to the point of preoccupation. There was no one of whom he might enquire as to the length of her convalescence with any degree of decorum, hence he was quite happy that she had brought the issue to light herself. Yet, “some time” was not a comfort. It was, however, something to look forward to.

4
    The Master of Pemberley Is Displeased
    Mr. Darcy’s lips were further pursed (were that humanly possible) by another undertaking. This one was required of him by his patriarchal duty. It did not lend the same astonishment of the one gifted to him by his wife, but it still took him quite unawares.
    ***
    No sooner had he settled into his new role of fatherhood and begun to bask in its glow, he was informed that it was imperative that arrangements be set in place for a wedding for his sister, Georgiana, and their cousin, Col. Geoffrey Fitzwilliam. As his glower suggested, the specific nature of this event invited Mr. Darcy’s most severe indignation. This abhorrence, however, did not fall to any inherent dislike for his sister’s intended groom. Indeed, Col. Fitzwilliam was one of the few men he deemed worthy of Georgiana’s hand. His displeasure was not because of the haste of the nuptials, but owing to the delicate condition in which Georgiana would be taking them.
    Indeed, the same injured expression gifted to Darcy’s countenance by reason of his newly apportioned bed was duplicated upon learning of his sister’s indecorous indisposition. So great was his distaste for this particular brotherly duty, his aspect was further aggrieved by the adornment of gritted teeth. This was not without due cause, for he believed himself additionally abused in that his sister had been compromised under his very nose.
    Her deflowerment had undoubtedly come about during their summer’s quarantine on the Continent. Their party had consisted solely of himself, Georgiana, and Col. Fitzwilliam. The colonel had been grievously wounded in a battle near Quatre Bas, Georgiana his dedicated caretaker. Indeed, her entire reason for absconding after his regiment had been to look after him were he wounded. It had been inevitable that the foetid army hospital where Georgiana had nursed Fitzwilliam would beget disease. Regrettably, Darcy had been unsuccessful in expediting their return to England before a general quarantine had been mounted throughout the region. They had been quite isolated by the threat of plague, abiding in a vacant cottage with borrowed servants. At the time he had thought the delay egregious—fraught as he was with anxiety to see his loved ones safely home.
    It galled him still to realise that he had left his wife to chase halfway across Belgium to rescue his sister from the gates of hell, when she had flitted off on a romantic adventure, thinking herself in love with Fitzwilliam. Darcy had been furiously worried for her safety when she left and furiously relieved when he found her amidst all the chaos. Her behaviour had been so indecorous that he had been beside himself with reproach, yet so unconditionally happy to find her safe that he had been unable to bring himself to chastise her with