Page 19 of One Night with Mr. Darcy
He started toward her. “What did I do? Did I…?” He looked her over. His voice dropped to a raw whisper. “Did I take you to bed?”
She sat back down.
“Oh, Christ in heaven. How could I have forgotten this? Why am I remembering it now?” There was a lump growing in his throat. “I’m so very sorry.” He shook his head. “I don’t do things like that with women like you. I certainly don’t…”You took her virtue and left her with no recourse but that man.
She got up. “No, of course not. You didn’t. That never happened. And you were going and you should go and we shall never see each other—”
He cut her off by stepping closer to her.
She let out a little noise, very like a sob.
“Why deny it?” he said.
“You didn’t remember it until now, because it didn’t happen. Nothing like that happened. Obviously, I came to my husband’s bed entirely untouched, and obviously—”
“Oh, God,” he said. “He’s mine.”
She threw up her hands. “Mr. Darcy, please.”
He backed into the door of the room and he couldn’t breathe. All of his clothes were painfully tight. Even so, he felt frightfully cold. He didn’t do things like this. He would never do something like this. This was not him. This was not happening.You took her virtue, abandoned her, and left her with your child. You blackguard.
She seized him by the arm and tugged.
He staggered, electrified by her touch, even now.
She shoved him back down in a chair.
“I’m beside myself,” he whispered up to her. “I would never have let this happen if I had known. I don’t know how I—”
“You will not disrupt my life,” she said. “Nor will you take my son from me. You don’t want anyone to know what you did. Some men might bear it, but it would pain you. So, it’s better if you go back to forgetting it.”
“Take your…” Oh, of course she was frightened. Once, he’d had a conversation with a tavern wench who was sobbing over the loss of her babe. The child’s father had been a wealthy man, a baron even, and she’d gone to him for help and he’d taken the child from her, given her some coin, and now refused to allow her even to visit. The law was entirely on his side in it, of course. It was better for the child to be raised by his wealthy father. But the woman had been broken, destroyed. “No, I would never do that to you. You needn’t worry about that.”
She eyed him. “You swear it to me?”
He nodded. “Yes, on my own mother’s grave. I do not wish to hurt you, Elizabeth. Further. Hurt youfurther.” His stomach turned itself inside out. He was going to cast up his accounts all over her carpet.
She laid a hand across her chest. “I am fine.”
He scoffed. “How could you be, after everything I put you through—”
“I am married and respectable. My child has a father. And Lady Catherine has named me her heir.”
“Shewhat?” Why would his aunt do such a thing?
“Your aunt is a very lonely woman,” said Elizabeth. “There are few who give her any regard. She said she did it to secure me. It has quite worked. I am devoted to her. She also knows.”
“Knows?”
“Knows that William is yours,” said Elizabeth.
Darcy settled back in his chair, stomach churning. Now, all of the interactions with his aunt lately were beginning to make sense. “Oh, what she must think of me.”
“I am only saying, William will be quite taken care of. He will have wealth and he will have advantages. There is no reason for you to interfere.”
“No, I see.” He nodded. “Of course.”
“Good, then. So, we’re agreed?”
