Page 13 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
“It’s just the madness of the sirensong is all,” he muttered. “She makes me foolish.”
“Does she.” There was sourness in Caroline’s tone. “And yet, you have showed marvelous restraint with her, have you not?”
“Have I?” He didn’t feel as if he had.
“She’s alive,” said Caroline. “You haven’t attempted to turn her. You have not locked her away somewhere for easy access. So, yes, I think so. If I did not think you capable of that,cor meum,I would not have implemented my little plan to keep her here.”
“It doesn’t seem to me as if your plan was very well thought out at all,” he said. “It seems to me that it was impulsive and reckless.”
She huffed. “Oh, do tell me exactly what you think, then. What is your first name now? Some awful mouthful, isn’t it? Fitzwilliam?”
“I am not at all in control of myself when it comes to her,” he said. “She is awakening me in ways I thought long dormant. I haven’t felt so full of aching need in such a long time. So, I don’t think you should have tried to trap her here.”
“Well, that is what you think,Fitzwilliam,” she said. “But ask yourself if I have ever failed you,cor meum?”
He stopped walking to look at her. “What do you mean? You do not, as a general rule, do things for anyone except yourself.”
“You wound me. That is not true, at all!” The look she gave him did look wounded, indeed. “I cannot believe you do not see all I do for you. How is that possible?”
“There is no reason for you to do things for me,” he said in a low voice. “I am not your heart, Caroline, and you are not mine.”
Her expression froze.
Perhaps he had been overly harsh on her, but she was quite capable of handling it, he thought. She could be vicious, after all. He turned on his heel and walked away from her without another word.
ELIZABETH SLEPT HALFthe day away, likely because she’d been awake all night.
She woke sometime in the afternoon to the knowledge that she must get out of this place. She knew not what had driven her so far out of her wits to have consented to have slept here, in fact.
She did not think Mr. Darcy’s assurances that there was no harm in whatever it was that he and his fellow demons did was at all trustworthy. There was clearly harm. They were imprisoned here to be toyed with, used for the pleasure of these monsters, and she knew it.
It horrified her, in fact.
Well, this was not true.
When it came to Jane, it was horrifying, most especially since Jane had not been herself at all last night, but when it came to her, it was different. Because Mr. Darcy, with his deep voice and his bobbing Adam’s apple and his broad shoulders, was quite welcome to use her for his pleasure.
This was mad, of course, and she didn’t actually believe it, or at least, she didn’t wish to believe it.
It was only that the thought of being used by Mr. Darcy, being bitten by him, being his to do with as he pleased, made her feel flushed full of deep pleasure, and she was so swept away by it that she was not making very intelligent decisions.
She got out of bed and dressed herself, and then she went to Jane’s room, but Jane wasn’t there. The bed was made up and the room was empty.
In alarm, Elizabeth ran down the stairs to look into the sitting room where they had all been the night before, but that was empty too.
At this point, a servant found her, and asked if she would be joining Miss Bennet in the breakfast parlor.
“Breakfast?” said Elizabeth faintly. “It must be past time for luncheon.”
“Even so, there is food laid out for you both if you are hungry,” said the servant. “Mr. Hurst eats daily also but he often wakes quite late. The others are sequestered away during the daylight.”
Elizabeth let the servant take her to the breakfast parlor.
Jane was there, eating, and—upon sight of her—exclaimed that it was really quite hospitable that the Bingleys had allowed them to stay there, and that the food was quite good, and that Elizabeth should try the chocolate in the pot there, that Jane had never had its equal.
Elizabeth was rather famished, as it happened. She got herself a plate of food, dipping it herself at the sideboard and then she sat down. “Jane, after we eat, we must go home.”
“Oh?” said Jane. “Must we?”
