Page 50 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
Caroline’s eyes narrowed. She pointed at Elizabeth. “She is causing the problem. The problem must be solved.”
Bingley cleared his throat. “Perhaps we look for other alternatives, however.”
“No, you agreed with me when we came here,” said Caroline.
“Well, we were speaking of how the situation might worsen the longer that she is affecting him thus,” said Bingley. “And I said that I thought it might be true, that Darcy does seem out of his head when it comes to her. He could further endanger us. But I shall say, Caroline, I have not been nearly as bloodthirsty about it as you seem to be.”
Elizabeth gasped next to him.
Darcy put his arm around her, drawing her close. “I shall not let her near you, my love,” he breathed to Elizabeth. To Caroline, “You cannot have come here to propose to kill my wife.”
“What if you turn her?” said Bingley.
“What?” said Caroline.
Darcy sighed. “We are discussing it, but she is… reticent, and I…”
“Turning her does not solve the problem at all!” said Caroline, horrified.
“Well,” said Bingley, “once she is not his sirensong, then he will be less likely to be driven to do mad things to secure her.”
“I have secured her,” said Darcy. “She is my wife.”
“Yes, but you have her here, all alone, and you are going to be driven to take more and more of her blood,” said Bingley. “If your wife dies suspiciously, it reflects badly on us all.”
“Oh, that is…” Caroline got up from her chair. “You are never on my side, Charles.”
“Your side is simply abouthim,” said Bingley, gesturing at Darcy. “You can’t think I am your instrument in your separate lovers’ quarrel,ma belle. What do you take me for?”
Caroline stalked out of the room, huffing all the way.
Bingley sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead. “She is… trying sometimes.”
Darcy glared into Caroline’s wake.
“She still wants to kill me,” said Elizabeth softly.
“Yes, apologies, Miss Elizab—Mrs. Darcy,” said Mr. Bingley. “I can’t imagine this is an easy subject to listen to.”
Elizabeth laughed faintly. “It seems all we talk about lately is my dying and how imminent it is if we do not take drastic action.”
“So, I’m correct,” said Bingley. “You are taking too much of her blood.”
“I have been abstaining lately,” said Mr. Darcy, not wishing to admit he’d been just about to take her to bed and claim her completely, in every way he could claim her, and that he was not certain he would have kept himself in check for such a thing. “But yes, I suppose it’s a concern.”
“You don’t wish to be turned, madam?” said Bingley to Elizabeth.
“I haven’t said that exactly,” she said quietly. “But I don’t think my husband wishes to turn me, either.”
Bingley chuckled. “Yes, well, he wouldn’t.”
“I don’t really see that this is any of your business, actually,” said Darcy to Bingley.
“Caroline’s revenge schemes aside, I’m not wrong that you’re being reckless,” said Bingley.
Darcy considered what he was saying.
“The fact you’ve married her in haste and then no one has seen her in weeks, that her own family did not attend the wedding, that she has not written one solitary letter to anybody at all—”
