Page 51 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
“Oh, I suppose I’ve been distracted,” murmured Elizabeth.
“Anyway, none of it looks good,” said Bingley.
Darcy nodded. “All right, all right.”
“Do not drain her. Keep her in good health. And, for God’s sake, take her to a ball.”
“Yes,” said Darcy quietly.
“And you,” said Bingley to Elizabeth, “write to your family.”
“I shall,” she said.
“Oh, and for that matter, no one in the Matlocks or the Darcys or any of your relatives have met her either,” said Bingley. “I overheard a conversation with Colonel Fitzwilliam, who is in town and is supposedly close to you, and he did not even know you had gotten married.”
Darcy scratched the back of his head. “I take your meaning. I shall remedy this.”
THE FOLLOWING DAY, Elizabeth was surprised when she was summoned by a servant to greet her visitors, who were in the sitting room. She had not conversed with anyone except servants during the day in quite some time.
She left the letter she was composing to her sister Jane to go down to meet her guests.
There were two people there, a smiling man with a crooked nose and a girl who seemed young but was a bit taller than Elizabeth herself, with a shy smile.
The man said, “This is all highly irregular, but we received a missive from Mr. Darcy bidding us come, and he said we would have to conduct our own introductions, so we must see to it ourselves. I am Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, Darcy’s cousin, and this is his sister, Miss Georgiana Darcy.”
“Oh,” said Elizabeth, smiling brightly, “it’s so wonderful to meet you both. I have heard so much about you.” Well, she’d heard about Miss Darcy, anyway, but not the colonel. “I am Elizabeth Darcy, his wife. Please do make yourselves comfortable and I shall ring for refreshments.”
They settled in and had a bit of awkward small talk, establishing where everyone was from and what they all thought about the weather and if they’d done much to celebrate Christmas.
And the colonel said, “Well, you don’t look as if you’re wasting away, though I understand he engaged Mr. Adams to look at you, and Adams himself said he was frightened my ‘cousin’ was going to kill you. But you seem in good health. You know, of course, he’s not my cousin.”
“I do,” said Elizabeth, looking away, feeling herself flush.
“Apologies,” said the colonel. “But I know we were only asked here to keep up this ruse of his, that he is human. And all of us here know he is, in fact, not human.”
Elizabeth looked at both of them and then nodded. She was still blushing.
“Richard?” said Miss Darcy, furrowing her brow. “You seem a bit out of sorts.”
“Do I.” The colonel was sarcastic. “Well, here I am, being ordered about by the demonic ageless thing pretending to be your brother so that no one suspects he is going to murder this lovely young lady he’s swindled into marrying him. Why would I be out of sorts?”
Miss Darcy’s eyes widened.
The colonel sighed heavily. “Oh, Georgiana, perhaps I oughtn’t say this in front of you.”
Miss Darcy squared her shoulders. “I am sixteen now and preparing for my own Season in a month or so. I am quite old enough to hear anything at all.”
The colonel looked from his cousin to Elizabeth and then back again. “All right, perhaps you are. After all, it is you who may be harmed by this if he doesn’t end up killing her.” He looked back at Elizabeth. “Has he told you his plan for you, madam? Does he plan to give you Miss Darcy’s lands or properties, because when he stepped in to pretend to be Mr. Darcy, it was with the understanding that he was only a steward until such time as Miss Darcy could be capable of taking charge of her own inheritance. But now he has all manner of legal sway, and he is Mr. Darcy for all intents and purposes, so if he wishes to do our family harm—”
“He would never,” Elizabeth broke in, certain of this. “He is a very honorable sort of person. If you knew him, you would understand this about him.”
“But has he spoken to you of what he intends for you?” said the colonel.
She shook her head. “No.” Even though he’d said that thing about giving her children, the ones she was going to have with some lover or other that she was going to take, lands and money, and she didn’t know where he thought to get that from. “But my understanding is that he and I will live here, in this house. I cannot think it is easy for him to reside many places, given the way sunlight affects him.”
The colonel nodded slowly.
“And,” said Elizabeth with a little smile, “he is not going to kill me.”
