Page 52 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
The colonel looked up at her. “No, perhaps he is not. He has been associated with the family for a long time and he has beennothing but good to us, I suppose. In all that time, however, until you, he’s never wanted anything for himself, never used any of his resources for his own gratification. Of course, looking at you, perhaps I understand it.”
She found herself blushing again, shaking her head at him. “You are a flatterer, are you not, colonel?”
He smirked. “Perhaps, I suppose. I like to make pretty ladies smile anyway, and if that makes me a flatterer, so be it.”
“He is rather ruinously drawn to me, I admit,” she said. “But it’s not because of my beauty, rather some strange magical quirk to the way my blood smells to him, or tastes, or I don’t know. It’s all quite confusing. You, on the other hand, sir, must see that I am but ordinary.”
“Indeed, you are not that, Mrs. Darcy,” he said, and he was still smirking a bit. Despite his crooked nose, there was something appealing about his visage when he smirked.
She checked herself, a bit horrified. How could she be finding anything appealing about other men when she was Mr. Darcy’s wife? She had not thought of herself as that sort of person.
“What do you mean, ruinously?” said Miss Darcy with some anxiety quite plain in her expression.
Elizabeth shrugged eloquently. “I know not how free I should be with either of you, I must say.”
“Quite free,” said the colonel. “We are tied to him now, and we cannot get extricated from the other without causing each other damage. You may not worry that we shall work against him.”
“Yes, but you do seem to wish to,” said Elizabeth, tilting her head to one side.
“No, no, only if he moves against Georgiana,” said the colonel.
“He is very fond of her,” said Elizabeth. “He speaks of you, Miss Darcy, with a great deal of tenderness and says he thinks of you as a sister or even a daughter. I cannot think he would do anything if it were not in your best interest.”
“But,” said Miss Darcy, “what if your interests, Mrs. Darcy, and mine, are at cross purposes?”
“Well, I shall be sure to look out for you myself,” said Elizabeth. “Anyway, I know not, but I cannot think there will be any concern. He cannot father children, after all, so it is not as if he and I are going to need to take your inheritance for me or our progeny.”
“Right, right,” said the colonel thoughtfully. “Yes, I am worrying for nothing, I think, am I not?”
“You are indeed,” said Elizabeth.
The conversation turned again, to more pleasant topics. Presently, the colonel asked Miss Darcy if she might play for them, and the younger girl sat at the piano and proceeded to play and sing like a songbird, with a clear and sweet voice.
Elizabeth was quite free with her praise, and it was well deserved, for Miss Darcy was very talented in that respect.
She extended an invitation for them both to stay for dinner, so that they could see Mr. Darcy as well, and Miss Darcy seemed willing but the colonel said they must be leaving, so they did not.
When her husband woke, she relayed the concerns of the colonel, and Mr. Darcy took all of that in stride, saying that the colonel worried for no reason at all, that he was bound to protect the Matlock family, and that he would do exactly that.
“I fear I have made a mess of your very ordered life,” said Elizabeth.
He smiled at her, indulgent. “Perhaps so. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
He drank from her that night, only a little, and then he stopped.
She was sitting on his lap on a couch, and she lay her head on his chest and piteously begged him to taste her again. It had felt so nice and she did love it so, not only because of the sensation of it, but because of something else, because of being something he needed and wanted so badly, because of being his guilty indulgence, because of being the thing he wanted so very desperately.
But he said they must not. He held onto her, running his fingers over her spine, and told her they must grow used to only drinking a bit of her blood each night and work up to such time as he might feel comfortable having her in his bed. Then they could be locked up for an entire day together again, which he longed for, saying he missed her desperately for the times they were separated. “But I must make sure I can trust myself with you, my love, my Lizzy.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ELIZABETH SENT HERletter off to Jane and received one in return. Her sister was dolorous, still seemingly pining over Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth asked Mr. Darcy about it, and he said it was possible that she simply needed someone to charm her to forget her sadness and pain. Of course, there was no one there to charm Jane, as the vampires had left that part of the country.
Elizabeth wondered about asking her sister to join her there in town, especially since Mr. Darcy was still so insistent that they be separated during the day. She knew at some point he thought he would trust himself enough to have her with him, but even so, she thought that she might grow tired of the idea of being trapped there with him every day.
Having Jane with her as a companion appealed more and more to her as the time went on.
She and Mr. Darcy went to a dinner held by the Earl and Countess of Matlock, where Elizabeth met all of the Matlocks, and where she was once again in the company of Colonel Fitzwilliam, who seemed to go out of his way to spend time with her.
