Mr. Darcy's Bite (21 page)

The trip from the Gowland house to Aunt Marguerite's was uneventful, and with Mercer perched outside on the driver's seat, no one complained about the chilly interior. As soon as the house came into view, Lizzy looked out the window to the top of the turret, and once she saw the pale orange flag flying, she felt a sense of relief. Even if something unexpected happened and Mr. Darcy had to transform here, he would be safe.

Darcy's aunt was waiting for them at the door and ushered all of them into the library, where a blazing fire awaited them, and after making arrangements for Mercer to be served a hot meal, Marguerite followed her guests inside.

“Make yourself at home. We are all alone here, Jeanne and her… Jeanne and her… I never can get it out,” she said, shaking her head. “The pair of them is in town. I have ordered some hot soup to be served right away, and then we shall have a nice supper. But first, tell me all about the wedding.”

After getting the nod from her sister-in-law, Georgiana described everything the bride had worn, right down to the tiny pearls on her satin slippers, and then provided descriptions for Jane's dress as well as her own and spared no details for her brother's attire, even noting his expertly tied neckcloth, which caused Darcy to chuckle. He would have to tell Charles that if he ever found himself in financial difficulties, he could hire himself out as a manservant. While his sister recreated the wedding breakfast for her aunt, Darcy smiled at his wife, thinking how gracious she was to allow Georgiana to provide the details of the most important day of her own life.

After supper, they all returned to the library, the warmest room in the house, but shortly thereafter, Darcy asked that the entire party be excused as they had had very little sleep since the wedding. Aunt Marguerite indicated that was fine for her niece and nephew but gestured for Elizabeth to sit beside her on the sofa because there were a few things she wished to discuss with the new Mrs. Darcy. When Darcy tried to protest, his aunt cut him off.

“Did you and Elizabeth share the same room last night?” she asked.

Darcy looked confused. They had only been married two days; of course they had shared a room. “Yes, we stayed at a Council house.”

“All right then. That should hold you for a while. Off you go. I want to talk to your bride.”

Knowing his aunt to be a mule and that he would not win any argument with her, Darcy departed, but he was not happy about it. What could she possibly have to say to Elizabeth that he could not hear?

Once Marguerite was sure her nephew was gone, she asked Lizzy how everything went on their wedding night.

“Fine,” Lizzy answered and said no more, but Marguerite continued to look at her as if waiting for some horrific confession. “Truly, everything was fine.”

“I am glad to hear it,” she said, putting her hands over Lizzy's, “because my husband nearly put me through the headboard, but we worked it out. When we first got married, he was actually very considerate, and I have often wondered what would have happened in our marriage if I had been a little kinder. Maybe he would have held off sleeping with other women longer than he did. But I wasn't, and he didn't, and he's dead.

“Now, you don't have to worry that I am going to keep you away from William. After we finish our talk, I shall go to Jeanne's room, where I shall stay until after you leave tomorrow morning. Hopefully, in the spring, you will come back for a visit, but there are a few things I want you to know about William as a man and as a wolf.” She plunged right in.

“First, it is important that you differentiate between the two natures. If it is the middle of the lunar month and William is in a bad mood, it has nothing to do with his being a wolf, so don't start making excuses for him. You should treat him no differently than any other annoying man.

“The other thing I want you to think about is William's ability to know what everyone is feeling. It tends to make him overprotective, especially where Georgiana is concerned, and you can help her by not letting him hover constantly, especially since she will soon be coming out. For yourself, this ability to know everything about you might prove to be disconcerting. Women are not used to men being attentive to our needs, but there is a way to get around it.”

“Really?” Now Lizzy was very interested. Most of the time, she did not mind Mr. Darcy knowing what she was thinking or feeling, but every minute of every day was a bit much.

“The strongest sense for a wolf is his smell, so you have to introduce other scents to confuse him. If you use lavender water everywhere you sweat, it makes it a lot harder for him to figure out what you are thinking or feeling from your own scent.

“Second, wolves have superior vision, which is important in hunting, and you also need to keep in mind that he can see in the dark. So if you are thinking about getting out of bed during the night to hide his birthday gift, he will see where you put it.

“Now, this is the important part, so pay attention. It is the combination of smell and sight that allows him to know what you are feeling, so if you do not want him to know something, use the lavender water and do not look at him. I would suggest you keep your needlepoint basket handy. In that way, you will be looking at your hands, and he will not get suspicious. Putting a sachet of potpourri in the basket would not hurt either.”

“How do you know all this?” Lizzy asked. Yes, it was true that Aunt Marguerite had known that her nephew was a werewolf from the beginning, but she doubted that they had spent enough time together for her to draw such detailed conclusions.

“Do you know about Wilkolak, the doctor who lives in Edinburgh?”

“I have heard his name mentioned. I believe he does research on the werewolf population.”

“Yes, that is true, but he also meets with the Council to update them on his findings. About five years ago, Darcy asked if I would host a Council meeting here. The doctor is now in his fifties, and it would be helpful if he did not have to travel as far as London. After he had reported to the Council, we had a nice long talk while the others turned their attention to business matters.”

“Business matters?”

“Yes, it takes a lot of money to keep up these Council houses and to feed and house those werewolves fleeing the Continent. For those who cannot afford it, they also pay for passage to North America, and the three Council members have all their travel expenses paid because they are constantly on the go. William is a big contributor, and I give them two hundred pounds a year myself. But to get back to Dr. Wilkolak. Before he returned to Edinburgh, I told him that the next time he had to meet with the Council, he should bring his wife. She is a she wolf, and she was already one when he married her. In fact, she saved his life. Everything I know about werewolves, I learned from the Wilkolaks.”

“Mrs. Wilkolak saved the doctor's life? How did she do that?”

“Thirty years ago, he was traveling the Great North Road on his way to Edinburgh when he was attacked by highwaymen. They beat him up and left him for dead on the side of the road. It was a full moon, and Jenny Giffords, who lived on a nearby farm, found him and lay down beside him to keep him warm. At daybreak, she went back to the farm and returned with her father and a wagon. While he was recovering, they fell in love. He went to Edinburgh and continued on with his medical studies, but then he turned his attention to finding a cure for his wife. In his search, he has studied hundreds of wolves, and he knows everything there is to know about them, including that one werewolf immediately recognizes another.

“One day, the Wilkolaks passed the Earl of Nordland, who was getting out of his carriage, and Jenny Wilkolak and His Lordship looked at each other, and that is all it took for them to recognize what the other one was. He arranged to meet with the pair of them, and Jenny said that once he uttered the words, ‘I am a werewolf,' he began to cry. The poor man had been a wolf for five years and thought he was the only one in Scotland. After hearing what Dr. Wilkolak was doing, he agreed to fund all of his research, and it is on his estate where the wolves have their gathering in July. He is gone now, but his son continues to provide money for the program and to preserve the property for the wolves.”

“And that is how the Council got started?” Lizzy asked.

“Yes and no. There was already a patchwork of smaller councils in place, but once they got Nordland's support, they were able to actually go out and find other werewolves and bring them into the community. But let us get back to your situation because I know William is pacing the floor waiting for you. Dr. Wilkolak said that as much as he loved his wife, he found it unsettling to have her know everything about him, so he started experimenting. For example, when he wants to concentrate on something that he does not want his wife to know about, he cooks the evening meal because it throws Jenny off the scent. He always wears scented powder to confuse her sense of smell, and when you meet him, you will see he still wears a powdered wig. He added that the way he gets around her visual acuity is to look out the window while they are talking, so that she cannot see his eyes, or to be writing something while she is talking to him.

“Getting all of this to work will take time and practice, but the longer William and you are together, the easier it will become because you will know him better. Now, I have a present for you.” She went to a chest and took out a bottle. It was lavender water. “You will have to be clever about this because you do not want him to figure out what you are doing, but no man should know all there is to know about a woman.”

“Yes, I agree. A woman's nature should be a mystery to a man.” Lizzy pulled the top off the bottle and put some lavender water behind her ears, and with a smile on her face, she said, “We shall see if this works. I certainly hope so.”

***

“You smell pretty,” Darcy said as Lizzy came into the room.

“Your aunt wanted to give me this.” She held out the bottle of lavender water for him to see.

“That is all she wanted?” Darcy asked, doubting it very much. You do not chase a groom away from his bride of two days so that you can give her lavender water.

“No, she wanted to tell me that if you are a grouch, it has nothing to do with your being a wolf. It has everything to do with your being a grumpy Fitzwilliam Darcy.”

“That's it?”

Lizzy went to the window and pulled back the curtain. “Will, come here. You can see the man in the moon.”

“Yes, the two of us will soon be together,” he answered while slipping his hands around her waist.

“It will be Nell, you, and the man in the moon,” Lizzy said, correcting him. Oddly enough, Nell's presence was a comfort to her. She did not like to think of him as a lone wolf.

“Oh, yes, I forgot about Nell.” The idea of being with Nell instead of his wife was a decidedly unattractive prospect, but he needed to talk to her about Monsieur Reynard.

Lizzy turned around and started to untie his neckcloth, and he responded by unbuttoning her dress. After slipping it off of her shoulders, he traced the outline of her neck with his tongue. She immediately responded to him, and he took her by the hands and walked backwards with her toward the bed.

After they had made love and Mr. Darcy had fallen asleep, Lizzy lay awake smiling. She was thinking how fortunate she was to have such a thoughtful and giving man as her husband, and his desire to please her was evident while they were making love. For her, the intimacies of the marriage bed had proved to be a pleasant surprise. All the old wives' tales she had heard, and even Jane's rendition of her wedding night, had proved to be untrue—at least for her. But there was a second reason she was smiling. Her very first effort at creating a distraction to overcome Mr. Darcy's superior senses had been successful. When she had walked to the window, he had been unable to look into her eyes, and so he had failed to notice that she had avoided answering his question about his aunt. So the werewolf in Fitzwilliam Darcy could be got 'round, and that was a good thing to know. On the other hand, when she did want him to know something, that was easily done as well. Lizzy was beginning to think that she might have the best of both worlds.

***

When Lizzy awoke, she found her husband gone from their bed. This was becoming a habit, one she hoped to break once they got to Pemberley. Since Mr. Darcy said that he wanted to leave the first thing in the morning, she wondered why he had not awakened her, and when she looked at the mantel clock and saw that it was ten thirty, she nearly panicked. Because of the late hour, it was unlikely that they would be able to reach Pemberley by dark. But when she went to the window and opened the drapes, she understood why he had allowed her to sleep so late. Snow was falling, and no one was going anywhere. It looked as if Mr. Darcy would experience nightfall at Ashton Hall.

After performing her morning ablutions, Lizzy was about to ring for a maid when her husband walked in, and right behind him was a serving girl carrying a tray. After the girl left, he came to Lizzy and kissed her.

“I had hoped to serve you breakfast in bed,” Darcy said to his bride. “I assume you have looked outside.”

“Yes, I see that it is snowing.”

“We will have to remain here until it stops, and then Mercer will decide if we may leave tomorrow, which depends on whether the temperatures remain above freezing.”

Lizzy was unhappy with the idea of not getting to Pemberley in time for nightfall, but she did not want Mr. Darcy to know that. “Since we are delayed for at least one day, how shall we spend the day, dearest? A sleigh ride perhaps?”

“No, I do not think we should go outside at all. It is a soft slushy snow, and we will get soaked. Since Metcalf has not yet arrived with our luggage, we have nothing to change into.”

“That is true. Well, let us see what is here in the room. There is a volume of Walter Scott's poems on the mantel. Would you like for me to read aloud to you?” Darcy shook his head. “Shall we invite your aunt, sister, and Mrs. Brotherton to play cards? All right, no cards. What if we go to the drawing room? Georgiana or I could play a tune on your aunt's spinet.” Darcy continued to reject all her ideas.