Mr. Darcy's Forbidden Love-kindle (62 page)

“What… what brought that on?”

“I wanted to give you something on which to concentrate on while I stitch you up and to remind you that I love you so very much.”

A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth as his dark eyes flashed. “When this is done, I think I shall need more reminding.”

~~~*~~~

London
The Gardiner’s Residence
Gracechurch Street

Jane was up very early, hoping to avoid being discovered by her mother or her aunt before she had time to talk with Jenny, the young maid who had become a friend and confidant. She had tried to surreptitiously slip the letter to her father in with the others to be posted yesterday, but she was unable to do so after her aunt came downstairs unexpectedly.

I must post this letter today, even if I have to slip out of the house to do it!

As she sneaked down the stairs, a noise below startled her and she stiffened, praying that it was not Gertrude Doane, the housekeeper. That woman would tell her aunt the moment she suspected the letter to Longbourn was not to be seen by her Mistress. The door to the dining room opened, and as Jenny appeared with her arms full of clean linens, Jane let go of the breath she had been holding.

“Oh, Miss Jane, it is so good to see you first thing this beautiful morning,” Jenny said in a whisper, so as not to wake anyone. “I was fearful that it was your mother.” She smiled slyly. “Not that I should be telling you that, but she makes me nervous, the way she talks and waves her hands about.”

Jane returned her smile. “To tell the truth, she makes me nervous as well.”

Jenny nodded in acknowledgement of their shared amusement. “Is there a reason you are up so early? Something I can help you with?”

Jane took the girl’s arm and tugged her back into the dining room. Just to be sure they were completely alone, she peered through the disappearing gap in the door as it closed to make sure no one was coming. Satisfied, she turned to address the maid.

“I need you to do a favour for me?”

“I will help you anyway I can. You know that.”

Jane took the letter from a pocket in her gown and held it out to Jenny. “This is why I sought you out. I need this letter to go out in the post today without anyone being the wiser.”

Jenny placed the linens down on a chair. Then taking the missive, she glanced at the address before putting it in her own pocket. “Done!”

A small giggle escaped from Jane. “Are you certain that Mrs. Doane will not see it? She would expose me if she knew that I was hiding it from my aunt or my mother.”

“I shall be extra careful to see that she does not catch me slipping it in with the others. There is one on the table already, put there last night.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “There must be something dreadful afoot if you are writing to your father behind your mother’s back.”

Jane blushed. “I will say this much—I may need your help again before all is settled. My mother intends to force my sister to accept a man she does not want, and only my father can thwart her plans. I have written to insist that he come to London straightaway!”

Jenny raised her brows as she shook her head. “Miss Elizabeth is not one to marry someone she does not fancy. I know her that well.”

“Clearly you do,” Jane responded. “It would be a disaster to force her to accept a man that she does not respect, and I know for certain that she does not respect this man.”

“Well, do not worry yourself about it, Miss Jane,” Jenny soothed as she laid a hand on her arm. “Your papa does not seem the type to allow this to happen. Not to Miss Elizabeth or to you.”

“I am relying on that, Jenny. So do not fail me, please.”

“I will not.” That having been said, Jenny picked up the linens once more, just as Mrs. Doane pushed open the dining room door and eyed them with suspicion. Jenny averted her eyes. Jane would not be intimidated and glared at the older woman until she addressed Jenny.

“What are you doing in here, missy? You were supposed to have the bread in the oven a quarter-hour ago.”

“I hindered her progress,” Jane answered before Jenny could reply. “I was enquiring how her mother was faring. Jenny’s mother once worked for one of our neighbours in Meryton, and I know her well.”

Mrs. Doane huffed. “That is all well and good, but it will not put food on the table when the Mistress expects it!”

“Well, then I suppose that I shall just have to explain to my aunt why we shall be eating a little later.” Jane turned to address Jenny. “And thank you for the information regarding your family. Please tell your mother that I enquired of her health.”

Jenny nodded, “Yes, Miss Bennet.”

The younger maid hid a smile as she ducked her head and hurried out the door, while the housekeeper watched her go with barely concealed frustration. As Jane made her way out of the room too, she could hear the woman mumbling under her breath about people thinking they were above their stations. She suppressed the urge to say something.

Horrible woman! I do not see why my aunt keeps her about. I pray Jenny will not suffer on my account.

~~~*~~~

Ashcroft Park
William’s Bedroom

Truly happy for the first time in years, a new dream began in William’s imagination, and in this one, Elizabeth was the Mistress of Pemberley. In his imaginings, he was standing at the windows of his study which overlooked the rose garden that his mother had designed. He was barely able to contain his elation as he watched Elizabeth who was sitting in a swing amongst the roses and conversing with a small boy playing nearby. Occasionally she would look down to hum a song to an infant that slept in her arms. A breeze stirred the treetops, and his gaze swept across the breadth of the lawn, noting that all the flowering trees, shrubs and flowers were in bloom—springtime was magical at Pemberley!

In his dream, he had just decided to join Elizabeth in the garden when the sounds of a servant shutting the dressing room door penetrated William’s awareness. Awakened, he became immediately alert, and the reality of what had occurred between Elizabeth and himself that night came rushing back.

She loved him… truly loved him and had vowed to wait until he was free! Confident that he could endure anything as long as he knew that she waited at the end of the tribulation, he rolled over and reached out to find her gone. Disappointment engulfed him, and he closed his eyes in a bid to relive the ecstasy of their short time together last night.

Elizabeth had completed the task of stitching his wound closed, uttering not a word as her needle moved in and out. He had kept his eyes closed at her request and had barely felt the shift of the bed as she slid to her feet, alerting him that she was finished. Opening his eyes, they acclimated to the dim light, and he noted that she stood at the French doors leading to the terrace. Her hair was dishevelled and reminded him of their first encounter at the bookshop. He could not tell if she was crying, though her head was down and her hands covered her face. Instantly he was standing behind her, clasping both trembling forearms as he pulled her back against his body.

“Elizabeth,” he breathed into her hair as he rested his head atop hers. “You are shaking like a leaf. What is the matter, sweetheart?”

Only a strangled sob escaped her throat with her first attempt to speak, but afterward, she was able to say, “I… I was so scared.”

“My brave, brave darling,” he soothed, kissing the top of her head.

She began to cry as she continued. “It has all been so… draining and so frightening. To learn that you are married… that Wilkens is a madman… to watch as poor Georgiana was almost—” She faltered, swallowing with great difficulty and shaking her head as though that would help to remove the large lump in her throat. At last she whispered hoarsely, “When I saw that you were hurt…”

Instantly, William turned her to face him, pulling her into his embrace. Her head came to rest against the hard musculature of his chest as two small hands slid around to clasp his back. And as her fingertips gripped tighter, striving to pull him closer, he silently repeated his vow to protect her even as his body betrayed his best intentions.

“Shhh, sweetheart, say no more. I should never have involved you in the insanity that is my life. You do not deserve what has befallen you, what will befall you because of me.”

She looked up to him. “Please do not think I regret loving you. That is the only thing that makes sense to me in all of this. You cannot help that you were trapped in a loveless marriage or that Providence put us together that night in the cabin. It is only.”

“Only?”

“I came to London to prove my sister wrong, but I fear that I have only proved her right. I bragged to Jane that we would find decent men to marry in London, if only we made an effort. But it is plain that only a madman like Wilkens would settle for a girl with no dowry or connections.” Her voice dropped, along with her eyes. “Would you have even cared for me if you had not been trapped in a marriage with a woman you despise?”

William cupped her face, lifting it tenderly so that their eyes met and held. “I am certain of only one thing, Elizabeth. I would have loved you the moment we met, just as I did when I found you at the bookstore. I pray that I would have had the good sense to recognise how precious that love is and to pursue it.”

“Tell me about her—about Gisela,” she pleaded timidly. “I saw her once at a ball in London. It was evident that she had been drinking, and she was with…” her voice trailed off.

“Another man?” William asked. Elizabeth nodded silently.

“Her liaisons are well known to me. I am aware that my aunt told you that she trapped me into marriage and then blackmailed me with my mother’s letters to stay in the union. It began when she tried to entice me into an affair, and when I declined, she decided to seduce my father.” 

“I do not know the particulars of that situation.”

“She told me later that she decided that if she could not have me, she would ruin the Darcy name. My father was a means to an end, though he was more than happy to be used, I fear. Afterward, she claimed to be carrying his child and threatened to tell my mother if I did not marry her. She was aware that the news could likely hasten Mother’s death, but she did not care.”

“So you married her to keep the secret, and once you realised she was not going to have a child—”

mother’s writing. It alluded to the fact that Georgiana is not a Darcy. My poor sister was so devastated when our parents died, that I feared for her sanity if anything of that nature became public then.”

Elizabeth gasped. “Poor Georgiana. Do you think it true?”

“I have concluded that it is quite possibly true. My father neglected my mother for years, keeping to his
friendships
in London. The truth came out when I was called to Gisela’s townhouse to collect him after he had an ailment with his heart. I condemned his despicable behaviour, and he blamed his actions on the fact that my mother’s health prohibited another child. I saw that as no excuse for his infidelity to my mother.”

“Your aunt has said that the basis for the extortion will no longer exist in a short while. What is to happen that will make Gisela’s threats of no use?”

“I will admit that, at the onset, I sought only to shield Georgiana from more hurt. Then others—Richard, Aunt Audrey, Lord Landingham—convinced me that she deserved to know the truth of her parentage. I wanted to wait until she was older, but she has matured tremendously under Aunt Audrey’s care. I truly believe she will be able to bear it now. After all, she is my mother’s child, my sister, and forever a Darcy as far as I am concerned.”

Elizabeth wore a pensive expression.

“I sense there is more you wish to know. Ask me.”

“Even in her present state, Gisela is still quite beautiful, while I am only—”

“Never say that!” William interrupted emphatically. “From first glimpse, I found you to be enchantingly beautiful, Elizabeth. And I never thought Gisela remotely handsome. She never held any sway over my emotions, nor have I ever desired her as I do you.”

Satisfied, she whispered, “I love you so.”

A quick flame began in his core as he inspected her eyes. Finding the love that he had always desired gazing back, he whispered, “I love you with all my heart and my soul.”

Elizabeth laid her head on his chest, closing her eyes. “Then let me stay with you a while. Hold me just as you did that night at the cabin.”

“I would hold you forever were it possible, but you know that you should not be found in my rooms.”

“I shall not stay long,” she pleaded, her voice catching with emotion as she added, “Please.”

Swooping Elizabeth off her feet effortlessly, William carried her to the bed and laid her atop the counterpane, quickly taking his place beside her. She turned to snuggle into him, which sent a delicious throng of sensations coursing through his body and surged into his manhood.

He responded by brushing kisses against her temple. “This may not be wise, darling. I fear that my desires could—”

She turned her head to him, and his words were halted by soft lips pressing against his. Further resistance was futile as months of pent-up longing and desire came rushing in, and he surrendered to the yearning to love her. And as their kisses became endless, intensifying and growing more demanding, he was barely aware that he had undone the fastenings of her nightclothes and was now pushing the silky material aside to cup her breast. A low moan escaped her throat, only adding fuel to the fire. No longer capable of halting the hardness that was his body’s response, William rolled over, trapping her beneath him. The ecstasy of body against body was so immeasurable that he began to move slowly against her with a rhythm as old as time.

Caught up in their passion, Elizabeth tried to pull him even closer, her nails burrowing into the tanned skin of his back as he feathered kisses down her neck, across her collarbone and down to the softness of her bosom. He kissed the very top of one perfect breast and was just about to capture the hard centre in his mouth when Elizabeth murmured again breathlessly, “I love you.”  William instantly became aware of what he was doing. Rolling over to his back, he groaned in anguish, uttering an oath under his breath.