Alone with Mr. Darcy: A Pride & Prejudice Variation (27 page)

His lips moved down to her neck, exploring the lines
of it until he reached the hollow at the base. How had she never known what
pleasure could be had from that little spot? Then she felt his fingers trace
along the neckline of her nightgown, dipping just inside it and sending a swell
of passion deep to her center.

She trembled as he untied the laces of her nightgown.
He froze and gazed deep into her eyes. “Elizabeth, are you well? Do you wish me
to stop?”

She shook her head. “Pray do not stop.”

“My dearest, loveliest Elizabeth,” he breathed as his
warm hands shifted the nightgown from her shoulders. It whispered against her
heated skin as it fell to the floor.

Darcy was not in a good humor as he
approached Mr. Graves’s house. He had managed to locate his direction with
relative ease, but it had already been a long morning of traveling from
Rosings. A smile spread across his face. Of course he might just be fatigued
from a lack of sleep the previous night – in the best of all causes!
Elizabeth had fulfilled his every passionate dream of her. And then, instead of
a leisurely day in bed, he had been forced to leave Elizabeth at Darcy House
with Georgiana and Mrs. Dawley so he could hunt his errant cousin. He scowled.

He found the modest house in the City and
presented his card. After a few minutes, a maid showed him into a small sitting
room.

Anne de Bourgh rose gracefully to her
feet, her friend Miss Holmes by her side. “So you have found your way here. Mr.
Graves is out on a consultation, but I presume you were looking for me in any
case.”

So taken aback he almost forgot to bow,
Darcy said sternly, “I am glad to see you well, cousin. Richard and I have been
very worried about you.”

“Well, that must be a novel experience for
you! As you can see, I am safe and in good health.”

“Could you not have left word where you
were going?”

She tilted her head and appeared to
consider this for a moment. “I could have, but I have spent enough of my life
seeking permission for the slightest variance to my routine. I am
seven-and-twenty years old, not a child, and I do not need your supervision.”

Darcy took a deep breath to steady
himself. It was hardly surprising Anne would not think of the common courtesy
of giving notice of her plans; she had seen little enough common courtesy at
Rosings. And he did not wish to quarrel with her over her manners. She would be
distraught enough with what he had to tell her.

“Now I know you are safe, may I have a
moment of your time? There is a matter I would like to discuss with you.”

She motioned him to a chair. “Please.”

He glanced at Miss Holmes. “May we speak
privately?”

“You may say anything you wish in front of
Carrie. She is my dear friend and now my companion.”

Since there was nothing to be done for it,
he settled himself gingerly. They were only a few feet apart in this small
room, and he was accustomed to keeping his distance from Anne. “You know it was
your mother’s wish that you and I should marry.”

“I should say
everyone
must know
that. She said it so often.”

“However, I cannot marry you.” He waited
for the storm.

“So you have said almost as often.” She
seemed quite unconcerned by the news.

“Unfortunately, there are other
ramifications for you. Your mother left you Rosings only on the condition that
you are married to me.”

“Again, I have known this for years. It
does not matter.”

Bewildered, Darcy asked, “You do not care
about losing your home?”

Her lip curled. “Do you think I am such a
fool as to allow that to happen?”

“A fool? How could I possibly say? I am
rapidly discovering how very little I know of you.”

“Very observant. But Rosings is mine.”

“Thanks to your mother, it does not work
that way. She chose to deprive you of it in hopes it would force my hand.”

Anne tapped her lips. “As I understand it,
her will says that if I am unmarried at the time of her death, I will only
inherit Rosings if I marry you. However, I was married prior to her death, so
that does not matter.”

He must have misheard. “I beg your
pardon?”

“You heard me. I married two years ago,
soon after I learned the contents of her will. I was not willing to lose my
inheritance simply because my mother always had to have her own way.”

Darcy felt lost. Had Anne made this up out
of whole cloth? There were no men in her life. Perhaps she was not in her right
mind. He glanced at Miss Holmes, but she did not seem to find any of this odd.
“Ah…why did you say nothing of it?”

“And give my mother another opportunity to
write me out of her will? No, thank you.”

“I meant to ask why you have kept your
silence since her death.” And put him through two bad days of needless worry
when he should have been celebrating his wedding.

“I did not care to discuss it until my
husband was available. I knew you would try to stop me.”

“Might I ask the identity of your
husband?” He could only hope it was not one of the footmen.

She shrugged lightly. “Mr. Graves, of
course.”

“Mr. Graves?” Of course – Graves,
who was so dedicated he called on her every week, whether she was in ill health
or not. Graves, who would recognize the fortune which he only had to be patient
to claim. Graves, who was clever enough to arrange for a wedding in a different
parish, and to claim he only wished to give Anne the experience of walking out
with a gentleman.

“Why not Mr. Graves? He gave me my life
back. More than that, he
talked
to me. He brought me novels and
Ackermann’s Repository to read. He asked my opinions and listened to what I
said. He found me Carrie, who did not report my every move to my mother or
force vile tonics down my throat. No one else ever cared as much for me. I was
happy to marry him.”

There was little to be said to that, since
Darcy had made a point of not showing Anne any attention, never considering how
it would affect her. Still, there was nothing to be done now. If Graves was a
fortune hunter, it was too late. “I hope you will be very happy.”

“I am already happier than I have been in
years. I have my dear husband, and Carrie will live with us instead of on her
brother’s charity. So you need not worry; you are under no obligation to me,
especially as a potential husband.”

“That would have been impossible in any
case. You are not the only one who thought to avoid your mother’s demands via a
secret marriage. When I said I could not marry you, it was the truth.”

That caught her attention. “I cannot
believe it! You are married?”

“Just yesterday. My bride is waiting for
me at Darcy House.”

“Who is she?”

“You have met her as Miss Elizabeth
Bennet. She came to dine at Rosings with Mr. and Mrs. Collins.”

“The one who alternately ignored you and
stared daggers at you?”

Darcy smiled. Who knew Anne had observed
so much? “The very one.”

Footsteps sounded outside the room, and
Mr. Graves entered. Spotting Darcy, he looked quizzically at Anne.

She held her hand out to him. “Darcy
knows. I just told him everything.”

Her husband – what a concept!
– smiled warmly at her as he took her hand and placed his free hand on
her shoulder as he stood beside her. “I hope it is not too much of a disappointment
to you, Mr. Darcy.”

“Not at all. You will need to visit the
solicitor and prove the facts of your marriage. I assume you kept
documentation? Then I can turn Rosings Park over to you, as I am technically
Anne’s guardian until that time.” He would be glad to wash his hands of this
nonsense.

“I am at your service, with both
documentation and witnesses. We anticipated our marriage might be contested.”

“Very wise. Well, I shall impose on you no
longer. I wish you both very happy.”

Darcy was already on his feet when Mr.
Graves said calmly, “I imagine you must think me the worst sort of fortune
hunter, but I am very fond of your cousin. I suggested to her repeatedly that
she quit Rosings to live with me here, even if it meant being cut out of her
mother’s will. But keeping Rosings is important to Anne, and I respect that.”

Anne’s lips tightened. “After everything I
suffered at my mother’s hands, I
deserve
Rosings. I would
not
give it up, even if it meant living there with her. At least she could no longer
make me ill.”

Darcy shook his head. “She
made
you
ill?”

Mr. Graves responded, “When I was first
called to see Anne, she was not far from death. In fact, I am surprised she
survived so long. Her previous doctor bled her every week and dosed her with
purgatives. At his orders she was fed nothing but milk and bread, which he
described as a suitable diet for a young lady. My treatment for her, if you can
call it that, was to stop the bleedings and purgatives, to give her meat and
fruit every day, to take her out in the sun, and to replace her mother’s
purging tonic with a benign one which looked and smelled the same. A few months
later, she was as you see her now. Anne, my dear, would you be so kind as to
remove your glove?”

Anne hesitated, then rolled down one of
her ever-present elbow length gloves and displayed her forearm to Darcy. It was
crisscrossed with scars, some thick and red, others fine and fading to white.

He recoiled, remembering Anne’s sickly
years when she was always white as a ghost and weak enough walking across a
room tired her. “I am sorry. I had no idea.”

“Of course you had no idea,” said Mr.
Graves crisply. “Lady Catherine hired what she thought to be the finest doctors
in England to care for her daughter. It was Anne’s ill luck their skill was not
proportionate to their reputations or their prices. But you will understand why
I was reluctant to leave her under Lady Catherine’s care, especially once she
was my wife.”

“I am glad you told me. It explains a
great deal.” Darcy cleared his throat. “Mr. Graves, Anne is not the only one to
have suffered under Lady Catherine’s rule. The upkeep of the estate, and
especially the tenant villages, has been much neglected, and the steward is
both incompetent and dishonest. I highly recommend replacing him at your first
opportunity. If it would be of any assistance, I would be happy to make a list
of the improvements I suggested to Lady Catherine, including repairing the road
on which she met her end.”

Graves looked surprised. “I would greatly
appreciate that. I have no experience with land management, and will have much
to learn.”

At least the man recognized the problem.
That was something.

***

Darcy’s next stop was at Matlock House
where he was immediately shown in to see his uncle. He took in the sweet, rich
aroma of fine brandy his uncle poured for him and allowed the first sip to roll
around his mouth. French, by the taste of it, and no doubt smuggled. He should
enjoy it now before the discussion became heated.

“I thought you were still at Rosings,” said
the earl.

“I left yesterday after discovering Anne
had taken it into her head to travel. There is no need to worry; I have found
her, but it has raised an interesting question regarding Lady Catherine’s
will.”

The earl cleared his throat. “Now, Darcy,
I understand you do not care for the idea of marrying Anne, but we cannot let
Rosings go.”

At least now he could avoid telling his
uncle he had planned to do that very thing. “As it happens, Anne was aware of
that clause in the will and decided some time ago to take action on her own.
She is married already, and has been for two years. The clause only applied if
Anne should be unmarried at the time of her mother’s death. Presumably Lady
Catherine never conceived of the possibility of Anne marrying someone other
than me.”

“Married already? Why, that is ridiculous.
The girl never left Rosings.”

“Apparently she has more ingenuity than we
gave her credit for. There is one man who spent time with her on a regular
basis – her doctor, now her husband.”

Lord Matlock slammed his hands down on his
desk. “Good God! Tell me this is a jest!”

“Unfortunately, it is no jest.”

“We must get it annulled immediately.”

“There does not appear to be grounds for
an annulment. She has been living with him for several days. The one advantage
is it does keep Rosings in the family, whereas otherwise Anne would lose it.”

“Not if she were married to you.”

Darcy set down his brandy. Better not to
be holding fragile objects when the storm broke. “That would not be possible in
any case. Even before Lady Catherine’s untimely end, I was already honor bound
to another.”

“Engagements can be broken.”

“But lost honor cannot be mended. The
point is moot in any case. She is now my wife.” He braced himself for the
explosion.

“First
Anne
makes a mésalliance,
and now
you
, of all people?”

“The lady in question saved my life at the
cost of her own reputation. I could hardly ignore that. Whether it is a
mésalliance or not I will leave to you. Her father is a gentleman, at least.”

The earl pressed his fingertips to the
bridge of his nose. “But not a
good
alliance, I take it.”

“Her father owns a small estate which is
entailed away from the family. They have no significant connections of which I
am aware.”

“It could be worse, I suppose. Is she
presentable?”