Compulsively Mr. Darcy (28 page)

Right before she closed the door, Mrs. Ching glanced back into the room. Elizabeth had her head on her husband's shoulder and her arms around him.

***

As they viewed New York City below them through the window, Elizabeth gently rubbed her husband's back. Gradually, the stiffness left his body.

He turned to face her. “I feel so responsible.”

Her heart broke at the sadness in his eyes and the guilt in his voice. She gave him a few more minutes to blame himself before she comforted him with a kiss. His lips clung to hers. When he finally broke contact, she said, “I know you do, my love. I wish I could make you see it's not your fault.”

“Thank you for calling me. I got here as fast as I could. I'm going to have nightmares from the thought of what could have happened to you and Georgiana flying on a commercial plane—”

“Shhh,” she interrupted, amused that with everything that had happened, he'd chosen to perseverate on that detail. “We couldn't take the risk of someone at DDF learning and leaking to Anne that Georgiana and I were flying here this morning if we had used the company's jet.”

“I wished you had listened to me and stayed away from here today and let—”

“And miss all the fun?” she cut him off again. “I did try to stay away, but when I saw that you hadn't shown up by the time the meeting started, I couldn't let Georgiana be the only Darcy there.”

“If anything had happened to you—”

“Nothing did,” she soothed. They had lured Anne to DDF with the leaked news of a secret board meeting. William was supposed to have arrived before the meeting and surprised Anne with an order to see her laptop. “I'm so sorry it got public and involved your whole board. We didn't count on you being late, so the meeting had to go on as scheduled and then things just happened—”

“Sweetheart, I need to tell you that…”

“I told my parents not to let Lydia get involved with a reality TV show!” she shouted when he finished telling her what had happened in Hollywood. She spent a few minutes ranting and ignored her husband's attempts to calm her. Then the humor of it got to her. She shook her head. “Both of us were protecting each other's little sister without telling the other.”

A wry smile appeared on his face. “Great minds think alike.”

She sobered. “So that was why you had the FBI here. I didn't expect them. Gosh, what a mess this is going to be.”

“After your phone call about Georgiana and Anne, I knew I had to immediately talk to the FBI agent in charge, Ms. Dashwood. That's why I was late.”

“I'm a bit confused why. It defeated the purpose of us protecting Georgiana by deleting the pictures on Anne's computer.”

“I knew the FBI would soon make the connection between Anne and Wickham and track her down. I didn't want any of us to be charged with tampering with evidence or impeding an investigation. Brandon convinced me that Ms. Dashwood is a reasonable, sensible person and to lay everything up front on the table.”

“So you did, I see.”

He nodded. “In exchange for not including any photos of Georgiana as evidence—”

“That is, if they can find any after Mary's done with the computer.”

“I know you have great faith in your sister's skills on the computer, but I can't take that risk,” he pointed out. “As I was saying, in exchange, I gave Ms. Dashwood open access to DDF. I will not use my resources and have lawyers involved to hinder her investigation.”

“Mary said the authorities wouldn't be able to really prove…” She stopped. “You're right. As usual, you thought through everything carefully.”

“If it hadn't been for my blindness—”

She put her fingers on his mouth. “Okay, buster. Here's the deal. I won't blame myself and you don't blame yourself. Agreed?”

He kissed her fingers. “Agreed. I love you, Mrs. Darcy.”

Though she knew he agreed only to humor her, she let it go. “I love you too, Mr. Darcy. Now, I have had enough of this ugly business for today. You finish what you have to do here and then come home. I know how to make you feel better.”

Elizabeth turned a page and laughed aloud. She gave the tabloid to her aunt and pointed. In the background of a photo taken at a Hollywood premiere of Jorge Cooley's latest movie, Hussein and Caroline, standing behind the actor, smiled into the camera.

“Are you okay?” Aunt Mai put aside the magazine when Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Are they kicking you too hard?”

“I'm fine.” She ignored the wave of the gentle contraction lolling over her abdomen. “My appointment time was thirty minutes ago. I'll be late calling William. He's going to be more anxious and difficult.”

“Yes, very likely,” Aunt Mai's voice was dry.

“He has reasons to be anxious and difficult,” Elizabeth defended her husband.

“No need to explain.” Aunt Mai rubbed Elizabeth's forearm. “It's understandable William and you feel guilty and responsible, but remember the woman was actually beating her lawyers with her cane when she suffered a fatal stroke. They caught it on video at the courthouse.”

Elizabeth sighed. It was such a dramatic way for William's aunt to have died, just as she was being charged with trafficking child pornography. The authorities didn't buy her or Anne's defense that the women had meant for Wickham to target Kitty, not Lydia.

“Your uncle suspects Mr. Wickham, as this is not his first offense, will likely get three consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole, and Miss de Bourgh a few years.”

“I hope they rot in prison.”

“Don't get yourself upset,” Aunt Mai soothed. “Focus on what's coming, like these two precious babies. I'm surprised you managed to get their father onto the plane yesterday.”

“They need him in New York. They haven't yet found a computer security system Mary can't hack into. He plans to be back in a couple of days.”

“He made a schedule of who—along with the backup person—was to be with you at all hours while he's gone. He has called us all repeatedly to make sure we all know our shifts and what to do if you even hiccup.” Aunt Mai laughed. “We took bets that he wouldn't leave.”

“New York is only a five-hour flight away. Jane's there. She'll keep me posted if William gets too stressed. I'm glad she accepted his offer to have her oversee the Pemberley Trust Foundation. He needs someone he can trust and Jane needs to be in New York to get to know Charles better.”

“How's that romance going?”

“He worries that he's not good enough for her, and she worries that she's got too much baggage from her old relationship, but they're progressing.”

“And your sister Mary and Richard? Are they progressing?”

“Now that's a relationship I'm not even going to comment on.” Elizabeth shook her head, bemused. “Who'd ever have thought—” She suddenly felt short of breath.

“Lizzy?” Her aunt's face looked concerned. “You look like you're in labor.”

After her breathing normalized, Elizabeth reassured her aunt, “False labor contraction. Nothing to worry about.”

Her aunt ignored her and took out her cell phone. “I'm calling your husband. I value my life.”

***

Darcy carefully placed the phone down. He stood and walked slowly at first until he reached the hallway. His stride lengthened. He weaved through desks and cubicles. The startled faces of his employees flashed by him. Spying the lit
down
triangle above the elevator door, he broke into a run. He launched himself through the doors just as it opened, clipping the shoulder of the man walking out.

“Darce, where are you going? The meeting with the computer people is starting now.”

“Elizabeth, my babies,” was all the response Bingley got before the elevator doors closed on him.

Jane was at a meeting across town. He should wait for her. No. The precious seconds the elevator took to descend to the ground floor convinced him he could not wait for anyone or anything. The elevators opened. He tore through the lobby, not caring he was scattering a group of his employees as if they were bowling pins.

Thirty minutes later, when the DDF car couldn't maneuver past a New York City traffic jam—a pregnant woman delivering her seventh child in the middle of the roadway a few miles up ahead was rumored to be the cause—he unbuckled his seat belt. Barking a series of last-minute instructions to his bodyguard and driver, he took off his jacket and tie and exited the car, shutting the door on their protests.

He raced through the streets, dodging pedestrians and cars, and reached the cause of the traffic jam. The sight of an ambulance parked next to a car, out of which he swore he could hear the loud wailing of a mother and infant, spurred his legs to a faster speed. Glimpsing a flash of yellow ahead, he sprinted and grabbed the door handle of a cab that had just pulled up to a group waiting at a corner.

“Wife, twin babies born now, must get there,” he gasped to the astonished faces of the people whose cab he was stealing.

Their scowls turned into beaming smiles. He shut the door on them, in the middle of their congratulatory wishes.

With the promise of a tip twice as big as the man's yearly income, he persuaded the cab driver to break an unprecedented number of traffic laws to deliver him to the waiting DDF jet in record time.

The cross-country flight was agonizing. Despite his repeated urgings to fly faster and faster, the DDF pilot refused.

“Mr. Darcy, we are going as fast as the aircraft can, at maximum cruising speed. Your hovering in the cockpit, peering over my shoulders isn't—”

“Helping, I get it.” Darcy interrupted impatiently.

“Perhaps before Mrs. Darcy next gives birth, you might look into buying a supersonic jet.”

He had no better luck with the helicopter pilot who flew him from the Oakland airport to the hospital's roof. Darcy refused to wait for the hospital representative, now delayed by an elevator, to greet him and take him to his wife. His instincts would lead him to his wife quicker, Darcy was convinced. He charged down the stairs.

Five minutes later, cursing the incompetence of whoever had designed the maze of the hospital corridors, he managed to find the Labor and Delivery wing. He burst through its double doors and ran smack into his mother-in-law.

“William! You shouldn't be running in a hospital.”

Fearful, he could only manage a small whisper. “Elizabeth?”

His mother-in-law must have recognized his state. Her expression softened and she gently led him into a room.

Friends and relatives crowded the room, but the only person he saw clearly was his wife.

***

One glance at her husband's face and Elizabeth waved everyone out.

After everyone had left, her husband still hadn't moved an inch.

Spreading her arms wide, she waited. After another paralytic moment, he flew toward her. She could feel tremors coursing through his body as he buried his face in her neck. She pressed harder into him, offering comfort with her body.

“I… I…” his voice stumbled against her neck.

“I know, my love.” She stroked his arms and waited.

At last, his body stopped shaking and his breathing calmed. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine. I've been having strange sensations but it's all normal.”

He pulled back and gently rubbed her abdomen. “What sort of sensations?”

One of the babies kicked at his hand and he smiled. She thought that was the most wonderful sight, her husband's delighted smile. Describing her contractions as best she could, she ended, “I'm not uncomfortable at all.”

“I should never have left you.”

She caressed his sweat-drenched hair. “Shhh! I made you go to New York. You needed to be there to deal with the security problem. Think of it as securing DDF for our babies' inheritance. I'm fine. We're all fine.”

“I was so afraid I wouldn't see you again,” he whispered. “You're as necessary to me as breathing, my Lizzy. Without your warmth, I can't… I've only begun to live.”

She closed her eyes and inhaled, letting his pepper scent infuse her. “You're my air, William.”

“I remember that first day I arrived in Vietnam, how I resisted going inside that hospital when Bingley injured himself. Today, I couldn't get to you inside this hospital fast enough.”

“I'm cuter than him, that's why.” She was gratified to see her husband smile at that.

“Will they be okay?”

“They'll be fine. Now, it's time to think of names.”

“No. No names yet.”

She laughed at the firmness in his voice. He was more superstitious than Aunt Mai's Vietnamese relatives. They had convinced him it would be bad luck to have the baby names before birth; the gods would be jealous.

“You're only at thirty-four weeks,” he said.

To distract him from his worrying, she groped him. “I know a way to pass the time while we wait for your children, Mr. Darcy.”

Groaning, he pulled her hand away. “We're in a hospital room and you're in labor.”

“Likely just false labor. I'm here as a precaution because my OB is afraid of you.” Per doctor's orders, she'd had to abstain from sex for weeks. She'd refused, however, to give up the one sure way she knew would relieve stress for her husband. She smirked. “You know I do some of my best work with my hands and mouth lately.”

He blushed. “Naughty girl. I don't want it without you.”

“We'll see how long you'll last.”

“I'm willing to be patient.”

For the next two weeks, their babies sorely tested William's patience by refusing to be born. Her labor did not progress until a day shy of her thirty-sixth week of pregnancy, when she awoke one night more uncomfortable than usual.

Her husband, who had been sleeping in a cot next to her bed, instantly joined her when she restlessly moved. “You want me to rub your back?”

“Yes.” Her hand took advantage of his proximity. When he tried to move her hand away, she snarled at him. He stopped resisting. Despite her discomfort, she smiled at having gotten her way; she wasn't in the mood to behave and she was glad he recognized that.

Occupied, they didn't hear the quiet entrance of the night nurse coming to check Elizabeth's vitals. William's gasp echoed the embarrassed nurse's gasp. The woman quickly retreated. The sight of his mortified face made Elizabeth laugh so hard, her water broke.

She was now in active labor.

Immediately, her medical training took over. She barked orders at the staff. She wanted perfection and prompt responses. No way was she going to accept anything less, not with her children's lives at stake.

“Sweetheart, everyone is trying hard. Please calm down,” her husband said at one point.

“Why the hell are you the easygoing and calm one now?” she shouted at him, irritated that the staff had turned to him for guidance on how to deal with her.

“Because I, we, have done everything possible to make this experience safe for you and our babies,” he answered, his tone even. “I can't promise you nothing bad will happen, but you and I have done everything in our power to prevent what we could. The rest is up to fate.”

“For a man who doesn't usually say much, you can talk pretty when you need to, Mr. Darcy.”

“With your total love and acceptance of me and my neuroses, how could I not at least learn and grow a little, Mrs. Darcy?” He bent and kissed her forehead. “Besides, I did promise to talk more. That's all I can do right now, talk. You're the one who has the hard work ahead.”

And she worked hard the next few hours. Their baby boy was born first, followed minutes later by his sister. As soon as their daughter's lusty cries followed their son's hearty howling, Elizabeth's husband promptly fainted.