The Trouble with Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan

Author:Sharon Lathan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Elizabeth (Fictitious character), Darcy, Married people, Family Life, Bennet, Fiction, Romance, Historical, Fitzwilliam (Fictitious character), Regency
ISBN: 9781402237546
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Published: 2011-03-31T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

A Wedding in Meryton

Darcy was jolted to semi-wakefulness late the next morning by a pair of soft but surprisingly heavy elbows landing square on his chest.

“Papa, wake up! We need to see my toad!”

Darcy opened bleary eyes, befuddled brain registering the anxious expression of Alexander, whose face was close enough to see two of him. Darcy blinked and groaned as remembrance seeped into fogged wits.

“Papa!” Alexander gripped his father’s chin between pudgy fingers, shaking for attention. “Hurry! What if he is hungry?”

Darcy nodded, reaching to encircle his son’s body for a squeeze while rubbing gritty eyes with the other hand. He looked to the right, but the bed was empty. “Where are your mother and Michael?”

“Gone,” the boy answered unhelpfully, unconcerned over absent mother and brother or apparently confounded by waking in a bed other than his own. The issue of toad safety was far more pressing a worry!

“Your toad is fine, I promise you. Come, let’s find your mother and attend to our own hunger. I am in need of coffee.”

“But…”

“Trust me, Son. He is just fine. Now give me a kiss.”

Lizzy and Michael were in the sitting room, both consuming a morning meal, when the elder Darcy men joined them. Thus the morning began. Darcy had lain awake theorizing until the darkest hours of the night, finally falling into a deep but nightmare-filled sleep that was far from sufficient for his needs. Being continually prodded by a flipping toddler all night long did not help either. Nonetheless, his superior perspicacity prevailed and he wasted little time before executing the necessary requirements.

He was dead serious when stating that he would not permit his three loved ones out of his sight, but of course in the light of day the realities of such a blanket statement were not as easy to arrange. Lizzy departed to bathe and prepare for her sister’s wedding, but only after being sternly reminded to keep Marguerite within shouting distance and to send for him before leaving her chambers. The nursery door was kept bolted, Mrs. Hanford instructed to open for no one other than Mr. or Mrs. Darcy. It was an odd request that baffled the nanny but was executed without question.

Darcy performed his own toilette hastily, returning to the freshly scrubbed faces of his sons with relief. He did not think that Wickham or Orman would boldly storm Netherfield to abduct or harm his family, but he was not going to slacken his defense.

With the boys clean and dressed, and Mrs. Hanford finally apprised of cursory details regarding her Master’s strange behavior, the four of them set out to check on the toad, who was fine as promised. With a contented Michael clasped to Darcy’s chest, they knelt beside the barrel and supplied the indifferent amphibian with three more fat worms. The baby was mildly intrigued by the animal, but was equally fascinated by the buttons on his father’s jacket. Darcy would not relinquish Michael from his arms to the nanny until they were safely sequestered in the library.

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