Lizzy's Secret Baby: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Lucy Byrne

Author:Lucy Byrne [Byrne, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Darcy returned home to a flurry of activity.

“What is going on?” he asked Mr. Weatherby, who helped to manage the house with his wife. Darcy liked the Weatherbys. They were no nonsense people who kept the home clean and well-organized. They never bothered him with mundane issues, which he appreciated.

“Mrs. Darcy and her mother wished for a large meal to be prepared this evening,” Mr. Weatherby explained.

Darcy was confused. They normally had a large meal. He had been impressed that the cook was able to accommodate the tastes of everyone at the table, and he considered bringing the man back to his London home. He’d not been able to keep a cook in the city for years.

“It’s no issue,” Mrs. Weatherby said, scurrying out of the kitchen. “We just did not have the beef that Mrs. Hyatt wished to have served this evening.”

Darcy felt his irritation growing. He did not see the need for his staff to be running about like chickens with their heads cut off over such things.

“We will have to ask one of the neighbors. The butcher is closed, but perhaps I could rush to his house to inquire. He lives on the other side of town…”

Darcy raised a hand to stop her. “Whatever we have on hand will do.”

“But Mrs. Hyatt…”

“Did you show Mrs. Darcy the menus for this week?” he asked.

At Pemberley, Charlotte had been too ill to take care of the running of the house, and so, some of that fell upon Georgiana when she was in residence. When she married, Darcy had given Mrs. Reynolds free rein to do what she thought was best. But here, things were different. Since Charlotte was not confined to her rooms she and the housekeeper usually conferred.

“She approved everything, sir.”

Darcy nodded. “Then whatever was planned between the house’s Mistress and her housekeeper will be served as previously discussed.”

He watched as the Weatherbys’ shoulders slumped slightly, and he suspected that Charlotte’s mother had not been polite in her request.

His lips thinned as he walked towards the dining space. When he got there, the table was set, and Charlotte and her mother were sitting there sipping on full glasses of wine. Darcy had to bite his tongue to keep himself from asking Charlotte if her wine had been diluted with water, which had been part of the physician’s instructions.

“Darcy! Where have you been?” Charlotte exclaimed. Her eyes sparkled as she looked on him, and the sight of it made guilt start to unfurl in his chest. He’d not thought of Charlotte once this afternoon while he’d been in Elizabeth’s company.

Darcy tensed as he pressed a small kiss to her cheek. His nose scrunched as he caught the scent of one of her mother’s tinctures. His stomach turned at the overly floral smell.

“I was in town,” he explained.

“What could a man like you need to do in town?” His mother-in-law’s nose turned up, and Darcy tried his best not to roll his eyes. She’d made it clear that she was not glad that the two of them had come to Wales.

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