Shoulder? Georgiana tried not to imagine it.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and pushed again. She dug her fingers into Georgiana’s hand and bore down, shrieking. After several more moments, she fell back against the pillows, panting, her dark eyelashes damp.
“That’s it!” the doctor said. Harriet hurried to his side to help.
An infant’s cry rose up from where the doctor and Harriet stood.
“It’s a girl! A beauty!” Harriet called.
Elizabeth’s eyes closed as she exhaled with effort.
Georgiana kissed Elizabeth’s hand triumphantly, and in return Elizabeth gave her a faint smile.
Across the room, Georgiana saw Mrs. Bennet’s face. She hadn’t noticed before, but she was sitting up, watching everything, crying silently. She had seen the whole thing. Georgiana smiled at her, and she managed a weepy smile back.
“May I see her?” Elizabeth asked, trying to crane her neck as Harriet cleaned the infant while the doctor cut the umbilical cord.
“Just a moment,” Georgiana told her. “You were so brave.”
Harriet brought the baby to Elizabeth swaddled in a hearth-warmed blanket. The infant was small and pink, but had long arms that shook as she cried.
“She has strong lungs,” Georgiana noted.
“Aye, strong limbs too,” Harriet said. “Are you ready to hold her?”
Elizabeth nodded, and Harriet gently set the baby in her arms. She looked at her new daughter for a long moment as if she were holding her breath. Only the baby’s squalls sounded.
“Hello,” she whispered, tears rolling down her face. “Oh, I’m crying again. You’d think I’d be out of tears by now.” She laughed and tried to wipe them away. “You’re so little. And lovely. I’m so happy to meet you.”
Elizabeth offered the girl her pinkie finger and she took it. “Now you’re calm, aren’t you?”
Elizabeth looked up at Georgiana. “Will you get William?”
Doctor McBride stood up. “Mrs. Darcy, now I want you to rest. You don’t need visitors bothering you.”
A voice came across the room.
“Her husband is the baby’s father and not a visitor,” Mrs. Bennet said in an imperious tone, standing up more easily than Georgiana had guessed she could. “He shall be let in to see his daughter.” Mrs. Bennet folded the cloth that had been on her forehead and calmly walked to Elizabeth’s side.
Georgiana decided that the doctor’s tenure as leader was over and left the bedside and to fetch her brother.
“William,” she started to call as she left the warm room.
William sat in the same seat, almost in the same position, head still in his hands as when Georgiana had left him. He snapped his head toward her when he saw her.
“G.?” he said quietly and stood up.
“It’s a girl!” Georgiana said.
He looked at her uncomprehendingly.
“Elizabeth...?”
“She is well,” Georgiana said and rushed to hug him.
Darcy whole body slumped with relief, and for a moment, it seemed he may fall, but Georgiana’s caught and held him up.
“She is well. They both are well.”
“Thank Christ,” he said quietly.
She fell into his warm embrace and cried.
“Oh, G.,” William said, then pulled himself away and stared hungrily at the door. “May I go in?” he asked, suddenly formal.
Georgiana wiped her tears and nodded. “You have been summoned by Mrs. Bennet herself.”
As he walked to the door, a shadow caught Georgiana’s eyes from the corner of the dim room. It was Adam, standing near a chair, not far behind where William had been waiting. His face was pale and tired and his cravat disheveled. He must have been here with William the whole time.
She blinked.
He was still there. He wasn’t a fatigue- or hunger-induced hallucination. He was smiling and looked steady. And he had been there the whole time.
Brushing away her tears, she smiled at him. He shyly grinned back.
The fire in the hearth crackled in the silence.
“Are you well, Miss Darcy?”
“I am. How are you, Mr. Merriweather?” she said as she approached him.
“Fatigued, but relieved.” He sighed happily. “Sounds as though Mr. Darcy is a father?”
“Yes, to a baby girl. To think, just a few hours ago, we were only concerned with a small kitten.”
He grinned again, his face lighting up. He really was quite handsome. How had she never noticed it before? Her face reddened again.
“One never knows when one can be of service,” he said and cleared his throat. “Your charges escaped at one point an hour or so ago. Somehow, they mounted a compelling, but ultimately ineffective campaign. In their favor, they provided a welcome distraction for your brother. However, they have since been rounded up and sent back to their jail, er, their room.”
Georgiana felt her lips quirk up at him. A small voice told her she should be less transparent in her affections, but she was too weary to heed it.
“Pemberley thanks you for your service. It is above and beyond what we expect of our neighbors.”
He glanced down, bit his lip, and smiled at her, causing tendrils of warmth to curl through her.
“Miss Darcy, later, when we’ve all had a proper night’s rest and a meal or two and have regained our wits, may I call on you? At present, I’m so addlebrained with fatigue, I fear I may say something completely untoward and you’ll despise me and I will never know how I have offended.”
Georgiana felt her heart beat as she looked at him. “You seem sensible enough. But perhaps this conversation is a product of that alteration and, tomorrow, you may regret it when your wit has returned.”
He shook his head. “That will not happen.”
Georgiana shrugged purposefully. “But if you are not yourself now, how will you know?”
Adam pretended to consider this, scratching his chin.
“I only know that if I awake tomorrow and regret this conversation, a more diabolical change in my composition has occurred and I’ve clearly gone mad.”
Georgiana smiled more widely.
Mrs. Bennet, quitting the lying-in room, overheard this exchange and rolled her eyes. “Your conversation makes me glad I am not young anymore.”
Chapter 7
Several hours later, Darcy sat in the breakfast room as he, Georgiana, Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, Adam and a few other guests enjoyed a late morning meal. The snow had finally ended, and a few adventurous neighboring guests were able to take their horses home, while Pemberley staff worked to make paths in the fresh snow. However, other guests like Hugh and Fiona still remained as their carriages could not yet pass. He had never been fond of Hugh and he wasn’t particularly sure why. However, in his new role as contented father, he was prepared to be generous to all.
Georgiana looked around the table. “Mr. Bennet, I know Mrs. Bennet attended Mrs. Darcy, but I was not aware that you stayed up all night as well.”
Mr. Bennet paused long enough to hold his fork of scrambled eggs. “I did not stay up. My expertise was not necessary, and so I actually slept quite well.”
“Oh. I would have expected you would partake in the first breakfast, but here you are now with the night owls.”
Mrs. Bennet pursued her lips meaningfully. “He ate the first breakfast. He’s here for the second one as well.”
Mr. Bennet smiled benignly. “As always, my wife is correct. This is my second breakfast, so I suppose it is not truly ‘breakfast.’ But I do not turn down fresh eggs”—he paused to spear another strip of bacon—“or bacon if I can help it.”
Georgiana nodded and shared a secret smile with Adam, Darcy noted. He was in a hurry to finish his meal and return to the lying-in room to see Elizabeth and the baby again. Still, even he could see the burgeoning affection between his sister and their neighbor.
Normally, this would have given him dyspepsia, but he felt none of
his usual anxiety and even patted Georgiana’s hand affectionately. Truly, fatherhood had changed him. He had a happy, healthy family, and he wanted everyone around him to have the same. He smiled at Georgiana’s bewildered face, and she turned to see if someone was behind her.
“I’m smiling at you, ninny,” Darcy said gently to Georgiana.
His sister turned back to him. “Yes, it’s odd to see you smile for no good reason.”
“But I have every reason to smile this morning,” Darcy answered and realized he believed it. As long as Elizabeth and the baby were well, he had reason to smile every day. His enthusiasm caused Adam and Georgiana to again roll their eyes and exchange glances.
After breakfast, Darcy asked Georgiana to join him in his office briefly. For a moment, she wondered what she’d done wrong, but Darcy’s bliss at new fatherhood was impenetrable and he grinned at her when he said it.
He actually grinned, she realized and shook her head.
Still she entered his office with some trepidation, sensing that he may want to have a word with her about Adam Merriweather and unsure of what the result might be.
“G., please sit down.”
Oh, Lord. He rarely asked her to sit down in his beloved office.
Darcy stood up from his desk and turned to take in the view of snow-covered fields from the window behind him.
She looked at the back of his shoulders and wondered what was coming.
“G., it would take a blind man not to notice that you and Mr. Merriweather are getting on well this holiday.”
Georgiana’s face reddened, and she clasped her hands in her lap. What impediments was he imagining up at the moment? Even for him, this was premature.
“Brother, I will not deny it, but I think it’s early to spin me a list of reasons he is unsuitable. I know his mother’s American. Yes, his father is a businessman and works for a living, and he probably isn’t as stylish as you’d like. London society will not take to him, but I’ve never cared for fine society’s caprices—”
Darcy turned back and sat down, his face blank.
“All true,” Darcy said finally. “But I’ve asked you here because I think you should give him a chance despite your stated reasons.”
Georgiana opened her mouth, prepared to launch an extensive defense of Mr. Merriweather, but his words stopped her.
“Pardon?” Georgiana paused and looked at her brother. “Wait. You are willing to give me a chance to get to know him?”
Darcy nodded, a knowing smile crossing his face.
“I...I am surprised,” Georgiana finally said.
For God’s sake, he was grinning again.
“Georgiana, dear heart. I only want your happiness. That means finding a suitable man to share your life if you’d like. But if there’s one lesson I’ve had impressed upon me in the last year, it is that that person may not be who you thought initially.”
Georgiana listened, saying nothing.
Darcy cleared his throat.
“There were a few moments the previous night when I imagined what my life might be like if Elizabeth were not in it.” He breathed in and exhaled slowly as if to purge the memory from his body.
Georgiana’s own eyes filled. She nodded and simply looked at her brother.
“Thankfully, those fears did not come to fruition,” Darcy said, and Georgiana felt a tear streak down her cheek.
He swallowed and continued. “I want you to be as happy as Elizabeth and I are, and I now see that your happiness may involve someone different from whom we have imagined for you.”
He reached across the desk and set his warm hand over hers, surprising her.
“If someone makes you truly happy and has your best interests in mind, I will not dispute it.”
Georgiana gave him a wet, grateful smile as she swallowed the lump resting in her throat.
“Thank you, William.”
He nodded.
“I think Lady Catherine may have a different viewpoint…” Georgiana said.
“Why don’t you leave Lady Catherine’s opinions to me? I have some experience championing spouses she deems unsuitable, you know.”
Georgiana laughed, again wondering how she had gotten quite so lucky in a brother. She stood and made a beeline to Darcy to embrace him.
“Thank you so much.”
He patted her light hair, overwhelmed by the shocks of happiness he’d experienced in the last few hours.
“Now I must attend to Mrs. Darcy and the newest female in my life. I know I am outnumbered, and yet, I’ve never been quite so pleased.” He paused. “I meant to ask, are your kittens well?”
Georgiana nodded. “I’m to go feed them now. Does this mean you’ve come around on feline housemates?”
Darcy stood up and opened his office door, smiling faintly. “I will say I appreciate them today in a way I did not a few days ago.” He paused. “I am finding small, vulnerable creatures can quite steal your heart.” His voice hitched on the last word.
Georgiana spontaneously kissed his cheek as he followed her out of his office.
The End.
About the Author
Grace Sellers is a writer, college instructor, lifelong animal lover, and pop culture and history geek living in Chicago. She is thrilled to have found a use for her love of period movies, history, and literature that doesn't involve only lying on the couch and eating ice cream (now that’s called “research”).
She has student loans (and degrees) from University of Wisconsin-Madison and lived there for many years. You can see pictures of her past and present pets on her Facebook page. A good portion of any income she earns will inevitably go to rescue animals. Please do not bring her any needy dogs, cats or horses.
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