Compulsively Mr. Darcy

  “I asked Anne not to mention you. She knows how difficult Catherine can be. And if my aunt happens to say something, I’ll deflect her.”

  Her heart twisted. “You’ll make it sound like I’m of no consequence.”

  “Something like that.” He downed the rest of his drink.

  The red haze returned. Elizabeth closed her eyes and briefly thought about the various ramifications of having a domestic violence charge on her clean record. She put down her knitting needles. “I need to call my residents to check on some patients.”

  “Okay, love. I’ll go wash up before dinner.” He stood. “I hope Georgiana feels better soon so she can join us.”

  Elizabeth doubted she could sit calmly through a dinner with him tonight. “I just remembered, I have to dictate some consultation reports before tomorrow.”

  Her month as an attending physician on the infectious disease service had officially finished two days ago, but the doctor replacing her, Dr. Duffy, had a family emergency and asked Elizabeth to stay on a few days longer.

  He said, “All right, I’ll try not to bother you until you finish your work. We’ll wait on dinner for you.”

  After he left, Elizabeth saw that she had unknowingly unraveled all the knitting she had done earlier. She walked to the office she rarely used except when she needed privacy for confidential patient discussions. When Mrs. Reynolds asked about serving dinner, Elizabeth, using the excuse of too much work, requested a tray instead.

  William occasionally poked his head into her office. Each time, she ignored the ache in her heart and pretended to be dictating some medical report and couldn’t be interrupted. Finally, after giving her a smoldering look and a sexy smile she refused to acknowledge, he gave up trying to distract her and went to bed. She stayed in the office, poring over various medical journals, taking notes to distract herself, and ended up falling asleep slumped over the desk.

  The next morning, he woke her with a kiss on her forehead and told her she needed to get to the hospital soon or she’d be late. The tenderness of his warm lips against her cold skin made her almost want to talk to him right then. She didn’t. She had less than thirty minutes before she had to meet with the team for rounds.

  She put her personal problems aside and focused on medicine that morning. When her last two patients in the clinic canceled their appointments in the afternoon, she decided to head home. Mrs. Reynolds thoughtfully brought her a cup of chamomile tea as Elizabeth unwound in her favorite room in the house, William’s study.

  Sipping the hot tea, she took a deep breath and inhaled the smell of wood, books, and William’s spicy scent all mixed. This room held the essence of him and she preferred it to the office he had set up for her. Her eyes swept over the bookshelves along the walls and dropped to the pile of books next to the chair, near the fireplace where he liked to sit and read. She perused the various titles of books he was currently reading and shook her head, bemused at his wide range of interests.

  “I’m not an unsophisticated and uncultured geek. I’m interested in many things and I have a sense of humor,” she said aloud to bolster her confidence. Yet, her inadequacy hovered at the edges of her bravado, whispering she was all brains and nothing else… nothing that would maintain the interest of a worldly man like William for long.

  She pushed the negative thought away. She would talk to him and tell him that she was hurt he didn’t want to introduce her to his aunt and ask about the women from his past. Why hadn’t he wanted to marry any of them before? What had happened with Helena? And she would tell him she wanted an engagement ring, even if that would make her sound clingy and needy. Happy with her decision, she relaxed and closed her eyes.

  ***

  The ringing of the phone woke Elizabeth up.

  Thinking she was on duty at the hospital, she sleepily answered, “Hello. Elizabeth Bennet here.”

  “I’m sorry. I thought I had reached the Darcy residence,” she heard a gravelly voice say in a very proper English accent. “I wish to speak to Mr. Darcy.”

  Elizabeth rubbed her face. “I’m sorry, Mr. Darcy is not here right now. May I take a message?”

  “You answered, then I must have reached his penthouse suite by mistake. You did say your name was Elizabeth?” the elderly woman asked.

  Elizabeth sat straight. “Yes, I’m Elizabeth.”

  “I had heard that he was dating a woman named Elizabeth. You must be his latest. He never tells me about you girls. He always hides you all in the penthouse, but I always find out. Tell me, are you enjoying yourself in the suite? Does he still have that mirror on the ceiling? Or did the last one make him take it down?”

  “I… I…” Elizabeth was stumped.

  “No matter how long you stay there, my dear, you must insist on making your own mark. Redecorate to suit your taste. Go for something exotic, like the Orient. I hear he was taken by the Orient recently.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”

  “Oh dear, I’ve rattled on. I’m his aunt Catherine. You mustn’t mind me, dear. My nephew thinks I don’t know anything. He thinks I won’t be as understanding as Anne about his sowing his wild oats before they get married. They think I’d be upset with their modern, open relationship. Really! I was young once and my generation was the one that opened the door, so to speak.” She paused as if waiting for Elizabeth to respond.

  Elizabeth’s stomach whorled into itself. The chamomile tea she’d drank earlier spiraled to the back of her throat. She swallowed and kept silent.

  After a long moment, the aunt continued, “I can’t say I blame him for playing around with you pretty girls. Much as I hate to admit it, my stepdaughter is not the most feminine looking girl, though she and William suit each other very well in all other areas. I told her to accept that men will be men. We women need to take a practical view of such matters, don’t you think? Of course, I shouldn’t talk so frankly to you.”

  Elizabeth pressed a hand against her stomach and forced herself to speak in an unaffected tone, “Was there a message you wanted to leave?”

  “No, I don’t need to leave a message with you. I’ll try him at his office or I’ll call Anne there. She’ll get him for me; her office is right next to his. You take care, dear.”

  The moment Elizabeth put down the phone, her stomach churned and the ache she’d been suppressing all day rose and choked her breathing. She needed air.

  She left the study and told Mrs. Reynolds she was going for a long walk.

  Mrs. Reynolds frowned. “Are you sure you’ve rested enough, dear? You look peaked.”

  “I need some air.”

  “All right, then. Put a coat on. It’s getting chilly.” The housekeeper fussed over her. She called for security to follow Elizabeth and made sure she had her cell phone and her wallet. “Take a taxi back if you get tired, but make sure your security guy gets in the taxi also.”

  ***

  Keeping her mind blank, Elizabeth walked and walked and ignored the presence of the security guy a short distance behind her. She had met them all and knew their names and faces, but found them unfriendly. Both William and Georgiana assured her it was nothing personal. The guards preferred a detached working relationship; closer interactions would distract and cause them to lose objectivity. She briefly deliberated turning around and asking the security guy how many women he had trailed for William.

  She found herself in front of the DDF building. She’d walked farther than she’d intended. Questions whirled in her head as she tiredly stared at the DDF letters. She looked up. Which square in the grid of opaque windows would find the answers she wanted to hear? Which one was William’s office? Was it next to Anne’s?

  “Elizabeth, my sweet,” a deep male voice suddenly spoke next to her. “I thought it was you from behind. Daydreaming?”

  Happy to see the welcoming smile on Richard’s face, she rushed forward and hugged him tight, finding some comfort in his friendly greeting. Perhaps it’s all a misunderstanding, jus
t the rambling of an old woman. “Where are you off to? It’s still working hours, you know.”

  “I have a hot date tonight.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I need to go and make myself beautiful. Most of us aren’t born lucky like my cousin, attracting women like flies to honey.”

  Her chest tightened. She breathed a few shallow breaths. It’s just the usual way Richard talks. “Who’s this hot date now?”

  He suddenly blushed. “Helena, who has finally decided to give me a chance tonight. Unless you’re sick of my cousin already? Do I still have a chance?” His expression turned serious. “Are you okay? You seem distracted.”

  “I’m fine,” she said. When he still looked concerned, she added, “And yes, you still have a chance. You’re taking me out to dinner sometime this week, Friday, I think. William said he would ask you.”

  He whooped. “After such a dry spell, my luck must be changing. I’m going out with Helena tonight, and then you later this week. I’m da man! I might even get to use Darce’s penthouse tonight.” Laughing, he picked her up and swung her around.

  She stumbled when he put her down.

  “Hey, are you all right? You look pale. I hope I didn’t swing you too hard. Elizabeth?” he asked nervously when she bent her head and breathed hard. “Can I get you a glass of water or something? You want to come inside with me and sit down? Is Darce waiting for you upstairs?”

  “I’ll stay here. I need fresh air,” she said without lifting her head. “Water would be good.”

  “I’ll get you a glass right away,” he said. He had taken a few steps when the urge to flee hit her. She called to him and assured him she was fine now.

  “Are you sure? You don’t look fine. You still look pale.” He headed back toward her. “Let me tell Darce you’re here.”

  “No, don’t bother him. He’s not expecting me. I was going to surprise him, but I think I need to go home now and sleep instead.” She backed away. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  He took his cell phone out. “Let me call a car for you.”

  She saw a cab driving by. Before Richard could stop her, she flagged down the cab, yelled good-bye to him, closed the door, and urged the driver to go straight. Only after the cab drove off did she realize she had forgotten about the security guy.

  “The fight-or-flight response,” she recited as she sat in the cab and gently rocked herself, “is the acute stress response in which animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal for fighting or fleeing.”

  “Lady, where to?” The cab driver interrupted her mumbling. “You okay, lady?”

  She stared blankly at the cab driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “I’m fine. Just drive straight for now.”

  Suddenly, she felt sixteen again. She needed her sisters. Her hands shaking, she called Vietnam. She couldn’t reach Jane or Mary.

  “I can’t keep driving straight without a destination, lady,” the cab driver said a few minutes later.

  “Central Park, anywhere in Central Park,” she finally managed to tell the cabdriver. Grateful for the foresight of Mrs. Reynolds, she slipped her hand into her coat pocket and fingered her wallet. The familiar feel of the roughened patches and cracks of old leather comforted her and reminded her who she was before New York. When the cab dropped her off, she wandered aimlessly before finding a path leading into a wooded area. She kept walking until, just as she passed under the shade of a large elm, she heard the ringing of her phone.

  It was Mary. Jane had gone to a nearby city in central Vietnam to check on some new orphans. At the sound of her younger sister’s voice, Elizabeth sat down on a bench and cried. She couldn’t say anything at first; she just cried and cried. When she calmed down enough to form words, she told Mary in disjointed sentences that she felt unsafe and she needed to get away but she didn’t know where to go. She didn’t want to go back home, to William.

  “I have this urge to run, Mare!” she wailed. “I want to go back to Vietnam, to before…”

  “And so you will,” Mary said then calmly asked for William’s house phone and told Elizabeth to stay put.

  Glad someone else had taken over, even from the other side of the world, Elizabeth obediently sat still on the bench and waited. Her younger sister was very capable. She suddenly was glad it wasn’t Jane who called back. Jane would ask questions and probe. Mary just listened then took charge.

  Twenty minutes later, Mary called back. She had arranged with Mrs. Reynolds to have Elizabeth’s passport delivered to her immediately. “I told the housekeeper there’s an emergency and you need your passport pronto.”

  Elizabeth didn’t want the security people to follow her if they delivered the passport to Central Park. She looked around but didn’t see William’s security detail.

  When Mary heard this, she instructed, “Go to the hospital. I’ll tell the housekeeper to have the security guy deliver and leave your passport with the hospital security. It’s easier for you to lose his security man from inside the hospital. Unless they follow you around there?”

  “No, I insisted on no security detail when I’m inside the hospital. They usually just drop me off and pick me up when I’m done,” Elizabeth said, for once grateful her eccentric sister had prior experience in outwitting security people.

  “Okay. Then get to JFK. You’re booked on the next flight leaving for Hanoi. You’ll have a brief layover in Los Angeles. Once you arrive in Hanoi, you’ll take a plane here to Da Nang. I’ll arrange it,” Mary said.

  Elizabeth went to the hospital and called Dr. Duffy to transfer the responsibility of the service over, citing an unexpected family emergency that required her to leave for Vietnam immediately, for an indefinite period. “I’m withdrawing my application for the faculty position,” she ended.

  Dr. Duffy let out a big sigh and told her that it was just as well, for there had been a rumor of an ongoing argument about offering Elizabeth a faculty position.

  “What kind of argument?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Our hospital applied for a generous grant from the Pemberley Trust Foundation to build a community health center. A few months ago, we even received a hint we had a very good chance, and all the departments have been excited. You know that we’re short of space and funds to meet our patients’ needs,” her friend said. “Do you know anyone at PTF?”

  “No,” Elizabeth lied. “Why?”

  “Because, for some odd reason,” Dr. Duffy continued, “they now intimated there was too much liability if someone like you were hired. I have no idea why they singled you out, but some plaintiff lawyers known to have worked closely with PTF on medical accountability issues in the past are now issuing thinly veiled threats, implying they’d closely examine the medical staff and the quality of all our work.”

  “The whole medical staff?”

  “Actually, just the junior faculty. Their concern is that the hospital is hiring too young and too inexperienced faculty members—and they specifically gave your name as an example. Perhaps you’re a visible name, since you gave that wonderful Grand Rounds last month.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Of course, I’m telling you of a leaked rumor here, Elizabeth. We have no proof any of this is true. There might be some odd politicking going on behind the scenes that has nothing to do with you or me or any of the faculty staff and we’re being used as pawns. Nevertheless, the hospital admin is nervous about our department hiring any new faculty at the present.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Liability

  Richard forced himself to focus on his date until something stirred in his pants. She’s a beautiful woman. You’ve been waiting for her to give you a chance for months, he silently reminded himself, trying to maintain his blood flow.

  “Who was that woman you were with at the Frick last month?”

  Richard deflated. For some reason, her well-modulated voice irritated him tonight. “That was so long ago, Helena, I don’t remember.”


  “William seemed very interested in her.”

  Richard shrugged. “Was he?”

  Darcy suddenly materialized next to their table. “Please excuse my interruption, miss.” He nodded to Helena then turned to Richard, “I want to talk to you. Now. Outside.”

  They watched him walk off without waiting for a response. Richard turned to her, “I’m sure he would have recognized you if he wasn’t so distracted. We’ve been swamped at work with…” He trailed off. From her expression, she wasn’t buying his apology. “I’ll be right back.”

  Darcy paced next to his car. Upon Richard’s approach, Darcy suddenly grabbed him by his jacket and shoved him into the backseat.

  Taking in the fierce, wild look in his cousin’s eyes, Richard swallowed his protest at the rough handling. “What?”

  “I want to know what you said to Elizabeth this afternoon, outside our office building. The security guy said you talked to her.”

  “What?”

  “I want to know every word you said to her.” Darcy’s voice was very quiet, which scared Richard more than if he had yelled. “And I want to hear what she said. I want the whole conversation.”

  “I mostly talked about my hot date tonight, that’s all. The date you’re interrupting, by the way.” Richard let out a relieved sigh when Darcy shifted his body back. “When she told me you’d said I could take her to dinner on Friday night, I might have swung her around a bit too fast and she got a little dizzy. But she was fine when she left in a taxi. She was going home to sleep.”

  “The security detail lost her when she got into the taxi. He couldn’t catch up with her.”

  “She’s missing?”

  “No, he saw her later at the hospital when he dropped off her passport. She seemed fine and apologized to him that she had run off without waiting for him.”