Bespelling Jane Austen

by Mary Balogh

  “Is she not the very height of elegance and beauty?” Collins said rapturously. I noted with half my mind that his language had suddenly changed, becoming more formal and accented very much like Mr. Darcy’s. “My patroness,” Collins had said. Were he and Darcy literally blood brothers?

  Somehow I managed to gasp out an answer. “She’s…very impressive,” I said in what I hoped was an appropriately awestruck voice. “She runs this place?”

  “Runs it?” Collins said, staring at me in indignation. “She does not merely run it, my dear Elizabeth. She presides over the strigoi assembly in Manhattan whenever her duties do not demand her presence in England. She and her daughter, Miss Anne De Bourgh, are admired, feared and loved wherever they appear.”

  I cast Lady Catherine de Bourgh a more searching glance. I still had almost no idea how strigoi interacted with each other on a daily basis. How much did conversion change a person? George had indicated that emotions didn’t change afterward, and vampires could obviously hate. Could they love, as well? Did Darcy love his aunt? Could he love anyone?

  “I had thought to seek privacy at once,” Collins said, oblivious to my thoughts, “but I believe I shall do you the honor of presenting you to my patroness.”

  The last thing I wanted was to have such a woman’s attention drawn to me. “Oh,” I said, shuffling backward, “If you don’t mind, I think—”

  “Come, I insist. You need not be afraid. You will find her most obliging to those who recognize her superiority of mind and breeding.”

  In other words, if I groveled enough, I’d probably be okay. I let Collins grab my arm again and he pulled me toward the platform.

  I expected to be intimidated by a woman who could convert a man like Darcy and lord it over a city’s worth of bloodsuckers, but as I got closer to the platform I started to wonder if Collins had been exaggerating. There was nothing really remarkable about her—except maybe in the size of her nose, which she looked down very skillfully.

  Collins almost crawled up to the platform, bobbing and slobbering as he made the introductions. Because I was more than a little scared, I looked straight up at Lady Catherine.

  “Hello,” I said, resisting the urge to curtsy.

  She said something I couldn’t quite hear, her eyes cold, and Collins replied obsequiously on my behalf. I was occupied with fighting off a severe sense of disorientation and looking for some resemblance between her and Darcy.

  It was there, all right, though Darcy seemed to have gotten all the good looks in the family. From the way she was staring, I had a sense that Lady Catherine saw something in me she didn’t like. Could she have some idea who I was? I’d changed my last name, but not by very much. It wouldn’t take a great leap to figure out that Barrett was pretty close to Bennet.

  But would Darcy have talked to her about me? George had said he didn’t know if Darcy was under his aunt’s control. Maybe he reported everything to her. Maybe I’d inadvertently walked into a trap.

  At least I knew Darcy himself was in England with Charles and Caroline.

  Whatever my fears, I was allowed to walk away from Lady Catherine none the worse for wear. I was so shaken, however, that when Collins led me toward one of the red doors I climbed out of the pit and walked right into the pendulum.

  “Does Lady Catherine have relatives in the city?” I blurted.

  Collins stopped and looked at me in surprise. “Relatives? Are you speaking of protégées?”

  “Um, I meant other vam…strigoi.”

  He gave me a thoughtful look. “She has a nephew who occasionally appears at Rosings. Why do you ask?”

  “Is he called Mr. Darcy?”

  “You know Mr. Darcy?”

  “I met him once.”

  “But how extraordinary!” He frowned. “Did he invite you here?”

  “No. No. I mean, I heard about this place after I met him, and wondered…if he comes here sometimes.”

  Collins took a step away from me. “You have donated to Mr. Darcy?”

  I didn’t know if the chill I felt came from horror or excitement. “No. Some of the girls I know…they were talking about him. He’s supposed to be—”

  “He is, of course, one of the most illustrious strigoi in England or America,” Collins said with a sniff. “But he does not bestow his favors indiscriminately.”

  Irritation was beginning to overcome my nervousness. “His donors must be very grateful to be chosen.”

  “Naturally. Mr. Darcy is known to be extremely generous with his mortal adherents. Many have benefited greatly from his condescension. Perhaps you have heard of Mr. Charles Bingley?”

  “The head of that big pharmaceutical company?”

  “Indeed. Bingley’s success is entirely due to Mr. Darcy’s guidance.” He drew near me again. “Only recently, he extracted Mr. Bingley from a very infortuitous alliance.”

  I stiffened. “What do you mean?”

  “His friend was about to offer marriage to a young lady who would have been entirely unsuitable for such a favored mortal, both in breeding and in understanding. Mr. Darcy took steps to ensure that such an alliance would not take place.”

  I didn’t hear whatever else Collins said. I was too furious.

  “I’ve got to go,” I said, heading for the door.

  “But you just arrived!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Collins wasn’t the kind of vampire to inspire fear in anyone, and I didn’t expect him to stop me. But he grabbed the trailing end of my shawl with easy strength, and I was too surprised to shrug off the shawl and keep going.

  “You must not leave just yet, Elizabeth,” he said in a menacing voice that reminded me of a certain decaying intergalactic emperor. “Not so soon after I introduced you to Lady Catherine. It would not be at all proper.”

  “Maybe some other time.”

  “I think not.” Collins flashed his teeth at me. “This need not be unpleasant. I flatter myself that I can please my admirers.”

  “Believe me, Mr. Collins, I don’t admire you, Lady Catherine, Mr. Darcy or anyone else in this place.”

  Collins’s mouth fell open. Then he pulled me against him, and I was reminded that even a wimpy-looking little vampire was still a vampire.

  “You will enjoy my company, I think, better than you would greater scrutiny by Lady Catherine,” he whispered. His hot breath blew over my neck. I resisted, but it was like trying to break out of a straitjacket. His teeth grazed my skin.

  “Let her go.”

  Darcy loomed behind Collins, his expression so lethal that I expected Collins to vanish in a puff of smoke.

  But Collins didn’t disappear. He let me go, bowed deeply and let loose a barrage of sickeningly subservient compliments and whining explanations.

  I looked up at Darcy, my heart plunging to the polished parquet floor. He briefly met my gaze and then watched Collins scuttle away. Only when the smaller man was out of sight did he look at me again.

  “What are you doing here, Miss Elizabeth?” he said.

  If Darcy had seemed dangerous in an everyday setting, he was positively menacing here. Every instinct told me to cringe and scuttle away, just like Collins.

  But not even mortals are creatures of instinct alone. “I must say, Mr. Darcy,” I said with a defiant smile, “you do have a way of popping up at the most interesting moments.”

  CHAPTER 10

  DARCY DIDN’T DIGNIFY MY QUIP WITH A RESPONSE. When he put his arm around my shoulders and steered me toward a cluster of empty seats near the side of the room, I began to understand what those Victorian females felt like just before they collapsed into a graceful swoon. Only mine wouldn’t be so graceful. Darcy all but pushed me onto a sofa and sat beside me.

  “Answer me,” he said softly. “Why are you here?”

  “I might ask the same of you,” I said, edging away from him. “I thought you were in England with Mr. Bingley.”

  “That is of no moment. I asked you—”

  “My
sister was in London,” I said, anger restoring my courage. “You didn’t happen to see her, did you?”

  He seemed surprised at my line of questioning, and some of the arrogance went out of his face. “I did not,” he said.

  “I’m sorry to hear it. You and Charles left so suddenly that we were a little concerned.”

  “You need not have been.”

  “Of course, you were taking very good care of Charles, weren’t you?”

  Maybe I was getting better at reading his feelings, or maybe he was less skilled at hiding them, but I could have sworn that he looked embarrassed. “He is often in need of care.”

  “How lucky he is to have you.”

  Darcy shifted on the sofa. “You are obviously in need of advice, Miss Elizabeth, or you would not have come to Rosings.”

  “Whose advice should I have listened to, Mr. Darcy?”

  He released his breath and glanced around the room, his gaze briefly settling on Lady Catherine. She was staring in our direction.

  “Perhaps you are not aware of the perils you may face here,” he said.

  “The worst thing I can lose is my blood.”

  Could a vampire blush? Darcy looked over my head at the mirrored wall. “You have known for some time,” he said.

  “Since before we met at the party. It was pretty clear that you knew I knew, and I knew you knew I knew.” I smiled defiantly. “I’ll admit it was a bit of a shock at first, but I’ve learned to deal with it.”

  He looked straight into my eyes, and I knew what gave him so much power over people. Including me. So much so that my body was beginning to react in the same way it had at the Halloween party. If he touched me…

  “Why are you here, Elizabeth?” he asked again, his voice gentle and hypnotic. I felt the overwhelming desire to answer honestly, to spill my guts without any thought to the consequences.

  “I…I wanted to learn more about vampires.”

  “You have chosen the most dangerous way of going about it.”

  “I don’t think Collins could have forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do.”

  “You deceive yourself. Even he is capable of compelling your cooperation.”

  “I guess he’s like you in that respect.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I have never compelled anyone to do my will.”

  “No? You’ve resisted every temptation to use your vampire influence to make people do what you want?”

  He was about to answer—with some heat, I thought—when Lady Catherine de Bourgh came up behind him. I hadn’t heard her approach, but Darcy was thoroughly composed by the time the woman joined us.

  “What are you speaking of, Darcy?” she demanded. “I must know what you’re talking about.”

  Darcy half turned toward her, emotionless and controlled. “The subject would not be of interest to you, Aunt.”

  “Everything that occurs here is of interest to me.” She gave me a calculating, distinctly unfriendly glance. “I did not know this girl was of interest to you.”

  “I was just leaving,” I said, popping out of my seat. “Thanks for your hospitality, Lady Catherine.”

  Darcy rose with me. “She is most assuredly of interest to me,” he said, meeting his aunt’s stare. “If you will forgive us.” He bowed, ignoring the lady’s obvious outrage, and grabbed my poor, abused arm. Striding at such a fast pace that I had to run to keep up with him, he led me to one of the red doors, opened it and ushered me through.

  I won’t lie and say I wasn’t scared. There was good reason to be. The room looked like a bordello, all red velvet, huge bed and very low light. Darcy released me as soon as the door was closed and kept his distance, but I didn’t feel reassured.

  Giving the bed a wide berth, I edged toward the door, trying to think of some subject completely unrelated to blood drinking. I didn’t quite succeed.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t need Lady Catherine’s permission to bring me in here,” I said.

  He seemed distracted, and his voice was sharp when he answered. “She has no control over me,” he said.

  “Didn’t she convert you?”

  “There are ways to overcome…” He stopped, turning his darkest frown in my direction.

  “I really do need to go,” I said.

  “You are afraid of me.”

  “Not at all. But I prefer to make my own decisions about who I hang out with.”

  He moved his shoulders in a gesture I couldn’t interpret and began to pace from one side of the room to the other. “You must not judge all of us according to Collins’s behavior.”

  “You just warned me that I might be in danger here, so there must be more where he came from,” I said pointedly.

  “How is your family?”

  Aha. A sudden change of subject. “They’re well for the most part, though my father is concerned about the family business. You know, the one Charles was about to acquire on terms favorable to Bennet Labs and its employees.”

  Darcy paused in front of the far wall and took an audible breath. “Miss Elizabeth—”

  “Mr. Darcy, I—”

  He spun around so quickly that I was already running for the door before I’d even had a chance to think about it. He was there first.

  “It will not do,” he said, his expression shockingly anguished. “My feelings will not be repressed.” He grabbed me, lifted me off my feet and kissed me.

  Now, I’ve been kissed before. Several times. Sometimes I enjoyed it, sometimes I didn’t. But this time…

  Oh, this time I shot straight to the moon, made a few orbits and crash-landed in the Sea of Euphoria. I tangled my fingers in his thick black hair, opening my mouth to welcome his thrusting tongue and meeting it with my own.

  At some point we came up for air, and that was when I remembered where I was. Darcy loosened his hold just enough to let me wriggle free. I stumbled back until I reached the wall and tried to catch my breath, astonished and mortified.

  “Elizabeth,” he said, hoarse and breathing just as fast as I was. “You must make me the happiest of men and allow me to take you under my protection.”

  They say laughter is the best medicine. All that came out was a squeak. “Under your protection? Is that what you call it?”

  I had meant to provoke him, but he actually seemed bewildered. It was a moment of weakness that almost—almost—made me sympathize with him.

  He seemed to take my silence for encouragement. “I have admired you since we were first acquainted,” he said. “I have never met a woman like you in my two centuries of life. I offer you everything you could possibly desire: every comfort, every luxury and my complete devotion.”

  It wasn’t easy, but I maintained my defenses. “In exchange for what? My blood? My body? My eternal obedience?”

  His voice softened. “Not obedience, my dear Elizabeth. I shall never force you in any way.” He took up his agitated pacing again, his fists curling and uncurling at his sides. “It is not a request that I make lightly. I have fought my own feelings every day since our introduction. I am very discriminating in my choice of human companionship. I am well aware that you are from a common family of limited understanding, despite your many admirable qualities. Our association will require great circumspection on my part. My aunt will be deeply disturbed by such an alliance, and will frequently make her feelings known.” He turned to face me. “Nevertheless, I am willing to make such sacrifices if you will consent to my request.”

  His request. I still wasn’t sure if he was offering to make me his mistress or his convert, but it didn’t matter. I’d heard enough.

  “How many times have you made such a ‘request’?” I asked hanging on to my courage by a thread of panic at my own embarrassing instinct to accept him. “What about your harem of devoted fans? Do you plan to give them up, too?”

  “My harem? What—”

  “How many women—and men—have you converted, with or without their consent?”

  He had been moving toward m
e, but now he stopped again and searched my face as if he were really seeing me for the first time. His eyes took on a cast I could only describe as feral, and his lip curled.

  “Who has been telling you these lies?” he demanded. “Was it Wickham?”

  “Are they lies? Isn’t it true that you converted George against his will?”

  “You take an eager interest in that gentleman’s concerns,” he snapped.

  “Anyone who knew about what happened to him would be interested,” I retorted.

  A vampire’s contempt was a terrible thing. “Oh, yes. What happened to him was terrible indeed.”

  I moved a step away from the wall, my own fists clenched. “I’m glad you can joke about ruining a man’s life.”

  He made a sound of disgust. “Then you choose to believe his story.”

  “Maybe if that were the only strike against you, I might be more skeptical. But you’ve deliberately hurt my family, ‘common’ as it is, by separating Jane from the man who loves her. You’ve undermined Charles’s intentions for letting Bennet Laboratories keep some independence under Bingley Pharmaceutical’s ownership. Then you tell me that you want me against your better judgment. That’s a pretty strange way of showing affection!”

  He looked away, his profile stark and his body rigid. “So this is your opinion of me,” he said quietly. “By this light my faults must seem egregious indeed. Yet I believe you would not have judged me so harshly if your own feelings had not been wounded.”

  I edged toward the door again. “You’re wrong, Mr. Darcy. From the very beginning I’ve been aware of your belief in your own superiority, even before I knew you were a vampire. You’ve never given a damn about anyone else’s feelings. You pretend to be a gentleman, but your arrogance has just made it easier for me to turn you down.”

  Without waiting for his answer, I opened the door and walked out. He didn’t try to stop me. I headed straight for the entrance, aware of Lady Catherine’s stare burning into my back, and practically ran all the way to the street.