Hi everyone! This is Chapter 1 of my WIP, Mr. Darcy's Charade, Book 2 of the Spies and Prejudice series. While this story stands alone, you will enjoy it much better if you read the first book so I recommend you start there. Warning: this is an unedited, WIP. I have run it through spell check and ProWritingAid, but there will still be proofreading errors. I intend to publish this as an eBook on Amazon after it is fully edited. Any and all feedback is welcome on this WIP though! I want this to be the best book it can be!

In this chapter: Mr. Darcy has a surprise visitor.

Note: Due to popular request, I am adding a brief summary of what happened in the previous book here. In Mr. Darcy's Cipher, Mr. Bennet is a crack code cracker working indirectly with the Prime Minister's office during the Napoleonic wars. Mr. Bennet is also losing his sight, so Elizabeth, his one daughter who inherited his love of puzzles, has been working with him since she was a child and is currently doing a lot of the deciphering work. Mr. Darcy comes to Mr. Bennet because his younger brother, Reginald, died in France but sent a letter, partially in code, to their sister Georgiana. Mr. Darcy has taken the letter to be decoded because he doesn't want the contents to thrust her back into crippling grief. As Elizabeth works on the code, she discovers that there is a French spymaster, Chrysalides, in England and also a plot to assassinate the Prince Regent. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy fall in love while unraveling this plot and saving the Prince Regent. At the end of the book, Mr. Darcy has proposed and Elizabeth has accepted.

Chapter 1

Fitzwilliam Darcy woke in a cold sweat. Remnants of the dream lingered: dull silver of dirty garden sheers and his mother's collapsed form, staring out with glassy blue eyes. Darcy had not seen his mother fall, nor the body until she was cleaned and changed for the family to stay at her bedside.

It was late, the darkest hour, and even London was quiet. In the fireplace, embers smoldered, and the air was chill is Darcy shifted, reaching behind his pillow for the fireplace poker he had hidden there in case Wickham returned and tried to murder Darcy in his sleep.

The floor creaked. Darcy clutched the poker. It was wrought iron and tapered at the tip.

"I've already died once this year, Fitz. Pray do not murder me again."

"Reggie?" Darcy's heart pounded. He let go the poker and stood. In only his drawers, the room's chill air said goosebumps over skin. "How could you do this to us?"

"Put on your dressing gown. "Reginald Darcy, in shadow, no longer in the jester's costume but instead dark trousers and shirt, more suited to a sprinkler than a second son of gentle birth. His hand flicked the darkness as he threw the dressing gown towards Darcy, who caught it and pushed over his shoulders, tying it at the waist.

"You broke our sister's heart."

"Had you delivered to her the letter I sent, and not taken it for yourself, the letter would have eased her pain."

"And mine?"

Reginald sighed. "I had not intended my death to last so long."

"Well, you have returned now." Two days after the ball. "We can inform all that you live, have your commission reinstated, or better yet, buy you out and set you to some other work. The law perhaps?"

"Not yet."

Mr. Darcy clenched his fist. "You cannot need to continue this farce?"

"Your letter said: "Chrysalides on our shores. Protect the crown. We have protected the crown. What more can you do as a ghost?"

"He does not speak. He is one of Chrysalides butterflies, and he expects to fly free. So he will not speak."

"There are more assassins?"

"The assassin was his tool. Chrysalides has insinuated himself in court. His identity as yet remains a mystery. And that is why I cannot live."

"You have seen him?"

"No. But I knew his disciple in France."

"So that is all then. You will pretend at being a ghost until the day you become one in truth, and it will be as though you disappeared. One day there, the next gone. An empty shell."

"You've always burdened me with low expectations, Fitz. I plan to live to a very old age. After this bloody war, I may even settle down for a while, perhaps with the same woman. I am not the marrying type, but your Miss Bennet... if I can find a lady so lovely...? She would make an excellent spy. Her business with Prinny was masterful." Reggie's teeth glinted in the darkness.

"If you plan to remain deceased, why are you here?"

Reggie walked to the wall and lit a candle. "I missed you."

"Who is Lord Cunningham?"

"Georgiana was in no danger."

An assassin had been sent to kill the Regent, and Reggie said 'no danger.' "You should have written me with your intrigue."

"Your brother, engaging in such dishonorable behavior? You would not have tolerated it."

The worst of it was, Reggie was right. Darcy would not have tolerated it. He would have used every scrap of his influence as the elder to bring Reggie back even if it ruined him. Having his brother on the front had been too much. Espionage was dishonorable. Darcy knew others engaged in it, but they were disreputable types. Lower classes.

Darcy asked, "Did Richard know?"

"Our cousin? We avoided the subject. Colonel Fitzwilliam has always preferred a more direct approach."

"And yet you trusted Georgiana. A child."

"I had her pass messages along. She was not involved."

"Did she tell you of Wickham?"

"That dog. I wish you had not paid his debts. He is back in the gambling hells, is he?"

"He seduced Georgiana our father died."

"You let Wickham near her!"

"I did not know." Darcy swallowed. The stain he bore for that mistake could not be erased. "That is my burden. But to say Georgiana was in no danger from your actions is a lie. Do not involve her further."

"She asked to help."

"You should found another way."

Reggie sighed. "Perhaps. I have no wish to fight with you. I was hoping to enlist your help. You, and your beautiful fiancée."

"No."

"Chrysalides is at court. You and Miss Bennet at the favor of the Regent. With your help, perhaps we can flush him out."

"I will not put Elizabeth in danger."

"She is not yours to place as you will, Fitz. You said as much when you proposed. Quite dramatically from what they wrote in the gossip rags. You promised to follow her and kissed her, in public no less."

"I promised to follow her, but I will not push her into the path of a knife. Do not ask me. You are my brother, but she will be my wife."

"You and Miss Bennet have caught Chrysalides' attention, whether or not you wished it. It is only a matter of who is in control when you cross paths. Because he will cross your path."

"Miss Bennet has left London and I will join her. We will not be back for some time. If this man is as entrenched here is you believe, he will soon recognize that neither Elizabeth nor I are anything more than two ordinary people in love."

"This is our chance to find Chrysalides and destroy his network from the root."

"I will not use Elizabeth as a bait for your trap. Find someone else."

"And she will feel the same?"

"If you breathe a word of this to her, I will end your charade."

"I am dead."

"Because others believe it so. Do not push me, brother. Whatever it is you wish to do in secret, do it without me and Elizabeth. You are my brother and my blood, but there are things I will not accept."

Reggie sighed. "I had thought you might have changed."

"Not so much as that."

"Do you still keep the flask in your nightstand?"

As Reginald spoke, he walked around the bed and opened the nightstand drawer. "Of course you do. A toast then, to Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy." He handed flash he took a swig from the flask and handed it across the bed to Darcy, who sat, holding it.

Darcy took a sip, and the whiskey burnt hot down his throat. "To Elizabeth."

Reggie added, "To Elizabeth, ghosts, and Lord Nelson, may he ever hold the channel."

They each took another swig, and Reginald twisted the cap on the whiskey shut, placed it back in the drawer and closed it.

"Should you change your mind, and even if you do not, know I will always fight for you and ours." He clapped Darcy hard on the shoulder and, with a wave and a flash of teeth, slipped out of the bedroom door. His footsteps made no sound on the floorboards, and Darcy realized his brother must have stepped on the creaky board deliberately to wake him.

Reggie was irreverent, but he kept his word. At least the letter of it. He would not speak with Elizabeth about his machinations.

Whiskey burning in his gut, Darcy leaned back on his pillows. His eyes shut, and he was in the garden again. In his dreams, the silver sheen of the pruning shears and a woman, dead on the ground, eyes wide, and not the blue he remembered. They were dark, wide and beautiful, but still dead.

XYXYXYXYX

Thank you for reading! We'll be getting to Elizabeth in the next chapter! I hope you are enjoying this book so far :)

Best,

V