Upcoming story - "Obligation and Desire"

by DJ Clawson

Readers: Sorry for the break, but I had to move apartments and I have to get books 2 and 3 ready for possible publication. The next story will begin next week, with my usual twice-weekly posting schedule. As always, you can catch early previews and updates at my forums, which have a link to them on my FFnet profile page.

Book 1, the first two stories, is available in stores and on Amazon and various online retailers. If you live outside the country and can't get it and woudl like to buy a signed copy, I would be happy to sell one to you and ship it for you. If you just want to continue reading the series for free, by all means, enjoy. The books are not radically different. They just have fewer spelling and continuity errors.

Obligation and Desire is story 10, and the next-to-last in our series. It picks up three months after we left off, with the younger Darcys (Geoffrey, Georgie, and Alison) are on their way home from Japan. But first they're going to stop in Italy and pick up Charles Bingley III. Obligation and Desire also returns us to England - the Darcys, the Bingleys, and the family at large. George is graduating and searching for love, Isabel Wickham-Franklin is due to give Lydia a grandchild, and Anne Darcy is on the marriage market. Could something go horribly wrong? Well I hope so, otherwise it won't be very interesting.

Here's a preview to hold you over to next week. Subscribe to my Author Alert or check FFnet next week for the story Obligation and Desire.


Geoffrey Darcy – gentleman, husband, father, and world-traveler – returned from his extended voyage to the Orient after making a shocking discovery that would have sent any dandy into convulsions: his boots no longer fit. After two years of wearing sandals, his feet had spread, and attempting to slip into leather boots was a painful experience. Even in Capetown, as their ship rounded the coast, they were unable to find anything. He would have to have new boots made upon their return to England.

Not that his wife had any objections; Georgiana Darcy (nee Bingley) found the whole thing amusing, and having a fashionable husband was the least of her concerns. That did not mean she was particularly pleased with him at this time. She always found the first few months of her condition to be the hardest, with the rocking ship not helping.

Aside from Brian and Nadezhda, the only one unperturbed by the lengthy journey was Alison Darcy. At four years of age, she was easy to amuse, and her smile could melt the heart of even the hardiest of sailors, especially when they spoke to her in Dutch and she answered in Japanese. The deck of the ship was not a large playground, but she had plenty of toys in her room and her father to care for her when her mother was resting or ill (which she always seemed to be, in Alison's opinion). They insisted on speaking to her in another language, but it did not interest her in the least.

"She's not in an English environment," Brian said to Geoffrey. Almost all of the ship's crew were from Holland. "She'll pick it up as easily as she picked up Japanese."

Geoffrey had no doubt of it. They parted ways with the Maddoxes on the Spanish coast, taking only their essentials – their clothing and money – and boarding a ship to take them to Italy. The ship was much smaller, and the rocking was more difficult for both parents, but fortunately Alison was easily entertained by the passing ships of the Mediterranean and the often-visible coast. The crew was Italian, which Georgie spoke enough of to manage steady communications from her year in seminary.

They'd written to her brother Charles of their intentions from Japan and again from South Africa, but they had no way of knowing if the letters reached him in time. Previously he invited them to the villa he inhabited on the Italian coast, so they assumed the invitation, something he did not readily give to other family members, was still open.

"I hope he's happy to see us."

"I hope one of us remembers to bring Alison when we both race off this boat."

Geoffrey laughed and kissed his wife.

Clad in the new, ill-fitting suit purchased in Capetown, Geoffrey was the first with his feet on land, but only because he carried his daughter across the plank (which she deemed frightening).

"Is this Uncle Charles' house?"

He looked at the dock warehouse and said, "Say it in English."

"Papa!"

"Say it."

She put her hand in her mouth. "That – Uncle Charles home?"

"Is this Uncle Charles' house?" he said in English.

"Is this Uncle Charl is house?" she mimicked.

He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "It isn't, but well done."

Georgiana, who was wearing one of the new dresses over her kimono, returned to them after speaking to a local. "The address is half a day's ride from here."

"In a carriage or a palanquin?"

"I insisted on the palanquin."

"I'll walk," Geoffrey said with a roll of his eyes; Georgiana instructed the dock-workers to load their one trunk onto the carriage. The bumpy roads were nothing to the incessant rocking of the ship, and there was something comforting about the smell of the inside of a closed carriage, padded with cushions and local fabrics. It was still foreign, but so much more like home to them than anything they had felt in years, not even in the British colonies in India and South Africa.

"Is this Uncle Charles' house?" Alison repeated, pressing her finger against the glass at the appearance of every farmhouse, shack, and tollbooth.

"No," Geoffrey said. "Let your mother rest." Georgie wouldn't ever dream of admitting it, but she was worn out not just from the journey but also from her condition. She was pale, and drank ginger tea constantly, keeping it in a flask in her purse. A warm bed and rest would do her good. If they were at Pemberley, so much the better, but that would have to wait a few more weeks.

"What if we miss it?" Alison whispered in Japanese.

"We won't," he assured her, and pulled her over to his side of the carriage. "I promise."

Alison was quiet long enough for even Geoffrey to doze. He woke to the halt of the carriage, and found Alison with her head in his lap. Still yawning himself, he waited for the groom to open the door. "Signor."

Georgiana was already awake, but she did not look composed, and Geoffrey stepped out first and handed the note with the address to the driver to confirm that the yellow-washed stone house on a hill he was looking at was indeed the current home of Charles Bingley III. He gestured for their trunk to be removed, and picked up Alison and set her down, then went about seeing Georgie out of the carriage. "Are you all right?"

"Starving," she said. "And – I suppose I could use some air."

"There certainly is plenty of it," he said. The air smelled of the sea, and he helped her to sit down on the trunk. There was a footman at the beginning of the manicured path leading up to the villa, and he approached and exchanged some words with the groom before turning to the Darcys.

"I am Signor Darcy," he said. He could manage that much in Italian. "My wife is Signora Darcy, Signor Bingley's sister."

"I speak Italian," she announced, picking her head up. Her bonnet was not particularly efficient at blocking the sun. "Please, sir."

They exchanged some words, and it must have gone well, because the carriage was given permission to depart. Geoffrey could only catch bits of it, but it seemed that Charles was not expecting or seeing visitors. Georgiana redoubled her explanation of who she was (as the letters seemed not to have reached him in time) and how she would see her brother, and the footman relented, and gave Geoffrey a nervous smile. He was either astoundingly well-dressed for a servant, or they had been in Japan for too long.

Another servant came down to offer assistance with the trunk. He spoke no English whatsoever, but that didn't stop Alison's barrage of Japanese questions, the first being whether he was her uncle or not.

"Your uncle is blond, darling," Georgiana said. "You might even recognize him."

The path, not paved but smoothed for curricles and horses, was beautiful in of itself, with periodic potted plants and columns in imitation of the old Roman style. Each one of them was differently colored and was even possibly of great age. Between the trees they could see the ocean, a beautiful blue seen through a clear sky. Why anyone would want to live here was no mystery.

The villa itself was a square structure with a red roof, rather simple in construction but not in appearance. It was surrounded by gardens and patios and everything man could do to compliment it, making a house smaller than theirs in Lancashire appear grander, if in a Continental way. Everything exuded elegance.

True to her father's hopeful prediction, Alison did recognize her godfather. "Uncle Charles!" she screamed, running ahead of them to greet the man emerging from the house. Charles Bingley the Third was exquisitely dressed with his coat in an Italian cut, his blond hair tussled, and his side-whiskers kept short. He retained the features of a man several years younger than he was, and he had an easy smile for his niece, kneeling to greet her. "Goodness! Alison Darcy, look at you!"

"I know who you are. Where did you get your house? Does anyone else live here? Can I play in the garden? Do you have a pool? Did you bring presents? Did you miss me, Uncle Charles?"

Unfortunately, her amusing tirade contained only two words 'Uncle Charles' understood – and those were the words. The rest had been in a steady stream of fast-spoken Japanese. He recovered quickly. "I missed you, too." He hugged her, and stood to bow to Geoffrey. "Welcome back, Geoffrey. Georgie, are you all right? I apologize – I wasn't expecting you."

"We wrote, so you should get the letter in a few months," Geoffrey said as Georgie embraced her brother.

"I'm fine," she said, and whispered something in Charles's ear, which he responded to with a wide smile.

"Really? Oh – " He spoke quickly to the woman in black standing behind them in Italian, probably the housekeeper, and she curtseyed and left, returning with a chair for Georgiana. "Please. What would you like?"

"Tea. Any kind will do," she said. "It is so good to see you." She held his hands in hers for a moment before she let him go, and he had more orders for the servants. He was surprised that they only had one trunk, but Geoffrey shrugged.

Eventually they were settled on a patio overlooking the valley below, and Charles did manage up a surprise of a doll for his goddaughter, who managed to thank him in English. Georgiana's color was returning, and she nibbled on a pastry, then scarfed the rest of them down.

"Oh G-d," Geoffrey said after taking a sip of the offered wine. "This is the real thing. Do you know what I would have paid for this a year ago?" He clinked his glass against Charles'. "Italian?"

"French."

"Of course."

"He's going to be cup-shot in a few minutes, and asleep in an hour," Georgie said as she watched her husband happily down his glass. "But he deserves it, I suppose."

"You see how you like wine made from rice!" Geoffrey said to Charles.

"I'm sure I wouldn't," he said. "So am I the first to be graced with your company?" He grinned. "It is an honor. I did get a few letters sometime last summer, all in a bundle, but I had only news about you by way of England to know you were alive and well. So Uncle Brian and Her Highness have gone ahead with Danny?"

There was an uncomfortable cough from Geoffrey, and Georgie answered as fearlessly as she did everything else, "Danny stayed."

"Stayed? Stayed where?"

"In Japan. He wanted to travel more."

"Did his father grant his permission?"

"Did Papa grant you permission to be here?"

Charles looked away. "I don't need Father's permission. But this is only Italy, and besides, Danny's young."

"He would not listen to reason, and as I am very accustomed to loved ones' and relatives' individual streaks, I did not tie him up and toss him on the boat with Mr. Maddox," Geoffrey said, "though we did consider it."

"Did he say how long he plans to stay?"

"A year. Maybe more," Georgie answered. "I suspect until his sight is gone, which will be soon, but you ought not repeat that."

Charles nodded, and sipped his wine. "As eager as I am to hear all of the details of your trip, I can see that you both are exhausted, and while I was not expecting visitors, the guest rooms will be ready momentarily." He said something quickly to a servant, who nodded and took away his glass. "I assume Alison is not fluent in English."

"We're trying our best," Geoffrey said. Between the wine and his own exhaustion, he was light-headed, and glad that Charles brought their conversation to a close. "She'll pick it all up again soon. I'm just happy she recognized you."

They shared a laugh, and Charles showed them to their rooms – beautiful, spacious bedrooms with murals on the walls and a view of the ocean from the balcony. Georgie saw that Alison was fed and put to rest in her own room before she would agree to lie down herself. She kissed her brother on the cheek. "I worried for you."

"I would say the same."

She hugged her brother again. Geoffrey nodded to Charles, who left, shutting the door behind him.

They both collapsed, still dressed, on the grand bed, complete with carved wooden posts and a canopy. It was bizarre to be so far off the floor. Geoffrey helped Georgie out of her new dress, unlacing it in the back for her, and she slipped under the sheet in her under-kimono as he removed his jacket and vest, and kicked off his sandals. Despite all she had eaten, she was still a little pale. He slid a hand in and rubbed her belly, where there was just the smallest swelling of what would hopefully be their next child. This time, Georgiana bore her symptoms with considerable might, but they assaulted her small frame all the same.

"You'll feel better soon," he whispered. It was probably true; they were back on land, and she was probably near or passing her three-month point, when the initial symptoms would ease. "And you don't have to drink any more foul potions."

"If I still feel this way afterwards, I'm going right back on it. You caught me in a moment of weakness."

"It is the only way you can be caught."

They giggled, and with that, managed to finally relax.

...Coming soon...