Chapter 10: Oh!
"Fitzwilliam!" Georgiana gasped as he was shown in. "How are you, brother?"
Darcy grimaced.
"Fairly well, Georgiana." He replied. "I suppose Lizzy is not with you?"
Darcy had never been one for being subtle. Georgiana looked confused.
"Brother, has the sun addled your brains?" She frowned. "Lizzy hasn't been here since – she's never been here!"
Darcy's face fell and Georgiana took advantage of his momentary silence to press further.
"Brother, are you quite alright?"
"Yes, yes." He brushed her concern off quickly. "The sun has not addled my brains. Lizzy has returned. But I know not where she is." He wheeled around. Georgiana frowned.
"Where are you going, Fitzwilliam?"
"I have to retrieve my son from the Bennets'. Perhaps Edward can tell me more about the harebrained scheme of his mother's." The words were spoken harshly, but were accredited by Georgiana to his disappointment.
"I think her parents' residence would be where she would most likely go." Georgiana commented, still utterly befuddled.
"I've been there." Darcy groused.
"Perhaps you missed her by a little bit." Georgiana suggested, still looking confused.
"She hadn't been there yet!" He snapped as he wheeled towards the door.
"Maybe she hadn't arrived yet!" Her words carried after Darcy's retreating back.
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Lizzy looked around at her sisters, her parents, her son … then her gaze fell on Annabelle.
"Annabelle?" She beckoned to her daughter, patting the chair next to her. Annabelle stood and walked over hesitantly, unsure of what to expect from a mother who had been absent all her life. The other members of the family exchanged glances and made their excuses and left the room.
It was just the two of them now.
"Has Darcy been a good father?" Lizzy questioned, a faint smile on her lips.
Annabelle thought back to the years where she had not known her father. Then she remembered the years where she had.
"Yes," she replied honestly.
"I always did want to see Darcy as a father," remarked Lizzy musingly. Then, she added in an increasingly worried voice: "Do you know when he will come?"
Annabelle looked at her mother with a mixture of pity and regret.
"I do not." The three words seemed to come out with much more coldness than she had intended, so she hastened to rectify it. "I … I'm sure that if he knew you were here he would rush back at once."
Lizzy's lips twisted into a wry grin.
"I suppose the fault lies in the fact that he does not know I am here." She said dryly.
"Yes." Annabelle looked away. Lizzy placed a hand over her daughter's tentatively.
"Life will be awkward for a while." She told the girl. Annabelle laughed.
"Life with a father was always awkward!" She exclaimed. "I think this can only be an improvement!"
Lizzy laughed as well, relief coursing through her veins.
"It will still be awkward though." She assured her daughter.
"I don't doubt it." Annabelle replied.
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Darcy urged his horse onwards. What was he doing? Lizzy had vanished – vanished into thin air. She had always been rather good at that, he thought bitterly. However the matter might stand, he would take the children – children – home.
God, how would he cope now that there were two of them?
Still, he hadn't given up hope that maybe – just maybe – he might find Lizzy once more. He would scour the countryside just to find her. Perhaps that was something he should have done in Venice, instead of reverting into his depression. He was younger then, and inexperienced in the matter of disappearing wives.
He sighed as he passed the Bingley's abode. The lights were still on upstairs and he feared for their child. Darcy hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should stop in. He decided against it, fearing, quite rightly, that he would only be a nuisance.
Straight on to the Bennets' then.
The road seemed bumpier than ever, but Darcy urged his horse on. Nearly there … ah, it was in sight. He turned the horse into the driveway and dismounted. Faces appeared in the upper windows … Mary, Kitty, and Mrs. Bennet … Heavens above! Was that Mr. Bennet's face in the library window? What had the world come to? He studied their faces for a moment, wondering what the expression on them was.
Pity?
He shook the thought away, leading his horse towards the stable.
Was that disappointment on their faces?
He pushed his hair back impatiently. He was growing paranoid in his old age. Was he old? He certainly couldn't remember!
Upstairs, Mrs. Bennet was practically foaming at the mouth.
"Girls, run down immediately and inform dear Darcy that Lizzy is here! Or better yet, inform Lizzy that Darcy is here!"
Mary and Kitty exchanged yet another glance – this time exasperated.
"I apologise Mama, but I will not." Mary said firmly.
"Nor I." Kitty agreed.
"Oh, girls. Do you not wish to see the look on Darcy … or better yet, Lizzy's face when they hear of each other." Mrs. Bennet exclaimed, her exasperating matching theirs.
"I would much prefer to see their faces when they see each other… but I cannot, because they deserve some degree of privacy." Mary replied. Then, as a thought occurred to her, she turned and made to go down the stairs.
"Ah, you will tell Lizzy then!" Mrs. Bennet beamed in triumph.
"Mary!" Kitty exclaimed. Mary turned around.
"No, Mama, I go to fetch Annabelle to give Lizzy and Darcy more privacy."
Lizzy turned around from her tête-à-tête with her daughter to see Mary standing there.
"I apologise Lizzy, but Mama wishes to speak to Annabelle for a moment."
Lizzy eyed Mary suspiciously – she too had grown up with her mother's 'talks'. The last one she remembered were her mother's efforts to induce a proposal from Charles Bingley to Jane. Nevertheless, in the considerable absence of besotted lovers, she nodded and smiled at Mary. Mary turned and led the girl out.
Lizzy sat in the silence of the room, thoughts and mind churning. She had a daughter – she had a daughter!
A distant knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. Her first thought was to let the housekeeper answer it, but as the knocking grew more insistent, she dragged herself off the settee.
"The housekeeper must have taken leave today." She told herself. It was a long, tedious walk to the door for Lizzy, but the knocking never ceased, and she sighed to herself as she opened the door.
Darcy and Lizzy stared at each other.
A/N: I'm so sorry for the horrible delay in the coming of this chapter, but I've had a terrible writer's block on this story and some really horrible things have happened regarding illness and I just couldn't write. I promise I will not and do not abandon stories, so no matter how long a chapter might take in coming, it is still coming. I love you all for the reviews which I am about to toddle off to reply to and thank you all for waiting
Love,
s.a.r.d.