Where the bait fulfills his goal.
Chapter 37: London Dreams
London, Royal Palace, Wednesday the twelfth August. Eighth day
She would never confess it to anybody –except Lizzie for whom she had no secrets– but that evening before drifting into sleep she had cried. Finding herself alone in her apartment and, for the first time in many years, with no helpful shoulder to welcome her anguish had been more than she could endure. But sleep had finally come bringing back her old self.
And then the dreamless sleep had began to change. She felt herself glide into a dreamworld of unknown sensations.
Featherlight strokes brushed her skin, stirring marvelously suggestive dreams. Kisses, so light she had to force herself to remember them, were all over her face.
A smile lighted up her sleeping face.
Since she was dreaming, could she dream of what she really lusted for?
It was her dream, wasn't it? Within it's cloudy boundaries, she could behave as she willed it.
Even a little wanton behavior could be tried...
Nobody would ever know.
Her smile grew and her sleep became more agitated.
The light touches became caresses and kisses and she could even feel the light breeze of a breath fondling her skin.
A very smooth thing slided over her smiling lips.
It came and turned. Came again. Became more forward and parted her lips.
Out of sheer reflex her tongue shot out of the cage of her teeth to go and meet the intruder.
Their meeting was the strangest thing which had ever happened to her.
Like a subtle dance of touches and strokes.
Like...
Her eyes shot open.
That was not a dream! That was reality...
She tried crawling out of her bed but a strong hand caught her lips before she could say anything and a body strapped itself around hers holding it in a very tight but gentle grip.
"I loved your dream. Had it only gone on..."
She was squirming like mad, her heart battling in her chest when she was finally able to understand the voice.
"Please, don't be afraid. You don't risk anything. I'll protect you..."
She immediately recognized the voice but that was not what calmed her.
It was sheer indignation that stopped her wiggling.
A second she was battling against him and the next she was perfectly calm.
His hand stopped hushing her.
How could he dare! How could he be so impudent? He was there, intruding on her privacy and he was playing the benign protector.
She looked at the pale circle were she suspected his face.
"And who will protect me against you?" asked she in a husky voice.
She felt him smile.
"Nobody. Because I represent no harm for you."
She tried to went away, he stopped her.
"Please let me go..."
He felt that she was no longer struggling and his weight disappeared.
She felt that he laid himself at her side.
She took hold of her blanket and covered herself as much as possible.
Her curiosity and her eyes stayed on him.
"You just assaulted me..." said she, her indignation coming back.
"Assaulted, what an ugly word..." came the answer. "I just placed a gentle kiss on your lips..."
"One? It seems to me that your kisses come in battalions..."
He sighed.
"That's not the truth. Since I never interrupted that first kiss, it was, technically, only one very long kiss..."
She frowned and he felt it in her voice.
"You took advantage of my dream, shame on you!"
Se felt him shook his head.
"Never! It was the most beautiful dream in my whole life. I will never be ashamed of him..."
His voice become a silent whisper.
"Nor of you..."
She blushed.
He went on.
"Never will I forget the tip of your tongue greeting mine..."
Her blush became so crimson that she was sure he should be feeling its heat.
"It was a simple reflex..."
He sighed melodramatically.
"I love your reflexes..."
He let himself fall on the bed at her side.
"As I love you..."
And then the silence fell.
It was amazing how much a shared silence could express...
He was a little ashamed.
When he had felt the tip of her tongue coming towards his, he had lost his self control. He was only there to touch her lightly in order to wake her so they could speak.
But when he sensed her tongue responding, he just lost it.
He let the passion in him take over and what should have been a respectful and demure kiss became a passionate longing and a force he knew he would never be able to control.
He knew he should have been more controlled. He should have been a tender guide not a passionate lover and when she responded he just blew it.
But even dreaming she had responded and he would never forget her arms closing behind his neck and her tongue searching his.
Once more he sighed.
"Jane Bennet, you are the dream of my life..."
He sat up and looked at her, his head resting on his hand. He bend over her and placed the sofest of all kisses on the tip of her nose.
"Jane Bennet, je vous adore, vous êtes unique et je vous veux à mes côtés...1"
She had no problems to understand him. Her French was fluent ad he spoke it with a singing accent which reminded her of southern France.
She let the words flow and she knew these words were founding their roots in true love and not in the empty repertoire of an old experienced lover.
She was listening to his soul and that soul could only speak French.
She basked in the sun of an unknown and not yet experienced bliss.
Eons flowed by while her happiness was unequaled.
And suddenly the implications of his presence stroke her.
She sat up and looked at him.
"You're crazy to have come. They are going to catch you, to jail you... Perhaps hang you..."
She never knew how he could do it but one second he was lying at her side, the second later he had his hands on her shoulders and he was astride her.
She saw his smile lighting their universe.
"And would such a little incident upset you?"
And at this exact moment her situation hit her with all its unreal humor.
Here was she, in one of the Royal Palace's apartment, lying in bed with d'Arcy astride her and -there was no other word- proposing to her. It was the most surreal situation she could envision.
Nobody would ever believe her.
She burst out laughing.
Her answer found him flabbergasted.
She sensed his fear and her hands found his. She knew at an inner level she hadn't known having that he needed reassurance. Immediately.
"Of course it would upset me to see the most excitingly charming man of my acquaintance be hanged."
She felt him relax.
"Excitingly charming?"
His lips searched hers and she made no effort to turn her head.
He painted with his lips the most subtle caress she could have imagined.
"Excitingly charming?"
His lips besieged her nose, her eyes, her eyelids and her ears...
"Excitingly charming?" whispered he while nibbling her ears.
She found no words to answer.
But she knew what to do...
This time he was able to master his passion.
He wouldn't force himself on her. Not like this, not when she was so vulnerable.
He wanted her willing and with her free will.
His lips and hands and tongue had roamed her body but nothing else.
She had whimpered and pleasure had exploded more than once but she knew that he had not crossed that certain limit which would have made her definitely his.
After a long time of shared feelings and passion she looked at him.
"Why?"
He had no difficulties to understand of what she was speaking.
"It's not the right time, love... I won't force you into a situation where there's no longer a choice. What we have just done is unseemly and against every standard of British society but nothing irreparable has happened. You're still free to choose another man without loosing a shred of you honor..."
She sat up.
"You proposed..."
"That I did and I'm very resolute to marry you, mon amour, but I'm not willing to take the slightest risk having you believe I forced you. I'll give you the chance to bail out of this relationship to the very last moment..."
She shook her head.
"I won't bail out."
"I very much hope so but that doesn't mean I will risk to jeopardize the trust I want to deserve. I would like you to really believe that you are the most important creature in my life. It's your happiness that counts. If you have the slightest doubt about us then I want you to have the real prospect to decide it won't happen..."
He sighed.
"And there's that little problem of us being on opposite sides of warring people. I won't accept that your feelings for me makes you an outcast or worse, a target..."
"It won't happen... I have no importance in this country. I'm not aristocracy and my father is not even what could be called wealthy..."
He said nothing to counter her arguments. She had had no importance a week ago. Now, and her presence here in the Palace was proof enough, that had changed. And her importance would be even greater the day somebody made their relationship and feelings known.
But he would cross that bridge when he had need to...
"I know, but I must insist, I'm not willing to take the slightest risk. Your safety is of the utmost importance. And I would like to have it stay our secret for as long as possible."
He sensed her shook her head.
"I won't hide my decision from my family..."
"I don't ask you to hide it from them, but I would like to speak with your father before you! Its a matter of honor..."
"You'll ask for my hand?"
"It's custom, isn't it?"
"It is..." said she while hesitating. "But I'm not sure how Papa will react..."
"He'll be horrified, what else? He has probably had another type of son in law in mind when he dreamed of your future husband."
She sighed.
"We spoke a lot these last few days and he gave me the right to choose without looking at him or at the family. It's my life and I'm free to choose the man I want."
"He knew about me..." he hesitated. "Us?"
"There was no us," said she. "Not when I spoke to him for the first time. 'Us' came later..."
"But there is a 'us'? Isn't it?"
He felt her nodding.
"I'm glad. But you should perhaps reconsider, love. I'm not an easy man to wed. I'm a man of the sword and war could very well be my constant companion for the next twenty years."He took a long breath. "And I'm too passionate to let my wife alone and waiting in some rich mansion somewhere in France or Italy. I will ask her to be at my side most of the time."
He turned around and took her hand. He fondled her with kisses and light strokes.
"In my position I will have to lie to you. There are secrets I will not share with you just in order to protect you. And from time to time, I'll use you to spread some lies I believe necessary to further my goals.Outside from my never ending love for you, you'll never be sure that what I'm saying is the truth or a hoax. A ll in all, it could be a very taxing life. I would really understand that a sane woman had the good sense to prefer a serene and calm life side by side with a perfect gentleman whose only thrill will be his yearly fox hunt and, probably, his wife's pregnancies..."
She came nearer and her foreheads came together.
"I'm not as courageous as you think, monsieur d'Arcy. But neither am I so enthralled with a quiet and uneventful life as you seem to believe. I'm very willing to be at the side of my husband as long and as often as possible. And if it's a certain mysterious Frenchman, I know he will do his utmost to protect me and the rest of our family..."
"My word on it, mon amour. But do be careful and think about what could be your life. I'm not yet ready to settle down and raise my children in a lovely rural mansion somewhere in a British County. I'm sure to go to America and I'm quite certain that, some day or the other in the future, I'm going to settle an old bill with my favorites Turkish enemies. You could be facing a life of wandering and hardship..."
He kissed her.
"Not that you will ever miss riches or such comfort one can buy with money. I'll see that you'll get what's best in every country we journey. But there are countries were their best will seem poor to a member of the Gentry..."
She laughed.
"As I said I'm no Aristocracy. I know how to live with a very sparse income. I even know to handle hay and forks and how to drive a chariot. And I'm a rather good horsewoman. I'll survive..."
He sighed heavily.
"I don't want you to survive. I want you to blossom. I want you to have everything a woman of your beauty could get if she were at the side of the right husband..."
She kissed him again.
"I'll be at the side of the right husband! Give me love and give me truthfulness and I'll have all a woman can ask for."
He smiled and they kissed for a very long eternity.
He broke when he sensed that his passion was galloping full speed back.
"I'll have to go, mon amour. If I stay I'll do things we will both regret. And, even if it's late, I have still work to do. I've been summoned and it would be very impolite not to respond to that very precise invitation..."
He sensed her stiffen.
"I won't kill anybody, I promise," said he while hugging her. "I didn't kill the four agents who where taking turns at looking at your sleep, though they would have got what was their due. I hate the idea of them looking at you undressing! I hesitated but then I felt that you wouldn't like it if I killed them out of unaltered jealousy. They are sleeping and will suffer of a horrible hanghover, that's all. "
He kissed her again.
"As for my visit to oour host, it will be perfectly tame and friendly. I'm even grateful he brought you here. Would you still be in Kent I wouldn't have been able to see you for weeks. So I got the chance to have the only answer I was calling for."
She tried to speak but he stopped her with a caressing finger.
"No, please, don't be more precise. I have proposed and I have given you all the time you want to consider my offer. Don't rush your answer. Think it through. Speak to your parents and to your sister. I swear I won't take it badly if you would decide to stay on the safe side of life and turn your back to adventures and wars..."
He stood up and dressed.
"I'll see you in Pemberley, love... Soon..."
A last kiss and he disappeared through the window.
Sleep came surprisingly easily. She would consider the entire situation. She would think of all the implications. But she already knew what would come out of that.
She smiled and slid back into a very sensual dreamworld.
Next chapter : London Discussions
1 / Jane Bennet, I adore you, you are unique and I want you at my side...