Chapter 11

Richard and Henry made short work of visiting. They were both quite shocked to see their vibrant cousin lying back in cream colored linens looking quite wan. The wound on his forehead was a violent purple except where the edges had been stitched together. The wound itself was a dull red with what appeared to be signs of infection despite it being cleaned and covered with gauze. He seemed to be drifting between lucid awakenings and fevered dreams.

Dr. Jones stopped by mid-afternoon and was unhappy to see the state Darcy was in. After examining him and cleaning the wound again, he asked Mr. Bennet and the Fitzwilliam brothers to meet him in the bookroom. He sat down in the comfortable armchair and stared into the fire as he sipped a glass of port while gathering his thoughts.

Hindley broke everyone's reverie. "What should we be doing right now, Doc, to help Darce?"

Jones looked up at Hindley. "I do not know what else to do to help him. His mental acuity might become totally affected by this. There is little the medical community knows about the brain swelling as a result of injuries. I would caution you to not stress him unduly. At the same time he seems to be harboring ideas that his valet says are deeply ingrained in his psyche. He has wanted to marry Miss Elizabeth since first meeting her and he is calling out to her, begging her, as his wife, to come to him."

Hindley leaned back against Mr. Bennet's desk and tapped a quill against his palm. "Are you saying, Doctor, that if Darcy can be spoken to while in a lucid state of mind that it might improve his chances of a recovery if he were allowed to wed Miss Elizabeth?"

Richard did not say anything, but he did suck air in between his teeth. He stared at his brother wide-eyed, without blinking, for several seconds.

Mr. Bennet broke the silence. "Hindley, do you understand what you just said?"

Henry nodded his head. "Indeed, I do. I think they would make a handsome couple and what I viewed of them together yesterday before this illness overtook him, Darcy was well on his way to begging Miss Elizabeth for her hand in marriage. If speeding things up would help him recover, I suggest we do so for him." Then he went and spoiled things by adding, "It also will not hurt if he has a wife with whom he has had conjugal relations with. Being able to say the Darcy line of succession could possibly be safe at present will be a great relief to the family."

Bennet came out of his chair and pounded his hand against his desk. "Now, you listen here, punk."

Before he could say anything else, Richard started chortling and in between gasps for air pointed out the double standard used there. It was perfectly acceptable for Mr. Bennet to protect the reputation of his daughter, but to call his brother, the Viscount Hindley, a female prostitute was going a bit above and beyond righteous.

Mr. Bennet blushed in shame and offered an apology. "I apologize. I grow weary of others challenging my daughter's virtue. No one takes into account that Franny fell pregnant again a year after the twins were born and Jane and Elizabeth stepped up to care for them while Franny tended to the younger set of twins." After being granted clemency he asked Hindley to clarify his intentions. "To what end do you speak of? Are you asking for Elizabeth's hand in marriage to Darcy even as he fights for his life? What will happen with your family if they conceive a child and Mr. Darcy does not survive this brain fever?"

Richard looked Mr. Bennet in the eyes and stated that he knew for a fact that William and Victoria were not twins. He told Mr. Bennet about meeting Darcy at the theater after he and Elizabeth had created William.

Mr. Bennet fell back in his chair, face pale and breathing ragged. "Please do not ruin my daughter." Was all he managed to choke out before tears of grief and shame overcame him.

Hindley and Richard sat there and let him compose himself before trying to say anything else. Henry was the one who finally broke the silence. "You must understand, Mr. Bennet, we do not wish to cause your family any grief, but if it comes to the greater need we wish you to consider that Darcy is worth several hundred thousand pounds and to rob his child of its birthright is unconscionable. A clear line of inheritance is necessary to keep the estate of Pemberly whole and profitable."

Mr. Bennet used his handkerchief to wipe excess tears from his face. "You make it sound so easy. Marry Lizzy off to Mr. Darcy, let them have William. And all is well." He shook his head. "No, that is not even a realistic scenario. You two gentlemen were not privy to the workings of Longbourne six years ago. And that does not take into account what would happen if Prinny has anything to do with Darcy claiming his heir five years late."

His green eyes were full of sorrow as he spoke. "Six years ago I was well on my way to being a completely indolent wastrel sitting here in my bookroom day after day doing nothing more than reading the Classics and drinking port. Mrs. Bennet spent her days having one breakdown after another as she worried herself sick about having five unmarried daughters with no dowries, no savings and nowhere to go when I finally exited the mortal coil." He huffed a bit of air before continuing, "The girls did not mind my indolence as much as they deplored their mother's incessant carping about them not doing what it took to keep her from living in the hedgerows after I drank myself to death."

Richard looked around the clean and well organized room. He did not want to try guessing what had changed. He gently prompted, "And then something happened?"

Mr. Bennet's face bloomed a lovely shade of red. One could probably have identified his blush in the dark by the heat radiating off him. "The catalyst would be our Jane being introduced to society here in Hertfordshire at the age of fifteen. At sixteen she received an offer of marriage from a gentleman a few years older than me. Mrs. Bennet was thrilled that a wealthy man offered for her and began insisting that Jane consider him."

Hindley flinched. "Ah!"

"No! It was more along the lines of 'oh my sweet Jesus spare me from my mother's craziness'. Jane was completely revolted that her mother would consider the man. He was well past his prime, missing most of his teeth, half of his hair, and was well on his way to developing gout. He was at the very least some thirty years older than her, but Mrs. Bennet was determined that one of her daughters would save her from the hedgerows."

"So, Jane said no?" Richard smirked.

Mr. Bennet nodded. "Correct, Jane said no. Only instead of Mrs. Bennet leaving it at that she immediately began blaming Lizzy for Jane not complying with her wishes. Both girls became angry and demanded she cease badgering them about not accepting his suit. Lizzy went so far as to tell her mother that if she wanted the man in the family so badly she should consider either taking him as her lover or moving in with him and becoming his paramour."

The brothers looked at each other, looked at Bennet, turned back to each other and burst out laughing like a pack of hyenas.

Bennet gave them a minute then cleared his throat. "You may think that was hilarious. However, the reality of the situation was that Mrs. Bennet became unbearable to the point I packed Jane and Elizabeth up and took them to their Uncle and Aunt Gardiner in London. I left them there for almost four months while I did my best to calm Franny down and get her with child again. The damn woman was so crazy at that point she actually visited the Meryton herbal woman. The only way forward I could see at that time was for us to produce an heir for Longbourne."

Hindley stopped laughing and rejoined the conversation. "So, Longbourne is entailed to a male heir and the entail could not be broken in your generation."

"That is correct. The next heir in line will break the entail. Six years ago I did not have any male heirs legitimate or otherwise. Now I am sitting pretty with three."

Richard tilted his head back and considered what it would take for a fourteen-years-old gentlewoman to give up her virtue. Lizzy must really love the people residing here for her to throw her whole life away on the gamble she would get pregnant and then that the offspring would be a male. Add in the fact that she could be found out and the whole family's reputation would be ruined. That was the stuff of which epic nightmares were crafted. He readjusted himself in his chair, rejoined the other two men and proceeded to tell them that his admiration of Elizabeth had gone past legend at this point, and he knew he did not have all the variables accounted for that could have gone wrong.

Mr. Bennet continued with his story. How Lizzy had returned home and proceeded to hide her pregnancy the whole seven and a half months she carried William. Neither he nor Mrs. Bennet had the first clue Lizzy was pregnant until after Mrs. Bennet had delivered Victoria and Jane had spoken to Dr. Jones. Lizzy had caught influenza from Fanny and she was not doing well at all.

Hindley nodded when Bennet said William was early. "That would be one more fact in Darcy's favor when claiming paternity. Darcy babies are rarely ever carried to term." Then he grinned and added, "Despite that fact they do seem to be healthy and thrive once out of confinement."

Richard looked at him questioningly. When Henry did not explain that assertion he asked, "How did you know that?"

Henry shrugged. "I heard Mama talking to Aunt Catherine. Aunt Cathy did not carry babies well either and they were trying to figure out if it was the Fitzwilliam side of the family or the Darcy side that was to blame."

Richard sighed. "I don't suppose it is important to figure out at this point. It might have been nice if Aunt Anne had managed to survive the birth of Georgiana."

Mr. Bennet's anxiety ratcheted up noticeably. "Are you trying to tell me that the first child being born early and the second child causing the death of the mother is an established pattern in the Darcy family?"

Viscount Hindley leaned forward and huffed. "Mr. Bennet, my brother and I are professional liars. It is a given because we are part of the Peerage. The one thing we do not joke about is family. Or, in our case, lack of family. We are a very small clan, therefore, it is always a joyful experience for us to add to our number. Richard and I have no intention of lying about what finding a lost member of our clan means to us."

Bennet blinked. "Okay. But are you trying to say that the mother dying with the birth of the second child is usual."

Richard shook his head in the negative. "Not really. We think that part was with the Fitzwilliam clan. Most of the Fitzwilliam women are not very strong physically. We think Elizabeth will not have any problems with at least five or six babies."

The bookroom door flew open to reveal Elizabeth standing there looking like an avenging angel. "I have been eavesdropping on this conversation for the last twenty minutes. Everything you have been saying in the last ten have made me so angry I am ready to shoot both of you and throw you into the hog pen." She was so irate that static electricity was dancing around in her curls while a non-existent wind seemed to shift her skirts.

Richard stared in awe at her for several heartbeats before standing up and walking toward her. He dropped to his knee before her and risked his life to capture one of her hands. "Miss Elizabeth, if you decide not to wed with Fitzwilliam George Alexander Darcy will you do me the honor of becoming my bride?"

She swatted him with her free hand and moved around him. "Father?" Was all she managed to say before Viscount Hindley was on bended knee before her and also asking for her hand in marriage if she would not accept either Darcy's suit or Richard's.

This time both of her hands flew up in the air and she shrieked, "Will you idiots stop! I have no desire to be wedded to either of you raving lunatics. I do not care if your father is Prinny himself. Now cease and desist."

Thomas Bennet watched his daughter in awe of how she treated mere mortals. He rather thought to himself that he should hie himself posthaste to Longbourne Chapel and make arrangements for her wedding to Darcy in between prayers to our Father Almighty that Darcy survive long enough to bring the wench to heel. Then he thought about how Darcy acted when he was within touching distance of Elizabeth and shook his head in frustration. It was going to take a stronger man than Darcy to make the little wench behave like a lady.