Imperative: Volume 1, A Tale of Pride and Prejudice (89 page)

“Here I am.”  Elizabeth’s eyes flew open and she turned, finding Gladney looming above, a slight smile on his lips and his half-closed eyes exposed dilated pupils.  “I have found you.”

“Have you been looking for me?  I thought that you were relaxing with the other men after your hunt.”  She said uncomfortably.

“Hmmm, hunting, yes.”  His smile grew and he blinked slowly.  “And liking what I have found.  You know, when I first heard of my cousin’s choice to marry so far below himself, I was quite amused.  He could have had anyone . . .”

“So can you.”  She stepped back from him. 

“Oh,” He laughed softly.  “So I can.  As I was saying, I was amused at my cousin’s choice and then I met you.”  Now his gaze wandered her form.  “And I find myself quite tempted.  You are pretty, not beautiful, ah, forgive me, of course you wish to be thought of as beautiful.  But do you not find that the beautiful women are at a disadvantage?”

Elizabeth could not help herself, “How so?”

“Men expect so much of them, perfection in looks must equate to perfection in every area, they have no opportunity to . . . expose themselves, shall we say, always hiding behind that facade of beauty.”  He smiled and touched her hand.  “You have no such burden, and have no trouble at all expressing your opinions.  And no doubt you have no trouble expressing your . . . likes and dislikes.”

“Is that not the same as my opinion?”  She tried to tug her hand away from his fingers.

“Hmmm, no.”  His lips lifted as he smiled sleepily and brought her fingers to his mouth to kiss.  “The likes I refer to are of a more
personal
nature.”

Hearing voices as she made her way to the parlour to join the ladies, Georgiana paused in the doorway and watched the viscount’s lips caress Elizabeth’s hand as her sister stared up at him.  With a gasp, she turned and ran away. 

Elizabeth pulled her hand from his grasp.  “I have no idea what you are referring to, sir, and I will thank you not to touch me in such a way again.” 

The viscount laughed.  “My brother has kissed your hand many times, and your lips.”  Glancing to the mantle festooned with a rope of pine and decorated with holly, he pointed to the mistletoe nestled in the middle.  “As I recall, he made use of this very plant just last night.  It is my turn, is it not?”

“No . . . no, that . . . was different . . . Fitzwilliam was present, this is . . . this is not proper.”  Elizabeth stepped back as he bent forward. 

“Gladney!”  Darcy’s voice echoed through the room.

“Darcy, excellent timing, your wife was reluctant to let me kiss her without your company.”  He smiled at her, “Now, where were we?”

“Elizabeth.”  Holding out his hand, she darted to him and gladly felt his strong grasp.   “Are you well?”

“Yes.”  She could not read his expression.  “It was no worse than Wickham.”

“That is bad enough.”  Seeing the viscount’s brow crease and his focussed gaze on Elizabeth, he let go of her hand and nodded to the door.  “Go, love, he is in the grips of the drug, I think.” 

“But, you . . .”

“I will be fine, now go, Lizzy.”  Reluctantly, she left the room but remained near the door.  

Gladney smiled and started after her.  “She is upset.  Here,” reaching into his waistcoat, he drew out the snuff box, “this will help her to relax . . .” 

“I detest this damnable drug and what it has done to you.  Keep it out of my house!”  Darcy stepped forward and grabbing the snuff box, threw it across the room.  It broke open when it hit a wall, scattering its contents over the polished wood of the floor.

“What have you done!”  Gladney cried; staring at the mess, and in an instant, his sleepy countenance was replaced with mad fury.  He rushed towards Darcy.

Darcy grabbed a poker from the fireplace and bellowed, “Stop right there!  Come closer and I will strike you down!” 

Gladney stopped and looked at him warily.  “With what?” 

“With anything in my reach.” 

“Will, he is not in his right mind!”  Elizabeth cried. 

Darcy said grimly.  “That, love, is perfectly clear, and under the influence of his powder he also has the strength of ten.” 

“And he will not feel a thing until the euphoria wears off, and he will remember even less.”  Richard said as he arrived, striding past Elizabeth to stand next to Darcy.  He looked at him and smiled.  “Need a hand?”

“How did you know to come?” 

“Georgiana came and got me, she said something was happening in here.”  Darcy’s brow creased and Richard raised his chin as he assessed the situation and the wild eyed man staring at them.  “You know, fighting him is useless, he would take us all down.”

“What do you suggest, then?  I am happily unfamiliar with persons in this state of mania.”  Darcy growled.

“Bertie!”  Richard barked.

“Oh, do not call me that, Dicky.”   Gladney’s stance relaxed and smiling again, he stretched around to see Elizabeth.  “Unless you like it, my dear.”  Advancing towards her, he unbuttoned his breeches and reached inside.  “I have something else you will like.  I told you I was well endowed . . .”  Her hand went to her mouth and she gasped.

“Lizzy, leave us!  Now!”  Darcy roared.  Spinning she fled the room just as Lord Matlock and Samuel appeared.

“Good God.”  Lord Matlock blanched at the sight of his son with his privates exposed.  “
Now
what?”  He said tiredly. 

The viscount strode forward.  “I want . . .”  Darcy and Richard looked at each other and dropping the poker, Darcy struck him in the jaw while Richard went for his stomach.  When Gladney doubled over onto Richard’s shoulder, he pushed him backwards, but could not take him down.  Samuel ran around the earl and dove for the viscount’s boots, tripping him so he landed on his backside with a thud.  Richard pinned down his arms and Darcy sat on his stomach as Samuel held his feet.  “Let me up.”   He said weakly.

“I am not moving until you are sane again.”  Darcy growled.  “And then I will beat the daylights out of you, and by God, you will not be conscious when I am through!” 

“That I would like to see!”  Richard laughed and looked past Darcy’s legs.  “Father, nobody wants to see that.”  He nodded to the arousal, still stiff and pointing to the ceiling.

“Agreed.”  Lord Matlock shoved the offending appendage into his son’s breeches and buttoned up the fall.  Sighing, he righted a chair and sat down to stare at the four men.  “I prayed this would not happen.  I hoped that his disdain for Elizabeth would temper his lust for any available woman.”

“You
knew
this was possible?  You brought a potential rapist into my home?  To threaten my wife and sister?  Not to mention my female staff!”  Darcy stared at him.  “I . . . I . . . am speechless, Uncle!  Your wife insults mine, you demand that I sell my estate to support you, and now you foist your . . . worthless son on my wife?” 

“I could not have known that he would do this!  His behaviour has changed remarkably in recent days.”  Running his hand over his face, it wound up combing through his hair.  “I am very sorry, Darcy.”

“You cannot possibly marry him to some poor innocent.  I do not care about Matlock’s need for funds.  If my Elizabeth took her vows with me in the morning and then found a raging madman in her chambers that night  . . .” He glared down at his now apparently sleeping cousin, “. . . I would have earned the thrashing her father would deservedly have given me.”

“What am I to do?  Not only do we need the money, but damn it, Matlock needs an heir!” 

“If he does not produce the heir Richard will.”  Darcy looked over to his cousin.  “If he ever marries.”

“If.”  He snorted.  “Bertie here will marry before me, and with that flag waving around, he will surely sire a jewel like himself.”

Samuel sat up and let go of Gladney’s legs.  “It is a shame that the earldom must pass to the eldest son.  I read entailments and wills all day, and a surprising number of estates pass over the heir for bad behaviour.  It would solve everything if it could all be settled on Richard.”

Lord Matlock looked to Richard.  “It would, but I think that a title is an entirely different situation than a wayward son of a landowner.  I do not think such a thing is possible, do you?”

“Rob him of his birthright?”  Darcy looked to Richard.

“Sounds familiar, does it not?”  He said softly and looked down at his brother.  A large purple lump was forming on his face.  “To agree with that would make me a hypocrite.”  He looked at Darcy who had closed his eyes and nodded.

“Why?” 

“Never mind, Father.”  He said tiredly.  “I will have to earn it the old fashioned way, by succession.”

“What if he willingly abdicated?  Can he disclaim the peerage?”  Samuel offered.  “If he were presented with . . .”  He searched for words and Darcy studied him.

“He would never do that, why should he?  Give up the title, estate, money . . .”  Lord Matlock looked down at his son. 

Darcy spoke, “His income is entirely from you now, correct, Uncle?”

“Yes.  I have cut everything else off.” 

“You have used your power to threaten him to behave, have you not?  Holding back funds?”

“Yes, and that is why his estate and the dower house are empty, he circumvented me.  Now it is all out of his reach except the pittance I allow him.”

“Then tell him no more funds unless he gives up the title to Richard.”

“If that is even legal, what becomes of him?”  Lord Matlock smiled.  “I would love more than anything to see my second son take over when I die, but, at Albert’s age, I am afraid that a career is out of the question.”

“Marry him to a rich woman.”  Darcy offered grimly.

“But you just said . . .”

“I said a sweet innocent woman like my Elizabeth.  I propose you approach Aunt Catherine.”

“Anne?”  Lord Matlock’s eyes widened.  “Good God, I cannot fathom the negotiations with Catherine for such a match!  She would have my balls in a vice!”

All of the men cringed but Darcy pressed on, “It would be an estate for him, he would have the income, but he could not sell the property or the contents,” his head tilted, “And I wager that Anne, with our aunt’s hand behind her, would make short work of his addiction, to gambling in any case.”

Richard’s good humour returned.  “I bet that she would even welcome his attentions, she certainly would have enjoyed yours, Cousin.  I rather suspect she is a bit of a tart and would have been all over you, despite her weakened condition.”  He grinned when Darcy’s cheeks became flushed with colour.  “She was formed for you, was she not?  She would have received you perfectly.”

“I think I will be sick.”  Darcy closed his eyes. 

“You
were
to marry her.”  Lord Matlock said quietly.  “I know for a fact that it truly was your mother’s wish that you and Anne marry.  Your father was not entirely convinced, especially as the years passed after her death.  But he meant to speak to you about it, quite seriously, when the new entailment was in place.   You know that it was Catherine’s influence that convinced him to remake the entailment?  Her example with Anne receiving Rosings instead of it going to some unknown cousin?”  He raised his brows and nodded at Darcy’s stare.  “It was to prepare for the possibility that Anne could not bear you a child, Pemberley would go to Georgiana.” 

“I had no idea.”  He stood to go stare out of the window.  “Father truly wanted me to marry her?”

“He wished for you to make the choice, but he did want to suggest it to you strongly to consider.  It would have been a spectacular match and in his mind, it would have made your mother happy.  But he also was watching Anne mature.  He would have loved you marrying the mirror of your mother, but . . . he knew Anne was not.  He wanted you happy.” 

“And you knew all of this and pushed Cathy as the alternative after his death.” 

“It could not hurt to try.  To have her married outside of the family means to expose our situation.  I suppose we have no choice now.”  He sighed.

“Daily I feel better about not being you, Darcy.  You are nothing more than a pawn.”  Samuel marvelled.  Richard chuckled and Darcy turned to look at him.  “Forgive me.”

“No, for all of history marriage has been a tool for settling disputes or improving situations.”  At last a smile crept over his lips.  “I do not blame you for having such an opinion, but, thankfully, I do have my Elizabeth.  That is worth everything.”  He looked down at his boots.  “I wonder when Father would have told me his wishes.”

Lord Matlock cleared his throat, “That was to come the day that the new entailment was signed.” 

“The day he died.”  Darcy said quietly and looked up to his uncle.  “What took him?” 

He startled, “He never told you of his condition?  Of course he would not; he did not want to worry you.”  Seeing Darcy’s demanding stare he spoke quickly, “It was apoplexy, without a doubt.  He had an enlarged heart, the physician could hear the blasted organ pumping away, and he warned your father that it would likely take him one day, out of the clear blue sky.   The approach of your majority spurred him to action to get all of the entailment business done, and sure enough, that was the day everything ended.  Perhaps the excitement of it all was too much.”  He sighed.  “I thought that you would have known, you seemed so . . . Lord I am a fool, you are so skilled at hiding emotion, it never occurred to me that you had any questions.   And of course the judge was . . . grim is the only word I can find for it, so I suspected he knew, but Easterly and I recognized the symptoms, we both have seen sudden death, the slurred words the paralysis on one side . . .  You saw nothing of it?”

“No.”  He said softly and looked out at the estate.  “I always wondered.  We have not talked a great deal since then.”  

“No.  Well . . . That was that.  You may understand when you have children one day; you . . . try to spare them the difficult things.”  Lord Matlock looked over the silenced men and his eyes met Richard’s as a groan emanated from the viscount.  Everyone turned to look down at him. “Well, one thing is certain, it was not poison for your father.” 

Suddenly flushed with anger, Darcy spun away from the window.   “You wish to spare your children of the difficult things, but what does it leave them prepared to do?   How can you be a responsible adult when you are provided everything, including ignorance?  Do something for your son!  Can you not toss out the rest of his powder?  His valet must keep him supplied; somebody fills that damnable box of his!”