Free Darcy and Fitzwilliam: A Tale of a Gentleman and an Officer by Karen Wasylowski

I could have had the kind of closeness with my mother that you enjoyed."
    "I truly think she would have wanted that, too, but then you were always much closer to Father, weren't you? You and Father were both cleverer than the rest of us. I imagine it probably intimidated her."
    Lizzy leaned over to stroke the head of the baby as it nursed, then touched her own stomach absently. Darcy and she had decided that no one would be told of her pregnancy until they were reasonably certain that it would be successful.
    They sat in silence for several minutes, Lizzy poring over old letters and Jane staring contentedly out the window.
    "Lizzy?"
    "Yes, dearest?"
    "I noticed at luncheon yesterday that you avoided Caroline but spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Hurst. Do you still feel a strained relationship with Charles's sister?"
    Lizzy broiled inside at the very thought of that wanton but schooled her appearance to appear complacent. It was neither the time nor place to have her talk with Jane about Caroline.
    "I am sorry if in any way I offended you or Charles. It was not my intention. I was only lost in my own thoughts."
    "I don't think anyone noticed." Jane placed her baby across her shoulder to rub its back. A small burp, one of a mother's greatest rewards, quickly followed. She settled the child at her other breast. "Darcy was attentive to her, kind and thoughtful as always, so I don't think she noticed anything untoward."
    Lizzy froze. "Was Darcy speaking with her? I hadn't realized." She spoke evenly as she refolded the letters. At that moment, a terrified-looking serving girl knocked on the door. With a pale face and a trembling voice, she whispered that there were visitors downstairs.

Chapter 10
    Since purchasing his commission in the spring of 1806, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam had been involved in the worst battles of the Peninsular War, from the Battle of Vimeiro in 1808 through Coruna, Porto, Talevera, counter attacks at Fuentes de Onoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, pushing eastward to Salamanca, Vitoria, Maya, and into France. He had suffered through unthinkable deprivations, unbearable heat and mind-numbing cold, sloshed through mud and ice storms, fought savagely amid the slaughter and brutality of men driven insane with hatred and revenge.
    And yet... all these seemed preferable to sitting across from his aunt Catherine for the two-and-one-half-hour carriage ride from Rosings Park to Lizzy's family home, Longbourn. If she poked his knee one more time with that bony finger of hers, she would be retracting a bloody stump.
    "Cut line, Catherine!" he finally hissed.
    "I beg your pardon! I realize I am old, Fitzwilliam, and feeble..." He snorted his opinion of that. "... and feeble ," she yelled, indicating with a circle of her finger her heart area, "but I do believe that as matriarch of this family I have a right, nay, a certain obligation to point out the error of your excesses. Never mind that you are involved in illicit relationships with opera dancers and shop girls. Never mind that you cuckold titled members of the aristocracy..." Suddenly she halted midscreech, looking confused.
    "Well, please don't stop there, Aunt. That cannot be the end of your tirade, surely. We have another hour yet to go sealed within this tomb of horrors, and you have not even begun to mention my excessive drinking, my indifference to my heritage, or my disloyalty to Somerfield House."
    "Yes!! Oh, thank you, Richard, thank you. I knew there was something I had forgotten!" She laughed. "La, my mind sometimes..."
    Fitzwilliam moaned.
    The demon reentered her body. "You do realize that idiot brother of yours has yet to marry and produce an heir. Of course, I have tried to reason with him, but he's nonsensical, prancing about with those artist friends of his. You have obligations, young man, to your family, and yes, to your heritage. Heaven knows what you see in these loose women..." She flung up her hand. "Do not even dare to speak of it to me. I can interpret an