Darkness Falls Upon Pemberley by Susan Adriani Read Free Book Online

questioned his sanity, I’ve never questioned his devotion. He cares for us, and paid the ultimate price in order to assure our future at Longbourn.”
    Darcy resisted the urge to snort derisively. In his opinion, Mr. Bennet would have done far bet ter to save and invest his income so his wife could purchase another home after his demise, or grow their daughters’ meager dowries, but that was a moot point at this juncture. The damage done was tragic and irreversible for all parties, whether some were aware of the sacrifices made or not.
    The master of Pemberley struggled to keep his temper in check and exhaled roughly. “Your father had no right to contemplate such an act of selfish defiance, never mind commit one. He’d no right to condemn you to a fate no sane person would ever choose for himself or his family. Forgive me, but if he desired a companion he ought to have bestowed such an honour upon your mother, yet he did not. He forced it upon you instead.”
    To his surprise, a wry smile tugged at her lips. “You’ve been in company with my mother on many occasions, sir. As dear as she is to me, the soul of discretion she is not; nor does she practice economy, or exercise restraint of any kind. I fear she’d make a poor vampyre.”
    “You can joke about such a thing?” he asked, his tone incredulous.
    “I must,” was her matter-of-fact reply, “or else the regret—the knowledge that I'll never have a husband, or children—would consume me. I believe you are well enough acquainted with me to know I wasn’t formed for melancholy. I’ve simply chosen to carry on as though nothing has changed. Trust me when I say it’s far better this way , for all of us.”
    Darcy pursed his lips, furious that she’d had so much taken from her, and all because her father was both foolhardy and self-serving enough to devise and carry out such a damning subterfuge!
    As though she’d sensed the bent of his thoughts, Elizabeth placed her hand upon his arm and shook her head sadly. “My father may have chosen this path for himself, but he certainly didn’t choose to make me his image on a whim. You must believe me when I tell you it was out of necessity; nothing more, nothing less.”
    “There can be no necessity so urgent as to sentence one’s own child to such a fate,” he replied harshly. “No truly loving parent would ever resort to such an option .”
    “Mr. Darcy, tell me you would simply do nothing if your daughter lay dying. Tell me, if you had the means to save her—the child you  cherished most in the world—you would choose differently. After being thrown from my horse three years ago, my injuries were so severe there was no hope for recovery. I was also in great pain, which in turn pained my family.”
    For a long moment he regarded her in silence, his eyes taking in every detail of her person, searching for any sign of former injury; but, as with Georgiana, he could see no blemish, could detect no flaw. He lowered his eyes. “Would you have returned the favour last night? Would you have  acted similarly yourself if the chill of your body failed to drive the fever from my own?”
    Elizabeth swallowed thickly and looked away. “We were not speaking of you and I, but of my father and myself.”
    “That's true,” he conceded, “but you must understand—by now you must know it’s you who I've come to cherish more than any other, yet I cannot imagine making the same choice in such a case without first obtaining your consent.”
    “Then it appears we are of one mind,” she  responded heatedly, “but know this, sir: if I were to ever again find myself faced with the prospect of your imminent death—of poor Miss Darcy being left entirely alone in the world to shift for herself—I would be forced to consider it, and perhaps even act upon it, but only as a last resort. This is not an easy existence, Mr. Darcy, as you and your sister are well aware. Unless your need last night was not most dire, I