BUT IT TOOKthree months.
And so, they were married only a bit ahead of schedule, in the spring.
Georgiana had just come out for her Season and was so overcome by all of the balls and suitors and excitement she had quite forgotten about Neithern or Wickham or Bingley or how she was doomed to be jilted by every man who found her winsome.
She would not be the Duchess of Neithern, but she would be quite all right, in the end. She was Georgiana Darcy, and her brother was devoted to her happiness.
As for the new Duchess of Neithern herself, she was different. Caroline seemed subdued in a way that she had never been before. She was not nearly as complimentary as she had once been. She was quiet, her smiles small, her expression shrewd, taking everything in. She often had her hand to her belly, even before she was showing the child growing there, as if she knew quite well that the babe was the one thing that was protecting her.
What if it were a girl, Elizabeth wondered. What happened then?
She saw the duke and his duchess on several occasions, for she was being invited to all manner of things by the dowagerduchess, her grandmother. She was beginning to feel as if this was, in fact, her family.
Eventually, she got the chance to speak to Neithern about it. They were not exactly alone, for there were others in the room, but they were out of earshot of anyone else.
“You would be appalled to hear what my uncle did to her,” Neithern muttered.
“Well, she overheard our conversation,” said Elizabeth. “She would have been aware of the danger when she agreed to marry him. I daresay she had no one to blame but herself.”
“That’s my wife you’re speaking of,” said Neithern, giving her a disapproving look.
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. “Oh, is it that way between you two? And here I thought she had tricked you into it, that she had demanded to be made a duchess or she would expose your true parentage.”
“No, no,” said Neithern. “She’s too shattered for that sort of behavior, really.”
Elizabeth was rendered speechless. What had Caroline done to make Neithern feelthisway about her?
“It was my idea, you see,” said Neithern. “My grandmother was quite willing to do absolutely nothing for her.”
“Even after she knew about the child,” said Elizabeth.
Neithern’s gaze flicked off and then back again. “No, obviously, she didn’t know about that until I brought that up.”
Elizabeth folded her arms over her chest. “Thatisyour uncle’s child, is it not? You didn’t impregnate his widow and pass it off as—”
“No,” said Neithern, affronted. “To take advantage of poor Caroline in the wake of such a thing! What do you take me for?”
Elizabeth eyed him.
He cleared his throat. “You know, you and I have shared a number of secrets, madam, but that does not mean you are entitled to know everything about my personal life.”
“I suppose I’m prying,” she said.
“I suppose you are,” he said.
“My apologies,” she said. “I am quite pleased you and Caroline are so happy together.”
“Thank you,” he said. “We are, actually. Happy. And she is different than she was, you know, and I wonder if all she’s ever really wanted is someone to appreciate her. She appeared desperate, but that was only because she was so sad and lonely. I know what it’s like to be sad and lonely, and to feel worthless, and… she and I suit each other, it turns out, in a number of ways.”
“Yes, perhaps I see that,” said Elizabeth.
As it would happen, Caroline’s first child would be a boy child, a little dukeling. Whether that duke actually had a drop of Sulles blood in him, well, Elizabeth would never know the answer to that. The boy himself would primarily resemble Caroline.
It was not only Caroline who was expecting a child, but Elizabeth’s sister Jane as well. She was only a few months along, so she was there at Elizabeth’s wedding.
And, of course, Elizabeth was increasing during her wedding as well, though no one else besides her and Mr. Darcy were aware of this.
Elizabeth found it rather hilarious, really. Her first exposure to anything carnal with a man had meant that she thought it was disgusting and horrifying, and to be the way she was about it now, with Mr. Darcy, to be unable to stop herself, to be eager and hungry and so very, very satisfied by her husband—well, her husband-to-be, as scandalous as it was—it was quite the reversal.
