“You’re so good with her,” she said, following him to their main room. “You corrected her and explained everything, but in a way she can understand.”
“I had not known until I came here that childhood is such a unique time. They are not merely small adults or tabula rasas but have social and mental skills that develop in a particular way over the first twenty years of their lives.” He gave a small shake of his head as if passing over a memory. “Some behaviours expected of me and Georgiana as children were unjust.”
“You’re a wonderful dad,” she whispered.
“Do you believe that?” He looked at her as though his entire happiness depended upon her answer.
“Of course I do. You’ve been harder on yourself than you need to be.”
“I disagree.”
There was no use in arguing with him, but at least he believed he was a good father. “Fitzwilliam, you were so tense tonight. And even lately, even after we went away together. Tell me why.” He had to have been more terrified of his sister changing something than he let on.
He had been about to walk away, but he said in a rush, “Elizabeth, if anything had been different because of Georgiana’s visit, if Sandra was not here when we came back from Nine Ladies…” He blew out a shaky breath. “I love that little girl more than anything, except for you. If she no longer existed…” He squeezed shut his eyes. “And if I had never even found you whenI came back because of Georgiana’s visit? If I had memories of a life with you, but you were suddenly gone the moment my sister disappeared?—”
Darcy was pale and she gripped his hands so they would stop shaking. “But nothing changed. Everyone is just as they should be.”
“I would not have gone back in 2013 if I had never found you, but now? Where would I belong if Georgiana had inadvertently changed our lives and I did not have you or Sandra in 2026?”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” she insisted. “Everyone is safe. And you belong here. Nothing will change that. Sandra and I are where we belong too—with you. Sandra will test your knowledge with her endless questions and I will try your patience with all of my teasing and you will love every minute of it.”
He smiled, and she knew he believed it, but she was struck by how haggard he looked, the fatigue around his eyes deepening. “Fitzwilliam, how much has this fear weighed on you since the solstice?”
She couldn’t be sure he even heard her. He dropped her hands, bowed his head, and stood in the middle of the room like he didn’t know what to do next. Saying goodbye to Georgiana forever—again—had taken a toll on him. And all the receding fear of his wife and daughter possibly not existing in the way he remembered, or not at all, left him exhausted.
A dullness filled her chest as regret hit her. She ought to have seen how worried he really was, ought to have known his relationship with his sister wasn’t the only thing preoccupying him these past months. She touched his arm to get his attention and pointed for him to follow her to their room. Closing the door, she said, “I’m taking you to bed.”
He said nothing, but held out a hand for her to lead him.
She undressed him, and rather than grow impatient and eager, she took her time taking both of their clothes off. Darcy didn’t make any provocative comments or gaze at her hungrily or take control like he often did. He only closed his eyes and tilted back his head to give her better access to kiss along his neck.
As her hands slid up his body, exploring his chest, he relaxed a little more and even traced his fingertips up her back. He really was a gorgeous man. She pushed him onto the bed and he fell back onto the pillow with a sigh, but at least he watched her as she climbed atop him. She leant over him, her fingers tracing the muscles of his arms. Her nipples teased his chest as her lips traced the curve of his ear, whispering exactly what she was going to do.
His eyes were dark, never leaving hers, but he only nodded and she sank onto him. Elizabeth pushed herself up on her arms and moved back and forth along his length. She watched him close his eyes, his hands on her hips as he let her set their languid pace. Then he started to move against her thrusts, making her move harder, closing her eyes and panting as the stirrings grew stronger.
“Sit up,” he rasped, and she opened her eyes. “I want to watch you.”
Something had changed in him, but rather than insist on finishing in the way she started, she sat upright for him. He pushed her shoulders, and she leant back, resting her hands on his legs. Darcy gripped her hips and thrust, encouraging her to rock faster before moving his hands to her breasts, squeezing them and making her arch against him.
Their rhythm grew more frantic until he swore breathily and moaned her name, and then she was gone, taking him with her, Darcy watching her the entire time. She fell onto his chest, and his arms tightened around her. She relaxed into the comfortand familiarity of the moment. At first, she feared he had disappeared into the same broody thoughts as before, but then his hand traced the curve of her cheek as he pressed a kiss to her temple.
“I was trying to take care of you,” she said as they shifted to lie side by side.
“I don’t know why you think you did not.” His voice was calm and warm again, and she hoped his worries were gone. “I just needed to watch the woman who bewitched me into moving forward two hundred years in time.”
“Still glad you gave up being Mr Darcy?” she asked sleepily.
He chuckled. “I am still Mr Darcy.”
“It’s not the same.”
“No, but you’re here, and life is better with you.”
“And with electricity and chocolate bars.”
“That too.”
They were quiet for a while, and on another night he might have fallen asleep, but she could tell by how he felt in her arms that he was thinking. Guessing what was on his mind, she said slowly, “I’m sorry I never guessed why you were afraid.”
