The Plight of the Darcy Brothers Read Online Free PDF

longer came in and opened the curtains for him, especially when he slept in his wife's room, so he had to do it himself and ring the bell for his manservant.
    Pemberley was quiet—uncomfortably quiet. It was still quite early, and there was no sign of his only two guests or his son, although that was to be expected. Darcy took his regular breakfast and was lost in the morning paper when Nurse came in screaming. “Oh God! I promise… I promise… I'll get it off!”
    “What?” he said, thoroughly confused, and still in the middle of his food.
    “Mr. Bingley—he's not awake. I'll get it all off before he wakes, I promise!”
    Darcy swallowed and said calmly, “ What off?”
    She could not explain; she was too flummoxed. Instead, she insisted that he follow her quickly and quietly to the nursery, so as to not wake Mr. Bingley. And there he found little Georgiana Bingley, giggling happily.
    In a tub full of ink.
    “I—I don't know how it happened, Mr. Darcy, I swear!”
    Darcy already had a fair idea of what had occurred and was busy mentally debating how to maneuver the situation so that he was in full view of Bingley's face when he saw his daughter.

    By morning, the three Bennet sisters—former and current— had come to one conclusion. The discretion of the Fitzwilliams, who had hosted them, could be trusted. They deserved an explanation for all of the disruption, and they received one. However, the sisters did not return to their carriage until they had received the Fitzwilliams' solemn promise that not a word of this would be uttered to anyone. Obviously, time was of the essence. The only question was if Mary should ride in her “condition,” but they decided that she had no other option. For the moment, they would go to Pemberley and decide on a course of action from there.
    Mary said almost nothing. She had had the ground pulled out from under her, having always stood on a high moral ground. Mary's chances for a good marriage—or a marriage at all—were utterly ruined. Kitty's chances could be salvaged, but not until the scandal blew over. After all, Longbourn had suffered one scandal and emerged with two extremely advantageous marriages. But surely now Mary would have to be satisfied with being a lonely mother, provided something drastic wasn't done.
    “You don't think—with all due respect—that Mr. Darcy will say anything about this, do you?” Jane whispered when Mary was out of earshot.
    Elizabeth sighed. True, her husband was a severely proper man, averse to any scandal. However, he was also intolerably good at covering them up. “If he does, I will make it known that I am severely disappointed in him, and that will be enough to quiet him about this entire affair.”
    But her husband was not disapproving. Not at first, whenthey climbed out of the carriage at the grand doorstep of Pemberley. After all, Darcy and Bingley did not know the story, and Mary was not showing. But the two men, holding their children, also had the most adorably hapless look on their faces that Elizabeth had no doubt was well-practiced.
    “So there is a very good explanation—”
    “—a perfectly, perfectly good explanation—” Bingley broke in.
    “—as to why our children are blue.”
    For indeed they were.
    Geoffrey Darcy and Georgiana Bingley were properly dressed to greet their parents, looking scrubbed and proper, except for the fact that their skin and hair were soundly a deep shade of blue. They looked like members of some unknown species, and they offered no explanation as they broke free and ran to their mothers. After Elizabeth and Jane were done laughing, they were able to greet their children properly. It felt so good to be happy at something ridiculous, after the torturous ride of worries, that Elizabeth had to recover some before she could properly approach her husband with a look that demanded everything.
    “Well, since it happened first to—”
    “Darcy, your son started it. Don't you dare try to