The Plight of the Darcy Brothers

The Plight of the Darcy Brothers Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: The Plight of the Darcy Brothers Read Online Free PDF
Author: Marsha Altman
implicate me in this!” Bingley demanded.
    “Charles,” Jane said in her very patient, loving, and deadly voice. “Where were you when… this occurred?”
    “Sleeping.”
    “Only the first time,” Darcy corrected. “Not the second.”
    “How was I to know there would be a second time?”
    “Will someone please provide your promised explanation?” Elizabeth said. “Oh, and my sister, of course,” she said, nodding to Mary.
    Their husbands bowed. “Miss Bennet.”
    “Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bingley,” she said shyly.
    “How was your—”
    “Don't try to distract us,” Elizabeth cut in. “I will go as far as to say I am, for the moment, more concerned with my son than my sister.”
    “We did try to scrub them,” Bingley offered. “I mean, really tried.”
    “It hurt,” said Geoffrey, pointing to his father. “He hurt me. And made me sit in the corner.”
    Darcy shrugged unapologetically at his son's comments.
    The whole story came out after much questioning and demanding of specifics. Geoffrey had crept into Georgiana's early morning bath and dumped a bottle of ink in the water. Georgie had been most amused at the concept and had gotten it all over the top half of her body before Nurse returned. All the while, Bingley enjoyed the sound sleep that could only be enjoyed by the father of two toddlers who had yet to sleep fully through the night and were now three miles away. If that hadn't been enough, Georgie had gotten her revenge the next day by adding ink to the bucket of water to be dumped on Geoffrey in his tub. After so much panicked scrubbing by their fathers that the children cried that their skin was raw and pained, Mrs. Reynolds intervened and said the ink would fade— in time.
    “A few weeks,” Darcy said.
    “Oh goodness,” was all Jane could say.
    Bingley and Darcy exchanged confused glances. Why their wives found the predicament more amusing and delightful than horrifying was beyond them. They were both taken aside andtold the more pressing situation, in private, so Mary did not have to endure the disclosure. After all, she had to be handled most carefully now as an expectant woman.
    Darcy listened to the tale in his study, as Mary sat with the children outside. He said nothing during the whole recitation, though his face did go through a series of expressions, none of them particularly unexpected.
    “So,” Elizabeth said at last, announcing she was finished.
    “And—he's in Italy, this Mr.—”
    “His proper name is Mr. Mastai-Ferretti, I believe. Or, I suppose, Signore Mastai.”
    “He's younger than she?”
    “Yes.”
    Clearly pondering, Darcy asked, “From where in Italy does he hail?”
    “Sin—Senigallia. But Mary believes him to be elsewhere in Italy now, finishing his education.” Elizabeth made her own logical conclusions. “He is surely unreachable.”
    “Mr. Bennet can write, if he wishes, but our Mr. Mastai could simply choose not to respond. Considering his actions forthwith, I would not see that as beyond the range of possibility.”
    “Then there is nothing to be done.”
    Darcy said nothing.
    “Darcy, she's my sister.”
    “That I know,” he said, not uncaringly. “But there is an order for things. Her father cannot be unknowing in this.”
    “Then you do have a plan.”
    “There is only one I can think of, Lizzy. Surely you have thought of it yourself.”
    “It is out of the realm of possibility, surely.”
    “As far as family is concerned, nothing is out of the realm of possibility.” But that was all he was willing to say for the moment.

    The five of them now had the first obstacle in front of them: they could go to Longbourn and give Mr. Bennet the news in his own home, as he deserved when his daughter disgraced his family. Or they could keep Mary in Derbyshire and invite her father there in an effort to avoid the scandal for some time, as might be possible if she stayed there instead of returning to Hertfordshire. Bingley immediately offered up
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

Miss Buddha

Ulf Wolf

Taken by the Sheikh

Kris Pearson

This is the Part Where You Laugh

Peter Brown Hoffmeister

Bishop's Road

Catherine Hogan Safer

Prairie Storm

Catherine Palmer

Shockball

S. L. Viehl