Page 55 of Bella Darcy is on the Run

For one heartbeat he stared at her, then the wicked light returned to his eyes with such glee that Bella wondered whether she had made a tactical error.

"Oh, there is, Princess."

Her stomach fluttered pleasantly. "Should I be frightened?"

"Oh, terribly."

Bella smiled and caught hold of his cravat, using it to draw him back towards her. "Then I suppose you had better begin."

The door to Mr and Mrs Harwood's rooms remained firmly closed for the rest of the afternoon. When a maid came to ask whether they wished for tea, there was a long pause before George opened the door in his banyan, his hair in complete disarray.

By dinner they had both been restored to respectability. Much later, when the house had gone quiet and Bella lay with her head against George's chest, listening to the slow, steady beat of his heart, she thought of the girl who had once looked out across Pemberley and felt trapped by everything waiting for her there. She had wanted freedom so desperately then, without really knowing what shape it ought to take. George's arm tightened around her and she smiled into the darkness.

Perhaps freedom had never meant leaving Pemberley behind. Perhaps it had meant finding a life there that was truly her own, and someone she could not imagine living it without.

Epilogue Two

"For goodness' sake, William, will you stop pacing? You are going to wear a hole in the rug. And if not in the rug, certainly in my patience!" Elizabeth said, gesturing towards him with her teacup.

Darcy turned an irritated look upon his wife but continued to move. "I do not know how you can simply sit there like that." The brandy in his glass sloshed dangerously as he pivoted on his heel, and Elizabeth placed a hand over her mouth, apparently concealing a chuckle.

"Is this funny to you, Elizabeth? Our daughter lies upstairs in pain, Lord knows what is happening, and you can laugh?"

She smoothed her expression and caught at his hand with her free one as he passed, forcing him to stop. "I do not think it is funny, and I am just as worried for Bella as you are. But she is healthy and strong, George is beside her and she has the finest doctor and midwife money can provide. I believe she will be well. And if I raise a smile, my husband, my dear, dear, silly husband, it is only because you are stalking around as though the world is ending. This will be a joyous occasion, my love. She is well, I promise."

Elizabeth finished her tea and placed the cup carefully on its saucer before standing. "Now, I shall return to her and let you know the moment there is any news."

Darcy squeezed her hand, but the moment she left the room he resumed his pacing. Mina and Kate quickly replaced their mother as his companions, and Darcy tried very hard not to listen as Kate gave her younger sister a far too anatomically precise explanation of childbirth.

"I am quite sure that is not appropriate, girls," he said at length.

Kate looked genuinely puzzled. "It is a natural scientific process. Would you prefer your daughters to remain ignorant of the mechanisms of their own bodies?"

"No, no," he said, absently stroking her hair as he passed behind her chair. "It is merely that perhaps this is not the time."

Mina looked up from where she had curled herself into the corner of the sofa. "It is exactly the time, Papa. It is what Bella is doing right now. What I want to know is why it takes so long. She has been at it for an entire day. She must be exhausted."

"Yes, she must," Darcy said, his chest tightening at the thought. "Although I dare say we are all exhausted."

"I saw George in the passageway earlier," Mina added. "His hair was standing on end and he looked as though he had suffered a terrible fright."

"Mina, that is precisely the sort of information I do not require."

At that moment, Elizabeth appeared again in the doorway. "Come, William. Come now," she said, gesturing urgently.

Fear shot through him like lightning. Mina and Kate immediately rose to follow, but Elizabeth held out a gentle hand. "Girls, I shall come for you in a moment. Just your father for now. Come, William."

With that, she turned, lifted her skirt and hurried through the house. Darcy followed after her, his heart beating hard in his chest and blood pounding in his ears. He did his best to keep pace as she travelled through the halls and into the quieter wing where Bella and her husband had made their home.

"Please tell me all is well, Elizabeth," he said desperately as they reached the door.

She looked back at him then, and the glorious smile that spread across her face made his heart leap.

"All is well, Grandpapa William."

Elizabeth pushed open the door. His daughter lay propped against a mountain of pillows, her face pale and drawn with exhaustion, her dark hair braided simply over one shoulder. George sat beside her with an arm about her and, nestled between them, was a tiny bundle wrapped in white.

Darcy had been through this process three times before, and he remembered only too well the fear and excitement that had accompanied each of his daughters' births. He had thought the wellspring of love that opened within him at each of their arrivals was beyond comparison, but now, seeing Bella holding her own child, his first grandchild, his heart seemed to overflow all over again.