collapsed on top of her. Ashamed at his performance, he tried to withdraw, but he felt her tightening around his member, holding him inside her. “Please, don’t go yet,” she whispered and ran her hands up and down his back, and only when she felt his muscles completely relax did she unwrap her legs and free him.
Darcy rolled off of her and stared at the ceiling, refusing to look at her, and after seeing the tears in his eyes, she kissed him and told him how much she loved him.
“But I hurt you,” he said, the tears spilling over onto his cheeks.
“No, you did not hurt me. I swear to you that you did not.”
“You should not have come, Elizabeth,” he said, choking on his words. “I understand why you did, but you should have waited for me in your room as I asked you to do.”
“But I wanted to see your scar.”
Darcy rolled on his side and looked at her. “What?”
“Your scar. From when you were bitten.”
“But you have seen it a number of times now,” he said confused.
“No, I haven’t. I always look straight ahead—never down.”
Darcy nodded his head in understanding at what she was trying to do, and he started to laugh. “Well, then I must have been with someone else on the night of December 24th because that lady definitely looked at me.”
“All right. I confess. I did look at you—in all your majesty,” she said, smiling. Darcy, overwhelmed by the power of her love, pulled her onto his chest and held her against his heart.
After pouring himself a whisky, Darcy went and sat next to Elizabeth on the sofa. “Are you sure you don’t want anything?”
“No,” she answered, as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I have everything I want right here.”
“You must promise me never to…” Before he could finish, she was shaking her head. “Elizabeth, you are my wife and have taken a vow of obedience to your husband.” Lizzy kept shaking her head. “Why?” he asked in an exasperated voice.
“Although I must accept that I cannot be with you when you are a wolf, I refuse to be kept from you when you are not.”
“You do not understand the process.”
“Oh, I do. You explained it all to me. Your mind is slower to transform than your body, but if you think about it, I believe my being here accelerated that process. When we started to make love, you were more wolf than man. By the time we had finished, you were more man than wolf.”
“You call that lovemaking? I was brutal to you.”
Lizzy assured him with her smile that he had not been a brute, and he could tell from her scent and the light in her eyes that she was telling the truth. After standing up, he took her hand and walked with her to the fur rug in front of the fireplace.
“You look lovely,” he said as he helped her out of her robe, and he whispered, “I love you” as she stepped out of her nightgown. He knelt down on the rug, gently pulling her to the floor, and after tasting and touching every inch of her, he entered her, and in her mind, he was fully human.
Chapter 37
After making love, Lizzy and Darcy fell into a deep sleep, and it was only a dying fire and a chilly room that awakened the exhausted pair. There was also the matter of a not quite eighteen-year-old Georgiana. Since she did not know they were in the study, she must be wondering why the newlyweds were still abed at noon, especially since she was teased unmercifully by her brother about her habit of sleeping so late into the day. So instead of crawling into a warm bed, both scooted up the backstairs, got dressed, and joined Georgiana in the sitting room, finding her dressed for another day of playing in the snow.
Darcy needed little encouragement, and both returned to their rooms to change into something more appropriate for an outing. Georgiana was eager to show her brother the snowman they had created the previous day, but when they stepped out onto the portico, they could see that their creation was now a mound of snow with Darcy’s top hat embedded in the pile.
After studying the blob before him, Darcy offered his opinion: “Except for that perfectly good top hat, I must say that I am unimpressed with your efforts.”
Georgiana sputtered an explanation for the use of what she thought was an old top hat. She was about to point out the obvious, that yesterday’s warm temperatures had caused the snowman to melt, when Lizzy hit him in the back with a snowball. Thus began a blizzard of white missiles flying through the air, with no quarter given by either sex. Victory was declared when Darcy dropped to his knees and covered his head with his hands, indicating defeat.
After they stopped laughing, all agreed that they needed to go into the woods and make another snowman, one that would not fall victim to the rays of the sun. Darcy retrieved the hat and after dusting it off said, “Obviously, that fellow did not appreciate the quality or cost of this hat, so we shall give it to the new snowman, who will, hopefully, take better care of it.”
With David and Goliath at their master’s heels, they marched off to the woods, and while Lizzy and Georgiana gathered branches, twigs, and rocks for the arms and face, Darcy worked alone in crafting, in his opinion, the perfect snowman, and to show that he was not displeased with his wife and sister for using his apparel to clothe their frozen creation, he took the scarf from around his neck and placed it on the snowman.
When the ladies suggested that he join them in making snow angels, he declined. Although he had been willing to have a snowball fight and to build a snowman, he had to draw the line somewhere. He held firm until the ladies knocked him down.
As they ventured farther into the woods, Darcy pointed out the cave in which he transformed each nightfall. It was an ideal location and perfectly concealed within a copse of trees and thickets. To further put her mind at ease, Darcy explained to Lizzy how the cave was connected to the house through a tunnel that only Mercer and Jackson knew about.
Lizzy commented that it was a well-chosen site and indicated that she could rest easy now that she knew how he returned to the house at daybreak. But in her mind, she could picture her husband and his black coat contrasted against the blazing white snow, but because this was now her life, she remained silent.
“Will, so much has happened in such a short time, I almost forgot. It is New Year’s Eve,” Georgiana reminded her brother.
“So it is. Between the wedding and nightfall, Christmas came and went unobserved, and here we are on the cusp of a new year. Personally, I found 1811 to be the best year of my life,” William said, smiling at Lizzy, “but I predict that 1812 will be even better for everyone. Hopefully, Napoleon will be stopped and peace will return to Europe.”
“I shall pray for peace in Europe,” Georgiana quickly replied. “But, Will, this is also the year I shall come out into society.”
“Of course, my apologies for the oversight. Your debut is much more important than something as insignificant as putting an end to two decades of misery caused by that Corsican corporal.”
“Your brother is teasing you,” Lizzy said, giving him a look to let him know that Georgiana’s debut was as important to her as their wedding had been to them. “So what do the Darcys do to usher in the new year?”
“The family and the senior servants gather in the upstairs sitting room,” Georgiana explained, “and we bid farewell to the old and welcome in the new with a toast in which we wish everyone health and happiness.”
“That is it?” Lizzy asked. “All you do is stare at the clock until it strikes midnight and drink a toast? What about opening the back door to let out the old year?”
“Superstitious nonsense,” Darcy grumbled, “practiced by the ignorant and those from the provinces. The custom is especially prevalent in Hertfordshire.”
“Well, then, what about the symbols of the new year: coal to ensure the home will always be warm?” Lizzy asked, ignoring his comments.
