Read The Plight of the Darcy Brothers for Free Online Page A

Maddox shrugged, apparently unhappy with the stares he was receiving. No, he knew the situation well enough. They wanted a magic answer—that she was wrong or that he could, God forbid, do something about it. “About two months. Or, if you want to go by her own recollection, two months and six days, and I am inclined to believe her.”
    He swallowed, wanting to avoid any further questioning of how close the inspection had been. It hadn't been very close; it didn't need to be. He merely looked at the size of Mary's belly and believed her on everything else. There was no reason to do otherwise. “I suppose the father is—”
    “Gone.”
    “French?”
    “Italian.”
    “He has run away to his home soil,” Darcy said, not hiding his repulsion at the idea.
    “He is promised to the church,” Elizabeth said, partially countering it.
    “Oh, dear,” Maddox said. “Well, I'm sorry I can't be much help in this matter. I am not familiar with Derbyshire's offerings of midwives, but I am sure you are.” He added, “I am very sorry for the circumstances, but there is nothing I can do, beyond being a supportive relation, if you wish the support.”
    That was not the answer they were looking for, and he knew it. So he did what he thought was best, which was to fleethe room and let them think it over. He went to his chambers, which were now the same as Caroline's, and found her already there.
    “I know,” she said, as he put his bag down and shooed the servant away. “Horrible, is it not?”
    She did not say horrible in the way that Caroline Bingley would normally say horrible . There was, instead, a hint of sadness. Pangs of sympathy, perhaps? He could not imagine. He was just beginning to understand the whole of the situation himself. Clearly, the Darcys and Bingleys hadn't told Mr. Bennet yet and were still devising their strategy to lessen the blow to Mary. There was a great amount of love in this family, even for one who had so soundly ruined her life when she was entrusted with it by being sent to study abroad.
    It was best to assume this Italian, whoever he was, had just taken advantage of Mary, but the Maddoxes knew love was more complicated than that. Mary, as pious as she obviously was, refused to implicate the man, taking the blame all unto herself—and that was bad for her health and the health of the baby. Maybe that was the real reason Dr. Maddox had been called—to be a buffer between Mary and her father. This musing he expressed out loud.
    “You really think so?” Caroline asked him.
    “I have no idea, honestly. They are keeping her here perhaps because she is too ill to travel, or because they want to avoid the scandal as long as possible. Doesn't she have a younger sister still unmarried?”
    “Catherine. They call her Kitty. A flirtatious girl, if ever I met one.”
    “So, like you.”
    She smiled severely at him. “I did not know you considered me a girl.”
    “Hardly. But—and I mean this in the most positive way— you were flirtatious. So much so, you could not avoid the habit even around Mr. Hurst's poor servant.”
    “And how lucky I was in that. But I cannot imagine the same for Mary. Poor girl.”
    Was this the same Caroline he had courted and married? He had to wonder. There was something almost motherly in her tone.
    Maybe this wouldn't turn out so badly after all.

    The three Bennets were called to Derbyshire without any knowledge of what they were to encounter. Even though they arrived hot from an early spring heat wave and exhausted from the bump of a long carriage ride, they had to cock their heads at the sight of two wild African-painted children running to greet them. “Grandfather!” said the boy who, from his proper dress and general disposition, was undoubtedly Geoffrey Darcy, despite his coloration.
    He raised his arms with the expectation of being lifted, to which a very patient and confounded Mr. Bennet said, “I'm afraid you are getting a bit big and your grandfather is