Happy Christmas, Mr. Darcy #2
Elizabeth started to get up. “Let me help you.”
With a hand to her sister’s shoulder, Jane shook her head. “Nope, you’re the guest. You helped enough by making the sweet rolls last night. Have a seat. I’ll call you when breakfast is all ready to go.”
Before William was prepared for it, they were alone.
Elizabeth stood and rubbed her palms on her jeans.
“I’ve meant for some time to apologise for what happened after Gracie’s christening.
I should not have said what I did. In my defense, I overheard Caroline speaking of you at Charlie and Jane’s wedding.
Caroline and I also happened to see each other at Milan’s Fashion Week before Gracie was born, and she told me a number of lies…
at least I know they’re lies now. I didn’t know at the time.
All I thought I knew of you were falsehoods, it seems, and I’d been so insulted by your comment at the wedding rehearsal that I believed what she had told me without question. ”
He winced. He’d been an asshat at Charlie and Jane’s wedding.
Caroline had been six months pregnant and had already filed for divorce.
They had agreed to behave amicably at the wedding since little had been amicable in those days.
Little had he known that Caroline had been spreading a fake sob story to anyone who would listen.
As if he would try to force her to have an abortion!
After all, she had only agreed to carry the twins after he offered her a million pounds to do so.
Money had always been a great motivator for his ex-wife.
“When Jane told me the truth of the matter, I was so ashamed.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Please, this is not necessary. When I consider how I behaved at the wedding, I can understand why you were so willing to believe what Caroline said. No matter what was happening in my life, I shouldn’t have been so judgmental.
I do not enjoy big events. I never attend big charity galas and send a check with my regrets. ”
One corner of Elizabeth’s lips quirked. “And my mother planned a two hundred guest wedding then fawned over you until she realized you would not respond to it.”
“Regardless, I was rude. If anyone should be begging for forgiveness, it’s me. I should have behaved in a more polite manner. Charlie is my best friend and is still, for all intents and purposes, my brother. I should’ve considered how my actions would embarrass him, which I didn’t.”
Elizabeth raised her arms, her palms facing him. “Stop. Perhaps, instead of arguing about whomever shoulders the greater part of the blame, we should just agree that we accept the other’s apologies. Hopefully, we have both learnt from the experience. I know I have.”
“Daddy, are you coming?” Livvi stopped short when she noticed Elizabeth.
“Olivia, I doubt you remember Aunt Jane’s sister, Elizabeth.”
“Lizzy,” said Elizabeth with a soft smile. “Only your father insists on calling me Elizabeth.”
“Because it suits you.” He cleared his throat. “Olivia likes to be called ‘Livvi,’ just so you know.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Tell everyone we’ll be there in a sec.”
“Uncle Charlie said your coffee will get cold if you don’t hurry up.”
A guffaw came from the kitchen. “I did not!”
“Did too!” Livvi raced out of the room.
“She looks like Caroline,” said Elizabeth with a smile.
“She does, particularly when she makes certain expressions or taps her foot because she’s impatient.
” Caroline was beautiful before the fortune in botox and plastic surgery her husbands paid for.
If Livvi kept resembling Caroline, he was not looking forward to his little girl noticing boys, and especially them noticing her.
Elizabeth gestured to the kitchen door. “I suppose we should get in there before they send a rescue party.”
He pushed open the door and held it for Elizabeth to enter first. Jane had a place set at the table for each of them, and Charlie grabbed them cups of coffee before sitting between his children and helping Gracie with her food.
The laughter and conversation that surrounded him was much the same as it had always been -happy and boisterous- yet he could barely follow what was happening because he kept finding himself staring at Elizabeth.
Some of the awkwardness had gone since they’d cleared the air, but old habits die hard and all that.
He had been attracted to Elizabeth at Charlie’s wedding, and it had pissed him off.
How could he be so enthralled with a woman so quickly after his marriage went arse over tit?
Her mother’s remarks about his wealth had also raised his hackles.
What if Elizabeth were to use him as Caroline had?
He was not willing to take that chance so soon, so he behaved as though he had a stick up his… well, his arse.
By the time of Gracie’s christening, the infatuation had not diminished, so he had asked Elizabeth out on a date.
He had found her on the terrace at Netherfield -this very house- and laid all he had felt at her feet.
She had ripped him a new one. All the lies she’d been told and the vitriol she’d been holding in since the wedding had been unleashed.
It had been ugly, and he’d taken a month after and retreated to Pemberley, his estate in Derbyshire, to lick his wounds, which were deep.
But today, she had apologised and so had he. What did that mean? She regretted telling him off so but had her feelings changed as well? No, that wasn’t possible. They had not been together for her to know him better. She likely didn’t hate him anymore. It was a start, at least.
“Pressies!” He startled from his preoccupation at Liam’s excited yell.
“Yes, let’s get into the parlour and open the gifts,” said Charlie. “It looks as though Father Christmas has unloaded his entire sleigh in there this year. You lot must have been very well behaved for such a load.”
William made to stand, but a hand to his back made him still.
“Are you not hungry?” asked Jane with a frown.
He glanced down at his plate. He had been distracted by Elizabeth sucking the icing off her fingers and had forgotten about his own sweet roll. Not that he would admit that to her sister!
“I am. The early morning got to me, and I forgot it was there.”
Jane grinned. “You get up early for work every morning. Charlie swears Darcy Publishing would go under if you slept in.”
“Charlie exaggerates and you know it. I couldn’t take holidays with the children if that were true. I was simply up late last night.”
Livvi gasped. “Did you see Father Christmas?”
Andrew’s little head whipped around, his eyes bugging from his head. “Did you, Daddy?”
“I heard him, but I let him get on with his business. He has a long night, you know. If I were him, I wouldn’t want fathers or mothers, for that matter, distracting me at every turn.”
“That’s very true,” said Elizabeth. “With all of the children in the world relying on him, Father Christmas has no time for a chat on Christmas Eve.” The children seemed to accept Elizabeth’s support of his reasoning. Livvi shrugged and waved Liam and Andrew to follow her into the parlour.
A great exhale whooshed out of him, and his shoulders relaxed. “Thank you,” he said to Elizabeth.
“Father Christmas was one of my favourite parts of Christmas as a child. I’ll always feed into the legend if I can.”
He followed everyone into the parlour, but a moment later, Jane placed his sweet roll and coffee on the side table, so he ate while the children opened their gifts.
Elizabeth had even given the twins each a gift, goalie gloves for Andrew and an embroidered lavender handbag for Livvi.
Both perfectly selected given the personalities of each.
No sooner had the children opened their gifts than they begged to return to the playroom with their new gadgets and loot in hand.
“Say thank you to Uncle William,” cried Jane at her son.
“Thank you!” Liam barely looked over his shoulder. Jane, in the meantime, steered Gracie to a corner where her toys were scattered about.
“Now,” said Charlie, “they’ll be silent as the grave for the rest of the day. We’ll have to go hurry them out to eat dinner, but at least the adults can have a go. William, here’s one for you, and Lizzy, this one’s yours from Jane.”
William unwrapped the festive reindeer paper from the box and stared.
He and Charlie had a tradition of buying Scotch or whiskey for each other -always attempting to find a label the other had not tried- but this package had not been big enough for a bottle of Scotch.
It almost looked like that of a watch, and an expensive one at that by the dark green colour and the crown on the bottom right corner.
“Uh, Charlie?”
“It’s from me, actually.”
His head jolted up to Elizabeth. “You bought me a Rolex?” He looked back down at the box in his grasp. “You didn’t need to buy me a gift. I had no idea you would even be here, so I have nothing for you. Besides, this is too much.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said with a shrug of one shoulder. “I knew you would come, so I made sure you had something under the tree for the children as well as for you. If you don’t like it…”
“I haven’t even opened it yet.”
“Well, don’t you think you should?” Elizabeth’s bubbling laugh washed over him. God, he loved that sound!
The box appeared old, and when he opened it, his head spun. Where had she found this?
“I wasn’t sure what to get the man who has everything, but when I saw this…”
“You have to let me pay you back for it.” How could Elizabeth afford it? She surely made good money by now, but this was still way beyond her income. He would even balk at the price. He would’ve likely paid it, considering the condition of this piece, yet the expense would’ve hurt.
“What is it?” asked Charlie.
“An old watch?” Jane glanced between them.