One Night with Mr. Darcy

Book excerpt: The secret baby JAFF you didn’t know you wanted! The night of the Netherfield Ball, Fitzwilliam Darcy watches Elizabeth Bennet dance twice with Mr. William Collins and knows what the man intends. When Mr. Darcy’s own dance with the lady in question goes disastrously, he despairs of ever wooing her from the man who duty demands she wed. He takes solace in absinthe, as one does. Elizabeth is not the least bit pleased at the prospect of marrying Mr. Collins and begins drinking heavily, too. When a very inebriated Mr. Darcy appears and takes her off to his room, she doesn’t resist. She doesn’t resist anything at all. Morning dawns, and all his drunken promises of marriage have evaporated. He doesn’t remember bedding her. She has no choice but to marry Mr. Collins. Especially when she realizes that Mr. Darcy’s seed has taken root in her, and she will now bear his child. Passing another man’s child off as her husband’s is an ignominious future Elizabeth had not wished for herself, but nothing matters now except survival. Hers and her unborn child’s. It’s only unfortunate, of course, that she’s going to settle so near to Mr. Darcy’s close relation Lady Catherine. Elizabeth would like nothing more than to never see Mr. Darcy again. But he will visit Rosings. He will see her. And he will see his son. Dear reader, this is a bit of angsty fluff that should hurt in all the best ways. Do watch out for a very dastardly Wickham, who is portrayed here as a clear predator and rapist—yes, it’s dark. Obviously, if Lizzy and Darcy are having a drunken interlude at Netherfield, I’m narrating every single scandalous second of it. Steam alert! You have been warned.