Chapter 26
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 25
And as per usual, Gregory has absolutely no complaints about what it does to him, but with the shifted position, he notices her hand a little later and grabs it, growling at her to tell him who did this. She’s not telling and that’s the end of it. Rebuked, he just shuts up.
She doesn’t like to just leave it like this, and she’s feeling bold and without inhibitions, so she tells him to wait for a little bit while she goes behind her dressing divider, only to reappear a moment later with the dog leash they’ve used on some excursions to make her wolf form less conspicuous. He blushes and she chuckles, aha, she did see right that he looked funny at her the last time he put the leash on her. Sitting close to him and handing him the leash she giggles, starts asking him if he likes how it looks, or what is going on here?
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For once, he is the one too flustered to say much of anything, he doesn’t know what to do with her when she isn’t shy and reserved, she’s kind of intimidating like this.
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When he doesn’t really manage to say anything that tells her if he likes it or not, he ends up asking her if she likes it. Well, she likes being good for her engaged and he seems flustered, he doesn’t normally get flustered so she guesses he likes it and that makes her like it. Wanting to get back to more familiar ground, he tries to instead ask about normal sex and she blushes, but with her current state of mind tells him she doesn’t know, how could she? During the… talk (it isn’t really a discussion, she thinks) she ended up sitting on the floor, because isn’t that what a dog should, but that also meant that somehow her head has ended up leaned against his thigh and there it is again, that smell. She feels like she can smell the blood under his skin, can trace where it is closest to the skin and it’s so strong here, she doesn’t even think before she turns her head and has her fangs in him again, prompting a loud moan and him falling backwards on the bed.
She should be really flustered about that, probably, but instead she just giggles, there, that’s as much comment as she currently can make on what she thinks about sex. He’s just moaning agreement, after all, that’s biting, not sex, so whatever she says, then she adds that she can’t breathe, he started pulling on the leash hard when he fell backwards. Immediately letting off, he stares when she giggles and says that she wasn’t actually complaining as such. How can she not be complaining? That’s not normal. Is there, uh, something in the books about this?
Giggling once more because he seems so completely different now that he doesn’t play on his experience with her not being shy she shrugs, she doesn’t know, they can go to the library and check! He finds himself unsure but holding the leash as she just starts walking. Luckily for him, the house is empty at this hour so nobody sees him, well, nobody but Llew grinning widely at them, and taking a look at the collection of books Darcy picked out there. Not being in the mood for any more teasing and way too drunk still to care, Darcy flips him a rude gesture and he starts laughing loudly, oh, he is having some ideas for wedding gifts now.
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The next morning, when she wakes up with a headache but her mind a lot clearer, Darcy blushes furiously, muffles her embarrassment with a pillow, and decides to procrastinate as long as she can on apologizing to Llew for being so rude. Getting those books though… no, no regrets there. Gregory is nowhere to be seen, as per usual, and after checking that her finger has regrown and that her medical harness is still sitting as it should be she decides to do some more reading before breakfast.
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Spending her day between barony work, more preparations for the ball, hiding in the library together with Arthur so they don’t have to be constantly on best behaviour around the dame, and at the same time still having to fight with constant jealousy whenever she knows Gregory is entertaining their guest, Darcy is more than glad that her papa is only leaving the next day. He’s such a haven of calm for her and tells her he got the bone ready to bring to the jeweller then.
That happy mention in the afternoon should have carried her through dinner, but despite all her best efforts she has to excuse herself before dessert. She doesn’t want to leave poor Arthur and her papa alone with the dame, or Gregory unsupervised with her again but she feels… off, a building pain in her abdomen and her entire body is starting to tingle. She makes it to her room, makes it to her bed, then nearly screams as the pain flares up suddenly but she can’t even do that. Gregory, or rather Pretty, finds her later, still curled up in her bed, too weak to even react to his pawing at her. Instantly panicked, he rushes to bring the only doctor in the house.
Seeing his rose petal like this, Dr Seward springs into action, commands Gregory out of the room, and first checks if anything went wrong with the amputation after all. No, he can’t even find where the cut was, no sepsis, no inflammation, nothing, perfectly healed. What else could it be? Leaning close he tries to get her to answer a few questions, has to concentrate to understand her words through her whimpering then starts examining her abdomen, fearing that she might have overdone it with her medical harness. Did she hurt herself internally?
Dr Seward locks the room to make sure that Gregory doesn’t come back. He’ll have to talk to him anyway later about entering a lady’s room before they are married when there is somebody in the house who under no circumstances should learn something that might be used against Darcy, but being angry about this right now would be illogical. Furthermore, it did allow him to be aware of his rose petal’s condition so he’ll leave it at a stern talk. More importantly, he has to ascertain that there is no internal bleeding. She is a dhampir, she should not be in this amount of pain even if she hurt herself. Seeing how the amputation went, Dr Seward is not sure he has a good medical hypothesis yet for what could be happening.
Taking a look, as her doctor, not her father, he decides that this might be outside conventional medicine. Scientifically fascinating if one is interested in supernatural biology, but right now, he would rather prefer not to have realised that his rose petal’s inside structure seems to be reconfiguring itself. He could take the harness off and make the pain a bit better by removing the dilator, but that does nothing for the fact that something must have set her healing off in ways he cannot explain.
He’s read every book on hermaphrodite individuals he could find, but there is precious little on them apart from law mentions about them inheriting before daughters. To the best of his knowledge, she should have been fine, different body configuration or not, she had always been a healthy girl. He was worried about her puberty onset, but if that is what this is, it is clearly interacting with her dhampirism. Yet again he wonders if it is a curse as he’s feared for so long, then he shakes the thought off as illogical and not helpful right now. To the best of his observational skills, there is no damage, she is… healing, but healing to what he isn’t sure. Maybe? One more medical look later and trying his best to remember his notes from her last check-up, he makes a hypothesis that is as far-fetched as it is the only thing left he can guess.
Before he can decide if there is any good in telling her or if he should simply start treating the pain, there is a knock on the door. He has no capacity to deal with the emotional fallout of Mr. Cobb so he is about to deny any request when it is instead the Lady Eluned’s voice. He’s only seen her sporadically and not since the engagement announcement, but he knows she’s fey. He doesn’t trust fey, but his daughter already has a contract with her. It was Eluned who made her protector of the castle, the woman has an interest in Darcy’s ability to fulfill her side of the contract. She might actually help, so he allows her inside, but slams the door in front of Mr. Cobb’s face.
Sitting down on the bed next to Darcy, Eluned lets herself be filled in by Dr Seward, then begins to talk to Darcy, dismissing the man. Yes, she can help, let her take a closer look at this. She does something with some deft movements in the air around Darcy, looking concentrated then nodding. Yes, that would be puberty and her dhampirism trying to repair the… Dr Seward isn’t sure if he heard that right, something about androgen receptors? That sounds medical but doesn’t make any sense to him. He’ll have to curb his curiosity on that one, because Eluned goes on that it would be a shame having to give up being a woman. Darcy vehemently shakes her head best she can, she’s a woman! Please?
Well, if she asks like that… Eluned says and pulls the contract out of thin air with a grin and a rain of glitter. How fortunate that she’s a spring fey, this kind of reality altering is easier for them, so even with a dhampir she should manage. Now please, sign here.
Dr Seward wants to step in, wants to read over that contract but he also feels they have very little choice. He can see the fear in Darcy’s eyes, the pain was inconveniencing her but hearing that she might somehow no longer be a woman if she doesn’t sign this clearly is terrifying to her. So he steps back again, fatherly worry about not being able to help more breaking through the cold calculating medical mindset he fell into when he thought he could do something.
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Darcy’s hand is unsteady, but Eluned doesn’t help her sign. Once the signature is set on the additional part of the contract, Darcy blinks- the bracelet she couldn’t take off since she signed the contract for the castle starts sparkling and a single, small blue gemstone appears as the contract paper, like last time, turns into light, winds up her hand and settles into the jewelry. She was so distracted by the change that the lack of pain, the sudden complete absence of anything feeling off with her body, takes another moment to register. Then it’s so jarring that she starts crying and reaches her arms for her papa, because for a moment there she got so scared. So very scared.
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After holding her through the crying and one more examination, Dr Seward reassures her, she’s still his little girl, his special little girl. She keeps sniffling, that’s so important to her, she wants to be a good daughter. And he wants to be a good father, so he sighs and finally acknowledges the pacing footsteps in front of the door. He’ll just talk medicine with Eluned for a bit while she also reassures Gregory.
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Gregory needs the reassurance and it turns out, Darcy needs blood, copious amounts thereof with all the healing her body had started. Luckily, Gregory’s demon form heals fast enough and after the scare she had she allows him to be on the bed with her, holds onto him and then finally calms down.
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When Dr Seward knocks and finds his daughter asleep cuddled up next to what would appear to be a… weretiger is his best guess, he can’t help himself with the observation that now her choice makes more sense. He remembers vividly her pout at the Beast in Beauty and the Beast being turned human again. It appears she went for a fairy tale again. Nevertheless, he has a delicate topic to discuss with Mr. Cobb and is not going to delay any further.
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For all the dislike he has for the man, Dr Seward will give him that much, most men would take the information that their wife-to-be is barren, now confirmed by Eluned, a lot worse than Mr. Cobb does. The heartily declared “I don’t care!”, followed up by a love confession, reassures Dr Seward somewhat, maybe the man simply is badly brought up, that could be solved with education. Calling the engagement off would have been problematic in either case, so that Mr. Cobb does not even think about that is a relief, as is him not asking any questions when Dr Seward also cautions, as Darcy’s doctor, not her father, again, that consummating the marriage could also be difficult, and he knows that Darcy is duty driven, but there could be medical complications. That gets very much the same declaration as the barrenness (which maybe surprises Dr Seward more,) so for now the topic seems to be resolved.