House Draculesti

Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 19

To his worry, Dr. Seward sees Darcy’s eyes flit to him, and, seeing him, she goes beet red and timid a second later. His rose petal, timid with him? What has that ruffian done to her? And, what is going on? Dastardly difficult social situations always.

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Arthur, despite the risk of drawing attention to himself, decides that information is better than no information, and he’s fed up with not knowing what’s going on, so he asks. 

Instead of a direct answer, however, Gregory straightens with a grin- the grin he has when he nicked the biggest, reddest apple from the fruit stall, or found a new spot to explore that he thinks is amazing. He turns to Dr. Seward and asks: 

“May I ask for the hand of your daughter in marriage?” 

~~~~

Dr. Seward thinks he has to have misheard, please, somebody tell him he misheard. Can he faint himself? He feels like fainting, that might at least give him a respite from this nightmare for a moment. Is that what his rose petal said yes to? She can’t possibly, not this… whatever he’s supposed to be.

To his shock, Darcy doesn’t look aghast. Is this really what… who she wants? She must have been through so much, so scared, so maybe… maybe this ruffian was there for her? It’s his duty as her father to make her happy, and he wasn’t there for her, he wasn’t there when she needed him most. He always wanted to be there when she finally could see the world, he wanted to see her sparkling eyes when she ran across a field of grass for the first time, when she saw a forest for the first time, now he missed it. He already failed her, he left her alone for too long, again, wasn’t there when she didn’t have her door gently opened to freedom but ripped open and dragged out. He can’t fail her again and she looks so sure.

He really does not want to, but he tells Gregory that they should go for a long walk to talk about this before he’ll give him any answer. For a moment he hesitates again, because if he leaves now, he is leaving Darcy alone in the room with the other man, but it would be illogical to start fretting about that now when clearly she has been alone with the two of them for weeks now. Letting himself be led out he still throws a worried look back at his daughter, which is very much mirrored on her face.

~~~~

Once alone, Darcy and Arthur spend some long awkward minutes in silence, then Darcy ducks her head and asks, because Arthur is all the family Gregory has, if she can have his blessing. If Arthur was any better at reading tone, maybe he’d wonder if she sounds unsure, she wonders if she sounds unsure. Is she unsure? She said yes to him asking, didn’t she? Shouldn’t she have? She knows she’s in love, right? Why does this feel strange? It must be because it’s her first love but what else is she supposed to do? She knows that nobody else would marry her now so she should be elated and happy and Papa went to talk with Gregory, that must mean he also thinks it’s alright and if Papa thinks it’s alright then everything is fine, right?

Arthur is always so smart, she likes that about him, she likes that he researches so much for every excursion they’re on, that he always tries so hard to give the best advice he can. She wants his advice, his opinion, but this is such a difficult matter. She doesn’t want to spook him. 

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Arthur… isn’t sure what to make of this. Having something he’s dismissed as impossible confirmed… Where did that come from? When did that happen? How? 

And… marriage? Gregory and marriage?

Of course he’s glad- marriage is the only way for Gregory to be with Darcy without ruining her, so, yes, that’s good- but Gregory and marriage? Gregory??

But of course, if Gregory has really… changed, is actually serious about this, he doesn’t want to ruin it, and he hopes he doesn’t, when he asks awkwardly for confirmation that… they’re together? 

~~~~

Darcy hadn’t known that Gregory hadn’t said a word. He didn’t tell his best friend? She’s shocked. Yes, they were secretive, that’s how romance goes, right? But his best friend? She’s sorry?

This is all so new to her, too, and she’s never been in love before and she, she was so scared and Gregory didn’t give up, he kept trying to be close to her and well, she feels different about him. Blushing she realises she has no idea what to say, goes quiet and just looks at him, hopes he isn’t… maybe worried she’s stealing his friend, she doesn’t want to steal his friend, that’s not what she’s doing, right? He seems just as unsure what to say, looks completely bewildered by the situation. 

~~~~

No, Arthur doesn’t want to ruin things for Gregory, but… but the idea of Gregory and marriage is weird, and he likes Darcy, and if it doesn’t work… well, she’s a noble, it has to work, it’d be so bad for her if it didn’t- he remembers too many newspaper articles about women fallen from grace, remembers their haggard faces and old eyes too well from the street corners and the windows. He doesn’t want Darcy to end up where he comes from. So he asks if… can he… is it okay if he talks to Gregory first before he gives her any answer?

~~~~

Yes, yes, of course it is! She feels so silly now, she didn’t mean to push him into such a corner, um, so… she goes for the one thing that has worked between them, want to go back to the library? There must be something they haven’t read yet. More than happy to get out of the uncomfortable situation they end up just quietly reading together, and actually, that does feel nice, it’s still a bit scary to be alone but this feels companionable.

~~~~

Companionable is really not what Dr. Seward would call his talk with Mr. Cobb. The young man is utterly too sure of himself but at the same time, Dr. Seward knows that he is bad with social situations and that etiquette and rules always have made precious little sense to him. What he does know is that his little girl is ruined if this man doesn’t marry her. Having heard the story of how they arrived at this marriage proposal made his worst nightmares seem tame. He had seen the rumour column about the young baroness and her two male attendants. He had hoped that the gossip was worse than the truth. Now he is glad that the gossip had not been even more malicious.

He has no choice; he’s left with none that would preserve his little girl’s chances at ever finding a suitor. This one is unfitting for her station and he is not sure he approves of his character either, but Darcy’s look seemed to ask him for permission. He wants to talk more to her but no, in principle he knows it is this Mr. Cobb or even worse rumours for Darcy. She’s too sweet a girl to have to endure that, all he wants is for her to be happy.

So, with a heavy heart, he lets himself be led back to the house, as if he hadn’t walked these gardens for longer and more often than this Mr. Cobb has. Telling himself that the distrust must come from this being his little girl’s suitor, he tries to not let the disapproval show, but he has to confess, seeing Darcy quietly read alongside the other young man makes him wish that it would have been him he just had this terrible talk with. That seems a far better fitting temperament for his little girl, who jumps up and runs towards them, then clearly can’t decide who to run to, slows to an undecided stop and gives him her typical trusting look.

He can’t let her down, he loves her so much, and if she trusts this Mr. Cobb, he’ll do his best to ignore all the signs he thinks he sees. It’s not as if he doesn’t know what it feels like to be met with fatherly disapproval, he had followed protocol and asked Lord Rossmore before he dared ask Lucy. He had gotten approval only because the old man was too worried that his frail daughter wouldn’t give him any heirs. He’s looking at that heir right now, and it is his daughter, not the other two contenders, but somehow he doesn’t feel vindication or triumph. No matter, old stories, making his girl happy is more important, so with just a little sigh he tells her that in principle he has no objections to the marriage.

~~~~

Darcy’s eyes widen. Her papa thinks it’s alright! He always knows best so she must have been right, she must really be in love, she can trust him, she can trust his decision. Clapping her hands she giggles with joy, maybe some relief, but that must just be her nerves, and this time remembers that he hates being barreled over, so stops right before she hugs him, does it slowly and deliberately so he has time to anticipate it. Patting her hair softly, he hopes that was the right decision, but seeing how happy she is he’s relieved, she must really be in love, he can trust her, he can trust her decision.

~~~~

Arthur does his best to fade back into the background when Gregory and Dr Seward return, inching away from the table where he and Darcy had been reading. 

He doesn’t know what he thinks about Dr Seward agreeing- obviously, it makes Gregory very happy, by the way he all but swaggers over when Arthur waves at him. …Not unobtrusive in the least, but Dr Seward is distracted with Darcy, so they can make their way deeper into the library, out of ear shot. 

No, Arthur doesn’t know what he thinks, but he feels an unfamiliar… sense of purpose, an urge to make sure this doesn’t go horribly wrong- there is no way out or back if Darcy and Gregory get married and it turns out they made a mistake. He’s not sure Gregory is fully aware of that, or whether he can think that far, has thought that far- after all, stories abound of people doing stupid things when they’re freshly in love. 

So he asks Gregory if he’s sure? Does he know what he’s doing? Does he realise how serious this is? And how did this all come about anyway? 

Gregory tells him about how Darcy and him just started talking, back in Newholm apparently, and how it just happened, they fell in love, and how amazing it is, how amazing Darcy is, how good for him she is! And no, he admits, he never thought marriage would be for him, but Darcy is different, yes, he’s sure it’s real, he’s sure, he knows how serious it is. 

Arthur asks him whether he’s aware that there might be hard work involved, that marriage is forever, and Gregory, face bright, assures him that he knows, that he’s willing to do what it takes. He’s a real knight now, and he might’ve forgotten to ask for a bit, but nothing bad happened anyway and now it’s official and he’s so happy and everything will be fine!

~~~~

Arthur doesn’t get to ask any further than that, because that’s when Llew appears in the middle of the library. Not that he was at all inclined to ask more about those “nothing bad” things, anyway, because Gregory is way, way too likely to give him far more detail than he wants- the thought makes him shudder and he quickly shoves it away. Gregory seems happy, and Darcy seems happy, and if Gregory’s really in love, then surely he’ll work very hard at it, he knows about social things, Arthur’ll have to trust that he knows what he’s doing. And he really does want Gregory to be happy, and Darcy, too, so badly. 

For now, he focuses on Llew, who doesn’t look as light-hearted as he usually does.

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